Redacted+job+application+letter

[letterhead] Committee Chair or other individual Address Dear ---:

I write to express my interest in the [specific post] at [institution], and enclose materials requested in that posting. Letters of recommendation will follow from [recommender I] at [recommender’s institution], [recommender II] at [recommender’s institution], and [recommender III] at [recommender’s institution].

I hold the position of Assistant Professor in Music History and Literature and serve as Director of the Vernacular Music Center at Texas Tech. Since coming to Tech in Fall 2000, I have participated in a comprehensive revision of the Music curriculum, have personally completely revised the music history and literature curriculum, and have created and taught new courses both within and outside my research specializations and across the TTU campus, including among other topics American Music, Duke Ellington, World Music, Ethnomusicology, the African Diaspora, American Music and Radical Politics, Medieval Music, 20th Century Music, and, for the Honors College, an interdisciplinary seminar on Music, Folklore, and Traditional Culture in Irish History. In addition to graduate courses, each semester I have maintained a heavy schedule of undergraduate music history teaching (100+ students in multiple sections), for which my quantitative student evaluations have averaged above 4.5 on a 5.0-point scale. I was a 2003 recipient of the Alumni Association’s New Faculty Award, and in 2005 was both the recipient of the “Professing Excellence” award (nominated by students) and elected to the Teaching Academy at Texas Tech (nominated by current members of the Academy). I am currently my College’s nominee for the Spencer A Wells Creativity in Teaching Award and the Music faculty recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of my tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.

For students I seek to create an environment which facilitates academic excellence, intellectual rigor, critical skills, dedication to artistic creativity, and awareness of cultural diversity. My pedagogical approach emphasizes an integrated, professional, and articulate approach to music as cultural history. I believe it is my responsibility as a university educator to help students link musical insight, historical understanding, and musical practice; to help them achieve the highest levels of musicianship and academic excellence; and to prepare them for lifelong involvement in music as music professionals, educators, scholars, creative artists and/or active listeners and consumers.

I have published articles on topics including jazz, popular music, and other American vernaculars, African music, and historical performance, in books including //The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar//, //Improvisation: In the Course of Performance//, //Proceedings of the VIIth International Symposium on Cultural Diversity in Music Education: The Local and the Global//, //The Renaissance in Ireland//, and //Popular Culture and Postmodern Ireland//; in journals including //College Music Symposium//, //New Hibernia Review//, //T.D.R. The Drama Review//, //R.P.M.// (Journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music), //Early Music America//, //Contemporary Music Review//, //Early Music// (London), //Irish Music//, //Historical Performance//, //Piping Today//, //The Journal of Music in Ireland// and //The Tallgrass Journal//; reviews in the //Journal of the American Musicological Society//; and encyclopedia essays in //The World and Its Peoples// for Brown Reference Group and the //Encyclopedia of Franco-American Relations// for ABC-Clio.

My own areas of research and creative activity are in the realm of performance history, dialectics, and semiotics: how performances are created, perceived, and communicated, particularly across boundaries of time, culture, and geography. My years of ongoing performance activities, study, and teaching, particularly those which have led to extensive interaction with musicians from diverse traditions, provide a unique perspective for research and analysis in this area. This research in turns feeds into and finds expression in performances and teaching as well as in publications. My research is driven by a conception of music in culture which reaches across the disciplines, across the campus, across cultures and time periods, in recognizing and celebrating music as a unique, individual, ultimately knowable, eternally valid mode of human expression.

As a teacher, scholar, and recording artist I am committed to the interaction of performance, scholarship, and community. This leads me to a very wide range of service, including campus, regional, national and international professional organizations; regional and national arts, culture, and community initiatives; and regional, local, and campus activities of all kinds. My division and College frequently draw on my training and experience in cross-cultural arts initiatives by having me serve as School of Music liaison to numerous other arts, culture, and community-service organizations, both across the campus, in the community, and nationally/internationally. I have also served as chair, presenter, and respondent at many music, arts, and humanities conferences in Northern America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and Ireland.

My current international performance activities emphasize music of the Middle Ages (with //Altramar// medieval music ensemble) and traditional Irish music (with //Last Night’s Fun// and as a solo artist). I have also studied, taught, recorded, and performed professionally in the idioms of rock & roll, jazz, blues, funk, reggae, West and South African musics, Hindustani music, and Near Eastern music since 1977 and currently serve as faculty advisor for the TTU World Music Ensemble.

I am grateful for the opportunity to apply for the position at [institution]. I would welcome the opportunity to shape a music program that reaches across departments, disciplines, and the campus; that integrates music into the lives of [institution] students and staff and the larger community; and to recruit and retain faculty and develop initiatives which help the Program in Performing Arts achieve its maximum potential. If I can supply any additional materials or information, please do not hesitate to be in touch with me.

Sincerely,

Christopher Smith

//[Nota bene; the following are important factors to keep in mind:// //Good luck!//
 * //This letter was written from the pre-tenure level in response to a request from the institution to apply for a senior (departmental) chair post. It would not be necessary or expected that a more junior individual should have the same number of accomplishments, publications, and so forth.//
 * //Before writing the letter, visit the institution’s website and review the language used to describe the institution, the specific program, and the specific area in which the posting is listed. If possible, try to compare the qualifications listed in the posting with those of individuals currently on the institution’s faculty—you can sometimes via this method assess who is being replaced. This will in turn help you tailor your package, your cover letter, and your interview responses so as to most clearly confirm your ability to fill your predecessor’s shoes.//
 * //Personalize the letter at least specifically enough to confirm for the committee that you have adapted your generic version to the specifics of the institution and the post//
 * //Ensure that the description of your own qualifications, experience, and skills speak directly to those called for in the job posting//
 * //Do not be apologetic in articulating your accomplishments—this is no time for false modesty. On the other hand, be accurate and realistic about your record—this is no time for exaggerated claims.//