The Last Mile to Year 50

No, the title doesn't refer to my birthday. That one is coming up in June, and will be for age 72, egads. Nope. The Last Mile to Year 50 refers to my long service as a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Next year I reach year 50 on the faculty. Double egads and mon Dieu.

I'm satisfied with my performance as an SFCM college professor for the most part. I teach some of the more unglamorous subjects at the school: the three-year Musicianship (eartraining) undergrad core-curriculum sequence plus the corresponding two-year Music Theory sequence. To add some flavor (and challenge), I also teach advanced eartraining and music theory courses. In the past I also taught most of the keyboard-related theory classes, but I have handed those off to a colleague with a sigh of relief.

I'm good at this stuff, really good. Eartraining classes are often taught by people who were class stars in their student days; I'm one of those. Which means that we don't necessarily have much sense of what a struggle it can be for some students, no matter how inherently talented they are. It was never the slightest bit difficult to me. Thus I've had to go over the steps that I instinctively skipped over. More importantly, I've had to acquire patience with students who might be trying their darndest but are just flailing around. My inner voices might be hissing how the hell can you be having trouble with something so obvious? It's like asking you when was the War of 1812. What's obvious to me isn't necessarily so to others.

But I've learned. On the whole I have become noted for my patience and equanimity, not to mention a certain implacable perseverance. I keep their noses to the grindstone with regular singing and rhythm work, complemented by lots of dictation practice. If progress is sometimes slow-to-glacial with certain students, it's certainly not for a lack of trying on my part.

I have more fun with the advanced classes, of course. I can help students with areas that I've really mastered over time, such as singing borderline atonal music with impeccable intonation. No halfway measures for this guy. I'm also quite skilled at threading students through the arcane ruminations of Schenkerian analysis and presenting it in a more approachable manner than one might get from some degree-studded university type

That said, I'm not 100% sure that my heart is really in it to the degree that it once was. Just the passing of time has had something to do with that. Been there, done that. Many times. But there is also the happy distraction of my second career as a writer and presenter on music to general listeners. Those offer me the stimulation and challenge that rather lacks in my day job.

The second half of this year just past has been marked by a health issue as a previously-unsuspected inguinal hernia started kicking up and making an obnoxious pest out of itself. Diagnosis revealed that there were actually two of the damn things, one on each side. They won't go away on their own so they had to be fixed. I opted to wait until the semester was over before having the necessary surgery. There was also a weird insurance issue that needed resolving as well. Therefore I spent the last 6-7 weeks of the school year teaching from a seated posture, not to mention having to make a beeline for the bathroom fairly often given the pressure those damn hernias were putting on my bladder.

Well, that's over now. I had the surgery and I'm well into recovery. It's a minimally-invasive procedure thanks to modern laparoscopic techniques, but still my surgeon cut two (very small) holes in my lower abdomen for the cameras and tools and all that. It's clear that this guy is a prince amongst hernia surgeons, given how effortless my recovery has been. So there's that out of the way.

But I'm not expecting next year to spice things up any for my regular teaching gig. I fully expect to continue onwards with impeccable professionalism and absolute competence. I know how to teach this stuff, and then some. But I'm not anticipating anything other than same-ol' same-ol' as year 50 flows along. Neither am I anticipating any sense of burnout or exhaustion.

But I realize that the sex appeal, as it were, will be coming from my writing work, and that there will be an enormous amount of it. This past few years I have added some large clients—Oregon Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, Robert Mondavi Center, La Jolla Music Society, and possibly the Santa Rosa Symphony (still pending) to my established regulars of the San Francisco Symphony, California Symphony, Maestro Foundation, and Grand Teton Music Festival, not to mention several other smaller-but-terrific organizations and some more occasional assignments from my usual cadre of organizations. I'm on track to hit 200,000 words per year within a few years. And I always enjoy it and take immense pride in the quality of my writing, musicianship, insight, and research.

The verdict as I approach Year 50: I've knocked it out of the park. A lot of people just can't make a go of it in music, and not only have I succeeded admirably, but I've achieved security and an upper-middle-class income that affords me a modestly affluent lifestyle. I have all the accoutrements of the American Dream: homeownership, car(s), possessions, money in the bank, investments, and good prospects for retirement. All in music.