Spartan Stories
Tales from the UNCG University Archives
School of Music
The History of Dance on Campus
by Kathelene McCarty Smith Student Dancer, 1928 (p. 275) Dance has always been a very important part of the history of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). When the college opened in 1892 as the State Normal and Industrial School, “movement” was taught as part of the Physiology and Hygiene curriculum under the […]
Ronald A. Crutcher: from Cellist to University President
by Stacey Krim Ronald A Crutcher, 1989 It is always heartwarming to see musicians ascending to high places in academia. Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher served as professor of cello and head of the strings department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1979 to 1988. At age 17, he won the Cincinnati Symphony Young […]
Jazzing-Up the Campus with Ray Gariglio
by Anne Myers This blog post was authored by Anne Myers, Library and Information Studies practicum student at the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, December 2015. Ray Gariglio, 1975 Raymond J. Gariglio came to UNCG in 1966 as a Professor of Music and became the bandmaster for all UNCG performing band ensembles, […]
Darlinettes and Rhythmettes: Big Band Sounds at the WC
by Erin Lawrimore In 1942, big band music from the likes of Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman were all the rage, but local big bands were hard to find. Most of the musicians in these groups were male, and they were being drafted into military service during World War II. But a group […]
Meet Wade R. Brown, Founder of the Greensboro Music Scene
by Stacey Krim 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 […]
Buddy Gist, the Man Behind the Miles Davis Trumpet
by Stacey Krim The Miles Davis Trumpet is listed on the UNCG Bucket List Passing through the atrium of the Music Building, it is easy to overlook the modest exhibit featuring a trumpet. It is in a small case, dwarfed by its surroundings. Even upon reading the plaque, it is difficult to believe that the […]
Music on Demand, Part 2: Music and the Early Curriculum, 1892-1910
by Stacey Krim While the founders of the State Normal and Industrial School agreed that some music education was critical to a woman’s education, the first fifteen years of the School’s history were spent puzzling over why and how to fit music into the curriculum rather than developing a music curriculum. As the School was […]
Music on Demand, Part 1: Marketing Music Education to the State Normal and Industrial School Curriculum, 1892-1912
by Stacey Krim The first students to attend the State Normal and Industrial School in 1892 were greeted by a progressive curriculum, demanding competencies in many disciplines unfamiliar to women of that time. Charles Duncan McIver’s insistence that women educated in a liberal arts curriculum would remedy the state of education in the South acquainted […]
Elizabeth Cowling: Cellist, Musicologist, Teacher
by Stacey Krim Elizabeth Cowling, Early 1940s In the culture of classical music, instruments are more than objects that produce sound. Instruments have names, personalities, and even gender. Within the family of stringed instruments, the relationship between the performer and the violoncello infers an even more romantic dynamic. The curves of the instrument combined with […]
