ONE-ON-ONE | Glenn Schaft Percussionist beats the drum for top-notch program

Q. A lot of what you've done here so far has to do with culture. What have you learned in your five years here about the cultural aspects of this area?
A. I've been so busy with the work here, trying to turn this into a really top-notch program, that I really haven't had time to go out and see all that much here. We've gone to the museums that are here -- Labor and Industry, of course the Butler, and that sort of thing. ... I've gone out and have seen some musical groups perform. We went to the Playhouse a couple times. Until the babies were born, I was spending a lot of time going up to Cleveland and playing jazz gigs with friends up there. So when I had nights to get out, that's where I would usually be -- sometimes playing here in town, but more often playing up in Cleveland.
Q. But you knew enough that there were some areas where you could create something, such as the Latin Jazz Combo.
A. I wanted to do that no matter where I took a job. One of the things that was very appealing to me about the position here is that it hadn't gone on before here. It was an opportunity to start from scratch. Having a good jazz program in place, they had asked me if I would be willing to do a jazz combo and I said yes. Finally, when we got my load adjusted so I had room to do it, I suggested doing a Latin jazz group. The program being in place made it a lot easier to go in this direction. With the percussion program, I'm in charge of it, so I can pretty much take it in any direction I want.
Obviously, I have to service all of our ensemble directors here. They need players that can play in our orchestra, play in our band, marching band, all those things. We also have percussion ensemble time in which we can pursue our own interests. One of the things I liked about this school is that they seemed open to whatever you wanted to do, and there was going to be an opportunity for me to kind of put my own stamp on it.
Q. I hear in other areas of the job market that workers should expect to change jobs every three to five years. Is that true in your field?
A. Up until I got this job, my wife and I had moved eight or nine times. In music, you can be changing jobs a lot. I think once you find a place where you can get something done -- right now I'm not thinking of moving because I think there's potential to do things here. My big concern here has only been to be able to get all the equipment we need for our students, instructional equipment.
YSU has been going through all of these budget cuts for the last six or seven years. That's made it hard for everyone on campus to do what they are capable of doing. I've expressed to our administration here, that's my only reservation about being here -- will I get all the instructional equipment we need to be able to do this kind of stuff?
Q. Does being an educator require you to do more than educate?
A. Yeah, I suppose. You have to be a performer, an educator, psychologist, all in one.
Q. What about a fund-raiser?
A. Oh yes. We've done considerable work with percussion companies. I have endorsements with four percussion companies. That has brought probably 30, 40 thousand dollars of equipment and guest artists to campus in the last five years. That's how we get a lot of these things paid for. That helps me a lot because I have very little budget to do that otherwise.
Q. And that's common as far as your colleagues go?
A. Actually what's uncommon is that in percussion, the manufacturers have a very close tie with the educators. I don't think it's quite as close of a tie with a lot of other instruments. It's much more difficult for my colleagues who are violinists, cellists, flutists, to get company support for guest artists. Because percussionists play so many instruments, because there's such competition for instrument sales, they are really trying to hook up, promote their products with certain artists.
In order to do that, they want to reach the young students, get them playing their equipment. So that's why they are willing to give us the money to have these people come in. And yet, it's a nice situation because the artists come, and they'll mention who they endorse, but it's not a big commercial. They are here to teach. So we've gotten very good instruction from the guests artists, despite the fact that it is a commercial of sorts.
Q. Where do you think the percussion program is going?
A. My main mission is to be able to provide the same equipment that I teach on that they perform on, and rehearse on, and practice on in their practice rooms every day, so that they have professional-level equipment in every room that they're in. Because of the size of our instruments, we can't bring our own instruments to school like the saxophonist does, so we have to provide that for them. One of my goals is to provide a state-of-the-art instrument collection and facilities for us to practice and rehearse.
[Another] is to offer a diverse curriculum that focuses on versatility of experience, especially at the undergraduate level. I think it's really important for students to be able study a variety of instruments and not to specialize in one instrument early on. By the time they get to be graduate students, if they choose to specialize, they're making a more informed decision. When they're really young they don't know enough about the field of music; they don't know what specialization entails.
Q. You have young sons. What do you think their lives will be like since their parents are musicians? What do you want for them?
A. We just want to provide them a loving home to grow up in. We don't have any goals for them to do anything in music. If they want to play music from being around it, if they love it, that's fine. It's also fine if they don't do that. We have no aspirations to make them little musical geniuses.
I bought them some toys -- they have some toy drums at home that they play on and little percussion instruments. They listen to my wife practice her violin at home, and they hear our stereo on all the time. They just came to one of my percussion concerts. ... They'll be around music; they won't be able to avoid that. We certainly aren't going to push that on them.
Q. Do you and your wife have much in common as far as musical preferences go?
A. We met in college at Baldwin-Wallace. She was in the orchestra, and I was in the orchestra. She plays strictly classical music. She plays with the Akron Symphony, the Canton Symphony and Pittsburgh Opera. I don't play just strictly classical music; I play a lot of jazz, ethnic music. Once in a while I play classical music. We'll work together in Cleveland. We used to work some jobs together in ballet and opera. We've collaborated on some recitals together. ... but in a way our musical lives are kind of separate. We just both happen to be musicians.
Q. So in your stereo at home, we'd be more likely to find a CD by ...
A. Oh, you'd probably find something by Art Blakey or Wynton Marsalis, some kind of jazz thing like that. My wife, you'd find classical. We both like bluegrass music -- Alison Krauss and that sort of thing.
Q. Did you see [Krauss] here last summer?
A. No. She's a friend of mine, though. She sang with my jazz band at University of Illinois. ... I knew Alison when she had no idea what she was going to be doing. She used to play in this little bluegrass band in Champaign at the same club I played jazz gigs at. I'd go and hear her band, hear her sing and play violin. A few years later, she left school and moved to Nashville and hit it big. ... She's a great musician.
What I like about her is that she stays true to what she wants to be. She hasn't done what somebody told her to do just because it would sell a lot of records. She does what she thinks she needs to do to be a successful artist. I really respect her for that. A lot of people sell out, and she hasn't.
Q. Two musicians, twin boys under the age of two -- do you have the noisiest house on the block?
A. Probably. It's getting noisier by the day, that's for sure. I actually don't practice at home very much. If I practice, it's here, because this is where my instruments are, but we are going to build a studio in our basement.
XTHE WRITER/ Debora Shaulis, Vindicator entertainment editor, conducted the interview.