Majoring in Music
A music degree opens up a world of possible careers.
Musicians often choose a specific music career only after entering a degree program, because there are so many possible career choices. Here are a few careers you might want to consider (along with Witt music alums who are working in these fields):
Teaching K-12
Dan Fogarty (BME ’90) teaches at Red Oak Elementary in Nashville, North Carolina. For more than a dozen years, he has taught pre-school through 12th grade areas such as general music, chorus, and show choir. He is co-chair of the Swift Creek All-County Chorus, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. In addition to music, Dan has a masters degree in School Administration from East Carolina University (Greenville, North Carolina), where he was a Principal Fellow. email
Performance
Marcy Baruch (BM ’91), a singer-songwriter in Denver, Colorado, has received rave reviews for her CDs and live performances: “A crystalline voice, gifted with passionate phraseology, and an adaptability to play venues both grand and intimate, Marcy Baruch is a must see (or rather hear) musician in the pop folk category” (Riff Music Magazine). “This Denver area performer’s second full-length CD has a buoyancy upon which her strong, melodious voice floats, reminding some of us of Dar Williams and Shawn Colvin” (Music Connection Magazine). Album of the Month: “Marcy Baruch strides confidently through her kick-up-the-dirt songs with steel-toed vocals and a carefree, reckless zest for life” (Allen Foster, Songwriter’s Monthly). “Baruch takes her music-making seriously, and has carefully crafted an inviting record and a tight band that reflect her talent for songwriting, lyrical phrasing, and melody” (Judy B., GoGo Magazine). Regarding Marcy’s CD Clearly: “This is the best new album I’ve listened to in a long while” (Tim Noyce, GoGirlsMusic.com). “Clearly is one of the best independent CD’s I’ve heard this year“ (Alex Teitz, Editor-In-Chief, FEMMUSIC.com). email
Arts Administration
Luke Dennis (BA in Music and Theatre ’00) is Executive Director of The Muse Machine in Dayton, Ohio, and he is the pre-performance lecturer for Dayton Opera. In recent years Luke has taught music and theatre at the middle school and undergraduate levels, served as vocal coach to a troupe of improvisational actors, and worked as Reference Specialist for the Harvard University Theatre Collection and Education Manager for Boston Lyric Opera. He completed the coursework for a Ph.D. in Theatre History, Literature, and Theory at Tufts University, where he focused on nineteenth-century opera and musical theatre performance traditions. While at Tufts, he received the university’s Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education Award, for which he gives credit to his models and mentors at Wittenberg. (Photo by Andy Snow.) email
Music Therapy
Susan Potter Phillips (BME ’77) began her preparation for working in the field of music therapy began when she was still in college: She worked at Lutheran Memorial Camp (Fulton, Ohio), which included special-needs children in a regular camping program and later she encountered students in special education while doing student teaching. After two years of teaching elementary music in Millersburg, Ohio, Sue went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Sue completed a Master of Music Therapy degree at SMU in 1985. (She took off a few years to get married and begin a family before writing her thesis.) Sue has worked as a music therapist in public schools, private practice, and private and public hospitals in the mental health field. She is currently working full time at San Antonio State Hospital, providing music therapy in group and individual sessions to adolescents and adults in both short-term and long-term care. Sue directs a five-octave handbell ensemble at Windcrest United Methodist Church, in San Antonio, Texas, where her husband is senior pastor. email
Church Music
Brad Hall (BM ’05) is organist at Calvary Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) in Portland, Oregon, having previously served as director of music at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio. In addition, he has been working with Bond Organ Builders in Portland. Brad is an accompanist at the Portland Lutheran School (an independent K-12 school) and sings with the Cascade Lutheran Chorale. He performed with the Wittenberg Choir, under the direction of Donald Busarow, and presented an organ recital as part of the 50th anniversary of Weaver Chapel. Following a national competition, Brad won the 2004 Ruth and Paul Manz Organ Scholarship while a student at Wittenberg. email
Performance, Teaching, and Composition
Justin Peters (BM in Composition ’02) is conductor of the upper and middle school choruses and faculty chorus at Lincoln School, a Quaker school for girls in Providence, Rhode Island, where he also teaches music theory, digital-video editing, and general music. An active arranger, songwriter, and composer, Justin’s musical Shower premiered at Lincoln in 2005. Justin is a member of the Providence Singers, one of New England’s premier symphony choruses. With the Providence Singers, he performed Dave Brubeck’s Gates of Justice (with the composer and his quartet) at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2004. The Singers’ second appearance with Brubeck, at Lincoln Center in New York City, included the world premiere of Brubeck’s The Commandments. Other world premieres by the Singers include Trevor Weston’s Ma’at Musings and O Daedelus, Fly Away Home, Julian Wachner’s Jubilate Deo, and Chistopher Trapani’s O now the drenched land wakes. Justin appears in the chorus on the Providence Singers’ and Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recently released recording of Lukas Foss’s The Prairie. From 2002 to 2003, Justin was also active with the Boston Pops Festival Chorus, appearing at their July 4th festivities on the Esplanade in Boston, as well as at holiday concerts at Symphony Hall (Boston) and throughout Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. email
Music Librarian
Daniel Boomhower (BA in Music ’98) is Performing Arts Librarian and Head of the Music Library at Kent State University. He serves as liaison to the School of Music, the School of Theater and Dance and to Kent/Blossom Music (an advanced training institute for professional music training operated by Kent State, in cooperation with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Music Center). Dan is responsible for collection development, instruction, and specialized reference assistance in music, theatre, and dance. He holds two masters degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: one in musicology and one in library and information science. Before working at Kent State, Dan was Assistant Music Librarian at Princeton University. email
Teaching at the University Level
Georgia Petroudi (BM ’01) earned a masters degree (in piano performance) and Ph.D. (in historical musicology) at the University of Sheffield, in the United Kingdom. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Revised Works of the 20th Century. Georgia explains: “The aim of my thesis in historical musicology was to analyze and compare selected works of the twentieth-century repertoire which underwent revision and reworking, and to explore the reasons behind these revisions.” She is a lecturer in musicology at European University Cyprus, Department of Arts. In her free time, Georgia plays piano and the oboe in several choral and symphonic ensembles. email
Peter Kvetko (BA ’95) teaches courses in ethnomusicology and music theory at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. He earned a masters and PhD in music at the University of Texas in Austin. At Salem State, Peter directs the World Music Ensemble and teaches private lessons on sitar and tabla. He joined the Salem music department in 2007 after teaching at Tufts, Brandeis, Northeastern, and the University of Texas in Austin. email
Graduate Studies in Music
Instead of pursuing a music career immediately, you might wish to begin work on a graduate degree in performance, music theory or history, arts administration, ethnomusicology, or some other discipline.
Jennifer Gordon (BM ’07) is working on a masters degree in vocal performance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While at Wittenberg, Jennifer performed in My Fair Lady and Mozart’s Magic Flute. She studied opera in Milan, Italy, for a semester, and opera and art song for a summer in Quebec.
Careers Outside of Music
Many disciplines that require postgraduate training or education do not require a student to have a particular undergraduate degree. Medicine and law are examples of such disciplines.
Mary Miller Johnston (BM ’79) was appointed to the Superior Court of Delaware in 2003. She received a masters degree in music at Northwestern University and J.D. (cum laude) at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Judge Johnston is past chair of the Delaware State Bar Association’s Women and the Law Section, a recipient of the Bar Association’s Women’s Leadership Award, and was a member of the Pro Se Litigation Assistance Committee. She is a member of the Delaware Supreme Court’s Permanent Advisory Committee on the Delaware Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct and the Court’s Professionalism Committee. Judge Johnston serves as a member of the Washington and Lee School of Law Council. She is past president of the Board of Children & Families First.
You may wish to check out this excellent list of music careers, prepared by the National Association for Music Education.
