Charge

The Committee on Music concerns itself with the University musical offerings, arranging schedules and securing performances of musical groups.

Composition

Consists of a Professor of Music and four members of the Faculty who serve four year terms. If a member has served a term of more than one year, he/she is not eligible for reappointment. The Dean of the Faculty is a member, ex officio.

The Committee shall also have two students with voting rights.(1)

Adopted by the University Faculty, December 10, 1930, Records, p 1654;

(1) FCR, May 16, 1973, Records, p. 4173C.

Where not listed as a member or chair, both the Dean of Faculty and the Associate Dean and Secretary of the Faculty, shall be a ex officio members of each committee of the University Faculty and each committee of the Senate. (Faculty Handbook, Article V Section D Part 7) (Faculty Handbook, Article VI Section A Part 3)

To: Dean De Rosa

From: Bruce Johnson, Chair

Date: June 13, 2024

Subject: Committee on Music Annual Report

We are sending this note as an update on the work of the Cornell Concert Series (CCS) Faculty Senate Committee on Music for the 2023-24 academic year and a look into the future. CCS has continued our mission of providing Cornell University and the local community access to the world’s great musical traditions and engagement with artists.

Booking choices by CCS manager, Deborah Justice, brought in the most income and largest audiences of the last 10 years. We opened the season with a free event celebrating 120 years of the Cornell Concert Series (in the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance) An archival exhibit of the event staying on display in the library all fall semester. Then the season’s concerts got going:

• Dover Quartet
• The Knights and Chris Thile
• Frank Vignola and Tessa Lark
• The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine – sold out
• DoosTrio – annual residency involving West campus houses, the Music Department, East Asian Studies, near Eastern Studies, and South Asian Studies
• Tafelmusik
• Zakir Hussain’s TISRA – sold out
• The Klezmatics

Audiences have been joyful and expressed gratitude that the series exists, bringing community to Cornell. Local students and their families have especially appreciated our program with the local public schools where members of the student orchestras receive free tickets for themselves, their siblings, and one accompanying adult. Over 300 seats were claimed through this program, giving access to young listeners who would not otherwise be exposed to the music.

The 23-24 season will be difficult to top, given the timeliness of hosting the Ukrainian orchestra, but the 24-25 season will impress audiences as well. The 2024-25 season showcases artists representing cultures and traditions from around the world:

• Tuba Skinny: vintage New Orleans ragtime
• Mariachi Herencia de Mexico: Mexican mariachi
• The Danish String Quartet
• YAMATO the Drummers of Japan
• Jonathan Biss: classical piano
• Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah: new directions in American jazz
• Sona Jobarteh: traditional African musics
• Roomful of Teeth: genre-bending vocals

The faculty committee continues to be a vibrant body, full of ideas and discussions. This 23-24 season, the committee was comprised of Bruce Johnson (chair, Neurobiology and Behavior), Nikolaos Bouklas (Engineering), Michelle Delco (Veterinary School), Roger Gilbert (Literatures in English), Judith Peraino (Music), and student members Bridget Hayes (graduate student) and Patrick Kuehl (undergraduate student). Since some members had served their full terms, new members were selected this year and next season’s committee will be Roger Gilbert, Chair (Literatures in English), Kaja McGowan (History of Art & Visual Studies), Emad Atiq (Law School), Ruth Collins (Molecular Medicine), and Judith Peraino (Music).

During the 2023-24 academic year, the Faculty Committee on Music met six times, with both virtual and live options. Our discussions at the meetings finalized the schedule of performances and engagement activities for the CCS in 2024-2025 and explored possible collaborations with Cornell Concert Commission, GSA and beyond. We also discussed various financial matters, focusing on stewardship and staffing.

On a financial front, CCS would be healthier if our usual fixed allocation of $136.8K would track slightly closer with inflation. It has remained the same since 2015, while costs have risen substantially. For example, in order to present the Ukrainians, we worked with various international campus units to make the presentation financially feasible. Historically, the College has periodically infused the Concert Series budget, for example with $20k per year for 3 years or the like. We suggest that this might be a good time for a similar move, as we continue to focus on quality of presentation over quantity.

Current staffing limitations have, however, reduced community and campus outreach possibilities. As we have previously documented, no other Ivy League peers are running a concert series with such a tiny staff. While the stage performances are appreciated, CCS offers great value to Cornell as an engaged bridge between university and community. Since 2015, we have had over 1350 Cornell and community participants in our engagement programs, but community-facing options have had to be curtailed, and student-facing options are increasingly difficult to sustain without staffing.

Additionally, the Music Department implemented dramatic concert restructuring such that, beginning fall 2024, the CCS manager position will no longer exist. CCS will now fall under the department events manager, with a staff position under that, 65% of which is Concert Series. A newly created department marketing position will use some of their workflow to run CCS marketing.

The Cornell Concert Series has been presenting the world’s highest quality musical traditions since 1903. We appreciate your continued support.

2022-23, 2021-22, 2020-2021, 2019-2020, 2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017, 2014-2015, 2013-2014, 2011-2012, 2010-2011, 2008-2009, 2006-2007