TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE - Key Persons
Aaron Lakota, a Western Massachusetts native, works to promote music and the arts through performance, education, and community involvement. He believes that all people deserve access to high-level arts participation and performance and that exposure to the subtle beauty of music will help our society to thrive. Aaron encourages artists to build a local economy in their areas of passion and encourages the community to show appreciation for the arts by supporting artists, both individually and through arts organizations.
Aaron performs throughout New England as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. He performs with Pioneer Valley Symphony, Valley Winds, Pan Opera, Tundi, Juno Chamber Orchestra, and subs with Springfield Symphony. He has appeared in local concerts presented by the Brick Church series, Mohawk Trail concerts, Tuesdays in Bezanson, Tuesday Morning Music Club, Orchestra In The Orchard as well as many other chamber and solo recitals throughout New England.
Aaron received a bachelor's and master's in oboe performance from the University of Massachusetts. His primary mentors are Fredric T. Cohen and Tamara Field. He also studied with Kirsten Lipkens, Basil Reeve, and Michael Daves. He currently teaches oboe at Dartmouth College and from his home studio in Northampton MA. Aaron acts as a professional reed maker when he is not performing or teaching. A.Lakota Reeds supplies reeds to hundreds of oboists throughout North America.
Job Titles:
- Professor for Phillips Academy Andover
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Harp
- Professor of Harp at Dartmouth College
Alix Raspé Gray, is an award-winning solo and orchestral harpist, chamber musician, educator and musical entrepreneur.
Ms. Raspé Gray currently serves as Professor of Harp at Dartmouth College, Adjunct Harp Professor for Phillips Academy Andover, and Harp Professor at Governor's Academy and as a Substitute Harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Formerly, Ms. Raspé Gray has served as Guest Adjunct Harp Instructor at Phillips Exeter Academy, Guest Harp Instructor for The Groton School, Ms. Raspé Gray was recently elected Vice President of the American Harp Society's Boston' Chapter. Ms. Raspé Gray is the Founder and Director of the Dorset Harp Colony, an intensive for harpists, taking place in Dorset, VT. In addition, Ms. Raspé Gray teaches for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and Summer at Andover. Recently, Ms. Raspé Gray published her first book, The Musician's Guide to Mindful Practice: The Journal (available on Amazon), offering practical guidance on approaching your instrument with more awareness, ease and artistic expression.
Formerly in residence in OH, Ms. Raspe Gray served as an Associate Harpist for the Columbus Symphony from 2017-2023, and as Principal Harpist of the Lima Symphony Orchestra from 2021-2023. From 2017-2018, Ms. Raspé Gray served as Associate Harpist for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Ms. Raspé Gray has received numerous awards as a soloist including: the Annapolis Music Festival Maestro Award for Outstanding Soloist, the NYU Excellence in String Performance and Leadership Award, and the NYU Orchestral Excellence Award. In 2015, Ms. Raspé Gray was the winner of the NYU String Competition. In 2016, Ms. Raspé Gray was awarded First Runner-Up in the New England Conservatory's Concerto Competition. Ms. Raspé Gray has attended such prestigious music festivals as: the Tanglewood Music Center (Harp Fellow), the Aspen Music Festival, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute (Harp Fellow), MusicAlp, Saratoga Harp Colony, Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, and Interlochen. Ms. Raspé Gray has performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Symphony Hall, Juilliard's Paul and Morse Halls, NEC's Jordan Hall, and Symphony Space.
Ms. Raspé Gray has frequently lectured on the topics of musical entrepreneurship and the link of wellness and music (as she is a 500-hr Yoga Alliance Trained Yoga Teacher). Ms. Raspé Gray has lectured for the American Harp Society's National Conference 2024, Chamber Music America, Chamber Music Connection, Arizona State University, Keene State University, and more.
Ms. Raspé Gray has always had an interest in helping build and develop communities through music. While at New England Conservatory (NEC), Ms. Raspé Gray was the recipient of two Individual Solo Fellowships, an Ensemble Fellowship for NEC's Community Performances and Partnerships, and two Entrepreneurial Musicianship grants. Shortly after graduating NEC, Ms. Raspé Gray co-founded and co-directed the Dorset Chamber Music Residency, a community-driven classical chamber music festival, which had its inaugural summer June 2017. In 2018, Ms. Raspé Gray served as Development Director of Caroga Arts Collective. From 2019-2021, Ms. Raspé Gray served as Marketing and Development Director for The Chamber Music Connection. From 2011-2015, Ms. Raspé Gray served as the President of MetroHarp Young Harpists Alliance, a youth group focused on performance practice for the Metropolitan Chapter of the American Harp Society.
Ms. Raspé Gray has performed with such artists as Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bolton, Roger Daltrey of The Who, Laufey, and MAX. Ms. Raspé Gray performed on Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Late Late Show with James Corden and IHeartRadio with MAX, as a soloist on WOSU Classical and has been featured on the soundtrack of RuPaul's Drag Races (Season 5), and in Major Motion Picture, Reservation Road.
Ms. Raspé Gray graduated Pi Kappa Lambda from New England Conservatory with her Masters in Harp Performance where she studied with Jessica Zhou. Ms. Raspé Gray received her Bachelor of Music from New York University with a minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies where she studied with Bridget Kibbey. Prior to attending NYU, Ms. Raspé Gray attended the Juilliard Pre-College where she studied with Dr. June Han. Ms. Raspé Gray currently resides in Hollis, NH with her husband Erik, and their miniature Australian Shepherds, Ollie and Indie.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Director of the Black Sound Lab
Allie Martin is an ethnomusicologist that explores the relationships between race, sound, and gentrification in Washington, DC. Utilizing a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and digital humanities methodologies, she considers how African-American people in the city experience gentrification as a sonic, racialized process. Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Society for American Music, and the American Musicological Society.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Percussion / Director, Performance Lab in Contemporary
Percussionist Amy Garapic is an energetic chamber musician, educator and adventurous producer who curiously explores the impacts of collective sound making in community building. Focused in the development of new work, Amy can be found performing and coaching music in major concert halls, academic institutions, rock clubs, public schools, festivals and parks alike. She is one-third of the powerhouse percussion trio, Tigue, with whom she regularly generates original and commissioned work; releases records; and tours and teaches throughout the U.S. and abroad. She has premiered dozens of new works as founding percussionist with the "focused and ferocious" NYC-based chamber orchestra Contemporaneous and also enjoys improvising with the experimental sound collective dogsbody in living rooms throughout brooklyn.
Community building is central to Amy's life in and out of music and she has been fortunate to help build and foster intentional collaborative creative spaces in several wings of her work. After being selected as a 2016 fellow for the US State Department supported, Found Sound Nation produced cultural exchange residency program Onebeat, Amy has since worked for FSN as a lead Onebeat facilitator. Now, as director of US-based programs, she supportis dozens of innovative international fellows in music-based social entrepreneurship building collaborative projects designed to make a positive impact on local and global communities. After 7 years of co-directing the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar, she now co-directs the So Percussion Summer Institute enouraging participants to interrogate the connection betwen the development of musical skills and lifelong community building.
Amy has supported the creation of new sounds with composers Robert Honstein, Jason Treuting, and John Luther Adams; has performed alongside Ensemble Signal, So Percussion, NEXUS, Bang on Can's Asphalt Orchestra; engaged in musical collaborations with pop icons Deerhoof, AR Rahman and David Byrne; and has traveled to countless cities and countries around the world including favorites Harare, Zimbabwe; Aman, Jordan; and Chennai, India.
Amy also finds great value in exploring the relationship between performer and audience through musical community events. In the past she has united over 200 musicians from 24 cities and 7 countries in "A Worldwide Day of In C," a 14-hour live-streamed celebration of 50 years of Terry Riley's pioneering minimalist work. This, following her 2012 production of "A Worldwide Day of Vexations" joining over 100 percussionists in an 18-hour, live-streamed marathon of Satie's monumental work. More recently she has produced over 20 performances of John Luther Adams' 100-percussionist Inuksuit, and was featured in both the New York Times and Rolling Stone after leading two successful seasons of hand drum lessons for inmates in Rhythm on Rikers.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Program Director
- Associate Professor of Sonic Arts
- Professor
Ash Fure's full-bodied sonic experiences work on the senses in startling ways. Called "purely visceral" and "staggeringly original" by The New Yorker, Fure's live performances and built-out worlds mobilize the elemental force of sound, the social muscle of listening and our animal capacity to sense. Winner of two Lincoln Center Emerging Artists Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rome Prize in Music Composition, a DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Prize, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant for Artists, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Stuttgart Composition Prize, a Darmstadt Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship from Columbia University, Fure holds a PhD in Music Composition from Harvard University, is Associate Professor of Sonic Arts at Dartmouth College and was named co-artistic director of The Industry LA in 2021.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Technical Director
Bethany Younge is a composer of acoustic and electronic music explores corporeal elements of a musical performance. For her, the act of music-making cannot be divorced from the physical presence of the human instigator. Her works often incorporate instrumental deconstruction, exaggerated movement, motion tracking, sounding costumes, and/or other aesthetic devices to sonically heighten corporeal expressivity.
Younge's works have been featured in the 2020 National Sawdust New Works Commission, the Long Beach Opera Songbook, the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, Resonant Bodies Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, The 16th International Young Composers Meeting, the Frequency Festival, Ear Taxi, and many other festivals. She has worked with many ensembles including JACK Quartet, TAK Ensemble, ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble, TILT Brass, KLANG, Ereprijs Orkestra, Fonema Consort, AndPlay, Chartreuse, Gyre Ensemble, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, Mocrep, and others throughout Europe and the USA. She has been awarded the Stipend Prize at the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, the Kanter/Mivos Prize, the Barcelona Festival Mixtur Commission award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives award, a Fromm Commission award, and was nominated for the Gaudeamus award.
Bethany Younge's music merges acoustic and electronic elements, exploring the contrast between machinistic noise and organic sound, highlighting the body's role in performance. She emphasizes the inseparable link between music-making and physical presence, often using instrumental deconstruction, motion, and sound-enhancing costumes to amplify corporeal expressivity. As a hands-on, critically-oriented educator, Younge fosters a reciprocal exchange between teacher and student. Currently Technical Director and Lecturer at Dartmouth College, her works have been featured in prestigious festivals and performed by renowned ensembles, earning her numerous awards, including the Darmstadt Stipend Prize, Kanter/Mivos Prize, Charles Ives Scholarship Award and a Fromm Commission.
Raised on a farm in the small town of Bath, North Carolina, cellist and teacher Brent Selby spent his childhood assuming he would end up farming crops like his father. It wasn't until he saw Yo-Yo Ma perform on PBS at age eleven that he found an interest in music, specifically in learning to play the cello. Luckily a retired violin teacher from New Jersey, Doris Hamilton, had recently moved to the area and agreed to teach him until she could find him a cello teacher.
Selby eventually went on to study with Wendy Bissinger at thirteen, and Emanuel Gruber at seventeen. He earned his bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory studying under Natasha Brofsky, then went on to bookend his studies with yet another violinist, Mela Tenenbaum.
In 2018, Selby joined the Rhode Island Philharmonic's cello section, and in 2021 he was appointed assistant principal cellist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he was appointed principal cellist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and in 2024 he was appointed principal cellist of both the Boston Lyric Opera and the Portland Symphony.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Lecturer
- Director of Bands at Dartmouth College
- Director of Bands, Senior Liaison for Hopkins Center Ensembles / Lecturer, Department
Dr. Brian Messier is Director of Bands at Dartmouth College, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Marching Band, Pep Band, and Youth Wind Ensemble. He also teaches courses in applied conducting, musical leadership, and entrepreneurship in the arts. After arriving at Dartmouth in 2019, Messier launched a Mexican Composition Competition, which he has since stewarded into MusicMexico; a Mexican music, culture, and diplomatic initiative sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth. MusicMexico is committed to bringing Mexican repertoire to the international stage, providing opportunities for Mexican composers, combating institutionalized racism in educational and professional performing ensembles, and bringing artists together across borders.
In addition to his work at Dartmouth, Messier is founder and Artistic Director of the 2016 American Prize winning Valley Winds based in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. Prior to his position at Dartmouth, Messier served as Artist in Residence and Director of the Wind Ensemble at Williams College and was Director of Bands at Belchertown High School, where his ensembles consistently received highest ratings at state and national levels, including being awarded the American Prize for High School ensembles in 2016. Lauded for his work with youth instrumental groups, Messier is in high demand as a clinician and guest conductor.
Messier received his bachelor's degree in music education from Ithaca College, his master's degree in wind conducting from the University of Massachusetts, and his doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Craig Kirchhoff.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Professor
- Professor of Music, Emerita / Former Conductor, Handel Society and Chamber Singers
Conductor Melinda O'Neal is professor emerita of music at Dartmouth College where she taught courses and conducted choral ensembles. Overall, she has focused on performing major choral-orchestral works from Bach to Berlioz and modern composers, renaissance vocal music, and performing with period instrument ensembles. Her research interests are Berlioz, performance practices, and conducting pedagogy.
O'Neal designed and taught courses at Dartmouth in conducting, music theory, text and music, and music literature. She has advised conducting students preparing honors theses, recitals, senior fellowships, and presidential scholar projects. In 1986 she initiated the Music Department's term-long study program in London, UK, leading it four times.
O'Neal led the Handel Society, a student-community oratorio ensemble performing two-to-three choral-orchestral concerts annually with distinguished guest vocal artists and the Hanover Chamber Orchestra. Under O'Neal's leadership (1979-2004), repertoire included Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette and L'Enfance du Christ, John Adams' Harmonium, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem and Hodie, Charles Dodge's The Staff of Aesculapius, Verdi's Requiem, and Bach's St. Matthew Passion, among others. Concertato Singers, an ensemble formed from within Handel Society, shared some of those concerts and performed in the region. By invitation of students, O'Neal led the previously student-led all-undergraduate Dartmouth Chamber Singers (1979-1996). They performed a wide span of repertoire and undertook seven international concert tours plus numerous US regional tours. Chamber Singers was known for their theatrical renaissance dinners entitled "Feast of Song." The Early Music Ensemble joined the productions for which each year Chamber Singers wrote a new dramatic script set in a different nationality. In the early 1990's Chamber Singers offered a series of concerts with period instrument orchestra.
In 2004, O'Neal became artistic director & conductor of the Handel Choir of Baltimore, a community-professional oratorio ensemble and period instrument orchestra in Baltimore, MD. Collaborations included concerts with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bach Sinfonia, American Opera Theatre, Pro Musica Rara, and Peabody Early Music and Baroque Band. The Baltimore Sun noted, "Melinda O'Neal has steadily and rapidly honed this ensemble into quite a potent chorus... It was a thoughtfully constructed, entertaining program delivered with an informed sense of historic style."
O'Neal studied score preparation, choral literature, and conducting with Julius Herford, Jan Harrington, Fiora Contino, Helmuth Rilling, Robert Shaw, Marcel Couraud, John Nelson, and Thomas Dunn. She has also taught and conducted at Indiana University-Bloomington, University of Georgia, Towson University (MD), and Texas Woman's University and was chorusmaster for productions by the Seattle Symphony (WA), New Hampshire Symphony, and Monadnock Music Festival (NH).
Job Titles:
- Piano and Keyboard Technician
Crystal Fielding trained and received certification at Boston's North Bennet Street School, and is a Registered Piano Technician through the Piano Technicians' Guild. In addition to her work at the Hopkins Center, Crystal is a seasonal technician for Marlboro Music Festival and Yellow Barn Music Festival. Previously, she has worked as a keyboard technician at Tanglewood and Eastern Music Festivals, and at Boston University's College of Fine Arts. While protecting pianos from entropy is her chosen occupation, Crystal previously studied bio logy and behavioral ecology, and she may often be found in forests and mud puddles.
Her home and personal shop are located in Townshend, Vermont.
CÉSAR ALVAREZ is a composer, lyricist, playwright, and performance maker. They create big experimental gatherings disguised as musicals, in the key of inter-dimensionality, socio-political transformation, kinship and coexistence. With a background as a jazz saxophonist, bandleader and sound artist, César's work inhabits a space between the worlds of theater, music, performance art and social practice. César is currently moving six musicals through development to production, touring with a 6-piece band in support of their debut solo album egg, and producing concerts of their musicals as part of a two-year residency at Lincoln Center. César was a 2018-20 Princeton Arts Fellow, a recipient of The Jonathan Larson Award in 2016, The Kleban Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2022.
Dr. Steven Felix is the newly-appointed Lecturer of Trumpet at Dartmouth College. He also serves as the Artist Associate in Trumpet at Williams College, where in addition to teaching applied trumpet, he also co-directs the Williams Brass Ensemble and is principal trumpet of the Berkshire Symphony. Prior to his appointment at Dartmouth, he served as an interim Lecturer of Trumpet at his alma mater, the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2019-2020. An avid soloist, Dr. Felix has performed in competitions on the national and international level, having been awarded first place in the graduate solo division of the 2015 National Trumpet Competition along with a second place award in the undergraduate solo division in 2011. More recently, Steve was a featured performer at the 2024 International Trumpet Guild conference in Anaheim, CA, giving the virtual world premiere of John Isaac Mange's "Sonatina for Trumpet and Organ." During his time at Eastman, Dr. Felix was a highly active substitute trumpet with both the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Syracuse Orchestra, and has been active with the Albany Symphony Orchestra since 2013. As much as he enjoys both solo and orchestral performance mediums, Dr. Felix's most beloved pursuit lies in chamber music. Alongside his former brass quintet, Flower City Brass, Steve has amassed an extensive collection of invaluable chamber brass experiences. Highlights of his chamber career include a 2021 fellowship of the American Brass Quintet seminar at the Aspen Music Festival, an invitation to compete in the 2019 inaugural Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Competition (of which, FCB was the only American ensemble selected), and an entire summer spent studying with the world-renowned Stockholm Chamber Brass at their 2018 academy in Leksand, Sweden.
In addition to teaching at Dartmouth, Dr. Felix maintains a private studio comprising primary and secondary level students throughout Massachusetts, with many of his former students having been the recipients of all-district and all-state chairs in both wind band and orchestra. At the collegiate level, Dr. Felix has given masterclasses in both applied trumpet and chamber music at such institutions as the University of Rhode Island, the University of Massachusetts, and Methodist University (Fayateville, NC). While a doctoral student at Eastman, Dr. Felix co-coordinated and co-hosted a two-day regional trumpet festival, helping bring the esteemed talents of Mark Gould, Brian Shaw, Bob Malone and Wayne Tanabe (Yamaha USA), and Samantha Glazier (S.E. Shires) to the greater-Rochester and Eastman communities.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Member of the Dartmouth College
- Senior Lecturer, Voice / Assistant Conductor / Vocal Coach for Choral Ensembles ( Glee Club, Handel Society )
Ms. Mellinger has been a member of the Dartmouth College faculty since 1996. In addition to her duties as Voice Instructor, she serves as the Assistant Conductor and Vocal Coach for Choral Ensembles. Ms. Mellinger presents solo recitals and chamber music concerts on campus through the ChamberWorks Series. Ms. Mellinger is a former Director of Cantabile, a Women's Chorus based in Vermont and New Hampshire. In addition, Ms. Mellinger has directed church choirs and has served as both Stage Director and Music Director for numerous community theater productions. She is a sought after clinician in the field of vocal production, having most recently worked with the University Chorus and the Chamber Singers of Brandeis University.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Orchestral and Choral Programs
A native of Florence, Italy, Filippo Ciabatti is the Music Director of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra and the Interim Music Director of the Dartmouth Glee Club. With opera director Peter Webster, Mr. Ciabatti has created the Dartmouth Opera Lab. In October 2018, the first production featured Grammy Award-winning baritone Daniel Belcher, and soprano Amy Owens.
During the summer of 2018, he was invited to be a Conducting Fellow at the Aurora Music Festival in Stockholm, under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste. During the festival, he conducted Hannah Kendall's 2017 composition The Spark Catchers in a concert that also featured legendary cellist Mischa Maisky in the Konserthuset Stockholm.
In 2018-2019, he led the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra in an Italian tour in collaboration with the Orchestra Toscana dei Conservatori in prominent venues and festivals, including the Puccini Days in Lucca. Other highlights of the season include an all-Beethoven concert with Israeli pianist Sally Pinkas, and a collaboration with the NPR show From The Top, hosted by the famous American pianist Jeremy Denk. In 2020, Mr. Ciabatti will conduct the world premiere of a new secular oratorio composed by the renowned jazz composer Taylor Ho Bynum, and will collaborate at a project with the Martha Graham Dance Company.
In 2018, he made his debut with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra at the Vermont State House in Montpelier. He will conduct the Vermont Symphony Orchestra again in October 2019, in an event created in collaboration with the Creative Projects Chair of the VSO, Matt LaRocca.
In 2017-2018, Mr. Ciabatti conducted Madama Butterfly at Opera North (NH), and Hansel and Gretel and Don Giovanni (directed and featuring Nathan Gunn) at the Lyric Theatre at Illinois.
In 2016, Mr. Ciabatti conducted Tosca at Opera North (NH), directed by Russell Treyz, and Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Lyric Theatre at Illinois, directed by Christopher Gillett. In 2015, he made his South American debut conducting the Universidad Central Symphony Orchestra in Bogota, Colombia, where he also taught master classes in orchestra and Italian opera. With La Nuova Aurora Opera, he conducted full productions of Handel's Rodrigo (2015) and Purcell's King Arthur
As a pianist and vocal coach in Italy, Mr. Ciabatti worked for the Cherubini Conservatory, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Florence Opera Academy. He has played for masterclasses of Renée Fleming, Nathan Gunn, William Matteuzzi, Donald George and Isabel Leonard. Since 2016, he has been music director and vocal coach of "Scuola Italia per Giovani Cantanti Lirici" in Sant'Angelo in Vado (Italy), and this summer will join the faculty of "Opera Viva!" in Verona as vocal coach.
Mr. Ciabatti holds degrees in piano, choral conducting and orchestral conducting from Italy and the United States.
Job Titles:
- Master
- Adjunct Assistant Professor
- Adjunct Associate Professor
Hafiz Shabazz, master drummer and Director of the World Music Percussion Ensemble, is an ethnomusicologist, percussionist, performer, and lecturer. He teaches courses on improvisation and nonwestern music. He has studied at he University of Ghana and The Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. He has studied in Cuba with master drummers and folklorists and has performed with Max Roach, Lionel Hampton, Julius Hemphill and Alhaji Bia Konte, Master Cora and Griot of Gambia, West Africa. Professor Shabazz toured for many years with Wind and Thunder, a group devoted to improvisational jazz and nonwestern music. He has toured France, the Caribbean, and extensively throughout Canada and the United States. He has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Duke University and lectured in over 500 schools and universities. He is an initiated member of the Ancestral Shrine of the Ashanti Nation in Ghana, West Africa, has authored articles for the Black Music Research Journal, and was a consultant with John Chernoff in the writing of African Rhythms and African Sensibilities.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Music, Emeritus
Larry Polansky (1954-2024) was a composer, theorist, teacher, writer, performer, programmer, editor and publisher. He lived most recently in Santa Cruz, California, teaching at UC Santa Cruz. He was also the Emeritus Strauss Professor of Music at Dartmouth College, and co-director and co-founder of Frog Peak Music.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer, Clarinet
Praised for her "soulful intensity," and renowned for her versatility, clarinetist Jan Halloran appears in an array of concert venues throughout New England. The Boston-based artist is Principal Clarinetist of both Boston Lyric Opera and Odyssey Opera and a member of the Grammy award winning ensemble Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), with whom she has premiered and recorded numerous new works. She has also appeared as a guest artist with many preeminent orchestral ensembles, including the Boston Symphony and Pops, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Ballet and Boston Landmarks Orchestra.
Ms Halloran has been featured in solo recitals at the Boston Conservatory, Dartmouth College and the Claremont Center for the Arts. She made her International Clarinet Association debut with the innovative bass clarinet ensemble Improbable Beasts. As a chamber musician she is a member of the Boston Conservatory faculty woodwind quintet, has performed and toured with the Walden Chamber Players, and has appeared with such notable chamber groups as Collage New Music and the Radius Ensemble.
A devoted educator, Ms Halloran is on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Dartmouth College and maintains a private clarinet studio.
Growing up outside of Pittsburgh, PA, Ms Halloran studied clarinet with Thomas Thompson. She earned her BM at the Eastman School of Music and MM at Boston University, with Michael Webster, and furthered her clarinet studies with Thomas Martin.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer, Bassoon
Janet Polk earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and her master's degree at the University of New Hampshire. Currently, she is principal bassoonist of both the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Portland Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with the Springfield (Mass.) Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, New Hampshire Music Festival and Indian Hill Symphonies and traveled to Honduras through the Partners of the Americas.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer in Jazz Guitar
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
- Administrative Coordinator, Graduate Program in Sonic Practice
Julia Waswo is a vocalist and music educator. She specializes in choral, musical theater and commercial music. Julia has taught PreK-12 public school music education for nearly two decades, holding certifications in both New York and Vermont. She is also an active member of the local arts community, offering skills in all areas of performance and production. Her role as Administrative Coordinator includes office, facility and fiscal management; as well as department event and guest planning.
Described by newspapers and magazines such as Washington Post, Gramophone International UK, San Francisco Examiner, Charleston Post and Courier, The Boston Intelligencer as "21st-century sensibilities", "exquisitely… ceaselessly compelling", "exceptional beauty and imagination", " a hybrid sonic labyrinth", and "beautiful and haunting and thought-provoking," Kui Dong's music has been performed and commissioned by numerous ensembles and received honors and prizes from a wide spectrum of prestigious institutions, including Central Ballet Group of China, The National Centre for the Performing Arts of China, Hong Kong's Phoenix Television Broadcasting Company, Japan's Public Interest Incorporated Foundation and Fukuyama Arts Foundation, Spain's Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, UK's Arditti Quartet, Austria's Ars Electronica, The Tanglewood Music Center, USA Commissioning Award, The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation and Library of Congress, the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Opera America IDEA Grant, Meet the Composer, ISCM, and ASCAP etc.
Her music can be found on New World Records, Sono luminous Records, Other Minds Records and Henceforth Records. Her first novel will be published by Knowledge Press and the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House in 2020.
Kui Dong is a professor of Music and was the Music department Chair from 2018-2020 at Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer, Voice / Director, Dartmouth College Glee Club, Emeritus
Louis Burkot conductor received Dartmouth College's Distinguished Lecturer award in the spring of 2000 for his work in vocal instruction in the Department of Music. As an operatic conductor, Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe has praised Mr. Burkot's work as "first-rate, capable, and stylish" and Opera North News has noted that his conducting "sparkles with verve and sensitivity to the needs of singers." Under Mr. Burkot's tutelage, many Dartmouth students have continued their musical studies at New England Conservatory, Boston University, Indiana University, Cincinnati Conservatory and others. Mr. Burkot's conducting studies included the Yale School of Music, the Aspen Music Festival and the Houston Grand Opera. He is also Artistic Director of Opera North, which recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. In addition he is on the faculty of both the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute at Sarah Lawerence College and the Atlanta Academy of Vocal Arts.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer, Violin, Viola
Marcia Cassidy, viola/violin, is an active chamber music recitalist, teacher, and freelance violist. As a member of the faculty of Dartmouth College, she teaches violin and viola, coaches chamber music, and leads sectionals for the Dartmouth Symphony. Raised near San Antonio, Ms. Cassidy pursued her musical training at the University of Texas (Bachelor of Music), University of New Mexico, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory (Master of Music), and with the Tokyo String Quartet at the Yale School of Music. As the violist of the Franciscan String Quartet, Ms. Cassidy performed extensively in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan to critical acclaim. The quartet was honored with many awards including first prize in the 1986 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Her principal violin teachers were Doris Norton, Stephen Clapp, and Leonard Felberg. As a violist she studied with Burton Fine and Geraldine Walther. Ms. Cassidy is a member of the Musicians of the Old Post Road (a Boston-area period performance chamber music ensemble) and the Burlington Chamber Orchestra (VT), and is principal violist for Opera North. She was a member of the Bella Rosa String Quartet, the New England Bach Festival Orchestra, and has participated in numerous summer music festivals including Aspen, Banff, Blossom, Norfolk, and Tanglewood.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Lecturer, Jazz & Classical Saxophone / Director, Performance Lab in Jazz Improvisation
Job Titles:
- Professor of Computer Science
- Professor of Computer Science / Professor
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Double Bass and Bass Guitar
Double Bassist Nick Browne regularly performs with The Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom he has recorded, toured China, and performed at Carnegie Hall. As a recently established freelance musician in northern New England, Nick enjoys performing with various ensembles including the Juno Orchestra, Dartmouth Symphony, and the Vermont Symphony. He has also appeared with the Pittsburgh, Houston, and Grand Rapids Symphonies, and the Rochester Philharmonic. A former member of the bass section of the San Antonio Symphony (2014-2020), he also performed as guest Principal Bass with the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra in the spring of 2018 and 2019, and served as Section and Principal Bass of the Breckenridge Music Festival from 2015-2021.
A passionate and devoted educator, his students have excelled at the state level in Texas and have gone off to study music in leading programs across the country, and he enjoys coaching youth orchestras.
A native of Pittsburgh PA, Nick earned a Bachelor of Music from Duquesne University and a Master of Music at Rice University, studying with Jeffrey Turner and Timothy Pitts respectively. As a student, he enjoyed summers at Brevard Music Center, Chautauqua Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Tanglewood Music Center.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Violin
Brazilian violinist Omar Chen Guey has performed internationally as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals and chamber concerts throughout Brazil as well as the United States, Europe, Qatar, Taiwan, Kenya and the Seychelles. He has been a featured soloist with the Brazilian, Campinas, Goiania, Minas Gerais, Claudio Santoro National Theater, Sao Paulo University, Sao Paulo Municipal, and the State of Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Amazonas Philharmonic, Petrobras Pro-Musica, Experimental Repertoire, Qatar Philharmonic, Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University Symphony, Maidstone Symphony and the Seychelles International Music Festival Orchestras. Following a recital in Oslo, Norway, he had the honor of performing for the King of Norway, Harald V. He is a prizewinner at both Tibor Varga and Lipizer International Violin Competitions in Switzerland and Italy, respectively. In 2019, He performed the Britten Violin Concerto with the Fribourg Youth Orchestra in Switzerland. During the pandemic, he has streamed from home, recitals for solo violin and with his wife at the piano.
Mr. Guey premiered the Violin Concerto by Jean-Charles Gandrille with the Qatar Philharmonic. This performance has been released on the French label Paraty. He released the Bach Concerto for Two Violins on the Paulinas Label with the Brazilian soloist Elisa Fukuda and the Camerata Fukuda, of which he was also concertmaster. He premiered and released a work for solo violin of renowned French Lebanese musician Marcel Khalife on Nagan records. He participated in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop and has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Lynn Harrell, Ani Kavafian, David Finckel, Lawrence Dutton, Kikuei Ikeda and Colin Carr.
He was a member of A Far Cry for 10 years, a two time Grammy nominated self conducted chamber orchestra. A Far Cry performs multiple different programs in Boston each season and has toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada and Austria. He is the assistant concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, a member of the Boston Ballet and of the New England Camerata Trio, which performs several chamber concerts in Vermont and New Hampshire each season. He is a regular guest artist with various ensembles around Boston, including the Boston Pops, Walden Chamber Players, Radius Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera and the Monadnock Music Festival, among others.
Mr. Guey holds a Doctorate degree from Stony Brook University, a Masters from Juilliard and a Bachelors degree from Manhattan School of Music. His principal teachers were Sylvia Rosenberg, Robert Mann, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank and Elisa Fukuda. He was awarded a full scholarship from the Brazilian government, the Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival Fellowship. He was assistant concertmaster of the Orquesta de la Comunidad Valenciana, in Valencia, Spain, under the direction of Lorin Maazel. He has served as concertmaster of the Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra in Israel, and guest assistant concertmaster with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet.
Pablo Santiago Chin is a composer known for his recontextualization of pre-existing musical works, particularly those that engage aspects of Latin American identity. His approach integrates elements from film, literature, and distinctive transcription methods, exploring and reinterpreting the works of others while resonating deeply with themes of social responsibility and cultural heritage.
Chin's music has been performed across South, Central, and North America, Israel, Asia, and Europe. He has been commissioned by renowned ensembles such as Ensemble Recherche, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and Ensemble Dal Niente. His compositions have been showcased by Ostravská Banda and the Chicago Composers Orchestra, featuring notable artists including Claire Chase and Marino Formenti.
Chin also serves as Artist Teacher and Computer Music Director at the Longy School of Music and is co-founder and former Artistic Director of the new music ensemble Fonema Consort. His discography features Three Burials (2017) and Pasos en otra calle (2014), both released under New Focus Recordings.
A native of Texas, Patrick Kennelly has been a hornist with the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria, the Symphony of the State of Mexico and the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet. He has served on the faculty of the Ollin Yolizltzli School of Music, the Centro Nacional de las Artes, and Radford University. In his spare time he builds houses and raises his seven children.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer
- Member of the Boston
- Senior Lecturer, Flute
Grammy-award winning flutist and piccoloist, Rachel Braude, has been a prominent member of the Boston music scene for many years. In addition to her position at Dartmouth College, she is also on the faculty of Northeastern University. Rachel is the former piccoloist of the St. Louis Symphony and currently holds positions with the Portland Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Odyssey Opera. She is also a frequent performer with the Boston Ballet Orchestra, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Pops Esplanade, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony. She regularly performs in every role in the flute section, from principal to piccolo and has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras including the Portland Symphony. Rachel is a long-time member of the prestigious Arizona Music Fest and in the summers can be found performing with the Landmarks Orchestra, at the New Hampshire Music Festival, and teaching at the Greenwood Music Camp (Junior Division). Rachel won a Grammy in 2019 for her participation in Tobias Pinker's Opera The Fantastic Mr. Fox with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She is the former instructor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; Rhode Island College, School of Music; and was interim lecturer in flute at the University of Rhode Island, School of Music. A frequent guest lecturer, Rachel has been a guest lecturer at the flute studios of the Longy School of Music, Tufts University, University of Colorado, Amherst College, Williams College, University of Oklahoma, and Wichita State University. Rachel is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School. She can be heard on the Chandos, Naxos, New World, and BMOP Sound labels. Rachel is married to the violinist and Concertmaster, Charles Dimmick. Their young daughter is an aspiring violinist.
Richard Beaudoin analyzes audio recordings, investigating the expressive rhythm of sounds made by the performer's body, their instrument, and the recording medium itself. His book Sounds as They Are (Oxford University Press, 2024) includes chapters on sounds of breath, sounds of touch, sounds of effort, surface noise, and inclusive track analysis (ITA). His research contributes to the fields of music theory, analytic aesthetics, and sound studies.
He comes to Dartmouth after having taught music theory and composition at Harvard University (2008-16) and having held posts as Valentine Visiting Professor of Music at Amherst College (2005-06) and Visiting Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music, London (2016-17).
He has given invited lectures at the Paris Conservatoire, Vienna's Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Cambridge University's Centre for Music and Science, The Schweizerische Musikforschende Gesellschaft at the Hochschule Luzern, London's Royal Academy of Music, The University of York, The United States Consulate Shanghai Division, The Shanghai Conservatory of Music, East China Normal University, The Steinhardt School at New York University, Harvard University, Yale University, Tufts University, Boston University, Berklee College of Music, and The New England Conservatory. Published articles have appeared in Music Theory Online, Journal of Music Theory, Journal for the Society for American Music, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Perspectives of New Music, Organised Sound, Divergence Press, and the Journal of the CeReNeM.
His microtiming research is also used to create new music: iconic recordings are transcribed in minute detail, then treated as a palimpsest, forming a parchment over which original material is added. His music has been heard at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Brucknerhaus Linz, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, New York's Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall Citywide, The Kitchen, Boston's The Institute for Contemporary Art, The Calderwood Pavilion, Sanders Theatre, Jordan Hall, and in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Duke's Hall, The Forge, The Arcola Theatre, Wilton's Music Hall, Pushkin House, King's Place, and the Royal Academy of Music. Commissions include the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Staatstheater Kassel, the President of Harvard University, Sound Icon, and Boston Lyric Opera.
His instrumental music has been performed by Claire Chase, Roomful of Teeth, Rohan de Saram, Neil Heyde, Boston Lyric Opera, the Kreutzer Quartet, the Chiara String Quartet, Sound Icon, Transient Canvas, Mark Knoop, Colin Davin, Constantine Finehouse, Wolfram Rieger, Ulrich Naudé, Jan Philip Schulze, Philip Howard, Carl Rosman, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, and Marilyn Nonken. His vocal music has been sung by Annette Dasch, Dashon Burton, Estelí Gomez, Joseph Kaiser, Annika Sophie Ritlewski, Frank Kelley, and Kevin Burdette. His music has been recorded by Claire Chase and Roomful of Teeth (Another Woman of Another Kind), Mark Knoop and the Kreutzer Quartet (Microtimings), and Neil Heyde and Rohan de Saram (Digital Memory and the Archive).
creates expansive works of sound and performance rooted in the body, voice, and vibration. She has created a non-colonial and profoundly sentient language of vibration by distilling and unraveling Indian vocal traditions in both form and dogma, through body and mind. Her performances, practice, and pedagogy emerge and enact another way of being, and being together, and open pathways to recover our capacity to sense, feel, and know, at an essential level, ourselves, each other, the world, and the universe. Sinha has performed and taught throughout the United States and internationally, and received awards from the Mellon Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Performance Network, and others.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer / Sound Engineering
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- Associate Professor of French
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- Lecturer, Classical Guitar
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- Lecturer, Classical Piano
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- Director, Coast Jazz Orchestra at Dartmouth
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- Lecturer, Trombone and Bass Trombone
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- Artist in Residence / Senior Lecturer
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- Chairman and Professor Department