Undercofler named as Eastman director

Undercofler

"A rigorous national search for a director led us home, to one of our own," the president and provost said in a memo to the Eastman community. "James Undercofler has impressed everyone with his outstanding qualities for this particular juncture in the history of the Eastman School.

"A performer, teacher, conductor, and administrator during the course of his career, he has also shown a special and considerable talent for engaging the larger issues that face music and all musicians," they said.

From the time he came to Eastman in July 1995 as associate director for academic affairs and professor of music education, Undercofler has directed the ground-breaking, nationally noted Eastman Initiatives. The series of programs and processes is characterized by four themes: educating students to discover nontraditional ways to reach out to new audiences; preparing students to create new performing opportunities, emphasizing the artist"s connections with his or her community; expanding our conception of classical music to acknowledge musical traditions of other cultures and changes in our own musical culture; and encouraging students to approach the changing state of classical music with initiative and leadership, rather than nostalgia or despair.

Undercofler"s leadership was key to establishing one of the most vital, far-reaching initiatives programs -- a partnership with the Rochester City School District that is building a new model for urban music education. The multi-faceted collaboration consists of a scholarship program for City School students to study at no cost in Eastman"s Community Education Division, innovative string programs in urban elementary schools, and comprehensive curriculum development.

"It is a profound honor to be named director, especially at this pivotal and promising time in the school"s history," Undercofler said. "I believe the excellence and innovation that define the Eastman School itself will provide strong solutions to the challenges facing our musical culture. I also know the truly spectacular depth of knowledge, wisdom, and creativity within the Eastman community of students, faculty, and alumni. Quite candidly, I believe there is no school with a better foundation on which to build."

Undercofler received his bachelor"s degree from Eastman and his master"s degree from Yale University, and did doctoral studies at the University of Connecticut. He was founding director (serving from 1986 to 1995) of the Minnesota Center for Arts Education, a state agency in the executive branch of government established to meet the artistic educational needs of students statewide. From 1972 to 1985, he was central to the development of the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, an arts organization devoted to services for students and teachers. He became the center"s director in 1976. While in Connecticut, he was an active, performing chamber musician, as well as first horn in the New Haven Symphony. He was conductor of the Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra and founder/conductor of the New Haven Concert Orchestra. At the Neighborhood Music School, he was horn teacher and wind/voice department chair.

He serves on the advisory boards of the Arts Education Policy Review and the National Research Center for Gifted and Talented Education, and is a founding member of the NETWORK of Performing and Visual Arts Schools. He is on the board of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and is co-chair of the board committee searching for a new conductor/director for the orchestra. While in Minneapolis, he was on the advisory boards of the Guthrie Theater and the Walker Art Center.

Undercofler is the Eastman School"s fifth director. He succeeds Robert Freeman (1972-96), Walter Hendl (1964-72), Howard Hanson (1924-64), and Alf Klingenberg (1921-23).