University of North Texas College of Music (Scott Tixier); and Composition and Media Arts (Andrew Hired 13 New Faculty for the Current Academic Year
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Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID College of Music Denton, TX 76201 Permit 455 1155 Union Circle #311367 Denton, Texas 76203-5017 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED COUNTERPOINT UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS NTSU Faculty Marjorie Fulton, Russell Miller, Alan Richardson, George Morey. COLLEGE OF MUSIC If you know the date or loca�on of this photograph please email ma�[email protected] 2018 Serving our diverse musical culture with excellence, integrity and imagination. DEAN'S MESSAGE Our College of Music has embraced a mission to serve Integrity: Speaking of breaking ground, I am pleased to our diverse musical culture with excellence, integrity and announce that UNT and several of our philanthropic imagination. These four lenses of diversity, excellence, partners are supporting our efforts towards facilities im- integrity and imagination are providing us with great provements and renovations. We recently completed and clarity in our strategic planning, our recruiting and our named the dean’s suite of offices in the Music Building as messaging the future. It is a thrilling time to be a part the Commander Nicholas and Anna Ricco Music Dean’s of this storied place as we write the next chapter of our Suite at ceremonies here last June. Plans for major renova- journey together. Let me take a few minutes here to bring tions of the Music Building courtyard, the choir room, you up-to-date. the Recital Hall and the Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater will represent nearly $7 million in additional facilities Diverse Musical Culture: Our faculty recruiting last year improvements over the next 24 months. The nation’s yielded a team of new music colleagues whose diverse largest public-university music program cannot ignore the music specialties are already making rich contributions to ever-more pressing need for new and renovated facilities if our mission. All are extraordinarily qualified, deeply com- we are to serve our diverse musical culture with integ- mitted, wonderfully enthusiastic and delightfully collegial. rity. Our faculty, staff and students require instructional The more traditional experts in orchestral performance, and creative spaces commensurate with their abilities, jazz performance and music education are now comple- potential and ambitions. It is wonderful to begin this mented with new experts in songwrit- long-overdue journey of music-facilities ing, recording techniques, composi- improvements here at UNT. tion for film and new media, violin with specialties in jazz/pop/alternative Imagination: Billboard Magazine styles, the theory of popular music, etc. has recognized our College as among Because we’ve recruited 13 new faculty the 15 best music business schools in colleagues and 5 of these are brand new American higher education. New cur- lines, we truly are expanding our vision ricula in music entrepreneurship and of what it means to serve our diverse career development are currently in the musical culture. planning stages with every expectation of announcing new paths both at the Excellence: The excellence of our undergraduate and master’s levels for College is vivid anywhere you look students focusing on these courses of but nowhere is this truer than among study. Amazing as this is, our students our students. Consider that of the 34 do not settle for only studying music National Merit Scholars (NMS) to entrepreneurship–they are practitioners matriculate at UNT this fall, 10 are majoring in music. who today are creating new businesses, launching new ser- That’s 29.4% of the entire UNT NMS cohort, while vice organizations and forging new professional pathways our College represents only 3% of UNT's overall enroll- to success, thereby serving our diverse music culture in ment. The UNT College of Music likewise is providing a their own unique ways. It’s so thrilling to see our students trajectory of success as our students graduate, including taking leadership in the profession so well and so soon. recent appointments as music professors, featured artists in Grammy-winning recording projects, auditioned place- All of this is possible because our university, our alumni ments in many of the nation’s most coveted professional and our philanthropic partners are joining hands to make ensembles, industry-leading appointments to the nation’s our College of Music ever more responsive, relevant, ac- premier music-instrument-manufacturing conglomerates complished and engaged. It is humbling to be a part of it and publications in some of our profession’s most coveted all. scholarly journals and books. Student success likewise is evident in recent partnerships with less traditional corpo- We look forward to the days ahead, knowing that our rate partners like our recent submissions of music motifs best history awaits us. Thank you for making all of this for Asia’s leading videogame developer. We are breaking possible. new ground in music innovation. John W. Richmond, Ph.D. Professor & Dean 4 ♦ UNT COLLEGE OF MUSIC Features Continuing A Legacy The Ultimate Challenge 6 of Innovation 22 30 Cutting Tracks 34 Repairing What Breaks 4 Dean's Message 50 Alumni News 8 New Faculty 54 In Memoriam 15 Retired Faculty 58 Development Results 18 Faculty News 62 Administration, Faculty and Staff 26 Student News Pictured on page 3: Chris Van Leeuwen UNT COLLEGE OF MUSIC ♦ 5 Continuing A Legacy of Innovation By Ken Keuffel The University of North Texas College of Music (Scott Tixier); and composition and media arts (Andrew hired 13 new faculty for the current academic year. “Drew” Schnurr). That’s an unusually large number, and for Dr. John W. Richmond, the college’s dean, it represents a rare opportu- Also, for the first time, students of music education are nity to break new ground in several areas and/or fill some learning to craft world-inclusive practices in their teach- gaps in others. ing, thanks to Dr. William J. Coppola, a new hire who recently co-authored a book on that subject. This reflects “We have to innovate,” he said in an interview this past the college’s growing recognition of a music culture in summer. “Our legacy is one of innovation and imagina- United States schools that is becoming more diverse tion.” than orchestras, choirs, wind bands, marching bands and jazz ensembles. And it means that, among other things, The College of Music typically hires far fewer faculty on students are gaining a greater understanding of how such an annual basis; last year, for example, just five new hires genres as a Middle Eastern maqam or an Indian raga are came on board. The large increase in 2018 resulted from learned, namely by ear. the addition of five new faculty positions along with nine “In an (American) instrumental classroom using the positions left vacant because of retirements or departures. World Music Pedagogy framework, you would see students listening to musical examples until they become In addition to innovating, the hires will “allow us to do internalized, with students placing musical elements on some things that we’ve not aspired to do in the past,” their instruments by ear,” Coppola said. “As they listen Richmond said. “These new things that we’re endeavor- more, their re-creation of the music becomes more and ing to do align pristinely with the strategic planning more nuanced, and they begin to embody the musical conversations we’ve had in the college.” The new things practice as well as the cultural context in which the music in question include instruction in popular and commer- exists.” cial music (Dr. Jonathan “Capital” Patterson); jazz violin 6 ♦ UNT COLLEGE OF MUSIC As for students of instruments, the new hires are help- As Richmond stressed, many of the new hires uphold a ing expose them to the broadest possible understanding College of Music ideal, namely honoring the past by forg- of how a discipline plays out today. For example, the six ing the future. trumpet professors across jazz and classical now include instructors with backgrounds in chamber music (Caleb In 1946, for example, the College of Music became the Hudson, the newest member of Canadian Brass) and in first school in the world to start a program in jazz studies. a range of performing and pedagogical pursuits (Raquel In the future, it can plug the fact that in 2018, it hired Rodriquez). Tixier, whose background includes classical training at the Paris Conservatory. Tixier will also teach pop and alterna- In some instances, the new hires have the kind of multi- tive styles in addition to jazz, having performed with such faceted expertise that will enable them to advance the col- luminaries as Ariana Grande and Christina Aguilera. His lege on multiple fronts. Patterson, for example, is teaching pioneering work in jazz prompted DownBeat Magazine to songwriting because he has expertise in that genre. He’s call him “the future of jazz violin.” also adept at increasingly popular and cost-effective DIY processes that can result in Grammy-eligible recordings Both jazz studies professors and their classical counter- made not in a costly studio but with minimal equip- parts who teach violin and other string instruments joined ment (e.g., a couple of good microphones, a laptop and forces in the search committee that found Tixier. They software). So, he is helping our call him a welcome, enrollment- students “acquire this expertise,” boosting response to a growing Richmond said. “That’s a really In some instances, the number of prospective students critical new component to our of violin who want to pursue a teaching/learning paradigm that new hires have the kind degree in jazz studies or augment will have a benefit across every classical majors with the kind of single division, program and of multifaceted expertise jazz training that may provide major.” more performance options. that will enable them to Career Development and En- advance the college on Julia Bushkova, a professor of vio- trepreneurship in Music, which lin, was particularly enthusiastic the college started in 2016, also multiple fronts.