Dana School celebrates 150 years with gala

(CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to note the ticket price is $11 and the dinner is not open to the public.)

By JESSICA HARDIN

jhardin@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The year Dana School of Music opened, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, and Leo Tolstoy completed his novel “War and Peace.”

That was 1869, two years after Youngstown received its city charter.

The Dana School celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.

“There are only six major music schools that have been around since the immediate post-Civil War era. The other five are conservatories with very high distinction and very high tuition,” said Randall Goldberg, director of the school.

The school was independent until 1941, when it became part of what is now Youngstown State University.

As student debt rises to unforeseen levels, the Dana School of Music continues to offer music education at one of the nation’s most affordable universities. William H. Dana, the school’s founder, “wanted to create an institution that had a really good balance between the practical and the academic side of music study,” Goldberg said.

In the ever-evolving world of music, Goldberg continues the legacy of striving for that balance. He aims to graduate students who can both perform and navigate the recording industry.

Goldberg regularly finds himself asking, “What does a student have to know?”

While the National Association of Schools of Music accredits music school curricula, its requirements cannot be as specific as a field such as engineering.

“There isn’t that one job,” Goldberg said. “We need someone to conduct a band. We need someone to write music for this. We need someone to run the choir at the church, teach at the school five days a week and play gigs at night.”

Therein lies the Dana School of Music’s strength: It prepares students to fill wide a variety of roles in music.

Dana founded the school to train people to “fill places of trust,” and alumni have done just that.

They play in bands, write music and teach in schools of all levels.

Dana’s effort to breed successful musicians starts much earlier than the undergraduate level. Multiple faculty members hold leadership roles in the city’s youth music community.

“For example, our director of bands is also the conductor of Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra. Our band director is conductor of the Stambaugh Youth Concert Band,” Goldberg said.

The relationship is mutually beneficial, for the city and for the school.

“Everyone benefits if you have a strong cultural environment, but it also helps us grow the next generation of future Dana students,” Goldberg said.

Dana’s contribution to Youngstown’s cultural environment will be on display today at a gala that promises to uniquely encapsulate the school’s past and present. A concert at Stambaugh Auditorium will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $11 at Stambaugh’s website. There will be an invite-only dinner before the event that is not open to the public.

The concert band will perform March Grandioso by Roland Seitz, a Dana alumnus who graduated in 1898.

“It’s a piece of music that is played at every home game of the University of Texas, Texas Tech University and the University of Nebraska,” said Goldberg.

In addition, the orchestra will play the Sesquicentennial Suite, a work written by students in the composition studio.

“So we have a piece composed by an alum over over 100 years ago and a work that will get its premiere from our undergraduate students,” said Goldberg.

IF YOU GO

When: Today, concert at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Stambaugh Ballroom and Auditorium

Tickets: $11, $5 for seniors and students at stambaughauditorium.com