OPERA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Audio and Video Production Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor Music Education
- Gospel Choir Director
Gospel Choir director Adrian Davis is a native of Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Memphis, and his Master of Music degree from the University of Saint Thomas. He was nominated as a quarterfinalist for Grammy Music Educator of the Year in 2014 and 2016 and was featured on Classical MPR in January 2014 for excellence in music education. He was also selected as a top educator in the Celebration of Teachers for Minneapolis Public Schools in 2016. In 2017, he was nominated finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor Theory
Job Titles:
- Assistant Technical Coordinator & Master Electrician
Job Titles:
- Lecturer ( Choral Studies - Ensemble Division )
Brian A. Schmidt is a GRAMMY©️-nominated conductor with a twenty-year career focused on developing meaningful musical experiences for audiences and artists alike. Schmidt currently serves as artistic director on the team of Gateway Music Festivals & Tours, helping design life-changing performance tours for bands and choirs nationally and internationally.
Job Titles:
- Executive Office & Administrative Specialist
Job Titles:
- Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique ( AmSAT ) Music Education Music Therapy
Caroline Lemen, Horn, has been an adjunct faculty member of the University of Minnesota School of Music since 2004. Ms. Lemen is an active freelance horn player in the Twin Cities, working frequently with the Minnesota Orchestra as an extra and substitute musician. She has traveled with the orchestra on many of their national and international tours, as well as performed on various recordings. Ms Lemen has also been an extra musician with the SPCO. She is a member of the Musical Offering, the Twin Cities oldest chamber music ensemble, performing the Brahms Horn Trio, the Mozart Horn Quintet and the Schubert Octet in recent seasons. Caroline can also be heard in the orchestras of touring shows at the Ordway Theater, such as The Sound of Music, Spamalot and White Christmas. She is also on the faculty of Macalester College as Instructor of Horn, and maintains a private studio of high school students.
Before coming to the St.Paul/Minneapolis area, Ms. Lemen was a member of the New Orleans Symphony from 1984-1987 as Assistant Principal Horn. She has also performed as an extra musician with the Oregon Symphony, The Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, The Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Syracuse Symphony and the Vermont Symphony.
Caroline received her Bachelor of Music in Performance and Music Education at SUNY Potsdam, Crane School of Music, and a Master of Music degree in Horn Performance at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Her major teachers were Gail Williams, CSO; Richard Oldberg, CSO and Roy Schaberg, Crane School of Music.
Casey Clementson teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in music education at the University of Minnesota. She has also served on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas College of Education, Leadership and Counseling and is an external dissertation supervisor through Boston University School of Music. In addition, Dr. Clementson currently teaches instrumental music in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district. Blending both research and pedagogy, she has presented sessions at MMEA, Wisconsin Music Educators Association, NAfME's Music Research and Teacher Education Conference, and the Symposium on Music Teacher Education (SMTE). Her research has been published in Interval, Contributions to Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, and on the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) website. Dr. Clementson received her B.M. (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and her M.M. from Northwestern University.
Christopher Brown is the former first principal bassist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He served as The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's principal bass since 1980, appearing as soloist with the orchestra on several occasions. Prior to joining the SPCO, Brown was a bass player with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Pittsburgh Chamber Soloists, and the Detroit Symphony.
Beyond his performance activities, Brown has published a resource book entitled Discovering Bows for the Double Bass, and owns a business that buys and sells bows throughout the world. In addition to his work in classical music, Brown is a jazz enthusiast, songwriter and composer, an interest that dates back to his high school days at the Interlochen Arts Academy. He once appeared on the cover of Life magazine in his role of Jesus in the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar." Brown went to Beijing, China, to present master classes at several conservatories in the summer of 1996.
Brown received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Larry Hurst.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Program Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Opera Theatre and Native of Toronto
- Director of Opera Theatre
David Walsh, associate professor of opera theatre and native of Toronto, has worked as a production stage manager with the Canadian Opera Company, Stratford Festival, and the Scottish Opera. He has also worked with the English Music Theatre, English National Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Nederlandse Opera, Brussels Opera, the Royal Opera House, Santa Fe Opera, and Vancouver Opera.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Undergraduate Studies
Dean Sorenson is the director of jazz studies, and he is a prolific and highly sought-after composer, arranger, trombonist, educator, and clinician. He received his bachelor's degree in trombone performance from the University of Minnesota and his master's degree in jazz arranging and composition from the Eastman School of Music.
Dr. Akosua Obuo Addo's research interests include international education, collaborative and comparative research on music play. Associate Professor Addo teaches elementary music methods to both non-music and music majors, and supervises student teachers. In the graduate program, Dr. Addo teaches qualitative research in arts education, research and scholarly issues, world music in the classroom, and supervises thesis writing.
Prior to her University of Minnesota appointment Dr. Addo was assistant professor of music education at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT; Visiting Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Roehampton Institute, London, and administrator for the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, City University, London, England.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director
- Assistant Professor
- Contemporary Music, Concert Band, Leadership, Group Culture, Marching Band
- Director of Marching and Athletic Bands at the University of Minnesota
- Member of the National Association for Music Education
Elizabeth (Betsy) Kerns McCann is the assistant director of bands/director of marching and athletic bands at the University of Minnesota. She holds a bachelor of music (flute performance and music education) from the University of Minnesota and a master of music (conducting) from Northwestern University.
Dr. Betsy McCann is the Assistant Director of Bands and Director of Marching and Athletic Bands at the University of Minnesota. In this position, she directs the "Pride of Minnesota" Marching Band, conducts the University Band, instructs undergraduate conducting, and manages the comprehensive Athletic Bands program. McCann is the first woman to head a Big Ten Marching Band and Athletic Bands program. She has guided the program to great success on and off the field, including internationally renowned performances in the Super Bowl LII Halftime Show and World Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE.
McCann is active nationally as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and speaker. She has presented on leadership, group culture, and other topics at a variety of public and private events, including multiple appearances at the College Band Directors National Association Athletic Bands Conference, the Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter Clinic, and corporate training events. She has served as a guest conductor and clinician with bands from the United States and Canada, including with the Minnesota All State Concert Band. McCann is a strong supporter and active conductor of new music, receiving positive acclaim from composers, performers, and audiences for her interpretation and conducting artistry.
Prior to McCann's current appointment at the University of Minnesota, McCann served as the Assistant Director of the University of Minnesota Marching Band. Additionally, she served as a band director and classroom music instructor at Burnsville and Watertown-Mayer High Schools in Minnesota and Waubonsie Valley High School in Illinois. McCann earned a Doctorate in Conducting at the University of Minnesota, with research and performance emphasis on conducting contemporary music. She earned a Master of Music degree in Wind Band Conducting from Northwestern University, where she graduated with program honors, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance and Music Education from the University of Minnesota.
McCann is a member of the National Association for Music Education, College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Minnesota Music Educators Association, and Phi Beta Mu. She serves on the College Band Directors National Association Athletic Band Committee and is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma. She lives in the Minneapolis area with her husband and two children.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor Instrumental Music Education
- Assistant Professor of Instrumental Music Education at the University of Minnesota
Dr. Danni Gilbert is the Assistant Professor of Instrumental Music Education at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In addition, Dr. Gilbert teaches online graduate music education courses for Kent State University. Prior to her appointment at UMN, Dr. Gilbert served as Associate Professor of Practice in Music Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Assistant Professor of Music at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska, taught saxophone and clarinet at Iowa Western Community College, taught saxophone and music theory at the College of Saint Mary, and directed elementary and intermediate band for Blair Community Schools. She also performed regularly as a saxophonist with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra for 15 years. Dr. Gilbert received her bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She received her master's degree in saxophone performance and her Ph.D. in music education, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Active in various forms of creativity and research, Dr. Gilbert's work has been published in the: Journal of Research in Music Education; Music Educators Journal; Journal of Music,Technology and Education; College Music Symposium; Journal of Music Teacher Education; Research & Issues in Music Education; Early Childhood Education Journal; Teaching Music; Interval: Journal of the Minnesota Music Educators Association Conference; Florida Music Director; Nebraska Music Educator; Contributions to Music Education; and, Arts Education Policy Review. Dr. Gilbert's book, Music Educators Wanted! Ten Essential Qualifications for Success (Kendall Hunt), is intended for pre-service music educators and those aspiring to teach music. She has also presented research and practitioner sessions at professional conferences around the globe. Dr. Gilbert's research interests include health and wellness in music education, making music education accessible and equitable for all, and strengthening music teacher preparation. Dr. Gilbert frequently serves as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director
- Assistant Director of Marching and Athletic Bands, Lecturer
John Leonard is the assistant director of marching and athletic bands at the University of Minnesota. He holds a bachelor of music degree in instrumental music education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, a master of music degree in jazz arranging and composition also from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the master of music degree in wind conducting from Western Michigan University, and a doctor of musical arts degree (wind band conducting) from the University of Kansas.
Job Titles:
- Senior Teaching Specialist & Clinic Coordinator Music Education Music Therapy
Elliott H. Powell is Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of American Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is an interdisciplinary scholar of US popular music, race, sexuality, and politics. And he received his PhD in American Studies from New York University and BA in History from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, he was a postdoctoral fellow and faculty associate at the Frederick Douglas Institute for African and African-American Studies and the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Rochester, respectively. Elliott has been the recipient of several national fellowships and awards from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Musicological Society, and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.
His first book Sounds from the Other Side: Afro-South Asian Collaborations in Black Popular Music (University of Minnesota Press, 2020), brings together critical race, feminist, and queer theories to consider the political implications of African American and South Asian collaborative music-making practices in US-based Black Popular Music since the 1960s. In particular, the project investigates these cross-cultural exchanges in relation to larger global and domestic sociohistorical junctures that linked African American and South Asian diasporic communities, and argues that these Afro-South Asian cultural productions constitute dynamic, complex, and at times contradictory sites of comparative racialization, transformative gender and queer politics, and anti-imperial political alliances. Sounds from the Other Side was award the Woody Guthrie Best Book Award from the US Branch of the International Association for Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US) as well as the Phillip Brett Book Award from the LGBTQ Study Group of the American Musicological Society.
He is also at work on two other book projects. The first is tentatively titled Prince, Porn, and Public Sex, which explores the politics of sex(uality) and music in Minneapolis during the 1980s. And the second is tentatively titled Illegitimate Sounds, which explores the queer potentiality of recordings like demos that do not conform to commercial audio legibility. Writings from these research areas are published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Amerasia Journal, GLQ, ASAP/Journal, The Routledge History of American Sexuality, The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Studies, The Jazz Research Journal, and The Black Scholar (where he co-edited TBS' first queer and/or trans special issue).
Job Titles:
- Ensemble Operations Manager
Emily Threinen is the director of bands and associate professor at the University of Minnesota. She holds a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan, a master of music degree in conducting from Northwestern University, and a bachelor of music dual degree in clarinet performance and K-12 instrumental music education from the University of Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music
- Director of Percussion Studies, Professor, Spring '24 Sabbatical
Fernando Meza is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music, where he has been the Director of Percussion Studies since 1993. Meza holds a master's degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree from Baylor University and has studied with Stuart Marrs, John Soroka, Larry Vanlandingham, and Michael Udow. He was in charge of the percussion department at The Ohio State University in Columbus prior to his arrival in the Twin Cities and has also served on the faculties of the National Center of Music and the University of Costa Rica.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Musicology and Historical Ethnomusicology
Gabriela Currie received her B.A. in musicology from the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest, Romania and her M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. Prior to her arrival at the University of Minnesota, she taught at the Eastman School of Music, New York University, and Cooper Union.
Her current research interests and publications concern music iconography and archaeology in pre-modern Eurasia; the entanglement of musical thought, instruments, and practices in pre-modern Eurasia under the theoretical umbrella of intersections and intercultural exchanges in early globalities; and early-modern European music ethnographic travel accounts (Persia, Central Asia, and West Africa). She has received fellowships from the Balzan Foundation, Fondazione Caripario, National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Association for University Women, and the Belgian-American Foundation.
Gabriela has presented at numerous national and international academic conferences such as International Study Group of Music Archaeology, Association Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale, International Council for Traditional Music, International Musicological Society, History of Science Society, etc. Her recent publications include Eurasian Musical Journeys: Five Tales (with Lars Christensen, contributor), published in 2022 by Oxford University Press, and numerous articles on subjects ranging from medieval musical cosmology to Eurasian music iconography and archaeology of the Silk Road and the Central Asian steppes.
Job Titles:
- Professor Creativity, Improvisation, and Mathematical Music Theory
Job Titles:
- Principal Accounts Specialist
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Advisor & Curriculum Manager
Job Titles:
- Professor at the University of Minnesota
- Professor Flute
Immanuel Davis plays on Louis Lot flute #888 made in Paris in 1866. Louis Lot is known as the Stradivarius of flute makers. This flute, one of his earliest, is probably the oldest "modern" flute being played on the concert circuit today.
Immanuel Davis has been the flute professor at the University of Minnesota since 2001.
Jane Giering-DeHaan is an acclaimed coloratura soprano with operatic and orchestral triumphs throughout Europe and the United States. As a member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin she sang leading operatic roles in addition to appearing with opera companies in Hamburg, Hannover, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Essen. She made her professional operatic debut in the United States at Carnegie Hall with Opera Orchestra of New York, and became a prominent presence with such opera houses as Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Arizona Opera, Baltimore Opera and the Florentine Opera. Ms. Giering-DeHaan has appeared in concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Boston Baroque Orchestra.
Throughout her singing career Ms. Giering-DeHaan has maintained private voice studios in Berlin Germany, Dallas Texas, Stockton California, and here in Minnesota. She has been an interim voice instructor and German diction teacher at the University of Minnesota. She has been on the music faculty at Normandale Community College where she taught private voice and voice class. Her lessons encourage proper breathing technique, free vocal expression and discipline and expertise in the practice and performance of classical and musical theatre repertoire.
Ms. Giering-DeHaan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre from the State University of New York at Fredonia and a Master of Music degree in voice performance from Indiana University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Bands, Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Music at the School of Music
- Music
Jerry Luckhardt, associate professor of music at the School of Music, conducts the Symphonic Band and Chamber Winds and teaches courses in conducting. Luckhardt has appeared as a guest conductor and clinician with ensembles throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.
Jerry Luckhardt is Associate Director of Bands and a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music-Twin Cities, where he conducts the Symphonic Band and teaches conducting. His other artistic and administrative positions include: Associate Director and Director of Graduate Studies (2016-2019), Acting Director of Bands (2015-2016), Acting Director of the University of Minnesota School of Music (2007-2008), Director of the University of Minnesota Marching Band (1997-2004), Associate Director of Bands at Baylor University (1994-1997), Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Texas-Austin (1991-1993), and Marching Band Director at the University of Michigan (1989-1990).
Luckhardt has appeared as a guest conductor and clinician with ensembles throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has earned acclaim from composers such as Michael Colgrass, Shelley Hanson, Libby Larsen, Alex Shapiro and Frank Ticheli for performances of their works. Professor Luckhardt is currently music director of the Medalist Concert Band in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor Voice
John David De Haan is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Union College and of the University of Nebraska where he earned his Master of Music degree. He is a winner of the prestigious Eleanor Steber Music Foundation Mozart Award and a former Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. He is currently on the voice and opera faculty at University of Minnesota's School of Music in Minneapolis where he resides with his wife and two daughters.
Since 1995, Ms. Heinen has been Professor of Music at California State University, Northridge and begins her appointment as Lecturer in Clarinet at the University of Minnesota in Fall 2023. She has been a member of the International Clarinet Association since 1978 and served as the co-artistic director of ClarinetFest®️ 2011 the annual international conference of this organization. She continues her work with the ICA as the North America Continent Chair, the past National State Chair Coordinator and state of Minnesota Chair. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and the University of Minnesota, studying clarinet with J. Cloyde Williams, Herbert Blayman, and Robert Marcellus.
Julia Heinen is a Buffet Crampon, D'Addario and Silverstein Performing Artist and performs exclusively on Buffet clarinets, D'Addario reeds, and Silverstein ligatures.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Musicology / Ethnomusicology
Karen Painter, a musicologist whose field in music and politics, has published, taught, given public lectures, and advised graduate work, in a wide range of subjects. She is now studying implicit bias in recent music criticism, both anti-Asian and bias against black and Latinx composers. Her longterm projects involve music and mourning in German culture and politics across the two World Wars. Nazi Germany and the Holocaust have been focal points in her research and teaching across two decades. In her scholarship, Painter has explored past ways of listening to music and how these impressions and aesthetic judgments were captured in language. In the past, this work led to engagement with historical writings about Mahler, Mozart, Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, Hindemith, Bruckner, Dallapiccola, and Orff, but over the past five years, in her scholarship, teaching, and work towards expanding the curriculum of music majors in US postsecondary institutions, Painter encourage a more expansive approach that does not prioritize white Central European composers. Since 1996, alongside professorships at Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Minnesota, Painter has been active collaborating with music organizations in the United States, Great Britain, and Europe, co-planing symposia, giving lectures, writing program notes, and more. She has also prioritized collaboration within the collegiate and university, helping to bride to the community and connecting departments. While on leave from Harvard, Painter served as Director of the Office of Research and Analysis for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kathy Kienzle was named principal harpist of the Minnesota Orchestra after winning an international audition in April 1994. She served as acting principal harp with the Orchestra for the 1993-94 season. Previous to that season Kienzle appeared frequently as harpist and soloist and recorded with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
The top American prize winner at the Sixth International Harp Competition in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1976, she was also awarded a top prize in the 1975 American Harp Society National Competition, the Ruth Lorraine Close Fellowship from the University of Oregon and two Juilliard School scholarships.
Kathy Kienzle has been on the faculty of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and is currently on the faculty of Augsburg College. In July 2004 she served as the only American juror for the USA International Harp Competition in Indiana. In June 2014 she opened a private harp studio in south Minneapolis, Studio Fidicina, studiofidicina.com. Also in June 2014, Kathy became a Suzuki harp teacher trainer.
A graduate of Juilliard with a Bachelor of Music degree, she also holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Arizona. Her teachers include such well known harpists as Mildred Dilling, Susann McDonald and Marcel Grandjany. She has recorded three CDs of music with Michele Frisch, flute, as the Bell' Alma Duo.
Job Titles:
- Director of Graduate Studies
- Member of the National Association for Music Education
Keitha Lucas Hamann serves as Director of Graduate Studies/Associate Director of the School of Music where she approves student milestones and works with the school administration to improve the experience of graduate students. Among her duties are working with the Graduate Student Council to understand challenges that students face, overseeing professional development for graduate students, and admissions for new graduate students.
A choral music education specialist, Hamann teaches courses in Foundations of Music Education, Advanced Teaching Pedagogy, Curriculum Development, and Research Methods, and she supervises choral student teachers. Before joining the University of Minnesota faculty in 2001, Hamann was Associate Professor of Music Education at Kent State University where she also served as Coordinator of Graduate Studies. She has also taught at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.
With Michele Henry, Hamann is the author of Level Up! An Interactive System for Vocal Sight-Reading (GIA Publications), volumes 1, 2, & 3. Building on their 50 years of research and teaching experience, Henry and Hamann have built a sequence skills-based system targeted for secondary school singers that progressively builds notation reading skills using sound pedagogical practices.
With Ari Agha and Laura Hynes, Hamann's recent research includes an exploration of empathy in a social justice performance project. Key of T tells the real-life story of an adult singer who decided to begin testosterone therapy to address ongoing gender dysphoria. The project began as a research project into vocal transition that was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The initial performance (September 2019) sought to understand how participants, organizational partners, and audience members perceived the quality of the performance, but what has begun to emerge is the ways that participants experience and express empathy in a social justice performance context.
Keitha Lucas Hamann's research focuses on procedural skills in music performance, vocal sight-reading, music assessment, and community engagement. Her articles have appeared in the top-tier journals in music Education: Journal of Research in Music Education, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, and Contributions to Music Education in addition to other peer-reviewed national and regional journals. She has presented research nationally at the National Association for Music Education Biennial National Conference and the College Music Society Annual Meeting in addition to numerous regional presentations and workshops.
Hamann earned a BM degree from Western Michigan University in 1981 and then moved to Texas where she taught middle school choral music in the Brownsville Independent School District for seven years. She earned an MM degree from the University of North Texas in 1988 and a Ph. D. in Music Education from the University of Miami (FL) in 1991.
Hamann is a member of the National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, Minnesota Music Education Association, Society for Research in Music Education, Council for Research in Music Education, American Choral Directors Association, Minnesota Choral Directors Association, VoiceCare Network and Pi Kappa Lambda.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director Spring '24 Sabbatical Musicology / Ethnomusicology
Kelley Harness' recent scholarly work concentrates on the interrelationships between music, theatrical imagery, and politics in 16th- and 17th-century Italy. Her work relies on musical analysis to reveal a composition's allegorical messages and combines archival research and interpretive models from literary criticism, art history, and anthropology; her teaching reflects this interdisciplinary approach. Harness wants her students to master various tools in order to penetrate the expressive and intellectual layers of specific musical works. She is the author of Echoes of Women's Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), as well as numerous articles in journals and collections of essays. Her current research focuses on references to musical performance in 16th- and 17th-century Italian plays.
In 1994, she won the American Musicological Society's Paul A. Pisk Prize, and in 1991, she received a Fulbright Dissertation Grant for research in Italy. She is the recipient of publication subvention awards from the American Musicological Society and the Newberry Library.
Korey Konkol was appointed to the School of Music in 1992. Before coming to Minnesota, he was a professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Having studied with Walter Trampler, Eugene Lehner, and Roland Vamos, Konkol holds degrees from Western Illinois University and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he graduated with academic honors and distinction in performance. Konkol's own students have placed in major competitions and/or hold positions in professional orchestras and string quartets; many of them teach.
Konkol, who has concertized throughout Europe, Latin and South America, has extensive experience in solo, chamber music, and orchestral performance. He often performs with the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and was Principal Violist with the Ann Arbor, Peoria, and Knox-Galesburg Symphony Orchestras. As violist in Twin Cities-based Ensemble Capriccio, one of only several professional string trios in the world, he was awarded the first annual McKnight Foundation Fellowship for Performing Artists in 1997. Many compositions have been written for and recorded by Konkol, including works by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, John Tartaglia, Stephen Paulus, Randall Davidson, and Judith Zaimont.
Konkol recently received the American Viola Society Founders Award for his Herculean efforts as Host and Chair of the XXXII International Viola Congress held in 2004 on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Konkol joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as a guest musician for its 2005-2006 season and soloed with a performance of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. Konkol was honored as the 2006 William Primrose Artist of the Year after presenting a recital and master class at Brigham Young University, Utah.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor Double Bass and Contemporary Instrumental Performance
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- Marketing & Communications Manager
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- Assistant Professor Trumpet
Job Titles:
- Music Director
- Artistic Director of Orchestral Studies, Associate Professor
Mark Russell Smith is a music director and conductor for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of orchestral studies. He is a graduate in cello performance from the Juilliard School and a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Max Rudolf and Otto-Werner Mueller.
Job Titles:
- Director of Choral Activities, Professor
- Professor
Matthew Mehaffey is a professor of choral music. He also serves as artistic director of the Oratorio Society of Minnesota. Recent engagements include work with Washington National Opera, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, VocalEssence, Minnesota Chorale, and Turner Network Television.
Job Titles:
- Professor Ethnomusicology
Job Titles:
- Research Grant, University of Minnesota, 1998
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- Media Lab and Studios Specialist
Job Titles:
- Director
- Professor and Director
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- Associate Professor Piano
Job Titles:
- Facilities and Operations Manager
Philip C. Hey, drummer and affiliate faculty member, was born in New York City and grew up in Philadelphia. Several years of study at the University of Minnesota in American Studies and Afro-American Studies and private study with Edward Blackwell led Hey to a career in jazz.
Philip C. Hey, drummer and affiliate faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Music, was born in New York City and grew up in Philadelphia. His early years were influenced by the music of the 1960s; his parents had music playing in the home "all the time" and he was fortunate to receive encouragement from his high school band director. Several years of study at the University of Minnesota in American Studies and Afro-American Studies and private study with Edward Blackwell, who defined drumming style in America, led Hey into a career in jazz.
Hey has performed in concert, in clubs, on video, on national radio and television. He can be heard on several recordings, most notably Tribute to Mingus, released by the Tom Hubbard Ensemble.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer Saxophone
Job Titles:
- Student Services and Operations Specialist
- Student Services Operations Specialist
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Assistant Professor Clarinet
Sang Yoon Kim is also a sought-after chamber musician and has been invited to the Marlboro Music Festival since 2021 and made his debut at the Ravinia Festival with the Calidore String Quartet in 2013. He has performed with highly regarded artists such as Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst, the celebrated French string quartet Quatuor Ebene, and pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Robert Levin.
As a passionate teacher, he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in 2022. Kim has given masterclasses in multiple US and South Korean universities, including the Peabody Institute of Music, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire, Minnesota Clarinet Academy, Seoul National University, Korea National University of Arts, Han Yang University, and many others.
Kim made his debut with the Colburn Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2013. The orchestra was conducted by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra's fellow conductor Dietrich Paredes. The press raved about the performance given by the young clarinetist: "His strikingly mature artistry, his poised security of technique and expression were a marvel; from his instrument were drawn silken lines of sound, suffused with a dewy poignancy, and, in the finale, manic squawks and yawps."
The graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, where he was accepted as the first Korean clarinetist in the school's history. He studied with distinguished professors Michel Arrignon and Pascal Moragues. His tuition in Paris was preceded by three years with Florent Heau at the Conservatoire a Rayonnement Regional de Rueil-Malmaison. After Paris, he went on to study in Los Angeles at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, gaining an artist diploma under Yehuda Gilad in 2014.
Sang Yoon Kim is a Buffet Crampon, Vandoren and Silverstein Performing Artist.
Job Titles:
- Production / Technical Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor Creative Studies & Media / Ethnomusicology
Scott Currie earned bachelor's degrees at Swarthmore College (physics and political science) and the State University of New York College at Old Westbury (African-American music), master's degrees at City University of New York (education) and New York University (ethnomusicology), and his PhD in ethnomusicology at New York University. His research to date has focused on ethnographic studies of avant-garde jazz practice in New York City and Berlin, as well as historical/ethnographic studies of Ornette Coleman's collaborations with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Morocco.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor Composition and Music Technology
Sivan Cohen Elias is an electroacoustic composer and performer/improviser. She is currently a 2024 ACF McKnight Composer Fellow with the American Composers Forum.
Her work spans the United States, Europe, Israel, and the United Kingdom, where she has received various prestigious international awards, including the 2020 Fromm Foundation commission, winner of the 2016 International Staatstheater Darmstadt Music-Theater Composition Competition; 2012 Akademie Schloss Solitude residency; and 2011 Impuls competition.
Her new album Melting Planets was selected to be released under Innova Recordings label.
Her work is cross-disciplinary, combining modified and digitally extended musical instruments, sound objects, body gestures, and video while exploring social themes of failure, entanglement, and illusion. As noted by The New York Times, Cohen Elias often "deconstructs the instruments themselves" to establish extended sonic environments consisting of multi-layered sonic textures and timbres, composed with puppetry-style performance elements.
Her music has been performed by ensembles and performers internationally, including Klangforum Wien, Winnie Huang, Talea, MusikFabrik, Jack Quartet, and Line Upon Line Percussion, among many others. Her music was broadcast with personal interviews on Austrian, Israeli, and German radio stations and appeared on Israeli television. Festival appearances include RealTime Festival, Darmstadt, Bludenz, Bang on a Can, Wien Modern, Resonant Bodies, and Ultraschall. Her scores are published in the Babelscores online library.
She obtained her B.Ed.Mus and MMus degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and Tel-Aviv University, respectively, completed post-graduate studies at the School of Music and Performance Arts, Vienna, and earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University. Her main composition advisers during her studies were Chaya Czernowin, Ruben Serioussi, and Steven K. Takasugi.
Since Fall 2022 Cohen Elias has been the Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology at the University of Minnesota School of Music. In 2018-2021 she was a Visiting Assistant professor of composition and the director of the Electronic Music Studio at the University of Iowa School of Music. She was also a composition lecturer at Harvard University in 2019 and taught an Electronic Music Performance course at New York University in 2021.
In addition to her extensive classical and contemporary musical education, her background includes piano, and vocal performance training, choir conducting, membership in various bands, and courses in classical Arabic Maqam system, jazz and blues theory, and history. In addition, she has practiced for many years as a dancer and choreographer, as well as in video editing, drawing, and sound sculpture making, and has collaborated with artists from various disciplines worldwide.
Sowah Mensah is an ethnomusicologist, composer, and a "Master Drummer" from Ghana, West Africa. Sowah has taught music in both Ghana and Nigeria. He is currently a music professor at both Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul where he also directs each school's African Music Ensemble. He is currently a James Marsh Professor at Large at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT. In addition, he also directs the African Music Ensemble at the University of Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor Violin
Steve Campbell, principal tuba of the Minnesota Orchestra, is a native of Brenham, Texas. Steve became interested in music at an early age, as both of his parents are musicians. His father, also a tuba player, was his first teacher. Campbell went on to study at the University of Houston with David Kirk of the Houston Symphony, and completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with Chester Schmitz, formerly of the Boston Symphony.
While in Boston, Steve performed and toured regularly with the Boston Symphony and Pops Orchestras, and was principal tuba of the Rhode Island and Vermont Symphonies. Steve then went on to join the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia as principal tuba, in La Coruna, Spain. After two years in Spain, Campbell was invited to join the fellowship program with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. After one year in Miami, Steve moved on to the New Mexico Symphony where he was principal tuba for four years. Steve moved to Minneapolis from Milwaukee where he fulfilled a one-year engagement as principal tuba with the Milwaukee Symphony.
Campbell has participated in many music festivals and chamber ensembles, including the Tanglewood Music Center, National Repertoire Orchestra, Spoleto USA, Moab Music Festival the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Empire Brass Quintet.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor Theory
Professor Ashworth teaches alto, tenor and bass trombone to undergraduate, masters and doctoral students. He also directs the UM Trombone Choir, leads the UM Jazz 'Bones, coaches chamber ensembles and teaches a graduate course in Studio Administration and Resources. Many of his former students are enjoying successful careers as public school and university educators, orchestral and military ensemble musicians and as freelance performers and teachers. Ashworth is a former member of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and previously taught trombone and jazz improvisation at the University of Kansas.
As the featured trombonist (alto, tenor and bass) with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Ashworth recorded CDs for Teldec, Atlantic, Decca and EMI, and performed with the SPCO in New York, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition, he has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago-based Music of the Baroque. Ashworth has toured with the world-renowned Summit Brass and has performed on trombone and/or euphonium at the Summit Brass Institute, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Brevard Music Festival, the Wintergreen Music Festival and the Ojai Music Festival.
In addition to numerous SPCO CDs, Ashworth can be heard on recordings by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, the Summit Hill Brass, the Lou Fischer Big Band and Symphonia, a professional tuba-euphonium ensemble. He recorded a collection of contest solo pieces for trombone on Summit Records. Ashworth can also be heard playing lead and solo trombone on several recordings with the North Texas State University One O'Clock Lab Band.
From July 1994 to August 1995 Ashworth was the Lecturer in Trombone at the Canberra (Australia) School of Music. He performed with the orchestras of Sydney, Tasmania, and Canberra and joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for their 1995 European tour.
As a freelance commercial musician, Ashworth has performed with numerous artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, The Temptations, Doc Severinsen, Bobby McFerrin and Al Jarreau. He has recorded music for radio and TV jingles, CDs and movies, and has extensive experience playing Broadway shows.
Ashworth has appeared on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," and Bill McGlaughlin's "Saint Paul Sunday Live." He has also performed with the SPCO on their NPR broadcast of the premier of Garrison Keillor's opera, "Mr. And Mrs. Olsen" and recorded a DVD with the SPCO and Garrison Keillor. Ashworth has been on the faculty of numerous international brass conferences, and has appeared as a clinician, soloist and adjudicator throughout the USA, and in Australia and Europe.
Ashworth frequently organizes brass symposia at the University of Minnesota, and served as the Host of the 1994 International Trombone Workshop and the 1998 International Tuba-Euphonium Workshop. He has also hosted many guest artists and ensembles, including the American Brass Quintet, the St. Louis Brass Quintet, Dallas Brass, Vinko Globokar, Christian Lindberg, Charlie Vernon, Joseph Alessi, Raymond Premru, Michael Mulcahy, Patrick Sheridan, Gene Pokorny, Edward Kleinhammer, Oysten Baadsvik and Jaques Mauger.
Ashworth has degrees from California State University-Fresno and North Texas State University. His teachers include Larry Sutherland, Wilbur Sudmeier, Vern Kagarice, John Kitzman and Michael Mulcahy. Ashworth also studied with Swedish trombone soloist Christian Lindberg at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Lubeck, Germany and in Pitea, Sweden.
Job Titles:
- Chairman in Collaborative Piano and Coaching at the University of Minnesota
Timothy Lovelace holds the Ethel Alice Hitchcock Chair in Collaborative Piano and Coaching at the University of Minnesota. He previously taught at The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp, and The Madeline Island Music Camp. His principal teachers were Pat Curtis, Harold Evans, Clifford Herzer, Gilbert Kalish, Donna Loewy, and Frank Weinstock. He studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Stony Brook University, and the Aspen and Eastern Music Festivals.
Job Titles:
- Consultant for Young People 's Concerts Curriculum and Workshops Celebrating the Arts of African - Americans. Funded by Vocal Essence, Minneapolis, MN. August 2002
Witness Curriculum: Consultant for young people's concerts curriculum and workshops celebrating the arts of African-Americans. Funded by Vocal Essence, Minneapolis, MN.. August 2002