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The University of Manitoba has chosen the next leader of the Desautels Faculty of Music and the School of Art.
Dr. Stephen Runge was chosen from a field of three candidates to head up both departments. Originally from Saskatchewan, Runge is currently at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick where he has been a Professor of Piano for eighteen years and has served as the Head of the Department of Music for eleven of those years.
“It’s a really exciting jump to a large institution,” Runge said in a conversation on Classic 107’s Morning Light. It’s great to be able to now have involvement with the graduate programs both in music and in art. I also love the flexibility and the diversity that the programs already show.”
While Runge admits that his piano performance might have to take a backburner for a second as he acclimatizes to a new role, he also notes that his performance background is one of the strongest assets he’s taking into the dean’s office. “I think in a lot of ways, musicians have to develop many of the similar skills that a good administrator has,” Runge elaborates. “As a pianist, there are a lot of hours that are spent practicing by myself, but I have to be equally comfortable rehearsing with others. I have to manage both the commitments that I have short term in terms of having things prepared as well as looking long term to the next month or the next year’s concert.”
“All of those skills transfer quite well to administration. In similar ways, you’re needing to deal always with the day-to-day, but also have an eye on the future and what’s to come.”
Runge notes that although he’s never held a formal position in the visual arts, he’s excited to learn from his colleagues. “I’ve been an art lover rather than a practitioner, but I’ve always been very interested in the connections between visual art and music… how artists inspired musicians and vice versa.”
“One of the exciting things that now we have a possibility of maybe doing more of [is] some of that interdisciplinary work between art and music now that the university has chosen to at least administratively combine the oversight of those two units into one office.”
When asked where he hopes to see the university’s art and music programs in the next five years, Runge is excited to continue building on the momentum of new infrastructure and collaboration by branching out more from the Fort Garry campus into the greater Winnipeg arts community. “I think there’s the opportunity for the university to become even more a focal point for the larger Winnipeg community,” he says, citing a desire for more community groups to perform in the new Desautels Concert Hall.
Another desire Runge has for his first days as deans is getting a better sense of how the Faculty of Music and Faculty of Art can help students achieve their career goals. “I think it’s important that I get a sense of what’s already happening on the ground and find out how best to move the music and the art program into the next quarter of the 21st century and to incorporate and to modify programs maybe as needed to reflect what students are interested in.”