00:00:01.120 - 00:00:19.270

This interview is being conducted at the home of Doctor James Anthony. This is part of a series of interviews comprising the TURFA Oral History Project, conceived and supported by the Towson University Retired Faculty Association, with generous support from the Dean of the College of Fine Arts and

00:00:19.270 - 00:00:27.120

Communication. This interview, as well as others in this series, are available in the Towson University Archives. Ron Matlon: Greetings.

00:00:27.120 - 00:00:36.520

I'm Ron Matlon, professor emeritus from Towson University and the interviewee today, our guest, is Jim Anthony, who's professor emeritus from the Department of Music.

00:00:37.000 - 00:00:43.400

Welcome, Jim. Jim Anthony: Good to see all of you. Ron Matlon: Jim, let's start at the very beginning. Where were you born?

00:00:43.920 - 00:00:59.800

Jim Anthony: Well, I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. My family happened to be there, my father and mother. My father was in the FBI, but our family was from Arkansas. And then he joined the Army when the war started.

00:01:00.120 - 00:01:16.680

And then after the war we moved back to Arkansas. And I was raised in Arkansas and I actually never went back to Springfield, Massachusetts until just a few years ago. So I don't have any ties there, but I was raised in Arkansas.

00:01:16.840 - 00:01:36.890

I started studying piano when I was in third grade and I was inspired by watching our church organist play. And I basically decided that I wanted to be an organist, which I did become. And so I've lived with music, in my case classical music,

00:01:36.890 - 00:01:52.120

all my life, and I couldn't imagine life without it. I went to the University of Arkansas for undergraduate school and then I went to the University of Michigan for Graduate School. Ron Matlon: And what years did you attend Arkansas and Michigan?

00:01:52.520 - 00:02:09.840

Jim Anthony: I attended the University of Arkansas '60 to '64 and then Michigan '64 to '71, when I came to Towson. Ron Matlon: And after you graduated from Michigan, has your entire career been in higher education?

00:02:09.960 - 00:02:23.990

Jim Anthony: Yes. Ron Matlon: Why did you choose a career in higher education? Jim Anthony: Well, that's where the job was. I was a musician and I was a... My doctorate is in history of music,

00:02:23.990 - 00:02:38.720

musicology. And so that's... It's only jobs in higher education for people like that really. And so I got a job at Towson. My doctorate wasn't finished at that point.

00:02:38.720 - 00:03:03.440

I went back to Michigan in summers, several years to finish my dissertation. And I'm also an organist. I got a job as a church organist and did that for most of my career. So, but I didn't choose, you know, I didn't have a choice of jobs really.

00:03:05.120 - 00:03:16.800

Ron Matlon: When you came to Towson, what was the university called then? Jim Anthony: Towson State College. Ron Matlon: Towson State College. OK. And why did you choose Towson? Jim Anthony: Because I got a job there.

00:03:17.160 - 00:03:32.600

I applied for various jobs and that was, I shouldn't say this, but that was the only job interview I had. No, actually, that's not true. I did have a couple of job interviews but Towson offered me a job.

00:03:32.600 - 00:03:50.520

I came as an instructor because I didn't have my doctorate finished at that point. And then I was promoted to assistant professor when I got my doctorate finished. Ron Matlon: And when you first came to what was then Towson State College,

00:03:50.520 - 00:04:10.040

what was your impression of the place? Jim Anthony: Well, I was impressed, but it was, you know, primarily a teacher's college still at that point, certainly in music. It was mostly training music teachers for public schools.

00:04:10.920 - 00:04:27.650

We had two degrees, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science, but most of the students got Bachelor of Science degrees in music. We didn't have a Bachelor of Music program at that point. Ron Matlon: And what year did you come to Towson? Jim Anthony: '71.

00:04:27.650 - 00:04:43.680

Ron Matlon: And what year did you retire? Jim Anthony: Well, I retired from my full time job in 2014. Then I kept on teaching one course, one of these freshman seminars, until 2020 when the pandemic hit.

00:04:44.080 - 00:04:57.440

And I finished out that spring semester, but then I decided I didn't want to teach, you know, the whole course online. So I didn't go back. Ron Matlon: And you were in the music department the entire time?

00:04:57.440 - 00:05:06.960

Jim Anthony: Yes. Ron Matlon: OK. And over that time period, what kind of undergraduate and graduate courses did you teach?

00:05:07.400 - 00:05:19.960

Jim Anthony: Well, I made a list of them the other day. There were like fifteen. I taught fifteen different courses, maybe more. But I taught music appreciation for non- majors.

00:05:20.240 - 00:05:32.920

I taught the survey of music history for the majors. I taught... We have specialized upper-level courses and literature like music of the Baroque period, music of the classic period. I taught those.

00:05:33.360 - 00:05:51.480

I taught history... I taught history of opera class after my colleague Clifford Alper retired. I taught history of the symphony, history of the concerto. Then I taught some bibliography...

00:05:51.480 - 00:06:08.600

When we got a graduate program, I started teaching graduate bibliography classes, history review for graduate students. I taught the whole gamut. Ron Matlon: You must have set the record for the number of syllabi you had to prepare.

00:06:08.600 - 00:06:23.840

Jim Anthony: Right. Ron Matlon: Were you ever an administrator at Towson? Jim Anthony: No. I did serve as a chair of the department when the chair was on sabbatical for one semester.

00:06:23.840 - 00:06:38.120

But I was never an administrator. Ron Matlon: Let me sidetrack for just a moment. Do you have a favorite piece of music? Jim Anthony: No. I saw that question on the list,

00:06:38.120 - 00:06:50.880

and I always say that's like, if you have a family, they ask you who your favorite child is. I mean, there are so many pieces that I love and couldn't live without, but I couldn't say.

00:06:51.360 - 00:07:09.350

I mean, I'm an organist. I love the music of Bach and there are various Bach pieces that I couldn't live without, but I love Mozart. I love opera, I like Verdi and Wagner, but I couldn't say which is my favorite

00:07:09.350 - 00:07:16.280

piece. Ron Matlon: Now, outside of classical music, is there any other genre of music that you like? Jim Anthony: Not particularly.

00:07:16.360 - 00:07:31.440

I mean, I live with it, but I, you know, we've had a wonderful jazz program at Towson and I've gone to lots of jazz concerts, but I have to say that that's not my cup of tea, really.

00:07:32.200 - 00:07:47.720

And obviously those students who were studying jazz were also in my classical music classes. So I had relationships with them and we were, you know, I respected them and hopefully they respected me.

00:07:48.200 - 00:08:07.200

And so, no, I think that jazz and popular music is the wave of the future, but I hope that we can preserve the classical tradition as well. Ron Matlon: Jim, what do you think of Broadway musicals?

00:08:09.360 - 00:08:28.760

Jim Anthony: Well, I think they are a great offering. I have seen a number of them, not so much in recent years, but they are wonderful. Ron Matlon: And I know you were in the University

00:08:28.760 - 00:08:43.620

Senate for quite a few years too. Any reflections you'd like to offer on your years on the University Senate? Jim Anthony: Well, most of the time I was there, I was the secretary. And of course, in those days the secretary took notes

00:08:43.620 - 00:09:03.220

like this and wrote, typed them up and sent them in. But it allowed me to meet a lot of the administrators and the leaders of the campus and so forth. And I really enjoyed it and I kept on serving, well, as

00:09:03.220 - 00:09:20.120

one of the representatives of the Senate of the TURFA after I retired, Martha Siegel and I shared that position. Ron Matlon: How many years were you on the University Senate? Jim Anthony: I really can't remember.

00:09:20.120 - 00:09:36.320

Probably 10 or 12 at least, right. Ron Matlon: And then over the span of your long career at Towson, what changes did you see taking place at the university? Jim Anthony: Well, the university grew a great deal.

00:09:37.600 - 00:09:59.520

It introduced new programs. In the music department, we introduced the Bachelor of Music program. We always had jazz classes and jazz ensemble that Hank Levy had introduced, but we didn't have a degree in jazz studies.

00:10:00.200 - 00:10:18.400

I think they do now. And we, well, for example, my friend Gerry Phillips, who came the same year I did, founded an opera program. So we now have rather distinguished opera productions.

00:10:18.800 - 00:10:40.480

We have a lot of wonderful ensembles of musicians and so forth. And so, but they're much more specialized. As I say, when I first came there, virtually all the students were in music education.

00:10:40.600 - 00:10:52.040

And we still... That's still our strongest program, but we've certainly diversified a great deal. Ron Matlon: Were you always in the Fine Arts building? Jim Anthony: Well, no.

00:10:52.080 - 00:11:10.240

When I first... The first year I came to Towson, the Fine Arts building was under construction, but it wasn't open. So we had classes in classrooms in the basement of Cook Library. I had classes in a room in Newell Hall.

00:11:10.560 - 00:11:34.040

We shared offices with the other faculty because there weren't enough offices. At Lida Lee Tall, we had classes there and we gave performances in in the gym at Lida Lee Tall, if anybody can remember that. And we gave performances in Stephens Hall, of course, was there.

00:11:34.440 - 00:11:48.560

But so then my second year we moved into the new Fine Arts building and we all had private offices and so forth. Of course, the Fine Arts Building was later renovated again and so on.

00:11:48.560 - 00:12:04.400

But that was, you know, a wonderful improvement. The first year, first semester I was there, I taught a music appreciation class in the auditorium of Stephens Hall. And of course, those were the days of LP records.

00:12:04.400 - 00:12:28.810

So I rolled in a record player and put records on and put the needle down and played the music for the students. So obviously all of us have experienced great technological changes and we in music, as I say, we had to just listen to LP records at

00:12:28.810 - 00:12:38.680

that time. Ron Matlon: Going back to something you said a little while ago, you said after you retired full time, you then were teaching as an adjunct for a while.

00:12:38.760 - 00:12:47.520

Jim Anthony: Yeah. For, you know, like six more years or so. Ron Matlon: And what... Were those graduate courses that you were teaching? Jim Anthony: As an adjunct?

00:12:47.520 - 00:12:58.560

Ron Matlon: As an adjunct. Jim Anthony: No, they were these... It was this freshman seminar. It was kind of like music appreciation. I taught one on Beethoven and I taught one on Mozart.

00:12:59.920 - 00:13:13.260

Ron Matlon: I never did that after I retired, and I'm curious as well why one would want to go back and teaching as an adjunct after retiring. Jim Anthony: Well, I, you know, I missed it and I thought I want to keep

00:13:13.260 - 00:13:30.550

on, keep my hand in, and so I decided I would teach as an adjunct. Not that it paid much, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being with the students. And though I was to say I was teaching this seminar on Mozart and

00:13:30.550 - 00:13:47.360

what's not to love, you know? Ron Matlon: From the time you started as a full time instructor all the way through those adjunct years, did you see any changes in the students that you were teaching? Jim Anthony: Well, you know, yes and no.

00:13:48.880 - 00:14:11.710

Obviously as our programs became more specialized, you know, we had better, quote, "better" students in terms of certain areas of music. We had, you know, it was only in the last few years that we

00:14:11.710 - 00:14:32.120

had very many African American students in the music major program. But we also, of course, developed the graduate program and the Master of Music program. And so that brought in greater diversity of students,

00:14:32.120 - 00:14:56.250

but I'd have to say that it was mainly the more specialized programs that we introduced that brought in more students. Ron Matlon: And if we go back to, again, how you started your career, would you have done anything differently in how you prepared for this career in

00:14:56.250 - 00:15:07.720

teaching music? Jim Anthony: Well, only to say that I wish I'd been better prepared. I kind of went by the seat of my pants a

00:15:07.720 - 00:15:20.080

lot of the time, but I learned a lot. I mean, sometimes when I think about those first years, I think, gosh, I didn't know anything. You know, I learned on the job.

00:15:21.120 - 00:15:40.720

Interestingly, I have a... I'm now in a retirement community and one of my former students from those first years lives here and I see him regularly and chat with him and, but, you know, I run into students from that...

00:15:40.960 - 00:15:59.480

I was at a concert on Sunday and I ran into one of my former students who, frankly, I couldn't remember, but he introduced himself and he seemed to have enjoyed my class and so forth. So I'm hoping that I made a good impression.

00:15:59.600 - 00:16:13.900

Ron Matlon: Did your pedagogy change over the years? Jim Anthony: Well, yes and no. I mean, obviously the technology changed a great deal because we could, you know, show videos and all of this kind of thing

00:16:13.900 - 00:16:25.520

in the class. When I first started teaching music history, you know, I could only play recordings of the music that I was talking about.

00:16:27.920 - 00:16:47.890

I have to say that my pedagogy probably didn't change, but I think my successors, the pedagogy has changed and I've kind of stuck with the old style of kind of a lecture and listen, you know, talking about the music and then playing examples from it and so forth,

00:16:47.890 - 00:16:57.640

which is the way I was taught. Ron Matlon: As technology developed over your teaching career, did you find that helpful or frustrating? Jim Anthony: Both.

00:16:59.600 - 00:17:15.990

No, I hope that I got into it. Certainly when we moved, when the Fine Arts building was renovated and they put in, you know, online kinds of things and so forth, it was easy to,

00:17:15.990 - 00:17:29.280

fairly easy to get YouTube and all of this kind of thing to play for the students. But that was only in the last, you know, what, ten years or so of my main career there.

00:17:30.320 - 00:17:44.360

Ron Matlon: Back when you started at Towson State College, the students that you were teaching who were majors, I'm talking about the majors. What were they preparing to do? Jim Anthony: Teach in the public schools primarily.

00:17:44.600 - 00:18:02.960

Ron Matlon: And is it still that way? Jim Anthony: Well, it's as I say, it's much more diverse now and not as large percentage of them are in music education now as it was. In the last few years

00:18:02.960 - 00:18:21.200

we've gotten a lot of jazz students who, you know, when they graduate, they go out and perform. Interestingly, when I first came there, we had a large program in classical guitar.

00:18:21.200 - 00:18:41.780

It was one of the largest programs in the country, really, in classical guitar, primarily because one of the famous teachers taught at Peabody and those students graduated and taught at Towson. And I had never been in a school that had a classical guitar program and it was

00:18:41.780 - 00:18:58.140

very large. We had a great deal of guitar majors. Unfortunately that sort of dropped off in the last few years. But, and as I say, Hank Levy had brought in the jazz program

00:18:58.140 - 00:19:16.640

and the jazz ensemble was very, very well respected and very well known in the area and so on. And so we had a lot of... Although at that time, we didn't give a jazz performance major.

00:19:17.160 - 00:19:27.880

We had a lot of students who performed in his ensembles and and became jazz students. Ron Matlon: Are there any students... I'm sure there are, but I'll ask it anyway.

00:19:28.080 - 00:19:45.420

Are there any students that you've taught over the years that went on and had careers that you are just amazed at and proud of? Jim Anthony: Yes, there are. We have graduated some students who have had major careers primarily in voice and

00:19:45.420 - 00:20:00.760

piano. We had, you know, we've had Ruth Drucker, who was kind of the head of the voice area, and Ronaldo Reyes, who was a wonderful pianist and attracted a huge number of students.

00:20:00.760 - 00:20:18.790

And he was from the Philippines. He attracted a number of Asian students and South Asian students. And many of those have gone on to have careers, I mean, not necessarily world famous careers, but certainly important careers.

00:20:18.790 - 00:20:33.910

Ron Matlon: Beyond just teacher education. Jim Anthony: Right. Oh yes, much more so than that. And right in the last few years we have graduated some vocal students who have gone on in the opera world and some of them have sung at the Met

00:20:33.910 - 00:20:41.080

and all of that. Ron Matlon: Jim, I understand you were involved in some community projects. Jim Anthony: Yes. Ron Matlon: Could you tell us about that?

00:20:42.640 - 00:20:59.870

Jim Anthony: Well, I've been involved in several concert organizations, Pro Musica Rara, which is they perform Renaissance and Baroque music primarily. I've also been... I'm on the board of the Maryland State

00:20:59.870 - 00:21:22.500

Boychoir, which is an outstanding organization that has probably about 150 boys and young men performing in it in different groups and talk about inspiring young people. They have had many boys who have graduated in that, in the boychoir, who

00:21:22.500 - 00:21:41.070

have gone on to become music majors in major schools and become professional musicians. And it's a wonderful organization. My former church where I was an organist, we had a music concert series that I was

00:21:41.070 - 00:22:01.160

involved with and still am. So yes, I think that the future of classical music and other kinds of music mixed in is very important. And it's up to these organizations to keep it going.

00:22:01.800 - 00:22:14.970

Jim Anthony: Obviously it all requires money and so we have to have many donations. Ron Matlon: And it requires support and apparently you've given that support. Jim Anthony: When I retired from my long-time church job,

00:22:14.970 - 00:22:31.600

I was substituting in different churches, but then when the pandemic hit, that kind of dried up. But then actually it was through the Maryland State Boychoir I got this new job and I've had that now for almost three years.

00:22:32.480 - 00:22:49.650

And it gives me great satisfaction to be able to keep on performing and to serve at a church. Ron Matlon: Let's now look into the future. Jim Anthony: Right. Ron Matlon: Where do you see Towson University going in the next 10 to 20 years,

00:22:49.650 - 00:23:03.520

both as a university and within the music area? Jim Anthony: Well, that's hard to say. Unfortunately, as we all know, the world of classical music, some people would say, is in decline.

00:23:03.920 - 00:23:30.360

And so that area probably is not going to expand a great deal. But since we do have a lot of jazz students in a jazz program, that area is still expanding. Music education hopefully is not dying and they still need teachers in the

00:23:30.360 - 00:23:55.040

public schools and Towson serves in that area. I certainly hope it continues to grow and to diversify and attract students from different backgrounds. I have been very impressed the last few years of the large expansion of students

00:23:55.040 - 00:24:18.120

of color and the the offerings that they are getting there. And obviously in the music program, we have diversified in terms of the type of training the students get. And so I hope that continues and improves.

00:24:18.880 - 00:24:28.200

I think there's a great future for Towson. Ron Matlon: I thank you very much, Jim, for this interview. It's been wonderful. Is there anything else you want to add before we end the interview?

00:24:28.960 - 00:24:49.900

Jim Anthony: Well, I just would like to say, you know, none of this could have happened without great professionals of faculty and administrators. And I would like to thank all of them for what they have done. The program has expanded a great deal in the right way because of these colleagues

00:24:49.900 - 00:24:57.440

of mine who taught there for many years. And I would like to thank them. Ron Matlon: And we thank you. Jim Anthony: You're welcome.