By Leigh-Ellen Romm
Dr. Ricky Duhaime, music faculty member since 1978 and Mildred S. Mosher Professor of Music, retired from a distinguished career in May 2023 as one of the College’s longest-serving professors. Although that step has granted him time to pursue some special projects, Duhaime is still present and influential in Craig Hall, where he teaches applied music lessons.
“One of the reasons I’ve been here for these 45 years is that Austin College encourages faculty, as well as students, to explore new venues, new topics, and new goals,” Duhaime said. Exploring music started early for him, as he learned to play his grandmother’s piano as a child and has mastered many other instruments since, including cello, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and others. He says his favorite is whichever one he is holding at the time.
Reflecting on his career, Duhaime says he is one of the few faculty members who has taught in all three divisions of Austin College: music courses in Humanities, JanTerm SCUBA classes in Social Sciences, and JanTerm collaborative acoustics courses with the late Dr. E. Larry Robinson in Science. He was founding director of the Chamber Orchestra and the Jazz Ensemble and has taught a variety of classroom courses. Duhaime has also served as chair of the Academic Integrity Council and continues in an advisory role. In 2023, he received the Homer P. Rainey Award for Outstanding Achievement and Service to Austin College.
Since 1992, Duhaime has also been a faculty member and orchestral principal of the Eisenstädter Sommerakademie held each August in Austria. The program, in which he has involved many AC students and community members, brings together performers and scholars from across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Duhaime holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of New Hampshire, a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and the first Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Multiple Woodwinds ever granted from the University of North Texas. Since his retirement, he has completed modern performing editions of 18th-Century clarinet trios by A. Stadler and a bassoon/cello sonata by J. F. Kleinknecht, with two more sonatas to follow— all while refreshing his reading and writing skills in German and French. His research has led to historical and performance practice articles in national and international journals. He also conducted the commercial CD, Facets, Crystal Records CD 762, and numerous collaborative musicals with the AC theatre department. Duhaime continues to direct the Greater Texoma Jazz Ensemble and looks forward to the upcoming spring and summer concert series.
Retirement brings Duhaime more of what he enjoys—performance and conducting, teaching, arranging and editing, and traveling and writing, but now all on his own schedule.
