Dean’s Letter

Iam honored to serve as the Dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. I am looking forward to building on the incredible strengths of college, set in place by strong faculty, staff and leadership over decades of hard and creative work. As I look around the country, few arts colleges are as well positioned as ours to take a leadership role in creating a truly contemporary model for arts and design training. Many colleges dream of eventually having such a strong portfolio of endowments, or a center for Emerging Media Arts, or a strong and celebrated faculty who are training change-making students, or a collaborative and human-centered organizational spirit. The college’s many assets situate on the edge of greater national and international prominence; we now need an organizing vision and plan for what that looks like and how to get there. We have work to do. Now, in what we all hope is a post-pandemic era, we are ready to work on a collaboratively constructed college strategic plan that will align with the university strategic plan to direct our resources on a steady path toward some big aspirations. We are also primed with some exciting new student-success plans that are already underway. These plans are multi-dimensional and will feature plenty of ways for our supporters to get involved. These are exciting times for the college, and I look forward to getting to know as many of you in person to share ideas and to celebrate our many successes.

In this issue of our Hixson-Lied College magazine, we are thrilled to highlight our choral trip to France, which was supported by the Hixson-Lied Endowment, Hixson-Lied College and Glenn Korff School of Music. The University Singers and Chamber Singers were in France from May 14–24, and they performed at extraordinary concert venues. It was a life-changing trip for the students. One of the trip participants, doctoral student Mary Daugherty, shares her perspective of the trip with us.

Several of our alumni are also featured in this issue, as we include profiles of Richard Svoboda, our Master’s Week participant and principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony; Violinist Meredith “Ezinma” Ramsay, who catapulted into digital stardom when she began performing covers of viral trap hits on Instagram and recently returned to Lincoln to perform for the 20th anniversary of Meadowlark Music Festival; and actress Abby Miller and trumpeter Tim Andersen, who both returned to Lincoln this spring for Honors Day as recipients of our Alumni Achievement Awards.

Fall is also a time of transition. While I begin my tenure as dean and we welcome several new faculty, we also said goodbye last spring to five faculty and staff from the Glenn Korff School of Music with a combined service total of 150 years! We thank Colleen McDonald, Alisa Belflower, Gretchen Foley, Peter Lefferts and Glenn Nierman for their service and profile the faculty members in this issue.

These and many other stories await you in this issue. I thank you for your support of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. It’s good to be here!

Andrew Belser

DEAN Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts

COVER STORY

34 ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ trip to France for UNL choirs

FEATURES

4 Meet the new dean: Andy Belser 18 Svoboda returns for Alumni Masters Week 20 Emerging Media students examine Black land loss, climate futures in immersive storytelling project 24 Ezinma returns for Meadowlark anniversary concert 28 Dion engages with art students in visit 30 Miller finds her path in acting 32 Andersen earns honor for performance, teaching career 55 College welcomes new faculty 57 Nierman retires after distinguished music education career 60 Lefferts leaves legacy of research 63 Belflower grew musical theatre program 65 Foley retires after noted career of teaching, research 70 Animation, production art featured in ‘Building a Narrative’ 71 First emerging media arts alumni graduate

DEVELOPMENT

40 Generosity of Johnny Carson Foundation continues with $5 million scholarship gift 42 Donor List 44 Circle Lists 47 New music building design planning continues

DEPARTMENTS

2 Dean’s Letter 8 News 15 In Memoriam 29 Honors Day 51 Faculty Notes 67 Alumni Notes

FALL 2022

For Alumni and Friends of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Hixson-Lied Dean

Andrew Belser

Editor and Writer | Kathe C. Andersen Art Director | Ella Durham Photography | All photos by Eddy Aldana unless otherwise noted.

Cover photo: UNL Choirs performing at St. Vincent Cathedral in Saint-Malo, France. Photo by Don Grigg.

Special Thanks

Hixson-Lied Endowment for assistance with the funding of this publication.

How to reach us: Alumni news, story ideas or address changes may be sent in any of the following ways. Via mail: Kathe Andersen, HixsonLied College of Fine and Performing Arts Magazine, 113 Woods Art Building, Lincoln, NE 68588-0144. Via e-mail: kandersen1@unl.edu.

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