Sour notes at Miami University?

"Faculty Ensembles" still have a web page on the Miami University Music Department Web site. But word is, the university administration has now dissolved its Miami Wind Quintet, along with the distinguished Oxford String Quartet -- struggling along as a trio -- as the Enquirer announced last year. Further, pianist Ron J. Matson, who has been a fixture at Miami for 30 years, is nowhere to be found.

And here's another worrisome note: Echternach (Luxembourg) International Festival Orchestra Miami project-which was successful for 15 years and the ONLY United States University/European professional festival orchestra connection of its kind in the U.S. -- has been discontinued.

Exactly a year ago last January, I wrote that The Oxford Quartet was one of just two American quartets to celebrate its 60th birthday in 2006. The other was the Juilliard String Quartet. The region's only remaining all-faculty quartet is at Northern Kentucky University: The Azmari Quartet.

It's obviously part of cost-cutting measures. A group of distraught fans in Oxford, Cincinnati and as far away as Cologne, Germany, campaigned last year to "save the quartet." They said the school's prestige was at stake. But the dean of MU's School of Fine Arts, Jose Antonio Bowen, stood firm.

Bowen has moved on to a new post. But I can't help but think, especially as I sat at Henry Meyer's memorial last night, that an era has ended.

Where are the resident ensembles in local universities? Are they dinosaurs?