Gunther Schuller
NEC President, 1967–1977
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| Gunther Schuller conducts at the Jordan Hall centennial in 2003 |
Composer, conductor, author, publisher, historian, record producer, virtuoso hornist (retired), educator, and polymath, Gunther Schuller steered New England Conservatory through one of the most turbulent and formative decades of American and Conservatory history, beginning with NEC's centennial year. From 1967 to 1977, as the Western world rocked to the rhythms of social upheaval and burgeoning youth culture, Schuller formalized NEC’s commitment to jazz by establishing the first degree-granting jazz program in the world. Shortly thereafter, he instituted the Third Stream department (which lives on today as the faculty of Contemporary Improvisation) to explore the regions where the two musical “streams” of classical and jazz meet and mingle, and hired the iconic Ran Blake to be its chair. Early jazz hires included the legendary Jaki Byard and George Russell. (Blake and Russell have since joined Schuller in the exalted pantheon of MacArthur Fellows.)
Along the way, Schuller increased NEC’s profile among the world’s great music institutions in remarkable ways. He insisted from the earliest days of his tenure that contemporary music have equal billing next to the acknowledged classical masterpieces, and that students be equally adept at performing both. He bolstered and revitalized NEC’s string, piano and composition faculties, hiring artists whose influence remains intact to this day, among them Louis Krasner, Laurence Lesser, Russell Sherman, and Donald Martino. In one of Boston’s most notorious periods of racial disharmony, he created community outreach programs that sent young, eager musicians to bring the gift of music into some of the city’s most marginalized neighborhoods. And, championing the forgotten music of a neglected American composer, he founded the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble and recorded Scott Joplin: The Red Back Book, which won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, ignited a latter-day ragtime revival, and spurred tours across America, Russia, and to the White House.
Schuller’s presidency was marked by unprecedented creative energy and growth, but also by controversy and fiscal distress. During the Vietnam War era, no colleges were immune from upheaval. At a time of protest "strikes" that shut down academic activities nationwide, NEC was unable to hold a Commencement for its Class of 1970 (President Daniel Steiner invited them to walk belatedly with the Class of 2000). At the same time, music was brought into play as a creative response to war. But by the time of Schuller's resignation as President in 1977, the Board of Trustees was revitalized, a new era of financial responsibility had dawned, and applications were arriving in record numbers.
Schuller's immediate predecessor, Chester Williams, has said that "one of his greatest contributions to the Conservatory was that he generated excitement for performing at the highest level. Holding a high level of professional achievement himself, he accepted nothing less than the best." But perhaps Schuller’s greatest legacy at NEC was the personal vision he brought of training that would produce the “compleat musician”—one who embraced musics of the past and present, and who looked towards the future with intelligence and artistic curiosity. NEC became less a place where the traditions of European music were conserved, and more a hothouse where exotic new hybrids could propagate and flourish.
Read about NEC's 2005 festival celebrating Gunther Schuller's 80th birthday.
back to NEC Leadership Timeline
updated 19 November 2007