Page 11 - Spring2020

Tomboy, Bugler, Whittler, Girl Scout
Growing up with no siblings to occupy her days, Carleen befriended the outdoors. The yard at 112 Essex Avenue became Carleen’s oasis.
Passion for a toy bugle given to her at age five eventually transferred to a real bugle and then a trumpet. In 1917, at age six, Carleen taught herself to whittle. By the time she was eight years old, she was either building things, taking them apart, or collecting things: moths and butterflies, rocks, leaves, pressed flowers, frogs, toads, and turtles.
In May 1921, Carleen, age 10, attended her first Girl Scout camp at Bear Mountain (NY), a life-changing event for one who would nurture a lifelong passion for the Girl Scouts. In 1923, Carleen became the camp bugler and paid her way through Girl Scout camp by bugling reveille and taps.
Ornithology: First Experience in Acoustics
By the end of high school, Carleen was a master woodworker, first-chair trumpet in both band and orchestra, and a pas- sionate naturalist, with a particular fascination for moths, collecting, categorizing and mounting them in hand-built shadow boxes. She also met her first mentor, Frank Lutz, curator of entomology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In the fall of 1929, at the urging of Lutz, Carleen enrolled in Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) to study entomology.
at the Brearley School, a posh private school located on the upper east side of Manhattan (NYC) that possessed a cross- curriculum music program. On learning that some of her Brearley colleagues loved to play chamber music, Carleen accepted an invitation and brought her trumpet along. It did not take long for her friends to point Carleen in another direction. “The trumpet is fine outdoors on the street but not in a New York apartment. How about trying a viola? We always need a viola!”
Baffled by the parts for unfingered trumpet in her first glance at a Brandenburg Concerto, Carleen knew the music was beyond her. But she plowed ahead, borrowing a big 18-inch viola from the school closet and began taking viola lessons. This was her first chamber music experience. Eventually, Carleen found the 18-inch viola too much to handle and purchased a smaller, factory-built Hornsteiner viola for $75 from Wurlitzer’s. When asked about switching from trumpet to viola, Carleen responded: “The viola is the same pitch as the trumpet, and I wanted to play music. The sound is everything!”
A Pig for a Violist
In September 1945, after teaching two years at Public School 33 in the Chelsea section of New York, Carleen returned to Brearley to teach lower-school science. The day before school began, she met Helen Rice, the newly appointed head of the Music Department who had her own agenda about how to engage the interest of Carleen Hutchins.
When she discovered that entomologists spent months study- “I understand you teach science to the younger children
ing the insides of a grasshopper under a microscope while biology majors took field trips, Carleen switched her major to botany and zoology and immediately signed up for every course in ornithology. In the spring of 1932, Carleen began following one of her professors, Dr. Arthur A. Allen, into the field to record birdsong using their new parabolic recording system, an experience Carleen cited as the highlight of her college years.
In 1934, after graduation and a year working at the Brooklyn (NYC) Botanical Gardens, Carleen began teaching science at the Woodward School, a progressive school in Brooklyn where she applied the principles of experiential learning to building a science and woodworking program.
A Trumpet for a Viola
In 1938, through a reference by a Woodward colleague, Car- leen took the job of teaching science to the first four grades
and that you keep quite a lot of animals in your science lab,” Helen began.
“Yes, I do,” said Carleen.
“Would you by chance be interested in a baby pig?”
“Of course, I’d love to have a baby pig!” said Carleen, clearly astonished.
Helen continued: “I will give you the pig if you promise to come play viola with my students after school.”
The children named the pig Susie Snowwhite because she was “immaculate and looked as if she was walking on high white heels.” Susie was soon shortened to “SUS” by the Latin Department (sus is Latin for pig), a nickname that stuck in more than one way.
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