Today,
May 31, 2020, Rett and I step off the rat wheel together. Hurrah!
Between the two of us, we have clocked more than 80 years of college teaching.
“Time
and Change will surely show…” the Covid-19 crisis will have a dramatic impact on
higher education and particularly on traditional modes of voice pedagogy. Now is an opportune time to retire.
I
have spent the past 11 years as Associate Director and Chair of Graduate
Studies in Music at Ohio State. As such,
my primary goal has been to support the mission of the graduate programs. Unfortunately, I have seen the administration
of the College of Arts and Sciences make budgetary decisions that placed the
Arts in general, and Music specifically, at the bottom of their priority list. I
speculate that an even leaner budget due to the pandemic will be devastating to
the Arts; and so now, this rat is stepping off into a place with a different
kind of work where BEAUTY can be observed and exalted.
As
I depart, I leave future administrators with these words from Plato:
In
closing, as I reflect on my career as an Artist/Teacher, I am blessed to have
been involved with creating and recreating beautiful music, and to have been in
a position to share that music with young talented adults.
An die Musik
Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauen Stunden,
Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis
umstrickt,
Hast du mein Herz zu warmer Lieb
entzunden,
Hast mich in eine bessre Welt entrückt!
Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf
entflossen,
Ein süsser, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel bessrer Zeiten mir
erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
To Music
Beloved art, in how many a bleak hour,
when I am enmeshed in life’s tumultuous
round,
have you kindled my heart to the warmth of
love,
and borne me away to a better world!
Often a sigh, escaping from your harp,
a sweet, celestial chord
has revealed to me a heaven of happier
times.
Beloved art, for this I thank you!
To
OSU, I bid Adieu!
CPW
Congratulations to you both! I kind of wish I had made that decision as well. Dreading going back to school with this mess!
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