Now, 25 years later, she is putting down the university baton. A professor of music and the director of the University Choir and Chorus, Simons will conduct her last concert for UB this weekend.

As a tribute to the many lives Simons has influenced, 40 former UB singers will perform alongside the regular choir, chorus and symphony during Sunday evening's program, a recreation of the first concert Simons gave as a UB faculty member.

Praise for Simons, who enjoys a national reputation among her peers for innovations in the teaching of conducting, has been equally forthcoming from the students who have sung for her, traveled with her and learned from her.

"It's because of her that I'm in the field of music education," said Maureen Allen, a music teacher at Williamsville East High School. "She's just a fantastic teacher, and an outstanding musician."

Allen was a member the choir in 1988, the year Simons took the group to England, Scotland and Wales.

"She taught us the national anthem of Wales," Allen recalled, "and we sang it for them in Wales, and then we sang 'America the Beautiful.' Everybody was in tears. That's something I'll never forget."

Simons described her two trips to Europe as among the highlights of her career.

"England was a highlight," Simons agreed, "both the trip to England and the trip to Italy [in 1995]. To sing in such glorious surroundings just can't be matched. We sang to a packed, standing-room-only audience in St. Francis of Assisi Basilica. We sang in Venice during a Mass at St. Mark's Basilica."

But Simons' most enduring legacy, say some of her former students, can be found closer to home.

"Simons brought the highest standards to the department," noted Father Jacob Ledwon, who received a doctorate in musicology in 1986. "And she has imparted these standards to thousands....I think that the whole Western New York region is grateful."

Ledwon is pastor of St. Joseph University Church adjacent to the South Campus, where many UB musical events were held before the construction of Slee Hall and the Center for the Arts. Both Ledwon and Simons said that, of all the musical events that took place in that church, the 1991 performance of Mozart's "Requiem" was among the most memorable.

"We did it on the anniversary of Mozart's death," said Simons. "It was done completely in context, as a Mass."

Over the years, some of Simons' students have gone on to become professional musicians; Laura Aikin, for example, recently made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York City. Other students, like Ledwon and Allen, remain involved in music as part of their profession. But, according to Simons, her relationships with students, faculty and staff who "just enjoy singing" have been equally sustaining.

Often, these are the students Simons remembers most vividly. "There is a man coming back for this concert," she said, "who I haven't seen since he graduated from the UB dental school. He is a dentist somewhere in New Jersey. But while he was here, he took me over to the anatomy lab and showed me a cadaver. He felt I should see a larynx.

"I don't think about the 'career singer' as often as I think about the educated UB student who also participates in a cultural outlet," Simons explained. "Of course, we have a lot of music majors here, and I am a music teacher, but we also have a lot of people who have nothing to do with music, outside of singing in the choir. And they become the students I really know the very best."

Her own life has followed a more dedicated route. A young bass clarinetist, Simons switched to a voice major as an undergraduate, then went on to take a master's degree in choral conducting and a doctorate in opera conducting from Indiana University. After teaching at Fredonia State College and Oberlin College Conservatory, she accepted a position at UB in 1972.

"The department here was small," said Simons, "but they were doing some exciting things. When I think about those first interviews, I remember meeting this and that faculty member, but I have specific memories of meeting various students. They wanted to know what we were going to do and when we were going to do it."

Local radio host Elaine Knecht was one of those early students, attending some of the first classes Simons taught at UB.

"She struck me as so organized, so knowledgeable and so considerate," said Knecht. "She had a real concern for helping the student do more." Knecht will be among the 40 alumni during this weekend's concert.

According to Simons, her retirement from UB only means it is "time to do something else." She and her husband, UB professor of geology Parker Calkin, plan to move permanently to Boulder, Colorado. But, after an entire life involved in music, few doubt that her "something else" will include instruments and song