In Honor of Tony Payne

This weekend is Commencement Weekend at Wheaton College, my alma mater. One of the many bittersweet aspects of the occasion each year is the retirement of several faculty members. Among them this year is Dr. Tony Payne, retiring after forty-plus years on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music.

I first met Tony Payne when I was still in high school, on one of the handful of visits I made to campus during my college search process. During my undergraduate years, I was one of the many music majors that Tony made it his business to get to know as one of the department directors. One of the first projects we worked on together was the special concert for the College’s 150th anniversary in winter 2010, for which I was the stage manager (the job I had for most of my student years). That summer of 2010 I studied abroad in London and Tony was one of the faculty members on that month-long trip, so we had frequent interaction at and between all the shows and concerts and museum visits and day trips.

Then after I graduated, for a couple of years when I was piecing together part time work and gigs to build my professional music career, Tony was kind enough to invite me to continue to lend a hand with the College’s professional presentation series. Those ad-hoc projects turned into a new staff role at the College, where I served for most of six school years.

That role was transformative for me, giving me substantive early experience and significant project management opportunities in performing arts administration, without which I wouldn’t have had the subsequent professional successes and achievements I’ve enjoyed over the last five years since I left Chicago. Tony was my supervisor through it all and I learned so much under his leadership and mentorship in those years – many lessons that still influence my work today on nearly a weekly basis.

Tony taught me many things, but one lesson that comes to mind very frequently is to always ask the question. Consider all perspectives. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt, and do the same for others. Through our presentation series, we interacted with dozens of artists and artist managers from quite literally around the world and all their diverse backgrounds and perspectives – and of course we had no shortage of diverse backgrounds and perspectives among the faculty and staff colleagues within our own department! Tony taught me to navigate those differing perspectives with grace and curiosity.

Beyond his faculty service, Tony is also an active and avid church musician and composer, and I always appreciated the glimpses of that work that I observed during my years on the Conservatory staff – and I’m so grateful that Tony will be spending much more time on those important pursuits in the years ahead. Because above all, Tony has a deep and abiding confidence in the transforming love of Jesus, and his joy is to tell the world about it through music.

I’m so grateful to have known Tony for the better part of two decades. Tony, congratulations on your retirement, thank you for your tireless service to Wheaton College and to the church music world, and thank you for all the wisdom you invested in me and countless others. I and we wish you and Marian all of God’s richest blessings as you step into this next chapter!