Alumni Spotlights

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.

Christine Erlander Beard (D.M.A., Woodwinds, 2003) was awarded the 2018-19 campus-wide Award for Distinguished Research or Creative Activity at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she is a professor teaching flute, chamber music and contemporary music literature. She was also awarded the Kayser Professorship for outstanding performance in research/creative activity. Photo by Chasing Light Photography

Kim Perlak (D.M.A., Guitar, 2008) discusses performance, pedagogy, the department at Berklee and her doctoral research in American music at the University of Texas at Austin on the Sounds of Berklee podcast. Perlak is Chair of the Guitar department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and joined Berklee in 2013 as assistant chair. She is the first woman to chair the department since the college added guitar as a principal instrument in 1962. 

Alan E. Hicks (D.M.A., Voice and Opera, 2009) was awarded the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Special Event by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle for his production, All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. He will also join the faculty of the Music Academy International (Primiero, Italy) this summer as the stage director for La Clemenza Di Tito. Photo by Valerie Durham.

Nicolas Maximiliano Emilfork Diaz (D.M.A., Guitar, 2018) is a lecturer at Universidad de Chile, where he teaches chamber music and classical guitar in a new masters program and serves as their chamber music coordinator. He has recently been named artistic director for Fundacion Guitarra Viva Ernest Quezada, a new organization that will provide scholarships, organize national and international master classes and concert series. He will teach "Baroque Music History" at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in fall 2019. Photo by  Adolfo Rodriguez

Altin Sencalar (B.M., Jazz Studies, 2017) has completed a midwest tour with The Temptations and the Four Tops, and will be playing with the two-time Grammy winner Christian McBride Big Band on their first night of their West Coast tour in Mesa, Arizona, in late April. 
 

Sean Reed (B.M., Brass, 1995) recently released an album with John Marcellus titled, "Trombone Songs." 

Jim Friedhofer (B.M., Music Education, 1986) has spring 2019 performances scheduled as a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus (Orff, Carmina Burana; Rachmaninoff, The Bells) and as a member of the La Jolla Symphony Chorus (Bernstein, Symphony No. 3, Kaddish). In June 2019, he will participate in the Longhorn Alumni Band at the 75th D-Day anniversary ceremonies in Normandy, France. He also continues practicing as a civil litigation lawyer in Friedhofer PC in San Diego, California. 

Alan E. Hicks (D.M.A., 2009) has been appointed Director of Opera Theatre at San Diego State University in a newly created joint position with San Diego opera. In addition to his duties at SDSU, Dr. Hicks will also serve on the staff of San Diego Opera.

Daniel Madrid (M.M., Music, 2013) has been hired as the Executive Assistant to the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera House.