FROM THE DEAN’S DESK

In line with our College’s commitment to global relevance and cutting-edge course offerings, we are launching four new degree concentrations this fall. Animation is the newest offering within the School of Art’s BFA in Studio Art. The brainchild of Chris Cassidy (Director of the School of Art), Professor Heather Holian (a Disney and Pixar art historian), and Dan Hale (an animator and professor), the Animation concentration unites the history of with the making of to give art students the skills they need to succeed.

The School of Music has admitted a cohort of students into its new Popular Music and Technology concentration within the BM in Performance degree. Aimed at musicians who play in a band, love to rap, or write their own music, the curriculum for this new offering includes such courses as composing, arranging, and improvising with technological skills in audio recording, mixing, and producing. Composition professor and popular musician Mark Engebretson created the unique blend of courses for this new concentration.

In a first in the UNC System, the School of Music’s music education and jazz studies faculty have launched a new concentration in Jazz Music Education. Whereas in a traditional Music Education degree students would choose either instrumental or choral music, which could lead to a career as a band director or choral director, students can now choose to major in Jazz Music Education and study at one of the premiere music teacher training programs in the country and with members of the Miles Davis Jazz Studies faculty.

Finally, the School of Theatre has created the first MFA degree in North Carolina with a Music Theatre Directing concentration. Dominick Amendum, coordinator of the Musical Theatre program, teamed up with collaborative piano professor Jim Douglass to create a curriculum that blends conducting, accompanying, and directing courses from the Schools of Music and Theatre. After spending nearly a decade with Wicked on Broadway and on national tour, Dominick will begin training the next generation of Broadway music directors.

These four new concentrations are now available to CVPA’s 275 first-year students from the Class of 2026. CVPA is also welcoming 96 transfer students and 80 graduate students. Altogether our 451 new students hail from 21 states with international students joining us from China, Colombia, Ghana, Honduras, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. With four new degree concentrations and the largest freshman class admitted since 2018, CVPA has both broadened and deepened its educational mission!

Sincerely,

bruce d. mcclung, Dean

College of Visual and Performing Arts

PERSISTENCE OF VISION:

EXHIBIT CELEBRATES THE BIRTH OF ANIMATION

Dan Hale (Assistant Professor of Animation) and Heather Holian (Professor of Art History) installing the Persistence of Vision Exhibit. Photo credit: Mike Micchiche.

It’s a moving art exhibition—literally—to coincide with the School of Art’s forward motion in launching a new BFA degree concentration in Animation.

Running August 10th through September 27th in the gallery of the Maud Gatewood Studio Arts Building, Persistence of Vision features more than twenty-five beautifully preserved animation toys and optical devices on loan from the Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman Collection of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.

UNCG Art Historian Heather Holian says the toys are among the earliest preserved examples of animation and reflect the framework for the medium as we know it today. But, she says, animation didn’t begin just as entertainment:

“What’s interesting about these toys is that many of them were developed as science experiments. Physicists were exploring questions like why a fast moving carriage wheel appeared to be spinning forwards, backwards, or standing still when you’re looking at it through the verticals of a fence or railing. Then in 1824, Peter Mark Roget (famous for his thesaurus) wrote about this “persistence of vision,” which explains how our brains retain an image for a thirtieth of a second beyond when our eyes actually see it. Just that little bit of time makes animation possible.”

POP TECH: EXPANDING THE REACH

Mark Engebretson (Professor of Composition) working with Pop Tech student Cady Fleet ’25.

Photo credit Mike Micchiche.

After a century of excellence in classical music and jazz, the UNCG School of Music is adding a new degree concentration in Popular Music and Technology or “PopTech” as the students call it.

Composition Professor Mark Engebretson, who is also a member of the band The Difficulties, says the time was right:

“The School of Music is a hundred years old. This will really diversify our program by welcoming students who are accomplished musicians in areas we haven’t been able to bring to the School in the past because we didn’t offer what they needed. I hope that it reaches out to populations that have been underserved and underrepresented. As part of our mission to be a school for the whole state of North Carolina, it’s an important step.”

Read more here.

UPCOMING ALUMNI EVENTS

Reception and Showing of

Persistence of Vision: Exploring the Birth of Animation

Friday, September 23rd | 5:00–7:00 PM

Gatewood Gallery, Gatewood Studio Arts Building, Campus

Dessert Reception and UCLS Presents: Urban Bush Women

Friday, October 14th | 8:00 PM Performance | Reception to follow

UNCG Auditorium, Campus

UNCG Homecoming

Friday, October 14th & 15th

Detailed list of events and locations here

Theatre Alumni Centennial Celebration

Homecoming Block Party

Saturday, October 15th | 4:00–7:00 PM | Kaplan Commons

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Saturday, October 15th | 7:30–10:30 PM | Taylor Theatre

Theatre Hall of Fame Induction and Brunch

Sunday, October 16th | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM | Location TBD

Centennial Film Festival

Sunday, October 16th | 1:30 PM | Location TBD

Washington DC Alumni Brunch

Sunday, November 6th | 12:00–2:00 PM

Churchill Hotel, 1914 Connecticut Avenue, NW

NYC Alumni Brunch

Sunday, December 11th | 12:00–2:00 PM

Trattoria Dell’Arte, 900 7th Avenue

UPDATE ALUMNI CONTACT INFORMATION

ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES

Kemari Bryant (’22 BFA Acting) is going on tour with the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon.

Stacy Garrepy (’22 PhD Music Education) is teaching music to K-6th grade students at Haw River Christian Academy, and she says she’s looking forward to going back to the classroom as a “doctor” with her newly earned PhD in Music Education.

Kaylee Hawley (’22 BA Theatre) is joining the Jurassic World Live Tour as an Electrician.

Seth McKnight (’22 PhD Music Education) has been appointed Instructor of Music Education at Western Illinois University.

Nicole K. Ramsey (’22 PhD and ’18 MM Music Education) has been appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Education at Drake University. Ramsey has also been published in Contributions to Music Education 17 (2022). Ramsey’s article is “Generation Z Leaders’ Perspectives of Professional Organizations in Music Education.”

Cordara Harper (’21 PMC/School Administration, ’20 MM Music Education) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Music Education/Choir Director at Grambling State University.

Rachael Hayes (’21 BFA Sculpture and Ceramics) held an artist residency in Italy with the Digital Stone Carving Project, which was founded in 2005 by sculptors to create a new way of working in stone by leveraging burgeoning digital technologies.

J. Andrew Speas (’21 BFA Acting) is joining the 2nd National Tour of the Broadway musical Aladdin as standby for the roles of Genie/Babkak/Sultan.

Yophi Bost (’20 BM Music Education) has accepted positions in Phoenix as an Ambassador Artist with Arizona Opera and as a Voice Faculty member with the Popular Music Program at

Arizona State University.

Darkson Magrinelli (’20 DMA Clarinet Performance) has been appointed Director of Woodwinds and Clarinet Professor at Western Colorado University.

Chad Parsons (’20 MFA Theatre for Youth) is currently working with Fever Originals on immersive experiences as an actor and producer. After playing the role of the Mad Hatter in both Boston and Philadelphia, Chad was asked to design a magic show as part of an immersive experience called Genie’s Secret Bazaar. Along with the magic show, ReNew Productions (Chad’s company) opened up a Magic Shop inside the Bazaar. The shop was an experience-based booth with mini magic shows, magic lessons, and tricks for all ages to spark passion and curiosity for the craft. Chad will be acting in Sleepy Hollow, a Fever Originals immersive experience, in Atlanta. Currently Chad is planning for ReNew Productions’ 3rd “Playwrights’ Playground” taking place in Philadelphia this fall.

Jurne Smith (’20 BFA Dance: Choreography and Performance) received the Black Network Community Support Initiative Grant to fund her first dance film Lone Soldier Rising. The film is currently in multiple film festivals in New York and will be featured in a lecture/performance at the North Carolina Museum of Art. It was showcased in Winston-Salem at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art’s Black@Intersection exhibition. See the film here.

Andrew Sanchez (’19 BM Miles Davis Jazz Studies) served as a Composition Fellow for Choral Arts Intiative’s Premier Project Festival this summer. Sanchez worked with the Choral Arts Initiative on premiering a new composition for choir and vibraphone in Irvine, California. In addition to the premier, Sanchez received a distribution deal with MusicSpoke.

Todd Siff (’18 MFA Theatre for Youth) was awarded the 2021–2022 Professor of the Year award from Florida Gateway College. The Professor of the Year award is presented to one faculty member throughout the College who excels in all three aspects of their work: teaching, professional development, and community impact. In his time at Florida Gateway College, Siff has reinvigorated the Performing Arts area of the College and continues to bring art into the broader Lake City community.

Samantha Frenduto (’17 BM Clarinet Performance), a member of the United States Army band “Pershing’s Own,” recently won the ensemble’s internal audition for Assistant Principal Clarinet.

Chris Hansen (’17 PhD and ’12 MM Music Education) joins Virginia Commonwealth University where he will conduct the Commonwealth Singers and Choral Arts Society as Assistant Director of Choral Activities He will also teach music courses related to vocal/choral methods and techniques. Before coming to Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Hansen served as Assistant Professor of Music at Anderson University.

Joyce Watkins King (’17 MFA Studio Arts) was a featured artist in the Fiberart International exhibition this summer at the Society for Craft in Pittsburgh. The show was up June 3rd through August 20th and is now a traveling exhibit for the next two years. See the exhibition here.

Jasmine Best (’16 BFA Studio Arts) produced a new GROW (Greensboro Residency for Original Works) residency at the Greensboro Cultural Center this summer focused on the creation of large textile works of art using various materials found locally. The works explored personal identity and the connection between body, community, and nature.

Thomas Linger (’15 BM Jazz Studies) has released his first album.Listen here.

Anna Meadors (’15 MM Composition) has been appointed 2022–23 Assistant Director of the Columbia University Computer Music Center, one of the most significant facilities in the history of the development of computer and electronic music.

Lydia Pion (’15 BM Vocal Performance) accepted a clinical fellowship position in speech pathology in the Voice Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Charlena Wynn (’13 BA Studio Art) has been appointed Program Manager for ArtEsteem, an award-winning art and literacy program in Oakland, California.

Jeff Bell (’08 MFA Studio Arts) has been named Director of the North Carolina Arts Council. Bell comes to the position with more than two decades of arts experience including leadership roles at the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum in Wilson and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham. Read more here.

Ben Holbrook (’07 BFA Acting) was one of six finalists in the Samuel French short play festival and will be published in their next edition. Kemari Bryant (’22 BFA Acting) was one of the actors in the production of Holbrook’s play.

Stephanie Caulder (’00 MM Woodwind Performance, ’98 BA Music ) has been named Dean of Radford University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Read more here.

Kim Councill (’97 MM and ’95 BM Music Education) has been named Director of the School of Music at the University of Utah. Read more here.

Alumni News & Notes are compiled from self-submissions

and from the University’s news clipping service.

Submit your alumni news here.

NEW FACULTY AND STAFF

The College begins the year with six new full-time faculty members and two new staff members.

Top row, left to right: Natalie Blackman (Assistant Professor of Voice/Acting), Daniel Castro Pantoja (Assistant Professor of Musicology), Rhys Fetner (IT Support and Webmaster), and Nathaniel Mitchell (Lecturer in Music Theory).

Bottom row, left to right: Clare Parker (Assistant Professor of Costume Design),

Caitlyn Schrader (Director of Community Engagement and Director of Greensboro Project Space), Rotem Weinberg (Visiting Assistant Professor of Conducting and Director of Orchestras), and Charles Young (Director of the School of Music and Professor of Composition).

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS & NOTES

Hannah Grannemann (Assistant Professor and Director of Arts Administration) has a chapter titled “Nonprofit Startups in the Arts” in Business Issues in the Arts published by Routledge in August 2022.

Donald Hartmann (Professor of Voice) will be singing in three consecutive productions of Puccini operas this fall: Manon Lescaut (Geronte) with North Carolina Opera in October in Raleigh, Tosca (Sacristan) with Opera Carolina, and La Bohème (Colline) with Greensboro Opera. The La Bohème production, which will take place in the UNCG Auditorium, will be Hartmann’s 20th production of La Bohème. In his first, Hartmann sang the role of Marcello 39 years ago as a graduate student at UNCG. Hartmann will also be singing Dr. Grenvil in Verdi’s La Traviata for Piedmont Opera.

Andy Hudson (Assistant Professor of Clarinet) has released halfway home, his debut solo album, on Potenza Music. The disc features seven world premiere recordings, including a work by UNCG alumna Anna Meadors (’15 MM Composition). Also featured on the album are UNCG faculty members Inãra Zandmane (Professor of Music Accompanying) and Anthony Taylor (Professor of Clarinet).

Leah Sobsey (Associate Professor of Photography) is part of the collaborative installation In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss, which opened at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in May 2022. The exhibition, which runs through November 2023, is an immersive multidisciplinary experience that marries art and science through a modern artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants. The exhibition invites visitors to experience emotionally resonant connections to the profound loss of natural diversity caused by human-induced climate change. See the exhibition here.

Andrew Willis (Professor of Piano and Historical Keyboard Instruments) was a featured soloist at the annual meeting of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America in June, performing

J.S. Bach’s D-minor concerto on a Baroque fortepiano.

Faculty/Staff News & Notes are compiled from self-submissions

and from the University’s news clipping service.

Submit your Faculty/Staff News here.

SPARTANS WIN SPOT IN NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FEST

A group led by a School of Music student has won a spot to perform in the North Carolina Folk Festival this month.

Anna Vtipil (center in photo) is a composition major under Professors Mark Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty. Her group is made up of two other UNCG students — (behind Vtipil from left to right) Gracie Zielinski (’23 Arts Administration) and Hanna Fishastion (’23 Music Education-Strings) — as well as UNCG alumna Lora Mouna (’21 BFA Voice), and UNC Asheville student Clara Lampkin.