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Get to know WCU’s chancellor-elect and his wife

David O. Belcher, who will become chancellor of Western Carolina University on July 1, says that he and his wife, Susan Brummell Belcher, are truly a leadership team.

Dr. Belcher is currently provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. A native of Barnwell, S.C., he earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Furman University, a master’s degree in the field at the University of Michigan and a doctorate at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. He studied in Vienna, Austria, on a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship and while a student at Eastman received the Jerald C. Graue Memorial Scholarship for excellence in musicological research. He spent the first 15 years of his academic career at Missouri State University, progressing from his initial appointment as assistant professor of music to the position of dean of the College of Arts and Letters, a position he held for the last nine-and-a-half years of his MSU tenure.  He left MSU in 2003 to assume his current position at UALR.

Mrs. Belcher teaches voice at UALR and serves as co-chair of the music department’s recruitment committee and an event coordinator in addition to maintaining a private voice studio. She earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Missouri State University and a master’s degree in vocal performance from Northwestern University. She completed her professional opera training with the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, where she debuted to critical acclaim the role of the angel Zephon in the Chicago Lyric Opera world premiere of Pendereski’s Paradise Lost. She has experience ranging from professional musical theatre and opera performance and directing to teaching, nonprofit arts administration, education outreach and community service.

The Belchers, who do not have children, share their home with two 17-and-a-half-year-old cats, Bo and Pumpkin. They look forward to hosting friends and family members as they visit them at WCU from across the Carolinas and Missouri.

Q&A with Dr. David O. Belcher

The Reporter: Dr. Belcher, what was it like growing up in Barnwell, S.C.?

David Belcher: Growing up in Barnwell was a wonderful experience. My father was the pastor of the First Baptist Church, a church of around 1,000 members, and in many ways the entire church was my family. Barnwell was a very nurturing community, and I have fond feelings for it to this day.

The Reporter: What inspired you to learn to study piano and music? Who are your musical heroes or favorite works?

David Belcher: My mother played – and still plays – the piano, and I grew up with music all around me, particularly in church. At around 5 years old, I began to pick out hymn tunes on the upright piano in our home and my parents found me a teacher quickly. I really didn’t get terribly serious about the piano, though, until I was in high school and found a teacher who really challenged me. My favorite composers trend toward a pianist’s usual suspects – Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms and Rachmaninoff, among others. My favorite pieces of music – the discs I would want if trapped on a deserted island – include the Mahler Second Symphony; the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto; the Bach Goldberg Variations, particularly the Glenn Gould recordings or the fantastic live recording by Adras Schiff; the Mozart opera The Magic Flute; the Brahms Second Symphony, Piano Quintet in F Minor, Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, and Second Piano Concerto; the Strauss Four Last Songs. … There are a lot of favorite pieces.

The Reporter: Would you describe the process of transitioning from an assistant professor of music to administrative roles?

David Belcher: Every academic rank and administrative position comes with its own set of challenges. When one pursues a specific field – whether music or political science or biology or nursing, one’s focus is pretty narrowly directed to a specific field and often to a highly defined sub-field. As one moves into administration, however, one has to begin to look at the world more broadly. Thus, when I moved from being a faculty member in the Missouri State University music department to the roles of assistant dean and then dean of the College of Arts and Letters, I had to get to know a much broader array of disciplines. My move from being a dean to a provost with the full complement of arts and sciences disciplines and professional programs in business, engineering, education, nursing and law was simply an extension of that broadening experience. Of course, one can never know the other disciplines really as well as one knows one’s own; however, it is imperative that an administrator gain a feel for all of the disciplines under his or her supervision so that he or she can advocate effectively for all and make wise decisions about priorities.

The Reporter: How did your musical training and experience prepare you for the challenges of leadership in higher education?

David Belcher: I’ve been asked before how my experience as a musician prepares me for a leadership role. Here’s the way I explain it: When I walk out on stage to perform a solo piece of music, I channel a synthesized understanding of both music theory and musical style gleaned through years of study through an athletic physical apparatus, infusing the performance of a piece someone else wrote with a singularly original interpretation – all from memory, live in front of an audience. Performance is not for the faint of heart. This performance scenario is not terribly different from what an academic administrator must do. As an academic administrator, I have to make a compelling case in various forums in front of a wide variety of audiences for higher education and the institution I serve, working hard to make sense of the sometimes opaque world of higher education and its interconnectedness to quality of life, economic development, community development and so forth.

The Reporter: At UALR, you helped lead the first comprehensive development campaign, which reached its $75 million goal one-and-a-half years before its goal. That’s impressive. What do you believe are one or two of the most important keys to successful fundraising?

David Belcher: Having a great product to sell and working with donors to identify the points of intersection between donors’ or prospective donors’ interests, on the one hand, and institutional vision and need, on the other.

The Reporter: What struck you about Western Carolina University that sets it apart from other institutions you have worked at or visited?

David Belcher: Every institution of higher education is unique. WCU has several qualities that I find particularly compelling, including a well-balanced commitment both to high standards and to the success of its students, and a commitment to Western North Carolina and its people. I have been particularly struck with just how much the Western Carolina family – students, faculty and staff – truly love WCU. Now THAT’S compelling. Of course, WCU is in one of the most beautiful settings imaginable, and that doesn’t hurt!

The Reporter: How do you hope to get to know students and get involved with campus activities?

David Belcher: I want to establish a regular schedule of meetings with student leaders. At an institution the size of WCU, it is close to impossible to get to know everyone well. But various groups on campus – students, faculty and staff – elect leaders to represent them, and I think that I can glean a feel for students’ issues by regular contact with their leaders. I plan to attend student events, from athletics to performances to undergraduate research presentations. And on a more informal basis, I really do intend to just be around the students. I plan to eat in the dining facility. I plan to work out in the rec center with the students there just like I do at UALR. I’m a people person, and I will work hard to get out of my office and keep myself grounded in the people of WCU who comprise the institution.

The Reporter: At UALR, you annually sponsored book discussion groups to bring together faculty, professional staff and community leaders. How did you select the books for those discussions? Are you an avid reader?

David Belcher: I always tried to choose a book for our annual book discussion groups that had some relevance for university and community folk who were committed to working together for the betterment of the broader community. UALR, like WCU, is a public institution, and it is, therefore, imperative that we keep our attention focused on the needs of the public. But higher education institutions cannot do this alone; we don’t have all of the answers. The best solutions – and opportunities – stem from universities and communities working together. The book discussion groups have been moments in time that have brought together people from UALR and the greater Little Rock community to explore possibilities through the vehicle of a shared reading experience.

I do enjoy reading immensely, although I have to admit that since becoming a provost my reading-for-pleasure time has been greatly reduced, replaced by lots of reading of reports and other work-related documents. I do try to keep a book by the bed for late-night diversion. As for my favorite books, that’s hard to narrow down. I love Faulkner in general. A couple of real treasures have been John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” I like poetry – almost anything by Billy Collins. I’ve had some nice opportunities to have dinner with and hear readings by some wonderful poets such as Eavan Boland, Philip Levine and Louise Glueck.

The Reporter: What do you enjoy in addition to music and reading?

David Belcher: I am an avid gardener. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to spend digging in the dirt when I move to Cullowhee, but I hope to do a bit. I simply find gardening to be a creative outlet, and I love planning gardens and watching them grow day by day. Susan and I love to travel as well; we are cultural tourists, interested in seeing new places and experiencing people with different customs, foods, languages and histories. I had the wonderful opportunity to live for two years in the early 1980s in Vienna, Austria, the first year on a fellowship. As a musician, that opportunity was professionally rewarding; however, the personal rewards were probably just as remarkable.

The Reporter: Are you a sports fan?

David Belcher: I never played sports myself but I have always had “my teams,” mostly associated with where I’ve lived or gone to school – Atlanta Braves, Michigan Wolverines, Furman Paladins (Sorry about that, WCU. I will always pull for the Catamounts against Furman though – I promise!), Missouri State Bears, UALR Trojans, and now, of course, the WCU Catamounts.

Q&A with Susan Brummell Belcher

The Reporter: What sparked your interest in vocal performance?

Susan Belcher: My choice of opera vocal performance as a career is a testament to the power of education outreach initiatives, and the fact that, no matter what the subject, there is always that ONE kid in the audience who is responding with a big “YES!” I fell in love with opera as a high school senior when I attended a rehearsal of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at Missouri State University. I had no previous idea that voices could be so accomplished, that music could be so ravishing and that drama could be so engrossing. My big “YES!” turned into an undergraduate degree in theatre, a graduate degree in opera and a number of years of professional opera and musical theatre performance.

The Reporter: You’ve been in a number of operas and musicals. Which do you prefer?

Susan Belcher: I’ve come to realize that it’s not “opera” or “musical theatre” per se that intrigue me, but the intersection of theatre and music inherent in both these forms; that “character” and “conflict,” when expressed musically, hold for me their greatest fascination and power. So I love both opera and musical theatre and have happily participated as performer and audience in both genres.

I was delighted to find, in my early research of WCU, that one of its music faculty members, William Martin, and I performed opposite each other in our graduate programs at Northwestern University, in a production of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill. On a surprise drop-in to Bill’s office during David’s and my recent Cullowhee visit, Bill shared with me old photos of the production. What a joy! I am looking forward to again experiencing Bill’s magnificent tenor voice.

The Reporter: You developed a young artist program as you worked with the Springfield Regional Opera in Missouri. Would you share more about the program and what inspired you to develop it?

Susan Belcher: I had the good fortune of being a product of a great young artists program – the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists in Illinois – and recognized the value of such an effort, especially in offering young singers a semi-professional experience from which to learn the ropes before launching into a full-fledged career. The program also served to link our regional universities with the kindergarten through 12^th-grade community, a value-added component to the initiative. Plus, I loved working with the young singers, especially directing them on the stage in their yearly productions. College students have amazing vitality.

The Reporter: We understand you used to be an ultra distance and marathon runner. What were a few of the events you participated in? Do you still run?

Susan Belcher: An ultra distance friend once said, “Ultra distance athletes are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” Being a totally ordinary athlete, I liked ultras because they were “one-pointed.” Life is very uncomplicated out there on the track; you only have to think about running! My goal was always “Stay happy, and stay on the track.” If you could do that, you would finish the race.

I’ve lost track of the number of marathons I’ve run, but they have included the New York City Marathon, Chicago Marathon and Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. I did run a 700-mile race in New York City. It was on a one-mile loop on Ward Island in the East River, and it took 13-and-a-half days to complete, averaging around 50 miles a day. Another year, I participated in the “Marathon of the Sands” – a seven-day endurance race in the Moroccan Sahara Desert. We ran over sand dunes, dried mud flats and through the occasional oasis, carrying our gear on our backs and camping in tents under the stars. See why Base Camp Cullowhee intrigues me?

I have done more walking than running in recent years, but have committed to running the Valley of the Lilies Half Marathon next year at WCU. It will be my first in awhile. I’ll have to train!

The Reporter: Are you also a sports fan?

Susan Belcher: I am a former cheerleader and can’t wait to apply my well-supported-operatically-trained-and-therefore-particularly-effective vocal cords in support of our Catamount teams! It’s the shared experience that I enjoy most about intercollegiate athletics. They bring people together in a truly unique and valuable way.

The Reporter: Are you also, like your husband, an avid reader?

Susan Belcher: I am a member of a very active book club, and we enjoy a wide variety of challenging reads. Recent thought-provoking reads were “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” by Jared M. Diamond; two plays – “Acadia” by Tom Stoppard and “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles; and a well documented historical novel “Passionate Minds” by David Bodanis. Poetry by former poet laureate Billy Collins is a must. “Watership Down” by Richard Adams is comfort food, and, yes, I’ve a soft spot for the epic adventure and magic, so Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the Harry Potter books are all dog-eared from use.

The Reporter: What other interests and hidden talents do you have?

Susan Belcher: Many people know that I sang opera. Few know that for many years I worked at the United Nations in New York City, initially as a travel agent and then as the administrative assistant for first the chief of travel and then the under-secretary for general services before returning to the Midwest, where I met and married David. My experience was transformative; rubbing shoulders with so many people from so many countries instilled in me an appreciation for other cultures.

The Reporter: What languages do you speak? Where have you had the opportunity to travel?

Susan Belcher: As a classical singer, I am trained in Italian, German and French – so I can sound phonetically correct in all three languages – but French is my strongest language, having studied it more extensively. Travel is a top priority for David and me, as we love meeting new people, and exploring new places and cultures. Visits to Turkey, Italy, Croatia and the Mayan ruins in Mexico rank at the top of our shared overseas journeys, but our wish list of unvisited places is extensive. Last summer brought us to North Carolina. Who would have imagined we would be moving here within a year?

The Reporter: What stood out to you about Western Carolina University as you learned about and visited the community?

Susan Belcher: I fell in love with WCU and Cullowhee before I ever set physical eyes on them. Their sense of place resonated deeply with me, and I felt I had found a community that I could truly embrace as home. More than anything, I want to be a good neighbor and getting to know as many people as possible in my university and regional community is a top priority.

The Reporter: What kind of initiatives do you hope to get involved with at WCU?

Susan Belcher: I have only one self-imposed job title at my new institution and that is “WCU friend-raiser.” This will play out in many ways, but through them all, David and I will be wholeheartedly engaging with students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni, community members and other constituent parties to create broad support for the WCU mission.

Interview by Teresa Killian Tate and published in edited and condensed form

© 2011 Western Carolina University.