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Chair of Brass sounds like a minimalist composition.

Sounds cold and uncomfortable.

"Chair" sounds impressive - but this is only a 1-year gig. ("This 12-month administrative position includes teaching responsibilities as assigned and approved by the Dean.") Not a tenure-track opportunity.
Attractive salary however (range will be $137,000 - $160,000).

Posaunus wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 10:50 am Attractive salary however (range will be $137,000 - $160,000).

From a total outsider (though ex-academic and manager at various levels in industry) ...

Sounds like an opportunity ... except it's in Taxachusetts and, further, in Boston. Not clear how much of that salary you'd escape with. Also, doesn't it sound like -- from the description of "This 12-month administrative position" - some kind of high level clerk position? Sounds like a lot of committee and administrative work on "curriculum", "faculty development", "student progress", "departmental resources" (???), "union agreement provisions", and "institutional priorities". Where's the music?

You sit in the Chair of Brass. What more is there to know about it? You won't need tenure -- you have one year to move up to the Iron Throne, using machiavellian strategies. The alternative is not pretty, and certainly happens away from the Chair of Brass. If you succeed in moving to the Iron Throne, then the only place to go from there is the Golden Lion Throne on Kaitain.

Is it red brass, gold brass, or yellow brass?

Possibly just brass plated.

Really, to me this looks like the music department equivalent of being a temporary post-doc lab rat.

No disrespect to Berklee intended. And I know a lot of that job description is boiler plate. But anyone looking at something like that needs to look hard at exactly what it is and what it will cost them in different ways. It might look nice on a résumé.

It looks like the previous chairship ended in controversy which doesn't need to be discussed here. The one before that was Tanya Darby, who is still on faculty as a full professor.

That does make sense of the approach being taken. Also makes you wonder if it wouldn't be a decent 1-year gig for a kind of mid-career person as a kind of sabbatical and experience-enhancing experience.

I believe it's listed as a 12 month commitment to differentiate it from a 9 month faculty commitment, not that it's only a year long. This is most likely a administrative position rather than a teaching music position. Everything listed makes sense from a C-suite perspective.

That makes some more sense of it, though in that case the salary seems a bit light to me for the demands of the job (especially in the Boston/Mass. context). But perhaps it's quite reasonable in the context of music schools.

The people who did it before were renowned performers with international careers. As is the current chair of woodwinds, Walter Smith III.

WilliamLang wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 3:59 pm I believe it's listed as a 12 month commitment to differentiate it from a 9 month faculty commitment, not that it's only a year long. This is most likely a administrative position rather than a teaching music position. Everything listed makes sense from a C-suite perspective.

Precisely, although I'd imagine there will be some teaching duties involved.

that salary is the equivalent of the top orchestral pay in the world. some people don't want the stress of performing at that level and are happy to be done with it, for whatever reason they may have, and some people really like and are well geared towards administrative duties.

harrisonreed wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 11:54 am You sit in the Chair of Brass. What more is there to know about it? You won't need tenure -- you have one year to move up to the Iron Throne, using machiavellian strategies. The alternative is not pretty, and certainly happens away from the Chair of Brass. If you succeed in moving to the Iron Throne, then the only place to go from there is the Golden Lion Throne on Kaitain.

Your Dune reference is noticed, and appreciated.