CMS Committees at Work
Last month’s newsletter featured the important work CMS Councils are undertaking to advance our Society, the profession, and music within our communities. This month, I want to highlight some of the projects underway by CMS Committees. But first, a few introductions.
On behalf of the CMS Board, it is my privilege to welcome Dr. Christy Banks as CMS’ Chair for the Council At-Large. Christy will begin her term (April 1, 2022 – December 31, 2023) by re-authoring the Council’s charge, building Council membership (with a commitment to recruiting contingent faculty), and establishing 2022 goals. Society leadership has already tapped her voice, as we craft soon-to-be-announced policies for a new institutional membership: one that incentivizes music units to invite part-time faculty into their communities by supporting part-time faculty members’ inclusion within CMS.
“As someone who has been both an adjunct faculty member and in a full-time tenured position, I have a strong conviction that the teaching and research agendas of contingent faculty in all music disciplines represent integral strands of the creative fabric of collegiate music programs. As such, contingent faculty are an essential part of our CMS family, and I look forward to exploring ways to connect with, advocate for, support, and celebrate our contingent faculty membership.”
—Christy Banks
The Committee on Academic Citizenship (CAC) is deep at work developing a self-evaluative survey that helps music units explore their culture of music making; their musical epistemologies and scholarship; and the environments they create for their students, staff, and faculty. Jocelyn Nelson has generously served as Committee Chair for the CAC beyond her term as we searched for the next leader to advance this critical work. It is with great joy that I announce Monique Van Willingh, Director of Cultural Equity and Belonging at New England Conservatory as the newly appointed Chair of the Committee on Academic Citizenship.
“I am humbled and honored to take on the Committee Chair role of the CAC after the profound leadership of Jocelyn Nelson. The work that the CAC has brought together thus far is inspiring. I look forward to collaborating with the CAC in support of self-evaluation as a key practice linked to cultural equity and belonging work at our institutions.”
—Monique Van Willingh
Please join me in welcoming Monique and expressing our gratitude to Jocelyn for her dedication and service.
The Committee on Musicians’ Health continues to offer well-received webinars that include current, relevant, and diverse topics by experienced professionals in both music and healthcare.
“We wish to give a special thank you to outgoing chair Gail Berenson for all her dedicated work and new initiatives as she steps off the committee. While we welcome Dr. Heather Malyuk who has graciously agreed to step in as co-chair.”
—Linda Cockey
Responding to issues surfaced by our CMS community during the listening sessions held in Summer 2021, the Committee on Cultural Inclusion (CCI) will host four more interactive workshops designed to address the ideas, issues, and concerns around equity, diversity, inclusion, access, and belonging. The Committee will host an additional three listening sessions to create a space where all voices from the CMS membership can be heard and new ideas can be shared. They, too, continue to provide space and deepen their work advancing CMS affinity groups.
“The Committee on Cultural Inclusion is excited to serve the CMS community, knowing that EDIAB and anti-racist work is the most important work of our time. It is work that can bring people together in communities of collaboration, creativity, and deep listening. These spaces, in turn, allow the powerful ideas of our CMS community to transform into collective action.”
—Leila Ramagopal Pertl
The Committee on Community Engagement (CCE) is busy planning faculty development workshops and a shared scaffolding for launching community engagement projects that advances best practices in co-creating musical experiences within the communities in which we live, learn, and work.
“The Community Engagement committee is pleased to announce that we will spearhead Nourish as our signature initiative for the coming year. Nourish is an opportunity to gather otherwise disparate communities together to share a meal, make music together, and learn one another’s stories as a path to better understanding our shared humanity. In late summer, the CCE will issue a call for participants from across CMS membership to host an event with members of their community that have historically endured barriers to empathizing with one another. We encourage you to start thinking now about who you might engage with on your campus and in your community.”
—Donna Emmanuel and Nate Zeisler
Under the leadership of David Myers, members of the Committee on Academic Leadership and Administration will author three books that examine how the systems and ecosystems that drive our music schools maintain inequities and obstruct innovation (Routledge, Emerging Fields in Music’s collection on Leading Change). Examining the academic journeys of students, faculty, and administrators, the authors will decode often invisible systems that limit our growth and offer opportunities to realign our words and actions with the goals of fighting for equity, fostering inclusivity, celebrating creativity, and embracing community and the joy inherent within music-making.
The Committee on Career Development and Entrepreneurship (CCDE) is ramping-up its efforts to provide information and resources concerning music careers, both inside and outside of traditional academic fields, while infusing entrepreneurship into the fabric of curricular and programmatic music training. The CCDE offers career-based content of value to all CMS constituencies: new and experienced faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students, recent university graduates, and music professionals. Current initiatives include: 1) In-person mentoring sessions at the National Conference and virtually throughout the year; 2) CMS webinars, most recently, February’s “Making the Cut” in Academic Job Searches; 3) Enhanced on-line career development resources; and 4) Conference presentations and engagement. Look for upcoming listening sessions, as a means for CCDE to partner with members to craft future initiatives.
“I am excited about the energy and purposeful contribution that the CCDE brings to CMS. We embrace the goal of leading change into a sustainable future for musicians in all career paths, for educators, and for the diverse communities we serve.”
—Michael Millar
“I am honored to have this opportunity to work with CMS leadership and my colleagues on the CCDE to support career development of CMS members across all phases of their careers in College Music and related fields. Our webinar series and one-on-one mentoring program are especially exciting!”
—Nancy Barry
An outpouring of musical events, on university campuses here and abroad, has been offered in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. And a joint statement by the presidents of the Society for Music Theory (Michael Buchler, President), Society for American Music (Daniel Goldmark, President), American Musicological Society (Steve Swayne, President), Canadian Society for Traditional Music/Société Canadienne pour les traditions musicales (Julia Byl, President), and CMS expressed our shared condemnation of the military invasion of Ukraine. Yet the war continues. And the death count grows.
What we can know is that every act of solidarity has been exemplified within song. Today, let us show our solidarity for the Ukrainian people and for music’s role in advancing good in the world, by embracing the strength and spirit of the Ukrainian National Anthem.
Thanks for joining the conversation.
Mark Rabideau
President, The College Music Society
Associate Dean for Faculty & Student Affairs, College of Arts & Media, University of Colorado Denver