Music at Miami -- point and counterpoint

So what's really going on in Miami University's School of Fine Arts, which has vacant spots in both the Oxford Quartet and the Miami Wind Quintet? I gave the interim dean, Bob Benson, a call and here's what he said:

The Miami Wind Quintet has not disbanded, he says. Bassoonist John Heard retired in December and flutist Sandra Seefeld has also announced her retirement. Both positions will be replaced next year, Benson says. For the remainder of this year, bassoonist Robert Williams, first chair in the Detroit Symphony, is filling in.

"They will have temporary people in flute and bassoon next year while they search for permanent lines (tenure track faculty positions)," he says.

As for the missing violinist in the Oxford String Quartet, that position also will be filled -- although not as quickly, he says.

"It will be clearer by next year how soon that violin position will come back," he says. "It should be a couple of years before everyone is reinstated."

He said last year's news about the demise of the quartet involved "a series of half-truths. Morale in the department was low, and I felt it had to be changed."

The problem with funding the ensembles, he says, is that they depended upon "soft" money -- money that was available only because a faculty member had taken leave. Benson has been working with the Provost on a new plan. Last year, the Provost asked the music department to make $100,000 in cuts.

As for the Echternach (Luxembourg) International Festival Orchestra Miami project -- that is scratched for now, he says. It cost a lot and "we certainly aren't getting any more money from the state."

Since no one has approached Benson about the program, he said it would be up to the next dean to reinstate it.

When it was founded in 1946, the Oxford Quartet was one of the first quartets-in-residence in the country. Other schools were quick to follow its model, including the University of Michigan, University of Illinois, Indiana University and Northwestern University.

The quartet built Miami's strings program from scratch.

Benson has been interim dean of MU's School of Fine Arts since July, following Jose Antonio Bowen's departure. The university is conducting a search for a new dean.