Highlighted Events/Initiatives 2021-2022
Peace and Love
The Crane School of Music celebrated the life of Dean Emeritus Dr. Lonel Woods, a true leader and voice for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Crane School of Music by proclaiming his salutation, “Peace and Love” the 2021-2022 theme. This declaration invites the Crane community to engage in the programming of works, activities, and events that resonate with ideals of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.
Crane Concert Band Concert
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 8 p.m., Hosmer Hall,
This concert featured performances of James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” Omar Thomas’ “Mother of a Revolution” (in collaboration with dancers from the SUNY Potsdam Department of Theatre and Dance), and other works, in a concert dedicated to the memory of Dr. Lonel Woods, Dean Emeritus.
Fall 2021 Joy Douglass Residency
Storyteller, artist, educator, and “Officer Clemons” from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood François Scarborough Clemmons was on campus for a two-day residency, Thursday, October 14 and Friday October 15.
Lonel Woods Memorial Concert
Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m., Hosmer Hall
We celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Lonel Woods, Dean Emeritus of the Crane School of Music with a variety of alumni, student and faculty performances.
MetLive@the Roxy, sponsored by the Crane School of Music
Terence Blanchard's "Fire Shut Up in my Bones" was broadcast at the Roxy Theater, Potsdam, NY, live on Saturday, October 23, 2021, with two encore screenings in November. There were pre- and post-event talks for this new opera, the first by a Black composer to be performed by the Metropolitan Opera.
World Premiere - Scenes from William Grant Still's opera "Mota", April 1, 2022
The Crane School of Music welcomed several alumni back to campus, joined with several of our current voice majors, and faculty in the world premiere of workshopped scenes from William Grant Still's Opera, "Mota" as part of the 2022 LoKo Festival. William Grant Still is considered one of the pioneers of Black American composers and conductors. Crane Professor, Donald George, Professor of Voice, has a wonderful relationship with William and Avery Still's daughter, who gave him a copy of the manuscript to "Mota" as a gift. Judith Still graciously allowed the Crane School of Music to perform the work with no payment of royalties.
The Crane Spring Festival Concert, LoKo Arts Festival 2022
The 2022 Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor for The Crane School of Music was conductor/composer Dr. Rollo Dilworth, and the concert will include a new work by Dr. Dilworth, setting the poem Weather by poet Claudia Rankine. The poem Weather appeared on the front cover of the June 21 issue of The New York Times. Dr. Rankine is the author of “Citizen: An American Lyric” and other collections, as well as two plays and various essays. She teaches at Yale University. Her new book, “Just Us: An American Conversation,” was published in September 2020. Weather takes a hard look at the climate in America in 2020 taking into consideration systematic racism and the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the Coronavirus and climate change. As a third component of the work, Dr. Colleen Sears, Chairperson of the Department of Music and Coordinator of Music Education at the College of New Jersey, designed a companion curriculum that will be directly integrated with the composition. Dr. Sears has successfully created and implemented curricula for students and audiences with other works that address prominent social issues.
The concert also featured Lawren Brianna Ware’s “Hurakan” and George Walker’s “Canvas.” The 2022 Crane School of Music spring festival concert took place on Friday, April 29, 2022 in Hosmer Hall, with Dr. Dilworth leading the Crane Wind Ensemble and Crane Chorus.
Design Sprints and BIPOC Affinity Circle Surveys
Throughout the 2021-2022 school year, members of the Crane Community were invited to participate in a solution-oriented series of think tanks aimed to provide our administration, faculty, and student body feedback and actionable ideas for equity, inclusivity, and belonging. Opportunities for participation included both in-person and virtual options. An assortment of meetings took place throughout the year highlighting needs of our unique intersections and fostering a more diverse student experience.
Together attendees brainstormed solutions, clarified institutional inequities, and recommended policy and curricular reform to our administration, faculty, and student organizations. Design sprints were focused on a number of affinity circles around student/faculty/staff identities, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and those concerned with issues of gender equality.
The School also gathered gathering feedback from alumni, faculty, staff, and students regarding the inclusiveness of the Crane School of Music community.
Spring 2020
The Crane School of Music adopts a non-gendered and economically sensitive concert attire policy for our students with input and a commitment from all our ensemble directors. This revision ensures a professional look on stage that is both inclusive and accessible for all of our students.
2019-2020
The Crane School of Music celebrated the centennial of women’s suffrage throughout the 2019 –
2020 academic year with a series of programs, concerts, events, and dialogues presenting the history of Women’s equity in the United States and around the world
2018-2019
Through informal conversations began prior, formal conversation among faculty began in Spring 2018 and continued through the 2018-2019 school year. These were initiated after campus wide conversations on diversity, equity, and inclusion had begun, and were specifically intended to explore the meaning of DEI work of a school of music. Over a few weeks, six open conversations were held centered on the following topics:
- Implications for engagements with leadership in music education
- Curriculum/Student Outcomes and Learning/Careers
- Student identity/Recruitment/Retention/Graduation
- Programming/Performance/Repertoire
- Classroom culture/inclusivity in instruction
- Open/General Topics
All faculty and staff were invited to these meetings. Separate opportunities were offered by the Dean for students. A number of goals and initiatives came out of these meetings and discussions, with work clarifying and realizing those goals on going in the following years. Some of those initiatives are mentioned above, but they also included topics such as continued revisions to audition requirements, discussions with students regarding a new Black Crane Student organization, concerns about representation of BIPOC students in Crane advertising materials, and new music degree pathways.