Iowa State Choral Director Ray Salucka is proving that it is possible to accommodate family priorities while juggling a career.

Salucka is the director of the ISU Vocal Jazz Ensemble, now finishing its second semester here.

Salucka said he applied for a half-time choral education position at ISU and was approached by the music department last summer about directing the new jazz choir.

“It’s something they’ve talked about for the last couple of years in that they felt that the department needs to have some type of opportunity for both music majors and non[music] majors to explore some nontraditional choral forms,” he said.

Salucka is currently the choral director at Valley High School in West Des Moines. However, in the fall, he will move with his wife and two daughters to Cedar Rapids and will begin pursuing his doctorate of musical arts at the University of Iowa. He will attend courses in Iowa City on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while spending Tuesdays and Thursdays at ISU, directing the jazz ensemble and University Chorus and assisting a choral methods class.

“It’s now or never for us as a family,” Salucka said. “It was kind of a struggle trying to decide if I really wanted to do this or not, but I knew if I didn’t, I would always wonder if I should have or could have.”

Salucka has been well received by the ISU community.

“The department has done a terrific job. When the funding became available for this [ensemble], a lot of things had to happen. The schedule has to be somewhat compressed so that I wouldn’t have to be here on a daily basis,” he said. “All the pieces fell in exactly right.”

Salucka said this is the best step for his career right now, and he plans to continue teaching.

“Professionally, I feel that I need to get back into the books. All of us need to continue to grow professionally,” he said. “Everyone gets to the point in their career, or I hope they do, when they say, ‘Gosh, I don’t know enough.'”

However, Salucka’s family remains his first priority.

“I would like to see myself finish the degree within a couple of years and write the dissertation, but at the same time if I feel that it’s not what’s best for my daughters and for my wife and our family, I’ll probably look at something else,” Salucka said. In the mean time, Salucka heads the ISU jazz choir.

The ensemble is comprised of six male and six female singers, each on his or her own microphone. Their music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, vocal sound effects and improvisation.

“You have to be a very individual performer to do well,” said sophomore group member Christian Unser. “It’s a level of performing that you can’t really have in a big group.”

Salucka said the group performed at the Southwest Community College vocal jazz festival this year and would like to do more performances and recordings in the future.

“I’d like to get out more into the university community and into the Ames community and let everyone see what these people can do,” he said.

The students said the group has made great progress under Salucka’s direction, and they hope to continue growing musically.

“He’s always been a real demanding person. He gets the best out of us,” Unser said.