Charles A. Dana Professor of Music

Read at the Senior-Faculty Dinner, May 22, 2003, on the occasion of her recognition of service, by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. Prepared by James P. Parakilas, Professor of Music and James L. Moody Jr. Family Professor of Performing Arts.

Ann Scott, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Music, got into music by learning to play the piano as a girl. She stayed in music as an undergraduate at Radcliffe and a graduate student at Brandeis and the University of Chicago, where she earned her doctorate with a dissertation on late medieval music. But by then she was a humanist, not just a musician, staying on at Chicago to teach in a famous humanities course.

In 1973 she came to Bates, where Marion Anderson was running the music program single-handedly, and in the course of 24 years as chair, she presided over the creation of a full-fledged music department. She taught music history and music theory, organized concerts and played piano duets with Frank Glazer and chamber music with students. Her scholarship moved from medieval music to Beethoven and Brahms and to Charles Ives’ interest in medieval music. With some help from Hedley Reynolds, Gene Clough, and the Olin Foundation, she built the Olin Arts Center.

People noticed how good she was at running things. At the College she served as chair of the Division of the Humanities and of important search committees. She served on the boards of the College Music Society and the American Musicological Society, for which she was also the secretary and the chair of the program committee. She chaired the Maine Humanities Council.

She became associate dean of the faculty, acting dean of the faculty, and then associate dean once again. Many who are now on the faculty owe their hiring or promotion to her, and the whole faculty appreciates her assistance with problems and her guidance through crises. With steady conviction and humane judgment, she has raised a generation of music students at Bates, promoted the growth of her discipline in the United States and shaped the character of this College.

Ann, on behalf of your students, your faculty colleagues and your friends, we are honored to recognize you on the occasion of your retirement from the College and extend our deep appreciation, indebtedness and best wishes.