Roman Totenberg in Poland, 2000. Photo: Tomasz Skowronski. Wikimedia Commons image.

Was Still Teaching … Even On His Deathbed

I am saddened to inform you of the passing of our esteemed colleague and dear friend, Professor Emeritus of Music Roman Totenberg.

A survivor of two world wars, Roman offered the world hope and love through his extraordinary music-making. First guided in his art by 19^th century masters such as Flesch and Enescu, his legacy is a testimony to the power of human strength and resilience.

Throughout our long and wonderful relationship with him, he always kept BU and its students in his heart; now, we will forever hold him in ours.   We are so grateful to have known such a unique and generous artist and human being; more than a virtuoso, he was a true global citizen who bridged three centuries with his artistry and teaching.

Our thoughts are with his family.

Details of his memorial service will be posted here when they are announced.

BU Today obituary

Bruce MacCombie. Image: UMass-Amherst

Composer Was Dean of the College of Fine Arts 1992-2000

I am sorry to announce that Bruce MacCombie has passed away after a long illness.  He served as dean of the College of Fine Arts (then School for the Arts) from 1992-2000.

A distinguished composer and theorist, his works have been recorded on the BGS label, Virgin Classics, BIS Singapore, and the Eastman American Music Series.

Bruce MacCombie was also a gifted administrator and an important leader who left a lasting mark during his tenure at BU.

He began his academic career in 1975 as an assistant professor, then became associate professor of composition and theory at the Yale University School of Music. In 1980 he moved to New York City to become vice president and director of publications for G. Schirmer and Associates Music Publishers, and in 1986 was appointed dean of the Juilliard School.

Upon leaving BU, he served as Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and from 2002 to 2006 as associate dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he was emeritus professor of music at the time of his death.

During his tenure at CFA, (then SFA) Dean MacCombie worked closely with International Programs at BU to develop one-semester residencies for theatre students in London, visual arts students in Venice, and music students in Dresden.  Enrollment increased as did alumni involvement and support.

Our deepest condolences to his wife Turi, his family, and friends.

Read obituary.

British MP David Lammy. Wikimedia Commons image.

I was honored to have British MP and former Culture Minister David Lammy speak and take questions in my arts leadership class this evening.  The Labour party member who is expected to seek higher office, spoke of the transformative role choral singing played in his development as a young man. Lammy emphasized that art teaches excellence through consistent, hard work.  It was this discipline that lead him to the life he could scarcely dream of growing up in Tottenham.

Lammy, who now represents that same Tottenham constituency which was  wracked by riots in 1985 and again in 2011, asserted that it is especially important for disadvantaged young people to know that opportunities come from excellence achieved through diligence.

In a far-ranging talk without notes, he went on to discuss two meta-trends that shape the current political and economic landscape: social liberalism and economic liberalism.

Social liberalism brought us the civil rights movements for blacks, women and gay people.  While society is more fair and just, these movements may contribute to an individualized world view (what is good for me, rather than what is good for us).

Random House UK, 2011.

Economic liberalism, which allows private enterprise to expand the economy  (positive) while amassing profits without regulation or conscience, has brought the world to the brink of economic collapse (obviously, negative).

Lammy challenged students to build a new world that incorporates the best of social and economic liberalism while rejecting the hyper-individualized society they spawned.

What that new and better world will look like is not yet known but Lammy says, artists will be the first to see and describe it.

Morris Robinson Photo: Lyric Stage

A”perfectly cast ensemble performs some of the most enduring songs and theatre music ever written…Morris Robinson (Joe) sing(s) with touching realism and personal connection… No one should miss it“– Chicago Sun-Times

See a short introduction of this lavish production by Renee Flemming and hear Morris Robinson sing:

http://bit.ly/y95Y1x

I have recently completed my “freshman” year as dean of the Boston University College of Fine Arts. My course of study, not surprisingly, was two invigorating semesters of what might be called “CFA 101.” I have learned many things—about the interests of my fellow faculty members, the ambitions of our students, and the accomplishments of our alumni community. All are great assets of this College.

I also have discovered exciting opportunities to build upon CFA’s strong foundations, and take our College to the next level. Those opportunities can be summed up in three words: collaboration, innovation, and globalization.

The stakes are high. Artists will play vital roles in the 21st century, as social leaders, agents of change, promoters and ambassadors of the arts, creators of social capital, architects of value, and humanist entrepreneurs. At the College of Fine Arts, we must seek to nurture artists able to thrive in difficult times—resilient in uncertainty, and proactive in making the world a better place. Below, I outline our plans for doing so. I hope you will join us in our effort.

Collaboration

For many years, the College has tended to operate as three separate entities. School of Theatre students rarely interact with School of Visual Arts students, and neither of those groups spends much time with their counterparts at the School of Music. But one thing I’ve learned is that the CFA whole is, or can be, greater than the sum of its parts. This fall, therefore, we’re launching a mandatory freshman colloquium called “The Freshman Experience,” to expose new students to all three disciplines. This series of cross-disciplinary lectures will help freshmen explore how their artistic endeavors can complement each other during their years at CFA.

We are extending that spirit of collaboration across BU as well, in an effort to help reinforce what we like to call the “creative campus.” One example is our keyword initiative, which we are beginning this year with generous support from alumna Nancy Livingston (COM’69) and her husband, Fred Levin. Each year, we will select a keyword that will inspire our programming. This year it is violence—a reality that unfortunately intrudes into almost every corner of our society. Finding solutions almost certainly requires a holistic, interdisciplinary approach. The School of Theatre, where the initiative originated, will illuminate the subject by performing plays related to conflict. The School of Visual Arts is welcoming Enrique Chagoya, whose recent work denounces the abuse of children by priests—so powerfully, in fact, that last fall a crowbar-wielding museum-goer in Colorado was moved to destroy one of his lithographs. The School of Music is presenting works written in times of revolution and war. We have invited the rest of the BU campus to contribute lectures, symposia, and other programming that invites discussion of our keyword throughout the year.

Innovation

This fall, we will also begin a new workshop series, open to all BU students, that will focus on the nuts and bolts of artistic leadership: how to develop and market a creative enterprise. This series will be the precursor to new campus-wide collaborative minors, and offer students the ability to take courses in conjunction with many other BU schools and colleges. I have heard from many alumni that their studies at CFA were heavy on technique and short on other skills needed for succeeding in a creative field. By providing an awareness about the legal, financial and social implications of launching and sustaining a career in the arts, this series will help teach students how to promote their talent and their discipline and at the end become more resilient as artists.

Globalization

As a conductor, I have led orchestras all over the globe, from my native Mexico to China. Today, a global perspective is a necessity for most creative people, and I hope to raise the global awareness of CFA as an institution. The artists and performers we train must be prepared to work and thrive in an increasingly global and interconnected world. In the future, we will infuse the curriculum with new global perspectives, in part by empowering our faculty to participate extensively in international conferences, performances, and exhibits.

Embracing a global, technologically interconnected arts society will help CFA bridge cultural and geographic divides. Last November and April, for example, CFA held the first orchestra concerts ever to be streamed live via the internet from Symphony Hall. After the performance, one of the performers from the School of Music sent me a lovely note. Her mother was in Chicago, and her father was serving in Afghanistan—but thanks to our web feed, both were able to see her perform.

My faculty colleagues and I are determined to steer CFA in exciting and productive directions. In truth, this is a necessity. Many institutions make the mistake of concluding that the best way to face the future is to improve what they did in the past. This is no longer true, if indeed it ever was. To allow young artists to live their dreams in a rapidly changing world, we need to embrace change. And we will need the full commitment of our faculty, administration, collaborators, and alumni.

Thank you for your generosity to CFA. To make your gift online, please click here.

Sincerely,

Benjamín Juárez
Dean, Boston University College of Fine Arts

P.S. During my sophomore year, I will be enrolled in “CFA 201″: getting to know our alumni. I look forward to seeing you during my travels around the globe—and on campus during Alumni Weekend, October 28–30. Visit www.bu.edu/alumniweekend for more information and to register.

Boston University College of Fine Arts 855 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215 800-447-2849 give2bu@bu.edu

BU Photo Services Image

It’s been just a year since Mexican conductor and arts administrator Benjamin Juarez put down his baton and took up residence as the dean of the College of Fine Arts. With more than 2,000 students in his college and a budget of $20 million, Juarez says his biggest challenge during the past 12 months has been finding ways “to support, align, and celebrate the numerous interesting initiatives that I have learned from faculty, students, and staff while being both strategic and visionary.”

BU Today spoke to Juarez about his plans for the coming year, as CFA prepares to launch its fall season with next month’s 15th annual Fall Fringe Festival. Notable among Juarez’s changes is the decision to build much of the college’s visual arts, musical, and theatrical programming each year around a single theme, what Juarez calls a keyword initiative—this year’s theme: violence. Next month’s Fringe Festival opera Bluebeard’s Castle, for example, depicts domestic violence, November’s lecture by artist Enrique Chagoya focuses on his lithographs of violent collisions between cultures, and Emily Mann’s play Execution of Justice, to be staged in February, is a story of political violence (the aftermath of the 1978 assassination of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk).

BU Today spoke with Juarez about the idea behind the keyword initiative and other innovations at CFA this fall.

BU Today: What’s behind the idea of building arts programming each year around a central theme—in this case, violence?

Juarez: We are trying to build a two-way dialogue with schools and colleges throughout BU, inviting our community to feel, think, and act around themes that are relevant to all of us. Building programming around a keyword also allows us to align programs in all three schools at CFA and to organize a variety of roundtables, lectures, shows, and performances in order to create a larger community engaged in rich dialogues.

How did you choose violence as the inaugural theme?

Violence was proposed by Jim Petosa, director of the School of Theatre. Violence is endemic to our times and our societies; we find it in the family, in the workplace, around issues as diverse as gender, religion, or social class. The year 2012 will be an election year, both in the United States and in many other countries around the world. The election process is used by some politicians to harden positions and target real or imagined enemies, bringing added urgency to our concerns about violence.

This is a cloud word idea: the concepts of nonviolence, hope, and peace are as much a part of the initiative as the immediate meanings of the word.

Do you worry that building programming around a central theme limits what you’re able to offer each year?

The keyword programming is an option, but not the only option for programs in our schools at CFA. And even though all three schools are very much on board with the initiative, they continue with other programs that have to do with their academic or artistic requirements.

You are planning a new CFA minor designed for all BU students. How did that idea come about?

Our vision of the role of the artist in the 21st century deals not only with artistic excellence, but with educating the young artist to be a social leader, an agent of change, a promoter and ambassador of the arts, a creator of social capital, an architect of value, and a humanist entrepreneur. The new minor is about the tools that will allow young artists to live their dreams in a rapidly changing world. Our ideal graduate will move easily from the stage, gallery, or classroom to the at-risk community, from the cultural focal points of the world to rural areas where arts programs are a rare occurrence, and from studying at the most prestigious artistic institutions to creating their own content and being sought after for their collaborative skills and unique leadership abilities. We are still working on the title and final content of this minor, but among the suggestions we have discussed so far are “cultural planning,” “arts leadership,” and “cultural building.” We will be able to share more information about the program soon.

CFA students will attend events such as “Ellen Banks—Musical Manifestations: Compositions in Wax, Paper, and Yarn” (on view at the Sherman Gallery through October 30) as part of the college’s new Freshmen Experience program. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

Can you explain your new program, the Freshmen Experience, and what its goal is?

The Freshmen Experience is based on an open invitation from our faculty to first-year students to join them in small groups to attend a performance, exhibition, concert, lecture, or backstage tour in an area that is outside the students’ main area of study. These events are activities that our faculty members are passionate about. Groups of 6 to 12 students will be able to share coffee or a slice of pizza with the faculty member before or after they jointly explore something beyond their discipline. The idea is to give students a better idea of what BU and the city of Boston have to offer and to strengthen relationships among music, theater, and visual arts students.

You’re offering a series of Saturday workshops for all students at the University, regardless of major. Why is this important?

The Saturday workshops are a series of experiments that will provide students at CFA and across BU with tools that go beyond their pursuit of excellence in an artistic discipline or their professional studies, and that may prove very useful—even necessary—to succeed in the 21st century: leadership tools, decision-making, critical and creative thinking, the way we communicate or negotiate, how we make decisions, ways to be better team players. These are just some of the points that will be covered in these workshops.

A full schedule of 2011–2012 College of Fine Arts programming is available here. More information about Juarez’s initiatives can be found here.

The spirit of the initiative is to insure that all BU students, regardless of major, enrich their lives with diverse artistic experiences.

As you will read in the article, I will be joining with a small group of colleagues across campus to come up with a plan to bring this initiative to life.

Once the committee meets and begins its work, I will be happy to keep you up to date on our progress.  The timeline is tight, as the Provost has asked for a first plan by the end of this semester.

In the meantime, if you have ideas or comments you’d like to share, please send them to me at cfadean@bu.edu.

Professor James V. “Tim” Nicholson. BU Photo Services.

We are mourning the death of James V. “Tim” Nicholson, longtime faculty member and theatre artist.  Professor Nicholson died of pneumonia on August 9, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, at the age of 84.  A memorial service was held at Crosslands Nursing Home on Saturday, August 20.

Tim Nicholson was appointed to the School of Theatre faculty in 1957, where he initially taught lighting design, stagecraft and theatre practice. In 1970, he began teaching graduate directing and rehearsal & performance, became the primary advisor for all graduate students, and assumed additional administrative duties. Professor Nicholson was promoted to full professor with tenure in 1974 and, upon his retirement in 1989, was named Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts.

Characterized as a team player and a talented theatre artist totally without ego, Nicholson was held in great respect and affection by colleagues and students alike.

“Tim Nicholson was deeply devoted to the BU School of Theatre and expressed great pride in his continued association with us after his retirement,” said Jim Petosa, Director of the School of Theatre. “His generosity was proof of his care, and his gentlemanly advice and expressions of support were always welcome to hear and receive. He will be greatly missed by our community.”

Orchestra Hall, home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Wikimedia Commons Image.

In the 7/31/2011, Financial Times, Petroc Trelawny reports on the trials of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

A strike by the Orchestra’s players this past spring
“ended when the players agreed, in April, to a 23 per cent pay cut, reducing their base salary from $104,000 to $79,000. Even after the cuts, it’s still far from clear if the DSO has a viable future.”

Likening the Orchestra’s audience to erstwhile aging Buick customers, Matt Cullen of General Motors, says it is time for the DSO to “evolve.”

While that advice may be hard to swallow from an executive of a company that refused to evolve for decades, it is, nonetheless, true.

Cutting salaries is not a longterm strategy.  Only larger audiences will guarentee the Orchestra’s future.

Though Detroit’s case is critical, no orchestra is immune to the challenges posed by an aging audience, tightening budgets, and lower ticket sales.  All must evolve to meet the audience where it is.