Moody Fire Anniversary

I write today to highlight a very bright spot relative to our “here and now”, our extremely positive future, and a bit of an unpleasant memory from our past. Colleagues, if you have an opportunity this afternoon, take a walk through the South (new) wing of our beautiful Moody Music building complex, and enjoy how nice that space is, noticing how well it serves us and our students. And if it happens to be around 5:00 PM, also notice (I am extremely confident this will be the case) that the building is not on fire, not full smoke, and surrounded by emergency vehicles in every direction.

Yes, today is the anniversary of the Moody fire; April 19, 2020. That was an extraordinary day in our history in so many ways. It was devastating, depressing, disheartening, confusing, and extremely challenging. But, at the same time (before that day ended) the future had begun to take shape, and hope, optimism, and a true view of the future had initiated some early roots and begun to take hold.  That was a very long night and a very long week for our School of Music. But here we are: strong, resilient, productive, innovative, and aggressively poised for the future! It is the difficult times in life that bring growth. There is no question that our School of Music has grown and will continue to grow from the extraordinarily difficult challenges of this past year.

So, once again, I offer a sincere congratulations to each and every one of you for your part in this ongoing process of growth. It has been quite a year! I sent a note of thanks this morning to all involved (campus wide) who shared in the process of getting our building regenerated and back to us so quickly over the course of this past year. The support we enjoyed as a School of Music was extraordinary. That is a testament to the environment that each one of you has generated.

Thank you again, and…..Roll SOM Tide!!!

Professor and Director, Skip Snead