New part-time teacher hopes to branch out

Newly hired part-time MHCC music instructor Ryan Meagher (pronounced “Marr”) hopes to get students to approach music with the same enthusiasm he does.

“I consider myself a performer, a composer first and foremost, and I certainly have a passion for music education, but my educational outlook is informed by my professional experience,” he said about how his work relates to his teaching.

Meagher’s primary instrument is the electric guitar, which he started playing because he really liked Nirvana. “I got into band in the seventh grade. Trumpet was actually my first instrument before guitar, so my initial experience of playing music was playing trumpet.

“I mostly just didn’t want to be in home economics, so my elective was band instead of ‘home ec,’ so from there, music became a priority,” he said.

Meagher teaches Mt. Hood’s jazz ensemble and keyboard harmony “which is a piano class, but not for piano players,” he said. He still performs when he isn’t teaching. “I do a lot of stuff like on the local jazz scene (and) I still play in New York, which is where I came from.”

He also spends time with organizations in Portland. Meagher directs the operations for the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. He’s also founder of “this budding, soon-to-be nonprofit organization called the Portland Jazz Workshop,” he said. He also was a founding member of the Montavilla Jazz Festival.

When it comes down to teaching, Meagher works to have his lessons “be more individualized, as much as I can with the individual student ’cause we all learn different ways, and I try to make it happen for each student,” he said.

Meagher is looking forward to continuing to work with current instructors Grant Linsell and Kevin Lambert. “I think Mt. Hood is in a great place with them at the helm right now. I hope to join them at the helm. I definitely think Mt. Hood has a bright future with them.”

Aside from music and performing, Meagher is an avid baseball fan, and played yearly when he lived in New York. “It’s just pretty expensive to play, and here it’s pretty rainy too, so I think the season (locally) is short compared to New York.”

Before joining the band in middle school, Meagher wanted to be a professional baseball player. “It wasn’t like, I wanted to be a musician or something. I always wanted to be a shortstop for the San Francisco Giants,” he said.

Meagher plans to team up with other departments at Mt. Hood and provide music to whatever event another department puts on. “Richard Cutshall and I are probably gonna partner up to do some kind of impromptu music improv show.”

“If I’m here for a while, I can see myself partnering up with people in history or language, the humanities, doing poetry” with improvised music, he said. “I’ve done that kind of thing before. Meagher is even hoping to provide music for science events. “I don’t see why we couldn’t get together with science people and do some stuff.

“One of my things is communities. I’m all about communities, and here on campus, we have a community of professors and a spirit of cooperation,” he said.