JAMES SCOTT

After rushing out of Grady a bit early for a year at Emory and in the Atlanta Symphony, I went to Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio for undergrad work and then to Peabody Conservatory (now Johns Hopkins) in Baltimore for graduate degrees. After 27 years of teaching at Rutgers and performing in the NY/NJ area, my wife Elizabeth, our three sons, and I moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where I served as Associate Dean of the IU School of Music. Three years later we moved on to Illinois, where I took the position of Director of the University of Illinois School of Music. In 2001, we took a sharp turn southward to the University of North Texas, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as Dean of a splendid College of Music with over 1600 music majors. Music and service to higher education have been central to my life ever since Atlanta days.

Elizabeth, my wife of 46 years, is a wonderful partner in everything we do , and as a volunteer and advocate, she has also dedicated herself to the pursuit of the arts in the communities where we've lived.

Although I still perform at the flute, I do so less frequently because of the scope of other responsibilities. The tasks have led to some wonderful travels, though. Since we've been in Texas, I've traveled to Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, China, South Africa, Croatia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

Our home is in the greater Dallas/Ft/ Worth area, and we've found it to be the most fulfilling place we've lived since we moved away from Princeton, N.J., where all our children were born and grew up.

I retired from the deanship in 2016 and from my full-time professorship in May of 2018. However, I am still teaching almost half time, and enjoying working with great students, several of whom are nationally competitive.