Connected Strings

At the center of the very busy, 2,000-attendee Nordic Fest in Ferndale last November if you listened closely, you could hear traditional Nordic music played on a very special fiddle called a Hardanger fiddle. 

If you enjoyed any of the Norwegian baked goods, chances are, you purchased something made by the musician. 

If you took music lessons in Ferndale, either at school or in private, you might have taken lessons from her as well. 

And if you studied at Western Washington University, you might have studied with her son Grant, professor of violin. Her son Glenn is a professional violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.

Joanne Donnellan ’63, BAE, elementary music, ’83, M.Mus. didn’t just inspire her sons to pursue music as a career, she inspired musicians and music teachers all over Whatcom County and beyond.

Joanne Donnellan’s Hardanger is part of an ancient Nordic tradition—an instrument of teaching: each song is carefully passed along note-by-note, player-to-player, from teacher to student by memorization, preserving and sharing culture and identity with each song. Immigrants who came to the United States from Norway brought with them the songs they had memorized from their teachers back in Norway.

In keeping with this ancestral tradition, Donnellan has dedicated her life to teaching and sharing music. 

In 1976, she gathered with music teachers who proposed putting together a Bicentennial Orchestra. Musicians from all over Whatcom County participated in the orchestra, which gave its first public performance on March 16, 1976. Later, the Bicentennial Orchestra became the Whatcom Community Orchestra. A dedicated music teacher, Joanne loved the orchestra’s camaraderie.

“I waited to play in the Whatcom Community Orchestra until my sons were ready to join with me,” she says.

In 1985, she helped form the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, now the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. She was concertmaster for 26 years and has taught high school orchestra, elementary school strings, and private lessons. 

“I strongly believe in the value of music education as an integral part of our public school curriculum. What students learn in music classes carries over into all their other academic areas,” she says. 

Donnellan came to Whatcom County from her hometown of Kent to attend Western.

“I chose Western after Dr. Frank D’Andrea, who taught music there, approached me after solo and ensemble contest and said that if I were interested in Western, they would give me a scholarship,” Donnellan says. “Someone believed in me and wanted me there. And that’s one of the reasons I established my scholarships—to give a student that sense of support, to show them they are truly valued.” 

The Donnellan Family Scholarship honors the musical tradition in Joanne’s family, from her father, who was a violinist, to her sons, who are also musicians. The scholarship is intended to support a string performance student.

The Jon and Joanne Donnellan Scholarship supports deserving, dedicated strings students who are pursuing a degree in music education, with a goal of becoming a public school strings teacher.

Decades after Joanne’s years at Western, Jon and Joanne Donnellan Scholarship recipient, senior Natalie Bateman, also a violinist, came to Western for the same reasons Donnellan did—because she felt supported.  

“I auditioned at other schools, but Western felt like the right place,” Bateman says. “I appreciated that they were willing to meet me where I was. I wasn’t recruited to fit their needs or to match a particular role; they wanted me at Western, because they wanted to support me as a music educator and performer.”

Now a senior studying music education and performance, Bateman has performed many solos with the Western Symphony Orchestra, including the violin solos in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” a coveted piece among violinists. She was also a member of the Ambassador String Quintet and performed for audition days, Scholar's Week, and graduation. 

Outside of school, she has worked as a coach for the North Sound Youth Symphony, directed by Grant Donnellan, and has been a private music teacher at Evergreen Music School. “I had 15 piano students this year,” she says.

The Jon and Joanne Donnellan String Scholarship has enabled Bateman to balance her teaching—she also teaches at Cordata Elementary and at the Evergreen Music School—and her passion projects. 

“My friends have written some pieces that I get to perform, and we get to collaborate,” she says. “I feel so lucky to have a scholarship to give me the time and space to be creative.”

Growing up in Ferndale, Nick Strobel, ’99, M. Mus., remembers that Donnellan’s house was a kind of music center, an extension of the Ferndale High School music room. 

“She lived right down the road from Ferndale High School, and her basement was our gathering place,” Strobel remembers. “We’d all go over to Ms. J’s house to play.”

Now the director of the North Sound Youth Symphony and an orchestra teacher in Bellingham Public Schools, Strobel grew up taking music lessons from Donnellan and remains close friends with her son Grant. 

“Joanne is relentless. She worked 60 to 80 hours a week,” Strobel says. 

“Joanne found us so many opportunities to teach and play, from lessons to playing weddings and festivals and store openings,” he says. “She helped me with auditions and college applications and encouraged me to apply for the Birch Bay Teacher Scholarship to help me pay for Oberlin. To this day she donates to my orchestra every year and comes to our concerts.”       

Donnellan has been recognized for her teaching through two National Awards: the Gruber Award for excellence in Chamber Music Teaching in 1988 and the American String Teachers Association National Award for Outstanding Public School String Educator in 2001. 

“Music is a part of our makeup as human beings, and to have it available for students in their curriculum teaches them so many things—creativity, listening skills, commitment to group and to self, working cooperatively with others, math skills, problem-solving, self-confidence, development of a skill playing an instrument which can be developed to a high level, and the joy and pride of creating concerts which are a collaborative effort and enjoyed by parents, peers, and community.”