As longtime choral conductor and director Donald Neuen prepared for his departure from UCLA this past spring, the Choral Excellence Association at UCLA began to see signs that its programs, and possibly the department, might be leaving with him.
While the loss of a longtime director as highly regarded as Neuen would put any program on shaky ground, his departure was followed with announcements by members of UCLA’s administration of their intention to cut the university chorus, advanced choral techniques and methods classes, the school’s graduate program in choral conducting, as well as UCLA’s Choral Outreach Program, which provides musical outreach and instruction for students from grades K-12.
In the interim, the school has decided to create a one-year, part-time academic appointment to fill the position of choral director for the 2014-15 school year. While a dialogue has recently begun between representatives of the choral program, Dean Christopher Waterman of the School of Arts and Architecture and Music Departmental Chair Michael Dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, this combination of cuts and departmental change has left the UCLA choral program with only two of its original four ensembles, no outreach programs, a part-time director and a fear for its future at UCLA.
In a letter addressed to concerned members and supporters of the UCLA choral community, Waterman and Dean attempted to allay the fears of students and other program members by summarizing the circumstances of Neuen’s departure. Waterman and Dean state that it was “Professor Neuen himself (that) advised the faculty to create a one-year academic appointment for the choral director position in 2014-2015″ and called a search for a full-time replacement “premature.” The letter also said that the program cuts are a direct result of the changes made to the director position, claiming that “after much consideration, the department faculty confirmed that two ensembles would be an appropriate teaching load for a part-time instructor.”
Although it took 13 days after the ensemble began a formal letter-writing campaign, and a Change.org online petition, leaders of the choral program are happy to see that their concerns have received the attention of the administration.
“It does not, however, in any way change the uncertainty still surrounding the future of our program,” said Stephanie Sybert, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student and the vice president of the Choral Excellence Association. “Indeed the first sign that a program may be eliminated is the cutting of its graduate program.”
The elimination of the university chorus is not an average class cut, as the choral program is not actually part of the Herb Alpert School of Music. Not only is it not part of the music school, but 90 percent of its 200 student participants are not members of the school, either. The choral program includes members from a wide array of studies ranging from the far ends of South Campus and North Campus.
“In my experience at UCLA, the choral program has been a home to me. When students come to a new place, they want to find their niche – a place where they can belong and be supported and loved,” said Kanwal Sumnani, a third-year neuroscience student and president of the Choral Excellence Association at UCLA.
“It was absolutely instrumental in my college experience,” said Jake Flatto, a recent alumnus of the UCLA Department of Mathematics. “I joined my sophomore year and was involved for nine quarters. It became a family to me. In my life, Don Neuen has been one of, if not the most, influential people I have ever known.”
As an alumnus, Flatto said one of his main concerns is the preservation of Neuen’s legacy. One of the first proposed cuts, the school’s graduate program in choral conducting, was created by Neuen during his 20-year tenure, along with the school’s doctoral program. Neuen was also influential in the creation of the now-eliminated Choral Outreach Program.
“From the first day I joined Neuen’s choir, I knew he was someone I could learn a lot from inside and outside of the classroom,” Flatto said. “He cared about his students, he really made it a family. That was his legacy.”
Flatto is not alone in his desire to preserve the programs created by Neuen, as evident by the Choral Excellence Association’s petition reaching 2,426 signatures within 16 days of its creation online.
“I just hope they have some understanding of what this (program) means to people. We are not part of the music school, but I know that I always felt like a part of it,” Flatto said. “I just hope they come to see our dedication and our passion, and that they are alienating people who feel drawn to help and serve the UCLA music (department) and UCLA as a whole.”