Alumni Spotlights

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dan Kurland (B.M., Music Performance, 2010) graduated in May with a D.M.A. in collaborative piano studies from The Juilliard School and will join the music staff of Theater Hagen in Hagen, Germany, in August. Over the summer, he will perform at the Aspen Music Festival and with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance Program.

Wesley Schulz (M.M. 2008; D.M.A., Conducting, 2010) has been appointed associate conductor of the North Carolina Symphony.

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.

James Sclater (D.M.A., Music Studies, 1970) won the 2017 Classical Music Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters for his song cycle Carmine Natura Creaturae. 

Luis Rodriguez (B.M., Applied Music/Performance, 2010) has been appointed the assistant conductor for Plano Symphony and Irving Symphony as of January 2016. He also is the new music director for Camerata Dallas Youth orchestra as of April 2017. Photo by Michał Dembiński.