Alumni Spotlights

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.

Brandon Hendrix (D.M.A., Composition, 2010) serves as director of instrumental and choral ensembles and department chair at Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, Oklahoma, where he resides with his wife and two children. In addition to teaching private lessons and conducting the college's Concert Choir and Concert Band, Hendrix is actively involved in the school's Performing Arts Series.

James Sclater's (D.M.A., Composition, 1970) music was recently featured at the Music in the City series at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson. 

Altin Sencalar (B.M., Jazz Performance, 2017) was chosen for the inaugural class of Geri Allen Fellows through the Carr Center in Detroit.

Andrew Parker (D.M.A., Applied Music/Performance, 2013) was recently named principal oboe of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra and Brevard Philharmonic Orchestra, second oboe of the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra and instructor of oboe and music technology at Brevard College. He is also a regular substitute musician with the Asheville and Greenville Symphony Orchestras in South Carolina, and he’s has been appointed artistic administrator at the Brevard Music Center Festival and Institute.

Joseph Kingma (D.M.A., Piano Performance, 2017), assistant professor of Music at Louisiana College, took first prize at the 2017 Franz Liszt Festival and International Competition held at Ohio State University.

Benjamin Whitcomb (M.M. 1994, Ph.D. 1999), professor of Cello and Music Theory at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, recently published his seventh book, A Compendium of Chords for the Cello, through AuthorHouse. 

Alan E. Hicks (D.M.A., Vocal Arts, 2009) has joined the faculty of the University of Houston's Moores Opera Center as assistant professor and associate producer.

Lucy Amen Warner (B.M., Music and Human Learning, 1975), Music Department chair at The Browning School in New York City, has just completed her first children's book Zap! Boom! Pow! Superheroes of Music.

Andrew Sigler (D.M.A., Composition, 2014) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Sigler served as Lecturer of Music Composition at Tennessee for three years prior to this appointment.