Aug 15

Mo Green · July 30, 2011

I just opened up old mail & there is a evening reception at NT to announce the gift talked about earlier. Who has been invited?

UNTflyer · July 30, 2011

I just opened up old mail & there is a evening reception at NT to announce the gift talked about earlier. Who has been invited?

Don't dance around it... who sent the invite? Where is it being held? What does the invitation say about the event?

Stan R · July 30, 2011

I'll be there...but you are a tad late to this party...several threads here on GMG have already addressed this event. Hope to see you on the 15th.

GO MEAN GREEN. I am hearing the amount is in excess of $20MM, from an overseas alum and related to the School of Music somehow...but, we'll all know for certain on the 15th.

Great news for UNT!

Ugh. Just what the university needs, more money for the music program. Don't get me wrong, it is great, you take it, but. *sigh*

Censored by Laurie · July 31, 2011

Ugh. Just what the university needs, more money for the music program. Don't get me wrong, it is great, you take it, but. *sigh*

Huh? Really?

Mean Green 93-98 · July 31, 2011

Huh? Really?

Maybe we should encourage our music department to start sucking so people would quit contributing to it.

GreenMachine · July 31, 2011

I agree, I could care less about the music school. Wish the money would go anywhere else but there.

Rudy · July 31, 2011

Maybe it's a bribe to get the Green Brigade to begin playing the Imperial Death March after 3rd down stands again.

Negative points for this? Really? LOL

Edited July 31, 2011 by Rudy

eulessismore · July 31, 2011

Huh? Really?

+1, but just think of it: a college program becomes the best in the world in its field, and honors, talent, and money flow into it. You've got to hate that kind of thing.

GreenMachine · July 31, 2011

+1, but just think of it: a college program becomes the best in the world in its field, and honors, talent, and money flow into it. You've got to hate that kind of thing.

best in the world that very few people know even exists. I have never had one person mention our music dept in water cooler conversations. Either they aren't aware or just don't care.

GreenMachine · July 31, 2011

you have your opinion about the music school and I have mine. like I stated earlier very few people know we have a music school and even fewer people care. when I was at UNT, most music majors could care less about the university as a whole, only cared about they're dept. So few universities even have a music school, does it really make us feel good to tout ours? our band only plays 3-4 songs every football game, what's so special about that. anyway, like stated earlier, could care less about the music dept.

KingDL1 · July 31, 2011

you have your opinion about the music school and I have mine. like I stated earlier very few people know we have a music school and even fewer people care. when I was at UNT, most music majors could care less about the university as a whole, only cared about they're dept. So few universities even have a music school, does it really make us feel good to tout ours? our band only plays 3-4 songs every football game, what's so special about that. anyway, like stated earlier, could care less about the music dept.

There is some truth to what you say, but my experience was reversed people knew North Texas had great music/jazz but thought we didn't play football anymore. I remember seeing a group on campus in the mid to late 80s trying to get rid football all together at North Texas, a nasty contact sport, so the money could be spent on better things like music and art. But kind of like Mark said the more attention the University gets the better for all. Same goes for Music when the football team does well and gets media attention and donations.

MDH · July 31, 2011

So does our Thailand alum have music connections then? This seems like an awfully large donation to be going towards music. I'm not complaining one bit, it just doesn't really seem like we have a music alum that would or would have enough money to give.

Edited July 31, 2011 by MDH

Mean Green 93-98 · July 31, 2011

like I stated earlier very few people know we have a music school and even fewer people care.

Bull. More people across the world are aware of the UNT College of Music than anything else the school does. And if athletics is a "window to the university," so is music, though largely to a different set of people. But do you know what? Some of those people have money, and donate to the College of Music who wouldn't be donating anything to the university. Is that so bad?

when I was at UNT, most music majors could care less about the university as a whole, only cared about they're dept.

Kind of like how you obviously only care about yours?

Music major here, and I know plenty of others who care about our university as a whole. And you will certainly never find me complaining about a contribution that another program received.

our band only plays 3-4 songs every football game, what's so special about that.

Your ignorance is really showing--the College of Music is a whole lot more than the marching band. But it is interesting that you choose to single out a group whose school spirit could be compared to any other on campus.

GreenMachine · August 1, 2011

Your ignorance is really showing--the College of Music is a whole lot more than the marching band. But it is interesting that you choose to single out a group whose school spirit could be compared to any other on campus.

so are you saying the Green Brigade plays more than 3-4 songs? Actual football songs that get the crowd enthused?

Green P1 · August 1, 2011

Anyone else wish they would just shut the whole school part of UNT down? No one at my work ever talks about what kids are learning in those stupid classrooms. Why can't we just focus all our monies on becoming a professional football team?

Edited August 1, 2011 by Green P1

UNT90 · August 1, 2011

so are you saying the Green Brigade plays more than 3-4 songs? Actual football songs that get the crowd enthused?

Kinda sounding like the stereotypical high school meatheaded jock here. If it is the music department that got the gift, good for them. Maybe Coach Mac can build the football program to the point of the music program and then we can see those donations coming the AD's way.

Remember, our music department is ranked in the top 10 nationally. While that may not mean much to you, it means a lot to the people in the music community. Not everyone lives the same life you do.

TheTastyGreek · August 1, 2011

Anyone else wish they would just shut the whole school part of UNT down? No one at my work ever talks about what kids are learning in those stupid classrooms. Why can't we just focus all our monies on becoming a professional football team?

I bet our basketball team couldn't even beat the Cavaliers. Fire Johnny?

ColoradoEagle · August 1, 2011

I think this being announced on August 15th, same day as single game ticket sales begin, is too much of a coincidence for it not to be related to Mean Green Stadium.

That said, even if it turns out to be money exclusive to the music school, I don't know how anyone can complain.

MeanGreenTexan · August 1, 2011

I think this being announced on August 15th, same day as single game ticket sales begin, is too much of a coincidence for it not to be related to Mean Green Stadium.

That said, even if it turns out to be money exclusive to the music school, I don't know how anyone can complain.

It's all there, you just have to use the internet to connect the dots.

UNT Five&Dime · August 1, 2011

It's all there, you just have to use the internet to connect the dots.

Please don't give this advice to the peoples on this board.

Stan R · August 1, 2011

Wow! I turn around and I get a negative points firestorm directed in my general location. Well maybe I deserved it. I don't think people really got the point. If it is for the music department, whoopee - the got a huge amount of money, the one department that continually gets dumped cash by willing alums. I even said - you take it. But ask yourself. Would you rather have this money directed toward athletics or toward the Music dept. I think the answer is clear.

UNTLifer · August 1, 2011

Hasn't the One O'Clock Lab Band played for a king, or someone of that stature, in Thailand in the past?

eulessismore · August 2, 2011

Hasn't the One O'Clock Lab Band played for a king, or someone of that stature, in Thailand in the past?

There are two references in the Wikipedia article on the One O'Clock to performances in Thailand, once for the King, and once (in 2009) as part of an international saxophone event. However, someone in the administration of the College of Music told me in December of 2010 that they had just recently played for the King of Thailand. Hell, people who claim that nobody knows anything about our College of Music might even be able to learn something from reading this:

Wikipedia on One O'Clock

One thing that I find kind of thrilling in the article is reading about Willis Conover, jazz host for Voice of America, aiming jazz at the then Soviet Union, including a performance by the One O'Clock heard by 40 million people overseas, to promote freedom. Check out the bolded part as a way of turning the "never heard about them" theory turned on its ear. I hadn't realized before the extent to which they were one of our weapons in the Cold War:

The Lab Band: Voice of America Jazz HourWillis Conover (19201996), jazz host on Voice of America, broadcast six nights a week to an audience that, at the peak of the Cold War, was estimated to be 30 million regular listeners in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and as many as 100 million worldwide.^[17] Conover, who had heard the One O'Clock Lab Band several times, including as judge at the 1960 Notre Dame Jazz Festival (when Leonard Bernstein was on the festival's board), asked Leon Breeden, in 1967, for recordings of certain numbers. Later that year, Conover featured the One O'Clock Lab Band in an hour broadcast to an estimated audience of 40 million.^[18] Every year thereafter, the One O'Clock supplied a professional quality studio engineered album to Conover.

Jazz was, as Mr. Conover liked to say, "the music of freedom;" and to those who had no freedom, it became a metaphor of hope. Conover was known as the most famous American virtually no American had ever heard of. By law, the Voice of America broadcasts broadcasts that made him a household name in Europe, Asia and Latin America could not be beamed to the United States, where Mr. Conover was known mainly to dedicated jazz fans.

I guess some of this just illustrates the old cliche that "nobody is a prophet in their own country".

Edited August 2, 2011 by eulessismore

Green Mean · August 2, 2011

What a great way to piss on donors willing to give to our university when they don't have too. Last I checked this univeristy needs all the donors and the reconnecting of all alumni past present and future that it can get.