HISTORY OF VMC
(excerpt from interview with Dr. Smith 10.13.12)
Q: What is the historical background of the creation of the VMC (when was it instituted and how has it changed since its inception)?
"The first inception of the VMC was actually precipitated in a conversation that went on during my interview sequence at Texas Tech University in June 2000. The then-Director of the School of Music, Garry Owens, asked me a sort of standard question for such situations: he said, "what do you want to be doing in five years' time?" Though it's a very standard kind of question, for whatever reason I hadn't really practiced an answer for it. So, pretty much off the top of my head, I replied "well, I'd like to be running a small center for research, teaching, and advocacy in the world's musics." I'd never seen such a place, but I did have a couple of models in mind: the combination of advocacy and research I knew from Indiana University's Latin American Music Center, and of teaching and performance in IU's Early Music Institute, and the general vibe of excellence and collegiality I'd found both inside and outside the academy amongst working musicians. But I'd never heard of something that precisely fit the model of the VMC.
"Garry Owens asked "what do you mean by 'vernacular'?" and I replied "well, like a vernacular language--the language that people speak for conversation amongst themselves--so, music that's learned and taught and passed-on by ear and in the memory." I didn't want to limit the mission with a word like "folk" or "traditional" or, even worse, "non-Western": I wanted a word that emphasized we would address any or all musics that were oral/aural musics. That meant that we could work with all kinds of folk and traditional musics and dance, but we could also work with other high-art musics--East Asian, South Asian, African, and so on--that emphasized the memory and playing by ear.
"Dr Owens said "that's a good idea. Why don't you start using that term 'Vernacular Music Center' for all your different activities? That way you can start building a dossier and a track record." So that's what we did.
"And the surprising thing was that this term, one I'd just thought of off the top of my head, actually continues to be a pretty effective umbrella to tie together all our activities: teaching seminars and classes; running ensembles ourselves; sponsoring student-run groups; hosting guest artists and teachers; serving as liaison between the School of Music and other on- and off-campus organizations, including especially non-profits; ad so on.
"A major shift over the years has been the sheer expansion of activities: more annual events, more guest artists, more affiliated faculty and departments, more ensembles and classes and so forth. But a second major shift has been an expansion of our sense of relevant topics: we have added certificates, not only in a wider range of idioms including world and early European musics, but also in practical arts administration and advocacy. We want to provide both pragmatic, skills-centered training and also philosophical underpinnings for developing young professionals: that is the basis for both our Bachelor's of Arts in Traditional Music, and also for our Certificates in World Music, Early Music, and Community Arts Entrepreneurship.
"In that sense, we're rather unique, because we are a program focusing upon vernacular traditions, which includes both practical/performance/skills training, but also academic/scholarly/research/advocacy training, and which is housed within a research university, grants a 4-year degree, and trains young professionals to do the same thing elsewhere. That's the foundation both of the MUBA, but also of our VMC Scholarship in Traditional Music (for an expert practitioner who is also a student at TTU), and of our VMC Outreach Scholars program, which sends young professionals out to training and learning workshops all over North America. These young people are in a lot of ways our most central, focal, and vocal advocates on behalf of what we're doing out here.
"A third area has been the expansion of the VMC's core topics, from the original model inclusive of all world's vernacular traditions, to a huge expansion in our sponsorship of the interplay between music and dance. Not everything we play or study is dance music, but the vast majority of the world's musical traditions will include equally beautiful parallel traditions in dance. Most of our ensembles and sponsored student groups will foreground the interplay between live music and dancing in a way that is extremely atypical for university groups. And that interplay in turn has made it possible for us to create remarkably rich, authentic, and engaging participatory arts events in a very wide diversity of situations and for very diverse audiences.
"Pretty much every time we give a presentation, or lecture, or performance, there's an element of audience-education: mostly our audiences aren't familiar with the particular music or singing or dancing we're presenting. So it's important to us to not only make really good performances, but also to create environments that encourage audience members to participate and become more involved. So, in addition to singing or playing or dancing--or all three--we also emphasize that our young professionals-in-training learn to be good practical on-the-fly teachers and speakers. We want them to be able not only to "do", but also to *teach*--because we think that teaching is the very best advocacy of all.
Q: What challenges does the future present to the continued success of the VMC?
"Ongoing challenges: There's always the challenge of funding and of audience development. Especially in the current era, historical sources of funding (from national or state or regional or private funders) are changing and shrinking. So we have to be very aggressive and imaginative and pro-active about developing and encouraging new and energized resources, which in turn plays back to audience education and the larger teaching and advocacy mission.
"An additional, and particular urgent, challenge is that, for the 11 years of its existence, the VMC has functioned essentially without either a budget or a regular staff. The funding we receive is on a project-by-project basis, largely due to the essential and very much appreciated visionary advocacy of William Ballenger, the current Director of the School of Music, who has been incredibly supportive of the VMC Mission, both practically and also philosophically.
"The staffing issue is bigger and more complicated: fortunately, a very wide range of my own activities as professor of Musicology (especially teaching and "research & creative activity") can also be listed as supportive of VMC efforts. However, until 2012 all other staff requirements were covered by our remarkable Administrative Coordinator Abi Rhoades (PhD candidate in Arts Administration), on a mere 10 hours per week funded by the University's Growing Grad Programs grant. Abi's efforts over the three academic years of the GGP grant 2009-2011.
"But now the GGP grants are gone--the program has been discontinued, so we're in a very challenging interim time in the VMC's staffing history. SOM Associate Director Michael Stoune found us a little money for our new Administrative Assistant Candice Holley (a PhD candidate in Musicology, and also a member of the Tech Irish Set Dancers) during the transition from Abi to Candice--but after January 2013, there's simply no funding. We are working hard to develop avenues and make the case for a continued Administrative Coordinator staff post, but so far the future of staffing is very uncertain. So that's quite a challenge."
[update 9.20.13 on staffing issues: "The situation is still fluid. We are still organizing and presenting our full range of activities and services, but funding for staff posts is still very uncertain. We can always use assistance and advocacy!"]
[update 1.5.14 on staffing: very pleased to report that SOM Director Bill Ballenger, a stalwart friend of the VMC, has found funding to continue Abi Rhoades as Administrative Coordinator in a half-time post, with Candice Holley continuing under a PhD startup TA assignment. ]
[update 9.1.14: adding to the team: Documentarian Marusia Pola Mayorga--see "Staff" page]
Q: What is the historical background of the creation of the VMC (when was it instituted and how has it changed since its inception)?
"The first inception of the VMC was actually precipitated in a conversation that went on during my interview sequence at Texas Tech University in June 2000. The then-Director of the School of Music, Garry Owens, asked me a sort of standard question for such situations: he said, "what do you want to be doing in five years' time?" Though it's a very standard kind of question, for whatever reason I hadn't really practiced an answer for it. So, pretty much off the top of my head, I replied "well, I'd like to be running a small center for research, teaching, and advocacy in the world's musics." I'd never seen such a place, but I did have a couple of models in mind: the combination of advocacy and research I knew from Indiana University's Latin American Music Center, and of teaching and performance in IU's Early Music Institute, and the general vibe of excellence and collegiality I'd found both inside and outside the academy amongst working musicians. But I'd never heard of something that precisely fit the model of the VMC.
"Garry Owens asked "what do you mean by 'vernacular'?" and I replied "well, like a vernacular language--the language that people speak for conversation amongst themselves--so, music that's learned and taught and passed-on by ear and in the memory." I didn't want to limit the mission with a word like "folk" or "traditional" or, even worse, "non-Western": I wanted a word that emphasized we would address any or all musics that were oral/aural musics. That meant that we could work with all kinds of folk and traditional musics and dance, but we could also work with other high-art musics--East Asian, South Asian, African, and so on--that emphasized the memory and playing by ear.
"Dr Owens said "that's a good idea. Why don't you start using that term 'Vernacular Music Center' for all your different activities? That way you can start building a dossier and a track record." So that's what we did.
"And the surprising thing was that this term, one I'd just thought of off the top of my head, actually continues to be a pretty effective umbrella to tie together all our activities: teaching seminars and classes; running ensembles ourselves; sponsoring student-run groups; hosting guest artists and teachers; serving as liaison between the School of Music and other on- and off-campus organizations, including especially non-profits; ad so on.
"A major shift over the years has been the sheer expansion of activities: more annual events, more guest artists, more affiliated faculty and departments, more ensembles and classes and so forth. But a second major shift has been an expansion of our sense of relevant topics: we have added certificates, not only in a wider range of idioms including world and early European musics, but also in practical arts administration and advocacy. We want to provide both pragmatic, skills-centered training and also philosophical underpinnings for developing young professionals: that is the basis for both our Bachelor's of Arts in Traditional Music, and also for our Certificates in World Music, Early Music, and Community Arts Entrepreneurship.
"In that sense, we're rather unique, because we are a program focusing upon vernacular traditions, which includes both practical/performance/skills training, but also academic/scholarly/research/advocacy training, and which is housed within a research university, grants a 4-year degree, and trains young professionals to do the same thing elsewhere. That's the foundation both of the MUBA, but also of our VMC Scholarship in Traditional Music (for an expert practitioner who is also a student at TTU), and of our VMC Outreach Scholars program, which sends young professionals out to training and learning workshops all over North America. These young people are in a lot of ways our most central, focal, and vocal advocates on behalf of what we're doing out here.
"A third area has been the expansion of the VMC's core topics, from the original model inclusive of all world's vernacular traditions, to a huge expansion in our sponsorship of the interplay between music and dance. Not everything we play or study is dance music, but the vast majority of the world's musical traditions will include equally beautiful parallel traditions in dance. Most of our ensembles and sponsored student groups will foreground the interplay between live music and dancing in a way that is extremely atypical for university groups. And that interplay in turn has made it possible for us to create remarkably rich, authentic, and engaging participatory arts events in a very wide diversity of situations and for very diverse audiences.
"Pretty much every time we give a presentation, or lecture, or performance, there's an element of audience-education: mostly our audiences aren't familiar with the particular music or singing or dancing we're presenting. So it's important to us to not only make really good performances, but also to create environments that encourage audience members to participate and become more involved. So, in addition to singing or playing or dancing--or all three--we also emphasize that our young professionals-in-training learn to be good practical on-the-fly teachers and speakers. We want them to be able not only to "do", but also to *teach*--because we think that teaching is the very best advocacy of all.
Q: What challenges does the future present to the continued success of the VMC?
"Ongoing challenges: There's always the challenge of funding and of audience development. Especially in the current era, historical sources of funding (from national or state or regional or private funders) are changing and shrinking. So we have to be very aggressive and imaginative and pro-active about developing and encouraging new and energized resources, which in turn plays back to audience education and the larger teaching and advocacy mission.
"An additional, and particular urgent, challenge is that, for the 11 years of its existence, the VMC has functioned essentially without either a budget or a regular staff. The funding we receive is on a project-by-project basis, largely due to the essential and very much appreciated visionary advocacy of William Ballenger, the current Director of the School of Music, who has been incredibly supportive of the VMC Mission, both practically and also philosophically.
"The staffing issue is bigger and more complicated: fortunately, a very wide range of my own activities as professor of Musicology (especially teaching and "research & creative activity") can also be listed as supportive of VMC efforts. However, until 2012 all other staff requirements were covered by our remarkable Administrative Coordinator Abi Rhoades (PhD candidate in Arts Administration), on a mere 10 hours per week funded by the University's Growing Grad Programs grant. Abi's efforts over the three academic years of the GGP grant 2009-2011.
"But now the GGP grants are gone--the program has been discontinued, so we're in a very challenging interim time in the VMC's staffing history. SOM Associate Director Michael Stoune found us a little money for our new Administrative Assistant Candice Holley (a PhD candidate in Musicology, and also a member of the Tech Irish Set Dancers) during the transition from Abi to Candice--but after January 2013, there's simply no funding. We are working hard to develop avenues and make the case for a continued Administrative Coordinator staff post, but so far the future of staffing is very uncertain. So that's quite a challenge."
[update 9.20.13 on staffing issues: "The situation is still fluid. We are still organizing and presenting our full range of activities and services, but funding for staff posts is still very uncertain. We can always use assistance and advocacy!"]
[update 1.5.14 on staffing: very pleased to report that SOM Director Bill Ballenger, a stalwart friend of the VMC, has found funding to continue Abi Rhoades as Administrative Coordinator in a half-time post, with Candice Holley continuing under a PhD startup TA assignment. ]
[update 9.1.14: adding to the team: Documentarian Marusia Pola Mayorga--see "Staff" page]
