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Breath Catching. Stage center on campus does not mean an occasional chamber-music get-together in the faculty lounge, but frequent, fully promoted performances before large audiences in gleaming new theaters. In return, the schools gain status and expert faculty material. "Universities now realize that experience under fire is more important than an academic degree," says Pittsburgh Symphony Flutist Bernard Goldberg, who teaches part time at Duquesne University. "Musicians who have been required to perform consistently under high standards can impart information not ordinarily found in textbooks."
Thus, with endowment funds bulging, music-school enrollments soaring, and campus performing-arts centers shooting up like shopping centers, college recruiters are raiding orchestras with all the fervor of pro-football scouts. At Indiana University, for instance, the music department lists 40 teachers from top U.S. orchestras, including three former concertmasters and 15 first-desk players, and such internationally ranked soloists as Violist William Primrose and Cellist Janos Starker. Boasting five campus orchestras and the resident Berkshire String Quartet, Indiana last year sponsored 501 musical events. Snaring topflight musicians is easy, says Indiana's Dean Wilfred Bain (with some exaggeration), because "people who push brooms are treated better than symphony players." Beyond that, the lures of the campus include more security, fatter pensions, sabbatical leaves, tenure, and salaries that match and often surpass those offered by the orchestras. For many, the chief attraction of a university post is simply a chance to catch one's breath. Admits Pittsburgh Symphony Conductor William Steinberg: "Playing in a university string quartet is a vacation compared to the grueling work required of symphony musicians."