Meet Shawn Mollenhauer

When asked why he joined the JPG team, music Fellow Shawn Mollenhauer said:

“My interest in diverse musical forms began why I was quite young. My Dad gave me a tiny red boom box so I could enjoy music in my own room. So that I would have some music to listen to, he randomly grabbed two cassettes (most of you may have to look those up) from his collection. They were Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Jimi Hendrix’s “Band of Gypsies” album. I grew up playing guitar after the example of my Dad, playing mostly rock and blues. Throughout high-school and my undergraduate years, choir, musicals, and local theatre were the core of my focus and performance practice. I started taking music theory and piano at a local community college. I ended up getting a B.A. in Music History and Theory (with a brief stint studying film scoring and jazz at Berklee College of Music), and followed that up with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology. My M.A. was focused on the music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and my Ph.D. dealt with the music of the Oromo people of Ethiopia. I have lived abroad and done research in Mexico and Ethiopia. While living in Mexico I began playing Afro-Cuban music, which became a secondary area of emphasis for me. Throughout those years, I’ve been involved in groups ranging from Traditional choir, to rock/funk bands, Japanese taiko, Andean highland music, jazz, and Indonesian gamelan. Throughout all of that, I always had certain questions in the back of my mind. What’s universal in music and what’s not? Are we merely the sum of our cultural inputs or are we something more? Questions of particularity versus universality are something students will encounter across many disciplines at JPG, including music classes. I look forward to these very universal…these very Catholic, discussions. Beyond discussion, students will also be steeped in music history, theory, sight-singing, and ear training.

James Lipton of Inside the Actor’s Studio used to ask his guests a number of questions from a modified version of the Proust Questionnaire, including…What sound or noise do you love? My answer was and still is…the choral music of Palestrina. That was true in high school, and is still true, having gained even greater significance after becoming Catholic at the age of 38. Besides exploring the music and foods of cultures from around the world, my favorite thing to do is read. I love reading philosophy, history, politics, and religion. When it comes to fiction, I enjoy the works of English author P.G. Wodehouse, widely regarded as one of the funniest comic authors in the English language. When I’m not reading, I am enjoying the great Colorado outdoors with my wife and two daughters.”