Piano/Piano Pedagogy/Collaborative Piano 2015-2016

Searches for academic positions in Piano, Piano Pedagogy, and Collaborative Piano in 2015-2016. This page is for jobs that begin in Fall 2016, unless otherwise specified.

Previous Pages:


 * Piano/Piano Pedagogy 2014-2015 (last year
 * Piano/Piano Pedagogy 2013-2014 (two years ago)
 * Piano 2012-2013 (three years ago)

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Also, I am copying the guidelines from the Humanities and Social Sciences Postdocs 2011-12 . I think we can all agree that we should strive to keep this page as easy to read as possible to maximize its usefulness.

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Recent Activity on Piano/Piano Pedagogy/Collab. Piano 2015-16 Wiki

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Schools with Accepted Offers
Format for this section:

University: Name (Current Position [if applicable], DMA-GRANTING INSTITUTION, and year, if known)

Bowie State University - Assistant Professor of Music (Deadline: October 8, 2015)

 * Unclear if this is a Piano position or a Piano + Music Ed + other roles + do a little light plumbing on the side kind of position

Brigham Young University - Piano Faculty (Deadline: September 30, 2015)

 * Anyone know if this is a tenure-track position vs. Full-Time/Non-TT? Vitae post didn't specify.

Ningbo University (China) - Piano Faculty
===University of Cincinnati - College-Conservatory of Music - Assistant/Associate Professor of Piano  - 2 positions. ===
 * See also here.

Application and Interview Procedures

 * So, you have a doctoral degree in piano and are interested in teaching at a college or university?  Awesome!  Here is a short guide to applying for piano jobs:
 * 1) After reading the posting on CMS/HigherEd Jobs/The Chronicle, go to the school's music website.  Is there a Visiting Assistant Professor listed?  If so, this is possibly a pro forma search, whereupon you should skip directly to #11 on this list.  If you decide to try to unseat the internal or if it's a "clean" opening, proceed to #2.
 * 2) Prepare your CV, Cover Letter, Teaching Philosophy, and List of References.  Additionally, prepare a list of sample recordings in increments of 20-60 minutes, but do not submit this unless initially requested in the application procedures.  Your cover letter should address the following areas: your experience in higher education, a brief discussion of student success and recruitment, an overview of your professional performance/research profile, and why you are interested in this particular position.  If you've never had a job in higher education, outlay your recruitment strategy and play up other areas of your professional experience.  Finally, make sure to include the correct name and contact info of the school to which you're applying.  If you accidentally didn't swap out the information in your Cover Letter from another application and submitted your materials anyway, skip to #11.  If everything was correct in your materials (grammatically and otherwise), proceed to #3.
 * 3) Welcome to Purgatory!  Depending on the closing date and the number of applications, it's possible that you might not hear from the search committee anywhere from a few weeks to several months.  If the search committee contacts you, proceed to #4.  If not, skip to #11.
 * 4) Congratulations - you passed the paper round!  The search committee would like to hear samples of your performances!  Remember that list from #2?  Make sure that whatever you select is of high quality and has all the bases covered: a concerto, a few solos, and some collaborative/chamber playing.  Keep in mind that some search committee members might have strong prejudices about repertoire and could vote against you based solely on what you submitted rather than how you play it (it sucks, but it happens).  Thus, while your recordings should contain at least one non-standard selection, try to balance it with more canonic repertoire to assuage their fears that you have a personality. If the majority of the committee likes your playing, proceed to #5.  If not, skip to #11.
 * 5) Woot woot!  The search committee likes your playing enough to tolerate the sound of your voice!  Let's set up a phone interview!  Be prepared to verbalize your CV, teaching philosophy, recruitment strategy, and explain to the committee why, precisely, you want to teach in rural Montana.  The goal here is to see who can answer questions simply, directly, and with as little fluff as possible.  Don't quote Enlightenment philosophers; cite specific experiences and relate them to your strategy of building a piano program.  The committee will typically ask if you have any questions for them, so have one or two.  Proceed to #6.
 * 6) We're getting close to meeting people up close and personal!  Hooray!  Here's where it gets fun - the upper administration makes the final decision on which candidates to invite to campus, so even if you did everything correctly up until this point, it is quite possible that you won't be approved for a campus interview based on any number of insane factors ranging from where you went to school (some universities are against having too many people from one school on their faculty) to the fact that you only won the Bronze Medal, and not the Gold, in the Leeds Competition (bummer).  If you're approved for a campus interview, proceed to #7.  If not...well, you know where to go by now.
 * 7) YOU MADE IT TO CAMPUS!  This is truly an accomplishment these days - in a sea of overqualified candidates, making it to the finals of any job is a great sign of your career prospects.  At this point, there is one simple requirement to getting an offer: don't screw up.  Before we deal with what to deal with next, here's a sucker punch that most people don't expect: it's possible that the school will ask that you pay for your own travel expenses to the interview.  Unfortunately, many universities are limiting their travel budgets for searches and instead ask the candidate to purchase their own airfare with the promise of reimbursement (which may or may not happen - check the "Universities to Fear" page for the most up-to-date horror stories).  SOOOOOOO, after submitting your application, recordings, doing a phone interview, and paying anywhere from $500-$1000 of interview costs, it's time to get real.  When you finally get to show them your pearly whites in person, be prepared to do the following things:
 * 8) * Perform a recital of 20-45 minutes in length (some bigger schools might ask for an hour, although this is a relatively rare request).  If you're applying for jobs, you should have a program ready to go during the interview season of late January-mid April.  Ideally, play something that was not on your recording list to show the breadth of your repertoire.  Make sure that you do NOT go over the requested amount of time, as it is possible that someone might vote against you for not adhering to the interview guidelines.  Concerning programming, play what you play well and have played many times before - this is not a situation where you want to try out new repertoire for the first time unless you like living dangerously.  Some schools might also request that you play a collaborative selection with a member of their faculty.  Never played the Prokofiev Flute Sonata?  GET PRACTICING!
 * 9) * Teach a masterclass for 2-3 students.  Pick your battles carefully when working with a student.  If someone needs help with their technique, address that; if someone doesn't know the background of the piece, talk about the historical context and/or style and work it into your comments.  Show that you are capable of addressing a wide range of problems and that you only scream at people when necessary (i.e., most of the time).
 * 10) * Interview with the committee, the department chair/director, and the Dean.  With the committee, the questions will mostly deal with issues such as recruiting, working collegially with others ("Approximately how many lunches do you steal from the faculty fridge per week?"), and other nuts-and-bolts things.  With the upper administration, be prepared to discuss the more broad aspects of the position, such as community involvement, your multi-year plan, and your thoughts on the school's mission statement.  Some of these interviews might happen over meals, at which point you get to answer questions while everyone else enjoys a Grilled Chicken Southwestern Wrap.  If it takes place over dinner, try not to get TOO drunk, okay?
 * 11) * Teach a class in a related area, such as piano pedagogy, chamber music/accompanying, history, or theory (if the position includes such duties).  They might give you a topic in advance.  If not, prepare a scholarly handout (avoid Wingdings font) and make sure that you engage the class as much as you lecture.
 * 12) * Generally speaking, be positive, make eye contact, and give direct answers to their questions.  Assuming that there is no internal, the big thing everyone is trying to figure out with finalists is whether or not they can work with you on a day-to-day basis.  Again, check off as many boxes as you can: no memory lapses in the recital, no students crying in the master class, no dumb jokes with the Dean, and don't throw a drink in anyone's face during dinner unless they deserve it.
 * 13) You're done!  Congratulations on making it through this unbelievably degrading process!  Go back to step #3, as it might be a few weeks before you hear any news.  If you get an offer, #9 is your next stop.  If not, keep going south.
 * 14) "I GOT THE JOB?!???!!?!?  HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!?!"  Well, you must have done SOMETHING right, because you beat out a highly qualified pool of sometimes as many as 200 applicants.  High fives!  Your negotiating power on salary, tenure, and other matters will depend on several things: whether you already have a job, how much they liked you, and if they see you as a long-term prospect.  If this is your first job, you'll likely have to take what they offer unless you can provide a compelling reason why you deserve a $10K travel budget.  If you're coming from another job, some schools will match your time towards tenure or kick you to the back of the line and make you start over.  Ultimately, it all depends on the institution.  Consider this the final test in the process - how you negotiate gives an administrator an idea of your overall collegiality, and pushing too hard might make them rescind their offer and extend it to another candidate.  If you and the administration come to an agreement on salary and other aspects, congratulations!  You're done!  Now, sit back and chill for a few years until someone retires from Eastman, whereupon you may proceed directly to #1.  In the meantime, head to a hard-earned and much-deserved #11.
 * 15) "WHAT WENT WRONG?????????" If you didn't get the job and everything went well, who knows what happened.  It really could be anything - someone was mad that you didn't take the repeats in your Beethoven, the outfit you wore was scandalous, or the Dean was annoyed that you didn't have enough fundrasing experience.  If there was an internal candidate, at least you got to see how the process works and had a chance at running through everything for a clean search.  Making it to the finals of a job is no small feat, so chin up and get ready for the next one.  Also, #11 is your friend.
 * 16) Have some Chopin.