Conversation with the College of Musical Arts Dean: Q&A with Dr. William Mathis

Good evening everyone.

My name is Bill Matheson, I'm the Dean of the College of Musical Arts and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our webinar this evening.

Thank you for being here tonight.

I wanted to acknowledge before we begin.

For those of you who are in high school.

And well, for everybody this might be on the call, but the times that we're in the unusual times and how challenging this might be, just to acknowledge that we understand some of those challenges, and we hope that some of the things that we have to say tonight will give you some answers to questions you might have. But we wish you all the best and all that you're doing at school at home, at work as we continue through this pandemic.

And try to get through this together so I will be your host this evening. I'm encourage you to use the chat. I see some of the people are using the chat already, but at anytime during my presentation you have a question or a comment. Please write in. We have a great panel of moderate yours this evening and I wanted to introduce them to you before we begin. Actually what we have is our three Department chairs in the college musical arts.

Doctor Nora Engebretson doctor Laura Melton.

Doctor Elizabeth Menard, who are with us. We also have Doctor Susan Nelson who is our assistant Dean and helps us with recruiting in the college. And finally we have Erica Mills with this. Who is from the Office of Admission and I just want to thank Erica and her team who helped us put on these webinars. Typically, of course we would do this in person and we look forward to the time we can meet in person. But thank you again for joining us.

So let's begin. I'd first like to invite you.

To join us on social media in the college musical arts at BGSU, CMA on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

To see what we're doing to see what the students are up to. Some of the activities we have, it's a good way to keep in touch. I also have a Twitter account at Dean Bill Mathis, so I hope you'll like some of our pages or follow along on social media. So to get started, I'd like to start.

By asking a question.

A question to you. Why music?

I have to assume that anybody is on the call tonight. His is already committed to. Music is already participating and thinking about music very seriously, but why? Why is it so important to you? What is it about music that's important to us as humans? I will be presenting a lot of photographs this evening and I want you to. If you can put yourself inside these photos, can you see yourself inside these photos?

Now I must say that we start recruiting students at a very young age in the college musical arts, and here's one of our prospects from the class of 2037.

And.

So he we hope to see him in about 18 years playing the saxophone in the College of Musical Arts. But I picked this picture because it does kind of show how music is Universal Music is something for everyone, and so I ask you why music?

And if you were to answer that question, I think you would probably put your answer into at least one of these categories, maybe more.

Are the experiences you've had in music special to you something that has been meaningful? The opportunities? Maybe you've had or some of the places you've been able to go because of your participation in music.

His music, Ben's source of inspiration to you.

We often hear students that want to be music. Teachers say that they've been inspired by it music teacher of theirs and that they wanted to provide that kind of inspiration to the future generations. His music, a sense of comfort or connection or belonging.

Certainly there's a social aspect to that, but a sense of belonging.

To a group effort or some community.

Do you ever find that you feel like you can communicate better or communicate in ways that are through music that you can't do through language, nonverbal communication? And we have to just of course, acknowledge that music is just plain fun.

We have a good time with it. We use music to dance to music, to entertain.

And so I'll finish this with the category that I'm just calling goosebumps. I've been teaching music now for almost 40 years.

And I feel very fortunate to have been involved.

In Akarere in an avocation, a hobby and a way of life that has provided goosebumps along the way.

And I think you know what I mean. Those of you who have been involved with music, but there are times when you hear music or you're playing music performing music. You just get goosebumps.

It's hard to explain why, but it's a real thing.

Head thinks Heart feels hand. Does you think of any kind of endeavour that we might have in our lives or activity might lean into one of these three categories, some more than others. If you were in a stem field or business field, you might think that's more of an intellectual activity in the head thinks.

If you were a pastor or religious leader, certainly we'd say you're lean towards the heart or maybe a social worker or psychologist or something like that. Or in more technical fields, we would think the hand.

Some hands-on kind of work OK?

But music I think is unique in a way because it takes in all three of these and takes them in equally. If you were a music student at BGSU, you would study music theory aural skills, which is sight sight singing and ear training. Music history, music, literature and we think of these as more intellectual parts of music. So the head would concentrate on the head there on the hands. Of course you have to learn how to play an instrument.

Or sing. There are technical a tubes you have to learn how to play the piano at some point. That's a hands-on kind of activity.

If you look a music student, you're going to learn how to conduct. That's a physical activity, so these are hands-on kinds of activities.

And finally, in the heart.

But the the music that you're playing or that you are singing performing.

In your ensembles, your lessons, the recitals or the concerts that you go to.

If you're a music student, you're going to perform a senior recital.

And these are all experiences that you'd have as a music student.

But what's important about this is that we lean on all three of these categories to become a total musician.

And a total person.

We might see a well rounded person.

And so I think that music is the perfect subject to study in school. I might be just a little bit bias about that, but I just like to emphasize that in when we say why music, these are some of the things that I think of. So why music then at BGSU? What's unique? Maybe about the study of music here at the University?

So this is really what I'd like to spend the rest of my presentation talking about is some of the things that we have to offer a BG issue and things that are unique to our setup and our programs here. So I'll start with a statement from our vision statement.

Says at the College of Musical Arts. We believe in the transformative power of music and education for our students, our communities.

And the world.

Has music.

Been a transformative power in your life thus far.

Has education been a transformative power in your life and and do you want that to continue when we think about this as you leave school and you go into your communities and literally into the world?

That music and education are transformative in every way.

So why is music at BGS? You well, quite simply, we're large enough to offer a comprehensive music curriculum here.

But not so large that you get lost in the shuffle.

You're small enough that you receive individual attention. We have a 9 to one student to faculty ratio, which makes it really an ideal situation for students to thrive. To be known to work within a large community, but still receive that individual.

Attention.

We have about 470 music students in the College of Musical Arts and I wanted to just show this diagram here too.

Emphasize the distribution of those students. I think of it as a pyramid where we're three. How we have 325 undergraduate students, and you can see that is really the foundation of our program here.

And it's our history. It is our tradition to serve the undergraduate student population. So we focus on you, the undergraduate. But at the same time we have 130 full-time Masters degree students in our college and the presence of that those students.

Truly elevates an lifts. The experience of our undergraduate students. If you are here as a music student, you will sit next to graduate students in ensembles in studio classes. You'll see them in the classroom. You'll see them in the hallways, and you'll be able to interact with them. And if you are just going to a school that only had undergraduate students, that would be an element that that you just wouldn't have. And so I think this.

Is a unique characteristic of our school, an one that elevates the experience and then at the top we have a small doctoral program of about 16 doctoral students. The reason I emphasize this tonight is because.

Nowhere in the state of Ohio will use find a music school that has this type of distribution. With this number of music students, there are schools that are larger than us.

But you may in those schools you'll see that the graduate students are would be at the bottom of this pyramid. There would be more graduate students in the damn visits. The emphasis of their programs are on graduate students and you will not find this distribution hardly anywhere, even in the Midwest. So this is really something that is unique about our programs, and I think important to consider.

When you're looking at schools.

It offers then that distribution of students for us. As I said, to offer a comprehensive music curriculum and you can see here to the left the degrees that we offer in undergraduate school.

I will point out the degree in world music. There aren't very many places in the entire country that offer an undergraduate degree in world music, so that's something that unique here. And we also offer minors if you're interested in being minoring in music.

So it truly is a comprehensive program.

I found this old photo from the first orchestra at BGSU.

1918 let's count here. The front row, 12345.

And then on the back row three, there were eight people in the orchestra and one of them is conductor. Look at that very long. What I think looks like a very long baton.

I'd love to hear this orchestra play.

Jumping ahead about 110 years now look. This photograph was taken in 2010 at the grand opening of our Wolf Center for the Performing Arts and you can see our orchestra on stage. In the back there is our large mixed choir on the side. We have our men's and women's choruses.

And what you don't see is up in the rafters literally in the rafters on the catwalks of the theater.

Were a series of brass ensembles that were playing altogether. It was truly a wonderful spectacle.

Something that's offered at a place that has a comprehensive music curriculum. You can see the ensembles there to the side.

That we offer plenty of opportunities for students to participate.

And to engage in this comprehensive user curriculum course, our faculty are a big part of our comprehensive music curriculum. We have 55 full-time faculty members here, 35 part time faculty, 11 full time staff, all dedicated to your success. Expert teachers, artists, teachers internationally known faculty in their fields. I am very proud to count them as my colleagues and peers.

And.

Am amazed at their dedication to students. And as I mentioned before, because of our size. If you are a student here, you will get to know them and they will get to know you on a first name basis. It really is a wonderful faculty that you have the opportunity to work with.

So a few other things that I might highlight that are special and unique to our offerings here in the College of Musical Arts, we have dozens and dozens of guest artists that come through our building each year to provide master classes and residencies.

We do have a couple residencies that bring in international guests and one of them is entitled the Handsome Musical Arts series.

Last year you can see these photographs with Pedrito Martinez who is a world renowned Cuban drummer. He worked with our students, did classes across campus in other disciplines as well and put on.

Arousing concert first time I've ever seen dancing about 100 and 5060 students down in our concert Hall. It was really something else.

But the interaction that students have with guest artists is a big part of the curriculum.

And I've noticed through the years that this is even been something to create professional connections.

We've had guests that have met students here and have come back to hire them for jobs or to invite them to apply to graduate schools.

It really is a value added experience. You may have to work with the guests that come in through the college musical arts.

If you're thinking about being a music teacher studying music education, there's lots of opportunities for you to get hands-on practice as a young student. Many schools you go through your degree program and your first real experience in teaching is at the student teaching in your final semester. But it be just you because of the size of our programs and the setup we have. We have several opportunities for students to work with younger students.

Here we have some photographs of our music plus program. We have an Academy band program that we're bringing in high school and middle school students in our students here at the University are able to coach them and work with them under the direction of our faculty.

If you're interested in research and professional development, there are many opportunities for you.

On the right side we have a photograph of Emma Stumpf who last year won the University Undergraduate Research Award for her project on teaching music to children with autism.

And many other kinds of opportunities to go to conferences to participate in professional development activities.

Each year the Toledo Symphony comes down to our campus and performs rehearses. Pieces that are written by our students.

This is not something you would find really anywhere in the country. These kinds of opportunities are usually for professional composers, but we have a relationship with the Toledo Symphony and our students are able to have their pieces played. And here we have a picture of a student actually working with the orchestra on her piece.

Really a great experience for her as you can. As you can imagine.

I'm proud to say that we have many opportunities for students to travel.

And I wanted to emphasize this.

One group called Promusica, which is a group of donors who provide funding for travel opportunities for music students.

For domestic and international travel.

The last few years we've given out around $30,000 per year to about 40 to 50 students each year. As you can imagine, these are life changing experiences. They're experiences that send you off into a new direction or give you a glimpse of what's possible out in the professional world.

I love this picture on the right. Last year we had a group of students go to Morocco for three weeks to study Middle Eastern music and Wellness.

And music healing, and I don't know if if anybody would ever think that if they were in music school they would go to Morocco and then take a camel ride. But all of those students are from BGS you on a camel ride. It's a great picture to the left. We have a student who went to South Africa to study and she used to Givens Fellowship and also some funds from Promusica.

Certainly performance is a big part of the experience and.

I just very proud of the many performances that our students do here in the building, but there are also opportunities off campus with performances.

Here's a photograph from an event last year that I thought was in particular, particularly special. Our acquires went up to Toledo and performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and Ballet in performances of Carmina Burana.

Take a look at this.

Really quite a grand spectacle. You put yourself inside of that choir.

Participating with a professional orchestra.

This Hall seats about 1800 people and there were two sold out performances.

This is not a one off kind of experience. We are able to do these things quite often.

Here's a photograph of the men's chorus performing Cleveland for a group of BGS you have online. Archwires go onto or every single year now. They might not do it this year, but.

Typically they go on tour or other groups, travel frequently to regional and local conferences, and they're just lots of opportunities like this that are value added that you will appreciate and be able to benefit from.

Another category here are music competitions that we have inside of our building. These are not things that are required, but there are extra opportunities for students to compete with each other. I'm proud that all of these competitions here that are listed have some kind of cash award.

Or travel opportunity attached to them.

And.

This is really a special way for students to hone in on their craft to be able to.

Have a professional experience here at the school, but also be rewarded for it.

Finally, think we always want to talk about the scholarship opportunities that we have here. For our freshmen who come in is music majors. We have Bravo Music Awards and those are merit based scholarships that are come from your audition there, based on your audition, we also have several other privately funded scholarships for specific instruments or areas of study for students, and those are listed on our website, so you might want to check that out.

We have a wonderful program called the Hanson Fellowship is for two freshmen, each year's very competitive award.

But provides over $20,000 for students for professional development activities during their four years of study. I already mentioned the Promusica scholarships.

And we have other privately funded scholarships for students in their software. Junior and senior years, so I hope you'll check that out. Well, so some of the things that we have here offer that might be unique to our program that I, as I said before, our value added experiences. If we have any parents on the call tonight, this is a question. Maybe you're asking, but for the students as well, what about a job?

When I finish when I finish music school.

It's a fair question. It's a good question and so let me just talk about this a little bit, and I think we could probably do an entire webinar on this topic all by itself, but take a look at this graphic here.

Entitled to professional World of music.

To see all of the types of work of jobs.

Professions that come just in the music industry or the music area.

Maybe the most obvious one is education. If you're going to be in music education major, you're training to be a teacher in the schools, and so you might go straight into teaching or performance composition. But there are these other jobs that are just as much a part of the music profession.

That you should consider, I look at the one that says administration and just a couple of years ago we did a story of four of our graduates from the College of Musical Arts who are now executive level administrators in major Symphony orchestras across the country.

We have students that have gone into retail.

Or the music industry?

There are lots of options. It's not just about playing your instrument or singing.

As a performer or as a teacher, there are lots of things here to consider.

And so I think you should open your mind to these possibilities.

The other thing will say is that many of our students do not end up full time in music positions that are full time and so let's talk about that a little bit.

Skills employers report they most desire when hiring. These are nonmusic professions.

Maybe in in business and industry.

He skills are communication.

Analytical skills, problem solving teamwork adaptability leadership.

Self discipline.

Do any of these feel familiar to you? Those of you who are have been studying music for some time.

Let's take each one of those and just look at the kinds of activities in a music degree that speak to those skills. Communication, analytical skills.

Problem solving if you're practicing in a practice room, you are problem solving.

Team

Work if you're playing in an ensemble or singing in a choir, you are.

Getting experience with teamwork.

Adaptability

being able to adapt to the instruction of someone in your group or to a conductor or to adapt as we found in this these times of cobit in the last seven months to new technologies or to embrace technologies in teaching virtually.

Leadership. We have many student organizations where you can become leaders and get leadership experience.

Self discipline.

That's required of any music student, so these are all skills that are taught as in a music degree that are valuable to other industries.

I wanted to share with you this quote that I found.

Because I'd heard these things, but I was doing a little research on this.

Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school.

Physician and biologist Lewis Thompson. Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants.

He found that 66% of music majors who applied to Med school were admitted.

The highest percentage of any group.

Think of that the highest percentage of any group that's above students that are studying to be premed.

Now, I'm not saying that music students are are smarter than everybody else, but what I am saying.

Is that a music degree?

Deals with the head, the heart and the hand.

All three that are crucial to being human.

Crucial to the any endeavour and is a is a wonderful subject to study that will prepare you not just to be a musician, but to prepare you for life. I've still chosen just three of our recent graduates just to show you some of the things that they've been doing elidia. Dempsey graduated from here in 2016. She went on to do a Masters degree in composition and now she is a professional oboist composer.

And teacher.

But while she was in Graduate School, she met a person at the flute authority, which is a nationwide company that sells flute, music and.

I was speaking to Lydia about this and this person recognized in Lydia organization self discipline and a wonderful personality that would be work well in customer service and so Lydia now is a full time.

Employee of the flute authority.

Running their customer service Department and she doesn't. She's not even a flute player.

But she continues to play oboe. She continues to compose and to teach on the side.

Zac Hanson took a more traditional route. He did his master or undergraduate degree in music education here. Did a Masters later at University of Miami.

And has been teaching school and he's now a band director at Mason City High School, which, incidentally, is the high school he went to when he was in school. And finally, Major Ryan now and.

Ryan is the graduate in 2000, did ambassadors here in 2004 was the school teacher for some time, but he also had great skills as an arranger and he joined the Marine Band the President's own in Washington DC in 2010 as a staff arranger and since then has been promoted several times in his now the senior Assistant director of the President's own.

He was just last year promoted to the rank of Major Ryan and others have.

Wonderful careers, and they're just. There's just.

So many options that you can consider, so I want you to think about that when you think about studying music and careers that are open to you. It's not just being a teacher or performer. All kinds of things to think about.

So as we finish here, those of you have been paying attention to be just, you know about our slogan, belong, stand out and go far. And I think this is a great way to think about it. If you come to school here, you will belong.

To many of these organizations in these activities that we've talked about tonight and through those experiences, you will stand out.

And as you gain those experiences after you finish, you will go far.

Can you put yourself inside of this picture? Imagine yourself inside of this picture. This is our freshman class from 2018.

And here they were. They're all in school. Still, most of them with us.

They started their experience here.

You can see that there's already a sense of belonging. This is on the very first day of their freshman year.

And so I invite you.

As well, tonight to start here.

At the College of Musical Arts.

We have a lot to offer you and I've talked about some of those things tonight, but it goes both ways. You have a lot to offer to us as well.

You bring your energy, your passion, your dedication to music and it is a two way St. And so I always ask our students and ask everyone what will be your contribution.

To the College of Musical Arts.

So thank you tonight for joining us and will still have some time for questions again. My name is Bill Mathis, I'm the Dean of the college. Susan Nelson is on our call tonight helping with the chat, but she works with our admissions office and I ask you if you have any questions specifically later to contact her at music admissions at BGSU.

Dot Edu thank you. Stay safe out there. I'll start taking some questions that were coming to me from Doctor Nelson.

As we go so.

Here we go.

Question is, how many euphoniums does BGS you have? What about mellophones F horn? So in our music majors of you Florence, we typically will have. I would say 6 to 8 music majors as euphonium players.

Them allophones, of course, are instruments that are played only in the marching band and our marching band has about 200 to 225 students in that, in about 50% of those are music majors, and so the mellophone section would be. I don't know, maybe 10, and but the French Horn studio.

Is we usually have about 18 students in that in that studio. Does that help with that question?

Question about virtual auditions. There were a lot of questions tonight, maybe just talk briefly about our switch to virtual and get accepted. OK, yeah, so obviously we're not able to hold in person auditions and we're sorry about that. But you understand, So what we're going to do this year is go through a.

Company called Get Accepted and we will have this all up on our website at least by December 1st where you will come in. Apply to BGSU. Once you do that, you will able you will be able to schedule an audition and the link to get accepted will be there and you will enter all your audition information in there. Then you will pick a date that you'll be able to come and take your audition and this will be a live audition through Zoom.

And the Get Accepted website or Zoom site will allow us to treat it like it was an in person. Audition will have information sessions, will have a time for you to meet with students for question answers and then to take your audition with our faculty. And we did that rather than sending in recordings. We did that so that we could meet you and that you could meet us. Now we do have an option for you to send in recording if you don't want to.

To choose that option, but that's how we're going to handle our auditions this evening.

I'm so I'm getting specific question about that. Do we have to pick another day to audition? We would prefer that you do pick a day to audition and that will be on the website when you sign up, and that way we can schedule in and meet you and have a chance to visit with you over the zoom.

Is there a cap in the CMA that puts on freshman for best music students?

OK, I'm reading the question here.

So we do have. We don't put. We don't assign a certain number to how many students will accept, but in each studio on this question came specifically about the clarinet studio, which we have the picture right up there. We generally will have about 25 clarinet students in our studio, but typically if we bring in anywhere from 5 to 8 new freshman a year is what we would.

We would end up, but we don't put a cap on that.

If they declare that Professor feels like he has more students than he can take, then we will put some people on a waiting list. Until we here, we here, all of our auditions. But we accept all of those students who are qualified and.

It is a competitive process, of course, but generally we are able to bring in everyone that is passes their audition and chooses to come.

I hope that helps with that question.

Here's a question. I've heard that BJ Suc MA often has more of a contemporary classical focus.

How would you say this is reflected in the program in? Is there still a place for students whose primary love is in the older classical music? Well, this is the one of the great question by the way, and I did not specifically mention this before. I could have, but when we talk about the comprehensive music curriculum BGS, you does have a decided expertise an emphasis in contemporary music. But as I explained this evening.

We also have very traditional programs and there is a place for everyone in that. The thing that I think is important about this is that.

You have the experience in the wide range of music.

From the more traditional classical style all the way through the contemporary style and you get to choose, you'll have those experiences through your your courses, of course, but you get to choose what kinds of things you would emphasize and pursue on your own, and many of the activities and experiences that I was speaking about tonight are things that are outside of class outside of the normal curriculum that student would pursue on their own. So yes, there's a place for everyone.

In in the interest that you have.

Thank you, that was from Abigail. Thank you Abigail.

I've noticed just sort of out of the corner of my eye that the chat has been very active tonight, so thank you for everyone is participating in that. There are other questions I'm happy to answer.

Lots of questions coming in. I see about admissions.

So I'd like to finish, maybe with just a little extension of what I was just saying.

Opportunities.

Are here at Beech issue for you as a music student.

Whether you were planning on being a major music minor or you just want to participate in music because you love it and you want to keep that apart, even if you might be working on a different major.

When it comes down to it, the success that you will have as a student and this success really you will have in life depends upon the effort that you place into your activity and opportunities will come your way. If you look for them. And if you take advantage of those opportunities that are before you. So I hope tonight I've been able to show some of the value added kinds of experiences and opportunities that we have in the College of Musical Arts.

BGS use a wonderful University to study to come and study and we hope to see you soon.

In person wish you all the best. Thank you for participating tonight and I think chat will continue to go on as we.

Finished, but I appreciate everything. Good luck, stay safe, be healthy. Thank you.