Panelists:

Helena Spencer (PhD Musicology ’14)

Aaron Pergram (DMA Bassoon Performance ’12)

Blake McGee (DMA Clarinet Performance ’08)

When you were students, what were the most valuable curricular and extra curricular activities you participated in?

Helena: Having both a primary and supporting area really allowed us to be perfectly set up for the positions we ended up winning. In my case, the ad I answered was looking for someone with my background. Also, playing in orchestras in town [Eugene] helped; in addition to this, I taught adjunct at Willamette University for 7 years. I was also involved with community arts organizations, served on Board of OMP, was co-chair of Artistic Director search, VP of the Board, and was on Graduate Committee at UO. I don’t feel like my current job is so different from the “job” I was doing as a graduate student, because I was writing, teaching, performing, doing service and committee work, and that’s exactly what I do now!

Blake: For my job, clarinet teaching is primary, and music history is my secondary area; I too taught while I was in my graduate work; teaching clarinet and saxophone at a Community College in SW Oregon, and taught Music History—which gave me the opportunity to get ready with course content. When I was preparing for the interview at University of Wyoming, they had me teach a class, which would have terrified me if I hadn’t had that opportunity to teach and prepare during grad school.

Helena: For the GTFs here, the teaching load is quite heavy. At other institutions, that may not be the case because there are fellowships. Some schools will say, “Well maybe you don’t want to do so much teaching….” But I agree with Blake; I had so much preparation teaching and lecturing that I wasn’t scared to start my first day of work, because the work I did here prepared me seamlessly to do the work I’m doing now.

Aaron: I didn’t set out to work in China, but I had studied Chinese and ended up taking graduate work in Chinese, and ultimately it ended up being part of my dissertation (doing a project in both Chinese and English). A lot of work I did was playing in student-run ensembles, such as the Tai Hei ensemble, which performs Japanese and Chinese music. I really immersed myself in the East Asian side of things, both with language and writing.

Helena: I think all of us were really active as presenters; I gave my first conference paper in 2006 (I did my master’s degree here as well). My first conference was in Norway and I got a lot of support from the Scandinavian studies program at UO. I was usually preparing for 1-2 conferences a year. If you don’t have any activities like that—national and international participation in conferences and workshops, then forget it [in terms of job applications]. It’s really in graduate school that you start to distinguish yourself.

Blake: Those little things [conferences, awards, presentations] really make a big difference; you really have to do stuff outside of school.

Aaron: It’s great if you give a recital here in Beall and your friends come, but it doesn’t do much for you aside from making you feel “warm and fuzzy.” You need to go out of Eugene, even out of Oregon, as much as possible. It’s the same for composers. It doesn’t matter if you get it premiered here—you need recognition outside of this pocket. Unfortunately when you see someone who has performances in Eugene, Bend, and Portland, it doesn’t say very much about what they’ve done. It’s a challenge to get out because the Northwest doesn’t have a lot of major cities. Try to get your stuff played somewhere else, even if it’s by a student-run organization at a different school. You have to think way beyond the mentality of a student in which you’re busy and only focusing on what you have to do by next month. Get out of the local scene.

How were you able to prepare for the demands of being in a graduate program while meeting the demands of the job market?

Helena: I would not have made it through my dissertation if it wasn’t for the support of my peers; we had little writing groups, I had two amazing advisors; Professor Smith gave me multiple-hour long sessions during times that I had writer’s block. Certainly, having a peer cohort that you can bounce ideas off of is vital. It’s also helpful to share your work with your colleagues and use each other as a network.

Aaron: It’s important to work smarter, not harder. I was super organized. I would ask myself questions such as, “do I really need an “A” in counterpoint?” Or, “do I need to complete this other project, or do this tour?”  It’s important to not let yourself get stuck in the mentality of: “I’m a student and I have to everything well.” It was much more important to me that I play really well in my doctoral bassoon recital than do perfectly in my coursework. It was also helpful to plan how to manage everything before starting the year. Do I need to do another competition this year? I was hyper-organized, to make sure I could check off all of my checklists.

However, if you’re a master’s student planning on continuing into the doctorate, make sure you’re getting good grades. But if you’re a doctoral student, if you’re on your terminal degree, it’s most important to think ahead to your career…

Blake: Once you’re a doctoral student, everything should go towards the final professional goals.

Helena: It’s also important to take time to bike; time to cycle through your thoughts. Also, all three of us had pets in graduate school. I have to say it was therapeutic—when you come home feeling stressed out, it’s nice to have dogs that are happy to see you!

Aaron: You’ve got to be able to take care of your physical self. You need this to keep yourself sane—that’s important.

What are some trends you’ve seen in the current academic job market?

Helena: You’ve got to be able to do everything!

Aaron: A lot of times, a professor will retire, and they’ll combine it with a bunch of other jobs….Kazoo+bassoon+history….crazy things. Often there’s not a perfect candidate for those super combined jobs, so sometimes the committee will give you a chance. If it’s not tenure-track, it doesn’t mean it’s not a good job, but somehow it feels a little uncomfortable if it’s a one-year contract. I’m seeing a lot of non-tenure track jobs and a lot of combined positions, as well as a ton of adjunct stuff, which is a trend in every field. A couple of years ago, a doctorate was always required for most positions. Now, it seems like ABD and relative experience is okay.

Helena: In performance areas specifically, they’re lightening up. Look at trends here at UO, a lot of the performance faculty do not have DMAs here. Schools want the best possible performer who’s going to be a draw for students; they want someone who will be a dynamic collaborator. In some ways it’s just like an academic position—they want someone who has cutting-edge research; in performance that’s creative activity. So a lot of universities will take the “equivalent experience,” such as someone who has built a national and international performing career, and is recognized as a prominent performing artist. For academic fields though, a PhD is still required. In terms of ABD—schools want someone who is “on the rise.” If one has been in a teaching position for a few years, it can slow down the research productivity. It all boils down to economics: schools want to hire someone that they’re gonna have for the next 35 years.

Aaron: And they want someone who’s going to recruit students and make them a lot of money! If you can get students in the door and get them paying tuition, then the school is happy. Sometimes they may even overlook your teaching ability in favor of that.

Blake: I wish I had known that before. My mentor did not really prepare me for that because he was operating on the “old-world” idea of recording CDs. You’ll end up getting comments like, “Oh he’s not a good recruiter….” and that feels terrible.

Helena: The studio that I inherited in my current job has zero bassoons—and it’s still at zero, which is going to become an issue. But how do I recruit bassoonists to a school that doesn’t have an orchestra or a chamber music program? I recognize that recruitment and getting the ensembles filled is a dominant mentality. In a couple more years I may be out of a job because of this!

Aaron: They want warm bodies in chairs. They want people in the door. During my job interviews, I showed that I could get people to come. I have a very professional website, I’m on Chinese Facebook and Twitter. On your website, post videos of yourself playing and teaching, including free online tutorials (15-20 minute education thing that you can put online), be connected to social media. For composer: have very high-level demos of your pieces recorded. However, watch out what you post. Make sure the products you’re putting out there top-quality. Ask your friends who work in tech to clean up your recordings, make it sound balanced, etc.

Blake: At University of Wyoming, it’s different—everyone on tenure-track has to have a terminal degree. Also, I’ve applied for a few different jobs during the tenure process, which is a good thing to do.

Aaron: Having served on search committees: It’s amazing how the chair will divide the piles. It’s not fair; people value different things—some value your degrees, where you’ve played, who you’ve played with or conductors you’ve played under. You really have to divide the pie of your career in a varied way.

Helena: Summers are not vacation. For performers, summer festivals have to be on your CV. In my own experience, I paid for a summer at Aspen, and later (because of going and helping and making myself known to them), I was able to get a contrabassoon fellowship for three additional years. Because of Aspen, I played under some of the greatest conductors. Summers don’t get to be vacation—they need to be used for professional development, such as festivals, workshops, conferences, and archival research.

Blake: For example, I wrote a book last summer.

Aaron: We all have heavy publication requirements. I must perform, publish, and record every year. If you are a performer and you don’t feel like you have strong writing skills, use the summers to sharpen those skills by reading a lot.

Helena: There’s a course at UO called “Art of the Sentence.” It’s a great class for those who are seeking to broaden their pallet of writing styles. Also, I recommend the book, The Art of Styling Sentences.

Even if you are admitted to the DMA program, you might not be able to finish that degree program if you don’t have reading and writing skills.

Aaron: In academia, your job is going to require you to write a lot. It’s not just research; there is an incredible amount of paperwork, reviews, and committee-writing—and you must know how to do it.

Blake: You also have to write annual self-assessments, papers, and evaluations.

What did you do to keep yourself going between earning the PhD and getting a job?

Blake: I graduated in 2008, and at the time I was told that there were no jobs due to the economy. During the interim, I taught and played concerts all over the state—I was constantly up and down the I-5 corridor. My resume had to stay active (I can’t go work at Starbucks!). If your resume stops after graduation, it looks questionable to a search committee.

Helena: I think there’s a three-year window after graduation in terms of looking marketable.

Aaron: I was teaching, playing, performing all over the state to stay active and put things on the resume. I played a summer festival every summer through my undergraduate and master’s degrees.

Helena: I think during the undergraduate program, it’s harder to start freelancing. I primarily got work on my other instruments, such as gigs on contrabassoon. While I was an undergraduate student, I took some local and regional orchestra auditions knowing I wasn’t going to get it. Even at school, I took auditions that I knew I’d lose, just for the experience of putting myself out there. Of course, you’ve got to make sure it’s polished well-prepared. Having some of those real-world experiences as an undergraduate student helps, because then in graduate school you can show up in a new place and hopefully be more successful.

I also took a lot of music electives (in musicology) to open myself up to music that was beyond my comfort zone, and to be intellectually curious about music beyond my own instrument. This ended up being hugely important for my career path.

Aaron: If you get to graduate school, and you’re like, “Wow, I really don’t know anything about opera…” etc, you should try to fill in your own holes. You can’t get everything during the undergraduate program, and you can’t get everything during master’s program—it’s such a short time.

Helena: I was clocking way more time in the practice room as an undergraduate student. In the master’s program, there’s not enough time to get better. Graduate school is to further refine those skills, and then make those transitions to professional life. As an undergraduate student, you have to really be working towards achieving mastery.

Aaron: I feel like a lot of students who leave this building are underprepared in performance. Here, it’s really isolated (I grew up in Cincinnati, surrounded by major cities). Here, you’re very isolated, and it works against you. You have to really push yourself to go places and see other things.

A lot is online now—such as the Metropolitan Opera—but nothing replaces going to see things live.

On Job Happiness:

Helena: I feel very fortunate to be working in the field in which I was trained. When I lived in Oregon, I had some scary moments nodding off on I-5! It was hard work managing a freelance career while also being a student. I’m very fortunate now that I get to be more stationary; I have small class sizes, so even though my students are coming to me without a lot of preparation as writers and researchers, I can be there to work with them and help them improve. I feel energized by my students; it’s my second year at this job, so now I’m working with students who want to write undergraduate theses. As much as it’s very tough to be in one of these positions where there are expectations of research, teaching, and performing, most musicology positions would not want me to be active as a performer! So I’m very lucky to be where I am. People say, “You can’t be good at both!” So I’m really lucky that I play in a faculty quintet, it keeps me active as a performer—so I don’t have to shut the door on this thing that was hugely important to my identity, whereas in a different position, I wouldn’t be able to play! So I’m tired, sometimes frustrated, sometimes underappreciated…but I’m happy and fortunate in my position.

Aaron: I’ve had a long connection with Chinese culture, and I’m in the premier city in the world (Shanghai). I live in a place with a large population, 108 million people in my state alone! That provides me with an immense amount of energy; it’s an exciting place for me, and China is growing and progressing so fast. The Western music scene is rising there too, so I feel like I’m in an energetic place. It’s exhausting and chaotic and I get tired of the subway commute, but—when I look back on the year—I think to myself, where in America could I have this?

Blake: My commute home is 6 minutes, I teach from 9-4 and pick up evening concerts and gigs. My life is so much simpler once I stopped doing the freelance/resume-building thing. In some ways it’s simpler, but also it’s more complicated. The expectations are vague, you’re getting judged constantly in official reviews in every performance. It’s political and difficult, and I shed more tears in the tenure process than I ever did as a graduate student. But now I step back and realize that I’m a clarinet teacher and performer, and making a decent salary, the tenure process has gone well, and I can go skiing 10 minutes away anytime a student cancels!

Helena: “We bloom where we’re planted.” You can create opportunities to utilize your situation and your skills to become useful in a professional setting.