Dr. Todd Queen Dean of the College of Music

By Emily Clemons MacMillan (B.A. ’17)

When Todd Queen considered leaving his role at Louisiana State University to become dean at the Florida State University College of Music, there were a few specific factors that attracted him to the role. FSU has long had a top notch music school and currently offers one of the best music education programs in the world.

If you add in outstanding partnerships with the Colleges of Fine Arts and Dance, oversight of the world-renowned Marching Chiefs and a wealth of talented faculty and staff, it’s easy to see why Queen accepted the job.

Ultimately, however, it wasn’t the prestige, the accolades or the talent that sold him on the role—it was the community, both at the University and in Tallahassee.

“We had never been to Tallahassee before, but when we visited during the pandemic, we really fell in love with the city,” Queen said. “And Florida State happens to have a tremendous College of Music in a great, top-20 university!”

The university community has always felt like home to Queen. As a firstgeneration college student at Brigham Young University, he felt so at home in the university setting that he decided he never wanted to leave. After finishing at BYU as a performance major, he earned his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at the Eastman School of Music.

He then began his career at Colorado State University as assistant professor of voice and director of the Colorado State Opera Theatre, working his way to chair of the Department of Music, Theatre and

Dance in the College of Liberal Arts.

In his next role as dean and Penniman family professor of music at the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts, he updated the undergraduate curriculum to meet the needs of modern artists by including courses on entrepreneurship and arts leadership. He also led the college in a $60 million fundraising campaign that included a $4 million gift, the largest in the college’s history.

Queen isn’t slowing down, he’s got big plans for FSU as well. One such plan is a major building update that will be transformational to the College of Music, including 35,000 additional square feet for the Housewright Music Building. But he wants College of Music alumni not to worry—he assures that the new plans will not impact the beloved tree that anchors the courtyard.

He also intends to work with band directors Patrick Dunnigan, David Plack and Chandler Wilson to apply some of his learnings from LSU’s Tiger Marching Band and enhance the gameday experience with the Marching Chiefs.

All this work is grounded in building and maintaining a strong sense of community, one of three core values guiding the college’s strategic vision for the next few years.

“This FSU family thing that we all talk about is real,” Queen said. “You know, you always want to leave a place better than you found it, and it was already pretty great. So I have a lot of work to do!”