Honoring the Legacy of Bill Reeder

Emily Schneider — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 14:33:25 +0000

Honoring the Legacy of Bill Reeder Emily Schneider Wed, 04/16/2025 - 10:33

I am so very sorry to share the sad news of Bill Reeder's death, surrounded by his family in hospice care after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Bill was the Founding Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), joining us in 2001 to lead the newly formed college after a distinguished career as an operatic tenor and arts administrator.

Bill Reeder at a university event with his customary smile and style.

He served as Dean until May 2015, and continued to work, as a faculty member (and a term as Director), of the Arts Management program, one of three new academic programs (including Film and Video Studies and Computer Game Design) that were launched under his leadership. These programs have helped shape CVPA into the comprehensive arts college that it is today. He had a transformative physical impact on the arts landscape at Mason as well, securing for CVPA the planned "Academic V" facility, now known as the award-winning Art & Design Building, coordinating philanthropic, state, and university support for the DeLaski Performing Arts Building addition, and the renovation of what became the Music Theater Building.

Carol Merchant Kirby, Bill Reeder (center), and Provost David Wu at the Hylton Performing Arts Center Education and Rehearsal Wing ribbon cutting ceremony in 2019. Photo by Evan Cantwell.

His crowning achievement was the successful realization of a long-held community vision for an arts center serving Manassas and Prince William County. Bill's tenacious, loquacious, always-optimistic advocacy, expressed in countless breakfast meetings in diners, neighborhood gatherings, political forums, and rounds of golf with prospective supporters, led to the creation of the Hylton Performing Arts Center on what is now the Science & Technology Campus. At times it seemed as if Bill was almost single-handedly willing the center into existence — but it was really his tireless behind-the-scenes coordination of university, civic, and volunteer energy that carried the day. He was honored for his accomplishment at the Hylton Center's 5th Anniversary Gala in 2015. At this year's Gala, we will take a moment — or three — to remember Bill's foundational contributions.

Bill will be remembered for his energetic and passionate advocacy for artists of all kinds and at every stage of their journeys. I will always be grateful for his friendship and mentorship over 25 years of personal and professional collaboration.

Bill Reeder and Dean Davis celebrating together at an Arts Management program event before Reeder's retirement from George Mason. Photo by Setarra Kennedy.

Details regarding memorial arrangements will be forthcoming. If you would like to share memories and photographs of your experiences with Bill, please submit them through this form.

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

A Juneteenth Message

Emily Schneider — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 14:45:57 +0000

A Juneteenth Message Emily Schneider Thu, 06/17/2021 - 10:45

In This Story

Rick Davis

This weekend we celebrate Juneteenth, commemorating June 19^th, 1865, when word of Emancipation finally reached the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, marking a symbolic end to slavery in the United States. The Commonwealth of Virginia established Juneteenth as a state holiday last year, and the Senate (unanimously) and House (overwhelmingly) just voted to make it a national holiday going forward. President Biden is expected to sign it soon.

In the spirit of celebration and contemplation, I want to share a piece of good radio that I recently heard on NPR’s Morning Edition.

This is part of the “Rising Sun Music Project” series with pianist Lara Downes, on the contributions of Black musicians in the classical music space. This 5 minute piece features two treatments of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1905) by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson. “Lift Every Voice,” known as the Black National Anthem, is often heard at Juneteenth celebrations across the country as well as in church and other settings. The NPR piece also looks at (and listens to) two versions of Sam Cooke’s great Civil Rights song “A Change is Gonna Come” (1964).

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/1007047511/rising-sun-music-project-reveals-the-legacy-of-americas-black-concert-music

I am very glad that this important day in American history is finally getting broader, and more official, recognition. Freedom, equally available to all, is indeed something to celebrate – and to keep working toward. Let’s take time to both celebrate and contemplate this moment and this work on the occasion of Juneteenth.

Rick Davis
Dean, CVPA

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Juneteenth