Daily Nebraskan
Thursday, November 4, 1982
Accomplished musician had start in engineering
By Eric Peterson
Editor's Note: The Daily Nebraskan will be printing
profiles on the five UNL alumni who are at the univer
sity this week as a part of Master's Week, an annual
event sponsored by the Innocents Society and Mortar
Board. Three profiles will run today, with the final
two in Friday's paper.
Frank Tirro, Yale School of Music dean and a jazz
historian, started college at UNL wanting to be an
engineer.
Tirro is here in Lincoln with four other UNL alumni
for Master's Week, which gives students a chance to talk
to someone who has done well in his or her field.
"I think engineering for me was a mistake in the
first place," Tirro said, noting that his high school counse
lor had steered him into engineering as a major because
it was "the good job area."
Tirro finished his undergraduate degree in music
education, however, and he's been teaching music ever
since, from grade school to graduate courses.
Tirro plays the clarinet and saxophone, but much less
now than in the past. "I just don't have time for pract
ice," Tirro said. "I just push people and paper."
Tirro started lecturing and researching years ago on
Renaissance music, but American jazz has become an
equally important study.
Jazz great American form
"Jazz is maybe the greatest form of American music,
and was the great popular genre from the '30s to the
'50s." Tirro noted that great jazz music is still being
written, although its commercial success faded by the
end of the 1950s.
Tirro pointed out Miles Davis and Benny Goodman
as two jazz greats who are still doing new work, although
Frank Tirro
Staff Photo by Dave Bentz
Goodman has worked with classical music as well re
cently. "He's a great musician, and jazz was the kind of music
he was most popular with and with which he made the
most money," he said.
Music faculty should be aware of all genres of music
and not restrict themselves to classical or Western Europ
ean sources, he said. However, the need to specialize
""Has Purchasing Jewelry
'n x XT t i in
vi igu ruzziear
Ik (ife
lHamann (ff H
4 pieces. )) VVV: ((
i i
DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT
regular
$250
$345
$415
$525
$995
$1535
$1695
$2050
$2695
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
CARAT
RINGS
sale
$195
$295
$325
$395
$795
$1345
$1495
$1795
$1995
0
DIAMOND PENDANTS
regular sate
18 CARAT $210 $145
15 CARAT $275 $195
14 CARAT $365 $295
13 CARAT $485 $375
12 CARAT $1695 $1345
1 CARAT $2695 $1995
S $ ill
iff m
r ,
DOWNTOWN
ii50"(r
rimamm
GATEWAY
ENCLOSED MALL
1
limits how an instructor's ability to know all areas.
"People specialize in the universities, and may know
other genres than their own only superficially."
Job opportunities for students of music vary, Tirro
said. Good string players have a very good job market,
he said. "The orchestras sop up all there are."
Music educators face a more restricted field, Tirro
added.
One large new job area in music is arts management,
he said. "The financial and business aspects (of a per
formance's production) need to be handled by some
one sensitive to artistic issues and who can deal with
unions," he said.
Tirro said he has a high-powered faculty and interested
students to work with at Yale. "There are always un
fulfilled dreams," he said, stressing that scholarship
funding hasn't been good enough.
UNL faculty supportive
Tirro said he has good memories of studying at UNL
in the 1950s. "I had very close personal associations with
the faculty," he said. Tirro pointed out that university
enrollment was only about 9,000 then, so it was easier
to get to know a larger part of the faculty and student
body.
"It was very supportive," he said. Most of his in
structors are still on the UNL music faculty, and he has
continued to hear from some of them.
"That sort of caring relationship that the music faculty
provided me was just a great thing."
Tirro said that graduate study proved to be much
more competitive. "You were much more on your own
then. Graduate study is different and maybe it has to
be."
Tirro said he still feels like a Nebraskan. He is originally
from Omaha and said he still has a lot of family ties
in the state.
This visit is Tirro's first campus visit in some years,
he said, although he came back to UNL twice during
the 1960s for musical performances, one of them a
production of one of his compositions.
Tirro is married and has two children.
27th & CORNHUSKER
Come Party With Us All Day Long!
VOTES?
FOOTBALL
SATURDAYS
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
$2.00 Pitchers
ALL DAY
1 6 oz. Go Big Red Draws
75
Drink Specials - Fantastic Food
- Big Screen T.V.
Ride Little Bo's Express to Campus
Friday Polka Party
HOOOSTASiHf JOE
Try our Hickory Smoked
B-B-Q Chicken $2.99
Chsrllo Horno end tho
Midnight Wind
thru Sunday
ov. 10th Mel (VlcDaniol
In Concert
The Only Place To Rock a Roll
thru Saturday
7:00-1:00 am
!