History of the UNT Trumpet Department:
THE TRUMPET FACULTY
After the arrival of John Haynie at the University of North Texas in
the summer of 1950, the number of trumpet students began to grow,
necessitating the use of Teaching Assistants. The mid-1950s was the
beginning of having these fine young players add a new dimension to
their education; indeed it is possible that there will always be a need
for their services. During the tenure of John Haynie more than one
hundred Teaching Assistants were employed and this was highly successful
only because of the quality of the TAs and the cooperation of the
students they taught. In the mid-1960s a second full-time trumpet
teacher was employed. It was not a tenure track position but offered an
excellent learning experience for Douglas Smith who had, himself, been a
teaching assistant. Doug Smith was replaced by Keith Amstutz when Smith
went on to Michigan where he completed the DMA. Amstutz completed his
doctorate at Oklahoma University while on the faculty at UNT. With the
trumpet enrollment soaring well past one hundred students a third
full-time trumpet teacher was employed. James Lark had been a doctoral
student ten years prior to being invited to join the UNT brass faculty.
The department was growing and the trumpet faculty was also. Next to
leave was Keith Amstutz and his position was not a budgeted line item;
therefore he was not replaced. So again it was necessary to add more
teaching assistants than ever before. When James Lark retired in the
mid-1970s Dean Cuthbert could see that it was necessary to hire a
full-time person to teach trumpet and the position would be tenure track
with the rank of Assistant Professor. It would be the first music
faculty position to be selected by a search committee. Leonard
Candelaria, while still a TA working on his Masters degree, applied and
was selected by the search committee. With this combination of Haynie
and Candelaria, along with the help of the TAs, the trumpet department
prospered, and in the 1970s the total trumpet enrollment was more than
one hundred forty students. In 1985 Haynie decided to retire and yet
teach in a program of modified service, and so a search was initiated
for the Haynie position. After a two-year search another Haynie student
and former TA at UNT was hired. As an indication of the high expectation
of his appointment, Keith Johnson joined the UNT faculty as a full
professor with tenure. At present, Regents Professor Keith Johnson
remains and Regents Professor Leonard Candelaria has retired from his
long tenure at the University of North Texas. Once again a search
committee was formed to fill the Candelaria position and John Holt was
hired. While it may appear to have been chaos with the coming and going
of the full-time faculty and teaching assistants, it must be remembered
that the time span has been fifty-three years since John Haynie taught
his first trumpet lesson at the University of North Texas. It has been
thirteen years since he gave the last lesson.
THE TRUMPET LIBRARY
Having no idea of the impact that the
UNT library of trumpet music would have in future years, Haynie embarked
upon a venture of obtaining every piece of trumpet music that was
available. Many publishers upon request would give complimentary copies
of their entire holdings of trumpet music to either Haynie or the
university library. As funding became available the university library
would systematically purchase whatever the trumpet faculty recommended.
John Haynie’s personal trumpet music and recordings are now catalogued
in the university music library stamped “The John Haynie Collection”. At
the time of Haynie’s retirement and in appreciation of the Haynie
commitment to the use of their publications, Leduc (Paris) along with
R.D. King Publishers gave fresh copies of any of their holdings that
Haynie requested. In addition to the sizeable UNT trumpet library, the
gifts of Mellon, Haynie and numerous publishers have made the UNT
Trumpet Music Library one of the very best in the world.
