In the past year, the School of Music’s Jazz Studies program has undergone a few revolutions.
After a fruitless two-year search for a new director, the major was put on hold.
Then Victor Goines, former director of the Jazz Studies Program at the Juilliard School in New York, was appointed to direct the jazz program at Northwestern – which is losing its current staff.
The School of Music recently announced it would not renew the contracts of the Jazz Studies program’s part-time staff.
Although all of the professors in the Jazz Studies department were contracted, almost all of them worked part time, said Ellen Schantz, director of communication and marketing for the School of Music.
If the professors had held tenured positions, then the situation would have been odd, she said, but this kind of event happens everywhere else in the university.
“There are many, many part-time lecturers throughout campus. Sometimes they’re renewed, sometimes they’re not,” Schantz said.
It is not unusual to bring someone into a new position, academic, corporate or otherwise, and have them want to hire their own staff, he said.
Brett Johnson, a School of Music sophomore, said he came to NU for the appeal of studying both classical and jazz.
He quickly found classical music overshadowed jazz at NU, he said. Johnson performed a classical piece at his jazz audition, and said the classical music staff could have denied him admission to the jazz program, even if the jazz professors wanted him.
“In an intrinsically classical program, it’s definitely hard for jazz sometimes to find its place,” he said.
Johnson said he is “super excited” Goines was hired, but is saddened that the current jazz faculty members were dismissed.
“I’ve heard rumors that he’s just going to bring in his own people from New York,” Johnson said. “It’s disappointing that there couldn’t be a collaboration between New York and Chicago musicians and educators in the jazz field.”
It will not be a problem to have new faculty who are unfamiliar with the program, and anyone who is hired will be “competent,” Goines said.
When asked if the current staff was dismissed at his request, he said it is better to focus on aspects that need improvement at a university instead of questioning why the faculty’s contracts were not renewed.
Still, Johnson has high praise for his professor, Andy Baker.
He said Baker is a “fantastic jazz trombonist … and an incredible teacher.” Johnson describes the loss of Baker as a “casualty of a changing regime.”
Yet Johnson said he can also see the other side of the argument.
“On the other hand, it’s Victor Goines’ program to run,” he said. “We don’t have a whole lot going for us right now. I can understand why he wants to bring in his own people or start over.”
School of Music senior Josh Moshier said dismissing the teachers takes the luster off of Goines’ arrival.
“If you’re going to paint the appointment of the new director of jazz studies as a victory, it’s hard to call that a victory when all the teachers have had to lose their jobs,” he said. “They’re the ones along with the students that really laid the groundwork for this to be a viable jazz program.”
The firing of the teachers will not affect the quality of the education provided in the Jazz Studies program, Goines said.
“We’re moving forward,” he said. “All those guys are great people, but we’re moving forward.”
Reach Phillip Swarts at [email protected].
