The School of Music is proud to announce Steven Cornelius ’75 Music Education and William Wielgus ’79 Music Education as the 2025 and 2026 recipients of the Mead Witter School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award. The award recognizes an alumnus or alumna who is making, or has made, an outstanding contribution to the music profession in service or in artistic impact.
Cornelius and Wielgus will both be honored at the January 31, 2026 Panorama Concert at the Hamel Music Center.
Cornelius has taught at University of Massachusetts Boston since 2011. His previous positions include Boston University, Bowling Green State University, Pine Manor College, and UW–Madison. He studied with Professor James Latimer as a student at UW–Madison.
“I am eternally indebted to Professor Latimer,” Cornelius said. “Over the years, Jim has taught me many things about musicianship, first as mentor, eventually as colleague, and today as friend. But perhaps the most important lessons he ever shared were about life, and the importance of commitment.”
From 1996 to 2006, Cornelius served as music and dance critic for The Blade, Toledo, Ohio’s daily newspaper. He has authored several books, including Music: A Social Experience (with Mary Natvig, 2012), Music of the Civil War Era (2004), and The Music of Santería: Traditional Rhythms of the Batá Drums (with John Amira, 1991). He also writes a blog about music and stroke recovery.
Cornelius is a board member of the Interdisciplinary Society for Quantitative Research in Music and Medicine. His performances as a percussionist include work with Metropolitan Opera, tours with New York City Opera National Company, Opera Orchestra of New York, Radio City Music Hall, Oklahoma Symphony, Taipei Symphony, Madison Symphony, and others.
“I am forever grateful for opportunities given to me at the School of Music,” Cornelius said. “Thanks to Professor Ellen Burmeister, who despite having to show me middle C on both the staff and the keyboard, expected me to progress as quickly as all the other students in her piano class. Thanks to the incredibly patient Professor Arthur Becknell, who, during my first semester in the School of Music, coached me to sing Arthur Sullivan’s ‘The Lost Chord.’ And thanks to Ugandan music specialist Professor Lois Anderson who, during the same two-year appointment, taught me to play the amadinda xylophone.
Wielgus first began his oboe studies at Pulaski High School with Gervase “Jerry” Parker, soon moving to lessons with Norbert “Nubbie” Ecker of St. Norbert College. During high school, he performed with the SNC Band under Gerald Mattern and in several theater productions under Dudley Birder, as well as with the Green Bay Youth Symphony and Green Bay Symphony. He earned degrees from the UW–Madison, Indiana University, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory, where his principal teachers were Marc Fink, Jerry Sirucek, and Ray Still.
“It was always a pleasure to continue to visit Marc over the years,”Wielgus said. “I always felt when I heard him play again I was coming home to how the oboe should be played. And I was always so grateful to that scholarship I received years ago I knew I had to return the favor so I established the William Wielgus Award Fund in Appreciation of Professor Marc Fink that each year provides funds to a deserving oboe student, now with the great Lindsay Flowers in charge of the studio.”
Wielgus served as a member of the oboe section of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1990 to 2017, upon appointment by music director Mstislav Rostropovich. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra and was English horn of the Oklahoma Symphony and principal oboe of the South Bend Symphony.
Currently, he is Musician in Residence at American University teaching oboe and chamber music. Previously he taught at West Virginia University, UW–Milwaukee, and St. Mary’s College. He appeared at many major summer music festivals including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Aspen, Tanglewood, and Spoleto, and was winner of the 1990 Aspen Woodwind Soloist Competition.
He especially is proud of the programs he has presented at conferences of the International Double Reed Society showcasing music from Wisconsin and Peru and the YouTube videos he has shared of this worthwhile music. He may also be heard on the Naxos label as principal oboist of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra on their recordings of works by Mark Adamo and Florian Gassman.
“It is a great honor to be recognized with this award,” Wielgus said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t look back at my experiences and opportunities at UW–Madison with fondness. As an aspiring young musician from the small town of Pulaski, Wisconsin on a tricky instrument like the oboe I was given a tremendous psychological boost when I was awarded a four-year tuition-free scholarship. My undergraduate years were formed by the incredible range of performance and scholarly activities there, a great foundation to continue building upon for the rest of my career, first as an oboist in a world-class symphony orchestra and now as a solo performer and researcher.”
An active researcher on American oboists and oboe music, Wielgus has written numerous articles for the Journal of the International Double Reed Society. He is currently involved in a project to research, commission, perform, and record Peruvian oboe music, presenting recitals at the conservatories of Lima, Trujillo and Ayacucho, and premiering dozens of works of Peruvian composers. In 2018, he was the first Western oboist invited to present a recital and master class at the Uzbekistan National Conservatory.
He appeared as soloist with the Banda Nacional de Cuba and the Trujillo Symphony Orchestra in addition to programs of Peruvian music at Indiana University, the University of Arkansas, and Southern Mississippi University. In 2019, he presented a program of Uruguayan oboe music at the Universidad de la Republica in Montevideo and a program of music and poetry at the Museu de la Emigratión Gallega en la Argentina in Buenos Aires. First invited in 2015, Mr. Wielgus has performed annually at the Musica no Museu recital series in Rio de Janeiro. In 2022, he gave the world premiere of Anderson Alves’ Canções Lunares in its version for oboe and orchestra with the composer conducting the Orquestra Sinfônica de Barra Mansa. He frequently performs with the New York Kammermusiker.
In 2024, Wielgus re-discovered and edited the manuscript of “Solitude/Nocturne” for English horn and strings by former UW–Madison horn professor John Barrows, and gave the first performance in almost 90 years at American University.
Only living alumni of the Mead Witter School of Music are eligible to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award. For purposes of definition, alumni must have received at least one degree from the School of Music. The nomination deadline is November 30 each year.
