Author: James Undercofler

  • Rethinking Entrepreneurship in the Arts

    Rethinking Entrepreneurship in the Arts

    …coming soon will be a series of reflections based on my experiences creating, launching and teaching in the master’s degree in Entrepreneurship in the Arts at Purhcase College SUNY.

  • Music Schools in Transition, VI, ii

    I am frequently asked if a school should add co-curricular programs, and if so, of what nature. To work toward an answer to this question, let me go through a process. To my way of thinking there are 4 factors that influence students’ choices about admissions: faculty, core curriculum, price and location/facilities. Depending on each…

  • Music Schools in Transition, VI.i

    There’s a bit of a scramble on: to create co-curricular programs and to add value to the BMus by facilitating double (even triple) majors and double degrees.  Part of the reason for these developments results from the undergraduate degree in performance being so tightly packed, and with so many other needs have been identified, that…

  • Music Schools in Transition, Part VI

    Many music schools have added valuable co-curricular programs. A working definition of co-curricular would be that these programs offer non-required credit for courses, a certificate for participation and completion of a set of expectations, or experiences or courses that significantly pair with a curricular requirement (and designed as such).   The latest spate of these…

  • Music Schools in Transition, Part V

    The term, professional school, has always puzzled me. Taken literally, it must mean that the school prepares you for a defined profession. And when there were, more or less, stable professional opportunities for musicians, the idea of strong, focused professional training combined with substantial courses in the liberal arts made sense. Now, however, with music…

  • Music Schools in Transition, IV.i

    First in this post, I must let NASM (National Association of Schools of Music), the accrediting organization off the hook.  I suggested that they need to change their guidelines to allow for necessary changes in the bachelor of music in performance.  I reread my NASM Handbook and was pleased to find that there is considerable…

  • Music Schools in Transition, Part IV

    In this post I want to begin to delve into the full educational program that music schools offer.  To do so requires some definition. There are the degree programs with their requirements; various co-curricular programs, such as internships and courses offered for credit (but not required for the degree); and extra curricular learning opportunities. I…

  • Music Schools in Transition, Pt. III

    Most music schools look alike.  It’s quite amazing, that once inside a school, you can quickly forget where you are geographically.  Standardization resulting from accreditation requirements means that student experience from one school to another changes only slightly.  Curriculum is locked in (more on this in future posts). Some schools are located in dense urban…

  • Music Schools in Transition, Pt. II, i

    A number of people have asked me to be more specific about ensembles, so here I will elaborate. Just to keep interest in future blog posts, I will be focusing next on maximizing configuration, e.g. free-standing school within an urban area, school within a university, and so forth. Maintaining a full-sized symphony orchestra is strangling…

  • Music Schools in Transition, Part II

    Below I’ve copied my post from last week, as then I was not connected to Facebook and Linkedin, but now am. There are short-term approaches to present challenges to music schools, and long-term, more radical ones.  For now I will concentrate on short-term ones, then later on the others.  Also to note: I will not…