Alumni News
Charles M. Atkinson (Ph.D. 1975) At the 2022 meeting of the International Musicological Society held in Athens, Greece, August 22-26, 2022, Charles M. Atkinson, Professor Emeritus, Musicology, The Ohio State University, presented “On Modulation in Early Medieval Chant: The φθοραί in Byzantium and the vitia in the West,” a paper co-authored with Professor Gerda Wolfram of the University of Vienna, and participated in the IMS Roundtable “Translation, Transformation, and Mediation in Christian Music of the Eastern Mediterranean Region.” His presentation for the Roundtable was titled “On Modulation in Eastern and Western Chant.” In addition to his presentations he chaired the session “Tonality, Modality, Pitch.”
Joshua Busman (Ph.D. 2015) received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor at UNC-Pembroke.
Adam Canosa (B.Mus. 2012) is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Educational Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at UNC’s School of Education. He is also founder and CEO of Algorhythmic Labs, Canosa created Songcraft, a gamified tool designed for educators and students that provides personalized and attainable music instruction.
Michael Carlson (Ph.D. 2023) successfully defended his dissertation, “‘Musica fatta spirituale’: Aquilino Coppini, Claudio Monteverdi, and Madrigal Contrafacts in Early Seventeenth-Century Milan” (advised by Annegret Fauser and Tim Carter), in May 2023 and graduated with his Ph.D.
Ally Dunavant (B.Mus. 2021) recently completed her Master of Music in Voice at the Royal Academy of Music.
Lila Dunn (B.Mus. 2021) recently completed her Master of Music in Voice at New England Conservatory.
Richard Drehoff (B.Mus. 2013) is an adjunct faculty member in music theory and aural skills departments at the University of Maryland and at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. His piece “Every Night a Dream Visits Us” was commissioned and premiered by the Durham Symphony Orchestra while Composer-in-Residence during 2022–2023. His research on works by Galina Ustvolskaya, by Chaya Czernowin, and on the Library of Congress’ Boccaccio Project was presented at various conferences during the academic year, including the Society of Music Theory Annual Meeting, regional conferences of MTSMA and MTSNYS, and the International Conference on Timbre.
Alexandra Kori Hill (Ph.D. 2022) successfully defended her dissertation, “Make the Familiar New: New Negro Modernism in the Concertos of Florence B. Price” (advised by Mark Katz), in December 2022 and graduated with her Ph.D. Kori is currently working as a freelance writer, with publications on I Care If You Listen (.com) and program notes annotations with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony.
Julia Holoman (B.Mus. 2023) spent the summer at the Aspen Music Festival and is now pursuing a Master of Music in Voice at Rice University.
Hunter Hoyle (B.Mus. 2022) is currently a second-year Ph.D. student in Music Theory and Cognition at Northwestern University. Over the past year, Hunter has presented his work at various conferences, including annual meetings of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis, Midwest Graduate Music Consortium, and the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition.
Shafali Jalota (B.Mus. 2017) is a chorus member at Royal Opera House in London and spent the summer performing at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Lena Kantz (B.Mus. 2022) is pursuing a Master of Music in Voice at Longy School of Music.
James Lane (B.Mus. 1999, M.A.T. 2000) was appointed CEO of Phi Delta Kappa International and began his tenure on July 17, 2023.
Mike Levine (Ph.D. 2022) was appointed Assistant Professor of Musicology at Christopher Newport University beginning in Fall 2023.
Evan Linett (B.A. Public Policy, Music Minor 2019) co-authored the report “Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field in 2023″ with the League of American Orchestras on demographic trends in the orchestra field.
Vivek Menon (B.Mus. 2018) is currently working towards his Doctor of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University. He regularly performs in two avant-garde ensembles creating innovative music, Dot Iso and orchiddBB.
Kennedy Miller (B.Mus. 2022) is in her second year of her Master of Music in Voice at the Royal Academy of Music as a British Marshall Scholar.
Imani Oluoch (B.Mus. 2023) is pursuing her Master of Music in Voice in the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard Conservatory.
Taylor Raven (B.Mus. 2013) performed last year in the world premiere of John Adams’ opera, Antony and Cleopatra with San Francisco Opera. Highlights of her upcoming season include the role of Fatima in Rhiannon Giddens’ Omar with San Francisco Opera, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Seattle Opera, and Flosshilde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the LA Philharmonic.
JoAna Rusche (B.Mus. 2009) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Central Arkansas.
Eduardo Sato (Ph.D. 2023) successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation “Modernist Crossings in Brazilian Music, 1919–1954” (advised by Annegret Fauser) and is now an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. Eduardo was also a resident fellow at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia and received the Robert Walser and Susan McClary Fellowship from the Society for American Music.
Nuria Shin (B.Mus. 2023) is pursuing a Master of Music in Voice as a member of the Maryland Opera Studio at University of Maryland.
Emily Siar (B.Mus. 2014) performed the role of Mauxalinda in the Fall 2022 production of The Dragon of Wantley with Boston Early Music Festival Opera, the USA’s premiere baroque opera organization.
Andrew Skinner (B.S. Business Administration, Music Minor 2028) was awarded a Preservation Grant by the Latin GRAMMY Foundation along with audio engineer Daniel Zanessi to preserve archives of Cuyana music. Their grant-winning project, “Preservation and Distribution of the Studio Zanessi Collection” (Rescate y Difusión de la Colección del Estudio Zanessi) aims “to digitalize, promote, and distribute unpublished recordings of invaluable cultural and historical significance to Argentina’s interior, archived in quarter-inch tape in Mendoza’s historic music studio, Zanessi Studios.”
Kelli Smith-Biwer (Ph.D. 2023) successfully defended her dissertation, “The Hi-Fi Man: Masculinity, Modularity, & Home Audio Technology in the U.S. Midcentury” (advised by Mark Katz) in April 2023 and graduated with her Ph.D. Kelli is now a Teaching Assistant Professor in the School of Music at Ohio University.
Anne Sutton (B.Mus. 2018) completed her Master of Music in Voice at the Royal Academy of Music as a British Marshall Scholar. She is currently an Opera Directing fellow at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has a Voice Fellowship at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Christi Jay Wells (Ph.D. 2018) received an NEH Summer Stipend to support the research for his new book project in development: an institutional history of jazz patronage and programs at the Smithsonian. His book Between Beats (2021) received numerous recognitions including: Winner, Kealiinohomoku Award, Dance, Movement, and Gesture Section, Society for Ethnomusicology; Finalist, de la Torre Bueno First Book Award, Dance Studies Association; Finalist, Woodie Guthrie First Book Award, International Association for the Study of Popular Music – US Branch.
Melody Zhuo (B.Mus. 2021) completed her Master of Accounting at UNC’s Kenan-Flager School of Business in 2022. She has since joined Ernst & Young as a tax associate in New York. She hopes to combine her business and music education to create an arts café where young artists can perform.