When a professor goes on sabbatical, he can become very busy -- and influential.
Just ask David Schildkret, who will lead the Piedmont Chamber Singers Saturday in Hanes Auditorium at Salem College. The program, called "Hallelujah! Amen!," will include two short pieces by Purcell, Haydn's "Lord Nelson" Mass and Handel's Coronation Anthems.
Schildkret taught at Salem College for seven years until 2002, when he was appointed a professor of choral music at Arizona State University. He also conducted the Piedmont Chamber Singers several times. He is spending the year's sabbatical that Arizona State has granted him in Winston-Salem, both as a visiting scholar at Salem College and as the singers' interim artistic director. He is also doing some writing.
The singers are looking for a permanent director to replace William Osborne. Schildkret said he is asking them to consider implementing changes that have "worked pretty well elsewhere," such as involving the group's members more "in aspects other than singing," such as building audiences.
Salem College's School of Music is at a bit of a crossroads. Two key positions, including that of choral director, are open and a voice professor will leave at the end of the school year.
Schildkret has been hired to conduct choirs, teach music history -- and, most importantly perhaps, to help Salem's School of Music "figure out some new directions."
"It was thought I could give both an insider and an outsider perspective to that process," Schildkret said.
Specifically, Schildkret will help determine the duties of new hires in a way that "will make things work better for everyone."
"What kinds of combinations of expertise can you reasonably expect people to have?" he asked. "That's much more varied right now than it was 10 years ago. Music schools have understood that they cannot turn out only specialists."
Versatility is especially needed at a small school like Salem.
"You're always trying to cover a number of different tasks with the same people," Schildkret said. "Smaller places need someone who can teach voice and theory and history and conduct the choir and run the musical. Frankly, that's a lot more possible to find, at a very high level, than it was even 10 or 15 years ago."
Schildkret is also looking at how Salem can "cultivate entrepreneurship" at a time when live concerts are competing with ever-increasing numbers of options for people's leisure time.
"We need to be creative and imaginative about how we tell the story of why people should come to live concerts," he said. "Every concert needs to be an occasion. What is the thing that makes this something not to be missed?"
This can be difficult to achieve, particularly at the academy, where what Schildkret called the tradition of "passing on rules and regulations" can lead to "creating a box that's very hard to break out."
When students come up with an interesting idea, they should be encouraged to explore it.
"We're looking for a very particular kind of individual who has the energy and the enthusiasm and creativity themselves to model this for students," he said.
Another question figures prominently in discussions about the future, namely how Salem can shape the role of technology in the presentation of music.
"There's a hunger for music," Schildkret said. "There are ways that people want to come in contact with music that are far outside the traditional idea of going and sitting in the dark for two hours."
kkeuffel@wsjournal.com
727-7337
The Piedmont Chamber Singers will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Hanes Auditorium at Salem College. Tickets purchased in advance are $16, $14 for seniors, $8 for students. Tickets at the door are $18, $16 for seniors, $10 for students. Visit www.piedmontchambersingers.org or call 722-4022.
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