Post by FIUFanatic on Feb 11, 2008 10:38:48 GMT -5
Interesting view on FIU's new Dean of School of Music, and her ambitions and aspirations for the School. Written by Lawerence Johnson, this Miami Herald story depicts what the future may hold for FIU's School of Music.
www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/412204.html
www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/412204.html
Dean's list: Ambitious plans for FIU'S music school
Posted on Mon, Feb. 11,
BY LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON
lajohnson@MiamiHerald.com
MARICE COHN BAND / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
When Kathleen L. Wilson flew to Florida to interview for the post of dean of Florida International University's School of Music, she was considering several other offers and wasn't quite convinced that Miami was the right option.
Then she saw the transvestite and the policeman in Miami Beach.
''[She] was getting in a car, and a policeman stopped and walked over to her,'' Wilson recalls. 'And I thought, `Oh no, he's going to harass her.' And instead he cheered her on saying 'You go, girl!' That's when I realized I was in the right place.
``I like the diversity, I like the Hispanic culture, I like the edginess. And I like the fact that it's so not-conservative.''
Wilson's appointment last summer may have been overshadowed by the almost simultaneous arrival of jazz pianist Shelly Berg as new dean at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. Yet just as Berg seems the correct fit for UM, the spunky and creative soprano, 54, definitely appears to be the right person for the right school at the right time.
CARIBBEAN ROOTS
Dynamic, engaging and not-conservative, Wilson is an award-winning teacher who grew up in the Caribbean and has a specialist interest in Latin vocal music. She also has significant hands-on experience in fund-raising, a crucial quality for the head of a school of music perennially short of cash. Wilson energetically worked the room at a recent New World Symphony concert, proving that this dean has no reservations about pressing potential donor flesh.
Under president Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique, FIU has focused largely on building a medical school that will require an operating budget of up to $28 million a year. Wilson, who succeeded the popular composer Fredrick Kaufman, was greeted with a 10 percent cut in the music school's already slender $3-million budget, with a similar chop likely next year.
''It has been impressed upon us that we need to think more about development,'' Wilson says. ``We don't get any internal [financial] support. I think the school of music has to take the lead.''
Clearly Wilson's drive, experience and convivial personality were factors in her hiring.
''She's a passionate and committed advocate for arts education,'' says Ken Cole, associate director of the National Guild of Community Schools in the Arts and a former colleague of Wilson at the Levine School of Music in Washington. ``And she has an ability to connect with people in a very personal way.''
A CLEAR FAVORITE
Composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia who headed the search committee, says that Wilson was the clear first choice.
''She had ideas and a plan,'' Garcia says. ``She's been working very hard to move us forward and get everybody on the same page.''
''I'm very impressed with her,'' says violinist Robert Davidovici. ``Kathleen has a go-getter attitude like Fred, and she's involving all of us together rather than each of us being on our individual turf. So far I can only say positive things.''
''Make no small plans'' was the motto of architect Daniel Burnham. With her fresh, holistic approach to the strengths and weaknesses of her university and the community that surrounds it, Wilson is fashioning an initiative so ambitious and audaciously grand in scale it could reinvent the whole concept of music education.
''You've got a lot of means but not necessarily a lot of philanthropy,'' Wilson says of Greater Miami. ``You have a bad [public] school system. And you have FIU, as a young university where the students tend to be talented and dedicated and very much in need of scholarship assistance.''
But, there is more on the positive side. FIU, Wilson says, ``has the largest Hispanic population of any university in the country. There's an interesting Cuban kind of entrepreneurial culture here. And I think Miami is on the verge of becoming something interesting.''
Her plan is to provide full tuition for all FIU music students provided they also obtain a minor in entrepreneurship and commit to spending 100 volunteer hours a year to bring music education to public elementary-school students.
''We have a really superb faculty, and we have very low tuition so it's one of the best values for undergraduate music education in this country,'' Wilson says. ``Yet some of our kids are poor as church mice. They stand, and they weep in my office because they're $500 short, and they can't even make our tuition.
'So I put all this together and thought `How we can make a difference, and how can we be unique?' So we're going to adopt elementary schools and going to teach and do side-by-side concerts and master classes. Our kids will get some pedagogy, too, so they will come out fabulous musicians, entrepreneurs and philanthropists.''
Wilson estimates the cost of funding 300 students at a daunting $25 million -- more than eight times the school's budget for the current academic year.
Still she is confident that she can raise the money through individuals, entrepreneurial organizations and children's education foundations.
''The state would match, so I really only have to raise $12.5 million,'' she says. ``It will be the only university that does this on this kind of scale in the country. . . . It will put us on the map. And we can use it to recruit internationally by stating we have full four-year scholarships.''
Clearly, Wilson is not afraid to rock the academic boat. Surprisingly, she has decided to scuttle the annual FIU Music Festival, a somewhat moribund effort in recent years.
Wilson would rather see FIU mount an ongoing concert series throughout the academic year, with some events held at more convenient off-campus venues.
''We can market it better,'' she says. ``And then within the concert series we can have a keyboard series and a vocal series and an artist series where we can bring in some outside names. I'd like to do fewer things but do them better.''
Wilson came to FIU from a the University of Central Oklahoma. Prior to that she was at the Levine School and spent 13 years at the University of New Hampshire.
Her abiding interest in various cultures has its roots in her childhood. The daughter of State Department diplomats, she grew up in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Haiti and Germany, and her fascination with Spanish art song is clear in several articles and The Art Song in Latin America: Selected Works by Twentieth-Century Composers. Wilson's bright soprano can be sampled on the CD Elan: Vocal and Instrumental Music by Composers from Mexico and The US.
Her high soprano is well suited to soubrette roles like Susanna (``I always wear an apron''). Yet contemporary concert music interests her more; her most prized performance memory is of performing George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children in Washington with the composer in attendance.
THE DRIVE TO TEACH
Yet, though she enjoys performing, Wilson says her driving force has always been a passion for teaching. She currently coaches students in applied voice at FIU. ``I choose to teach because I love teaching, and it keeps me excited about what I do. And because I'm doing it, I can relate better to faculty.''
Married twice, Wilson has an adopted 19-year-old son who lives in Oklahoma and is currently single. She lives in Miami Beach.
While she never had aspirations for a solo career, she continues to ''keep a hand in'' with selective public appearances. She has sung jazz at FIU colleague Arturo Sandoval's club and will perform more next season, including a cabaret recital and Bach cantata. She would also like to bring Crumb back to FIU and have another go at Ancient Voices of Children.
Wilson says her FIU colleagues have been ''very supportive'' even when she speaks her mind.
''I light a match, and I throw it right in there!'' Wilson says with a laugh. ``If you don't want to know what I think, don't ask me. Because I'm going to tell you.''
Posted on Mon, Feb. 11,
BY LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON
lajohnson@MiamiHerald.com
MARICE COHN BAND / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
When Kathleen L. Wilson flew to Florida to interview for the post of dean of Florida International University's School of Music, she was considering several other offers and wasn't quite convinced that Miami was the right option.
Then she saw the transvestite and the policeman in Miami Beach.
''[She] was getting in a car, and a policeman stopped and walked over to her,'' Wilson recalls. 'And I thought, `Oh no, he's going to harass her.' And instead he cheered her on saying 'You go, girl!' That's when I realized I was in the right place.
``I like the diversity, I like the Hispanic culture, I like the edginess. And I like the fact that it's so not-conservative.''
Wilson's appointment last summer may have been overshadowed by the almost simultaneous arrival of jazz pianist Shelly Berg as new dean at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. Yet just as Berg seems the correct fit for UM, the spunky and creative soprano, 54, definitely appears to be the right person for the right school at the right time.
CARIBBEAN ROOTS
Dynamic, engaging and not-conservative, Wilson is an award-winning teacher who grew up in the Caribbean and has a specialist interest in Latin vocal music. She also has significant hands-on experience in fund-raising, a crucial quality for the head of a school of music perennially short of cash. Wilson energetically worked the room at a recent New World Symphony concert, proving that this dean has no reservations about pressing potential donor flesh.
Under president Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique, FIU has focused largely on building a medical school that will require an operating budget of up to $28 million a year. Wilson, who succeeded the popular composer Fredrick Kaufman, was greeted with a 10 percent cut in the music school's already slender $3-million budget, with a similar chop likely next year.
''It has been impressed upon us that we need to think more about development,'' Wilson says. ``We don't get any internal [financial] support. I think the school of music has to take the lead.''
Clearly Wilson's drive, experience and convivial personality were factors in her hiring.
''She's a passionate and committed advocate for arts education,'' says Ken Cole, associate director of the National Guild of Community Schools in the Arts and a former colleague of Wilson at the Levine School of Music in Washington. ``And she has an ability to connect with people in a very personal way.''
A CLEAR FAVORITE
Composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia who headed the search committee, says that Wilson was the clear first choice.
''She had ideas and a plan,'' Garcia says. ``She's been working very hard to move us forward and get everybody on the same page.''
''I'm very impressed with her,'' says violinist Robert Davidovici. ``Kathleen has a go-getter attitude like Fred, and she's involving all of us together rather than each of us being on our individual turf. So far I can only say positive things.''
''Make no small plans'' was the motto of architect Daniel Burnham. With her fresh, holistic approach to the strengths and weaknesses of her university and the community that surrounds it, Wilson is fashioning an initiative so ambitious and audaciously grand in scale it could reinvent the whole concept of music education.
''You've got a lot of means but not necessarily a lot of philanthropy,'' Wilson says of Greater Miami. ``You have a bad [public] school system. And you have FIU, as a young university where the students tend to be talented and dedicated and very much in need of scholarship assistance.''
But, there is more on the positive side. FIU, Wilson says, ``has the largest Hispanic population of any university in the country. There's an interesting Cuban kind of entrepreneurial culture here. And I think Miami is on the verge of becoming something interesting.''
Her plan is to provide full tuition for all FIU music students provided they also obtain a minor in entrepreneurship and commit to spending 100 volunteer hours a year to bring music education to public elementary-school students.
''We have a really superb faculty, and we have very low tuition so it's one of the best values for undergraduate music education in this country,'' Wilson says. ``Yet some of our kids are poor as church mice. They stand, and they weep in my office because they're $500 short, and they can't even make our tuition.
'So I put all this together and thought `How we can make a difference, and how can we be unique?' So we're going to adopt elementary schools and going to teach and do side-by-side concerts and master classes. Our kids will get some pedagogy, too, so they will come out fabulous musicians, entrepreneurs and philanthropists.''
Wilson estimates the cost of funding 300 students at a daunting $25 million -- more than eight times the school's budget for the current academic year.
Still she is confident that she can raise the money through individuals, entrepreneurial organizations and children's education foundations.
''The state would match, so I really only have to raise $12.5 million,'' she says. ``It will be the only university that does this on this kind of scale in the country. . . . It will put us on the map. And we can use it to recruit internationally by stating we have full four-year scholarships.''
Clearly, Wilson is not afraid to rock the academic boat. Surprisingly, she has decided to scuttle the annual FIU Music Festival, a somewhat moribund effort in recent years.
Wilson would rather see FIU mount an ongoing concert series throughout the academic year, with some events held at more convenient off-campus venues.
''We can market it better,'' she says. ``And then within the concert series we can have a keyboard series and a vocal series and an artist series where we can bring in some outside names. I'd like to do fewer things but do them better.''
Wilson came to FIU from a the University of Central Oklahoma. Prior to that she was at the Levine School and spent 13 years at the University of New Hampshire.
Her abiding interest in various cultures has its roots in her childhood. The daughter of State Department diplomats, she grew up in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Haiti and Germany, and her fascination with Spanish art song is clear in several articles and The Art Song in Latin America: Selected Works by Twentieth-Century Composers. Wilson's bright soprano can be sampled on the CD Elan: Vocal and Instrumental Music by Composers from Mexico and The US.
Her high soprano is well suited to soubrette roles like Susanna (``I always wear an apron''). Yet contemporary concert music interests her more; her most prized performance memory is of performing George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children in Washington with the composer in attendance.
THE DRIVE TO TEACH
Yet, though she enjoys performing, Wilson says her driving force has always been a passion for teaching. She currently coaches students in applied voice at FIU. ``I choose to teach because I love teaching, and it keeps me excited about what I do. And because I'm doing it, I can relate better to faculty.''
Married twice, Wilson has an adopted 19-year-old son who lives in Oklahoma and is currently single. She lives in Miami Beach.
While she never had aspirations for a solo career, she continues to ''keep a hand in'' with selective public appearances. She has sung jazz at FIU colleague Arturo Sandoval's club and will perform more next season, including a cabaret recital and Bach cantata. She would also like to bring Crumb back to FIU and have another go at Ancient Voices of Children.
Wilson says her FIU colleagues have been ''very supportive'' even when she speaks her mind.
''I light a match, and I throw it right in there!'' Wilson says with a laugh. ``If you don't want to know what I think, don't ask me. Because I'm going to tell you.''
