After nine years, Frank Eychaner, the longtime University of Texas Permian Basin Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor of the Humanities and Music Department Chair at UTPB, has accepted a position as the director of choral activities at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and he’s very excited to be getting back to his roots.
His role will be to direct two auditioned ensembles. He’ll oversee all the choirs.
There is an assistant director of choral activities who is mainly in music education and directs a men’s and women’s choir.
Eychaner will also teach undergraduate conducting and do all the choral coursework for the master’s in choral conducting.
“I’ll teach choral literature and methods. I’m very excited to be getting back to doing the things that are at the core of my professional preparation. In the last few years at UTPB, I was doing an extraordinary amount of administration and other things that has to happen to make a small department run,” he said.
While he doesn’t have a connection to Arkansas, Eychaner said he’s always aspired to teach graduate students. He will be doing that, along with teaching undergraduate students.
“That’s what initially attracted me. I always thought that I wanted to live in western states, but when I started exploring the opportunity, I discovered that there’s an extraordinary amount of recreational and outdoor opportunities. It’s the ‘Natural State,’ so I’m very excited that I’ll be where there’s water, trees, mountains, hiking, camping and fishing, specifically fishing. I’ll do a lot of trout fishing and warm water fly fishing while I’m there,” he said.
There are 35 full-time music faculty members at UCA. It is the largest single department at the university. There are also about 15 adjunct professors and 220 to 230 majors.
“The School of Music is just much larger than what we have here. I’ll direct an audition choir of about 70 and in addition to that, there’ll be another 70 or 80 singers that are in the men’s and women’s choruses. There’s just more students,” Eychaner said.
“In terms of the graduate program, I don’t know exactly how many there are. I think there’s just a handful and that’s common because one of the most important experiences you have in a graduate conducting program is the opportunity to actually conduct and rehearse choirs. If you have six or eight students, the opportunities get really spread out meaning nobody has a chance to do a lot. A smaller program of maybe three or four graduate students at any given time is an ideal number. That way they get lots of opportunity to actually conduct the ensembles to rehearse the ensembles, which is going to be arguably the most experience they have in their graduate program,” he added.
Eychaner and his wife, Karen, moved to West Texas in July 2014. Since his arrival, he has helped build the music program at UTPB.
“It’s gratifying to know that when we got here, there were three vocal majors and now that number is closer to 30. There were nine people enrolled in one choir when I got here and now there’s five different ensembles that rehearse each week. It’s exciting to know that there’s a really great school right here in West Texas where students from this part of the country can come and get a great education and then go on and do whatever they want to do — be it teach, or get more training in voice, or do something else in the marketplace as a performer or recording artist,” Eychaner said.
He added that he’s confident that the leadership of UTPB is committed to maintaining a great music program and they’ll do what it takes to find the best possible people to come in and take the department and programs to new heights.
Eychaner said he will miss the kindness, generosity of spirit and honest way of doing business in West Texas.
He will also miss his students most of all.
“They come with a great desire to work hard and learn new things and a generosity of spirit that’s really exceptional,” Eychaner said.
He added that they get exceptional training in the public schools.
“One of the things that has made this experience so enjoyable is that I’m able to work with really capable students that come in really well prepared because of the incredible work of our public school educators and our choirs. I’ll miss my church. I’ve been a music minister at Community Bible Church for the last five years and we’ve experienced some incredible growth and been blessed to lead a contemporary music ministry there with a number of professional musicians and volunteers at all levels. … It’s really a joy to take on a different role on Sunday mornings and be a part of that church at the same time,” Eychaner said.
Eychaner has been directing choirs for about 32 years.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in music education and his master’s in choral conducting from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash. Eychaner took his doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Kentucky.
Eychaner has taught at the high school and college level and been in music ministry for many years.
He has built up programs in various places, just as he did at UTPB. He has also held choral camps for high school students and gotten his vocal groups invited internationally and to conferences nationwide.
Part of what attracted him to UCA was that it is an established program.
“Students come from out of state, as well, to UCA. We have UCA graduates placed in many of the best schools around Arkansas and in contiguous states, so the job of recruiting becomes much easier because you have allies and advocates out in the community suggesting, Hey, if you think you want to study music, UCA is a great option for you, or Oh, you’re going to UCA you should consider being in the choir,” Eychaner said.
Because of this his role changes from trying to recruit students to UTPB to one where he is a resource for people “that are already coming to me.”
“There’s also the reality that I’m excited about working in a program where there’s enough students to really stratify the experience for those students that are really motivated, that are really capable, that are really available. There’s a chamber choir of about 25 singers that will do gnarly, hard vocal repertoire from every century at the highest levels, because everybody in the group will be equally or at least will be highly motivated, highly skilled and have the time to put in to do that.”
“On the other end of the spectrum. There are two non-audition choirs, one for men’s voices and one for women’s voices, that meet three days a week with my colleague, Paul Mayhew. People can just come in just because they enjoy singing with not a huge commitment outside of the time that they have in the classroom and then everything in between. It would be really nice to be in a place where people can come and sing and provide experiences dependent on what they want, as opposed to kind of having to have everybody at the table just to make it work which is normal in a small college. The top group captures everybody who has a minimum level ability and then we work together to make them the best group that they can be,” Eychaner said.
Eychaner and his wife, Karen, have three children.
Dan Keast, Lois & Louis Rochester Professor in Music at UTPB, said they plan to look for someone to replace Eychaner and other faculty who are leaving.
“We will likely have an interim for this next year with a national search for the tenure-track replacement a year from now. The department is happy to be moving forward with the search and we are excited for the opportunity to grow and change with a new director. The other vacancies are also important. Those positions will be staffed with the most talented regional musicians to benefit the students studying at UTPB. Our students, and their education, are our top priority. UTPB students will be treated to engaging and rare opportunities during the transition,” Keast said.
