Alumni Spotlights

Joseph Kingma (D.M.A., Piano Performance, 2017) has been appointed assistant professor of piano at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He previously worked as the assistant professor of music at Louisiana College. Photo by Michelle Palmer.

Andrew Rudin (B.M., Composition, 1962) received an American Academy of Arts & Letters Music Award in May 2018. A grant from the Academy will support two new CD's and a March 2019 concert at The Academy will feature his music. He will be a guest composer in April 2019 at Piano on the Rocks festival in Sedona, Arizona, and in May of that same year, his opera, "Purewater" will have its premier with the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC.

Suzanne Ramo (D.M.A., Performance, 2013) joins Texas State University in the fall of 2018 as Assistant Professor of Voice. Previously she was Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Opera Workshop at West Texas A&M University, where she led the opera workshop to their first national award in the National Opera Association's opera production competition with her production of Menotti’s "The Medium." She also recently performed the role of Violetta in Verdi’s "La Traviata" with Amarillo Opera, available for viewing on pbs.org.

Robert “Beto” Skiles (M.M., Composition, 1977) was inducted into the Austin Jazz Hall of Fame in April. His band, “Beto and the Fairlanes” were inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in February.

Hai Zheng Olefsky (M.M., Applied Music/Voice/Piano, 1990), assistant professor of music at Southwestern University, was honored by Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the Austin City Council with a special proclamation on Thursday, May 10, 2018 for her 18 years of community work as Artistic Director for the Young Musicians Festival Competition at the Asian American Cultural Center.

Hyeyoung Song (D.M.A., Piano Performance, 2006) performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major with the Fort Worth Symphony Chamber Orchestra at the Marjorie Black Alkek Performing Arts Center on April 21. Dr. Song is a concert pianist and artist-in-residence at Weatherford College.

Nicole Christine Haywood (B.M., Music Performance, 2014) won the audition for the Assistant Principal and Second Bassoon position of the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago.

Matt Hightower (D.M.A., Music, 2014) was appointed Assistant Professor of Tuba/Euphonium at the University of Kentucky and will begin in the fall of 2018.

Eddie Lopez's  (B.A., Music Studies, 2008) company, Perform America–TX, is sponsoring the Butler School of Music alumni gathering at the 2018 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) conference in San Antonio. Lopez also pledged the Edward R. Lopez Endowed Scholarship in Music in 2017 for undergraduate UT music majors. 

Dr. Mary Ellen Cavitt (Ph.D., Music Education, 1998) was recently promoted from her position as Professor of Music Education and Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication to Assistant Vice President for Academic Services at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.