Job Description:
Location: Wooster, OH Category: Staff Posted On: Wed Jul 17 2024 Job Description:
Summary:
The Collaborative Pianist is to provide accompaniment as needed for student lessons, juries and performances on department recitals or other public Music Department events. This role helps mentor junior and senior I.S. music students preparing to perform degree-required recitals and in preparing Graduate School auditions. Weekly rehearsal time with students outside of lessons and performances is included in the responsibilities. The Collaborative Pianist may be asked to accompany Studio Classes and/or large ensembles. The Music Department Chair and Administrative Coordinator will work with each staff collaborative pianist to assign students and to schedule rehearsal and lesson times each semester.
Essential Departmental Duties and Responsibilities:
- Accompanies student lessons, juries, and public performances.
- Prepares for lessons and recitals, involving private practice and preparation outside of normal academic hours.
- Coaches and works with students as needed during rehearsals.
- Collaborates with composition students and faculty and advises on original compositions.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Job Requirements:
Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.
Education and/or Experience:
- B.A. or Master’s degree(s) in Music preferred; in lieu of education, candidate may possess commensurate professional experience.
- Experience accompanying a variety of instruments and voices.
- Experience with being a collaborative pianist in both ensemble and individual settings preferred.
Knowledge Skills and Abilities:
Skills:
- Exemplary instructional, organizational and time management skills.
- Ability to learn music quickly and excellent sight-reading skills needed.
- Ability to work with students with a wide range of musical backgrounds.
- Possess excellent musical, verbal and written communication skills.
- Expertise in spoken and written English.
Knowledge:
- Proficiency and sensitivity in working on different styles and periods of music, composers, etc.
- Knowledge of the standard repertoire as well as ability to perform in genres outside the primary culture.
- For vocal collaborators, knowledge of foreign languages and/or IPA for pronunciation/translation and coaching purposes.
- Must be able to read open score (choral ensembles).
Abilities:
- Ability to cultivate appropriate, collegial relationships with faculty, students and staff.
- Maintain confidentiality.
- Experience/ability to be attentive and engaged while working with students, and able to accommodate student’s diversity, supporting equity.
- Project a strong stage presence.
- Acknowledge and comply with all departmental SOP, safety, and college requirements.
- Strong professional ethics and discretion with an attitude of respect for all employed at COW.
- Commitment to COW’s mission, vision and values and demonstrated ability to create and sustain an organizational climate based on inclusion, social justice, and equity.
Work Environment:
- This role is in a performance, classroom, and studio environment.
- This is a primarily sedentary role but requires movement between studios, classrooms, practice rooms, and performance spaces within the building and other performance venues on campus.
- The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate, although, as with all musicians, ear protection may sometimes be appropriate.
- Lesson, rehearsal, and performance times will be scheduled in advance; individual practice time is flexible and on the employee’s schedule.
Physical Demands:
- Physical demands of the job are commensurate with the standard physical demands on a professional pianist (talking, hearing, seeing, grasping, standing, walking and repetitive motions).
- All students and employees are referred to the NASM Musician’s Healthy and Safety documents available in the music department handbook and guidebook. These documents are also posted in various locations of Scheide Music Center.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, and depth perception – the types of vision required to read music from a score and accompany students in standard stage configurations.
Additional Information:
The College of Wooster does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex/gender, gender identity, gender expression, medical condition, political affiliation, religion, creed, ethnicity, national origin (including ancestry), citizenship status, disability, age, marital status, family responsibilities, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, predisposing genetic characteristics, domestic violence victim status, or any other characteristic protected by institutional policy, or by state, local, or federal law. All offers of employment are subject to verification of the legal right to work in the United States as required by federal law. The College of Wooster is committed by policy and practice to diversity, equity and inclusion. For more information see our nondiscrimination policy.