Getting to Know: Music department

The September Q&A is with Dr. Una Taylor, chair of the Music department.

Q: What are your duties as department chair?

The chair is responsible for many administrative tasks related to course offerings, course scheduling, faculty loading, scholarship allocation, catalog changes, budget, and so on. The chair is responsible for setting priorities, leading department meetings, and in general for helping to lead the department in its vision and mission. Music student and faculty concerns are funneled through the chair. At CSC, the chair is a faculty member, so while the chair leads the department, the chair is also one of the faculty and not a supervisor.

Q: What has changed in the Music department since you started at CSC?

Many things. I was hired during a period when the music faculty were changing over.  Beginning with Sandy Schaefer, all the faculty are new. First it was Sandy, then Joel (Schreuder), then Jim Margetts, then me, then Michael (Stephens), Sid (Shuler), Brooks (Hafey), and now McKay (Tebbs). The addition of a staff accompanist, currently Bobby Pace, is also new since 2013. We have made many, many changes in the programs and degree offerings in terms of requirements, curriculum, and resources striving to improve our programs and raising the standards. We have also been working for the past four years on becoming accredited by the National Association of the Schools of Music (NASM). We hope this will become a reality soon.

Q: What do you like best about teaching at Chadron State?

The best thing is that I work with a great group of people in the music department. The faculty, professional staff, and support staff are good people. CSC is also located in one of the most beautiful regions in the country. I love its natural beauty. I like the small town, and I like that it’s a small college – small, but not too small.

Q: What are some of the unique aspects of the Music program?

We have a Music Industry degree, where students learn about copyright, music sales, studio performing, music engineering, and other things relating to the business side of music. In addition to our four traditional voice ensembles (men’s and women’s vocal ensembles and concert choir), we also have a vocal jazz ensemble that sings arrangements of jazz standards with microphones and a backing jazz combo. We also have a full time staff accompanist who accompanies all the vocal ensembles and all students who study privately. Many music schools in this country do not provide an accompanist to their students at no charge. One of the reasons we were successful in creating this position is due to our remote location far away from urban centers where there would be a far greater number of skilled pianists available to freelance in this capacity.

Q: What career paths do graduates of the Music program generally pursue?

Music education is a popular degree, as well as Music Industry, and those students go on to teach music in public schools anywhere from kindergarten to 12^th grade. Our department can boast a 100 percent placement rate for music education students. Other graduates have gone on to careers working in music stores, instrument repair, recording studios, or have pursued their education further in graduate school.

Q: What student opportunities are offered in the Music department?

Students have opportunities to perform with our many ensembles, some of which include: Wind Symphony, Concert Choir, Keyboard Ensemble, Jazz Band, Guitar Ensemble, Clarinet Quartet, Percussion Ensemble, and many more. There are also several clubs that students can participate in that are related to their career goals. We have chapters of the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA) and the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME), both of which promote music education. Our students regularly attend, present, and perform at these conferences.

Other opportunities include: Guest artists coming to CSC and not only performing, but also offering master classes for our students, travel and touring opportunities for ensembles, opportunities to attend professional conferences related to students’ career aspirations. Those conferences are NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants), which is geared toward music industry students, the MKMEA conferences (Midwest Kodaly Music Educator Association), which is aimed primarily at elementary music education, the MTNA conferences (Music Teachers National Association), primarily for students who wish to establish a private teaching studio, and ACDA conferences (American Choral Directors Association) which is geared toward choral and vocal students.

Q: Performances are important to Music students and professors. How are public performances used as a teaching tool? 

Performances are much like a “final exam” for musicians; we work hard and practice throughout the semester, but the public only sees our final performance. During the weeks of practice and rehearsal, students expand their knowledge base and hone their musicianship skills. 

We often have to deal with anxiety when performing in front of others, so we also practice how our minds and bodies have to adjust in certain situations. Also, we encourage all of our students to attend as many performances as possible, even if they themselves are not performing. Much can be learned from watching other ensembles and soloists, such as new repertoire, stylistic choices, and stage presence.

Q: What are some other learning tools the Music department utilizes?

The music department utilizes several types of software that assist students in their learning. The newest addition is using a software called Collabra, in which students may record their lessons (or conducting, practice teaching), as well as their own individual practice sessions and be able to view these learning experiences. We anticipate this will be a great learning tool. These lessons and practices can be shared immediately between student and teacher and includes the capacity to submit comments regarding any particular point during the recording.

We have also subscribed to something called SmartMusic which has some similar capability, but is more limited in application.

The music department also uses recording devices, hosts studio classes so students can perform for one another and a high impact music education conference with nationally known presenters will be at CSC Sept. 23-24.

Q: What advice would you share with students interested in a career in Music?

Practice. A lot.