Current University of North Texas choral music education student Sarah Decker and Grammy Affiliate Winner for Best Choral Performance as a member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus included in the recording of Symphony No. 8 by Mahler. Sarah was an alto with the LACC for five years and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale multiple times.
PhD student in ethnomusicology, Nate Ash-Morgan, has received a Graduate Research Experiences Abroad Travel (GREAT) Grant from the University of North Texas division of UNT International Affairs. The grant supports his fieldwork in Ghana furthering his dissertation on Ghanaian traditional and popular music.
Congratulations to our hometown public school district as Denton Independent School District Fine Arts is named one of the “Best Communities for Music Education” for the 15th consecutive year.
Bradley Genevro (DMA ’06) has accepted the position of Director of Bands at Oklahoma State University.
As it celebrates its 200th anniversary, Royal Academy of Music has elected Sungji Hong, UNT music composition faculty member, as an Associate. This designation is made to Academy alumni who have distinguished themselves in and made a significant contribution to their music career. She will travel to London in September to receive the honor from Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of the Governing Body who is also Chair of the Board of Governors of the Royal Ballet.
The Guggenheim Foundation announced that University of North Texas composition faculty member Panayiotis Kokoras as recipient of a 2022 Fellowship. Since 1925, Guggenheim Fellowships have been offered “to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions… to those making their mark in the social sciences, natural sciences, humanities and creative arts.”
https://www.gf.org/announcements/
https://music.unt.edu/faculty-and-staff/panayiotis-kokoras
https://www.panayiotiskokoras.com/
The Guggenheim Foundation announced that UNT composition faculty member Sungji Hong is recipient of a 2022 Fellowship. Since 1925, Guggenheim Fellowships have been offered “to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions… to those making their mark in the social sciences, natural sciences, humanities and creative arts.”
https://www.gf.org/announcements/
https://music.unt.edu/faculty-and-staff/sungji-hong
https://www.sungjihong.com/
The late Lyle Mays (1953-2020), announced as the WINNER for Best Instrumental Composition for “Eberhard.” As a UNT student, he composed and arranged the music for the One O'Clock Lab Band®’s album Lab ’75, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. He was nominated for 24 Grammys – winning 10 as a member of the Pat Metheny Group and receiving a nomination for the first of his five solo albums. He performed with Joni Mitchell and the group Earth, Wind & Fire. In 2010, he was in residency as part of the Glenn E. Gomez International Artists Endowment for Jazz Studies.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-04-03/2022-grammy-winners-complete-list
Charlie Kim (MM '12 performance and collaborative piano), tenor and Grammy Affiliate Winner for Best Choral Performance as a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale included in the recording of Symphony No. 8 by Mahler.
Affiliated Grammy winner as bassist for best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical – Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, “Love for Sale” Affiliated Winner - Daniel Foose, (BM '05, MM '07).
Affiliated Grammy winner as vocalist for Best Instrumental Composition - “Eberhard” by alumnus, the late Lyle Mays (1953-2020). Gary is UNT Alumni BA '92, MA '14.
Affiliated Grammy winner as vocalist for Best Instrumental Composition - “Eberhard” by alumnus the late Lyle Mays (1953-2020). She is BM 95, MM '99 and principal lecturer in jazz studies.
The 2021 Presser Foundation Graduate Award has been designated to doctoral ethnomusicology student Meng Ren. Her project supports her dissertation titled "Forbidden Sound: The Art, Culture, and Politics of Chinese Hip-Hop." According to the Presser Foundation, "The program is designed to encourage and support, in a special way, the advanced education and career of truly exceptional graduate music students who have the potential to make a distinguished contribution to the field of music."
Master of Music student in jazz violin, Alexa Torres Skillicorn, awarded a Fulbright research award for her project, "Ethnography of Practice: An Embodied Jazz Violin Praxis in Poland." She will study in Poland following her research as a Presser Graduate Scholar in France and Belgium.
Graduate student Claire Bradley has won a horn position with the United States Army “Pershing’s Own” Ceremonial Band. Claire will graduate from UNT this spring with her Master of Music degree in horn performance.
Rob Parton, Chair of the Division of Jazz Studies, recently served as guest artist or clinician at fourteen locations across the United States.
The 2022 International Women's Brass Conference hosted by the University of North Texas College of Music. myiwbc.org/conference/
“Sociological Thinking in Music Education,” edited by UNT Professor Sean Powell, Chair, Division of Music Education and colleagues, has been published by Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press). See it here: tinyurl.com/PowellBook
Jazz Guitar Today’s Thomas Amoriello, Jr. recently featured University of North Texas student Noah Myers. See story and video: tinyurl.com/NoahMyersUNT
University of North Texas lecturer in composition, Sungji Hong, has been awarded a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The prize, funded by the family of the late composer, Charles Ives, is bestowed on “composers of great promise” and will be presented at a ceremony at the academy headquarters in New York City. tinyurl.com/SungjiHong
The collaboration between Dallas Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Concert and University of North Texas Composers. Performers included Eunice Keem, violin, Sarah Keinle, viola, Lari Kettering, cello and Steve Harlos, piano.
Kofi Agawu presented "African Art Music and the Challenge of Postcolonial Composition."
Arizona Opera’s March staging of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” featured soprano Patricia Racette (BM ’88). The production was performed in both Phoenix and Tucson.
Jordan Boyd and McKenna Stenson, both DMA choral conducting students, were selected for the Graduate Conducting Masterclass held at the Little Rock, Arkansas hosted Southwestern American Choral Directors Association conference.
Jessica Nápoles, Professor of Choral Music Education, conducted the Georgia and South Carolina All-State choirs then to South Carolina in March to conduct. She also conducted the Indiana All-State Choir and ACDA Eastern honor choir in Boston.
