All faculty at DSM have at least a Bachelor's degree in music. There are 3 doctors on staff (with another nearly completed), a world renowned retired collegiate jazz educator, and many folks with Master's degrees. Our collected experiences of teaching over the past 20 years adds up to a frighteningly large number and I sincerely doubt that there is another music education facility in the world that has consistently completed more private lessons during any given month or year than DSM.
From the very outset The Dallas School of Music was determined to be a warm but state of the art facility that could accommodate anyone interested in accessing quality music education. DSM is not a 'conservatory' and there are no pre-requisites, age limits, or audition requirements. There is a basic application process that allows us to match each learner up with their best possible educator at their most convenient time.
New hires learn quickly that they must be flexible and adept at communicating musical concepts to a wide array of students. Over the past 20 years we've had students with severe disabilities, learning disorders, and even brain trauma. We have also had captains of industry, medical doctors, professional athletes, actors, actresses, and their families. On any given day students might range in age from 5 to 80 and they may be completely healthy or challenged both physically and or mentally.
We do not label faculty by their chosen instrument ('he is a clarinetist', or 'he teaches cello', etc.) and those who tend to identify themselves by their instrument often find DSM a difficult place to teach and work.
Many of the recent staff members come to us from the acclaimed University of North Texas College of Music but we also have staff members from Southern Methodist University and the Hartt School of Music among others.
Working at DSM can be demanding as staff take on projects and tasks while learning to utilize programs that are non-music related. Over the years faculty have had to become familiar with Quickbooks, Timetonote, Mavenlink, and GoldMine that all help run the day to day operations of the school. And we are often pressed outside our comfort zones even further when contributing to projects for our web-based service and using programs like Dreamweaver, Parature, and Storefront just to name a few.
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