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| Wade R. Brown with his 1916 Music History Class |
Although the Departments of Vocal Music and Instrumental
Music had been unified into a single department at the State Normal and
Industrial School by 1910, the quality of student education remained modest. The focus of the Music Department was to
cultivate its female student body for positions of leadership in churches and
schools. The Greensboro music scene could be described as
provincial, at best. Julius I. Foust, School president after Charles Duncan McIver’s death in
1906, understood that for his progressive vision of the campus to be realized,
the School would require not only physical growth, but also an artistic and
cultural invigoration. Success in this immense undertaking required an individual
with force of personality, energy, and competency equal to the challenge. Foust
selected Wade R. Brown (1866-1950) for the task.
When Julius Foust found Wade R. Brown, he was serving as
Dean of the School of Music at Meredith College. A pianist by training, Brown
had served on the faculty at Baker University, the Baptist Female College in
Greenville, SC, and Winthrop College in South Carolina before holding his position at Meredith
College. During his tenure at Meredith, Brown was described as a “masterful
man,” and “an uncommon organizer… [who] knows how to marshall his forces and
control and direct a great department.” When Brown was appointed Director of
Music at the State Normal and Industrial School, some individuals in the
Meredith College community took Foust’s seduction of their beloved music
director, with the promise of higher salary, personally. One article stated, “The
worst blow that has ever befallen Meredith College was the resignation of Mr.
Wade R. Brown… it does hit rather hard for an institution like the Normal to
secure one of our best.” Brown, perhaps seeking a new challenge, transitioned
from Raleigh to Greensboro, building his residence on 1022 West Market St.
When Brown stepped on to the campus for the first time as
Director of the Department of Music in 1912, he walked into the obstacles of a
newly unified department, almost exclusively focused on voice and keyboard
training, with no single building dedicated to teaching and rehearsal. Although
the School did cultivate an orchestra, the city of Greensboro did not support
any professional music organization. Therefore, aside from church music,
Greensboro and the School existed in a musical void, as there were few venues
in which to perform and no body of local, professional musicians to offer accompaniment
to attract quality touring performers, let alone provide the enrichment of a
consistent concert series. Brown, after taking a few months to settle into the
area, assessed the situation, and instituted immediate improvements ("immediate" as in one month into his first semester).
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| Illustration from the 1914 Yearbook |
The first means of improving the musical reputation of the
School was to assess what was being taught and overhaul the music curriculum.
Although the Department of Music was officially unified in 1906 and the first
Bachelor of Music was offered in 1907, the program was still weak. The music
curriculum was structured more as a general education with a focus on music.
Brown developed a more formalized and intensive course of study for attaining a
degree in music. This meant the quality of music student graduating from the
State Normal and Industrial School improved, gradually bolstering the School’s
reputation for producing competent music educators.
Secondly, presenting opportunities for students to gain
performance experience and for the public to develop a desire to listen and to discern
quality music was needed. This meant performing in recitals. Wade R. Brown performed
his first organ recital on Founder’s Day in October of 1912, which included “Grand
March” from Verdi’s Aida, the “Prelude”
in Bach’s Fugue in C minor, Handel’s The Largo, “In Summer” by Stebbins,
Spinney’s “Berceuse,” and Flagler’s “The Old Folks at Home.” The audience was enthralled by the
performance, one citizen reporting, “I dropped in to see what it was like,
expecting to stay ten minutes. But I could not leave. That was music. The Normal College has a treasure
in Brown.” That same month, Brown organized a 125-voice chorus of students, as
well. For November of 1912, Brown
arranged for the Schubert String Quartette from Boston to perform. Within a
matter of months of Brown’s arrival in Greensboro, the State Normal and
Industrial School, as well as the Greensboro public, were enjoying the benefits
of a consistent concert series, captivated by the experience of hearing
well-organized student ensembles and professional musicians.
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| Auditorium of in the Student Building, 1913 |
With the first challenge of exposing the student body and
the city to quality music conquered, Wade R. Brown transitioned to the
next project, fostering the reputation of the State Normal and Industrial
College’s Music Department. For this purpose, Brown implemented the statewide
High School Contest-Festival in 1919. When the first contest was held in May of
1920, only 13 high school pianists entered. By the 1939 Festival, 25,000 children competed
at district levels with around 5,000 students traveling to the campus to
compete in vocal, instrumental, and choral competition. Brown’s High School
Music Contest-Festival was the forerunner of the present
UNCG Summer Music Camp,
which officially began in 1983. With the Contest-Festival an obvious success in
promoting the College’s focus on music education, Brown transitioned to the
most difficult of the tasks required of his tenure in Greensboro, structuring a
culture of music appreciation among students and Greensboro citizens.
Wade R. Brown wrestled with the dilemma of developing a culture
of music that was rather complex. For the College to produce exceptional music
graduates, students needed to perform to larger audiences, and to experience performances by professional musicians. This would not only enhance
student education but also nurture the lives of Greensboro residents.
Unfortunately, until Brown arrived, music concerts, as an activity of personal
enrichment, were not viewed as a cultural necessity for the area. From performing
and arranging recitals, Brown knew that there was a population craving concerts,
but there were few accommodations for large audiences, no money to pay decent performers to tour the Greensboro area, and no professional body
of musicians to accompany touring performers. This was a daunting task, but
Brown tackled it with his usual effectiveness.
In terms of performance venues, larger churches were
commonly used in the beginning, but there was also a 700 seat auditorium available
in the Student Union. Foust’s construction projects (with much urging from
Brown) included the Music Building (now the Brown Building), which opened in
1925, as well as the Aycock Auditorium, which opened in 1926. This provided the college
with sufficient seating to accommodate crowds that would be attracted by more
noted performers.
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| The Music Building (now the Wade R. Brown Building), 1927 |
Wade R. Brown immediately began using his personal
connections to attract major music companies to perform in Greensboro. As there
was no official symphony orchestra for Greensboro until 1939, State Normal
music faculty and students provided accompaniment when possible. Eventually, with
the increased hiring of members of the School of Music faculty, a symphony
orchestra would be formed. However, in the early stages of the concert series, some
of the more complex performances required a professional orchestra, and out of
town symphonies were contracted.
Of course, the creation of a professional concert series for
Greensboro required funding. Initially, Brown raised money on a per concert basis,
which was not the ideal means of establishing a regular schedule for
performances. With the opening of Aycock Auditorium guaranteeing a dedicated
performance venue, Brown, along with C.G. Harrington and J.D. Wilkins, founded
the Greensboro Civic Music Association. The mission of this Association was to support
and advance awareness and appreciation of music among Greensboro citizens.
Membership fees and donations provided a stable flow of funds for the Association to contract prominent musicians to perform for Greensboro
audiences. To say that the venture was a success would be an understatement. By
1937, membership to the Civic Music Association was so popular, there was a
waiting list. Additionally, during Wade R. Brown’s tenure as president of the Civic
Music Association, Greensboro and the College had the honor of hosting
Metropolitan Opera soprano Kristen Flagstad and bass Ezio Pinza, the
Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, the National Symphony Orchestra, and
Jascha Heifetz.
In 1934, Wade R. Brown stepped down as head of the what had become the School of Music, and formally retired from the faculty in 1936. After twenty-four years of
service to the Women’s College (as of 1932) and the Greensboro community, Brown
and his wife retired to Florida, spending much of their time travelling abroad to enjoy
touring the musical capitals of Europe. Wade R. Brown died in May of 1950, one
obituary notice reading, “he is memorialized, too, by the deeper appreciation
of the fine things in life which he encouraged and cultivated in the minds and
hearts of North Carolinians, both young and old.”
This is part three of a series of posts chronicling the history of the music program at UNCG:
Part 1 and
Part 2
Sources:
Wade R. Brown, Subject File, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Alumnae News of the State Normal and Industrial College [November 1912], UA43.6.01 Alumnae/Alumni News and UNCG Magazine, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
The Carolinian [1914], UA42.4.03 Pine Needles, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.The Carolinian [February 26, 1937], UA42.4.01 The Carolinian, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Trelease, Allen W. 2004. Making North Carolina literate: the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from normal school to metropolitan university. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press.
[Music Building (Tate Street)], UA104 Photographic Prints Collection, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
[Students' Building Auditorium], UA104 Photographic Prints Collection, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
