Afterword

We have outlined the history of the College of Music from the first mention of music at the University through today.  We hope that our brief sketch will encourage the writing of a  comprehensive history.  We can’t pretend to be disinterested observers, for both of us have spent a major part of our professional lives engrossed in the activities of the College, and, in retirement, we still have a strong interest and participate in many of its functions.  Writing this history has given us an insight into how remarkably well music can function and how important it is in a major university and a vibrant community.  From the University of Colorado’s very beginning, a few students requesting a piano to enhance chapel services, to today’s many musical activities of a well established major school, music has kept pace with the growth of the University, from the single, stark building bordering a small town to one of the leading national institutions of higher education and research located on four campuses throughout the state. 

The general goals of music have remained the same from the time of Professor Farnsworth during the 1890s through today: to instill a high level of performance in the College’s students and to share the results with the community, state, and the nation. One notes with a sense of pride the number of college activities listed in media outlets each week; the overflow audiences in Grusin Hall for the Tuesday evening Faculty Recital Series, the University choirs, the Chamber Orchestra, various small ensembles, and the Takacs Quartet; and, in Macky Auditorium, the large crowds for the Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony concerts, the operas, and the magnificent Holiday Festival collage concerts featuring the entire performing resources of the College.  Indeed, the several performances comprising each Holiday Festival and even its dress rehearsals are sold out months in advance.  The Artist Series has had a continuous record of bringing internationally known artists and ensembles to the campus for much of the past century and into today.  It has reversed the national trend of declining audiences by offering a wider variety of programming than the emphasis almost entirely on classical music a generation ago.  The audiences for all of these performances are not limited to the University community and the city of Boulder, which now surrounds the Boulder campus, but extend throughout the entire Denver metropolitan area.   These are the immediately visible extension activities of the College.  They do not include the participation of faculty and students in various regional, state, and national organizations such as the Music Teachers National Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the College Music Society as well as the numerous specialists’ organizations.  

We have made no attempt to compare the College to other music schools; however, we have noted the College’s standing among them whenever such information became evident.  We do consider the College to be the “flagship” school of music for the state, a term frequently applied to the University itself.  The College is among the larger schools of music in the nation, and like many of them, it offers both the performing opportunities of a traditional conservatory and the academic pursuits typical of a university.  Other schools possibly have the same trajectory of growth; however, we offer two observations that might make our College of Music distinctive among the major schools of music. 

First, music has the status of a College within the University, and, as such, has direct access to the central administration. Most other music schools within universities are a unit within a college of fine and/or performance arts, or a college of arts and sciences, whose chief administrator in turn reports to the central administration.  Whether or not this arrangement is advantageous cannot be established with certainty; however, the College of Music’s faculty overwhelmingly rejected a proposal made during the 1980s to merge its activities into a College of the Arts.  

Finally, we note that the College has had what may be a remarkable stability of administrative leadership.  Following the short tenure of Dean Chace during the 1920s, only four successive Deans during the last eighty years have guided the expansion of the College to its present status among the leading schools of the nation.   Each has led the College through the vicissitudes of his time with the same steadfastness of purpose.  Undoubtedly, this consistent leadership has been of benefit to the College in its mission.

Robert Fink, Dean Emeritus
William Kearns, Professor Emeritus

Historical material for this website was completed in March, 2006

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