The iconic New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music is looking for a gifted academic leader and outstanding administrator who is devoted to ensuring that our artist-graduates are prepared for the professional world that awaits them.
About The School of Jazz
The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music was founded in 1986 by Arnie Lawrence, David Levy, and Paul Weinstein as a program of Parsons School of Design and led successfully for almost 30 years as a college of The New School by Dean and Director Martin Mueller. It is renowned across the globe for its artist-as-mentor approach to learning. That means the world’s leading jazz and contemporary musicians—Ben Allison, Jane Ira Bloom, Cecil Bridgewater, George Cables, Dave Douglas, Matt Wilson, Reggie Workman, and many more— work intimately with students to produce groundbreaking music in a one-of-a kind music education. These mentors facilitate student exploration of their own talents, creation from scratch, and surfing across styles to develop new rhythms, compositions, musical language, and means of expression.
This out of the box curriculum in a program for a student body of almost 300 students has helped develop a stunning list of alumni who have changed the face of music in the 20th and 21st centuries, including Bilal, Peter Bernstein, Avashai Cohen, Robert Glasper, Jose James, Mary Halvorson, Roy Hargrove, Brad Mehldau, and Marcus Strickland.
All students at the School of Jazz pursue the Bachelor of Fine Arts (four-year BFA) degree or the combined Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Fine Arts (five-year BA/BFA) degrees. A new Master of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship is now available for Jazz students as a direct entry or as a five-year BFA-MA. Additionally, a new Master of Music in Jazz and Contemporary Music is in development with an anticipated launch in fall 2018.
With over fifty wildly different types of student ensembles, the School of Jazz offers opportunities to play in clubs, concert halls, and other venues throughout New York, as well as festivals and exchange programs around the world. With a thriving gig office and the largest music internship program in New York, students work with top-level producers, editors, and recording artists while gaining experience at Blue Note Records, WNYC Radio, Lincoln Center, and Nonesuch Records.
About The College of Performing Arts at The New School
In 1919, a group of visionaries including John Dewey, designed a new kind of university, one where creativity could be fearless and world-changing. The New School was born. The early history of The New School is rich in providing a home for many of the most important performing artists of the 20th century, including John Cage, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Martha Graham, Erwin Piscator, and Tennessee Williams. Today, The New School offers a groundbreaking College of Performing Arts (CoPA) where iconic schools of drama, jazz, and classical music unite. Here performing arts students work across disciplines to test the outermost limits of their artistry—and can study and collaborate with students at the university’s top rated design school, liberal arts college, and legendary social research graduate school. Greenwich Village is the campus, but our reach is worldwide.
Increasingly, CoPA students and faculty are collaborating on productions in music theater, experimental opera, song writing, composition, improvisation across disciplines and styles, music and film, and more, as the curricula of these three performing arts schools continues to develop new pathways reflective of today’s artists practice.
The Position of Dean, The School of Jazz at The New School
Reporting to the Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts and a core member of the highly collaborative CoPA Deans Council, the Dean of the School of Jazz oversees all aspects of the School of Jazz and provides academic and managerial leadership to the faculty, staff, and students.
The Dean will be a gifted academic leader and outstanding administrator who is devoted to ensuring that graduates are prepared for the professional world that awaits them. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for tradition and culture while never hesitating to evolve the program to serve the needs of the students.
This candidate will deeply value being a member of a high-performing leadership team with a highly collaborative style. The ideal candidate will possess a significant appetite for sharing authority and responsibility with all of the Deans Council.
The Dean of the School of Jazz is responsible for:
Ensuring vision and leadership for all musical, academic, and performance aspects.
The design and implementation of new, effective programs for training and educating professional musicians in a rapidly changing professional landscape.
Maintaining and developing collaborative relationships and extend learning and projects across the College of Performing Arts and university.
Management of school budget.
Hiring and retention of exemplary faculty, and the recruitment and enrollment of exceptionally gifted students.
Support and leadership for school faculty and volunteer leadership.
Close liaising and partnership with centralized functions in the University, including development, enrollment management, marketing and communications, student success, and labor and human relations.
Leadership as member of the CoPA Deans Council.
Management of full- and part-time faculty, including implementation of a collective bargaining agreement with Local 802/American Federation of Musicians.
Qualifications
Graduate degree from an accredited institution or equivalent.
Demonstrated teaching and administrative experience (minimum seven years) at a music conservatory and/or college or university music school.
Deep understanding and knowledge of music, including jazz and contemporary music.
Exemplary people and communication skills.
The ideal candidate for Dean will exhibit the following qualities:
A career that exhibits significant leadership abilities in an academic and/or arts organization, as well as a deep understanding of the professional world of concert musicians in a wide range of styles, including jazz, pop, composition, songwriting, arranging, experimental, film and media, etc.
Demonstrated experience, success and a fundamental desire to directly fundraise and friend raise.
Exemplary skills in organizational and educational planning.
Talent and commitment in serving as an ambassador to a wide range of internal and external audiences.
Significant knowledge of the broad range of music encompassed by the term “jazz” coupled with a commitment to the vibrancy and efficacy of a school of music. An understanding of the importance of an arts education in the 21st century and deep knowledge of the field of jazz education.
A good eye for talent.
Significant experience in managing budgets.
A good story teller and listener, with an empathetic leadership style, able to engage with a broad range of constituents, including students, faculty, staff, board, alumni, music industry, and institutional partners.
Significant knowledge and understanding of the work and lives of students, faculty, and staff within higher education.
Great patience coupled with a deep desire to evolve work so that graduates may have the greatest chance at success in the workplace of today and tomorrow. A sense of humor and a fundamental interest in and comfort with team leadership.
This position is also an associate dean at the College of Performing Arts and includes a concurrent faculty appointment as associate professor of music, strictly contingent upon continued employment as school dean.
Competitive salary and benefits. The New School is an equal opportunity employer.
Apply online at: http://careers.newschool.edu/
postings/13472
The New School is committed to creating and maintaining an environment that promises diversity and tolerance in all areas of employment, education and access to its educational, artistic or cultural programs and activities. The New School does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, creed, sex or gender (including gender identity and expression), pregnancy, sexual orientation, religion, religious practices, mental or physical disability, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, veteran status, marital or partnership status, or any other legally protected status.