As Professor Timothy Salzman wraps up a 38-year career as director of bands at the University of Washington, he is reflecting on his years as head of the graduate wind conducting program at the University and looking ahead to what comes after retirement—family time, and plenty of it. Recalling a career of many milestone achievements, Professor Salzman notes that his former graduate students have gone on to land positions at 73 universities and colleges throughout the United States. Now, in his final weeks of teaching at the UW, many of them are preparing to return to campus for "Finish Line," a June 5 concert at Meany Hall featuring the UW Wind Ensemble and an Alumni Band put together especially for Salzman's final UW concert. In a fitting final tribute, they will perform David Maslanka's Symphony 7 together one last time under Salzman's direction.
What were some of your very earliest musical influences?
Early on it would be church, playing the piano there; I was about 9 when I began. I went to a very small high school, and the band was not great, but I got into the Illinois All State Band and was first chair tuba my senior year even though I was basically self-taught. In undergraduate school I had an opportunity to study with Arnold Jacobs, tubist in the Chicago Symphony for forty-four years, and one of the premiere wind instrument pedagogues of the 20th century. His influence on my teaching cannot be overstated. I also had a couple of caring and inspirational piano teachers when I was young, in high school and college.
When did you know that you were meant to have a life in music?
During my junior year of undergraduate school at Wheaton College, a senior percussion major asked me to conduct a work for brass choir and percussion on her recital. It went well – and I just absolutely fell in love with conducting. At Wheaton we were required to go to chapel four times a week and somehow or other we were asked to repeat the performance before the student body at chapel. The 3,000-seat chapel at Wheaton is quite something acoustically and aesthetically – many of the major orchestras in the world have played there as well as numerous chamber and solo artists. Anyway, we really lit it up and the students went nuts. I knew then…for sure that I was going to try to do this….but I had no idea where music would take me.
What is something a faculty colleague told you that you never forgot?
When I first came to the UW, I was frustrated with what I perceived to be extraordinarily slow progress, not just musically, but administratively and in terms of the perception of the program. A lot of that, in hindsight, was on me but I complained, a lot, to Daniel Neuman, chair of the School of Music and the person who hired me. He wisely said, “When you throw a rock in the middle of the pond it takes a long time for the ripples to reach the shore.” For whatever reason that advice helped me calm down and dig in for the long haul.
What are some words of advice you would share with a new faculty colleague?
Make sure you have a life outside of this place as it can be all-consuming. And…importantly…you are not what you do.
What is something you will miss about working at the School of Music?
That’s easy. The students, especially those in the UW Wind Ensemble. I’ve learned so much more from them than they have from me…a debt I can never repay. I’m deeply grateful to them. There are many faculty members (I will miss) but we’re not leaving the area, and those relationships will continue. I will miss the view of the Quad from my office window, particularly when the cherry blossoms bloom…just so special.
What is something you won’t you miss?
Bureaucracy.
What were some of your most memorable experiences while a professor at the School of Music?
Goodness, so many…I have no idea where to begin. The seven tours to Asia…what transpired during those tours had to be witnessed to be believed. Sold out concerts before huge and overwhelmingly appreciative audiences (some as large as 4,000), national television (in China), side-by-side concerts with local ensembles, the food, the sightseeing, the gifts, the kindness, the laughter, the jet lag! One could easily write a book about the transformative nature of those tours in terms of cultural interaction and musical/social growth. Real musical community isn’t achieved until there is unanimity of purpose, and the rigor of those tours ushered in an entirely new level of solidarity in the UW Wind Ensemble. I do so hope that those efforts will continue!
Do you have a favorite performance or experience related to directing the Wind Ensemble?
My personal favorite UW Wind Ensemble concert was in 2011, when we hosted the College Band Directors National Association convention at the UW. Four hundred college band directors/professors attended, and about ten college wind ensembles from across the country performed in Meany and in Benaroya. We played two concerts on the last day of the convention, one in Meany and the other (separate repertoire) in Benaroya Hall conducted by Seattle Symphony Orchestra conductor Gerard Schwarz. The Meany concert was designed to be a very different concert experience. The first half, performed without pause (and mostly in the dark), had music and video from the Halo video game series, written by my college friend Marty O’Donnell (arranged by me); Donna Shin playing a gorgeous new flute concerto by DJ Sparr that we had commissioned; and the world premiere of Huck Hodge’s amazing ‘from the language of shadows,’ a monumental work for wind ensemble and silent film. The second half was a collaboration with the Cuong Vu trio (including Ted Poor) and a trombone concerto. I received nearly 100 emails/letters post-event and most centered on that concert which had, seemingly, a great impact relative to rethinking programming for wind bands.
What is the first thing you’d like to do or get into once you are retired?
Relax and breathe a little bit. I have been working extremely hard for 47 years, not just at the UW but throughout the United States, thirty-seven trips to Asia, two to London, one each to Paris, Moscow and St. Petersburg. So…a bit of relaxation is way past due. But…I want/need to figure out Dorico. (If You Know, You Know). Also intend to brush up on my Japanese and get going on Mandarin as I’m hoping to respond to some invitations in Japan and China. There are other invitations to respond to domestically…still weighing things, deciding… I intend to keep playing keyboards/piano at my church, something I’ve done since about ’97 or so. We have a wonderful community there and are deeply grateful for our Eastside friends!
How do you anticipate spending your days when you are no longer teaching?
Family time, lots of it. They’re amazing. I’m so blessed that each of them is in my life. Also, hitting the golf ball straight. Traveling. And writing. My wife Jodi and I have taught for a combined seventy-three years and have begun work on the early stages of a book that is intended to be a survival guide for young instrumental teachers in the schools, sort of a “What they didn’t tell you before you got into this” guide.
What is something about you that might surprise people who don’t know you well?
I’m a simple guy, a first-generation college kid, a dairy farmer’s son from Illinois, and everything that has transpired through this nearly half-century of conducting and teaching is far above all that I could have ever asked or imagined. A blessing from God. Five years before my appointment at the UW I was teaching high school band in a town of 1,200 people in the cornfields of northern Illinois. The whole ride has just been wild.
What are some final thoughts you’d like to share with colleagues and current and former students?
Keep at it. Remember that you are "seed-sowers," that what you’re doing today may or may not have any positive perceptible effect. But, over time, seeds sown with the correct motivation/pedagogy/effort grow. Patience is paramount. When things get overwhelming make your head talk to your heart.