We are thrilled to announce the winner of the 2024-25 Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Student Performance Competition: The Koa String Quartet!

The College of Music’s current graduate string quartet in residence—comprising violinists Kisa Uradomo and Leah Pernick, violist Thomas Chafe and cellist Heewon Lee—studies with the Takács Quartet. On Nov. 19, the Koa Quartet performed selections from works by Joseph Haydn and Kevin Lau, and was awarded $2,000 for their Ekstrand win.

“We are so happy to have started our residency at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder on such a positive note! It was an incredible opportunity to perform onstage alongside so many of our talented peers,” Pernick says. “Thank you so much to the Takács Quartet and string faculty for their mentorship, and to the Ekstrand family for their generous support of students.”

Lee shares, “Our main goal of the performance was to have fun and keep up the good energy. I think us dancing backstage helped with that. But in all seriousness, we’re super thankful for the win!”

Second prize ($1,000) went to saxophonist Joel Ferst, who also won the audience favorite prize ($250). This year’s other Ekstrand finalists ($500 each) include pianist John-Austin King, baritone Andrew Konopak and violinist Laura Pérez Rangel.

This year’s esteemed panel of judges were Jason Bergman—Associate Professor of Trumpet, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; Courtney Hershey Bress—Principal Harpist, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Symphony; Adjunct Professor of Harp, University of Denver Lamont School of Music; and Lecturer of Harp, University of Wyoming; and Cameron Stowe—Chair, Collaborative Piano, New England Conservatory; Director, Collaborative Piano, Aspen Music Festival and School.

The Ekstrand Competition was launched by previous College of Music dean Robert Fink, and later renamed to honor the late Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and psychology professor Bruce Ekstrand. The competition invites top graduate students to compete for cash prizes for professional development. This year’s faculty judges for the  semi-final competition were Renee Gilliland, Jeremy Reger and Branden Steinmetz.

Semi-finalists included:

• Voice: Sidney Grimm, soprano; Andrew Konopak, baritone; James Robinson, baritone
• Piano: John-Austin King, Luca Pompilio
• Strings: Julian Bennett, cello; Koa String Quartet; Laura Pérez Rangel, violin
• Woodwinds: Joel Ferst, saxophone; Dylan King, saxophone; Harold Gomez-Montoya, clarinet
• Brass + percussion: Mark Bennett, trombone; Sydney Hoehl, trumpet; Connor Johnson, trumpet

Congratulations to the Koa String Quartet and all participants in this year’s competition, as well as their teachers—the Takács Quartet, Andrew Cooperstock, Andrew Garland and Nathan Mertens in the final round. Our special thanks also to collaborative pianists Runze Li, Hsiao-Ling Lin, Matthew Sebald—and all other pianists, mentors and teachers involved in the previous rounds of this competition.

Partially funded by the , this annual event is the premier performance competition for the College of Music’s most outstanding graduate students.

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Cody Goetz (MM ’19, piano performance + pedagogy) was part of the first cohort to graduate from the College of Music with a Graduate Certificate in Arts Administration. In 2022, he became executive director of . 

“It's my firm belief that the arts administration program helped prepare me to become a nonprofit executive,” Goetz says. 

According to its website, Mundi Project “actively breaks down socioeconomic and generational barriers by providing high quality music experiences for all.” Mundi Project programs place donated pianos with people or organizations that can’t afford them, teach community piano classes, put on workshops and concerts covering various musical cultures and intergenerational learning, and more.

Under Goetz's leadership, Mundi Project is the recipient of a $130,000 grant from as part of a new pilot program from the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with South Arts and in collaboration with the other five U.S. regional arts organizations. More than 4,000 organizations applied; only . 

“These grants support specific projects that will strengthen the organizations’ capacity to sustain meaningful community engagement and increase arts participation for underserved groups and communities,” shares Goetz.

Specific to Mundi Project, the ArtsHERE award will support two key initiatives: Creating a strategic plan and providing professional development in community music education, trauma-informed practices, accessibility and cultural competency for staff, board, teaching artists and volunteers. “These initiatives will strengthen Mundi Project’s capacity, cultivate an inclusive culture and improve program delivery to better serve diverse communities,” adds Goetz.

“I want to express my gratitude for my educational experience at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder and how the power of my experience has led me to have early successes in my arts administration career.”

Congratulations to Goetz and the entire Mundi Project team!

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“The length of alternative keyboards is the same as standard keyboards, only the width of each key is very slightly smaller,” Terrill says. The ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder College of Music has had such a keyboard on loan from the since April 2023, featuring a six-inch octave instead of the standard six-and-a-half-inch octave.

“The reason I got interested was because I have tendonitis and I noticed a bunch of my female pianist friends were also getting tendonitis. I’ve had friends who have had to quit because they got some kind of severe playing-related injury,” Terrill says.

can help pianists avoid injuries sustained from over-reaching and enable individuals with smaller hands to play some repertoire that is physically impossible for them to perform on standard-size pianos. 

“Keyboards are made to a standard size and the human hand is not a standard size,” says Jennifer Hayghe, associate professor of piano and chair of the Roser Piano + Keyboard Program at the College of Music. “In my 25 years as a professor, I have seen the number of students with injuries rise exponentially. I spend a lot of my time working with students trying to reduce their stress and tension and work through the injuries they’ve accrued. I do believe that if we had smaller keyboards as a standard thing, that would not be an issue.”

The piece loaned to the College of Music is a piano action—that is, the keyboard and the mechanism that causes hammers to strike the strings when keys are pressed. This action can technically fit onto any piano, though some fittings are more difficult than others. Mark Mikkelson and Phil Taylor, both piano technicians at the College of Music, say they put in 50 to 60 hours of work fitting the alternative keyboard into a Steinway piano.

“The problem in making these keyboards for Steinway instruments is that Steinways are entirely handmade, which means they’re not all exactly the same,” Hayghe explains. “So when alternative keyboards are made as close as possible to a ‘standard’ Steinway size, all these little adjustments are necessary. It took a long time and a lot of adjusting to get that keyboard used to that piano.” 

As part of her master’s thesis, Terrill discovered that attitudes around alternative keyboards are often of disdain. “I was really frustrated when I first started this research because I was telling people how unfair it was to not have smaller keyboards available to students—and the reaction I heard most was people saying ‘you don’t need that, you just need to fix your technique.’ So my response was, if I can show numbers to people who don’t want to bother with having to switch sizes, that may be more convincing.”

Terrill’s thesis project involved 15 pianists playing a musical excerpt on a standard piano, and then on a narrow keyboard. She measured their errors when initially playing on the alternative keyboard and after 10 minutes of practice. 

“We found that everyone by the end—transitioning from the standard size to the second try on the narrow keyboard—had fewer errors than on the first try,” Terrill says. “Most of them said ‘I wish I could practice more on it.’”

Since graduating this spring, Terrill has been teaching piano lessons—another instance when narrow keyboards would be helpful. “Most instruments have smaller versions for when you’re learning as a kid, but not the piano,” she notes.

“I really see this as an equality issue. I’m looking for movement from people. I want to push for more research and for people to have conversations about it—I think even arguments will help.”

Related:
(NPR)

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It was a long time coming. 

Piano Technician Mark Mikkelsen—who, for more than eight years, has supported the care and maintenance of the College of Music’s fleet of 160 pianos, two harpsichords and an organ—was thrilled when the opportunity arose to rebuild, refurbish and restore one of two fortepianos donated to our college by the late Douglas Taylor and his wife, Avlona, as an in-kind gift in 2019. 

The two fortepianos—one is a replica after Conrad Graf 1828 by Robert Smith, ca. 1982; the other is a replica after J. A. Stein by Richard Kingston, ca. 1982—are a tremendous boon for our college. Five years following their donation, the refurbished Smith fortepiano was performed on for the first time on April 8 by Wes Leffingwell, a doctoral student of Professor of Harpsichord Robert Hill.

Since the instrument’s donation, Mikkelsen—whose overall responsibilities include tuning, voicing, regulation, rebuilding and repair—researched the Smith fortepiano and embarked on a years-long restoration project in service to our students and faculty. 

“The more I learned about the fortepiano from various sources—its history, how it was made, how it was shipped—the more I understood the instrument which inspired my problem solving,” says Mikkelsen, who was trained in piano technology at the nationally renowned North Bennet Street School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Adds Operations Manager and Head Piano Technician Ted Mulcahey, “When the Smith fortepiano arrived, it was not in playable condition. After about 120 hours of creative work—including inventing or sourcing missing parts, strings, tools and more—Mark turned it into a beautiful working instrument.”

“It was like working on a ship in a bottle,” continues Mikkelsen, who grew up playing piano. “I really enjoyed the historical and problem-solving aspects of this project … and the positive reactions of the Taylor family, Wes and our faculty really made the effort worthwhile.”

Mikkelsen’s connection to the Taylor family extends beyond this project and our College of Music. Over the years, he’s worked on Avlona Taylor’s harpsichord and he’s started tutoring her daughter, Karen, in the art of tuning.

Photos below: Members of the Taylor family with Leffingwell, Mulcahey, Mikkelsen, Piano Technician Phil Taylor, Professor of Piano Andrew Cooperstock—with whom Leffingwell studied as a master’s student—and friends. A new plaque adorns the newly playable fortepiano, a replica after Conrad Graf 1828 by Robert Smith, ca. 1982: “This fortepiano was generously donated by Douglas and Avlona Taylor.”​ 

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At the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM), students can find the skills and tools they need for their music careers. Most recently, the ECM awarded $5,820 in artist assistance grants to support eight student-led professional development and community engagement projects including:

Josie Arnett
“I’m really picky about which pieces I release on streaming platforms because I’m 20 and need to be able to write really bad music … and then release the things that I really love,” says Josie Arnett, an undergraduate composition student. 

“Last fall, I got the opportunity to write a saxophone quartet piece for a group that travels all over the United States. I was really happy with the piece and really proud of it, so I reached out to a faculty member who set me up with the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder graduate saxophone quartet.”

Working with the Sanitas Saxophone Quartet, College of Music Recording Engineer Kevin Harbison and a mixing artist, Arnett recorded the piece for projected release on streaming platforms this summer. The ECM grant helped pay the artists and distribution fee.

Arnett says she learned a lot about how to interact in a professional recording setting and enjoyed collaborating within the College of Music. “It’s been fun to work with people that have a lot of energy, positive attitudes and are just really excited about what they do,” she shares.

Alice Del Simone
At the end of May, DMA student in voice performance and pedagogy Alice Del Simone was part of a workshop presentation at the Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia titled “Legato Then and Now, Vibrato Edition: A Close-Up of What Happens Between the Pitches in the Classical Bel Canto Tradition.” 

“The workshop offered a toolbox of exercises for how to teach the type of legato singing that was happening at the end of the 1800s, beginning of the 1900s when we started to have recordings available,” Del Simone says.

“It was my very first time presenting at a conference where there are often hurdles for a young academic to get an invitation to present. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to work with a group of people who are more prominent in the community than myself.”

During the symposium, Del Simone stayed at the conference hotel, partially funded by her ECM grant. 

Zachary Howarth
Zachary Howarth, a DMA student in jazz studies, will go on the road this summer to record music in studios in Reno and South Lake Tahoe. Howarth also hopes to perform this music live in venues across ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ and Nevada. 

The project will involve a contemporary jazz quartet—trumpet, piano, bass, drums—writing and recording the music. The ECM grant will help the project get off the ground by assisting with studio fees, production costs and travel expenses. 

“The opportunity to write, record and play music with such high-level artists is invaluable to my collaborative research in compositional tendencies in contemporary jazz mediums and fully improvised music,” Howarth says. 

SeaJun Kwon
SeaJun Kwon, also a DMA student in jazz studies, likes writing compositions that push the boundaries of jazz music including “Avant Shorts”—10 etudes exploring micro tonalities and rhythmic concepts that aren’t commonly used in jazz compositions. 

Kwon plans to compose these etudes and begin recording them over the summer, using a microphone setup funded by an ECM grant. 

“I thought I’d write a bunch of super short compositions that focus on different ideas to develop myself and provide my community with these resources,” Kwon says. 

By keeping them brief, he hopes to make the compositions more accessible and useful for his community. 

“People are really busy, there are so many things that you have to do and also so many distractions,” Kwon says. “I think these short compositions put less pressure on people—they can work on them for 10 minutes and still learn from them.” 

Er-Hsuan Li
Er-Hsuan Li graduated from the College of Music in May with a DMA in piano performance. In April, he held a concert featuring the world premiere of John Clay Allen’s “” concerto for piano and strings along with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

“It was a very fun event,” Li says. “Even though it was off-campus, it was really ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ that made this possible because that’s how we connected.”

Many ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder musicians participated including conductor and Associate Director of Orchestras Renee Gilliland, composition alumnus John Clay Allen, Anna Kallinikos—who’s majoring in trumpet performance and minoring in business—and the majority of the 18-member orchestra. The ECM grant assisted Li with compensating the performers and renting the venue.

“I had performed in front of an orchestra only once before when I was a high schooler,” Li recalls. “So it was really special for me that—after 13 years—I got to do this again professionally. And I would like to think that I am a better musician now compared to then!”

Ethan Stahl
When Ethan Stahl discovered Nkeiru Okoye’s music, he knew he’d found something special. “I loved her music so much that I began working on it for one of my degree recitals,” he says. “Eventually, it became evident that I had enough material to create a lecture recital.”

To prepare, Stahl—who’s pursuing a DMA in piano performance—interviewed Okoye about her music. “We talked on the phone for a few hours and in that conversation, she proposed the idea of writing a piece for me to add to one of the sets of piano pieces that I was studying.” The ECM grant helped fund Okoye’s contribution.

Okoye’s music is already part of the American Music Research Center’s Helen Walker-Hill Collection; her upcoming composition will be added to the collection.

“Okoye is extremely novel in the world of piano composition,” Stahl adds. “I’ve never heard piano music that is similar stylistically to hers.” 

Natalie Trejo
Artist Diploma student Natalie Trejo competed in the finals for the Austin Flute Society’s Young Artist Competition in April—and the ECM grant helped her get there. 

“I submitted the preliminary recordings back in January. From there, they selected three finalists to perform in the live final round in Austin, Texas,” Trejo says. “It went really well. I ended up getting third but I was very happy with how I played and I was not nervous at all.”

Trejo performed Chen Yi’s “Memory” for solo flute and Frank Martin’s “Ballade” for flute and piano. 

“I love doing competitions because I get to learn new repertoire, meet new flutists, make connections and get to know the other finalists—it’s very important and humbling, but still encouraging,” Trejo says.

Jonathon Winter
Another spring 2024 graduate, Jonathon Winter—who earned a DMA in violin performance—recorded four pieces to be compiled into an album titled “Origin: Music by Women of the Americas.” The pieces are “ko’u inoa” by Leilehua Lanzilotti, “Scratch the Surface” by Dana Kaufman, “String Poetic” by Jennifer Higdon and “Sueños de Chambi” by Gabriel Lena Frank.

“I picked some fiendishly difficult music to play but it was so worth it,” Winter says. “I learned so much about preparing for recordings and what that actually entails.”

Winter worked with pianist and Postdoctoral Lecturer Barbara Noyes, as well as Kevin Harbison to record all four pieces over the course of seven months. Winter will continue the project over the summer with the goal of finding a label to disseminate the recordings.

Congratulations to all grant recipients and our thanks to this year’s adjudicators: College of Music staff member Kathryn Bistodeau, Music Advisory Board member Laurie Hathorn and University of Denver entrepreneurship faculty member Neil Pollard. 

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For retiring College of Music Professor of Harpsichord Robert Hill—who’s also the Eugene D. Eaton, Jr., Chair in Baroque Music Performance—it all makes perfect sense. “If you think about it,” he says, “the academic community is like a formalized laboratory for thought—which it should be.”

Hill is stepping down this summer after a long career that found him in Europe studying and performing in the ’70s and ’80s with a parade of legendary figures in the early music revival, followed by an academic career at Harvard and Duke universities, and finally joining the College of Music faculty in 2018 after a stint at the Freiburg University of Music in Germany.

His students have learned much more than how to play the harpsichord, he stresses. Speaking excitedly about the College of Music’s universal musician mission, which empowers students to widen their perspectives, Hill refers to musical life in the Baroque Era when versatility and the ability to improvise were requirements for success.

“Developing universal musicians reflects, in part, the process of figuring out how to combine practicing musicianship and theoretical understanding of music,” he explains. “I emphasize that approach for the harpsichord.” 

By example, Hill points to the 18th-century practice employing the figured bass, a shorthand sketching-out of notes and chords that would direct a musician to create a spontaneous accompaniment. “Keyboard players of that day would have been very well trained in music theory to be able to fulfill their roles as accompanists,” he reminds us. A crucial lesson for his students who study harmony and counterpoint, requiring repetitive exercises and classroom tests. 

Hill admits he was pretty tough on his students, for good reason. “There’s so much pressure to fit in,” he says. “So the way I treat the process is to encourage my students to question what they encounter in their worlds in the hope that that will lead to their own progression and empowerment—and an understanding of what they can do to make the world a better place.”

As Hill looks to retirement, including the continuation of recording all of Bach’s keyboard works—which thus far numbers 10 CDs—he remains hopeful that his students will hear his message, lean into the college’s mission and thrive as multiskilled, multifaceted musicians.

“By advancing a career track where you train yourself—not just as a player, but also as a thinker about music—and combine that with a musicological training up to the point of actually getting a degree, you set yourself up to be attractive as a job candidate in a fairly broad range of situations,” he adds. “Equally important is finding your own voice as an artist. It takes a lot of work—it’s a life process.” 

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Great ideas can come from anywhere—even a meal with your friends. Three ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder College of Music alumni—Colleen White (DMA ’17), Paul Zaborac (DMA ’17) and Cecilia Lo-Chien Kao (DMA ’19)—developed a vision for the (SMF) over brunch, and soon started working to make their dream come to life. 

“We casually thought, ‘What if we developed our own chamber music festival?’ Less than a year later, we had funding and a business plan,” White says. 

The nonprofit festival, held in Manhattan, Kansas, debuted in 2023 and will return for its second season in June 2024. [Experience the SMF performing “” by Ingrid Stölzel.]

The SMF aims to tell stories through chamber music and each season features a unique theme. The 2024 theme is “Creatures Great and Small,” focusing on music inspired by wildlife and creatures of all sizes. 

The festival also hosts community events, children’s events and a composition competition that encourages composers to submit new works for voice, flute, saxophone and piano. The compositions must highlight narrative, focusing on the untold stories of underrepresented or marginalized groups and the festival theme; winning works will premiere during the summer festival.

“There’s something really unique and special about chamber music,” Kao says. “There’s an intimate and powerful connection among the performers and this connection extends to the audience. 

In their festival activities, these music alumni say they regularly apply skills learned at our College of Music. 

“Entrepreneurial know-how gained at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ has been instrumental in helping us develop this festival,” explains Zaborac. “From arts administration, marketing and audio/video production to audience relations and creative concert programming. Being able to draw on this wide skill set has significantly contributed to the success of the festival, allowing us to create something really exciting. 

“Perhaps most important was the entrepreneurial mindset itself, of looking at challenges and finding creative solutions—and the will to overcome, persevere and build something.”

Congratulations!

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On Nov. 14 in Grusin Music Hall, violinist Rinat Erlichman (’25) won first prize in the 2023-2024 Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Student Performance Competition! Under the mentorship of Associate Professor of Violin and Artist in Residence Harumi Rhodes and Artist in Residence Edward Dusinberre, Erlichman prepared a featuring works by Ernest Bloch, Paul Ben Haim and George Gershwin.

Erlichman was awarded $2,000—plus the audience favorite prize ($250). “Winning first prize and audience favorite for this year’s Ekstrand Competition is incredibly meaningful to me,” she shares. “Preparing for the competition has helped me expand my repertoire and develop my skills. I was honored to play the program in the final round with pianist Max Randal and all the wonderful finalists. 

“I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the Ekstrand family. Your generosity means I can devote more of my time to develop my career and share my music.” 

Congratulations, Rinat, on this well-deserved achievement!

Cellist Chas Barnard—a student of Associate Professor of Cello David Requiro—won second prize ($1,000). Other finalists ($500 each) include Maggie Brady, violin (student of Harumi Rhodes); Jenna Clark, mezzo-soprano (student of Associate Professor of Voice Abigail Nims); and Allyson Kreider, flute (student of Professor of Flute Christina Jennings). 

We applaud all performers as well as their teachers and collaborative pianists, including Jude Markel, Barbara Noyes, Max Randal and Christine Teng!

Our gratitude goes to the college’s Ekstrand competition co-chairs: Professor of Music Education and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Margaret Berg and Postdoctoral Lecturer in Collaborative Piano Barbara Noyes. We’re also deeply appreciative of this year’s adjudicators: Philip Hembree, Assistant Principal Trumpet, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Symphony and Instructor, University of Northern ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ; Wilbur Lin, Assistant Conductor, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Symphony and Music Director, Denver Young Artists Orchestra; and Seoyoen Min, Principal Cellist, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Symphony.

This year’s semi-finalists who were chosen in their respective departmental preliminaries included:   

Percussion: Gavin Kitchen
Piano: Alice Hyoung 
Strings: Chas Barnard, cello; Maggie Brady, violin; Rinat Erlichman, violin 
Voice: Jenna Clark, mezzo soprano; Alice Del Simone, soprano; Samuel Wetzel, baritone 
Winds: Sophie Maeda, oboe; Allyson Kreider, flute; Joeli Schilling, flute

Faculty judges for this year’s semi-final round included Professor of Conducting and Director of Bands Don McKinney, Teaching Associate Professor and Chamber Music Coordinator Meta Weiss and Voice Lecturer Jennifer DeDominici.

The Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Student Performance Competition was established by then-Dean Robert Fink at the suggestion of Bruce Ekstrand—later renamed to pay tribute to the late vice chancellor for academic affairs and psychology professor. An ardent supporter of our College of Music, Ekstrand was also a member of the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder Golden Buffalo Men’s Chorus.

The competition grants cash prizes for professional development to outstanding graduate student performers. After preliminaries among individual departments and a semifinal round, five finalists are selected to compete before a panel of judges.

Partially funded by the , this annual event is the premier performance competition for the College of Music’s most outstanding graduate students.         

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For most of us, retirement is a major milestone. And for these esteemed faculty members—Professor of Music Education and CMEA Hall of Fame inductee James Austin, Professor of Double Bass Paul Erhard, Associate Professor of Trombone William Stanley, and Professor of Piano and former Dean Daniel Sher—their retirements this spring represent a tireless commitment and dedication to inspiring up-and-coming musicians and educators. 

Austin, Erhard, Sher and Stanley have deeply influenced and helped shape the futures of countless students’ lives through their unique teaching methods and shared expertise. As we bid them farewell and look back on their contributions, achievements and legacy at the College of Music, we’re pleased to pass along some of their reflections:

What experience are you most proud of, during your career at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder?
SHER: My relationships with people come first. I was gratified by the number of faculty I became privileged to appoint and to come to know, the many students whose acquaintances I made, and the wonderful staff upon whom I relied every day for their work and support of our programs and people. It has been an added bonus that my wife Boyce and I now enjoy so many enriching and rewarding friendships to this day among Music Advisory Board members and former members, and the many patrons who chose to invest in our college. 

Most of all, I am proud of the collaborative spirit that grew during my tenure. It has been a joy to see faculty leadership and a robust participation in shared governance—and to observe, since I stepped away from the Dean position, that this trajectory continues its upward path.

STANLEY: Hosting the 1998 International Trombone Festival with 750 participants and 60-plus artists and teachers from all over the globe was big. As was the graduate brass quintet winning a bronze medal at the 2009 Fischoff Competition. 

But the experience of working with the wide array of students who have come through the studio is what I’m most proud of. Many of them went on to outstanding graduate programs, to teaching and performing positions, and to other successful careers that include music in their lives. Seeing each student grow and learn about themselves as musicians, trombonists and humans is what kept me going.

AUSTIN: I’m most proud of my over two decades’ leadership provided to the College of Music as Music Education Chair and then as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. As chair, I advocated for the music education faculty to make their own admissions decisions and scholarship recommendations through a formal interview and evaluation process; instituted sophomore interviews as a gateway to upper-division licensure coursework; increased enrollment in both the undergraduate and graduate programs; and improved the placement record of program graduates into K-12 and higher education positions. 

As associate dean, I established an early alert system to provide at-risk students with timely academic counseling and other forms of support; established a system for tracking budgetary implications of merit scholarship awards; expanded the student recognition program to include outstanding freshman and sophomore awards; and oversaw a major revision of the undergraduate curriculum. 

What trends or culture shifts did you observe over the course of your career? What’s your career advice to students today?
STANLEY: It would probably be easier to list what hasn’t changed. Technological advances have had a huge impact on how students learn and how teachers teach. In 1985, when I started at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ, personal computers were pretty new, compact discs were new, the library had a card catalog, there was no internet, no email—even the copy machine was terrible. The enormity and speed of technological change over that period of time has been amazing to watch. 

As well, an emphasis on offering a diverse cultural experience at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ has been under discussion for many years—it’s wonderful that these efforts are becoming actualized with increased diversity in repertoire selections, guest artists and speakers … and a genuine level of awareness throughout the college and across campus. Moving forward, I hope there can be continued efforts supporting the recruitment of diverse faculty and students.

Finally, my career advice is to go all in. A half-hearted effort during the college experience rarely leads to success. Students who can enjoy the process of preparation and improvement, and who are persistent and who have patience, will be better positioned for a life in music. But no one can say what that will look like. Given the rate of change in our society, flexibility and creativity will become not just catch phrases, but a way of life.

Oh, and go vote.

AUSTIN: One of the biggest cultural shifts I’ve observed is a broadening and rethinking of career paths open to music majors and, in a related sense, a steady increase in the number of undergraduate students pursuing dual degrees within music—or double majors in music and a second field outside of music. At the same time, unfortunately, it has been more difficult to attract students to a career in music education, largely because of the misperception of music teaching being a high-demand, low-status occupation. 

SHER: The trends that I’ve watched and tried to nurture include the establishment of our Entrepreneurship Center for Music, the first of its kind when it was established back in the mid-90s; as well as the establishment of our collaborative piano program and jazz studies program; the growth of our scholarly/research programs which now boast a blossoming ethnomusicology division; and a music theory master’s degree. Also of note are our Soundworks series, and I’ve been especially pleased to observe the chamber music program which is thriving and has grown to new heights.

As I look back on my 20-year tenure as dean, I think of it as a dream position during which time I tried my best “to do no harm” (borrowing from the physicians’ oath) and to enable a gifted, talented and perceptive faculty to work together—which has, in turn, enabled their students to be the best that they can be.

Join us on May 5 from 3-5 p.m. (E160) in honor of our retiring faculty members and in celebration of their many years’ dedicated service to the college and the university. They will be greatly missed by their colleagues and students. RSVP to Lauren Petersen by May 1.

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The College of Music’s annual Honors Competition for undergraduate and graduate students yielded two new winners this past weekend: Undergraduate pianist Jude Dow-Hygelund (BM ’26) and graduate soprano Dawna Rae Warren (AD ’23) were awarded first prizes in their respective divisions. They will perform with the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Symphony Orchestra during the 2023-24 season.

Freshman Dow-Hygelund performed Franz Liszt’s Totentanz, S. 126, accompanied by Er-Hsuan Li. Dow-Hygelund studies with Professor of Piano Andrew Cooperstock.

“Preparing for and playing in the Honors Competition has been one of my favorite and most rewarding parts of this year,” says Dow-Hygelund. “One of my goals in coming here to ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder was to be able to play a concerto with a full orchestra. I am incredibly grateful that I’ll have the opportunity to perform with the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Symphony Orchestra, especially this early in my academic career.” 

He adds, “One of my favorite parts of this competition was being able to see my peers perform their concertos. I found the wide variety of musicians and high level of talent astonishing, and I commend all the other performers!”

Warren performed Richard Strauss’ “Brentano Lieder,” Op. 68, accompanied by Ya-Ting Yang. Warren studies with Associate Professor of Voice Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson.

“For me, winning the Honors Competition was a moment when I was able to see tangible proof that my hard work and dedication to my craft has created noticeable improvements in my performances,” shares Warren. 

“I learned three of the four pieces I performed as an undergraduate at Baldwin Wallace University for the concerto competition and I did not move past the preliminary auditions,” Warren adds. “Six years later, I not only made it to the finals at the Honors Competition here at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, but I actually won. It’s absolutely a reinforcement that discipline and dedication are crucial to finding success as an artist and musician.

“My favorite part was coaching these pieces with various faculty members.” 

Well-earned honorable mentions go to undergraduate cellist Louis Saxton and graduate bassoonist J. T.  Holdbrooks.

Big thanks to our faculty judges—Nicholas Carthy, Gary Lewis and Don McKinney—and congratulations to all participating student competitors and collaborative pianists, and to those who advanced to the final round:

Undergraduate competition

• Jude Dow-Hygelund, piano
• Louis Saxton, cello
• Melissa Burke-Manwaring, soprano
• Anna Kallinikos, trumpet
• Benjamin Kohav, piano
• Ayla Lantz, flute
• Lucy Rissman, violin
• Noah Solomon, trumpet

Graduate competition

• Dawna Rae Warren, soprano
• J. T. Holdbrooks, bassoon
• Logan Banister, saxophone
• Thomas Leo Bocchi, tenor 
• Michael Brotherton, trumpet
• Victor Avila Luvsangenden, violin

To enjoy the winners’ performances this fall semester, visit for details.

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