Preliminary Apology for the Long, Ranting Post
I spend a lot of my time by myself. When I'm not teaching or playing gigs, I'm pretty much either driving from one location to another by myself, or sitting at my apartment by myself. So I have a lot of time to think, reflect, and generally just let my brain analyze and ponder over certain topics.
I've been thinking a lot lately about collegiate teaching job markets out there for people such as myself. It would seem that a person with a doctorate in their field, performing and teaching experience, time spent playing and teaching multiple instruments, and solid references would at least be able to get an interview. I'm finding far too often that this is not the case. I've spent two years applying and applying (and sometimes applying for the same job a second time when it re-opens) for jobs without once even being contacted for something so simple as a phone interview. And I'm not talking about big jobs at well-known schools. I'm talking about the Miami-Dade Community College jobs that didn't even bother to notify me as to whether or not they even received my application. I'm talking about the Illinois States who raved to Tom Fraschillo about how strong a candidate I was, despite the fact that they never even bothered to interview me only to hire someone ABD from Michigan State. The same Illinois State that asked Fraschillo to be sure and have me reapply for the job when it became open full time the following year. Now I've reapplied for that job, the contact person won't return my emails (nor will some of the people I asked for reccommendation letters for that matter). I have no idea whether they received all of my materials or not.
I'm also talking about places like Southern Arkansas University, where I thought I might at least get an interview considering my ties to that area of the state.
I've spent so much time in the past two years studying, playing, and teaching instruments other than my own that I don't even feel like a saxophonist anymore. So I beg the question: What is the fucking deal with university saxophone search committees?? I have no answer for this. Nor do I expect anyone else to be able to provide one.
So I've decided that my life is too short to continue to stress myself out, lose sleep, and do everything short of sucking dick for a university saxophone/woodwinds job. The new me is thinking about my current situation more positively. My current job scenario isn't ideal. Most people with doctorates would look at my daily routine and either keel over from a heart attack, or take a flying leap off a very tall structure with something hard waiting for them at the bottom. No, teaching every instrument known to man to people ranging in age from 4-70 starting at 9 in the morning and getting finished between 9 and 10 every night for roughly less than $35,000 a year is not what I would consider ideal for someone who's put in the time and work to get this kind of education. Nor is having to suppliment that income with a part-time job at a university teaching three sections of a class that the rest of the faculty feel is below them to teach, to students who sleep and talk through my lectures and wonder why they fail the tests. All that just to be able to pay the bills and try to have a little left over to maybe get myself a better vehicle to drive back and forth between all these places before my truck falls to pieces.
However, I'm not working at Wal Mart with a doctorate in music struggling to pay my rent. I at least have a job that's in my field. And there are far worse places to live in the country than New Orleans. I have health insurance. I'm in an area that is known for it's musical scene. And this has fortunately provided me with a moderate distraction from the frustrations of the classical saxophone world. Since September I have spent most of my time playing and practicing jazz, listening to Mozart and Miles Davis, and basically not giving two squirts of duck shit about who in the Rascher camp is pissed off at who in the Paris Conservatory camp. I'm not worried about who thinks what about which piece I'm working on and whether or not it's worthy of my time to practice and perform it. I recently put my classical set-up back on and played through some things, and ya know what? I still sound pretty goddamned good. So fuck it. I play what I want, when I want from now on. Regardless of what happens with college jobs, I have employers who want me to renew my contract for next year, students who can't imagine the thought of taking lessons with another teacher (whether it's saxophone, piano, trumpet, or snare drum), and I'm a member of two bands that are a major part of the immense music scene that is New Orleans.
So fuck you very much, search committees. Maybe one of you will turn an eye and an ear my way some day. But I refuse to worry myself about it more than I already have. I refuse to check my mailbox frantically every day wondering if there might be something good in there. I will continue to submit my materials to places that I think might be worth the effort. Until then, enjoy that person that you hired not because they were a good teacher but because they studied with So-and-So. That is, until they fuck a student.
I'm out.