The History of CMS

Highlights of 1958:

• G. Wallace Woodworth was elected the first national President and held office from 1958 to 1960.
  
  
• In preparation for the first annual meeting, the first Executive Board meeting was held on May 30, 1958 at the New York City Public Library. In July, 1958, the first Newsletter was sent to the 165 members. Dues were $4.00 per year.
  
  
• The first national meeting of The College Music Society was held December 29-30, 1958 in Paine Hall on the Harvard University campus.
  
  
• The purposes of the Society were to gather, consider, and disseminate ideas on the philosophy and practice of music as part of liberal education in colleges and universities.

Highlights of 1959:

• CMS became incorporated as an organization in Washington, D.C. on November 23, 1959.
  
  
• Discussions were initiated on the creation of a CMS publication and William Mitchell, Chair of the Publications Committee was asked to write a proposal for such a journal.
  
  
• The Council voted to pursue the idea of creating a job placement service for the CMS members to be published initially in the CMS Newsletter, and later in the soon-to-be created CMS journal.

Highlights of 1960:

• The Executive Board pursued the idea of an annual or semi-annual publication entitled, the CMS Symposium. Donald McCorkle was appointed as the editor-in-chief and Henry Woodward agreed to serve as business manager of the journal.
  
  
• The third annual meeting was held in Berkeley and hosted by Stanford University.
  
  
• The Council accepted a proposal to formally recognize the first regional chapter - the Ohio Valley Chapter that included the states of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

Highlights of 1961:

• William Austin was elected President for 1961 and 1962.
  
  
• "The Symposium is on the market!" Volume 1 of the CMS Symposium, edited by Donald McCorkle, was published in the late Summer, 1961.
  
  
• The Internal Revenue Service recognized CMS as a non-profit organization, making it a separate 501(c)(3) organization and providing it with tax-exempt status.
  
  
• The fourth annual meeting was held at Salem College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The featured speaker was Mr. Harold Spivacke, Chief, Music Division, Library of Congress.

Highlights of 1962:

• President Austin announced that Emerson Myers has been asked to represent CMS at Constitution Hall for the presentation of the authentic version of the Star Spangled Banner.
  
  
• Fifty-five libraries now subscribe to the CMS Symposium.
  
  
• The fifth annual meeting was held in Hughes Hall, Ohio State University and featured a performance by the Lenox String Quartet. Placement efforts continue. The "Committee on the Relation of Schools to College Music" was established.
  
  
• At the annual Council meeting, Barry Brook proposed that CMS prepare a listing of musicians in all colleges and universities, similar to what the physics faculty in higher education publish annually. In addition to be a valuable resource for music faculty, this listing would be attractive to book publishers as well as to high school students. While there was some skepticism, Mr. Brook was encouraged to begin work on the project.
  
  
• The Council also voted unanimously to join the actions of the AMS and the American Council of Learned Societies in support of the Fogerty proposals for legislation to establish a National Foundation for the Arts, and to join the actions of the National Music Council and the National Council for Arts in Government in support of the establishment of a Federal Advisory Council of the Arts in the Office of the White House.

Highlights of 1963:

• Robert Trotter served as President for 1963 and 1964.
  
  
• The annual meeting was held in Seattle and featured a panel discussion on the teaching of college music theory, the implications of a government-sponsored seminar in music education at Yale last summer, and the role of NASM and college music.
  
  
• Numerous discussions were held, both formal and informal on the nature and mission of CMS.

Highlights of 1964:

• The Committee on Aims and Objectives was appointed by President Trotter to explore ways in which CMS could better serve its constituencies. Members of the Committee included Henry LeLand Clarke, Bryce Jordan, Ted Normann, G. Wallace Woodworth, and Henry Bruinsma.
  
  
• The annual meeting was held in Washington, D.C. at the Statler Hilton. The meeting featured an address on the proposed Foundation for the Humanities to be considered by Congress and was given by Dr. Gustave O. Arlt, President of the Council of Graduate Schools of the United States.
  
  
• CMS received its first monetary gift of $1,000. The donor, who wished to remain anonymous, accompanied the gift with the statement that the money was given "because the CMS seems to have such enormous potential for leadership in college music teaching."

Highlights of 1965:

• W. Loran Crosten served as President for 1965 and 1966.
  
  
• The annual meeting was held at the University of Michigan in late December. Some 110 members registered for the meeting. The Guarneri String Quartet performed, charging CMS a fee of $175.00. One of the main topics for this annual meeting was "new experiments in automation as connected with composition and the teaching of same, the sociological aspects and effects of automation in the field of music..."
  
  
• An aggressive effort was launched to obtain more members, headed by Rey Longyear. In 1965, the Society hoped to reach a target of 1000 members.

Highlights of 1966:

• Harry Lincoln undertook the job of creating the new Directory of Music Faculties. He was assisted by Barry Brook, Rey Longyear, Martin Chusid and Leo Kraft. A punch card was proposed as a means of collecting and inputting the data.
  
  
• The Council began to consider the possibility of creating an Advanced Placement Exam in Music that would be offered by the CEEB along with its other advanced placement exams.
  
  
• The ninth annual meeting was held in New Orleans at the Jung Hotel.
  
  
• "The [Executive Board] meeting closed with the ever-recurring question of the function of CMS on the national scene. Comments centered around the thought that the Society should continue to aim for a wide distribution of interests among its members, and that this aim should be reflected in the programs of its national meetings."
  -From the Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
  December 26, 1966

Highlights of 1967:

• Donald McCorkle was elected President for 1967 and 1968.
  
  
• In order to obtain data on all music faculty for the forthcoming Directory, IBM punch cards were sent to all music department chairmen during the spring. During the fall, The College Music Society announced the publication of a DIRECTORY OF MUSIC FACULTIES IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. The Directory sold for $3.00 per copy for members and $6.00 per copy for non-members. Over 1,100 schools and 9,000 faculty were represented in this volume.
  
  
• Several changes for the CMS Constitution were proposed. It was proposed that the Executive Board be expanded to include a member-at-large for each of six specializations: Composition, Ethnomusicology, Music Education, Musicology, Music History, Performance, and Theory.
  
  
• The annual meeting, held in Santa Barbara, focused on the Contemporary Music Project.

Highlights of 1968:

• The response to the newly published Directory of Music Faculties has been overwhelming. Press reaction, including from The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune was very favorable. One thousand copies were initially printed and were immediately sold. The additional 500 requests necessitated a 2nd printing which was published in November, 1968.
  
  
• The Council expressed its sincere thanks to the State University of New York - Binghamton for its assistance with the Directory of Music Faculties. Due to the ease of updating the Directory (with computer assistance), Barry Brook suggested that the Directory be published every year.
  
  
• On behalf of CMS, President McCorkle entered into an agreement with the American College Bureau to assist the Society's efforts in placing its members. Job applicants placed in positions earning $10,000 or less per year were charged a fee of 4% of their first year's salary. Those earning more than $10,000 per year were charged a fee of 3% of their first year's salary. The fees actually represented a discount of the normal fee because of the agreement CMS had with the Bureau.
  
  
• The CEEB Advanced Placement Exam in Music was written by a CMS Committee, chaired by Allen Sapp.

Highlights of 1969:

• In an effort to increase membership, the new Second Vice-President was charged with coordinating all efforts to create regional chapters.
  
  
• The second edition of the Directory of Music Faculties was published. The number of faculty listings increased from 8,000 names to 12,000 names.
  
  
• The twelfth annual meeting was held in Berea, Ohio at Baldwin-Wallace College and included a follow-up session on the Contemporary Music Project. The Riemenschneider-Bach Library was open and available for browsing during the conference. Ralph Kirkpatrick performed an all-Scarlatti program.

Highlights of 1970:

• President Harry Lincoln suggested that the annual meeting be held in November so that the Society would not be changing officers at the national conference. (Meetings had been held in late December).
  
  
• Arlan Coolidge gave a report on the new Arts/Worth project. The Arts/Worth project was created by the National Council of the Arts in Education and chaired by Allen Sapp to study the curricula in all the arts. Its curricular goal was to work towards a combined effort on the national scale to ensure a firm place for the arts in American education at all levels. In 1970, the project was engaged in long-term planning and hoped to receive grant funding. Special considerations were the needs and wishes of minority groups, vis-vis the arts.
  
  
• The second edition of the Directory was given a new title: Directory of Music Faculties in Higher Education in the United States and Canada.
  
  
• "With the increasingly rapid development of the Society we are encountering more and more interest in the early history of the CMS and the organizations from which it evolved (SMILAC and CMA). The time is now to begin to collect for an archive pre-1960 publications, correspondence, and documents relating to organizational matters, and memorabilia concerned with one, two, or all of the three societies. We earnestly ask our members who possess such items to communicate with Past-President Donald M. McCorkle, who is in the collecting business for the Society."
       - CMS Newsletter, February, 1970

Highlights of 1971:

• The annual meeting, held in San Francisco, focused on "College Education in Music for the 1970's: The Need for Universality". Robert Werner, Director of the Contemporary Music Project, served as Program Chair and planned sessions on topics that included music and the general college student and ethnomusicology. Professor Frank Callaway, President, International Society for Music Education, served as the keynote speaker.
  
  
• The Bibliographies in American Music series was initiated by the Publications Committee. Current plans are to publish bibliographies on both Ives and Gershwin.
  
  
• The computer is now able to break down mailing label orders by various states.
  
  
• Joe Kotylo, a SUNY graduate student, was hired as a part-time Business Manager and worked in the office at SUNY-Binghamton. Craig Short was also hired as a graduate student assistant.

Highlights of 1972:

• CMS was invited to participate in a special meeting called by NASM on the music education degree. The 22 participants included representatives from NASM, CMS, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), a college student, several first year music teachers (K-12), music education professors, deans of music schools, and representation from the Contemporary Music Project.
  
  
• Structural changes were made to the Executive Board. A new President-Elect office was created and the two Vice-Presidents were merged into one office. In addition, all officers became members ex-officio of the CMS Council.
  
  
• "We have reached a size both in membership and finances where we can no longer operate efficiently with amateur volunteers from among our musical membership-no matter how dedicated and conscientious."
       - President's Report by Walter S. Collins, Symposium 12 (Fall 1972), 123.
  
  
• Anne Mayer was appointed to act as liaison between the Board/Council and a newly formed committee to investigate possible discrimination against women in college music teaching and in CMS. Adrienne Fried Block (Pace College, Staten Island Community College of CUNY) was chair of the committee.
       - From Minutes of the Executive Board/Council Meeting, November 21, 1972
  
  
• For the first time, CMS held its annual meeting with NASM.
  
  
• For the first time, the Symposium began including advertising from "judicious" sources. The "Index to Graduate Degrees" will now come out as an appendix of the Directory. It had been published initially as a separate publication.

Highlights of 1973:

• An official national office was established at SUNY - Binghamton. Craig Short was hired as the first Executive Secretary and the Society's first full-time employee.
  
  
• Two new committees were created: The Committee on the Status of Women, led by Adrienne Fried Block of Staten Island Community College and Carolyn Raney of Peabody Conservatory; and the Committee on the Status of Minorities in the Profession, chaired by Cleveland Page.
  
  
• As of December 31, there were 1,844 members.

Highlights of 1974:

• The June, 1974 Executive Board and Council meeting was held in New York City at the Empire Hotel. "[The Empire Hotel] is across the street from Lincoln Center and evidently not elegant, but at the $13.00 faculty rate for a single ($16.00 for a double), one can't expect too much."
       - Walter S. Collins to the Executive Board and Council, March 20, 1974
  
  
• The presence of Craig Short, Executive Director, "has relieved the impossible demands that had built up on volunteer executive Board members who were trying to maintain their own professional lives while attempting to cope with the ever-growing needs of CMS. He has also visibly increased the membership services that were promised when the recent raise in dues was effected. In addition, SUNY-Binghamton's generosity in providing us with office space and much other assistance has been of tremendous help; CMS is most grateful."
       - President's Report by Walter S. Collins, Symposium 14 (Fall, 1974): 132.
  
  
• The Committee on the Status of Minorities, chaired by Cleveland Page, reported that a questionnaire had been sent to all minority music faculty listed in the Directory. A second questionnaire has been sent to all department chairs requesting data on their recent hiring practices. Results will be reported in the Symposium.
  
  
• The Committee on the Status of Women, headed by Adrienne Fried Block and Carolyn Raney, reported a larger portion of CMS members are now women. The recent Directory listed 24% of music faculty as being female.
  
  
• "Mr. Reynolds remarked on the wit, wisdom, and humor displayed by retiring President Collins, and all agreed. The meeting was adjourned at 12:02 PM."
       - Executive Board and Council Meeting Minutes, October 19, 1974, CMS Archives

Highlights of 1975:

• The Music Faculty Vacancy List listed over 500 openings during the last academic year. The service is now being expanded by the installation of the new "Vacancy Hotline," where eager inquiries about recent vacancies may be made by telephoning the special national office "Hotline" number. In its first 112 days, the Hotline received 509 calls. About 350 members have sent in self-addressed stamped envelopes to receive the monthly vacancy lists.
  
  
• The Publications Committee, under the leadership of Frederick Freedman, has announced the first publication in the Bibliographies in American Music (BAM) series, George Gershwin, by Charles Schwartz.
  
  
• The eighteenth annual meeting was held at the Eastman School of Music. The theme for this conference was "From Independence to Interdependence."
  
  
• "It was suggested that CMS, through its member-at-large in theory, contact all State Theory organizations contemplating consolidation and offer them aegis under the CMS umbrella." After considerable discussion, the motion was passed.
       - Executive Board and Council Meeting Minutes, November 13, 1975

Highlights of 1976:

• The CMS Report No. 5 is in press and will be published as the report from the Committee on the Status of Women.
  
  
• The Committee on the Status of Minorities worked on a report that provided input from African American deans in predominantly white institutions, and African American musicians in symphony orchestras as well as current employment practices in higher education for African Americans.
  
  
• During the Fall, 1976, the (1976) meeting location had to be moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. At the September 26, 1976 meeting of the Executive Board and Council, "Mr. [Robert] Sacks, after emitting a spoonerism which elicited uproarious mirth, explained how and why the convention site was changed, and thoroughly detailed all aspects of convention logistics."
        - Minutes from the September 26, 1976 Executive Board and Council Meeting, David Russell Williams, Secretary
  
  
• The theory forum for the CMS/AMS annual meeting in Washington D.C. consisted of a panel with the following members: Richmond Browne, Milton Babbitt, Allen Forte, Carleton Gamer, Vernon Kliewer, and Carl Schachter. This important forum addressed the question of the need and possible organization of a new national society for music theory.

Highlights of 1977:

• In early January, Wallace Berry and Richmond Browne sent a joint letter to their colleagues in music theory updating them on the successful theory sessions at the 1976 meeting in Washington, D.C. and informing them of the Second National Conference on Music Theory to be held November 17-20 in Evanston, Illinois. The Music Theory organization as well as the Society for Ethnomusicology will meet jointly with CMS.
  
  
• The Music Faculty Vacancy Lists will now be sent first class. Previously, the Lists were sent first class to only those members who supplied the national office with self-addressed stamped envelopes. The remaining members received their Lists by third class, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the Lists. AMS members may subscribe to the CMS Music Faculty Vacancy List for an annual fee of $7.00.
  
  
• Volume 17 of the Symposium (published in 1977) contained the first article of a six-part series on the history of the Society by Henry Woodward.
  
  
• Robert Trotter was appointed the first Member-at-Large for Music in General Studies.

Highlights of 1978:

• Robert Werner completed his second year as CMS President.
• At its Fall, 1978 meeting, NASM included a track of sessions on music in general education and expressed an interest in working with CMS on this issue.
• The Music Faculty Vacancy Lists began including all music positions, both academic and non-academic.

Highlights of 1979:

• Chappell White was elected President for 1979-1980.
• The annual meeting, held in San Antonio, included a session on music in general studies, a session which was designed to mark the beginning of the important cooperation between CMS and NASM on this topic.
• There are now 270 AMS members who subscribe to the Music Faculty Vacancy Lists. During the 1978-1979 academic years, 646 positions were listed in the Music Faculty Vacancy List.
• The Committee on the Status of Women in Music gave a report at the annual meeting outlining their accomplishments over the last few years including greater participation of women in CMS, the strong stance taken on the Equal Rights Amendment, a Newsletter column and several meeting sessions on women's studies.

Highlights of 1980:

• The CMS Report #2 was published -- The Status of Women in College Music 1976-1977, edited by Barbara Renton with an introduction by Adrienne Fried Block. A Catalog of the Works of Arthur Foote, 1853-1937 by Wilma Reid Cipolla was also published as part of the Bibliographies in American Music series.
• The Board continued discussion begun last year in San Antonio on designating music in general studies as a major topic for CMS over the next two years.

Highlights of 1981:

• Barbara English Maris was elected President for 1981 - 1982.
• Financial support from the Johnson Foundation enabled CMS to sponsor the Wingspread Conference on Music in General Studiesin Racine, Wisconsin. The goals of the Conference were to:
  1. Explore current music offerings for non-major students,
  2. Create an awareness of the need to strengthen music courses for the non-major,
  3. Develop recommendations for improving music instruction in general studies,
  4. Encourage improvement in the professional status of teachers of music in general studies, and
  5. Identify possibilities for post-Conference programs and activities.
• "It is likely, in my opinion, that the emphasis represented by this [Wingspread] Conference will one day be regarded as the most important contribution of CMS to college music."
  - Paul Lehman to President Barbara Maris, October 27, 1981

Highlights of 1982:

25th Anniversary of CMS!

• "Twenty-five years ago a diverse group of college music teachers met in Boston and Cambridge. They had decided to undertake an experiment. Member of the College Music Association and the Society for Music in the Liberal Arts College had agreed to disband their organizations and to create a new organization, THE COLLEGE MUSIC SOCIETY. The results of that grand experiment are evident today as we gather again in Boston. This time, however, we are here to celebrate a quarter of a century of studying, teaching, and performing music in institutions of higher education."
  - President Barbara English Maris to the CMS Membership, October 8, 1982
• The first CMS Institute on Music in General Studies (MGS), directed by David Willoughby, was held in June. This highly successful Institute attracted 52 registrants from over 30 states.

Highlights of 1983:

• Arthur Tollefson was elected President for 1983-1984.
• After a national search and review of 62 applications, Robby Gunstream was chosen as the new Executive Director of CMS and began his duties on July 1, 1983.
• The Dearborn Conference on Music in General Studies, sponsored jointly by The College Music Society and the National Association of Schools of Music, was attended by 250 persons.
• CMS received formal thanks from the Society for Music Theory for its assistance in the creation of the national theory organization.

Highlights of 1985:

• Phillip Rhodes was elected President for 1985 - 1986.
• Music in General Studies IV was held in June and focused on courses for the non-music major. Directed by Donald J. Funes, goals of the Institute were 1) to improve general studies music curricula and teaching and 2) to increase the visibility and popularity of these offerings. MGS IV also investigated ways to increase audiences and other means of musical support.
• Almost a third of the CMS income now comes from the sales of mailing labels.

Highlights of 1986:

• The 29th annual meeting of the Society was held in Miami with major emphases on the musics found in the southern Florida area, including: 1) the musics of the Caribbean Islands, with their South American and African influences; 2) the musics of Latin America, including Mexico, Central America, and South America; and 3) the great Jewish-American tradition.
• Long-range plans for the annual meetings include choosing cities that allow a focus on the music and American culture of that geographical region.
• The Ford Foundation awarded the Society a grant of $50,000 to support a re-issue of Columbia Records' Black Composer Series.

Highlights of 1987:

• David Willoughby was elected President for 1987 - 1988.
• The highly successful Music in General Studies VI, "Extended Repertoires, Creative Listening and Performance Activities for the General College Student," was held in June and was directed by Donald Funes.
• CMS Publications, Inc. was established on April 20, 1987 and sales of the 1986-1988 Directory exceeded $55,000.

Highlights of 1988:

• The annual meeting was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an area rich in the culture and heritage of both Native American and Hispanic history. The meeting examined four major eras of cultural influence in Santa Fe and the southwestern United States including: 1) Native American, 2) Spanish, 3) Mexican, and 4) Anglo-American.
  
  
• CMS sponsored the first Theory Pedagogy Studies Institute where CMS members exchanged ideas and attitudes about the teaching of various aspects of college-level music theory. This Institute was co-directed by Gary Wittlich and Roger E. Foltz. Attracting over 100 attendees from the US and Canada, it was believed that this Institute filled a great need of the Society’s membership.
  
  
• Discussions continue on the topic of “College Music and the Community”. The Committee as well as the Executive Board are refining details of the Committee’s charge and hope to have an invited conference on this topic during 1989.
  
  
• A new computer system was purchased for the national office, enabling it to be entirely self-sufficient. The new system is anchored by a Compaq 386/20. The purchase, researched and guided by both Roger Foltz and Gary Wittlich, enabled the Society to remove itself from a costly computer monthly rental arrangement from the University of Colorado.

Highlights of 1989:

• "... The College Music Society is becoming increasingly active in sponsoring public events—institutes, symposia, conferences, etc.—beyond the format of the annual national and regional meetings (continuing a tendency which began with the MGS Wingspread Conference of 1981). Members of the Executive Committee agree that this relatively recent role is an important, perhaps even essential, part of our mission."
  – Report to the Board by President Elliott Schwartz, October 11, 1989
  
  
• The Society received a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to assist with the performance of folk and vernacular musics of the central Mississippi Valley during the thirty-second annual meeting, held in St. Louis.
  
  
• At the annual meeting in St. Louis, the Board affirmed its commitment to issues related to cross-disciplinary topics, and to encourage more sessions that incorporate performances with verbal presentations, including possible dialogues between composer and performer in conjunction with a performance.

Highlights of 1990:

• The 33rd annual meeting, “Derivations and Directions: Evolutionary and Revolutionary Changes in Music Aesthetics in an Increasingly More Polycultural Society”, was held in Washington, D.C. The Society received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of the symposium “Duke Ellington - A Retrospective” held during the annual meeting.
  
  
• The Music Faculty Vacancy List moved permanently to CMS Publications, Inc. This move will allow the Society to aggressively market the List, to post music vacancies outside of higher education, and to have copyright protection for the List.
  
  
• Two goals originally proposed in 1987 by Treasurer Roger Foltz have now been realized—the purchase of computer equipment for the national office and the purchase of office space. These actions will result in substantial savings for the Society.
  
  
• The Committee on the Status of Minorities is in the process of preparing two major projects: a survey to attempt identification of minority music faculty members in the US and a book of invited papers to be published in the CMS Report series.

Highlights of 1991:

• The annual meeting was held in Chicago at the Palmer House. Assistance for this meeting was provided by a grant of $5,500 from the National Endowment for the Arts. The meeting was held with the annual meetings for the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, Center for Black Music Research, Chinese Music Society of North America, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and the Society for Ethnomusicology.
  
  
• The Committee for Cultural Diversity (formerly known as the Committee for the Status of Minorities in the Profession) will be publishing the papers read in the 1990 CMS panel presentation “Toward the End of a Century: Cross-Cultural and Minority Perspectives” as part of the CMS Report Series.

Highlights of 1992:

• The 35th annual meeting was held in San Diego with the Association for Technology in Music Instruction and solicited proposals on the musics of the southern/central California, northern Mexico, and southern Pacific areas. The symposium “Celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of the Museum of Modern Art Tape Music Concert: Reflections on the History and Future of Electroacoustic Music” was held in October, immediately preceding the annual meeting. The National Endowment for the Arts provided support for this meeting.
  
  
• A Blue Ribbon Committee was created to study the upcoming creation of the CMS Foundation. Committee members included Elliott Schwartz, Barbara Reeder Lundquist, Roger Foltz, Robert Werner, Anne Dhu McLucas, and Phillip Rhodes.
  
  
• A six-week CMS-sponsored summer institute “Rethinking American Music: New Research and Issues of Cultural Diversity”, supported by a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and directed by Anne Dhu McLucas and T. Frank Kennedy, was held at Boston College.

Highlights of 1993:

• The 36th annual meeting was held in Minneapolis and had special sessions on the music and culture of the North Plains and northern Mississippi Valley. Eight sessions of the meeting were devoted to a Symposium on Music and Gender.
  
  
• The highly successful Institute for the Study and Teaching "Women and Music," directed by Barbara English Maris, was held on the campus of Mt. Vernon College and attracted 70 participants.
  
  
• The CMS Report #8 is now available: Toward the End of a Century: Minority and Cross-cultural Perspectives, edited by Nohema Fernandez. The CMS Report #9 is also available: The “Music Information Explosion” and Its Impact on College Teachers and Students by Thomas F. Heck.
  
  
• The Directory of Music Faculties in Colleges and Universities, U.S. and Canada began an annual publication schedule (a change from its biennial publication).
  
  
• Effective January 1, 1993, The CMS was reincorporated in the State of Montana.
  
  
• President Lundquist appointed an ad hoc Advocacy Committee that was charged with 1) overseeing continuing relations of The College Music Society with higher education, the general public and the world at large, 2) monitoring the cultural environment in the United States, and 3) identifying ways to increase awareness of the value of music, music teaching, and education in music.

Highlights of 1994:

• The Robert M. Trotter Annual Lecture Series was created at the suggestion of President Lundquist. The lecture series, named for CMS Past President Robert M. Trotter (1922-1994), will feature an invited lecturer each year. Ricardo D. Trimillos of the University of Hawaii at Manoa served as the first Robert Trotter Lecturer at the Savannah annual meeting.
  
  
• Several Centers for Continuing Professional Development have been created to provide opportunities for new and expanded experiences for music faculty in areas considered to be of increasing importance to music in American higher education. The initial CMS Center for Continuing Professional Development emphasized 1) utilization of technology, 2) experience with world musics, and 3) improvement of instruction. Initial programs were planned for Summer 1995.
  
  
• The Handbook for Presidents of Regional Chapters was completed.

Highlights of 1995:

• The International Meetings Committee was created and was chaired by Arthur Tollefson. Additional members included Ric Trimillos, Pat Campbell, Dale Olsen, George Heller, and Jerry Farmer. The Committee's charge was to 1) develop a rationale for sponsoring meetings beyond the boundaries of the continental United States, 2) develop a general plan for international meetings and make recommendations to the Board regarding possible locations and joint sponsorships and 3) adopt a handbook for international conferences.
  
  
• David Williams provided a detailed description of the Internet and what it might offer the membership of the Society. He presented a model for configuring the technology for the National Office and a proposed detailed outline of an implementation plan. A timeline was created for the computerization of all aspects of CMS.
  
  
• The Society began the early stages of planning for the development of a philanthropic arm: The CMS Foundation.
  
  
• George Heller was appointed the chair of the new Committee on Special Projects and Continuing Professional Development.
  
  
• A "local area network" connection was installed in the national office.

Highlights of 1996:

• A new corporation was created: The College Music Society applied to the Internal Revenue Service and was designated as a not-for-profit, education and professional organization.
  
  
• The "Squeak and Blat Rap Music Technology" column by David Williams (a.k.a Squeak) and Peter Webster (a.k.a. Blat) appeared for the first time in the CMS Newsletter.
  
  
• The Advocacy Committee has been reconstituted. The purpose of the Advocacy Committee was to oversee continuing relations of The College Music Society with higher education, the general public, and the world at large and monitor the cultural environment in the United States, and identify ways to increase awareness of the value of music, music teaching, and education in music.
  
  
• An e-mail system was created for the Society which allowed the Music Vacancy List to be distributed electronically for the first time. The CMS webpage has been created.

Highlights of 1997:

• The CMS Charitable Fund was created.
  
  
• A three-year plan was created for establishing the CMS website and all related electronic capabilities.
  
  
• Gerald Farmer served as Program Chair for the highly successful summer conference in Vienna.
  
  
• The CMS Committee on Professional Development sponsored the following summer institutes: a Workshop on Music Technology held at Indiana University-Purdue University campus (directed by Gary Wittlich), the Institute on Music and Dance of the African Diaspora, and the Music of Indonesia (directed by Robert Labaree), and a Workshop on Teaching Tonal Theory at the End of the 20th Century (directed by John Buccheri).

Highlights of 1998:

• Douglas Seaton completed his second year as CMS President.
  
  
• The 41st annual meeting was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico and featured Donald Thompson as the 1998 Trotter Lecturer. All compositions were scheduled to be performed by faculty and students from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.
  
  
• Two weeks before the 41st annual meeting, San Juan experienced a serious hurricane that did extensive damage to the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. During (and after) the meeting, the Society collected contributions from CMS members to assist the Conservatory with storm damage repair and instrument replacement. Several years later, this charitable fund was formalized and became The CMS Fund.
  
  
• The new CMS website attracted over 50,000 visitors this year. Over the next two years, the site will be re-designed to offer free public areas as well as interactive members-only areas. The web interface was completed which allowed members to create and update their own records. This interface also allows for links to schools as well as graduate school information. The entire content of the CMS Directory was also merged into the website.

Highlights of 1999:

• Dale A. Olsen began his term as President.
  
  
• Tayloe Harding and Silvain Guignard co-chaired the highly successful conference in Kyoto, Japan. "It's hard to imagine how any musician could have experienced a more inspiring or complete introduction to Japanese culture than that afforded those attending the superbly designed CMS Conference..."
  – Arthur Tollefson, “Kyoto Reflections,” CMS Newsletter, October 1999, p. 9.
  
  
• All CMS members were given login names and passwords to enable them to access the members-only portion of the CMS website. Work began on developing concepts for partnerships with music business industry, and cultural institutions. These efforts continue to be led by the CMS Technology Committee, chaired by David B. Williams.

Highlights of 2000:

• President Dale Olsen proposed a new Professional Life Initiative. The proposal asked the Board to consider additional aspects of one's professional life: Student preparation for music professional life, continued professional growth after retirement, increased dialogue with professional societies to consider the future of the music subspecialties and their role in music and higher education, and advocacy for community college and adjunct professors.
  
  
• Toronto 2000: Musical Intersections was the title of the CMS annual meeting, held jointly with thirteen other colleague societies. Alexander Ringer gave the annual Trotter Lecture.
  
  
• The CMS Symposium celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Highlights of 2001:

• John Buccheri began his term as the new CMS President.
  
  
• Anthony Seeger gave the annual Trotter lecture on "Changing Lives with Recorded Sound: Recordings and Profound Musical Experiences" at the annual meeting in Santa Fe.
  
  
• Through the efforts of the CMS Committee on Advocacy, CMS representatives Tayloe Harding, John Buccheri, Anthony Rauche, and David Willoughby participated in a series of working sessions and dialogues about the need to collaborate within each discipline and among the disciplines at the annual meeting of the American Association of Higher Education.

Highlights of 2002:

• The forty-fifth annual meeting was held in Kansas City, Missouri. "In Praise of Mentors" was the title of the annual Trotter Lecture, given by Dorothy Payne.
  
  
• Volume 17 of the Monographs and Bibliographies in American Music was published in the Spring: Jazz and the Germans: Essays on the Influence of “Hot” American Idioms on 20th-Century German Music, edited by Michael J. Budds.
  
  
• The CMS website began providing a system for electronic discussion that was available to all members. A dozen discussion groups were created on the WebBoard system and additional groups were soon added.

Highlights of 2003:

• Robert Weirich began serving his term as President.
  
  
• In addition to receiving the Music Vacancy List in monthly paper or weekly e-mail formats, the CMS website now offers extensive MVL resources online. The MVL database is now searchable by discipline, institution, city, or state. The website also provides complete issues of the MVL back to 1998.
  
  
• The forty-sixth annual conference, entitled "Cultural Crossroads" was held in Miami, Florida and featured Gunther Schuller as the annual Robert C. Trotter lecturer.
  
  
• The CMS International Conference, chaired by Brenda Romero was held in Muelle, Costa Rica.
  
  
• CMS was one of seven professional societies (others represented the disciplines of Chemistry, Communications, History, Mathematics, Psychology, and Sociology) invited to participate in a recent Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Colloquium in Washington, D.C. The theme of the Colloquium was “Collaborating for Change.”

Highlights of 2004:

• The forty-seventh annual meeting was held in San Francisco in conjunction with the Associate for Technology in Music Instruction. Tim Page of The Washington Post provided the annual Robert Trotter Lecture entitled “Deadline? The Fall and Rise of Classical Music Criticism.”
  
  
• The CMS Fund concluded its first full year of operation. During the San Francisco annual meeting, the CMS Fund provided support for the CMS Outreach Project and the Academic Digital Audio Music Server (ADAMS), conceived by John Buccheri.
  
  
• For the annual meeting in San Francisco, the new CMS Fund supported efforts to place CMS members in local area venues to provide music expertise and/or performances.
  
  
• "...Our [CMS] performers and lecturers made presentations in schools and community centers in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area. The early indications are that they were most gratefully received and that this community service might become a part of each national meeting, with local chapters perhaps providing follow-up."
  – From William George, CMS Program Chair
  “Retrospective—the 2004 Annual Meeting” CMS Newsletter, January 2005, p. 10.

Highlights of 2005:

• Tayloe Harding began his term as President.
  
  
• The forty-eighth annual meeting was held in Quebec City, where Christopher Waterman provided the annual Robert Trotter Lecture, entitled "Musical Reflections: Hearing Ourselves and Others."
  
  
• The CMS International Conference, chaired by Angeles Sanchez-Velazquez, was held in June at University of Alcala de Henares, Spain (near Madrid).
  
  
• The 2005 common topic for the CMS regional chapters was "Considering Curricular Challenges: Balancing Emerging Student and Cultural Demands with Traditional Music Teaching and Learning." Attendance at regional chapter meetings continues to grow with some chapter meetings experiencing 50 registrations.

Highlights of 2006:

• The Engagement Project was further enhanced by the partnership between the CMS and the new CMS Fund. Shared objectives and action priorities included recognition of best practices by individuals and institutions in the profession, plans for new and adapted degree programs and expanded efforts in the area of Music in General Studies.
  
  
• A new Music Industry Task Force was created to begin dialogues with the music business professions who have such an impact on our culture.
  
  
• The Task Force on Career Services, chaired by Anne Patterson, continued its work in the topics of essential employment-seeking skills, thriving in a music career, working as an independent musician, and life in higher education.
  
  
• The CMS Fund considered proposals related to Engagement and Outreach, Music in General Studies, Reconsidering Graduate Education, Education in Music, ADAMS, Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts, and the 50th Anniversary Celebration of The College Music Society.

Highlights of 2007:

50th Anniversary of CMS!

• Kathleen Lamkin began her term as President.
  
  
• Terry Miller chaired the CMS International Conference, held in Thailand.
  
  
• The 50th National Conference of the College Music Society was held in Salt Lake City. CMS past President Robert J. Werner gave the annual Trotter Lecture on “A Distinguished History, A Challenging Future.” Special anniversary conference activities included a 50th anniversary banquet with over 200 in attendance, special sessions devoted to historical presentations, a special session including all past presidents, and a historical room with many items from the Society’s 50-year history. The Anniversary Banquet included the premier of a special CMS Song by Anthony Rauche and John Buccheri as well as the announcement of the CMS Fund Campaign: CMS: Beyond 50.

Happy Anniversary!

The College Music Society is pleased to present a tribute to its Presidents. The quote from the writing of each provides an impression of the issues, horizons, and possibilities they embraced as they led the organization through its first fifty years.

G. Wallace Woodworth, 1958-1960   

The weekend between Christmas and New Year's [1958] was a significant date in American college music, for it marked the first annual meeting of The College Music Society.

The new organization was formed during the last year through the union of two major groups of college and university music teachers. The merger brings together into a single unified society professors and teachers formerly divided between the College Music Association and the Society for Music in the Liberal Arts College. With poetic justice the meeting of the new Society took place in Paine Hall at Harvard on the same spot where eleven years ago an attempt to form a unified society had failed, and the two groups had parted company to go their separate ways. . . .

Upwards of 175 separate colleges and universities are now represented in the membership of the Society, but this is far from the goal sought y the membership committee. All teachers of music, in whatever field of college or university work, are eligible for membership. It is the hope of the Executive Board that the new unity symbolized in the merger will attract a large, diverse, and representative assembly, with a deep concern for the best in college music.

from College Groups, Too, Can Merge
New York Times, Sunday, January 18, 1959

William F. Austin, 1961-1962   

With its resolution on college bands, The College Music Society has begun to become something more than a channel for friendly exchange of information and opinion. The Society has gone on record in a public controversy, to give whatever collective authority it can muster to a particular opinion that its members believe is right. By taking action in this way, for the first time, our young Society is defining itself, and perhaps preparing itself to take similar action on other issues.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 1, 1960

The CMS Resolution on College Bands

Whereas the purpose of The College Music Society, according to its constitution, is "to gather, consider, and disseminate ideas on the philosophy and practice of music as a part of liberal education in colleges and in universities," and

Whereas under present conditions college bands do not contribute with maximum effectiveness to the purpose of liberal education

Be it resolved, that the Society recognizes the need for reappraisal of the status of college bands and their repertoire. If a college band is to contribute effectively to liberal education, all persons in authority need to distinguish between its interrelated functions of providing cultural experience for student members and audiences and of providing entertainment for large public masses. For the first function, there exists a limited body of music for wind instruments, study and performance of which may become an effective part of liberal education. The activities of marching bands and similar units, on the other hand, are primarily an adjunct to public sports and spectacles, and should not in themselves become the essence of a college band's achievement. To the extent that spectacular band formations and similar productions represent college music in the minds of a great many people, to that extent college bands are undermining the best efforts of education in America today. The College Music Society believes that, because of the importance of the cultural and educational influences of the college band, and the inevitability of the public entertainment phases, college bands should be guided by competent, thoroughly trained members of music faculties, with authority to maintain a proper balance of the bands' interrelated activities.

Robert M. Trotter, 1963-1964  

Please consider the following definitions and assertions, which influence my attitudes and behavior: (1) "learning," the interplay of experience and memory, goes on every-where and every-when, at many levels of the human spirit. When we refine learning with conscious aims and reflecting, it becomes (2) "education." In turn, when education is allied with candidacy for a degree it becomes (3) "formal education." Although such candidacy can be genuinely useful, it can also be ill-advised, distorting aims, atrophying self-corrective capacities, nourishing cynicism and "sclerosis of the imagination." If I were not defining learning so broadly, I might even say that degree candidacy sometimes defeats, thwarts it, turning good dough sour.

Degree candidacy often contains a potentially useful aspect called more precisely (4) "training," preparation for operational needs on the job. Training is honorable when it increases competence in the search for quality and precision; it is debilitating when it encourages subhuman imagery with ways to manipulate the environment as an It, rather than to become engaged with that environment as a mutually-confirming Thou.

From the Member-at-Large for Music in General Studies
The CMS Newsletter, Spring, 1978

W. Loren Crosten, 1965-1966   

When one has assisted at the birth of a department and has thereafter been closely associated with its development for eighteen years it is impossible for him to view the corpus with complete judicial detachment. I shall not pretend to do so, therefore, only hoping that my natural paternal bias will not seem too obtrusive to the reader.

As a beginning to the story, it is logical to speak first of intent. Stanford, so far as know, was the last of the major universities in the United States to establish a music department. That happened in 1947. . . .

In essence, we have tried to build a department on the premise that a union of scholarship and practice is at once feasible and desirable. As we see it, this in no way implies any stifling or leveling of individual talent, although it does require some accommodation on everyone's part to the general objective of cultivating specialized excellence within a broader musical and educational context shared by all.

from The Stanford Story: A Union of Scholarship and Practice
College Music Symposium, Volume 5, 1965

Donald McCorkle, 1967-1968  

When I was privileged to assume the presidency of The College Music Society in January 1967 I was already well conditioned to face the ubiquitous and inevitable question, "What is the CMS?" Since that time the question has been asked of me quite often, and I am confident that it has been put to other members of the Executive Board, the Council as well as to the membership generally. It seems to me that the very frequency of the asking, in itself, illustrates the steady and continual development of the CMS.

So what is The College Music Society? In a few words, we are incorporated for the philosophy and practice of music in higher education; or, more simply, to be a forum for uniting the academic music profession.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 7, 1967

Harry Lincoln, 1969-1970   

The past year has been one of significant growth for The College Music Society – growth measured not only in the statistics of membership, but also in the breadth and quality of the various activities of the Society. . . .

A professional society can flourish only to the extent that it effectively serves its membership. Our membership covers an increasingly wide range of specializations within the field of college music and this growth is reflected in both the publications and meetings of the Society. . . .

The Directory of Music Faculties in American Colleges and Universities entered its second edition last December with publication of the 1968-1970 volume. Thanks to the excellent response of music department chairman as well as many individual music faculty throughout the country, the Directory grew in size from 8000 listings in the first edition to a listing of nearly 12,000 persons in the second edition. This latter figure represents a high percentage of all music faculty in the United States. It is tentatively planned to include faculty from Canadian colleges and universities in the third edition of the Directory (1970). The maintenance and updating of the computer files for this Directory is a rather complex operation, as you can imagine, and the cooperation of departmental chairmen and individual faculty members in keeping the editor informed of changes among departmental personnel is earnestly solicited and greatly appreciated.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 9, 1969

Walter Collins, 1973-1974  

During the last year, the period covered by this report, the Society has continued its growth and prosperity. The most important event for the long-term history of the Society has been the establishment of a formal National Office at the State University of New York at Binghamton and the employment last September of our first full-time employee, Executive Secretary Craig Short. During the year Mr, Short has worked diligently to set the office and its procedures on a firm course, and it bodes very well for the future that someone of his dedication is devoting full-time attention to CMS and its interests. His presence has relieved the impossible demands that had built up on volunteer Executive Board members who were trying to maintain their own professional lives while attempting to cope with the ever-growing needs of CMS. It has also visibly increased the services to the membership which were promised when the recent raise in dues was effected. In addition, SUNY-Binghamton's generosity in providing us with office space and much other assistance has been of tremendous help; CMS is most grateful.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 14, 1974

William Reynolds, 1975-1976   

As the Society grows, it is our hope to stimulate the development of regional meetings. The emergence of such regional organizations as the Virginia Chapter of CMS has encouraged the Board and Council to approve a matching fund for chapter development. Limited amounts can be made available, on a matching basis to help defray significant chapter meeting expenses, up to a maximum of $200. Details are available fro the National Office, and all regional groups are invited submit research proposals. Another innovation, soon to be announced, will be a plan for making life memberships available to those who have been active in the profession for a significant period of time.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 16, 1976

Robert J. Werner, 1977-1978  

In considering the year ahead and The College Music Society’s responsibilities, I am reminded of what the late English writer and philosopher I. A. Richards, who wrote about what he called “the secret of feedforward” as opposed to the computer age’s obsession with “feedback.” Richards point was that the present is as much formed by how we view the future as by what has happened in the past. Thus, it seems to me, this is an appropriate time for all to us to consider the implications of our expectations of the future. How do things affect us in developing programs that prepare both our students and ourselves not merely to cope with the future but indeed to influence its course? We cannot afford the luxury of discouragement or the retreat to apathy. As long as we stand for music as a profession and an art either individually or collectively we must accept the challenge and be prepared to take the risks that our view of our role as musicians in the future might require.

from A Time to Reconsider the Future
College Music Symposium, Volume 17, No. 2, Fall, 1977

Chappell White, 1979-1980   

No president of The College Music Society has ever assumed office with more reason to be grateful to his predecessors. The financial position of the Society is sound, its services to the profession have expanded dramatically, the elected leadership combines an excellent balance of experience and new blood, and the professional staff works with efficiency and dedication. . . .

We are all aware that our present good health is no cause for complacency. The difficulties of a declining student population and predictions of still more serious difficulties to come dictate caution for the future. But not too much caution–the difficulties of our profession constitute the challenge for CMS. We will continue to welcome–indeed, to call for–new ideas new areas for activity, new ways to serve our art and our profession.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 19, No. 1, Spring, 1979

Barbara English Maris, 1981-1982  

1981 marked a particularly significant event in the history of CMS. The Wingspread Conference on Music in General Studies, funded jointly by the Johnson Foundation and The College Music Society, served as a developmental conference. As I wrote earlier in a CMS Newsletter, “Audience” development, community support of the arts, funding for school music programs, and student credit hours are matters of concern for idealists and realists alike." We need to increase our effectiveness in providing for the musical education of those university students who will enter professions other than music. We need to increase our effectiveness in helping our music majors communicate with those who are not professional musicians. The challenges we face call for collective and individual actions by many. As CMS President I have welcomed the written and verbal support from officers of several other national organizations including the American Musicological Society (Howard Smither), National Association of Schools of Music (Robert Bays and Thomas Miller), Music Educators National Conference (Mary Hoffman), and Music Teachers National Association (Robert Sutton). Were in this together. We need each other's help. A joint task force is now at work to plan for the 1983 national meeting that CMS and NASM will hold in Dearborn, Michigan. An important focus for that meeting will be concerns related to Music in General Studies.

from President’s Report
College Music Symposium, Volume 22, No. 1, Spring, 1982

Arthur Tollefson, 1983-1984  

During 1983 CMS entered its second quarter-century of service to the profession with a revised constitution, a new Executive Director, an intensified thrust in Music in General Studies and a revitalized commitment to an essential, ongoing dialogue with major sister organizations such as the Music Educators National Conference, the Music Teachers National Association, and the National Association of Schools of Music. To be sure, our society's focus upon its primary concern – the teaching of music in higher education – remains fixed at the same high level which has distinguished CMS for several decades. Nevertheless, in becoming better acquainted with other sectors of the music field during the past few years, I perceive that many college music teachers continue to function with somewhat limited perspective, the product, perhaps, of an artificially rarefied academic atmosphere.

Within the past ten-fifteen years the enormous music industry – instrument manufacturers, publishers, recording firms, dealers, etc. – has become increasingly aware of the importance of "educational promotion.” Whether to establish a truly integrated musical continuum or merely to ensure economic survival, numerous companies and organizations have appointed education directors or boards to supervise such activities. In many cases the definition of "education" has arisen from perceptions – valid or invalid – emanating primarily from within the industry itself. In other cases, most notably the National Piano Foundation, the industry has, from the start, directly solicited outside advice – that of key music educators.

Despite such recent examples of growing cooperation between education and business, however, most college music teachers and in turn, their students, remain relatively unaware of the scope of the music industry and its impact upon society. Such naivete may result as much from a traditional, non-profit, academic mistrust of the profit-making community as from a paucity of music business curricula in our institutions of higher learning. Ironically, the general student, through the ready availability of survey courses on such topics as "Music in Society" may today graduate with a more pervasive view of the overall music scene than the music major himself.

In any event, the time seems nigh for CMS to consider means through which it may effectively provide its membership opportunities to realistically refine its perspective for college music teaching. The location of our 1984 Annual Meeting in Nashville – "Music City, U.S.A." – has, in large measure, been chosen to facilitate such study. We are carefully planning our convention program to take full advantage of this unique geographical-sociological setting and urge you to plan now to join us there this fall.

A Message from the President
CMS Newsletter, January 1984

Phillip Rhodes, 1985-1986  

Three recent reports on the condition of college teaching and the training of college teachers have captured the attention of the college teaching community. “Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education,” “To Reclaim a Legacy,” and “Integrity in the College Curriculum: A Report to the College Community” are of great importance to our community and could have tremendous effect upon our work. The CMS Board has determined that these reports and the national debate in progress at this time simply cannot be ignored. Thus, the Society will be considering very carefully what these reports mean to music teaching in higher education. We should also note that many of the issues raised in these reports are directly related to many of the concerns and philosophies of our music in general studies program.

from A Message from the President
CMS Newsletter, December 1985

David Willoughby, 1987-1988   

MGS-Phase II is under way, extending the issues that evolved during the first five years of the Music in General Studies program. Whereas Phase I drew attention to ways of improving the outreach of music departments through introductory music courses for "non-majors," Phase II will draw attention to issues related to new and innovative ways of reaching out to the community, beyond the confines of the campus.

The forum for dialog concerning MGS-Phase II is a major new program for The College Music Society known as College Music and the Community (CMC), a program that will explore the role of music faculty in the social, cultural, and artistic life of the communities that they serve. CMC will be bi-directional-that is, it will explore ways in which colleges can serve community music programs and also how community organizations and musicians can enrich the college music curriculum. from A Message from the President The CMS Newsletter March 1987

from A Message from the President
CMS Newsletter, March 1987

Elliott Schwartz, 1989-1990   

In particular, I want to reflect on the special nature of The College Music Society as the quintessential "umbrella" organization. There are times when we all hesitate to use that over-worn term "umbrella." At such times it appears to be no more than a convenient catchword to which we all pay lip service, respond to with a nod – or a yawn – and then simply take for granted. CMS? Oh, yes, the U word. (Or was that an insurance company?) Over the past few years, though, in committee sessions and board meetings, I've been privileged to see that very umbrella in action. I can attest to the fact that this is no catchword, but a very real force – one which affects the way people work together, applying their energies and their talents to a common cause. It's been very satisfying for me to see the growth of various CMS projects – institutes, publications, meetings – from proposal to implementation and final follow-through. And much of the satisfaction has been in working with a remarkably gifted and dedicated group of colleagues. They are not only "specialist," often distinguished ones, but committed generalists as well; they want and need to share their special expertise with other musicians, and with students at every level of musical background.

from A Message from the President
CMS Newsletter, November 1990

Anne Dhu McLucas, 1991-1992  

When we join organizations, we hope for many things – association with and stimulation from like-minded people, the establishment of contacts and possibilities for career advancement, interesting journals and newsletters, the opportunity to go to meetings and institutes, to present our ideas and hear those of others, and somewhere in the back of our minds, perhaps, the thought that by joining with others we may build something of value that will enhance the world we live in.

We in The College Music Society are all lucky to be dealing with a subject so enticing, multi-faceted, and beautiful as music; yet the field brings with it problems of communication, both within the discipline and to the outside world. The College Music Society has taken on the challenge of representing the whole of the music profession as taught in colleges and universities and enhancing cooperation and communication among the several separate disciplines represented within music departments and schools, as well as with the world at large. But as I see it, its special mission, which separates it from the other professional societies of music in higher education, is to develop the value of teaching as a profession worthy of its own emphasis alongside the research, fieldwork, performance, analysis, and composition which must feed it. As college teachers of music we lead dual (and often triple and quadruple) lives as researchers, performers, composers, and teachers, but our common bonds are music and teaching, and CMS represents these common bonds.

from A Message from the President
CMS Newsletter, January 1991

Barbara Reeder Lundquist, 1993-1994  

A basic policy issue facing us all is the increasing complexity of access to cultural resources for the purposes of instruction. This is a critical and immediate problem for us as educators. During the last two years, we have begun to examine the legal dimensions of our art. This has occurred at a time when music licensing, digital copying, ownership of cultural properties by multinational conglomerates, and delivery of cultural resources through electronic communication networks are exploding. Simply put, we need to have some strategies (e.g., all educators given an immediate annual access number, along with teaching contracts, to call up electronically delivered verbal, audio, and visual musical data) to allow us timely ease of access to the best that there is to teach what students want and need to know. We have all experienced the instructional effects of being limited to the holdings of one library, recording company, or publishing house, or held hostage by permission processes that deny use. Examining the legal context within which issues of access are currently being negotiated at least helps us to become more aware of complexities we are facing and to create the opportunity for dialogue that may result in strategies that will ensure our access to the resources we need to make our instruction authentic and effective.

from the President’s Message 
CMS Newsletter, November 1994

Nohema Fernandez, 1995-1996  

The explosive growth of nearly-instant communication through the Internet is affecting the way most of us work and live. The implications for CMS growth through the use of the "information superhighway" are wide ranging and are presently being studied by the Board. As many of you may have noticed, the National Office is now served by an Internet address, facilitating requests for information and other communications ([email protected]). However, we are presently developing a broader perspective and studying the evolution of a strategy for an electronic delivery system and its implementation. We think that the time has come to use present and future technology to develop a method for enhancing and making more available the products and services of CMS.

from the President’s Message
CMS Newsletter, March 1995

Douglass Seaton, 1997-1998  

They say there is an ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Approaching the twenty-first century, we are certainly living in interesting times. Sometimes it is easy to feel cursed. Budgets are down and enrollments rise. Technology is galloping ahead so fast that many of us fear we cannot possibly keep our grip on the reins. Our population becomes more diverse until we can hardly assume any common experience as a basis for our teaching, and we wonder where we can find any common values to hold onto.

The College Music Society has never regarded interesting times as curses but has viewed them as challenges and opportunities. In changing times CMS occupies a special position to serve our profession.

from the President’s Message
CMS Newsletter, January 1997

Dale A. Olsen, 1999-2000  

The College Music Society has gone "Into the World" now for quite some time. I think it began in earnest when it emphasized the ethnic diversity of its national meeting sites. Another "world" interest has been to follow the routes (roots) of jazz in several of its national meetings. CMS has had the innovative perspective of realizing that the United States is a microcosm of the world and that probably most of the world's cultures are now a part of and contribute to American culture.

from the President’s Message
CMS Newsletter, January 1999

John Buccheri, 2001-2002  

First, and no doubt of greatest import, is an almost phoenix-like renewal of interest in teaching and learning whose wellspring, I believe, was Ernest Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate. Published in 1990 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Boyer’s report established four categories of scholarship: discovery, teaching, integration, and service. The discussions of the nature of especially the last three of these “scholarships” (the first comprises traditional research and publication) have refined and broadened the understanding of what constitutes faculty productivity.

from the President’s Message
CMS Newsletter, January 2001

Robert Weirich, 2003-2004  

Let’s agree to reexamine our premises. A life in music can be glorious, but it’s not the only career available. In the library and the practice room, we spend so much time on specialization (depth), that we seldom consider the wider aspects of our work (breadth). John Dewey wrote that “...no one is just an artist and nothing else, and in so far as one approximates that condition, he is so much the less developed human being.”

Musicians have so much to offer society. Our skills, abilities, and most of all, values, have never been more needed. There is much we can do to encourage our students to think more imaginatively about their career possibilities. I encourage you to join those of us in The College Music Society who have already begun the process.

from the President’s Message
CMS Newsletter, March 2003

C. Tayloe Harding, Jr., 2005-2006  

THE TWO TASKS

Our first task is to create more environments where more people can Live Through Music. Only by creating more opportunities for engagement—through every available means, including schools, community centers, and religious centers—and staffing them with competent musicians, can we begin to offer people the opportunity to Live Through Music.

As our first task is accomplished, the second task—providing for everyone the opportunity to Live in Music—will follow. Providing opportunities for fulfillment of the most personal longings for aesthetic experience will make our fellow humans happier and their lives more rewarding.

Thus, using our music and its power to establish a culture of living through and living in music must be our priority. For us in the music professorate this is imperative given the condition of the culture of our country and our hopes for its improvement.

from the President’s Message
CMS Newsletter, September 2005