Alumni Spotlights

Rachell Ellen Wong (B.M., Strings and Harp, 2013) is the winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition at the Stony Brook University. She will be performing at the first annual Island Symphony Bach Festival January 26, 2020. Photo by Jiyang Chen

Christopher Atzinger (B.M., Piano, 1999) had his sixth commercial CD released on the Delos label, featuring works by American composer John Knowles Paine. Photo by Ali Hohn

Michael Austin (M.M., Theory, 2007) was appointed Founding Director of the School of Music at Louisiana Tech University where he has developed a degree program in Music Industry Studies, focusing on music and audio production. Photo by Donny Crowe

Andrew William Parker (D.M.A., Woodwinds, 2013) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Oboe as well as Director of Summer Music Camps at the Oklahoma State University School of Music. He currently holds the position of Lecturer of Oboe and Music Technology at Brevard College along with Artistic Administrator at the Brevard Music Center Summer Festival and Institute. Photo by Art of Roxy Photography

Hank H. Hehmsoth’s (M.M., Piano, 1976) work on “Scary Movie” was praised by film reviewer James Jay Edwards and is receiving a Blu-Ray special edition release from the American Genre Film Archive. Hehmsoth was named a 2019 Morroe Berger-Benny Carter-Edward Berger Jazz Research Scholar by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University and is working with a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts NEA ArtWorks grant. Photo by Milo Hehmsoth

James A. Davis (M.M., Composition, 1987) has released his second book with the University of Nebraska Press, “Maryland, My Maryland: Music and Patriotism During the American Civil War.” He has also been named editor for a series of essay collections and monographs from Routledge titled “Modern Musicology in the College Classroom.” Photo by Lori Deemer

Altin Brennan Sencalar  (B.M., Jazz Studies, 2017) played and arranged music for the 60th anniversary of Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. He backed the Temptations, Jennifer Hudson, Neyo, Big Sean, and the Four Tops among others. He was also hired as Adjunct Professor of Music at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas.  Photo by Sarah Milligan.

Dustin Lee Williams (B.A., Music, 2008) became associate counsel for South by Southwest where he works on legal issues in connection with the SXSW conference and Austin festivals. Photo by John Duah

Ryan Fogg (D.M.A., Piano, 2006) has been promoted to Professor of Music at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee. Fogg maintains an active performing career, regularly presenting recitals throughout the southeastern United States. 

Keith Clifton (B.M., Voice and Opera, 1990) is a professor of musicology and coordinator of graduate studies at Central Michigan University, where he's taught since 2002. In late 2017, Clifton presented the paper, "Boléromania: Ravel, Pop Culture, and the Twilight of Espagnolade" at the 100th anniversary conference of the French Society for Musicology in Paris. His recent publications include articles and reviews for the Journal of Musicological Research, Fontes Artis Musicae, and the A-R Online Music Anthology. After completing a three-year term with the Committee on Career Related Issues of the American Musicological Society, he was recently elected Secretary of the Midwest chapter of the AMS. He is an active recitalist, oratorio soloist and chorister. Photo by William Lauerbach.