Darlene Durrwachter-Rushing:
CLASS OF 1979
Walled Lake Central High SchoolClass of 1979
Walled lake, MI
Darlene's Story
My focus is on family, friends and being creative (by myself and with others) -- in that order. Number one in my life is my daughter, Laila, who was born in Nov. of 2002. We're an adoptive family and she came home to us on May 1, 2003 when she was not quite six months old. My husband, Derwin, and I have been married since 1986. So we're 'later in life' parents and I love it! We're also a transracial family. In case you're not familiar with the term, it means families in which the children are a different race/culture than the parents.
My primary focus for work right now is being mom to Laila -- I quit working full-time in 2004. I have a Bachelor and Master degree in choral conducting and have been doing that since 1983 in one capapcity or another -- usually with church and community choirs. Currently I'm the conductor for our church choir. I taught elementary music from '83 to '89, then moved from Michigan to Pittsburgh, PA. My career changed focus to arts administration (but still with an education focus) and I was the Director of Education for Sweetwater Art Center, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (the largest community art center in Pennsylvania)and then for Pittsburgh Opera (brin...Expand for more
ging me full circle back to music). My biggest conducting gig was as the Artistic Director and Conductor for the Renaissance City Men's Choir (Pittsburgh's gay men's chorus), where we gave subscription concerts, toured and made a cd. I left that job in 2003 to spend more time with Laila.
In 1997 I started working in glass and am a contemporary glass beadmaker and jewelry artist. In glass, I teach, am an artist-in-residence in high schools, and I exhibit my work in galleries and museums. My studio is in my backyard (torches, kilns, oxygen and propane tanks, etc.) I guess that I spend 30% of my 'working time' on glass now and only 5 to 10% on making music/conducting. Laila and Derwin get the other 60%. :>)
I volunteer at my church and my daughter's school, serve as chair of the Racial Justice committee, and a variety of other volunteer jobs. I've been passionate about learning Italian for the past 10 years (and am still only an advanced beginner!). In June of 2009 we're going to Rome and southern Italy for one month. It's our first trip to Europe since 9/11/01. Before that, we traveled there nearly every other year.
I'd love to connect with high school friends -- just give a shout out!
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