Texas University of Arts and Industries (1961 – 1963) Now Texas A & M University.
During the year when I was pursuing a master’s degree at Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, I began to apply for teaching positions. When I received an invitation to interview in the spring of 1961, I immediately dropped everything and traveled to Kingsville, TX and the campus of Texas A & I where I met with Preston Stedman, Chairman of the Music Department and several of the faculty. I also met with the Dean of of Arts who confired my appointment to teach clarinet and music theory. Shortly after our arrival in south Texas, my wife and I met with Maestro Jacques Singer conductor of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra and shortly thereafter joined the orchestra in the second clarinet chair and Missy in the first violin section. A year later, following an audition with the newly appointed conductor, Maurice Peress, I was chosen principal clarinet.
The Peabody Conservatory of Music/Johns Hopkins University
During the spring of 1963 I received word that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra had openings for Assistant Principal and Bass clarinet. By that time, Missy and I had decided to leave TX and head west to San Francisco where my former teacher, Robert McGinnis, held the principal clarinet position. With little savings in the bank, we had to make a decision about my flying to Baltimore for the audition. After speaking to Keith Kummer who was now in the principal oboe chair and teaching at Peabody, I decided to audition for the assistant’s chair. Although I didn’t win the audition, I stopped by Peabody to visit with Charles Kent who had been one of my teachers at IU before being appointed Dean of the Conservatory. When I was taken into his office I noticed a bottle of whiskey on Dr. Kent’s desk. He greeted me warmly and explained that the students had given him the bottle and showed me why: the Baltimore Sun announcement that he had been just been appointed Director. After returning to Texas, I sent a letter of to D. Kent thanking him for the visit. In turn he invited me to come to Peabody to teach Music Theory and to pursue the DMA degree.
When Missy and I arrived in Baltimore in the summer of 1963, the first thing we did was drive to the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Of course, at that time, we used AAA maps, no cell phones or GPS back then. As we drove north on Charles Street, we saw a parking spot adjacent to Peabody at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets. After parking and enjoying the Washington Monument as well as the surrounding parks, we entered the Conservatory Building and took a self-guided tour. My brief visit back on May 8th helped me show Missy a few of the historic aspects of the premises: the Concert Hall, the magnificent spiral staircase, the vaulted George Peabody Library, the wide hallways, the replica of the Ghiberti’s Baptistery doors and the office where she would be working as a secretary when classes started in September.
The University of South Florida
In 1963, I began studies towards a Doctor of Music Arts Degree at The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD while, at the same time, teaching full-time. The following year, I took a one-year leave-of-absence from Peabody to accept a temporary appointment at the University of South Florida to teach music theory as a replacement for Margery Enix who returned to IU to finish her doctorate. During that year I performed with the Tampa Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Antonini and Missy with both the Tampa and the St. Petersburg orchestras.