Jason Geary has had a love of music for as long as he can remember. He started his first set of piano lessons in the fourth grade, and he knew from those early days that his future would involve music.
“It became obvious to me when I graduated high school that there was really no other path for me but to study music,” he said. “Even if I didn’t know quite what that would mean at the time, whether I would primarily teach or perform, I knew it would be something within this realm of music and the arts.”
This summer, Geary stepped into his new position as the director of the University of Maryland’s music school. He replaces former director Robert Gibson, who stepped down after a decade.
“We selected Jason Geary because he comes to us with a lot of experience and expertise,” said Bonnie Thornton Dill , the dean of the arts and humanities college. “He is himself an accomplished scholar, a musicologist … in the School of Music there are the performance people and academic people … he had experiences on both sides.”
Before joining the music school, Geary served for 12 years as an associate professor and associate dean for graduate studies, equity and inclusion at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, according to a news release on the arts and humanities college homepage.
“I served on different committees — [I was] also the director of graduate studies for the department of musicology for a few years,” Geary said. “But my biggest administrative role, and the one that I think most prepared me for this position, was associate dean for graduate studies, equity and inclusion to increase efforts between faculty, staff and students to have the school become more diverse and attractable for future students.”
Mark Clague, a professor of musicology and American culture at Michigan, wrote in an email that Geary is a great listener and encourages students to go and talk with him whenever they have concerns or want to share their dreams.
“The University of Maryland is fortunate to recruit Dr. Jason Geary as its new director of the School of Music,” Clague wrote. “Dr. Geary is the rare leader who not only has vision and courage, but also the human grace to understand that people put ideas into action. He cares deeply about students.”
As the new director, Geary will oversee every area of the school, including thinking about diversity and inclusion for the future, Geary said.
“I will approach [faculty and students] collaboratively … finding ways in which I can engage the faculty, students and the staff here at the School of Music in conversations where we think where we need to go, where it defines us as a unit,” he said.
