Barbara Reeder Lundquist
It is a privilege to begin my term as President of The College Music Society. Over the years, I have been supported and encouraged in my professional life by members of CMS and those of you who have preceded me in this office. I am deeply appreciative of your contributions to my experience and to our profession, and I look forward to continuing to assist the work of the Society.
Periodically, every organization needs to re-examine its purpose and how it accomplishes its work. Over the last two years, President Anne Dhu McLucas has been very effective in shepherding CMS through some major structural changes and in clarifying its mission. Many of you have responded to the recent questionnaire regarding the work of the Society. Others have written articles for the Newsletter. At the San Diego conference, there were several venues in which you contributed to discussions identifying issues the Society is addressing or needs to examine. A number of you have sent letters to me as I begin the two-year term as President. We hope that you will continue to communicate your ideas and concerns, and help in our mutual attempts to clarify issues that need to be addressed for the benefit of our discipline.
The College Music Society is unique among other organizations in the consistency of opportunities it offers for interaction across disciplines of music in higher education. Continuing dialogue among all of us who are involved in music in higher education is proving to be particularly critical in this period of economic uncertainty, re-prioritization of resources, and cultural contention. Regional chapters are providing additional venues for our continuing examination of strategies that can be used to help us to manage crises we are encountering. It is critical for us to continue to articulate the importance of the creation, study, and performance of music in colleges and universities and to expand public awareness and support of our work among our colleagues.
CMS has also provided a forum for examining issues relevant to those with specific professional commitments, especially important in light of the number of questions being raised about what we are teaching, about how we are teaching it, and about the technology we are utilizing. In the undergraduate curriculum study recently reported by a CMS study group, it became clear that the reported rate of curricular change in music in higher education seems to be almost imperceptible in this era of cultural change, Training students to deal effectively with musical change may also be part of our mission. This includes developing knowledge in such areas as the burgeoning music sciences: music psychology—cognition, memory, musical acoustics, and psychophysics; music technology; the biology of music and music-making; music physiology; music and medicine; and the social anthropology and sociology of music—the socio-cultural aspects of music and music-making. Preparing our students to deal effectively with musical change may also be part of our work. It seems to me that it is a question of our perspective. Are we committed to maintain the ways in which we have traditionally done our work? Or are we committed to making changes in what we teach and the ways we teach?
One of the goals of music in higher education is to develop knowledge and to continue to refine the ways that we think and do our work. This has never been more important to our profession than it is now. CMS offers the open forum in which differing perspectives can be expressed on these and other matters with the purpose of forging consensus regarding the critical features of our educational mission as we move into the 21st century.