Building the 21st Century Music Program through Cultural Rather Than Curricular Change
Presenter: Dean Brian Pertl (Lawrence University – Appleton, Wisconsin)
Change is in the air and there is increasing excitement and pressure to adapt to the changing needs of today’s music students. All too often, however, the best intentioned innovations to program requirements can be stopped dead in their tracks by the dual realities of university governance, institutional inertia, and NASM logistics. Yes, change can happen through the standard channels, but it may take years of committee meetings, faculty votes, and NASM submissions. And if the ideas is the least bit contentious, the toll on the faculty can be enormous. After experiencing these difficulties first hand, I have shifted my focus to changing our conservatory culture. Not only has the conservatory been transformed by this approach, but the cultural change is now beginning to drive curricular change. In this talk, Brian Pertl, Dean of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music discusses the power of cultural change in the creation of Lawrence’s 21st Century Musicianship initiative.