Thirty-eight years ago, Wendee Wolf-Schlarf took a job teaching music in Traverse City.

She never left.

Today, Wolf-Schlarf is the longest-serving music educator employed by Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS). As K-12 music coordinator, she’s also the head of the district’s entire music department, leading the way on everything from curriculum visioning to behind-the-scenes logistics. It’s an important job, and one that hasn’t changed hands since Wolf-Schlarf stepped into it in July 2004, six TCAPS superintendents ago.

This spring, Wolf-Schlarf will retire and take her final bow with TCAPS. It’s the end of a tenure that her colleagues call “inspirational” and “legendary,” and the conclusion of an era that may never have happened had it not been for another legendary Traverse City music educator.

“Right out of college, I went and worked for Lyric Opera in Chicago, doing administrative work; I really loved arts management,” Wolf-Scharf tells The Ticker. “But Mel Larimer was my college professor, and he kept saying, ‘You need to teach. You can’t make the decision on what to do with your life until you try it.’”

Larimer directed the choirs at Traverse City Senior High (now Traverse City Central) from 1962 to 1970, and is often credited with laying the groundwork for the modern TCAPS music program. He also taught at Albion College, where he met and taught Wolf-Schlarf in her undergrad years.

Eventually, Wolf-Schlarf relented and followed Larimer’s advice. She moved to Traverse City and took her first teaching job in 1987, as a general elementary music teacher at the then-brand-new Silver Lake Elementary School.

The rest was history.

Since then, Wolf-Schlarf has taught music at every level of TCAPS. She spent 19 years as choral director at East Middle School, then shuffled around the district depending on where a music teacher was needed – from elementary music at Eastern Elementary to treble choirs at West Senior High. She’s also the long-time conductor of Central High School’s Vocal Majority, a small all-female choral ensemble that, just last month, was selected to perform at the Michigan School Vocal Music Association’s prestigious All-State Festival in East Lansing.

But Wolf-Schlarf’s big job, since 2004, has been as K-12 music coordinator. While the public-facing aspects of TCAPS music are well-known – the concerts, the musicals, the marching band performances – Wolf-Schlarf’s role is mostly behind the scenes. Curriculum alignment, schedule coordination, budgetary management, facility bookings for off-site concerts, music department hiring decisions, professional development for music teachers, advocacy for TCAPS music in district-wide bond planning. All these responsibilities and more fall to the music coordinator.

When asked for highlights from her 21-year tenure in the coordinator role, Wolf-Schlarf reminisces fondly about her first big task on the job.

“We had just been selected to give the opening night concert at the Michigan Music Conference at University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium. We got accepted in June 2004, I took over in July, and the concert was in January. So that was really the primary focus for my first six months. We took 700 students in 14 charter buses, and gave a two-hour concert spanning grades 5-12 from all across the district. One could say I was just naïve and had no idea what we were getting into, but we made it happen.”

That undertaking gave Wolf-Schlarf a crash course in managing TCAPS music in a comprehensive, cohesive fashion – something that became a top priority for her as the years wore on.

“[That concert] immediately got me thinking, ‘What is the general music curriculum at TCAPS? What do we value?’” she says. “What we decided to feature was the groups combined – so, the ensembles from East and West performed together, instead of separately. The district, at that point in time, was just starting to work on curriculum alignment in music, art, and physical education, and that concert was a big step. It was about making sure that, while individual teachers could use their own styles, we were teaching the same concepts and having the same outcomes at every site – from every elementary school, to both middle schools, to both high schools.”

Tamara Williams, who Wolf-Schlarf hired to take over the choral program at Central High School 20 years ago this summer, cites that widescreen district-spanning vision as one of the things she admires most about her mentor.

“There are so many hats that Wendee has worn over the years, within TCAPS and beyond, that have impacted so many students, colleagues, and educators,” Williams says. “Within TCAPS, she has been an inspiring, visionary pillar who has the exceptional ability to see the big picture of K-12 music. This is why our TCAPS music program consists of passionate, dedicated music educators who are aligned in curriculum and student-focused.”

Wolf-Schlarf will now hand the reins to Chad Mielens, who TCAPS announced late last month as the new K-12 music coordinator. Mielens came aboard with the district in 2018, as director of bands at West Senior High. He holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan University, and previously served as director of bands at West Bloomfield Public Schools. Mielens will continue to teach band at West, in addition to his new district-wide responsibilities. He tells The Ticker he was drawn to TCAPS in part because of the “tight-knit music community” Wolf-Schlarf had built, and hopes to carry that spirit forward as he takes on the coordinator job.

“This department is unique in our state in regards to how we collaborate with each other,” Mielens says.

When asked what she’ll miss most about her job, Wolf-Schlarf gets choked up before delivering the simple answer: everything.

“I love my colleagues. I love my students. I still have fun every single day,” she says. “The big picture is: it’s not a job; it’s a labor of love. It’s really been amazing, and I’ll miss it all.”

Pictured: Wolf-Schlarf (floral dress) with her TCAPS music colleagues at last month's end-of-the-year Traverse City Music Boosters Benefit Concert. (Credit: Eileen Mikulski)