CU Boulder Faculty Vacancy

[miketuba]

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO-BOULDER -- Artist/Teacher of applied euphonium and tuba. Tenure-track, Assistant or Associate Prof. Duties also to include teaching related courses in pedagogy and literature. Qualifications: doctorate preferred, Masters required, although applicants with a bachelors and an extraordinary record of achievement in performance and teaching will be considered. College level teaching experience also preferred. Start Date: August 2005. Application deadline: November 01, 2004. Send cover letter, CV, CD recording, three letters of recommendation to: Dr. William Stanley, Chair, Tuba/Euphonium Search Committee, College of Music, 301 UCB, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309. Email: william.stanley@colorado.edu. Rank and salary dependent upon experience/qualifications. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. Web-Site address: http://www.colorado.edu/music.

[tuneitup]

Just curious, and if you prefer you don't have to answer it. It just seem odd that you are announcing about a job vacancy that your are currently holding. What's going on?

[miketuba]

If you are just curious, I'm not sure why you would post your question to the tubenet (as opposed to posting a private message). But since you've raised the question publicly, here is why I posted the announcement.

I resigned in March as tuba professor at CU. It was an amicable parting of ways and I wish nothing but the best for my friends, colleagues and students up in Boulder.

I will do everything in my power to assist them in getting the best candidate pool for the job. These were my students - a few of them from the time they were in junior high school.

And since no one had done it yet, it seemed like a nice service to the job board of the BBS and there is only 2 months to the deadline.

[miketuba]

Hi Dale,

Carson McTeer and Jeremy Van Hoy were hired on an interim basis to teach the tuba and euphonium load for the year. The search for the permanent position is underway.

Mike

[miketuba]

Sorry - I need to fix my automatic signature feature that should read:

Michael Allen
Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium (retired)
University of Colorado at Boulder

[miketuba]

I'm sure no one is being "courted."

However, there has been a concerted effort by way of the posting to make certain they get the right person for the job. This College of Music has (finally) recognized that the piece of paper is not the final measure of how great a teacher is or might be.

There have been several instances (some even pretty close to home here) where an absolutely amazing candidate had to be placed automatically in the "no" pile becasue they didn't have a DMA or Masters while others far less seasoned and ultimately far less qualified were passed on to a second round of consideration because they had a DMA.

I think the specific wording of that posting is a very positive sign that higher education may be starting to move out of the dark ages in regard to the hiring policies of the the 80's and 90's.

[Begin Soapbox]

There is something very wrong here with how we hire the professionals within our industry. Lets face it folks - the DMA is broken and needs to be fixed or eliminated. In most cases, it is (erroneously) based on a PhD and often the requirements that were once very important to those kinds of certifications are still required in a DMA. There is only one good reason to get a DMA and that is to get your foot in the door for a university gig. Shouldn't colleges be preparing their DMAs in order to get them ready for that? Heavy on the performance and pedagogy, light on the silly documents and foreign language requirements (or eliminated all together)? Heavy on the interview prep and light on the medieval music practices?

That's how MY school will work when it is finished. <grin>

Likewise - I'm not certain that 10 minutes behind a screen is an accurate measure of how experienced and talented a player is or how great a colleague they might be. With all due respect to the amazing tuba players on the audition circuit right now, how does 3 or 4 10 - 20 minute rounds, at least half of which are screened, really find the right MUSICIAN and COLLEAGUE? What does that process do to assure the right chemistry and personality of a section?

Why can't an audition for an orchestra include a carefully constructed and conducted interview? If you are looking for someone who could possibly hold a position for 40 years, isn't it worth the additional time and expense to really look for (and hopefully find) that right chemistry and personality?

And don't get me started on tenure...

That's how auditions for MY orchestra will work... <also - grin>

Mike Allen

[james]

see second post

[james]

not important

[mceuph]

"Good luck to all those experienced guys! Nice to see players involved, not DMA's."

I don't think it's fair (or true) to suggest that you're either a "player" or a "DMA", or that a DMA is "just a piece of paper." Yes, it sucks that someone who plays wonderfully with a wealth of experience but doesn't have the degrees may get overlooked, and exceptions should be made for those people. That being said, there's a whole lot that I learned during my DMA about auditioning/interviewing/running a studio and about musicianship in general. And, if you're going to teach at an institution that has doctoral candidates, it's probably a very good idea to have one. Also, jobs that are strictly tuba/euph studio jobs seem to be a rarity nowadays(a perfect example: my job, teaching low brass/music ed/conducting/running CMENC/whatever else they need that semester) Even if you're very lucky and your job is strictly tuba/euph at a large university, it appears from observing my teachers in the past that it's not just all about putting out students who will win auditions. You'll be teaching students with a variety of career goals and backgrounds, plus, you'll have to be able to be a productive member of a university faculty, which can require a lot of patience and skills that have nothing to do with performance. In these cases, I think that a person who is coming from a background of strictly professional orchestral/band performance may actually be at a disadvantage to a person with an academic background. Of course, I wouldn't want the opposite either(a person with 3 degrees and no performing/teaching ability).

Martin Cochran

[Mike Forbes]

I couldn't agree more with Martin about a lot of the information that he brought up--there seems to be an anti-DMA thing going on with this thread for some reason...perhaps that speaks more about what kinds of issues are going on at Colorado at the moment. Either way, I would have to say that, for me, having a DMA is a little bit of a double edged sword. It seems to me that players without DMA's sometimes look down on folks that have DMA's in that, "well if they had to do all that schooling, they must not play very well." I've run in to this attitude everywhere from the Army Band to College Search Committees. Then again, if you don't have that "preferred" DMA sometimes you don't make the list. In the case of Colorado, I believe the DMA was marked as "preferred" according to Miketuba's post, but then there's these guys: Dunn, Zerk, Deck, McTeer (if in fact these are the guys--never take too much credibility from the Tubenet sources, by the way--I think everyone on here pretty much realizes that so "james" don't get too worked up about it)...anyway, none of the above guys have DMA's...so was it (or is it ever) really "preferred"?

As for james' comments regarding "disrespecting" Zerk's studio because he might be invited to interview, etc. I think what folks need to realize is that we "profs" sometimes need to apply to gigs in order to gain promotion, tenure, better contracts, etc. I'm not saying that Dave is a candidate or even applied nor am I saying that (if he did) he's doing this just for tenure or promotion; either way, I think his students should be THRILLED that their teacher was sought after enough to be selected. Same with Mike's students in Alabama. It is an honor to be selected in this process, and students, I believe, should recognize this achievement for their teacher. While I was at Wisconsin, John Stevens was selected to be in a very prestigious group of folks to interview for the Eastman gig--I was so happy that my teacher was being considered for one of the biggest music schools in the country--it made me proud that I was studying with such a "big name". Sure I may have had to refigure my plans (transfer to Eastman, etc.), but I was still very happy for my teacher as Zerk and Dunn's students should be as well. Congrats guys (if indeed this is the case--if not, I'm not surprised, afterall, this is "Tubenet" and furthermore, Paul stated "grapevine alert" in the first place.) Take what your read from "a source" with a large grain of rock-salt!

[james]

the "respecting students" part was supposed to be edited for the very reason of it being taken in the context Mike took it. However it was edited incorrectly by myself. I apologize. What was meant is that often times students read these posts and could be shocked by these "theories".

[miketuba]

Hello all,

Well - if I started the anti-DMA part of this thread, I certainly didn't mean it that way.

Actually, I am generally in support of a DMA as long as it is a career driven curriculum. I think that the DMA in general (the degree/curriculum not the student) tends to be driven from an academic and historical point of view rather than from an outcome - this is where I have a problem with the degree, IN GENERAL.

And I certainly wasn't speaking out against those that have earned their DMAs.

I favor a menu driven curriculum with thoughtfully planned seminar topics tailored to each particular area of study. A tuba DMA is not the same as a viola DMA - why should the seminar offerings be exactly the same? The answer - lack of resources.

As for universities specifically and deliberately seeking those with a DMA to fill a faculty position - the real problem here is not the requirement but the lack of forthought in the construction of the posting. Many schools get trapped by their own language and CAN'T even look at someone without their DMA because of the wording in the posting. This is just silly. Any school that wouldn't consider Warren Deck, for example, just because he doesn't have his DMA is shooting themselves in the foot. Unfortunately, in this hypothetical example, the posting itself requires that this particular application automatically gets placed in the "no" pile or the school risks litigation.

And finally, there will always be someone on the faculty with a PhD or a DMA to help a student navigate through the academic perils and requirements of post baccalaureate work. The fact is, students (even doctoral students) will respect a teacher if they can play and if they can teach regardless of the shingles hanging on the wall.

Mike Allen

[Mike Forbes]

Congrats to Mike Dunn! After years of looking at other positions, I'm glad Mike finally found a suitable gig for his amazing talents....it's too bad the Univ. of Alabama is losing this great pedagogue & player after so many years of service to their university...I'm sure it was a tough decision to leave for Mike.

Anyone know who the official list of interviewee's actually were in the end?

[mceuph]

Finalists were Mike Dunn, Carson McTeer, and Kevin Wass(I'm 98% sure). For all the rumors about Warren Deck, it appears that none of them were true. I don't think that the University of Alabama truly knows what they're losing.

[danB]

No offense to Mr. Dunn here but let's give some props to two other extremely talented and great guys. Carson McTeer and Kevin Wass are two wonderfully gifted players and musicians. It's a no brainer that they were in the running for the job. Each University looks for very different things in a teacher. It's a "fit" more than it is a "winner". So let's not bash people indirectly while promoting someone, who, deserves the position and will do a fantastic job when he takes over. Congrats to all the candidaites.

off the soap box, the conch belongs to someone else now.....

Dan

[Tom]

For all the rumors about Warren Deck, it appears that none of them were true.

Warren Deck is teaching in Colorado though...

He's teaming up with Kathy Brantigan at the University of Denver.