Alumni Spotlights

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

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

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.

Hyeyoung Song (D.M.A., Piano, 2016) was honored with the title "Master Pianist" by Weatherford College in acknowledgement of her contributions and dedication as a performer, educator and music administrator. Song founded and successfully directed the first Weatherford College International Piano Competition this April, and has been performing extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the spring 2019 season. 

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. 

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.