Category: Beginnings and Endings
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NATS conference wrap
A little more than a week ago, I returned home from the 57th international conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. On my personal blog, I wrote a few paragraphs I’ll quote here: What is NATS? The National Association of Teachers of Singing is a now-international organization with 7276 members in all 50…
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Board meeting
I am home today after a three day trip to Chicago for the national board meeting of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. The annual full board meeting was illuminating and gratifying. And eye-opening as well. Today is filled with doctors appointments and errands before I return to Chicago for the first in-person international…
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Repurposing
I’ve not written an entry here in over a year, not since I stepped down from the department chair position. But, with a new role as Governor of the Central Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), I intend to repurpose this blog (previously focused on my activities in my day job)…
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Pensive
I forget how bittersweet these last days of the semester can be. One of the things I regularly tell students is that “our best view of you is watching your butt cross the stage at Commencement, because that means we’ve done our job.” We faculty know that we are charged with these students for only…
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79 days
Now with 79 days to go as department chair, I can feel some of the squeeze dissipating. I realized this past week that I have spent most of the last 17 years with one eye always on some future goal — promotion and tenure, next year’s budget, recruiting goals, raising funds for a forthcoming project,…
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That’s a wrap
5 p.m. Friday, 11 December 2020. That’s a wrap on the Fall 2020 semester. Grades are posted. All student meetings are complete. And we are all exhausted. Zoomed out. Ready to rest tired eyes and weary brains.
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Opening Convocation 2020
For those who wish to view it again, and for those who missed it, here is the Opening Convocation 2020: Scholarship recipients are listed at http://www.webster.edu/music/about-music/scholarships.html. I accidentally left the TKT recipients out of the list this week. And faculty profiles are posted at http://www.webster.edu/music/faculty/.
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At the office
I am at the office today for the first time in a long while. Aside from picking a few things up now and then, this is the first time I’ve plopped down at my desk in four and a half months. Today also marks the first time since mid-June that I have put on real…