Happenings
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Recent news
Dean’s Downbeat
Innovation as a collaborative act
Greetings “from the road” where I’ve been engaged in two accreditation site reviews for the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) as well as a trio of October conferences: From hosting the National Association of Music Executives at State Universities (NAMESU) Annual Meeting right here on our campus and at the new Limelight hotel to the 61st Annual Conference of the International Council for Arts Deans (ICfAD) in Santa Fe, New Mexico to the College Music Society (CMS) National Conference in Spokane, Washington this week where I’ll be interacting with other deans and senior arts administrators engaged in public service and mentoring. Everywhere I go, I enjoy representing the unique achievements, aspirations and opportunities of our College of Music; along the way, I’ve been struck by the supportive camaraderie and timely shared learnings among my counterparts.
As noted by American theatre and opera director Anne Bogart, “We have been discouraged to think that innovation can be a collaborative act” and yet it’s exactly that—a collaborative act—that’s at the heart of institutions like ours. MORE
Browse previous editions of the Dean’s Downbeat,
a regular communiqué from Dean John Davis.
Noteworthy media mentions
A-Corps allow creative workers a way to refuse theft of their autonomy (Opinion) (June 27, 2026, Daily Camera)
Associate Professor of Musicology Michael Sy Uy, who directs our American Music Research Center, shares his thoughts and enthusiasm for Colorado’s leadership in establishing the nation’s first A-Corps helping artists form collectives to retain intellectual property over their creative work.
Syndicated in The Denver Post: Guest opinion; A-Corps allow workers a way to refuse theft
Children’s book goes viral on TikTok, 40 years after being self-published (June 23, 2026, CBS Evening News)
Former CU Boulder Professor Emerita Elissa Guralnick (English, Musicology) is experiencing a remarkable ascent as an author: Thanks to the leverage of a TikTok influencer, a 1985 children’s vocabulary book—“Weighty Words” and its sequel, “Weighty Words, Too,” that Guralnick co-authored with Paul Levitt and Doug Burger—has catapulted to the top of Amazon’s best seller list overnight.
