Rich Holly's Percussion Place

Assorted ramblings and occasional updates in the world of percussion.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

New Position at NIU!
(and other assorted percussion stuff)

Avid readers of this blog know that since July I've held the position of Acting Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University. I'm extremely excited to report that following a several-month national search, I have been offered, and accepted, the position as Dean of the CVPA.

I am looking forward to continuing the work on the several initiatives in which I've been involved in this year as well as pursuing new ones. We have so many wonderful things going on in the arts at NIU, it's a real honor for me to know I'm now the permanent Dean.

If you care to read the official press release, it's here.

I can hardly believe it's been nearly two months since my last post. Just a few of the goings-on since then: I was an adjudicator at the National Percussion Festival, run by Music For All, in Indianapolis in March. The other adjudicators were John Tafoya, Cort McClaren, and my good friend Jim Campbell. It was a great time - great friends, great music, and for a great purpose. I was also able to spend time with my good friends Michael Kenyon and Scott Deal.

My colleagues here at NIU, Liam Teague and Robert Chappell, performed a recital in March. I played on one tune - Robert and I revived our old "Dueling Xylophones" schtick with several changes and updates. The recital is online here. To get to the piece I'm on , you can click on the bottom scroll bar to move ahead - the piece begins at the 47 minute mark.