CAUT

  • 1.  Music Department growth

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-21-2020 00:08
    Several years ago I read in a music magazine that enrollment at university/college music departments were at an all time high. What has your experience been?

    All I know is that when I got to the University of Alabama in 2001, there were 35 full time professors on the faculty, and 3 or 4 part time instructors.  Be the time I left in 2007, there were two more faculty, but also quite a few more graduate students, some of which needed an office. To make room for them, they school confiscated a classroom, and several practice rooms were confiscated. ​​Now, the music department has expanded quite a bit, with a whole new wing, (which caught fire recently), and there are at least 65 full time professors. I presume the number of students has increased accordingly. And UA is not exactly known for it's music school.

    When I was there, there were 85 pianos. After I left, the school hired a part time piano tuner. With the new wing, I presume they bought more pianos, but I don't know how many, or who the piano tuner is.

    What has been the situation at your school?

    Thanks

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    Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
    Mililani, HI 96789
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  • 2.  RE: Music Department growth

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-21-2020 10:39
    Frostburg State University in Western Maryland is a small school and a small music department; 30 pianos. Their enrollment has been increasing for a couple of years and due to another school, in nearby West Virginia, closing their music and theatre dept; our enrollment is increasing again.

    The school itself is in budget crisis. Tenure track positions that were promised are only yearly contractual. Though they have a very fine faculty right now, much of the music faculty is 'adjunct'. My purchase order for piano maintenance was paid for work done but the balance was purloined for other things.

    Nancy Salmon, RPT
    LaVale, MD






  • 3.  RE: Music Department growth

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-21-2020 22:42
    Hi Nancy - Would this by chance be Glenville State? We got a couple of their music majors down our way, too.

    Wim & Nancy - WV was cutting funds to state schools long before CV hit, but that hasn't helped. Concord used to have 7 full time faculty; we now have 2. All WV state schools are being cut, but the small ones are hit harder. Glenville Music didn't make it. Bluefield State and Concord are desperate, although the administration at Bluefield is doing a better job at managing what they do have, imo. I mentioned somewhere else that Concord had previously cut Math, Math Ed, & Art Ed. They just cut Geography. English & music have been handicapped beyond recognition. The music department still technically exists on paper, but you can't go there and get the necessary classes a music or music ed major would have gotten in the past or can get elsewhere. Everything has been cut altogether or in half. WVU music enrollment isn't down much because of an influx of exchange students. There are very few US residents attending. Virginia Tech in VA might be doing ok; I could ask. I know I'll be tuning practice rooms there in August. I don't know yet how many pianos I might be tuning at Concord, but since there is no longer an "Arts Department" I'm not sure what will happen. I think I'll be tuning 6 pianos for specific purposes for at least another year.

    State funding has also hit gradeschools. Most no longer have art. Some elementary schools no longer have music. Most high schools still have band. Piano lessons are down but not to an extreme low, thank goodness.

    I'm just riding the storm. It's not going to hurt me financially since there are so few tuners here & I have more than enough work without any schools, but the hit to educational institutions hurts my soul.

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    Maggie Jusiel
    Athens, WV
    (304)952-8615
    mags@timandmaggie.net
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  • 4.  RE: Music Department growth

    Posted 06-22-2020 06:49
    I will be starting my second year with the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, and was very happy to be renewed with nothing being certain right now. The school has a large faculty, but I do not know how this has changed over the years.
    The school has a strong history for music, arts, and theater. They have 70 pianos that have been well maintained, and have a commitment to keeping it that way. As I have been tuning up the practice rooms for the summer I have started
    to hear students returning to the practice rooms. Feels good to need to focus due to the trumpet down the hall and the drum studio around the corner!

    I had worked for a full line dealer until last year and the biggest increase in elementary and middle school music was in the orchestra programs. Space in the warehouse that was used to display pianos was being given over to string and
    wind instruments. Sadly, the piano inventory was reduced to a shadow of what it once was but it is great to see the youth become more involved.




  • 5.  RE: Music Department growth

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-22-2020 08:23
    It makes me happy that music programs are thriving in places. Thank you.

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    Maggie Jusiel
    Athens, WV
    (304)952-8615
    mags@timandmaggie.net
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