Author: Stan

What I'm Watching This Month

What I’ve Been Watching (Summer and Fall 2020)

Like so many of you, the current health care crisis upended aspects of my personal and professional life back in March, with lingering effects continuing to the present weeks. Gratefully, however, I managed to spend more time reading, reviewing books, and working on my research on television and television music. In addition to my concentrated […]

Read More
What I'm Watching This Month

What I’ve Been Watching (January 2020)

I really want to like the new season of Dr. Who (launched on January 1, 2020). The two-part season opener (“Spyfall,” parts 1 and 2) was pretty strong, but the most recent episode (“Orphan 55”): awful. I cannot think of a worse episode since the revived series launched. (Fellow fans: Feel free to offer alternative […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development

The Job Search: Cover Letters

This entry is part 1 of 0 in the series The Job Search

About a decade ago, I became concerned that my college students were not being intentionally trained in how to prepare cover letters and resumes so that they would be ready to apply for their first post-collegiate jobs. Because I was teaching classes many music majors took, I began to incorporate basic professional writing assignments into […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development

The University of Kentucky’s School of Music Honored by the Commonwealth’s House of Representatives

It’s not often that the University of Kentucky School of Music, its faculty, and programs make their way into the business of the Commonwealth’s General Assembly. Yet that happened on March 28, 2019, when the House of Representatives adopted House Resolution No. 214, which had been introduced to the assembly by Representatives Ruth Palumbo, David […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development

A Tribute to My Father, II

Lyman Edward Pelkey (1937–2018) My kind father and friend, Lyman Edward Pelkey, passed away peacefully this morning(Tuesday, December 11, 2018) at the ManorCare Nursing Home in Montgomeryville,Pennsylvania. He was 81, having celebrated his last birthday on November 25.   Back in November 2015, I wrote a lengthy blog in tribute to “My Musical Father.” I’ve […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development

STEAM Before STEM: Lewis Mumford’s Ideas about Art and Technology

Digital Handout for: “STEAM Before STEM: Lewis Mumford’s Ideas about Art and Technology and Why They Matter Today” Stanley C. Pelkey, Director University of Kentucky School of Music 2018 College Music Society National Conference Vancouver, BC Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) Definition of “technics”: The field of “practical arts” and “that part of human activity wherein, by […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development

Leadership Challenge: Managing Your Emotional Week

During the past ten years, I’ve become acutely aware of the patterns of the more-or-less predictable ups and downs of my moods and associated emotions over the course of most seven-day cycles. I call these patterns my “emotional week”. My emotional week is shaped in large part by the rhythms of my work week, its […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development

What I’ve Been Listening to: All Kinds of Creatures… Big and Small

  The music that has been occupying quite a bit of my attention during the past month was some of my own. As I have been sharing on the homepage for the past month or so, several of my new, short original compositions were featured on a program for families called “Libraries Rock!” at the Cape Girardeau Public […]

Read More
What I'm Listening to This Month

Easter Morning Music Blog

I have had the privilege to make a lot of music on Easter Sundays during the past 25 years as a part-time church musician and to lead dedicated and hard-working choral and instrumental ensembles for those more festive holiday services. During the past few years, I’ve put more time into preparing original music or arrangements […]

Read More
Ideas for Professional Development Leadership Musings What I'm Reading This Month What I'm Watching This Month

Njal’s Saga: Literature and Leadership

By Stan Pelkey In mid-January, during the last few days my two children were home for winter break, my son and I began to watch the first season of Vikings (Michael Hirst, 2013–2018) on Amazon Prime’s streaming video service. We’d watched The Last Kingdom on BBC America in 2015, and we’re huge fans of Game […]

Read More