DSU gets new music department

When country music stars Johnny Cash and June Carter shared the spotlight during performances, adoring fans swooned.

When they later went their separate ways musically, although joined in matrimony, it allowed each star to shine even brighter on its own.

With a recent organizational change at Dickinson State University, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Richard Brauhn hopes for the same unparalleled success of the Carter-Cash pair.

Brauhn applied for and received approval from the North Dakota Board of Higher Education to split a newly created Department of Music from the Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

"Music is large and specialized enough to hang by itself," Brauhn said.

There are about 100 majors in fine and performing arts, with 42 of them working toward music degrees. The remaining 60 are split between the department's other degree programs in art, theatre, dance and communication.

"Basically, when we went through accreditation, they recommended that we have a separate department," Brauhn said.

In November 2004, the music program received accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Music.

"For us not to have a separate department would not be a good idea," Brauhn said. "I think it will further strengthen the program."

Brauhn said there has been steady growth of the department and it looks like that's going to continue.

"We're actually looking to grow the music program," Brauhn said. "(We're) hoping a formal, separate entity will grow that even further...and help with recruiting students."

Although the department has been expanding, Brauhn said there is no reason to add faculty at this time. In fact, Brauhn said the music program has one of the university's largest faculties.

"Music is one of those disciplines where they have one-on-one lessons," Brauhn said. "It's dissimilar to a lot of programs we have here."

Brauhn said there are eight total faculty members, including five full-time positions.

"There was a vacant position and we took it and turned it into a department chair," Brauhn said. "We had a position we didn't fill last year. We just limped along last year with some part-time people."

Because the position was created from a vacancy, Brauhn said the new department has few additional costs associated with it.

"There's always a little more money there, just in that it's a position change," Brauhn said.

He said the program had two vacancies before becoming its own department, a director of bands and another staff position.

Brauhn has already hired the two people to fill those positions.

Dr. Timothy Justus, who has been teaching at the University of South Alabama, is filling the role of department chair.

Brauhn said Justus, who played in a jazz band at North Dakota State University at one time, has a lot of professional experience and has been a professor for years.

However, this is Justus' first position as a department chair.

To welcome Justus, Brauhn said there is a major refurbishing project in the downstairs of May Hall.

"We're moving things around, so we're renovating the physical space as well," he said.

Dr. Steven Werpy takes the reins as director of bands in the fall.

Brauhn said Werpy, who is coming to DSU from Rocky Mountain College in Montana, is an experienced saxophonist.

Dr. Ken Haught remains the chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

Brauhn said at this time, there are no plans to grow that department, only to make it more efficient.

However, he said growth might one day be in the cards, especially in the form of new majors.

"It will also allow him more time to devote to international students, in terms of the communications major," Brauhn said. "It's kind of a win-win deal all around."