Interview with Mr. Daniel LeJeune

After 27 years at Blake, 40 years of teaching, Mr. Daniel LeJeune, known to his students as “LJ,” has announced his retirement. He has changed countless students' lives for the better and will be missed deeply.

Could you outline your professional journey?

I started teaching in 1986 in Baltimore County, Maryland. I was an elementary teacher, and then I did my master's at Peabody Conservatory, where I re-met my wife. Then I got an opportunity to go teach in Howard County and a middle school [position] opened up.

I stayed seven years there, and I grew to love teaching middle school. My choirs were accepted for a couple juried conferences, one of which was a national conference in 1997. And some [former Blake faculty], Arvida Steen, and Jane Frazee, saw my choir, and so when my Blake job opened in 99, they invited me to interview here.

I was starting to teach at the University of St. Thomas in 1995, [so] I’d been coming to Minnesota. I just retired from there last summer.

[I’ve gotten] opportunit[ies] to lead honor choirs and guest conducting in many places. I've also been able to bring the choristers to 10 juried conferences since I've been here.

I've had a lot of fun showing people the joy of teaching middle school. I’ve worked with 100s of graduate students. That's a legacy that's continuing on that I'm proud of: not just teaching kids. I'm also teaching teachers.

What is special about teaching middle schoolers in particular?

You come in as kids and you leave as emerging adults. The human voice does a huge amount of transformation during 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.

The more I can empower people to use their voice with confidence, the better they're going to be able to share their unique qualities with the world.

What moment or memory has been the most impactful for you?

There were two overall. First, being the only middle school choral group to be accepted to the Midwest regional American Choral Directors Association Conference back in Spring of 2010, we were able to sing our own half hour concert at Orchestra Hall.

And that program featured a high school choir, a college choir from Iowa, and the St. Olaf choir. Choristers did an amazing job [with] 700 people in the audience.

The other thrill for my professional career was conducting the National Youth Choir, at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. back in 2009. I had 160 students on stage with me from almost 30 states, and they were all in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. There were at least two [or] three Blake students at that concert as well.

My own daughter was in that choir as a 6th grader. I had the U.S. Army Field bands brass quintet playing American the Beautiful with us. I had some incredible string players assembled. Tim Gregory was able to be on stage with me as we directed these Kenyan folk songs that we arranged specifically for that concert.

Tell us about your LJ Cafe.

Back in 2019, I had a 7th grade home room. I said to my advisory, ‘I wish I could just do something to help pick up people's day. I need a little coffee cart’. And then we were talking about, ‘well, what do we call it’, and then we all came up with LJ Cafe.

So I started with one little cart and then it just kind of grew from there. And then COVID hit.[When we came back to school], I kind of secretly started back up again.

There was just a big demand from people and then the school started supporting it. So it was really just to build morale and to lift people during a time when it was really hard, between all the construction and going into the pandemic.

What is your final message to your students?

Blake gives you an opportunity to discover things about yourself you might not know. Stay open to learning, stay curious. Be present in every class in the moment. Because in an instant, things can change. Be fully present, because when you do that, you can truly discover the gifts that you have.

What are you looking forward to when you're retirement?

I'm looking forward to having the time to think, to create, and to continue to serve people.

I love serving in so many capacities. I'm looking forward to going out into schools. It'd be fun to go in and either accompany a concert or fill in for somebody if they're really sick and they need somebody to come in and take over.

I'm also looking forward to having time to do some of my own arranging of pieces that have been simmering in my brain for years. I'm looking forward to arranging new music for middle schoolers to sing.

Why did you decide to retire now?

There's never a good time to leave, but I felt like this was a good time for me at my stage of life, both personally and professionally, to still be young enough and healthy enough and energetic enough to do some things.

And also, I live far away. The commuting after 27 years; it's not always easy to come and go. There's really no way that I can move in closer.

I also want to be more present to support my wife. My wife is incredibly busy. There are things that I could fill in for her. She doesn't have a sub either. I would love to be able to fill in in that way too, partner with her, be a little closer to home, have a little less frenetic life.

Can we be your favorite students?

I work hard not to think of people as favorites because sometimes then you discount a student who might be having a bad day. I'm not perfect and I make lots of mistakes, so when I've messed up, I've tried to tell students I’ve messed up. Hopefully they’ll forgive me, like I'm trying to forgive them.

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French teacher Mme Séverine Stevens mentions that le jeune is French for “young (one).” LJ has truly maintained a youthful spirit, full of joy and purpose. For 40 years, he has made it his mission to spread this sense of joy to each of his students. And that joy and curiosity will forever continue through the countless students whose lives he has changed.