The State of the Society, January 2006
C. Tayloe Harding, Jr.
A year ago, in this newsletter column, I expressed a vision for how The College Music Society might fulfill more comprehensively its mission of promoting music teaching and learning, musical creativity and expression, research and dialogue, and diversity and inter-disciplinary interaction through a new goal: to Establish a Culture of Living and Learning In and Through Music to Improve the Lives of Americans. This goal is actually not new, but its articulation in this form is. And likewise, the four objectives we’ve identified to meet this goal are also not new, but are instead refreshed focuses for the professional work of the Society. I am happy to report to you The College Music Society is addressing these objectives through meaningful action on many fronts. As a result the State of our Society is strong. Our first objective—to foster profession-wide commitments to advancing education in music as every musician’s responsibility—was our major focus in 2005, served as the subject for a unique participatory plenary session at the 2005 National Conference in November, and will serve as the national topic for the Society in the spring of 2006. It has occupied a great deal of space in our newsletters this year, and CMS continues to pursue, in concert with other professional organizations, the progressive work we must do to meet this objective.
We can be very proud of our work with our second objective: to create partnerships to accomplish together what we cannot alone. In recent years, the CMS Outreach and Engagement Project has been launched with successful pilots at our 47th and 48th National Conferences in San Francisco and Québec City. This initiative encourages presenters of scholarship and performance to share their work to audiences outside the CMS conference facility and in such places as schools, music stores, houses of worship, clubs, retirement centers, libraries, and community centers. The cooperative efforts it takes to bring these to fruition are examples of perhaps our most significant partnerships.
The engagement project is the result of an on-going partnership between the Society and The CMS Fund. Shared objectives and action priorities identified by both CMS and The CMS Fund are will bear fruit in the coming months. These include recognition of best practices by individuals and institutions in the profession; plans for new and adapted degree programs; expanded efforts in the area of Music in General Studies; and others. This union of purpose between CMS and The CMS Fund has strategic significance for the future of the organization.
The International Initiatives Committee reminds us of what we must do to be globally sensitive and responsible as keepers and practicers of musical traditions, as well as how these practices can enhance and be enhanced by the work of colleague organizations. We have formed a new Music Industry Task Force to begin dialogues with the music business professions who have such an impact on our culture. These organizations and their leaders have many goals in common with ours and we have much to learn from and to contribute to the work they do on behalf of music in our country. And, major work between CMS, MENC and SMTE , and NASM will help further define what the future of education in music, comprehensively, will look like.
CMS and its members are meeting our third objective of maintaining the highest quality, integrity, and standards in all aspects of the music discipline. Conference presentations, articles for Symposium and other publications, efforts by the discipline board representatives on behalf of their disciplines, and professional development workshops continue to present and advance excellent and purposeful scholarly work. The work of many CMS committees and task forces, including those of cultural inclusion, career services, mentoring, administration, professional life, and career training, enable the Society to continue to uphold the very best standards of our field. CMS has been active in the re-consideration of NASM Standards for professional music degrees, both graduate and undergraduate. These are our industry’s standards and they embody those values we hold about what we expect professional musicians to know and be able to do. Music faculty have developed these standards, have enforced them, and have revised them. Even those of us who work or study at schools who are not NASM members teach in degree programs shaped indirectly by these Standards. The Standards re-examination is a terrific opportunity for us to continue to pursue the best at what our industry and art demand.
Much remains for us to do as a Society to meet our final objective: to sustain and improve the environment for the serious study of music in higher education. The CMS Outreach to Higher Education Task Force has an ambitious agenda for sustaining music’s relevance in contemporary higher education landscapes and discussions. As disciplines and economies are debated in state houses all over the nation, the CMS Outreach to Higher Education task force is exploring ways that the values of music we hold are front and center as examples of improving our world through the power of higher education generally. Further, the leadership of the Society nationally is exploring new possibilities for action with the leadership of the Regional Chapters to address more fully the problems we face with funding and marginalization on many of our campuses. Clearly, a significant contribution to our objectives is made by our peerless Executive Office staff. Member services do not just support us as members and as professors, students and aspiring professors, but also serve the profession of music in higher education in unique, powerful, and lasting ways. The Music Vacancy List, the Directory of Music Faculties in Colleges and Universities (our profession’s most comprehensive resource), and dozens of web-based resources for the work of music in higher education and beyond is possible only through the countless hours of helpful and gracious attention provided for all of us by the Executive Staff in Missoula.
