The University of North Texas Center Woodwind Quintet was named quarterfinalist in the senior wind division of the 51st Annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The UNT ensemble coached by Associate Professor of Bassoon, Darrel Hale, includes graduate students Di Cao, flute; Hyungju Oh, oboe; Brandon Von, clarinet; Victoria Donaldson, bassoon and Samuel Himes, horn. The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association sponsors this, the United States' largest chamber music competition. UNT joins our friends and colleague programs named quarterfinalists from Northwestern, Arizona State, Michigan State and Indiana Universities along with Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Alumnus Ryan Deignan (DMA ’19) announced as artistic director of Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota.

Assistant Professor of Jazz Violin, ScottTixier, recently wrote of his personal and professional path in The STRAD. Photo: Will Von Bolton

Cherisse Williams, DMA in Voice and MBA student in Music Business, received the Golden Eagle Award created by UNT's Center for Leadership and Service and Division of Student Affairs. "The Golden Eagle Award is the most prestigious award that UNT bestows on a student leader." The award is inscribed, "For their impact on the University of North Texas through their Commitment to Co-curricular Involvement, Engagement in Service to the UNT and Greater Communities, Commitment to Impeccable Leadership and Achievement of Academic Excellence."

College of Music graduate clarinet student, Charlotte MacDonald, has been awarded a Fulbright United States Student Study-Research Award to Poland for the 2024-2025 academic year. She will be studying at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków with clarinetist Barbara Borowicz - clarinetist and conducting research in Polish clarinet repertoire and pedagogy.

Júlia Coelho is a UNT doctoral candidate in vocal performance (DMA) and musicology (PhD) with related fields in early music and in music theory. This Presser Award supports a recording project of her song cycle-monodrama, “O Tempo fora do Tempo: uma viagem cronológica sobre o Tempo e Doença" (“Time Outside of Time: A Chronological Journey on Time and Illness,” 2023), written for Pierrot Ensemble and Júlia Coelho, soprano. The work sets her poetry written in European Portuguese to the music of composer Kory Reeder.

The Music Business Association has named UNT College of Music Assistant Professor of Music Business, Jessica Muñiz-Collado, as finalist for its Bizzy Award “Music Business Educator of the Year." MBA says, “The award celebrates a music business educator who inspires students to enter the music business. The winner will lead by example and teach across the breadth and depth of the industry to open students’ awareness to the possibilities available in the music industry today. The winning candidate should expose students to the importance of connection and relationships in this industry while continuing to learn and be a part of the industry themselves.”

Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Andrew J. Chung, has been awarded a nine-month fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Chung’s fellowship will assist him in the completion of his book, “Music’s Long Anthropocene: The Climate of Empire and the Sound of Ecological Disaster.”

UNT Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy, Oscar Macchioni, presented at the 46th International European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) Conference at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland. Pianists from 27 countries spent four days presenting and performing. Dr. Macchioni presented piano pedagogy curriculum for implementation in universities and conservatories.

UNT President Neal Smatresk (l) shown presenting Professor of Violin, Philip Lewis, with art glass recognizing his 45 years of service to the College of Music. Photo: Hubnik/UNT

UNT jazz piano master of music student, Tomás Jonsson, placed 2nd in the jazz division at the University of South Africa International Piano Competition held in Pretoria. He as well won Best Jazz Ballad.