Music Alumna Still Playing the Iowa Fight Song at 91
PHOTO: CALEB SAUNDERS
Burlington Municipal Band member Sue Kristensen plays clarinet with the University of Iowa alumni pep band for a Hawkeye women's basketball game earlier this year at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Sue Fischer Kristensen (55BA) usually goes to cheer on the Iowa women’s basketball team with her son, a season ticket holder. But this past winter, she enjoyed the game against Penn State from a new vantage point. At 91, Kristensen performed for the first time with the alumni pep band.
Kristensen’s affinity for music and the University of Iowa runs deep. The Burlington, Iowa, native learned to play clarinet in fourth grade. By high school, she had progressed so well that her band teacher told her mother, “I really think you need to take her to Iowa City. I don’t think I can teach her anymore.” Her mother took the advice and drove Kristensen 160 miles round trip for weekly lessons.
Kristensen later enrolled at the UI School of Music, where she says she attended on a full-ride football scholarship since a music scholarship wasn't available. The late Himie Voxman (33BSChE, 34MA, 08LHD) served as her professor.
After graduation, Kristensen took what she learned in Iowa City back to Burlington, where she taught music for over 50 years. Today, Kristensen continues giving music lessons to students of all ages. She is also an active member of the Southeast Iowa Band and is in her 78th season playing with the Burlington Municipal Band.
Looking back on her legacy, Kristensen especially cherishes the memories from the music class she started for special education students. For 20 years, Kristensen would take field trips with the students, some of whom had never been outside of Burlington. On one trip to Des Moines, Kristensen had the group stop at the UI to see Kinnick Stadium. One of her students asked and received her permission to run from one end of the field to the other. “I will never forget that,” says Kristensen. “Music gave them a different perspective on life.”