A combination of budget woes here and a better job there has lured Toni-Marie Montgomery away from Kansas University.

Montgomery, dean of the School of Fine Arts since 2000, will become dean of the School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

“This is an opportunity that won’t open again for many, many years,” she said. “But I’m not going to deny our budget situation had something to do with it.”

Northwestern’s School of Music is ranked sixth in the nation among private and public universities, according to U.S. News and World Report magazine. KU’s School of Fine Arts is ranked 26th.

Because it is a private university, Northwestern has avoided the budget cuts many public universities – including KU – have been experiencing. Northwestern is nearing the end of a $1.4 billion fund-raising campaign.

“That certainly did encourage me,” Montgomery said. “But I don’t want anyone to think I came to a public university, times got tough and I couldn’t take it. I’ve only worked at public institutions.”

KU officials said Monday they would conduct a national search to find Montgomery’s replacement. She said she would remain at KU at least through May. She begins July 1 at Northwestern.

Montgomery, 46, came to KU from Arizona State University, where she spent 10 years climbing the ranks to director of the School of Music.

Before that, she had positions at University of Connecticut at Storrs and Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo.

She is a concert pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe. She recently returned from a concert tour of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

Montgomery said her accomplishments as KU dean included increasing annual giving to $2.8 million in 2002 from $394,625 in 2000, establishing 11 new scholarships, increasing faculty salaries and establishing the annual Collage Concert.

She also hired 19 new faculty members, including Larry Mallett, chairman of the department of music and dance, and Tim Van Leer, executive director of the Lied Center.

She drew criticism from students in visual communications last fall about the quality of equipment in their labs. They accused her of favoring the department of music and dance because she was a musician.

Montgomery said the school has since purchased new designing tables.

“In my time here, the quality of the tables and chairs hadn’t dropped,” she said. “It was something that should have been addressed long ago.”

Montgomery, who was paid $134,000 this year at KU, said Northwestern officials contacted her about taking the job. She initially declined but said she eventually gave in to their persistence.

The Northwestern School of Music has 650 students and 135 faculty members, compared with 1,600 students and 100 faculty at KU.

“Toni-Marie Montgomery combines impressive achievement as a musician with exceptional administrative vision and experience,” Lawrence Dumas, provost at Northwestern, said in a statement.