Alumni Spotlights

Lucia Unrau (D.M.A., Applied Music, 1992) has been appointed professor of Music and Music Department Chair at Murray State University. She will continue as Camp Keyboard Coordinator at Interlochen Center for the Arts, where she has been a member of the piano faculty since 1993.

Thomas Caneva (M.M., Band and Wind Conducting, 1984), director of bands at Ball State University, conducted the BSU Wind Ensemble in a performance at the College Band Directors National Association National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition, Caneva was awarded the 2017-18 College of Fine Arts Dean’s Creative Endeavor Award in Music at BSU.

Christopher Diaz (M.M., Music and Human Learning, 2012) was a featured singer in "Folklórico!," the annual collaborative production sponsored by Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. Diaz is a newly appointed professor in the college’s music program.

Austin Ferguson (B.A., Music, 2015) was appointed in February 2017 as carillonneur of the Mayo Clinic. He is only the fourth person to hold this post in the instrument's 89-year history. His duties include performing eight half-hour concerts a week, giving tours and performing for and with local groups and events.

Dylan Morrongiello (B.M., Voice Performance, 2016) will perform this summer in the role of Ali Hakim in Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" at The Glimmerglass Festival as a member of the young artist program.

Wei He, Butler School of Music alumnus, was named founding artistic director and dean of The Juilliard School’s new Tianjin, China campus. He is a longtime professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and artistic director of the annual San Francisco-Shanghai International Chamber Music Festival and will relocate to China later this year.

Mia (Amelia) Theodoratus (B.F.A., Harp Performance, 1990) was appointed to the music faculty of Sarah Lawrence College and Mozartina Conservatory in Tarrytown for the 2016-17 academic year. She is a featured performer in country music legend Jessi Colter’s album The Psalms, released on Sony Heritage. 

Gloria Kim (B.M. 2004; M.M., Piano Performance, 2006) joins artistic team in the East Coast for the premiere of the new chamber opera, Middlemarch in Spring at Charlottesville Opera. Photo by Dmitrii Mokrenko.

Artina McCain (D.M.A. 2011) and Martin McCain (M.M. 2006, D.M.A. 2008) were chosen to perform in the Austin Chamber Music Center’s Black Composers Concert to celebrate Black History Month. The concert was held Feb. 11.

James O. Welsch (D.M.A., Musical Arts Conducting, 2016), music director for the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestra, served as conductor of The Bridge, a binational performance between the El Paso orchestra and the Esperanza Azteca Symphony Orchestra of Ciudad Juarez held Jan. 28-29 in both cities. The two cities sit alongside each other on the Texas-Mexico border, and the concert was a showing of unity.