Retirement from teaching at the university level represents a phase of profound life adjustment for many professors. Often the expectation the retired professor is one who will experience cognitive and physical decline making it difficult to continue contributing to the profession. Retired art education professor Enid Zimmerman (2024) has researched creativity and aging in the arts and found that older adults often experience both an improvement in quantity and quality of art making. It seems likely creativity in music would also demonstrate an increase in music making. There are three phases most retirees experience: pre-retirement, transition to retirement, and retirement. Many studies discuss the transition phase being a time that individuals experience neither being a member of the academy nor fully adjusted to their retirement status (Henkens et. al. 2018; Zhan et al., 2023; Vasconcelos da Nobrega and Helal, 2023). The transition phase could be as busy as the professor was while a full-time faculty member or it can also be a time of reflection and unsureness about how the rest of their life will unfold. Many continue teaching, writing, mentoring and of course, being musical. Others completely abandon all scholarly and teaching activities to focus on new interests and immersing themselves in formal and informal learning experiences and family and grandchildren. This study includes interviews with those who are retired and those considering retiring in the next few years. The participants are asked questions focused on planning for retirement, transitioning, and retirement. The literature includes studies of a variety of pursuits that retired professors can involve themselves with and continue to contribute to music education. With transition being the most difficult phase, a focus will be placed on how to emerge from transition to retirement and continue to feel meaningfully engaged in whatever you choose to do. Questions will be asked about how the person managed during the transition period. Did they experience lack of worth, loneliness or depression? Retirement is often a time of life that we give little thought to when considering what we want to accomplish as teachers and researchers. Some of us continue to teach as long as possible to avoid thinking about retirement. Those who contemplate their options before retiring tend to experience easier transitions and enjoy retirement more fully. NOTE: I actually would prefer to give a 20 minute paper instead of a workshop.