One decade into the twenty-first century, in a complex global community of which one part is a diverse and politically polarized America, the climate in much of higher education is such that professors of music might easily feel confused, overworked and underappreciated. We work in a time when governments speak almost exclusively of primary and secondary education, of head-start programs and vocational/professional education, or of science and technology. STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) is one of the acronyms du jour. We work in a time, too, when funding for the arts is a frequent political football, even a scapegoat as parties bicker over aesthetic choices and suggest reforms to limit creative expression that does not conform to the ideals of particular constituencies.