F L O R I DA STAT E U N I V E RS I T Y
CO L L EG E O F
FALL 2020
A New Chapter for College of Music Dean Making Music During a Pandemic Spotlight on Alumni Music in Uniform
A MESSAGE FROM THE INTERIM DEAN Friends, Welcome to the 2020 edition of the Alumni Magazine from the Florida State University College of Music! We always look forward to reconnecting with all of you each year. This current year has turned out to be unlike any season that we have seen before. The coronavirus health crisis has created great disruptions to the ways that music schools operate, and we are no exception. Our art form relies on people coming together to collaborate in real time, which does not align well with requirements for social and physical distancing. Most of our musical colleagues around the nation and world are experiencing similar difficulties. Some organizations have implemented creative approaches to continue their work, while others have chosen to suspend operations until the health situation improves. As we reflect on these difficult times, I am reminded that when society has faced great peril and adversity, it is in these times that we need music more than ever. Whether during periods of war, economic crisis, or hazardous health conditions, people need music. Music is essential to the human condition – as necessary to the heart and soul as food and water are to the body. Consequently, the College of Music remains as devoted as ever to the advancement of music as an artform, a profession, and a human pursuit. Over the last few months, faculty and staff in the College have carefully studied the most recent research related to the health situation, and its impact on making music. They have incorporated innovative solutions to help mitigate health risks, while allowing students and faculty to continue their creative work. These efforts, combined with the beauty of great technology, have allowed us to move forward with our educational and artistic work. Music instruction at FSU dates back to the year 1900, when the institution appointed its first music teacher. Over the last 120 years, the College of Music has grown to become an international leader in music performance, teaching, and scholarship. We will continue to be at the forefront of our profession, working to serve our students, faculty, and the broader community.
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During 2020, we were happy to celebrate the career of our dear friend and colleague Dr. Patricia Flowers, who has stepped back after serving as Dean of the College for the past seven years. Her accomplishments are far too numerous to list them all. For a few examples, Dr. Flowers helped to raise some $22 million for the College and hired 27 new music faculty members. She led initiatives to procure new instruments for the Marching Chiefs, to provide new Steinway pianos for concert halls and faculty studios, and to expand and improve the Callaway Courtyard. We are most happy that she will continue to serve the College as Professor of Music Education, so that we can continue to benefit from her wisdom and insights. As you look through this year’s magazine, I invite you to explore the beautiful feature interview with Dr. Flowers, including her reflections about our first Dean, Ella Scoble Opperman. Like Dean Flowers, Dean Opperman was an innovator, trendsetter, and an outstanding musician. Although they lived in different eras, these great leaders made profound impacts on the College, advancing its mission and laying a solid foundation for the future. Wherever your paths take you this year, we wish you much success, happiness, and good health. We look forward to seeing our many friends and colleagues as conditions allow. Until then, keep making and experiencing great music. And Go Seminoles! Sincerely, Michael Thrasher, D.M.A. Interim Dean, College of Music
2020 COLLEGE OF MUSIC ALUMNI MAGAZINE
CONTENTS 02 Dean’s Message 04 Patricia J. Flowers
08 FSU Music Charts its Course 12 Music Alumni Shine in Uniform 16 New Faculty 18 News from the College 26 Faculty/Alumni/Student News 38 Focus on Philanthropy Major Gifts, Friends 40 and Supporters
College of Music alumni, we want to hear from you! Use this QR code or visit our alumni page at music.fsu.edu/alumni to send us updates mailing address, email, phone, employment - and information about your professional activities to be included in the next edition of the College of Music magazine. Follow the College of Music on social media @musicFSU
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Patricia J. F lowers
Florida State University changes people’s lives for the better, and the College of Music’s dean, Patricia Flowers, is a classic example. By Anna Prentiss
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lowers, who graduated with a doctorate from the FSU College of Music in 1981, has served as dean since 2013. She has stepped down from that position in June after helping build upon the College’s outstanding reputation for the past seven years.
“We are overwhelmed by the generosity of so many who made the trip possible,” Flowers said. “Not only was it an opportunity to honor those who sacrificed for our country in a time of dire need, but also an occasion to reflect on the value of freedom and our responsibility to preserve it at all costs.”
“FSU reaches people from all walks of life, opening the door to possibilities that would have otherwise remained unknown,” Flowers said. “FSU prepares its students for what is to come, giving them the knowledge, experience and resilience to pursue their aspirations. I strongly believe in the mission of public higher education and understand its power in making a difference to people and society. FSU changes the world.”
In addition to fundraising, Flowers’ focus has been on hiring outstanding new faculty members who would pick up the mantle as faculty retired. Over the past seven years, she’s hired 27 new faculty members, approximately 30 percent of the full-time music faculty.
As dean, Flowers has made a direct impact on how FSU, and specifically the College of Music, is changing the world by setting several priorities to sustain the college’s legacy well into the future.
The arts have a strong history at FSU, and music has been part of the curriculum since 1901.
Under her direction, the College has raised more than $26 million dollars, and opened 50 new funds for students, faculty, programs, and facilities. Those funds have supported the purchase of new instruments for the Marching Chiefs, the creation of the Callaway Courtyard, and setting the plan in motion for the new Rockwood organ, as well as numerous music scholarships and special funds to support student learning. Flowers also facilitated the purchase of new Steinway pianos for Opperman Music Hall, Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, and faculty studios. One of the most meaningful and memorable highlights for Flowers was overseeing a fundraising campaign that aided in sending the Marching Chiefs to participate in France’s official D-Day Normandy Parade last June (2019), which marked the 75th anniversary of the bold mission and honored the brave soldiers who helped win World War II. OPPOSITE PAGE Dr. Patricia J. Flowers, seated in the Warren D. Allen Music Library with the Christening gown, regalia, and diploma belonging to Ella Scoble Opperman, first dean of what would become the Florida State University College of Music.
“They will become part of the storied history of this great institution,” remarked Flowers.
“No individual can take credit for the success of the College of Music,” Flowers said. “Its legacy began 120 years ago and grew to its current status through the hard work of dedicated faculty, alumni, administration, and friends.” Flowers said that the continued success of the program is a collective effort, and she’s especially grateful for the ongoing support of University President John Thrasher and Provost Sally McRorie who recognize the value of the arts in culture and life. “Dean Flowers has been remarkably successful in leading our renowned College of Music,” McRorie continued. “Her love for everyone who is part of that great community, or just one of its thousands of fans, shines through every day. Her unwavering leadership will be missed.” During her tenure, Flowers has traveled from coast to coast, meeting College of Music alumni, ranging from recent graduates to those well into their 90s. “What impresses me is the appreciation people express for their education at FSU and their connection to it decades later,” says Flowers. “I will never forget this powerful community and am grateful to have been a part of these conversations.”
Prior to arriving at Florida State, Flowers served on the faculty of The Ohio State University’s School of Music, where she served for 15 years as chair of graduate studies in music and received awards for outstanding teaching and research. Originally trained as an oboist, Flowers earned the bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kent State University before pursuing a doctorate at FSU. She has been honored as a distinguished alumna at both institutions. During her lengthy career in music education, she has served in numerous leadership capacities and received recognition for her research and contributions to the field, including the Senior Researcher Award given by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). When the dean position opened at FSU in 2013, Flowers was intrigued by the prospect of returning to her alma mater. “I thought that I had a sufficiently broad background in higher education to understand the challenges of a large university music program and hoped that I could help position the College well for changes to come,” she said. “The renown of the College and its people were also an enticement. I wondered if it would be as good as its reputation, and quickly found out it’s even better.” As Flowers steps down as dean, she said the greatest joy of her seven years has been working with the fine people associated with the College of Music and the University at large. “The level of commitment and love for this institution is exceptional,” Flowers said. “In good times and bad, there is a sense of teamwork that lifts the entire enterprise. I have loved hearing our students and faculty perform and learning about their scholarly and service projects. The scope and quality of the work is impressive, and I always knew that anything I could do to support this college would be worth the effort.”
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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“I should like to say that during my 33 years in this position at Florida State College for Women, no one in the college, the city, nor in the State of Florida ever gave any indication to me that they considered my being a woman any handicap to the carrying on of my responsibilities.”
Ella Scoble Opperman, first director of the School of Music at the Florida State College for Women from 1911, and its first dean from 1920-1944; the FSCW would become Florida State University in 1947.
Over the summer, Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement Gregory Jones posed a few questions to Dr. Flowers, reflecting upon her unique relation to Ella Scoble Opperman as the College of Music’s second female dean.
Ella Scoble Opperman, the first Dean of Music at FSU retired in 1944. What are your thoughts about your place as the second woman in this leadership position as the College nears its 120th year? Ella Opperman arrived in Tallahassee in 1911 to lead the music program at Florida State College for Women (FSCW) and retired in 1944 after 33 years of service. Within three years of her retirement, FSCW became coeducational and was re-named Florida State University. In many ways, her life as dean at a women’s college in the early/mid 20th century was very different than what it would be today as dean of a large public research university. She was heavily involved in daily operations, curriculum planning, teaching, and performing. She interacted with students and knew them by name, and she took summers off when she traveled extensively, returning to Tallahassee in time for fall term. Dean Opperman was smart, well-educated, diplomatic, a good decision maker, and nationally known for her leadership. I credit her with laying a strong foundation upon which the College of Music was built. I became Dean of the College of Music in 2013, 102 years after Dean Opperman was first appointed, and 69 years after her retirement. Imagine how much changed during her lifetime and beyond. For example, Dean Opperman was 47 years old by the time the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified and she was able to vote. By today’s standards, women in her era had fewer opportunities for personal independence and professional advancement, yet Dean Opperman did not consider her gender to have been a deterrent to her work at FSU. She attempted to put the issue to rest in her book, Annals of the School of Music (1947):
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Ella Opperman was a trailblazer for women in higher education but there is still a way to go before women are proportionately represented in leadership roles. More women than men graduate from college at all degree levels, yet as one goes through the professional ranks, the balance tips in the other direction. There is plenty of discussion about good, bad, and real reasons why this happens, but I am most attuned when women come to me asking for advice, encouragement, or mentorship to reach their own professional goals. Sometimes students tell me I’m a role model just by virtue of having been dean. Like Ella Opperman, I never felt that gender was an issue, let alone a deterrent, during my time as dean at FSU, but learning the skills and having the confidence to move into such a role is a big step. I am grateful to the teachers and mentors I’ve had throughout my life who nudged me to accomplish things I would not have thought possible. I am also deeply appreciative of the support I received from the entire FSU community. If my presence in the dean’s office opened up a glimmer of possibility to others, I would be pleased to continue the conversation. We all need a strong network; no one can do it alone. Since delving into the archives on campus, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about Dean Opperman’s life, times, and accomplishments. Her distant voice became an inspiration for me. As dean, I felt a responsibility to build on the legacy of the College of Music back to its inception some 120 years ago. I identified with Ella Opperman in her role as Chair of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) Ethics Committee from 1935-40, a position I held from 2017-20. I understood the pride she must have felt in hiring
qualified teachers that elevated the music program to the next level, just as I took great satisfaction in bringing in outstanding new faculty to carry the College forward. As I read through her existing documents, I saw the quality of her reasoning within that time and place, and also observed what a different world we are living in today. Is 69 years too long a timespan between one-woman dean and the next? All I can say is that we are better off when we remain mindful of the diversity that exists in the arts and society, and when we seek new energy and fresh ideas from multiple perspectives. Knowing history informs our understanding of contemporary voices that inspire inclusivity and excellence in a forward-looking College of Music.
What surprised you when once you transitioned from full-time teaching into administrative leadership? It’s honestly hard to remember not having some administrative responsibilities since the transition began back in 1992 when I became Chair of Graduate Studies in Music at The Ohio State University. It was a 12-month job that extended across the entire school and connected me to the university-at-large in ways that I enjoyed. A big change was in moving from a 9-month appointment to 12-month, giving up the summers that were used for research and rejuvenation. University faculty have busy lives with teaching, research, creative activity, and service, but there is some flexibility in balancing one’s own workload, whereas administrative positions require almost perennial accessibility and an abundant amount of time spent in the office. Moving into administration required some adjustments but was compensated by gaining an overarching view of music in higher education, participating in meaningful decision making, and getting to know many wonderful students and faculty across disciplines. When I accepted that position, I agreed to a four-year term but ultimately stayed in it for 15 years, all the while continuing to teach and do research. These professional activities went by the wayside
when I became Dean of the College of Music at FSU, a position with a much more extensive purview of administrative responsibilities. The move to FSU allowed me to be more deeply engaged with higher education issues across campus and nationally, and more influential at the strategic and programmatic levels. I learned something new nearly every day on the job. I loved the scope of the work and the many wonderful people with whom I had the privilege of interacting in my role as dean.
Dean Opperman was smart, well-educated, diplomatic, a good decision maker, and nationally known for her leadership. I credit her with laying a strong foundation upon which the College of Music was built.” – Patricia Flowers, Dean of Music What distinguishes the FSU College of Music and makes it unique among collegiate music programs? The College of Music is defined by its storied history, strong alumni network, large and talented student body, comprehensive programs, dedicated faculty, and a university community that is supportive of the arts. There is a certain vibrancy and cando attitude that permeates our halls and classrooms. FSU is a friendly and welcoming campus where we strive to create a positive environment for all who come here.
Another hallmark is the broad range of community opportunities the College provides: music therapy and choir experiences for young children, an expansive summer music camps program for students in grades K-12, and many opportunities for older adults to visit the College for continued learning and enjoyment. Participants in these programs develop an affinity for FSU that often lasts a lifetime. Finally, FSU music faculty and alumni are engaged in successful music careers throughout the U.S. and around the world, bringing distinction to our programs and attracting the next generation of students. All of this contributes to the unique College of Music community that encompasses large distances, spans many decades, and is characterized by a lasting camaraderie and supportive professional network.
What are your plans now that you are returning to a full-time faculty position? In 1943, a reporter from the Tallahassee Democrat asked Ella Opperman what she was going to do when she retired. She replied, “Just take life easy.” In fact, she wrote a book (Annals of the School of Music), traveled extensively, attended concerts, and remained involved in multiple organizations for another 25 years. Perhaps that was her idea of taking life easy! I am not retiring but returning to the faculty as a Professor of Music Education. Teaching music is what brought me to the profession in the first place and I look forward to finishing my career as a music educator. Like Dean Opperman, I plan to write, travel, attend concerts, and stay involved in organizations that are important to me. I am currently developing a graduate course on the history and sociology of music education for spring semester and am looking forward to involvement with the summer MME program in London. I have more writing plans than I can ever accomplish and was recently gifted a lovely alto recorder that is calling out to be played. It has been an honor to serve as Dean of the College of Music and I stand ready to contribute however I can as an alumna, former dean, and member of the faculty. n 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Dr. Michael Hanawalt leads choral students during an outdoor rehearsal in the newly covered Owen Sellers Amphitheatre.
FSU Music Charts its Course On a Friday the 13th in March, College of Music students, faculty, and staff paused their vigorous pace of classes, concerts, and research for a well-deserved spring break.
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wo days earlier Florida State University had announced that due to the expanding coronavirus, classes would all move online beginning March 23rd with the hope that face-to-instruction would resume on April 6th. Unfortunately, in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Safer at Home” order the University was forced to close on April 3rd. The entire campus shifted to remote teaching, and all performances were cancelled or postponed. The incredibly busy spring semester of on-campus music evaporated abruptly.
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It is in such challenging moments that the amazing creativity in the College shines. So it was that faculty members worked tirelessly to convert in-person classes to online meetings and sought expertise to utilize the best available technology for sharing music remotely. More importantly, they redoubled their efforts to connect with students, helping them adapt to the challenges they faced. Even as the buildings remained silent, homes now were filled with music and lively discussion as the faculty-student dynamic – the heart of what the College is – continued. When the end of the spring semester
arrived, despite these unique challenges, our students again distinguished themselves with new teaching positions, winning auditions for professional and military ensembles, entering positions in music therapy, and continuing their education in prestigious graduate schools. For Lindsey Haerle (B.M.E. ’20), an instrumental music education major in the midst of student teaching and job hunting, her last semester prior to graduation meant a rapid shift to remote music-making with her students. Her successful interview for a job at Sabal Palm Elementary School in Collier County was conducted remotely and required careful planning of her virtual interview location and how to keep the environment professional and quiet. As she begins her new job, she will be teaching some students face-toface with other students interacting remotely from home. The creative energy to reimagine curriculum and resources is something that Haerle developed during her years at FSU. “My teachers, advisors, and peers in the College of Music fully prepared me for my teaching career. I especially appreciate being part of this close-knit family of musicians, first as a student and now as an alum.” With everyone working and studying remotely, the College took advantage of the unusually empty buildings. Associate Dean for Operations William Fredrickson led a summer renovation of 71 practice rooms on the first floor of the Housewright Music Building including paint, carpeting, new sound panels, and a return to colors characteristic of the original facility when it opened in 1979. Lighting and technology upgrades also added versatility and energy-saving features to the buildings. The first personalized bricks were also added to the breezeway between the Kuersteiner and Housewright Music Buildings in August 2020. This Music Legacy Walkway Program is now available to College of Music alumni and supporters. We hope you can visit the Callaway Courtyard and the Legacy Walkway the next time you are able to safely come to campus.
(Top) Mike Shapiro, Audio/ Visual Engineer for the College of Music receives training on new live stream equipment. (Center) Marching Chiefs practice safe performance techniques from the stands at FSU home games. (Bottom) Lindsey Haerle adapts her classroom for socially distanced instruction.
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Summer 2020 was certainly a rollercoaster of preparation and optimism as a new leadership team prepared for the College of Music’s return to on-campus instruction for the fall. Administration and staff were joined by several faculty members in dedicating their summer towards researching and discussing safe teaching and performing practices, including newly researched mathematical formulas for room refresh rates, stage capacity, social distancing, and many other safety protocols. While some university music programs decided early in the summer not to offer any fall face-to-face classes, the FSU College of Music crafted the “College of Music Operational Framework,” sharing future plans for a combination of remote and face-to-face classes and the rationale for offering this blended approach. Central to the plan was the determination to provide the best educational experience for students in a demonstrably safe environment.
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To address the need for safe social distancing and larger venues, some ensemble rehearsals shifted to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, while others were planned for the Owen Sellers Amphitheatre, newly enhanced with the addition of several tents. Outside venues allow a better air refresh environment and the tents can offer some protection from the Florida sun and rain. The warm climate in Tallahassee allows planning to include outside spaces throughout the semester, a true location benefit. Larger classroom spaces in the Diffenbaugh Building, scheduled to be vacant due to planned remote classes, were re-tasked to allow face-to-face applied teaching in larger spaces. New procedures of all spaces in the College were created to ensure a safe environment for all involved. Among these changes was an effort to match all practice rooms to specific studios with carefully assigned use to ensure spacing and refresh times. Masks and disinfectants appeared in many places as did signage reminding everyone of safe practices. Special proce-
dures were developed for the Warren D. Allen Music Library, including limited traffic in the space and new pick up and quarantine guidelines for use of its rich collection. As the College of Music normally hosts over 500 performances per year, early fall plans included special guidelines for ensemble rehearsals and performances. These included sophisticated procedures for audience spacing and traffic in our five busy performance venues. Due to rising COVID cases in Florida during the late summer however, these plans were put aside in favor of a decision to close fall concerts to public attendance. The only exception has been the allowance of a very small number of invited guests to attend degree recitals so that students may share these special moments with family. Although concerts are closed to the public, they are continuing as a vital component of student learning. Planning for concerts
Students in the University Wind Ensemble take full advantage of large rehearsal spaces in the Housewright Music Building to practice safely.
without audiences revealed a great need to develop enhanced video recording and live stream capabilities so that performances could continue to be shared with audiences. The first-ever College of Music video production teams, comprised of existing staff members and graduate students, trained with the local PBS channel WFSU to develop this ability and increase live streaming of performances from Ruby Diamond Concert Hall and Opperman Music Hall. Mike Shapiro, an audio/video engineer who produces concerts in Ruby Diamond Concert Hall for the College, is among the staff and students who are receiving additional training to produce live streaming and video programming. “We had to change our approach and mindset from the way we were addressing our production workflow before COVID-19,” offered Shapiro. “Fortunately, we had great leadership within our team to meet these new demands. We are excited to embrace this new direction.” The addition of new video equipment for use in Dohnányi, Longmire, and Lindsay Recital Halls also has equipped the College to offer video record-
ings of all degree recitals for the first time. “The new capabilities in the College for sharing our programs via these live stream and video formats is a great step forward as we now reach a more global audience,” remarked Dr. Gregory Jones, who began his position as Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement in the College in July. As the fall semester begins, the sounds of the Marching Chiefs again fill the air as they prepare to support the FSU and Tallahassee communities following special conditions created for safe resumption of football games in Doak Campbell Stadium. Band, orchestra, and choral ensembles are set to begin in late September with live stream concerts scheduled throughout the semester. Precautions for these groups include innovative mask designs that allow the playing of wind instruments, as well as coverings for the bells of the instruments. Prior to meeting in-person, ensemble members are utilizing online learning opportunities like University Symphony Orchestra sectionals with members of the
Detroit Symphony. Such innovative approaches to teaching by professors like Alexander Jiménez, Music Director Laureate of the Tallahassee Youth Symphony Orchestra, takes advantage of the rare availability of orchestra professionals like DSO hornist Johanna Yarbrough, a Tallahassee native who played in Dr. Jiménez’s Youth Orchestra and studied with FSU Professor of Horn Michelle Stebleton, to train the next generation of music professionals. 2020 will certainly be remembered for its many challenges to education, but the College of Music, with over a century of navigating a constantly changing musical landscape, continues to explore and identify the best possible avenues for moving music forward. Our talented faculty, staff, and students continue onward with the College’s tradition of high-level music, enriched by the special sense of community that we share with thousands of alumni and community supporters. n
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Music Alumni Shine in Uniform Military performing organizations in 2020 represent the highest levels of musical execution, on par with professional orchestras and jazz ensembles.
I Credit: The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps (official press photo)
t is no surprise that the Florida State University College of Music, one of the premiere music programs in the country, is so well represented in the ranks of the Nation’s military bands. Because music has such unique power to stir emotions and call us to action, there has long been an important role for musicians alongside all manner of military function. In addition to instilling feelings of patriotism and valor, the cadence of military music aids in uniform marching and maneuvering, so it is not surprising that musicians feature prominently in military ceremony. In times past, musicians playing brass and percussion instruments even served a vital role in communication amongst units in the field. Their loud calls and cadences organized action prior to the availability of radios and more recent advances in communication. Today’s service band musicians continue to provide such functional roles while also engaging in concert performances in a wide variety of styles and ensembles. Today, auditions for premier groups like “Pershing’s Own,” the top band in the United States Army, are comparable with those of major symphony orchestras as large numbers of talented musicians compete for a full-time performing position. Current FSU doctoral student Peter Soroka recently won a spot in the percussion section of this coveted ensemble. His audition process started with the submission of a recording of required excerpts from which a select number of finalists were invited to audition live in Washington, DC. Following three rounds of intense performing along with an interview process, Soroka earned a spot in this prestigious ensemble where he joined fellow College of Music percussion alums D.J. Palmire (B.M. ’10) and Sidonie (Wade) McCray (B.M. ’11). The College of Music is very well represented in Pershing’s Own with Aaron Cockson (B.M.E. ’95, M.M. ’01) in the horn section, John Powlison (M.M. ’13) with the trumpets, violinist Patrick Lin (B.M. ’15) and Dale Moore and Omar DeJesus (B.M. ’14) in the trombone section. Soroka summed up the great success that the College of Music has in preparing its students for the rigorous service band audition process. “The work ethic and career-focused training from our percussion professor Dr. Parks, along with overall support for music students at FSU, prepares them to do the best they can in these competitive careers.” It is clear that for many FSU graduates, “the best they can” is indeed impressive! 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Tracing its roots back to the Revolutionary War, the United States Military Academy Band at West Point is the oldest military band in America and part of the oldest army unit. In 2018, former College of Music student Staff Sgt. Nicole Caluori, a member of the band’s horn section, was chosen to become the first female drum major in the 200-year history of the band. In this vital leadership role, Caluori ensures musical quality, discipline, and showmanship in the unit. It is an active physical presence that includes conducting, marching, and overall physical fitness required of all in the service. Of course, Caluori is not the only one from FSU in the West Point Band. In the field music group known as the Hellcats for example, the trumpet section is packed with FSU alums including Judy Gaunt (B.M. ’16), Daniel Haddock (M.M. ’17) and Katie Stephen (B.M. ’15). Performing musicians in service groups normally enter and remain at enlisted rank while conductors require officer status. Melvin Paul Kessler (M.M. ’99), LCDR, USN (ret.) spent a career as a musician in the U.S. Navy first as a trumpet performer and later as a Director of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Band in Norfolk, conductor with the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, DC and finally as the Director of the U.S. Naval Academy Band in Annapolis, MD. His move from enlisted musician to officer and conductor led him to FSU later in his career to study wind conducting with James Croft. “The leadership of these service bands is similar to the position of a college band director, though it is important to note that ensembles in these military groups are full of professional performers,” Kessler noted in a recent phone conversation. “Navy fleet bands offer musicians a great chance to play in a variety of professional settings, often in the company of dignitaries like the President of the United States as well as at locations all over the world.” Many recent College of Music alumni are currently part of these Navy fleet bands including Alex Charles (M.M. ’19), bassoon, Lilly Haley (D.M. ’18), clarinet, Gabe Ramey, bassoon,
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Jenna Taylor (B.M. ’15), flute. Recent FSU graduates in the U.S. Navy Band, the premiere service band for the Navy, include Sarah Blecker (D.M. ’11), oboe/public affairs, Seth Johnson (B.M. ’17), trumpet, Justin Juarez (M.M. ’08), trumpet, Chris Sala (M.M. ’96), trumpet, and T. Adam Whitman (B.M.E. ’08), vocalist. Another of the prestigious Washington, DC groups is the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, also part of the U.S. Army. Clad in George Washington-era uniforms, they perform important ceremonial functions like leading the Presidential Inaugural Parade while also presenting historically informed performances of music from the Baroque and Early Classical periods. Recent College of Music graduates in this group include flutists Barbi Risken (M.M. ’05), Deanna Bertsche Hamm (M.M. ’03, D.M. ’09), Erin (Fleming) Morgan (M.M. ’14), Laura (Clapper) Zabanal (D.M. ’18), and trumpeter Ross Mitchell, (currently pursuing the Master of Music degree). In addition to bands in our nation’s capital and at military academies, FSU alums are also serving as musicians in bases throughout the world. With deployment to active conflict areas, they can find themselves in harms way with the rest of their unit. Frank McCaskill (B.M.E. ’83), a career army band member, provides a harrowing example of the danger some musicians can face. In 2010 he was stationed in Iraq as part of a U.S. Army unit supporting memorial and chapel services as well as transfer ceremonies and other special observances. On a hot July day, McCaskill climbed into a military vehicle along with the other soldiers to travel via convoy to another military base to provide music for the decommissioning ceremony commemorating the handover from U.S. to Iraqi forces. “When we were approximately 5-6 kilometers from our destination, I was turning around after taking some pictures when our vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED). I was pushed forward initially and violently slammed back by the security seat straps and knocked
unconscious.” McCaskill was injured in the blast along with others but thankfully survived this terrifying event. Although such moments are rare for performers in the military, it is a reminder that they truly are serving our nation as soldier musicians. For many FSU alumni, participation in a service band can be a long and rewarding career. It can also be a shorter-term opportunity to perform widely as a chapter in a more varied musical journey. Former College of Music dean Don Gibson (Ph.D. ’83) offered insight into the value of his service band experience. He began his musical career in 1965 at age 17 with the U.S. Navy Band. “My father was a high school orchestra and band director, and he set up an audition for me simply to get a sense of the standards for admission to the Washington band. At the close of the audition, I was offered a position. On the way home my father sold me on the idea of enlisting. During my three and a half years in the band, I eventually assumed the position of Principal Flute and Featured Soloist.” Gibson went on to attend college and forge a very successful career in higher education, including the leadership of FSU’s music program. Service bands offer musicians the opportunity to continue their performance career in a rewarding environment that fosters their musicianship while, at the same time, giving them the opportunity to continue their university education. As such, membership in leading musical ensembles in the military continue to attract the best and brightest young musicians in America. Whether devoting a career to service bands or making it part of a varied musical journey, FSU continues to be a leading institution in preparing students for this career field. With the help of a dedicated faculty complimented by a thriving community of supportive Seminoles already in the service, our current students will continue to have great service band opportunities. n
Recent College of Music Placements in Military Bands Matt Anderson (current DM student) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (trumpet) Sarah Blecker (D.M. ’11) – U.S. Navy Band (oboe/public affairs) Nicholas Caluori (B.M. ’04) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (horn) Nicole Caluori (former student) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (drum major) Alex Charles (M.M. ’19) – U.S. Navy Fleet Band (bassoon) Jamal Davidson (current student) – U.S. 282nd Army Band (oboe) Omar DeJesus (B.M. ’14) – U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” (trombone) Tyler Duncan (M.M. ’19) – U.S. Air Force Band (Ceremonial Brass) (trumpet) Robert Durie (B.M. ’14) – U.S. Coast Guard Band (clarinet) Tyler Easterling (B.M.E. ’15) – U.S. Marines Drum and Bugle Corps (trumpet) Judy Gaunt (B.M. ’16) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (trumpet) Mitchell Gribbroek (M.M. ’17) – U.S. Army Field Band (percussion) Daniel Haddock (M.M. ’17) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (Hellcats) (trumpet) Lilly Haley (D.M. ’18) – U.S. Navy Fleet Band (clarinet) Seth Johnson (B.M. ’17) – U.S. Navy Band (trumpet) Justin Juarez (M.M. ’08) – U.S. Navy Band (trumpet) Casy Knowlton (M.M. ’12, D.M. ’16) – U.S. Navy Fleet Band (oboe) Patrick Lin (B.M. ’15) – U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” (violin) Sidonie (Wade) McCray (B.M. ’11) – U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” (percussion) Ross Mitchell (current student) – U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps (trumpet) Angela Moretti (B.M.E. ’10) – U.S. Eighth Army Band in Korea (bassoon) Erin (Fleming) Morgan (M.M. ’14) – U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps (flute) D.J. Palmire (B.M. ’10) – U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” (percussion) Anna Pennington (D.M. ’07) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (oboe) John Powlison (M.M. ’13) – U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” (trumpet) Gabe Ramey (former student) – U.S. Navy Fleet Band (bassoon) Peter Soroka (current student) – U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” (percussion) Katie Stephen (B.M. ’15) – U.S. Military Academy West Point Band (trumpet) Jenna Taylor (B.M. ’15) – U.S. Navy Fleet Band (flute)
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NEW FACULTY AT THE COLLEGE
Kari Adams Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at Florida State University and conductor of the FSU Women’s Glee Club Prior to her appointment at FSU, Kari Adams completed the Ph.D. in Music Education at the University of North Texas. She is a passionate educator, conductor, clinician, and researcher. Her research interests include incremental theories of intelligence and teacher identity development. Her work has been published in Music Educators Journal, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, and Journal of Research in Music Education.
Gregory Jones Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement Gregory Jones holds degrees from Florida State University, the University of North Texas, and the Eastman School of Music. In addition to his extensive orchestral, chamber, and solo performance experience as trumpet soloist and conductor, his previous professional appointments include Director of the Purdue University Fort Wayne School of Music and Professor of Music at Truman State University in Missouri. Recipient of a Senior Fulbright Grant, Jones has served as an Artist-in-Residence in Greece and has been a member of the Fulbright Selection Panel in Washington, DC.
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Florida State University
Eric Rieger Karen Munnelly Assistant Professor of Arts Administration Karen Munnelly is an arts administrator and educator who has held positions with the Aspen Music Festival & School, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her research focuses on arts portfolio careers and career preparation. Munnelly received the Ph.D. in Arts Administration, Education & Policy from The Ohio State University, the Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Florida State University and the Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from the University of South Florida.
Assistant Professor of Voice Eric Rieger, tenor, has enjoyed success performing opera throughout Europe. His career has led him to the opera companies of Zürich, Luzern, Basel, Trier, and Regensburg, among many others. In addition to his performance career, Rieger is in demand as a voice teacher, opera director, and lyric diction coach. Most recently Coordinator of Vocal Studies and Director of Opera at Western Washington University, he previously taught at Westminster Choir College, Texas Tech University, and Nazareth College. Rieger is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Chandler L. Wilson Assistant Professor of Music Education and Assistant Director of Athletic Bands Chandler L. Wilson holds the Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Florida A&M University, the Master of Arts in Wind Conducting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the Ph.D. in Music Education from FSU. Most recently, Wilson taught at Eastern Michigan University, with prior high school teaching experience in Broward County, Florida. His numerous compositions for band are published by Barnhouse and BRS Music.
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NEWS FROM THE COLLEGE Building Bridges with Beethoven This fall marks a milestone for the Building Bridges project, an initiative that violinist and Associate Professor of Violin Corinne Stillwell started three years ago, focusing on the complete string quartets of Beethoven. Over the course of nine off-campus concerts, she has performed these 16 works in collaboration with 46 advanced string students from FSU, encouraging them to use chamber music to connect with a wider community. Collaborating organizations for the project have included B-Sharps Jazz Cafe, Classical Revolution Tallahassee, Faith Presbyterian Church, Music For Food, Unitarian Universalist Church, and the Second Harvest of the Big Bend. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, she was able to complete the last three quartets this fall over Zoom for an audience at FSU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. What a great way to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, as well as showcase the wonderful string students at FSU!
A Celebration of African American Composers performers (left to right) Mikayla Rogers, Martha Murrane, Joseph Bowman, Lorenzo Johnson, Liliana Guerrero, Melissa Johnson, Levi Gerke, and Emilie O’Connor.
A Celebration of African American Composers In February, Professor of Voice Marcía Porter organized and presented the second annual Celebration of African American Composers featuring graduate student performances. Art songs and spirituals encompassing three centuries of vocal writing by African Americans showcased a richness of variety and expression.
Choral Activities
(Left to right) Kristin Pfeifer Yu, Laurel Yu, Adam Collins, Corinne Stillwell, Shelby Thompson, Jack Flores, and Marianna Brickle are all smiles before the first concert.
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The FSU Chamber Choir and University Singers joined forces with the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra in the premier of Jocelyn Hagen’s Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in a February concert. The composer also spent the afternoon working with the choirs as they sang Hagen’s I Lift Up My Eyes and Hands as well. The choral area also hosted Minnesota composer and conductor, Jake Runestad, who worked with conducting students and led the Men’s Glee, Women’s Glee and University Singers in a performance of his works.
Jeff Denson
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020
Jeff Denson (M.M. ’05) was featured in the cover story for JAZZed, one of the nation’s leading jazz music education publications. Denson, a bassist, educator, composer, and singer, received his graduate degree in Jazz Studies at FSU, something he chronicles in the article along with his performance and recording experience and ideas for jazz education. A committed educator, he now serves as Dean of Instruction at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley.
THE JAZZ EDUCATOR’S MAGAZINE
jazzedmagazine.com
$4.99
INSIDE Back to School (from Home)
Jeff Denson’s Journey as an Artist and Educator
FSU choral conductors Michael Hanawalt (l) and Kevin Fenton (r) with Maestro Evans Haile (Gainesville Symphony Orchestra) and composer Jocelyn Hagen.
Guitar Festival The 4th annual Florida Guitar Festival in October 2019, organized by doctoral student Cody Switzer, featured three marvelous concerts, an intense competition, multiple masterclasses, an entrepreneurship lecture by Festival founder Ben Lougheed (D.M. ’19), and a technique workshop by Andrew Zohn (D.M. ’97). Highlights from the weekend included a virtuosic performance by internationally acclaimed soloist Rene Izquierdo, a world premiere by the Kithara Duo (pictured right), and Elliot Frank (D.M. ’94).
Fernand Vera and Olga Amelkina-Vera
Live Streaming Lessons from Your Home can be Easier Than You Think!
From Wooden Clocks To Wooden Flutes
In The Spotlight With Saxophonist David Pope
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Ella Ensemble The Ella Ensemble (Nina Kim and Pedro Maia, violins; Albert Magcalas, viola; Vincent Leung, cello; and Christina Lai, piano) was selected to represent the College of Music for the May 2020 Carnegie Hall performance and entrepreneurship project. Although their appearance at this famous venue was cancelled due to COVID-19 closures, the group plans to realize their project in May 2021 with a performance at Carnegie Hall’s beautiful Weill Recital Hall. With a program of all FSU composers it should be a wonderful showcase for the College and offer this outstanding ensemble the opportunity to achieve outreach plans emphasizing education and diversity.
Ella Ensemble members (left to right) Nina Kim, violin; Albert Magcalas, viola; Pedro Maia, violin; Vincent Leung, cello; and Christina Lai, piano.
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Housewright
Allen Vizzutti, trumpet, with the University Wind Ensemble in Ruby Diamond Concert Hall
Pianist Richard Goode
The Housewright Eminent Scholar Program, established as part of a generous gift from the late Dean Wiley Housewright and his wife Lucilla, continued in 2019-20 with exciting performances and enriching interactions with musical giants lasting several days. Trumpet virtuoso Allen Vizzutti wowed audiences as a soloist with the FSU Wind Ensemble, and students participated in masterclasses with this veteran performer and composer who has appeared on many television shows and more than 100 movie soundtracks. Nonesuch recording artist, pianist Richard Goode, delighted audiences with solo works by Bach, Chopin, Debussy, and Janáček, and shared his extensive performance and recording experience via a lecture recital and masterclasses. Composer Uzong Choe, Professor of Composition and Theory from Seoul National University in South Korea and Artistic Director of TIMF (Tong Yeong International Music Festival) shared his experience of merging music and theater with FSU student composers. Baroque flute and recorder virtuoso Barthold Kuijken showcased historical performance at its best, joined by harpsichordist Patrick Merrill. Students from the FSU Early Music program received coaching from Kuijken on historical performance practice on period instruments in both solo and chamber roles. __________________________________
Madsen Book
Composer Uzong Choe
Barthold Kuijken coaches sophomore flute student Julia Sills
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Two College of Music alumni, Jessica Nápoles (B.M.E. ’96, M.M.E. ’00, Ph.D. ’06) and Rebecca B. MacLeod (M.M.E. ’03, Ph.D. ’06), teamed up on a new book entitled Clifford K. Madsen’s Contributions to Music Education and Music Therapy: Love of Learning published by Routledge/Taylor Francis. The book offers insight into Madsen’s history, philosophy, and his legacy, best seen in his many former students active in the music profession. Madsen, the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Music, was appointed to the FSU faculty in 1961. He teaches in the areas of music education, music therapy, research, and psychology of music. He serves on various international and national editorial and research boards and is widely published throughout scholarly journals in music education and therapy.
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Music Therapy Goes Virtual Like many other healthcare providers, music therapists have transitioned to virtual services during the coronavirus pandemic. Tele-music therapy allows music therapists to provide beneficial services to clients in a safe manner and provides both opportunities and challenges for student training. To help students learn how to successfully navigate teleservices, faculty and students in Florida State University’s Music Therapy degree program partnered with the ACE Transition Program, State of Florida Vocational Rehabilitation, Leon County Schools, KEYS (Keys to Exceptional Youth Success) and Independence Landing to provide tele-music therapy services as part of the Summer Institute fellowship for students and young adults with disabilities. Under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Music Therapy Lori Gooding, Ph.D, MT-BC, FSU Music Therapy students provided group music therapy services to participants enrolled in the program. Music therapy sessions occurred twice weekly in June and July and sessions focused on life, social, independence, and employability skills taught during the program. Music therapy sessions included live music, and Summer Institute participants had the opportunity to engage in active music making, movement to music, songwriting, and song discussion.
FSU Flute Day Karl-Heinz Schütz, solo flutist with the famed Vienna Philharmonic and former student of FSU Professor of Flute Eva Amsler, joined the studio for Flute Day 2019 in November. Schütz gave a masterclass, a recital, and two talks to groups of students. Flute Day, presented by the FSU College of Music, provides flute students with opportunities to enhance their education through workshops, masterclasses, and flute choir reading sessions.
Cassie Ferrer, a rising FSU Music Therapy senior who participated in the program, was impressed by the experience. “I think it’s an incredible alternative for in-person clinical hours, and that it really does work, both for us as students and for the clients. If anything,” she stated, “I feel like we gained a lot from doing this online, rather than losing anything. Before this, I was skeptical about tele-services, but now I understand that they can really help, and I could also see how using them even after the quarantine has ended could be beneficial to some clients, maybe to make music therapy more accessible to them.”
Hansel and Gretel. The cast was directed by current Opera Directing Graduate Student, Asura Oulds and Coaching Doctoral Candidate, Brandon Banks (M.M. ‘20). The vocal performance students were able to engage audiences ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. FSU’s Opera Outreach is an essential part to the mission of bringing opera to the community of Tallahassee. Through this educational program, College of Music students introduce opera to the younger generations through a joyful, colorful, and positive experience. __________________________________ Cassie Ferrer
Opening Nights
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Newman Premiere with UWO The FSU Wind Orchestra, under the direction of Richard Clary, opened the 2019-2020 season with a World Premiere of a commissioned piece by the composer Jonathan Newman. The work, Pi’ilani and Ko’olau, is an “imagined ballet” to a scenario commissioned by the composer from Brooklyn playwright Gary Winter. It references an actual, yet phantasmagorical historical (and really quite tragic) event. The protagonist, Hawaiian folk hero Ko’olau, leads a colony of “leprosy” victims (now
more respectfully referred to as “Hansen’s Disease”) in an attempt to avoid government persecution, isolation, and extermination. This remarkably vivid historical “folk tale” is overtly colorful, passionate, and magical, utilizing exotic indigenous Hawaiian and traditional instruments. __________________________________
FSU Opera For a week in January the Florida State University’s Opera Outreach sent two casts to 10 elementary schools in the Tallahassee area to showcase Engelbert Humperdinck’s
The College of Music continued its partnership with the Opening Nights performance series as top musical talent spent time with students in conjunction with featured appearances at FSU. Guests who worked with FSU students this season included Claire Leyden of the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, who workshopped with opera students; The Canadian Brass, who shared chamber music tips to College of Music chamber groups during their time on campus; and legendary flutist Sir James Galway, who offered critical observations to students of the flute studio.
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Summer Music Camps
Claire Leyden (R) of the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players works with opera student Jennifer Lamont (L) during an auditio workshop in the College of Music. Canadian Brass
When public schools shifted to virtual learning last spring, many elementary and secondary students not only experienced an interruption to their academics, but a sudden stop to their music classes and lessons as well. Students were left without any plan for how and when they would get to perform with their band, orchestra, or chorus again. And as summer opportunities continued to be cancelled, it became clear that these young musicians would be struggling to find a way to stay connected to music and to each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. The FSU Summer Music Camps quickly pivoted from traditional in-person camps to virtual class sessions in order to provide instruction and inspiration to any and all young musicians looking to keep their music practices going during this time. The Summer Music Camps presented their 79th summer through a series of 41 virtual classes that included a variety of performances fundamentals, applied classes, masterclasses, and musicianship experiences, all filled with resources, activities, and discussion. Thirty-eight College of Music faculty, graduate
Composer Jonathan Newman (R) with Poet/ Librettist Gary Winter (L) speaking about Pi’ilani and Ko’olau at the FSU Wind Orchestra premiere.
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students, and Summer Music Camp instructors generously volunteered their time so that classes could be offered at no charge. More than 5,200 registrants participated over the course of five weeks in June and July, from 31 states and locations around the world. Many stated this was their first time “attending” our camps, participation which was made possible due to the virtual format. The success of the virtual classes has opened a new chapter for the Summer Music Camps, and, though they hope to see all of their campers back in Tallahassee face-to-face this summer for our 80th anniversary, virtual experiences may remain a permanent part of the camps as they continue their mission to provide access to outstanding summer music education to all interested students. __________________________________
FSU Percussion Alums Set the Bar The 2019 and 2020 school years saw eight Seminole percussion alumni winning full-time performing and university teaching positions. These include Stephen Kehner (B.M. ’12) (Oregon Symphony Orchestra),
Legendary flutist Sir James Galway trades flute passages with FSU student Alan Berquist (B.M. ’02, D.M. ’20) in Opperman Music Hall as part of his visit to Tallahassee.
Mitchell Gribbroek (M.M. ’17) (U.S. Army Field Band), Peter Soroka (The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”), Melinda Leoce (M.M. ’13) (Adams State University), Matt Jordan (D.M. ’18) (Jacksonville State University), Gordon Hicken (D.M. ’13) (Stevenson University), Luis Rivera (D.M. ’12) (Oklahoma City University) and Jacob Kight (M.M. ’17, D.M. ’20) (University of South Florida). Congratulations to all, and best wishes as you continue your musical journey as ambassadors of the FSU College of Music! __________________________________
Percussion Ensemble CD The international award-winning FSU Percussion Ensemble released their fourth professional recording, Volume Four: The Percustary Insectarium, in Fall of 2019. The CD features FSU piano faculty member Heidi Louise Williams and renowned cellist Amy Sue Barston, as well as students from the FSU percussion studio, many of whom assisted with the engineering, editing, and mastering of the recording which was produced completely in-house at Florida State. Several FSU alumni contributed
compositions and arrangements to the project, including Omar Carmenates (D.M. ’10), Jamie Whitmarsh (M.M. ’14), and Luis Rivera (D.M. ’12).
Stephen Kehner
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Violins of Hope In October 2019 the University Symphony Orchestra presented a concert in partnership with the Holocaust Education Resource Council entitled “Music of Resistance.” Inspired by the award-winning book Violins of Hope by FSU alum James Grymes (M.M. ’98, M.M. ’98, Ph.D. ’02), this concert presented music that demonstrated the human will to resist against tyranny. Included was music by Pavel Haas, Mieczysław Weinberg, Max Bruch, Bohuslav Martinů, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Cellist and FSU Professor of Cello Greg Sauer joined as the cello soloist for the Weinberg Cello Concerto and Bruch’s Kol Nidre. Each work illustrated a different side of artistic resistance to tyranny and human rights abuses, while demonstrating great human courage and the will to overcome the seemingly impossible.
Mitchell Gribbroek
Peter Soroka
Melinda Leoce
Matt Jordan
Gordon Hicken
Luis Rivera
Der Vampyr The ensemble of ghouls welcomes the Vampire Master in a blood ritual during the prologue of Marschner’s Der Vampyr. This FSU opera production opened on Halloween evening and featured a variety of theatrical surprises, including cinematic backgrounds of a vampire flying through the night over Doak Campbell Stadium (many thanks to the FSU Emergency Management Drone Team for helping us to create the film).
Jacob Kight
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WE at FMEA The FSU Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Patrick Dunnigan, delivered a feature performance for the 2020 Florida Music Educators Conference in Tampa last January. The major gathering of the music education profession in the state enthusiastically welcomed a program that included an appearance by the FSU Faculty Brass Quintet (Christopher Moore and master’s student Ross Mitchell, trumpets, Michelle Stebleton, horn, John Drew, trombone and Justin Benavidez, tuba) presenting a rousing rendition of Anthony Plog’s Concerto 2010 for Brass Quintet and Wind Ensemble. The remaining program focused on recent works for wind ensemble by Kevin Day, Roshanne Etezady, Jennifer Jolley, and John Mackey that evoked strong imagery. Jolley and Mackey joined the conductor onstage to comment about their works in front of a large audience of conference attendees. __________________________________
tenure in teaching and is also completing one book project and starting another. “After 43 years at Florida State, one develops a lot of affection for and loyalty to the College of Music,” said Seaton, “and it’s an honor to be able to support everyone’s success.” __________________________________
Darrow’s teaching and research interests focused on teaching music to special populations, inclusive practices for students with disabilities, particularly those with behavior disorders and deaf/hard-of-hearing, and the role of nonverbal communication in the music classroom. Her father’s hearing loss served as motivation for her thesis and dissertation research on the perception of music by children with hearing loss.
Alice-Ann Darrow
Faculty Retirement
Douglass Seaton
FSU College of Music, FSU’s Guardian of the Flame award, national research and clinical practice awards from the American Music Therapy Association, Florida Music Educators Association’s (FMEA) Collegiate Music Educator of the Year, FMEA Hall of Fame, community service awards from the Alzheimer’s Project and Independence, Inc., and distinguished member in SAI.
Alice-Ann Darrow, Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy, retired in 2020 after 17 years with the College of Music. Darrow received the B.M., B.M.E., M.M., and Ph.D. degrees at Florida State University. As a student she served as president of Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI) and the School of Music Council, was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, and received the Chancellor Robert Mautz award, given to an outstanding graduating senior. As an alumna she has been the recipient of the Ella Scoble Opperman Faculty Citation award from the
Darrow is co-author of Music in Special Education, editor of the text Introduction to Approaches in Music Therapy, and co-author of Music in Special Education and Music Therapy with Geriatric Populations: A Handbook for Practicing Music Therapists and Healthcare Professionals. She has published over 100 journal articles related to music education and music therapy, as well as numerous book chapters. She has presented her work in Austria, Canada, Greece, Japan, Korea, Norway, Spain, Malaysia Italy, China, Brazil, Cypress, Finland, Ireland, and Scotland. Darrow remained committed to diversity and inclusion throughout her career. Her greatest joy though, comes from seeing former students who are now teachers. n
Interim Associate Dean Musicology faculty member and Warren D. Allen Professor of Music Douglass Seaton has stepped into the role of Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of Graduate Studies for the 2020-21 academic year. “When Dean Flowers called last spring to ask me to step in as Interim Associate Dean, I obviously flashed back to 2000, when Dean Piersol gave me the same call. It made sense that I might step back into the role.” In addition to his administrative work, Seaton continues his commitment to his long
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Patrick Dunnigan directs the FSU Wind Ensemble at the 2020 Florida Music Educators Association conference
FACULTY ALUMNI STUDENT FACULTY NEWS Justin Benavidez, Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium, recently served as editor for Flow Studies For Tuba, a method book through Mountain Peak Music. This book is designed to help develop air flow efficiency by playing musical phrases in a wide array of ranges, keys, and rhythms. The etudes offer musical ways to cultivate the important technical skill of breath control, focusing on phrasing and technique through a week-long regimen of exercises. Benavidez was the 2019 recipient of the University of Michigan Paul Boylan Alumni Award in recognition of outstanding accomplishments and significant contributions in the field of music.
Justin Benavidez (right)
Wanda Brister, Associate Professor of Voice, won Album of the Year for the Song and Chamber Music categories from the Light Music Society of the United Kingdom for her album Cabaret Songs of Madeliene Dring. Brister is on the Board of Directors for the International Alliance for Women in Music and has recently published a comprehensive biography on British composer Madeleine Dring (University of Liverpool Press).
NEWS Michael Buchler, Professor of Music Theory, was elected to be the next President of the Society for Music Theory, the world’s largest organization dedicated to music theory scholarship, and will take office in November 2021. He delivered the keynote addresses at the 2019 Music Theory Midwest Conference in Cincinnati and at the 2020 University of Arizona Graduate Student Music Conference in Tucson. He also published an article in Music Theory Spectrum and a book chapter in The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy. Jane Piper Clendinning, Professor of Music Theory, presented “Physical Geography of Musical Instruments: Gesture, Embodiment, Musical Memory, and Music Theory” at Music and Spatiality: The 13th Biennial International Conference on Music Theory and Analysis, in Belgrade, Serbia, on October 5, 2019. Geoffrey Deibel, Assistant Professor of Saxophone, released his sixth studio recording, Soul Searching, with his saxophone quartet, h2. The recording features works by Georg Friedrich Haas, Kerrith Livengood, and h2’s own Jeffrey Loeffert. In addition to the recording, Diebel gave a recital with the h2 quartet at the 2019 Music For All National Conference in Indianapolis. David Detweiler, Assistant Professor of Jazz Saxophone, and bassist Fumi Tomita celebrated the 100th anniversary of jazz icon Charlie Parker with thoroughly Parker-ian flair and resourcefulness on Celebrating Bird: A Tribute to Charlie Parker, released in September 2020 on Next Level Records. On the album, Detweiler and Tomita present an inspired set of contrafacts—new melodies,
composed upon familiar chord changes—of tunes in Parker’s repertoire. Diana Dumlavwalla, Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy, was elected to serve as President-Elect for the Florida State Music Teachers Association (FSMTA). As an affiliate of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), this state organization provides professional support for nearly 800 music teachers and their students. It is one of the largest state affiliates of MTNA in the nation. After her two-year term as President-Elect, Dumlavwalla will move on to serve as President of FSMTA for two years and then finally president of the FSMTA foundation to complete a six-year commitment. Sarah Eyerly, Associate Professor of Musicology, has been awarded the Lester J. Cappon Award by the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture for her co-authored article and digital project, “Singing Box 331: Re-Sounding Eighteenth-Century Mohican Hymns from the Moravian Archives” (The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 4 (October 2019). Eyerly has also recently published Moravian Soundscapes: A Sonic History of the Moravian Missions in Early America (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020). The accompanying companion website for the book can be found at moraviansoundscapes.music.fsu.edu. Lori Gooding, Assistant Professor of Music Therapy, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship. She will partner with Universiti
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Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to conduct a needs assessment and develop music therapy education and clinical programming. Since Malaysia does not currently have any university training programs in music therapy, Gooding’s goal is to lay the groundwork for the future development of a music therapy academic program while also continuing to grow clinical services in the community. The clinical work will be associated with a number of institutions, one of which is the top rehabilitation hospital in Southeast Asia. She will partner with FSU graduate Indra Selvarajah (Ph.D. ’13) for the project. Although Fulbrights are currently on hold, Gooding expects to begin work in January 2021.
Laura Gayle Green
Laura Gayle Green, Head of the Warren D. Allen Music Library, was recently awarded The Fred L. Standley Award for her exceptional service. The award is given as recognition to library faculty and staff who demonstrate achievements in areas such as superior service to students and faculty, research and publications, and being a mentor to students, faculty, library staff, and professionals. Michael Hanawalt, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Graduate Choral Studies, published the book chapter “Veljo Tormis and the Regilaul Tradition” in Conducting Men’s Choirs. He also published the book chapter “The Wedge:
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Effective Rehearsal Planning to Help Your Choir Peak at the Right Time” in The Choral Conductor’s Companion.
Professor of Jazz Piano and Music Theory, will release a duo album on Centaur Records in late 2020.
Ian Hobson, Research Professor of Piano, is the conductor of the Sinfonia Varsovia for the recently released CD Moritz Moszkowski: Orchestral Music, Volume One (May 2020) which features the first recording of Johanna d’Arc: Symphonic Poem in Four Movements, Op. 19. It is published on the Toccata Classics label and received the 2020 Diapason d’Or- Découverte award.
Iain Quinn, Associate Professor of Organ and Coordinator of Sacred Music, released a CD of Haydn organ concertos recorded with the early music ensemble, Arcangelo, conducted by Jonathan Cohen, on the Chandos label in October 2019. In the Summer of 2020 he recorded a CD of major organ works of Vincent Persichetti for Naxos. He has recently signed a contract for his next book, Music, Religion, and Society in the writings of Ian McEwan - A Voice in Time to be published by Bloomsbury Academic. In February 2020 he performed on the Mayfair Organ Concerts Series at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, and gave a masterclass for the Royal College of Organists.
Alexander Jiménez, Professor of Conducting, Director of Orchestral Activities, received a grant in the amount of $19,500 as part of the Arts and Humanities Program Enhancement Grant from the FSU Council for Creativity and Research. This award was granted to fund another recording with the Naxos Record label featuring the world-premiere recording of Elliot Carter’s Flute Concerto and a second-ever recording of the EllenTaaffe Zwilich (Marie Krafft Distinguished Professor of Composition) Oboe Concerto. The performances were to feature the University Symphony Orchestra with faculty soloists Eva Amsler, Professor of Flute, and Eric Ohlsson, Charles O. Delaney Professor of Oboe. Unfortunately, the recording sessions, which were scheduled for Fall 2020, were canceled due to COVID-19. Under the direction of Jiménez the USO has previously recorded two CDs on the Naxos label, including Millennium Fantasy by Zwilich and the Symphony No. 2 by Ernst von Dohnányi. Both CDs received international critical acclaim. Kevin Jones, Assistant Professor of Jazz Trombone, presented at the International Artistic Jazz Research Symposium in Vienna, Austria in October 2019. While in Vienna, Jones performed and gave lessons and masterclasses at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. Jones and Bill Peterson,
Gilad Rabinovitch, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, published the article “Reimagining Historical Improvisation: An Analysis of Robert Levin’s Fantasy on Themes by W. A. Mozart, October 29, 2012” in the June 2020 issue of Music Theory Online, one of the flagship journals of the Society for Music Theory. The article analyzes a case study of a live fantasy by an expert performer who is involved in the revival of classical improvisation. “Though classical improvisation had lain dormant since before the beginning of the age of recordings, we should remember that musicians like Mozart and Beethoven were well-known improvisers, keyboardists, as well as composers. The musicianship of pianists like Levin and Gabriela Montero provides us opportunities to reimagine some of the possibilities of classical improvisation,” said Rabinovitch. Nancy Rogers, Professor of Music Theory, completed her term as Vice President of the Society for Music Theory. She contributed a chapter to The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy (Routledge, 2020) and joined the editorial board of the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. She also served as an Exam Leader for the Advanced Placement Exam in Music Theory.
D. Gregory Springer, Assistant Professor of Music Education, continues to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Florida Music Director. During the 2019-2020 academic year, he also served as a member of several editorial boards (Journal of Music Therapy, Research Perspectives in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education), a chapter reviewer for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Music Performance (Oxford University Press), and a member of the Scientific Review Committee for the International Society for Music Education. In 2020, he concludes a term as Chair of the NAfME Affective Response Special Research Interest Group. He had research articles published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, and his research was accepted for presentation at the International Society for Music Education World Conference (Helsinki, Finland), American Music Therapy Association National Conference (Minneapolis, MN), and the Symposium on Music Teacher Education (Greensboro, NC). Shannon Thomas, Assistant Professor of Violin, was awarded a 2019-2020 Undergraduate Teaching Award, an award received by only 16 faculty members university-wide last year. Heidi Louise Williams, Associate Professor of Piano, debuted a new album Beyond the Sound in October 2019. The album is comprised of piano sonatas by Charles T. Griffes, George Walker, Carlisle Floyd, and Samuel Barber. This is the first release of Floyd’s 1957 Piano Sonata on a commercial record label. Williams had the honor of coaching this work with Floyd in preparation for the recording. Beyond the Sound has been selected for inclusion in the 2020 Fanfare Critics’ Want Lists. Additionally, her album, Vocalisms, a collaboration with soprano Mary Mackenzie, was awarded Finalists and Honorable Mention in the 2018-219
Professional Division of the American Prize in Chamber Music Ensembles. Williams is also the recipient of two prestigious awards conferred in April 2020: the Florida State University Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Florida State University Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. She is also artist-faculty for the MasterWorks Summer Music Festival and has taught at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Tuscany, Italy. Chandler L. Wilson, Assistant Professor of Music Education and Assistant Professor of Athletic Bands, had a composition performed at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in December 2019. The Hikarigaoka Girls’ High School Wind Orchestra performed three movements from Suite Forty-four.
1980s Virginia Carol Dale (M.M. ’88, D.M. ’95) was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Flute Association for the 2019-2022 term, proudly serving alongside FSU Professor of Flute Eva Amsler. She is currently organizing the NFA’s newly-online Pedagogical Guide to Flute Literature, a guide that is reevaluated and published every 10 years. Dale has served on the NFA’s Endowment Committee and its Finance Committee. She is currently the Music Coordinator at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, KS, the fifth-largest Presbyterian church in the United States.
ALUMNI NEWS 1970s Russell D. McDonald (B.M.E. ’75) retired in 2011 after 35 years at Roy Allen Elementary School in Melbourne, FL, where he taught K through 6 grade general music, band, strings, and chorus. He worked closely with the physical education teacher in developing and implementing rhythms/ movement classes for grades K-6. He was Roy Allen Teacher of the Year 1980-81 and Melbourne Jaycees Outstanding Young Educator in 1985. However, his life’s proudest moment occurred in May of 2019 seeing his daughter, Emily, graduate from FSU in Athletic Training, making them fellow alumni. Dave Jerome Moss (B.M.E. ’78) taught in the Dade and Broward Schools (Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale) for 19 years and taught 19 years in the Pomona Unified School District (California). He retired June 3, 2019 and was named APT/PUSD Teacher of the Year.
Alice Hammel
Alice Hammel (M.M.E. ’89) was recently elected president of the Virginia Music Educators Association. Marian Wilson Kimber (M.M. ’89, Ph.D. ’93) is currently Professor of Musicology at the University of Iowa. In 2019 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. In 2020 she was awarded the Sight and Sound Subvention from the Society for American
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Music for “In a Woman’s Voice,” a video project of musical readings by American women composers, featuring Red Vespa. Red Vespa consists of Wilson Kimber reciting comic poetry with Natalie Landowski, pianist. The duo performs spoken-word compositions Wilson Kimber discovered in course of writing her book, The Elocutionists: Women, Music, and the Spoken Word (University of Illinois Press, 2017). They have appeared in Kansas City, Des Moines, Chicago, Columbus (Ohio), Boston, and Washington, DC.
Jeffery Redding (M.M.E. ’97, Ph.D. ’11) is the winner of the 2019 Grammy Music Educator Award, which recognizes those who have made a lasting impact on students and music education. Redding was selected from more than 2,800 initial nominees from all over the U.S. Redding is the choral director at West Orange High School in Winter Garden, FL and was featured on CBS This Morning in an interview discussing his upbringing and educational philosophy, and included a performance with him and his Advanced Women’s Choir.
Eric Holseth
Eric Holseth (B.A. ’95) is Director of Music at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, FL and Voice Instructor/ Vocal Coach at the Lakeland School of Music. Greg Mills (B.M. ’97) remains in the long-running Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Marian Wilson Kimber
1990s Julio Agustin (B.M. ’90) was recently appointed Director of Music Theatre at Elon University. This past year he has given a paper at a conference in Athens, Greece, had an article published in the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society’s journal, and directed Sister Act at Post Playhouse in Nebraska. Jay Jaski (B.M. ’97) just completed his second year as professor and head of musical theatre at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). This year Jaski led the creation and launch of a new MT curriculum for the BFA program, directed a hit production of the musical Little Women, and initiated a virtual musical theatre coaching series for SCAD students, for which fellow FSU alumni Christine Long-Hamilton (B.M. ’95) served as a guest artist.
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Florida State University
Lemondra V. Hamilton (M.M.E. ’98) is Visiting Associate Professor of Music Education in the Department of Fine Arts at Mississippi Valley State University. He recently participated on a panel discussion at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, MS after a screening of Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace.
Keith Kaiser (Ph.D. ’98) is serving as interim dean of the Ithaca College School of Music effective July 1, 2020 while a search for the successor to Karl Paulnack is conducted in the fall semester. A distinguished teacher and scholar, Dana Professor Kaiser began his career at Ithaca College in 1998 after completing his Ph.D. at Florida State University. He has served as past chair of the Music Education Department (2003-2015) and past interim associate dean (2009-2012). He has taught undergraduate and graduate music education courses, supervised junior and senior level student teachers, and conducted various instrumental music ensembles. In addition, he is active throughout the country as a clinician, adjudicator and consultant, and a Presser Scholar. Allen Lamp (B.M.E. ’99) has been band director at William T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens, FL since 2007. He teaches band, marching band, concert band, and jazz band. In 2017 he was awarded a Tools for Teachers prize. Jamie Wood Katz (B.M. ’99) is spending her time during the pandemic singing at fundraisers for area theatres that are suffering at the moment.
2000s
Lemondra V. Hamilton
Jay Juchniewicz (B.M.E. ’01, M.M.E. ’05, Ph.D. ’08) is Professor, Music Education Coordinator of Graduate Studies at East Carolina University.
Robert Henry Clark (B.M.E. ’02, M.M.E. ’09, Ph.D. ’18) was appointed to a position in the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. In 2019 he taught at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, GA. Mekia Cox (B.M. ’03) is still based in LA, where she is currently a regular on The Rookie on ABC.
Bridgette L. Yancy (M.M.E. ’05) graduated with a Doctor of Worship Studies Degree in Christian Music and Theology from Liberty University in May 2020. Her thesis, “Discipleship as Understood and Practiced by Worship Leaders, Pastors, and Congregations of Selected Southern Baptist Churches,” is published and available on Liberty Scholar’s Crossing and ProQuest.
Mike Evariste (B.M. ’03) has been in and out of Book of Mormon on Broadway. Cheldon Williams (B.M.E. ’04, M.M.E. ’14) has been named associate director of bands at West Virginia University. In addition to directing the marching band, Williams will also conduct the symphonic band and other athletic pep bands while teaching courses in the School of Music.
Paul Luongo
Bridgette L. Yancy
Cheldon Williams
Jonathan Jakob Hehn (B.M. ’06, D.M. ’13) is currently editing two forthcoming books: one a Festschrift in honor of the late liturgist and professor of worship Horace T. Allen, the other a bilingual (French-English) collection of hymns by Bl. Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He was also honored to have recently been asked to co-chair the planning committee for the centennial conference of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, to be held in Washington, DC. in July of 2022.
Ashley Arcement (B.M. ’05) was on the Cirque Musica Holiday Show tour. She also had her third summer at Broadway Sacramento, with rave reviews for Gertie in Oklahoma. Summer Broyhill (B.M. ’06) is finishing her MFA from USD/Old Globe. This past year at the Globe she played Amiens in As You Like It, singing and playing guitar. She understudied and performed as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. She also played Feste in Twelfth Night, this time doing all the musical compositions and arrangements herself. This summer her class will be doing a Zoom production.
Paul Luongo (M.M. ’06, M.M. ’06, Ph.D. ’10) is Associate Professor of Music and Paul Garrett Fellow at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. Under his direction, the Whitman College Orchestra was invited to perform at the College Orchestra Directors Association’s National Conference in 2019. Austin Owen (B.M. ’06) continues in Jersey Boys, Off-Broadway.
Thomas M. Cimarusti
Jonathan Jakob Hehn
Thomas M. Cimarusti (Ph.D. ’07) was recently promoted to Professor of Music History and Program Coordinator for the B.A. in Music at Florida Gulf Coast University. His accomplishments in musicology are diverse, ranging from the establishment of summer study abroad program in Italy and a world music program at Texas Tech University, as well as being the recipient of over $25,000 in research and teaching grants. Most recently, Cimarusti founded and 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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currently directs the Center for Public Musicology, an organization that provides music lectures, opera excursions, and performances throughout Southwest Florida. Through the Center for Public Musicology, Cimarusti has contracted with over 20 retirement communities, libraries, opera houses, museums, and other institutions in Florida, Michigan, and Arizona in providing not only engaging courses on music history, but also organizing opera excursions and opera cruises, world music performances, and a closed-circuit television music lecture series in select venues in Naples and Fort Myers, FL.
fica Quartet, Quince Ensemble, and Switch Ensemble, among others. He has received commissions and awards from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, American Modern Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Luna Nova, Line Upon Line Percussion, Ursa Ensemble, and many others.
Nikka Wahl (B.M. ’07) has switched sides of the table and joined Royal Caribbean as their headline booker and specialist. Patricia Losada (B.M.E. ’08) has worked for Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Miami Beach, FL, taught at Cristi/STEPSS Academy in Sunrise, FL – receiving Teacher of the Year in 2011-2012 – and is currently teaching at Doral Academy Charter Elementary School & Just Arts and Management Charter Middle School. She received Teacher of the Year in 2016-2017. She served as secretary of Dade County Music Educators Association (DCMEA) from 2016-2018 and was president-elect of DCMEA in 2018-2019, and president of DCMEA in 2019-2020. She was coordinator of the 2018 and 2019 DCMEA/MDCPS Superintendent’s Elementary Honors Chorus and has had elementary students participate in the Elementary All State Chorus since 2017. Justin Bowen (B.M. ’09) was not on Broadway as a performer this year, but he didn’t go far, since he was on the TINA—The Tina Turner Musical hair team – 200 wigs and over 40 years of hairstyles. Pierce Gradone (B.M. ’09) was appointed Assistant Professor of Music Composition at Knox College, where he oversees the composition program and electronic music studio. Described as “gorgeous, expansive” (I Care If You Listen) and “engaging” (Chicago Tribune), his music been performed by Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Signal, Imani Winds, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Paci-
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Pierce Gradone
Brett Pikuritz (B.A. ’09) is the Teacher of the Year recipient at Orange Park High School (2019-2020), and Teacher of the Year Finalist (top 5) at Clay County District Schools in Florida.
Underground Opera in Winnipeg, and Northwestern University Opera Theater. Adam Lukebke (Ph.D. ’10) is music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, which is featured on the recent recording release by Naxos, The Passion of Yeshua by composer Richard Danielpour. This world premiere recording was made during performances in April 2019 of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, and UCLA Chamber Singers, conducted by JoAnn Falletta. As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, Lukebke prepared the chorus for the performances and recording working closely with composer Richard Danielpour. Angela Moretti (B.M.E. ’10) has been appointed Vice President of the newly formed National Museum of Civil Defense. This NMCD is a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring and telling stories of the Nation’s Civil Defense and Emergency Management personnel. She played bassoon in the 323rd Army Band in San Antonio, TX in 2019 and in the 8th Army Band in Pyeongtaek, South Korea in 2018. Erin Wasmund (B.M. ’11) shot a comedic short PSA for Omaze featuring JJ Watt, as well as a short feature fan film called Halloween Night, in addition to an industrial, a few other small film projects, and some stand-in work for a Nike fashion show. Stephen Kehner (B.M. ’12) is Assistant Principal Percussion with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.
Brett Pikuritz
2010s Alexandra Dee (B.M.E. ’10, M.M. ’13) joined the faculty of Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Fall 2019 as Director of Orchestral Studies and Assistant Professor of violin and viola. At IUP she conducts the Symphony Orchestra and opera productions. In recent seasons she has conducted performances with the Joffrey Ballet, Manitoba
Stephen Kehner
Lindsey Macchiarella (M.M. ’12, Ph.D. ’16) is currently Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at El Paso, Vice President of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the University of Texas at El Paso, and Board Member for the Viola da Gamba Society of America. Forthcoming publications include: “Modern Performance Practice of Erik Satie’s Piano Works: A Paralysis of Expression” in Keyboard Perspectives and “Reich and Gursky: Parallel Minimalist and Post-Minimalist Narratives in Music and Photography” in Music and Art.
Lindsey Macchiarella
Luis Rivera (D.M. ’12) is Assistant Professor (visiting) at Oklahoma City University. Adair Watkins (B.M. ’12) is at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the Finding Nemo show. Mark Anderson Belfast, Jr. (Ph.D. ’13) is an Associate Professor of Music Education at Southeastern University. He serves as Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Media, coordinates the music education degree program, teaches music education courses, supervises student teachers and directs instrumental ensembles. Belfast continues to serve as an assistant director of the FSU Summer Music Camps. Belfast has presented research and educational clinics in regional, national, and international venues, including the NAfME Music Research and Teacher Education National Conference, NAfME Biennial Northwest Division Conference, Desert Skies Symposium on Research in Music Education, Florida Music Education Association Professional Development Con-
ference, and the Special Music Education and Music Therapy Pre-Conference Seminar for the International Society for Music Education World Conference. In addition to his roles as a researcher and educator, Belfast serves as the National Association for Music Education Collegiate Advisor for the state of Florida and maintains an active agenda as a speaker, clinician and adjudicator. Collean Gallagher (B.M. ’13) is teaching at a dance studio in Atlanta – now on Zoom – and was a backup singer for an Elton John cover band tour. Ellyn Hamm (M.M. ’13) has been appointed to the Music Therapy faculty at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Hamm is a doctoral candidate in Music Education with an emphasis in Music Therapy at Florida State. Prior to returning to school, Hamm was a research coordinator in the Early Neurodevelopment and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory at the Research Institute of Nationwide Children’s Hospital as well as a music therapist in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Previously, Hamm worked as a research assistant and music therapist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in the Division of Neonatology. She also served on the faculty at Belmont University as an adjunct professor of Music Therapy. Hamm is a Fellow of the National Institute of Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy specializing in the Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL). She also serves as the clinical specialist on the PAL for Powers Medical Devices, training therapists and other medical personnel in the uses of the device with premature infants. Anna Laurenzo (M.M. ’13) stars in composer Matthew Peterson and librettist Jason Zencka’s true-crime courtroom opera Voir Dire. A recording, featuring the original cast of singers from the critically acclaimed 2017 world premiere production at Fort Worth Opera was released both physically and on digital streaming services in August 2020. Adapted from various court cases witnessed by the librettist during his time as a court reporter, the opera takes place in a courtroom and plays out in a series of colorful vignettes.
Anna Laurenzo
Melinda Leoce (M.M. ’13) is Assistant Professor at Adams State College (Colorado).
Dunwoody Mirvil
Dunwoody Mirvil (M.M. ’13, D.M. ’18) is in his second year as Assistant Low Brass Professor at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. A well-regarded clinician, adjudicator and performer, Mirvil shared his expertise with a variety of audiences in 2019 with a clinic and solo recital at Buffalo State University, a clinic at Palm Beach County’s Pre-School Workshop, and clinics for young trombonists at Park Vista and Freedom High Schools in central Florida. Upcoming engagements include an appearance at the Florida Music Educators Association Conference, where he will present a session entitled, “Dotting the I’s and Crossing the T’s: Developing the Effectual Habits of an Intentional Trombonist.” Mirvil presented this session in 2020 and will do so again in 2021. Additionally, Mirvil released the “DMirvil 5S,” his second, custom-designed line of trombone mouthpieces available from Giddings Mouthpieces in December 2019. 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Christopher James Ray (M.M. ’13) Resident Artist Conductor with Opera San José is involved with creating original operatic programming for safer-at-home viewing. Opera San José recently released a virtual performance of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe featuring Ray as the pianist with renowned baritone Eugene Brancoveanu. The performance includes an interview with Brancoveanu and Ray in which they discuss their process, their relationship to the work, and what it is like to create opera in this time of COVID. View the official trailer on YouTube.
Felicia Kailey Youngblood
Felicia Kailey Youngblood (M.M. ’13, Ph.D. ’19) accepted a position at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA as Assistant Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology in fall 2019. In her first year on faculty she expanded the department’s curriculum by providing a more diverse array of course offerings. She presented her research on three separate occasions in fall 2019 at the Society for Ethnomusicology and American Anthropological Association’s annual meetings. In summer 2021, Youngblood will return to Italy with a research grant from WWU to continue the work that she began during her doctorate on reclaiming women’s voices and cultural heritage in the Southern Italian tarantism ritual. Frank Zimmerer (M.M. ’13) currently serves as Director of Bands at Antioch High School in Nashville, TN. He continues to be an advocate for Title I music programs in underserved schools and communities. Most
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recently, he was named a CMA Teacher of Excellence in 2019, after winning the award in 2016. Cody Martin (M.M. ’14) joined Pensacola Opera in 2017 from professional engagements with Des Moines Metro Opera, Arizona Opera, Hubbard Hall Opera, Florida State Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, Janiec Opera Company, and the Brevard Music Center. An active pianist, coach, and conductor, Cody directly oversees the administration of Pensacola Opera’s programs dedicated to in-school arts education and training of the members of the Artists in Residence Program. Leryn Turlington (B.M. ’14) has been having great success in Chicago; she played Sally Brown in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, her seventh show at Drury Lane, followed by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on Navy Pier, had her third year in A Christmas Carol, back at Drury Lane, which she left a day early to start rehearsals as Sandy in Grease at the Marriott Theatre. They almost finished the run before being shut down by COVID-19 - just three days earlier than planned. In addition, Turlington started Treble on the L, a jazz duo that played gigs throughout the city at various venues, including bars and the Riverwalk downtown. Danny Burgos (B.M. ’15) has been with the first national tour of The Band’s Visit as the offstage swing for all the men. Roderick Beecher Gorby (D.M. ’15, M.M. ’17) has been commissioned to compose a work for organ and chamber orchestra for the fall 2020 season of Chamber Orchestra of the Springs in Colorado Springs. Elizabeth McManus (B.M.E. ’15) is Band Director at Wakulla High School in Crawfordville, FL. Bands under her direction have consistently received Excellent and Superior ratings at district Music Performance Assessments, Superiors at Marching MPAs, Superiors at Jazz MPAs, Superiors at Auxiliary MPAs, and qualified for State Concert, Jazz, and Auxiliary MPAs.
Daniel Tompkins (M.M. ’15, Ph.D. ’17) works as an Applied Scientist II at Microsoft in the area of audio and speech recognition with deep learning. He has also served on product teams developing machine-learning models for audio classification, anomaly detection, music generation, and time series data. His prior training on the guitar, lute, and theorbo led to his doctoral dissertation on changing practices in European musical harmony (1400–1750) using machine learning and other statistical analyses, and to a publication in Mathematics and Computation in Music entitled “A Cluster Analysis of Mode Identification in Early Music Genres.” He won four Best Student Paper prizes during his graduate studies and also won “Best in Show: Innovation” at FSU’s 2017 “Digitech” Exposition for his exhibit “Machine Learning and Music Analysis.” Ciele Gutierrez (M.M. ’16) has been working at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare as a medical music therapist since graduation. During the first three years she built the full-time NICU Music Therapy program funded by a grant from FSU’s College of Medicine and made possible by FSU’s Dance Marathon. She was promoted to Director of the Music Therapy Department in February 2020. Logan Mortier (B.M. ’16) had his Off-Broadway debut in a revival of No Strings. He also went to Tokyo to do West Side Story on a new type of stage called Stage Around. Kelly Patton (B.M. ’16) has been working as a medical music therapist for AdventHealth Orlando since January 2019 providing music therapy services for patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the adult inpatient Oncology units. She was accepted into the University of Central Florida’s Marriage and Family Therapy program for fall 2020 and began her master’s program to become a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Cara Stroud (Ph.D. ’16) serves as Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Michigan State University College of Music where
she teaches courses in the undergraduate core curriculum as well as graduate courses in popular music, music after 1900, and musical narrative. Her publication on the inclusion of female composers in the music theory curriculum (“Transcending the Pedagogical Patriarchy: Practical Suggestions for Including Examples from Women Composers in the Music Theory Curriculum”) appears in the refereed journal Engaging Students, and she has presented research on form in popular music and on narrative strategies in music by John Corigliano, Libby Larsen, and Alfred Schnittke at regional, national, and international conferences. Her current research interests include intertextuality in music theory pedagogy and form in top-40 popular music.
leading up to the audition! Washington, D.C. here we come!!” Matt Jordan (D.M. ’18) is Assistant Professor of Percussion at Jacksonville State University.
Mark J. Sciuchetti Jr.
Taylor Kate Eubanks (B.M. ’17) performed in A Christmas Tradition at the Marietta Strand. Stephen Ivany (D.M. ’17) recently joined the California State University, Fresno as Assistant Professor of Trombone and Euphonium, after spending three years as an assistant professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. He is teaching trombone, euphonium, music theory, and various other music courses. He is also a faculty member at the Festival Internacional de la Mùsica FIM “Loja-Ecuador.” Jacob Kight (M.M. ’17, D.M. ’20) is Assistant Professor (visiting) at the University of South Florida. Angel Lozada (B.M. ’17) did the world premiere of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at Paper Mill Playhouse. Laura Clapper Zabanal (D.M. ’18, M.M. ’19) has a new position in the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. “I cannot wait to work with everyone and become part of the FDC family!! I would be remiss without acknowledging the integral role my family, teachers, mentors, colleagues, and friends have played in my journey to this moment – thank you all!! Also, a huge shoutout to Troy Paolantonio (B.M. ’03, B.M.E. ’03) for being an amazing coach
Jordan Galvarino
Nicholas Hatt (D.M. ’18) and Jordan Galvarino (M.M. ’16, D.M. ’19) completed their first season of the Emerald Coast Chamber Music Festival and Institute with their Canadian colleagues (Jacob Clewell, viola and Sasha Bult-Ito, piano) of the Velox Quartett this past summer. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization had to restructure their Chamber Music Institute into the ECCMF Virtual Institute in order to provide something of value to music students facing numerous festival cancellations. They led 30 student participants in two weeks of lessons, masterclasses, and seminars devoted to personal and professional development. These students were emerging young artists from three North American countries and represented schools such as Florida State University, Eastman School of Music, McGil University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Bard College, and many others. Executive Director Nicholas Hatt and Co-Artistic Directors Jordan Galvarino, Jacob Clewell, and Sash Bult-Ito are busy preparing for the Inaugural year of the 2021 Emerald Coast Chamber Music Festival and Institute.
Mark J. Sciuchetti Jr. (M.M. ’18) is Assistant Professor of Geography at Jacksonville State University. He recently published a co-authored articled with Dr. Denise Von Glahn in Ecomusicology Review entitled “A New or Another Sound Map: Annea Lockwood and Mark Sciuchetti Listen to the Hudson River”. In collaboration with Dr. Sarah Eyerly, he launched the companion website “Moravian Soundscapes” (moraviansoundscapes.music. fsu.edu) for her book Moravian Soundscapes: A Sonic History of the Moravian Missions in Early Pennsylvania,” which is now available through IU-Press. The website was a nearly four-year project to bring the sights and sounds of her text to the reader. It will continue to grow as they embark on new research endeavors in soundscapes. Alexandria Arcia (B.M.E. ’19) was appointed Director of Bands at Paxon School for Advanced Studies in Jacksonville, FL. Rubi Flores (B.M. ’19) was named one of ten outstanding graduate students and recent alumni who spent the 2019-2020 academic year as part of the Fulbright US Student Program. Flores was selected for the bi-national business program in Mexico City, which places grantees in different business environments while taking graduate business classes at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. After graduate school, Flores plans to work in international development with a focus in Latin America. 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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raise awareness about mental health issues specific to the artistic profession. Dawn A. Iwamasa (Ph.D. ’19) is currently Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She began in fall 2019.
Alexandria Denne
Alexandria Denne (M.M. ’19) is a music therapist at a Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. She is in the process of starting a Disorders of Consciousness MT program at the hospital. Denne is pursuing the NMT and MATADOC certifications. Turner Gray (B.A. ’19) accepted a graduate assistantship for Master of Music studies at Washington State University. Kayla Hanvey (M.M. ’19) was named one of ten outstanding graduate students and recent alumni and spent the 2019-2020 academic year as a part of the Fulbright US Student Program. Hanvey studied extended techniques in Hungarian repertoire for the flute under the tutelage of István Matuz in Budapest, Hungary. She plans to continue her musical studies at the doctoral level with a concentration in extended techniques and contemporary music. Ashley Lewis (M.M. ’19) works in Orlando, FL for Central Florida Community Arts as a Music Therapy Coordinator and Music Therapist on a grant from AdventHealth Hospital. She has been able to stream her services through online platforms postCOVID and is currently re-imagining her program to include a greater geographical reach in her clientele. She is proud to be one of the first music therapists to work exclusively in an art and performance organization and hopes to launch a program specifically for actors and performers to
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Florida State University
Dawn A. Iwamasa
Emilia Addeo (B.M.E. ’19) has recently been hired as Band Director for Shoal River Middle School in Crestview, FL. Ediberto Ortega (B.M. ’19) performed on a world cruise with Oceania Cruises in Port Louis, Mauritius (9,953 miles from Tallahassee). Ash Stemke (M.M. ’19) serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Murray State University where he teaches courses in music theory, aural skills, composition, and digital music. His music explores self-similarity, teleology, and transformation, and has recently been performed by the Boston New Music Initiative, the Riverside Symphony, the Tallis Chamber Orchestra, and yMusic. He recently won first prize in the San Francisco Choral Artists’ New Voices Project and his commissioned film score “Launch Sequence” (written for Georges Méliès’s 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune) will soon be sent to the moon (!) as part of Carnegie Mellon University’s MoonArk project. His music has been featured at events such as New Music on the Bayou, NSEME, numerous SCI conferences, and the Schoenberg Academy in Vienna, Austria.
Emilia Addeo
2020s Brad Betros (B.M. ’20) performed a self-written cabaret, Manhattan Skyline, in Jacksonville to a sold-out audience just before making the move to NYC. Katerina McCrimmon (B.M. ’20) was in The Rose Tattoo with Marissa Tomei on Broadway this past fall. Spencer Oyster (B.M.E. ’20) was appointed Director of Bands at Marathon Middle/High School in Marathon, FL. Justin Snively (B.M.E. ’20) was appointed Director of Bands and Orchestra at Stone Magnet Middle School in Melbourne, FL.
Anthony Borda
Harrison Brown
Ian Graves
Chance Israel
Jordan Lenchitz
Kelsey Paquin
STUDENT NEWS
50 contestants in his category. In addition to winning 2nd place, Israel was awarded a full-scholarship and housing at the Cap Ferret Music Festival for the Summer of 2020 in France. “I owe this achievement to FSU and especially to my Professor Dr. Stijn De Cock for having improved me tremendously,” said Israel.
for Music Theory held in Nashville, TN for his research presentation “Spectral Fission in Barbershop Harmony.”
Anthony Borda (B.M. Tuba Performance) was a finalist in the Solo Tuba Young Artist Competition at the 2020 Southeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Harrison Brown (B.M. Tuba Performance) participated in the 2020 Sewanee Music Festival in Tennessee. Ian Graves (M.M. Tuba Performance) was a finalist in the Mock Tuba Audition at the 2020 Southeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Chance Israel (D.M. Piano Performance) recently competed in the Osaka International Music Competition. Having placed first in the regional round in Atlanta, Israel went on to receive 2nd place at the final round in Japan. Israel performed Petrushka by Stravinsky, competing with more than
Mikailo Kasha (B.M. Jazz Studies) was the recipient of DownBeat Magazine’s 42nd Annual Student Music Awards Jazz Soloist Undergraduate College Outstanding Performance. Kasha was the only bassist selected by DownBeat Magazine for the award. Established in 1976, the DownBeat Student Music Awards are considered the most prestigious in jazz education. Hundreds of musicians, music educators and music industry professionals received their first international recognition as DownBeat Student Music Award winners. Jordan Lenchitz (Ph.D. Music Theory) won the Best Student Paper Award at the 2020 meeting of the South Central Society
Kelsey Paquin (D.M. Clarinet Performance) has been awarded the Theodore Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award. This award will allow her to complete her research project, “The Clarinet Works of Indian Classical Composer John Mayer.” This summer she will travel to London, England and Kolkata, West Bangla, India. Paquin will follow this with a series of lecture recitals across the country. Joel Perez (B.M. Jazz Studies) won the 2020 American Trombone Workshop National Jazz Solo competition in March in Washington, DC. The American Trombone Workshop is the only professionally organized and staffed trombone workshop or conference in the United States. Soloists, educators, and students—as well as university and college trombone ensembles from around the world—attend the workshop annually. 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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36
Joel Perez
Brandon Smith
Ethan Gonzalez Soledad
Ryan Sorenson
Austin Thornton
Jonah Zimmerman
Brandon Smith (D.M. Tuba Performance) won the 2019 International Tuba and Euphonium Conference Arnold Jacobs Mock Orchestral Audition at the ITEC held at the University of Iowa in May 2019. The competition featured a recorded round and a live final round that was held at the annual International Tuba and Euphonium Conference. Smith also placed in these competitions: 2020 United States Army Band Tuba Euphonium Workshop Solo Tuba Competition – Finalist; 2020 Southeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference Finalist, Solo Tuba Artist Competition; and 2020 International Leonard Falcone Festival - Bronze Medalist, Artist Tuba Competition.
Artist Summer Program where he was able to compose a piece for solo marimba to be performed by residing faculty and two other solo pieces to be performed by performer participant volunteers (violin and piano). There were daily seminars and masterclasses to discuss repertoire, learn important aspects about being a composer, present works, and create a dialogue about relevant social issues in the new music landscape, i.e. racism and people’s perceptions of a composer’s music. “I don’t think I’ve ever continually churned out so much music in so little time. I also I realized how important it is to have these discussions about the state of the music composition world,” said Soledad.
Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He also participated in the 2020 Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC.
Ethan Gonzalez Soledad (B.M. Composition) participated in two remote music festivals this past summer. Soledad was given the opportunity to compose a piece for the Doclé Reed Quintet for a new festival called “zFest,” an event that came out of the Facebook group “Music, but everybody is quarantined.” The second remote music festival was the Curtis Institute’s Young
Ryan Sorenson (D.M. Tuba Performance) was a finalist in the Solo Tuba Artist Competition at the 2020 Southeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Florida State University
Austin Thornton (B.M. Music Education) was a finalist in the Solo Euphonium Young Artist Competition at the 2020 Southeast
Jonah Zimmerman (M.M. Euphonium Performance) won first prize in the 2020 International Euphonium and Tuba Festival Artist Competition and the second place Silver Medal in the 2020 Leonard Falcone International Euphonium Artist Competition. Zimmerman also placed in these competitions: 2020 Online Brass Championships – Best Euphonium, 9th Place Overall; 2020 United States Army Band National Collegiate Solo Competition – Finalist; 2020 Midwest Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference – Finalist, Mock Euphonium Audition and Solo Euphonium Competition; 2020 Southeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference – Finalist, Mock Euphonium Audition; 2020 International Euphonium Tuba Festival – First Place, Solo Artist Competition; and 2020 International Leonard Falcone Festival – Silver Medalist, Euphonium Artist Competition. n
IN MEMORIAM Dorothy West (B.M. ’42) 6/15/2019 Mary Brown (B.M. ’45) 4/24/2019 Mildred McTureous (B.M. ’45) 2/1/2019
Janet Zeigler (M.M. ’57) 6/23/2019 Charles Alley (B.M. ’58, M.M. ’63, Ph.D. ’76) 11/2/2019 Mary Sewell (B.M. ’58) 6/12/2019
Douglas Focht (B.M. ’67) 6/8/2019 Albert Ralls (M.M. ’67) 10/3/2019 James Banim (B.M. ’68) 5/7/2019
Catherine Smith (D.M. ’58) 1/2/2019
Stephen Bayless (B.M.E. ’69) 6/24/2019
Doris Boone (B.M. ’47) 10/21/2019
Roberta Abstein (B.M.E. ’61) 6/17/2019
Dennis Carroccio (B.M. ’69) 8/7/2020
Peggy Gainer (B.M. ’48) 5/12/2019
Wayne Hobbs (B.M. ’60) 4/26/2019
William Denison (Ph.D. ’69) 2/15/2019
Velma Ruth McDonald (B.M. ’49) 3/18/2019
George Bew (M.M. ’61) 8/7/2019
Esther Langston (B.M. ’50) 6/4/2019
Joseph DeLage (Ph.D. ’61) 1/3/2019
Jacqueline Napier (B.M. ’50) 4/9/2020
Janice Knapp (B.M. ’61) 9/28/2019
Betty Allan (M.M. ’51) 4/13/2020
Barbara Probst (B.M.E. ’61) 3/13/2019
Joanne Apel (B.M. ’51) 4/23/2019
Jay Buchanan (B.M. ’62, M.M. ’67) 6/5/2019
Sidney Ashley (B.M. ’47) 1/10/2019
Norma Eddins (B.M. ’52) 1/15/2019 Mary Essel (M.M. ’52) 10/11/2019 Joanne Rogers (M.M. ’52) 1/14/21 Janie Buck (B.M.E. ’53) 8/28/2019 Donna Blackketter McCrea (B.M. ’51) 3/31/2019 Alice Eddins (B.M. ’53, M.M. ’59) 10/1/2019 Lera Bell (B.M. ’54) 8/26/2019 Emma Mosteller (B.M. ’54) 3/2/2019 Miriam Fielding (M.M. ’56) 5/31/2019 Richard Thierry (B.M. ’56, M.M. ’57) 2/14/2019
Ralph Gabriel (Ph.D. ’62) 2/13/2019
Michael Doherty (M.M.E. ’69) 10/17/2019 Linda Bush (B.M.E. ’71) 8/30/2019 Elizabeth Newnam (D.M. ’72) 3/1/2019 Richard Sanders (M.M.E. ’72) 9/18/2019 Theodore Brannen (B.M.E. ’75) 8/2/2019 Kathryn Weaver (B.M. ’75) 5/28/2020 Carolyn Rayboun (B.M.E. ’77) 9/19/2020
Rochelle Williams (M.M.E. ’62) 6/14/2019
Daniel Clemenz (M.M.E. ’78) 5/28/2019
James Davis (M.M. ’63) 10/27/2019
Elizabeth Cawood (D.M. ’79) 6/22/2019
Linda Riddle (B.M.E. ’63) 4/21/2019
Rhonda Rinker (M.M. ’79) 2/28/2019
Ann Ray (B.A. ’64) 3/3/2020 Suzanne Hill (B.M. ’66) 3/21/2019 Sandra Skeenes (M.M. ’66) 3/15/2019 Barbara Smith (B.M.E. ’66) 8/7/2020 A. Byron Smith (B.M. ’66, M.M.E. ’70, Ph.D. ’85) 9/5/2020
David LaJeunesse (B.M.E. ’93) 8/26/2020 William Turbeville (B.A. ’93) 6/30/2020 Dimitri Diatchenko (M.M. ’96) 4/21/20 Carmen White (B.A. ’00) 3/9/2019 Jeffrey Walters (B.A. ’02) 6/3/2019 Aaron Hilbun (D.M. ’04) 4/7/2019 2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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FOCUS ON PHILANTHROPY Professor Florence Helen Ashby and Laird B. Anderson By Jessica Pollack
A stained-glass window honoring the Marching Chiefs was ceremonially unveiled on September 20, 2019 in the FSU Heritage Museum. Florence Ashby, FSU alumna and member of the band in the 1950s, funded the project.
My very positive experience at Florida State and how accepted and welcomed I felt here gave me the feeling that Florida State was my home. My husband and I never had children, but we always considered FSU our family. We have always been thankful to feel so close to the school and the people we encountered here and wanted to contribute so that others could feel that connection, too.” – Florence Ashby 38
Florida State University
Alumni couple Florence Ashby and Laird Anderson have long considered Florida State University to be their family, but Florence in particular has been as important to FSU’s story as has FSU has been to hers. A founding member of a half dozen organizations and a contributor and supporter of countless more, Florence has innumerable joyful stories to share of how the FSU community thrives across the country and in her life. Florence’s first experience at FSU was attending Summer Music Camps while she was in high school. Later, while many engineering programs were closed to women, Florence returned to FSU where she found her place as a double major in Mathematics and Clarinet Performance. Florence joined 75 freshmen and only about a dozen upperclassmen in Manley Whitcomb’s reimagined and intense marching band. She can regale listeners with tales of their first away game at the University of Miami and how their success as a 3-weekold band resulted in the now-beloved mantra that the Marching Chiefs have “never lost a half-time show.” Throughout her five seasons with the Chiefs, Florence also founded (and was elected as the first president for) the FSU chapter of Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority, helped to organize parades, decorated homecoming floats, played in concert bands and combo bands, recruited new band members, and still earned impeccable grades in her 5-credit math courses. After earning a graduate degree in math and a brief stint at IBM, Florence began her career as a Professor of Math at Montgomery College near Washington, D.C. There she helped found the D.C. FSU Alumni Club and connected with her husband to be, Laird. Laird had been a member of FSU’s national and international championship-winning gymnastics teams, and initially met Florence through Kappa Kappa Psi (the fraternal counterpart to Tau Beta Sigma).
(Top) Florence Ashby and College of Music Development Director Jayme Agee attending a student recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. (Left) Jayme Agee and Florence Ashby celebrating the launch of the FSU Foundation’s “Vires, Artes, Mores” donor recognition society.
Laird graduated from FSU’s Political Science and International Studies programs and went on to become a Professor of Journalism and decorated veteran of the United States Army. Though they had met during their undergraduate studies, it wasn’t until their time with the D.C. Alumni Club that they bonded over their mutual love of Florida State – Laird told Florence he had been to every football game and never missed a chance to see the beautiful gold kick-pleats in the band’s skirted uniforms. As they both enjoyed FSU’s spirit, educational support, and lasting friendships, Florence and Laird worked hard throughout their lives to share those experiences with others. Together Florence and Laird sponsored scholarships, chairs, and programming across departments, while also dedicating volunteer time on committees and encouraging others to do the same. The compassion of Florence and Laird is evident across campus, but perhaps nowhere more so than at the College
of Music, where Florence has served on the University Musical Associates Executive Committee, continues to advise Tau Beta Sigma, and is a lifetime member of the Marching Chiefs Alumni Board. Florence is generously funding a refurbishment of the Opperman Music Hall mezzanine and recently funded a University Wind Orchestra commission from composer Jonathan Newmann (dedicated to Laird’s memory). She continues to support woodwind student scholarships through an endowment. In the Werkmeister Reading Room of Dodd Hall on a sunlit afternoon, visitors to the University enjoy the rich colors of a stained-glass window commissioned by Florence to honor the joy and community that she and countless others have found with the Marching Chiefs. There, an enduring part of FSU’s music legacy, a young clarinetist marches alongside her friends, sporting the classic gold kick pleat skirt that Laird so admired. n
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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MAJOR GIFTS, FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS Private philanthropic support is critical to ensuring that the College of Music continues its legacy of music excellence. Through both outright and estate gifts, this generosity has enabled the College to provide student and faculty support, innovative programs and a world-class learning environment. Total giving to the College of Music in the past year was over $3.7 million. The College would like to recognize the following benefactors for their exceptional contributions, given between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020. Les and Ruth Akers Les and Ruth Akers Fund for Entrepreneurial Activity in Music
Andrew F. and Michelle L. Feinberg Michelle and Andrew F. Feinberg Endowed Music Scholarship
Suzy S.H. Ho Lucy Ho Endowment for Opera Costuming
Florence Helen Ashby and Laird B. Anderson* Professor Florence Helen Ashby and Professor Laird B. Anderson Mezzanine
Nancy C. Fowler Pamela L. Andrews Endowment for Strings
The Estate of Howard and Helen Latzer Howard and Helen Latzer Endowed Fund for Excellence in Music
Pamela L. Andrews Endowed Scholarship for Strings
Robert C. Parker Jean Kavanaugh Parker Memorial Opera Fund
Robin D. Black Evelyn E. Black Endowed Music Scholarship Ramona D. Bowman Friends of Music
Nancy C. Fowler Endowment for Winds
Anthony N. and Helen C. Brittin Anthony N. Brittin Endowed Scholarship in Music
Richard D. Mayo Endowed Scholarship for Marching Chiefs
Chavez-Tatro Family Foundation Bill and Lynnie Tatro Music Scholarship Fund The Estate of John E. and Mary L. Champion John E. and Mary L. Champion Undergraduate Scholarship in Music
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Robert T. Braunagel Endowed Scholarship for Marching Chiefs
Florida State University
The Presser Foundation The Presser Foundation Fund Charles E. and Persis E. Rockwood Rockwood Prize for Piano
Robert N. Sedore Endowed Orchestral Conducting Scholarship
Vernon C. Stutson Friends of Music
Gaston Dufresne Performing Arts Foundation Trust Gaston Dufresne Foundation Scholarship Endowment
Sherwood W. and Cynthia C. Wise Steinway Piano
Linda J. and R. Fred Hester Sacred Music Scholarship Fund
$250,000+
American Endowment Foundation
David J. and Ann A. Pope
Suzy S.H. Ho
American Guild of Organist - Tallahassee Chapter
Ann and Jerald S. Price
$100,000-$249,999
Marcus D. and Janice A. Beaver Karen N. Bradley
Harry E. Price Felicia A. and Brian D. Rawlin
Carl M. Burkhardt
Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund
Nancy C. Fowler
William E. and Barbara S. Coen
Eleanor E. Reynolds
The Estate of Howard and Helen Latzer
Russell L. and Janis G. Courson
Rintels Charitable Foundation
Rebekah C. Covell
Charles R. Robinson
$50,000-$99,999
Virginia C. Dale
Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers
Charles E. and Persis E. Rockwood
J. W. Richard and Tina R. Davis
Seniel and Dorothy Ostrow Foundation
Avon A. and Lou Ann L. Doll
Wendy L. Sims
$25,000-$49,999
Robert A. Duke and Judith A. Jellison
Francis C. and Karen W. Skilling
Anthony N. and Helen C. Brittin
Kathy H. and Patrick P. Dunnigan
James A. and Julie A. Stanley
Chavez-Tatro Family Foundation
Extra Point Club
Arthur L. Stern and Mary E. Haskins
Gaston Dufresne Performing Arts Foundation Trust
Kevin A. and Suzanne Fenton
Dallas Strickland
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Thomas S. and Nyoka H. Teague
R. Fred and Linda J. Hester
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Theresa Beazley Widmer
Angeleita S. Floyd
David E. Wolfe
Fuqua Capital Corporation
Jeana U. Womble and Martha C. Yarbrough
The Estate of John E. and Mary L. Champion
$10,000-$24,999 Les and Ruth Akers
Elizabeth H. Gardner
Florence Helen Ashby and Laird B. Anderson*
James M. Gossler
Ramona D. Bowman Andrew F. and Michelle L. Feinberg Robert C. Parker The Presser Foundation Vernon C. Stutson Sherwood W. and Cynthia C. Wise
Laura Gayle Green Steven L. and Suzanne S. Hearn Donna E. Hobbs Edwin F. Hornbrook Glenn R. Hosken Jane E. Hughes Jelks Family Foundation
$5,000-$9,999
James E. and Dorothy J. Johnson
Bill F. and Polly Findeison
David J. Kaminski
Clifford K. and Mary M. Madsen
Kappa Kappa Psi / Gamma Nu
Richard J. and Ann E. Martorano
Margaret-Ray and Kirby W. Kemper
Tallahassee Music Guild, LLC
Thomas F. Kirwin
Lauren E. Todd
Douglas P. and Karen E. Kreuzkamp
Westminster Oaks’ Residents Council
Roberta E. Litzinger-Ginsberg and Allan R. Ginsberg
Ellen T. Zwilich
$1,000-$4,999 Richard S. Abrahams James H. and Ruth A. Alexander Frank W. Almond
Rebecca L. and Scott R. MacLeod Debra A. and Charles McCambridge Music Educators National Conference, Chapter 137 Patsy J. Palmer and Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte*
$500-$999 Richard E. Adams Charles D. and Sharon A. Aronovitch Judy R. Arthur Beethoven & Company Steven L. and Trudy M. Bingham Crystal T. Broughan Michael E. Broyles and Denise R. Von Glahn Donna G. and Jimmie* R. Callaway DeLos F. DeTar Richard Dusenbury and Kathi Jaschke Grady K. Enlow and V. June Dollar Maximilian M. and Gale Etschmaier ExxonMobil Foundation William E. Fredrickson and Suzanne Rita Byrnes John M. and Mary G. Geringer Adam and Sylviane F. Grant Monica A. and John P. Hazangeles Intel Foundation
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Antonio C. Cuyler
Jay T. Karahan
Michael W. and Jeri Damasiewicz
Claire B. Kelly
Alice-Ann Darrow
Jeffrey T. and Barbara L. Lawyer
James C.* and Rochelle M. Davis
Lequita M. Legette
Ewell Tom Denmark
Thomas M. and Dianne L. Phillips
Ginny L. and L. Gene Densmore
Maurice L. Richards and Jack L. Kesler
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Jeff J. and Ann E. Reed
Frank M. and Jennifer K. Diaz
Lisa H. and John M. Rutledge
Donald C. Schlosser and Brian H. Koho
Jack D. and Diane J. Dowling
J.R. and Kenneth S. Saginario
Geraldine M. Shephard
Curtis E. and JoEllen Falany
Brenda A. Schrantz
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Jere L. Forsythe
Gayle E. and S. Douglass Seaton
Carey T. Smith
Alton D. and Elda E. Franklin
Carl N. and Dorothy H. Shull
James C. and Elizabeth R. Smith
Larry J. Gerber
Ward A. and Dee Ann Smith
State Farm Companies Foundation
Nancy L. and Bryan Goff
Frederick J. Springer
Edward W. and Loretta B. St. Mary
Bette S. Halberg
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Jennifer and Michael M. Thrasher
Myron L. and Judith M. Hayden
Mary and Robert Switzer
Michael S. and Bridget Weir
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William A. and Sara V. Wendt
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Todd S. Hinkle
Ralph V. Turner
Kathy D. Wright
Alexander E. and Dawn M. Jiménez
Chris C. Vincent
Marilyn J. Wright
Alan R. Kagan
YourCause, LLC
Howard W. Kessler and Anne G. Van Meter
Heidi Louise and Christopher P. Williams
$250-$499 Mary Jo and Robert L. Allman Joyce M. Andrews Barbara J. Bass Martha C. Beech Kathryn M. Beggs The Blackbaud Giving Fund Tom W. and Laura M. Block Reynold L. and Katherine R. Caleen Joseph P. Calhoun Kathryn Karrh Cashin Harriet R. Chase Margaret A. Chase Yeh-Fen Chin Mary Ann Crain James C. Cripps Adele Cunningham
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Evelyn J. Pedrosa and Wilfredo Vega-Montalvo
Reid S. Jaffe and Susan Z. Cornwell
Florida State University
Timothy C. and Deborah G. Kropp
Kelly N. Porter and Charles D. Centanni Gloria W. Priest Shawn M. Quish and Matthew F. Skelly Ann K. Ray Florence A. Reaves
Gartrelle P. Wilson Frank T. Zimmerer
Kelley M. Lang Annelise Leysieffer
$100-$249
Genie D. Lim
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Joan T. R. Macmillan
Lori A. Adams
Meghan E. McCaskill
Richard M. Adams
Ronald Z. and Elaine W. McCreary
Moshe Adato and Suzanne Deblasio Adato
Carol J. McDowell Barbara A. Miller Christopher J. Mossey Kenneth C. and Jane M. Murray Jessica Napoles Joan H. Nolte Gale A. Nutter and Charles A. Shaffer Malcolm J. and Mary K. O’Sullivan Ermine M. M. Owenby Allys Palladino-Craig and Malcolm A. Craig
Jayme L. Agee Victoria Alberton Timothy P. and Michelle C. Atkinson Thomas E. and Christine A. Ballinger H.P. Buddy and Patricia H. Barker Lynn M. and Richard R. Barr Nancy H. Barry Don C. Beeckler John R. and Joan Beers Michael K. and Julia E. Bellon
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Michael H. Buchler and Nancy M. Rogers
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Jonathan W. and Jennifer D. Jones
Matthew L. Garrett and Michael B. Peters
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GE Foundation
William M. and Joan H. Carpenter
A. Bruce and Luisa Gillander
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Peter R. and Bonnie J. Chamlis
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John C. and Patricia W. Goldinger
Robert P. and Linda A. Clickner
David S. Collings and Mari Anne Bottom
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James O. and JoElla L. Harris
Barbara C. D’Annunzio
Kay L. Harris
Tristan R. Davis Ned R. and Sue C. De Journett
Cristy B. Harrison Hilliker and Terry L. Hilliker
Dermatology Associates of Tallahassee
Mary S. and William Hartmann
Emoryette McDonald
Lucita A. Deza
Maria P. Hayes
Robert R. and Patricia H. McDonald
Kimberly K. and Allan W. Dickson
Martha L. Head
Elsa L. and Meredith L. McKinney
Pamala J. Doffek
Ryan L. and Theresa T. Hearn
Francesca A. and Frank A. Melichar
Lucas and Judith I. Drew
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Joanne C. and Michael M. Mendez
David M. Duncan
Jerry O. and Roberta P. Hill
Michael and Pat P. Meredith
Karen A. Eber
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Robert B. and Cynthia A. Kamm Chris and Catherine E. Keating Albert A. and Linda King Dennis G. King Linda and Carlton D. King Frances C. Kratt Harry J. and Enid C. Lader John W. and Martha L. Larson Jeffrey E. and Nancy S. Lickson Deloise A. Lima Lockheed Martin University Linda T. and Robert A. Lovins James S. Lyon Frank J. Maggio, Jr. Violet C. Mandese Gayle B. and William C. Manley George R. and Julie A. Mannheimer Alan G. and Marilyn J. Marshall Thomas R. and Helen J. Martineau
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Rebecca P. and Timothy N. Miller
Gregory D. Sauer and Lee Taylor
Steven W. and Kristen M. Walter
Marc J. and Connie D. Moore
Dell G. Schroeder
Joseph L. Walthall and Donna L. Legare
Marion B. and Walter L. Moore
Petra T. Schultz
David S. and Jane M. Watson
Wesley F. Moore and Sandra C. Walker
Christina E. Shann
Geoffrey B. and Simone L. Watts
Ann J. and Donald C. Morrow
Bennett H. and Baxter B. Shelfer
Katrena I. White
William C. Murray and Toni F. Kirkwood-Tucker
Jeanette S. Sickel
Arthur R. Wiedinger
Michael Simpson
Patricia D. and Michael B. Wilhoit
Jenifer E. Neale
Marjorie Smelt
Cassandra J. and Barbara J. Williams
Jennifer Oister
Jean T. Souter
James L. Williams
Robert W. Olszack
Steven L. and Terry G. Sparkman
Janet D. and Richard A. Williams
Martha J. and Claro O. Onate
D. Gregory Springer and Jonathan L. Jackson
Matthew D. and Natasha A. Williams
Albert C. and Darlene K. Oosterhof Clyde K. and Sandra L. Palmer
Patricia S. St. Angelo
Gayla S. and William L. Woody
Sara C. Pankaskie
James G. Stalnaker
William D. Young
Cynthea S. and Christopher A. Panzarino
Ted A. and Andrea H. Stanley
Lily T. Yuzon
Mark J. Parisian
Richard R. Stevens
Ann E. Parker
Lee E. and Ramona D. Stewart
Ann W. Parramore
S. W. and Sue D. Stinson
Linda H. Peters
Jennifer A. Aikey
James M. and Judith D. Stone
John and Gloria Petri
James G. Akridge
James K. Streem
Robert A. and Caryl G. Pierce
Kathryn E. and Charles P. Alley
Karalee Poschman
Corey A. Sullivan and Jenna L. Lunger Sullivan
Catherine L. Alston
Robert D. and Elsie T. Pritchard
SunTrust Foundation
Osvaldo J. Quezada
George F. and Jackie H. Sweat
Penny A. Ralston
William E. and Ma’Su B. Sweeney
David W. and Joanne Rasmussen
Brian H. Teal
John M. and Amy J. Recht Edward Reid Ronald C. and Diane C. Reitz Paul D. and Rina H. Reynolds William L. and Rebecca L. Reynolds Peter E. and Nancy N. Rice Stephen K. and Elizabeth Richardson Ellnora A. Riecken George T. Riordan and Karen E. Clarke Marvin L. and J. J. Robertson
Elizabeth R. Steva
Donna Catherine Tharpe The National Orchestral Association The Thompson Family Trust Leiland M. and Chris M. Theriot Nancy S. and Byron G. Thompson Donald T. Tull Marjorie R. and Augustus* B. Turnbull, III Julie A. Turner Martin S. and Susan L. Turner
$99 and Below Norma S. and Sam H. Adams
Bethany Anderson Will K. and Julia H. Andress Patricia M. Apeland Clarence W. and Patricia C. Applegate Michael R. and Lauren Auchter Terry T. and Tonya K. Baker William T. Baldwin James A. and Katherine W. Ball Katherine G. Barnwell Karl S. and Melissa A. Barton Cassidy V. Bazley Deborah Y. Beers-Jones Linda D. Benoit Sarah Bernhardt
Beryle B. Tylar
Maya A. Berrios Lucas M. Bhuvasorakul
Nancy S. Ross
Paul J. Van Der Mark and Stephanie A. Leitch
Thomas W. and Catherine A. Bishop
Willard R. Rustin
Stephan Von Molnar
Judith S. and Donald R. Blancett
John and Carol M. Ryor
Sylvia B. Walford
Robert E. Blanton
Annelise B. Sapp
Michael P. and Geneva E. Walker
Craig J. Bloch
Kathryn Rockwell
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Rachelle C. Williams
Florida State University
William T. Bodiford and Susan M. Foley
David N. and Cynthia D. Dickel
Andrew T. Grivetti
Jeffry M. Bogue
Nathan R. and Cynthia Diehl
Ann-Marie T. and Christopher S. Gunn
Mark A. and Amanda G. Borysiewicz
Kathleen Dietz
Miriam R. Gurniak
Hillman G. and Linda H. Brannon
Bethany and Michael S. Douty
Kim Hadley
Ileana Brignoni
John S. Dozier and Martha D. Paradeis
Linda I. Haeger
Charles E. Brockner, Jr
Merrill J. and Judith L. Edwards
Teresa E. Hargrove
Charles E. Brockner, III
Brandon S. Ehrlich
Natalie P. Harris
Josiah F. Brooks
Anna Clare and Ernesto V. Epistola
Grace Hayes
Susan L. and Jack Brown
Brett D. Epperson
Donna H. Heald
Morgan J. Burburan
Elizabeth C. Ervin
Rebecca M. and David P. Healy
Autumn S. Calder and Bradley Perry
John F. Ervin and Colleen S. Cart
Stephanie J. Helleckson
Candace Y. and Mark E. Cannon
Stephanie L. Esposito
Laura L. Hendrix
Samuel M. and Catherine E. Carlton
Lisa A. and Lawrence Fahy
Penny S. Herman
John C. and Alisa R. Carmichael
Amber C. Faircloth
Patricia A. and Dale H. Higinbotham
Karen D. and Richard R. Caron
Bill A. and Barbara P. Felton
Charles L. and Betty Lou M. Hill
Madeleine and Palmer Carr Stefanie L. and Courtney Cash
Steven S. Ferst and Brenda S. Grindstaff
Timothy L. Hoekman and Carla J. Connors
Justin R. Chase
Jody L. and Rosena H. Finklea
Gordon S. and Patricia A. Holder
Jennifer L. Cherry
Zachary Fitzgibbon and Richard D. Hopkins
Karolyn L. and Joseph E. Holmes
Permelia A. Folsom
Diana E. and Rick T. Hubbard
Betty T. Foltz
IBM
Charles S. and Julia F. Freeman
Kevin M. Jastrebsky
Mary B. and David K. Coburn
Jean Z. Fuller
Jim St Clair’s Music
Sarah J. Cohen
Karen D. Fuller
Cristina C. Jimenez
Andrea C. and Adam N. Coleman
Sally S. and Barry Galloway
Randall O. and Joanne P. Johnson
Joseph A. Colsant
Janelle Ganey
Haley A. Jones
William F. Combs
Cheryl A. Gaslowitz
Robert C. and Laurel Kelsey
Darryl S. Cooper
Jesse E. Gatewood
Ashley Keoppel
Charles E. and Samantha S. Courtney
George J. Gavin
Mary E. and James E. Kerrick
Vera S. and Joseph D. Crane
Debbie L. Gibson
Mykal Kilgore
Shirley W. Crew
E. Ray Gill and William P. Boynton
Carlton E. Kilpatrick
Daniel and Katherine E. Crumrine
Laura L. Glenn
O. Dean Kindley
David K. and Joan L. Custis
Deborah L. and Gene A. Glotzbach
Richard E. and Mary E. Klenk
Robert E. Cutlip
Judith R. and Joel Harvey Goldman
Calista A. Koch and Ben L. Waddy
Kandi and Robert S. Daffin
Sarah Goldsmith
Joseph C. Kraus
Curtis E. and Sandra D. Davis
Lori F. Gooding
Paige M. Kubik
Kenneth S. Davis
Lois E. Gosa
Jan B. and Judith S. Kyle
Jennifer L. Dearden
Orva Sue Graham
John G. Labie
Melinda S. DeDominicis
Margarita H. Grant
Lyle C. Lankford
Henry C. Dent
Marcia Gray
Charles M. and Dian R. LaTour
David W. and Margaret Depew
Mary Anne H. Gray
Ellen B. Lauricella
Roberta E. Clark Sidney V. Clarke-Lequerique Laura and Jeremy L. Clevenger Gabrielle N. Cobb
Halle R. Hoskins
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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46
Peter and Laura L. Lazarevich
Courtney A. and Robert C. Nelson
David G. and Winnie H. Schmeling
Art and Nancy M. Leary
Matthew R. and Michelle R. Newman
Clarence L. and Geraldine H. Seay
Ilene B. Lederman
Kelvin Nguyen
Elizabeth G. Serow
Debora L. and William S. Lee
Dwayne and Abigail C. Noble
Robin S. Sexner-Cole
Jason K. Leebrick
Pamela G. Nobles
Christine J. Sexton and Gary A. Fineout
Anna E. Lennertz
Luis G. Nunez
Justin Sheppard
Chelsea M. Letchworth
Christian M. Nyman
Beverly P. and Craig A. Sherouse
Paul J. Liversage
Dayton T. and Sharon L. Owens
Geraldine N. Shubrick
James J. Logue and Alice C. Spirakis
Mark A. and Jessica L. C. Oyster
Alexander M. and Maura B. Silverstein
John D. Lucasse
Erin E. and Albert K. Pace
Patricia J. and A. B. Simpson
Daniel H. and Arlene A. MacDonald
Bonnie A. and Jimmy L. Parker
David M. and Katrena R. Skiles
Meredith R. Mank
Tabitha L. Peck
Alison Mann
Carlos A. and ReBecca Perez
Howard G. Smelt and Diana L. Mason-Smelt
Ricarda and Mike Manning
Deena L. and Barton Perryman
Jason R. Marton
Cedrick A. Pollard
Tianna M. Mason
Charles R. Powell
Teresa A. and Jerald L. Mast
Julianne L. Powell
Barbara B. Mayo
Edward P. and Lisa L. Prasse
Rusty R. Mayo
Cortha M. and Sammie Pringle
Sarah N. Mayper
Gretchen P. and Wayde E. Quisenberry
Jared V. McBee
Lauren E. Ramey
Kathleen O. and Lealand L. McCharen
Karen A. Randolph
William V. McConnell and Mildred L. Fryman
Robert C. Reardon and Janet G. Lenz
Andrew G. and Tiffany F. McDonald
James E. and Heather M. Reed
Sara B. and Donn E. McGinnis
Chrissa K. Rehm
Joe A. and Gail L. McGlothlin
Blake and Julia D. Reynolds
Charles P. and Yelena V. McLane
Robert A. Rice
Mary B. McLaughlin
Marianne Rigolini
Mary W. and James S. McOwen
Brad and Megan E. Rikard
Tracey D. and Brian A. Meikle
Lauren A. Rizzo
Alison R. and Bryan A. Meyer
Antonio J. Rodriguez
Martha B. and Thomas A. Mier
Karen M. and Richard Rodriguez
Sherrill C. Thompson and Deborah A. Morningstar
Joseph V. Miles
Valerie I. Rogers
Robert S. and Linda M. Thurston
Erynn M. Millard
Mary B. and Victor Roman
Jill D. Tindall
Leslie R. and Keith J. Mille
Nancy B. Rushton
Andrea L. and Steve L. Tobin
Paul J. Miller
Debbie Saechia
Kyle L. Tolar
Leo L. Minasian, Jr
Sanford A. Safron and Penny J. Gilmer*
Joseph Toman
Charles G. and Mary A. Mohr
John A. and Janice Salinero
Park M. and Linda F. Trammell
June C. Montgomery
Solangi Santiago
Charles R. and Phrieda L. Tuten
Marjorie M. Morgan
Takayo Sasaki
Steve Urse
Pamela P. and Bill I. Myers
Sandra L. Saunders
Mary R. Van Pelt
Florida State University
David C. Reed
Carol H. Smith Carol L. and Ronny F. Smith Shirley A. Snyder Sudarat A. Songsiridej and Mary G. Schaad Lisa K. and Myron C. Spainhour James E. and Jean M. St. Clair Geoffrey D. and Elizabeth M. Stegmeyer Miranda E. Stewart Rick and Carole M. Stewart Earl W. Stradtman Brandon S. Strange David Stringer Diane J. Studer Suzette E. Swallow Katherine K. Swearingen Cody D. Switzer Michelle S. Terebinski Robert Thompson
Robert L. Van-Eck
Mary A. Whitaker
Victor D. and Mary Helen Venos
Donna F. White
Voya Foundation
Billy B. and Hanna Williamson
LaDonna G. and Scott S. Wagers
Jade L. Willitt
Janna R. and David Waldrupe
Reece D. Windjack
Alice C. and Charles H. Walkinshaw
Kenneth E. Winker
Walt Disney Company Foundation
Robert and Barbara B. Wood
Michael R. Warren
Jeffrey L. Wright
Daniel C. Watson
Doug Wussler
Janie W. and John T. Weis
Bridgette L. Yancy
Karen A. Wensing
Pamela P. and Gregory A. Zollo
Charles W. and Erin C. Werner
* Deceased
2020 College of Music Alumni Magazine
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Florida State University
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
The College of Music is pleased to welcome our new Dean Dr. Todd Queen
Contributors to the College of Music Magazine Michael Thrasher, Interim Dean • Gregory Jones, Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement Anna Prentiss, University Communications • Marc Thomas, University Communications Kim Shively, Director of Special Programs • Wendy Smith, Publicity and Community Affairs Jessica Pollack, Development • Bill Lax and Bruce Palmer, Photography Services
Florida State University College of Music | Tallahassee, FL | 850.644.6102 | music.fsu.edu