The Houston Symphony and UNT seven-time GRAMMY-nominated One O'Clock Lab Band performed the Alan Baylock composed six-movement "Soundscapes for Solo Saxophones, Jazz Ensemble, and Orchestra." At Houston’s Jones Hall.
Giant Boykin is a UNT alumnus, having earned his master's degree in interdisciplinary and jazz studies in Spring 2022. Prior to his master's degree, Giant earned a bachelor's degree in music performance from the University of Texas at Tyler. See more of his story.
Manhattan Concert Productions (MCP) presents the UNT Professor of Choral Studies, Allen Hightower, conducting "Requiem" by John Rutter. The festival chorus performs with the New York City Chamber Orchestra and soloists as part of MCP’s Masterwork Series.
Michael Crawford becomes Lecturer in Music Education along with additional teaching duties in the Percussion Area starting Fall 2023. In May 2021, Michael graduated from @UNT with his PhD in Music Education.
As part of the 150th anniversary of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas, the temple collaborated with AURORA in producing “Light Years - An Innovative Art and Technology Experience.” The Temple commission by David Stout, UNT Professor of Composition Studies, is titled “In Their Arms We Hold the Sky,” a panoramic film and music work.
The Houston Symphony Chorus director and UNT Professor of Choral Studies, Allen Hightower, shown being acknowledged by Itzhak Perlman at the conclusion of the Houston Symphony performance of “Requiem” by Mozart recently conducted by Perlman at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston.
Katherine Carothers McBain is joining our faculty as Senior Lecturer of Horn in the Division of Instrumental Studies. She earned a BA in Music from the University of Houston, MA from the University of Texas at Tyler, and both the MM and DMA from Eastman School of Music. She has held teaching positions at Stephen F. Austin State University, University of Texas at Tyler and Tyler Junior College and performs with the Texarkana Symphony and Longview Symphony.
Tamar Sella joins us as Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Division of Music History, Theory and Ethnomusicology. Her current research is “an ethnographic study of contemporary Mizrahi performance and cultural memory that seeks to illuminate the ways in which ongoing Jewish diasporic formations reframe colonial and racial logics in Israel/Palestine.” She holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from Harvard University. She comes to us from Rice University where she is the Samuel W. and Goldye Marian Spain Postdoctoral Fellow.
Bokyung Byun is joining our faculty as Assistant Professor of Guitar in the Division of Instrumental Studies. Dr. Byun made history as the first female winner of the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition and has won numerous other awards, including the 2021 Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. As a sought-after artist, Dr. Byun is frequently invited to perform and give masterclasses for orchestras, festivals, and guitar societies. She earned the BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School and the DMA from the University of Southern California. She currently serves on the faculty of California State University Fullerton.
The 2023 Presser Foundation Graduate Award winner is Colin Stokes. He is a UNT College of Music PhD student in the Division of Composition Studies. His proposal was titled “Otherness Together, a collaborative intermedia piece exploring issues of racial identity, transnationality, and otherness.” The piece will be created in collaboration with United Arab Emirates-born Palestinian visual artist Qais Assali. 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."
Wind Studies doctoral conducting associate Amy Woody to receive the UNT Faculty Senate’s Outstanding Teaching Fellows/Teaching Assistants Award for the 2022-23 academic year.
Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano, Dave Meder, releases “New American Hymnal.” The recording features fellow UNT faculty member Philip Dizack on trumpet. Meder describes the project “think of it as a "book of worship" for our American "civic religion."
For 16 consecutive years, the NAMM Foundation has awarded the @UNT hometown school district of Denton ISD “Best Communities for Music Education.”
Vocal DMA student and incoming MBA student in music business, Cherisse Williams, is the recipient of the 2023 Eagle Award: CommUNiTy Activist for an Individual. The award honors a student who “demonstrates a significant and exceptional commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion within the UNT community.” Annually, UNT Student Activities collaborates with the Center for Leadership and Service and Multicultural Center in recognizing students, organizations and advisors. Photo: Lauren Salazar.
Darrel Hale edits Mountain Peak Music's "The Big Book of Sight Reading Duets for Bassoon.”
Kirsten Soriano is welcomed in her new position as Associate Dean for Operations. Dr. Soriano has more than twenty years of experience in academic and arts administration for organizations, including the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Dal Niente, for which she is the founder and served as Executive Director. During this time, Ensemble Dal Niente produced over one hundred concerts in Chicago and New York and received the Kranichsteiner Stipendium Preise during the 45th Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany.
UNT Assistant Professor of Music Business, Jessica Muñiz-Collado, has been published in the music trade magazine Music Connection Magazine. Her article "C.R.E.A.M. - Get the Money" can be found on the MC website homepage.
Oscar Macchioni has accepted an invitation to join the UNT College of Music faculty as an Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy. Dr. Macchioni’s academic credentials include the Téchnico Instrumentista Especialidad Piano from the Universidad Nacional de Tucumá (Argentina), the Artist Certificate in Piano from the Krakow Academy of Music (Poland), the Master of Music in Piano Performance from Louisiana State University and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona. In addition to being an accomplished performing artist, he is a published scholar with credits including a solo-authored book, a solo-authored book chapter, a series of published journal articles, six CD recordings and an impressive list of solo recitals and performances. He comes to Denton from the University of Texas at El Paso.
Elizabeth McNutt, UNT flute faculty member and director of the New Music Ensemble, is showcased in SHOUTOUT DFW.
UNT Associate Professor of Music Theory, David Heetderks, has published a book review of David Temperley's “The Musical Language of Rock” in Music Theory Online, one of the flagship journals of the Society for Music Theory (SMT).
During the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory (SMT) conference held in Utah, UNT student Xiao Yun’s paper, "The Ignored Modal Mixture—The Chromatic Submediant in Minor Keys,” received the Best Student Paper award.
Joshua R. Brown (DMA ’20) has been named Assistant Professor of Music, Director of Choral Studies and Chair of Ensembles at Dallas Baptist University effective Fall 2023. He is also Executive Director of Voces Pacis - Voices of Peace, a Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex-based choral organization.
Jessica Stearns (PhD, Musicology ‘22) has accepted a position as an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, Commerce.
The University of North Texas Institute for the Advancement of the Arts has selected Quincy Davis as a 2023-224 Advancement of the Arts Faculty Fellow. He will create a new musical composition for large ensemble titled “Empathy Suite,” inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd.
Amy Woody joins the UNT faculty as Lecturer in Wind Studies and Director of Athletic Bands. She currently serves the College of Music as a Doctoral Conducting Associate. Prior to UNT, Ms. Woody served as the Director of Bands (2014–2021) and Associate Director of Bands (2007–2014) at John H. Guyer High School in Denton. The Guyer Wind Ensemble was named a Commended Winner in the 2021 Mark of Excellence New Music Category, a 2018 Mark of Excellence National Winner, and a 2018 Western International Band Conference Invited Ensemble in Seattle, Washington. She currently serves as the Chief Programs Officer for the Premier Lone Star Wind Orchestra. She earned the MM in clarinet performance from the Eastman School of Music and BME in music education from Baylor University.
