BY RUSSELL MOORE
I have accepted the resignation of Daniel Sher as dean of the College of Music at CU-Boulder effective June 30, 2013.
Dean Sher will have served in the post for 20 years when he steps down next summer, and has announced he will return to the College of Music faculty. He was named dean of the College of Music in July of 1993.
Dan has developed particularly strong partnerships with our surrounding performance and outreach music communities. He has also significantly increased the college’s endowment by fivefold and annual cash giving by nearly tenfold, in addition to establishing the first two endowed faculty chairs.
Since Dan has been dean, the College of Music has established the Entrepreneurship Center for Music, which was the first of its kind in the United States; created Jazz Studies degrees from the bachelor’s through the doctorate level, and added new graduate programs in music theory, collaborative piano at the master’s and doctorate levels and graduate professional certificate programs in opera, woodwind and string quartet performance.
CU-Boulder has been cited the past three years in a row by the Fiske Guide to Colleges as one of just 25 in the nation -- among a total of 1,200 music programs in higher education -- for its excellence in music and has been ranked in the top 20 among all college, university and conservatory music programs by U.S. News & World Report.
Dan served as president of the National Association of Schools of Music, the U.S.-designated accreditation association for music in higher education, and president of Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Honor Society for Music in the U.S.
Current and former advisory board members are establishing a scholarship fund through the CU Foundation to honor Sher’s 20 years of service and leadership. The endowment will be used to support talented undergraduate music students from the state of Colorado.
After consultation with Chancellor DiStefano, I hope to move forward quickly with a national search to fill Dan’s post.
Please join me in thanking Dean Sher for his service to the CU-Boulder campus and the College of Music.