Well before there was Juilliard for Louise Wing (DIP '53, French horn), there was water. Her leisure, academic studies, military service, and teaching career all revolved around it. After Juilliard, the water pulled her back—though the classical music she studied still figures in her life, accompanying her synchronized swimming routines. She has devoted a lifetime to aquatics and, at 85, was honored in January as an inductee into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame. Born in Seattle, Louise Wing spent most of her childhood in Cambridge, Mass., where her father, a physicist, was a principal scientist for the Watertown Arsenal. When she and her brother were quite young, their mother (a former English professor) had a local lifeguard teach them to swim. "Our pool wasn't ready yet," said Wing, "so I did breast strokes on the sand. When it was finally ready, I jumped in and swam across and back. My brother sank to the bottom like stone!"
Louise Wing in the pool at the Jewish Community Center in Marblehead, Mass., where she often practices.
Wing attended Boston University's Sargent College of Physical Education (now Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences), graduating with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1939. She earned a master's degree in hygiene and physical education from Wellesley College and began her career as a swimming teacher, but took time out a few years later to enlist in the Coast Guard during World War II. She served from 1943 through 1946 in the newly created Women's Reserve (nicknamed SPARs). "It was a popular war," said Wing, "and everyone wanted to do their bit, and that was mine." In 1946, Wing became director of swimming at Boston's Y.W.C.A. It was there that she took an interest in synchronized swimming. In her mid-30s, she was deemed "too old" for this new sport, so she began teaching it to a few of her students. Competitions had not yet been established, so the girls put on water shows.During this time, Wing was learning to play the French horn, studying with Willem Valkenier, then principal horn with the Boston Symphony. Though new to the horn, she was not new to music; her mother had started her on the flute and piccolo when she was 10. "I hated the sound, which was so high in my ears. But it got me to places where I could sit and listen to the horns." Though she loved their sound, she recalls, "in my day, girls weren't allowed to do things like that." But after her stint in the Coast Guard, Wing took advantage of educational funding provided by the G.I. Bill to audition at Juilliard in 1951. "My knee was bouncing [out of nervousness], and my horn was bouncing on my knee," she recalls.She thoroughly enjoyed her time at Juilliard, but admits she was not the best nor most typical student. "I was already out of the Coast Guard and had been to school 10 years before," said Wing. "I had never seen an orchestral horn part," she added. "You can imagine where I was in the line-up!" Her practical experiences, however, worked in her favor in the classroom. "I could always see what the teacher was looking for, because I had been a teacher." Wing admits to being in awe of her classmates, among whom were Leontyne Price and Van Cliburn. "I just loved sitting in the orchestra, even when I had a hundred measures' rest," she said. "I'd just sit and listen."Wing continued playing in chamber groups after graduation, and returned to teaching synchronized swimming. She also began competing in Masters Swimming competitions, which now included synchronized swimming. But as meetings and practices and concerts vied for her time, said Wing, "I knew I couldn't have two masters. So I went full time into synchro." She said that she keeps music in her life through her swimming routines, which center on classical pieces such as selections from Beethoven's Eighth Symphony or Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole.Wing has competed in six Masters World Championships and won 19 medals since 1985 for synchronized swimming. She convinced her husband to try synchronized swimming after his retirement from the military; eventually they performed in duet routines and won national and international Masters competitions in their age group. But you don't have to be a champion to reap the benefits of swimming, Wing says. "Anyone who's looking for a fun, interesting, and rewarding way to exercise and make friends—this is it!"—Meredith Gordon
