Alumni Spotlights

Altin Sencalar was named a Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star for 2 consecutive years. Sencalar also received a 4 Star review in the August 2026 edition putting his album in the Best of 2026 Jazz Albums.

Radek's music video, Monday's Blues Dreaming of Tuesday Weld, has received awards at both the 2026 Palermo International Film Festival and the Cinematix Film Festival in Milan.

Robert Honstein's new album, Horizon Line, releases on June 12, 2026 on New Focus Recordings. Featuring three compositions spanning a decade of creative work, the album reflects on his dual fascination with the string quartet and the concept of landscape. Featured collaborators include Mivos Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, percussionist Abby Fisher, violinists Alyssa Wang and Kiyoshi Hayashi, violist Beste Niknaz Modiri, and cellist Jacques Lee Wood.

Kulp served five years as director and two years as associate dean of the College of the Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His next role is driving school buses part-time for Lafayette Parish Schools. 

Su is now an associate professor with tenure at East China Normal University, a premier Chinese research institution.

In 2021, Su was appointed a prestigious Chenhui Scholar, an honor recognizing outstanding early-career faculty. His research spans music teacher education and international music education, with 15 articles published in leading journals. He is also the author of a monograph on music teacher education and currently leads five funded research projects.

Recognized as one of East China’s most influential emerging scholars, Su uses his position in Shanghai to promote global academic exchange, highlighting the growing importance of international collaboration in shaping the future of music education.

Fischer joined the Music Academy of the West in 2021 as artistic operations coordinator, swiftly advancing to artistic operations manager and then artistic administrator before assuming the vice president role. An award-winning flutist and former associate member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Fischer co-founded Quintessence woodwind quintet which was a two-time finalist in the Coltman Chamber Music Competition.