Schwendinger named Abravanel Distinguished Visiting Composer

Professor of Composition Laura Schwendinger has been named the 2024-25 Abravanel Distinguished Visiting Composer at the University of Utah School of Music. Schwendinger’s residency includes a lecture and concert featuring her work. Both events are on February 10 at Dumke Recital Hall on the University of Utah campus.

Schwendinger is the composer of the opera Artemisia (about the painter Artemisia Gentileschi), is the winner of the 2023 American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Opera award ($50,000) and was the first composer to win the Berlin Prize (1999).

A professor at UW–Madison since 2005, her works have been championed by Dawn Upshaw (on tour 1997-2005); the Arditti, Spektral and JACK Quartets; Jennifer Koh, Janine Jansen, Miranda Cuckson, Matt Haimovitz, ICE, Eighth-Blackbird, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Collage New Music, ACO, Richmond Symphony and Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Her music has been performed at the Kennedy & Lincoln Centers, Berlin Philharmonic, Wigmore & Carnegie Halls, Miller & Théâtre du Châtelet, and Tanglewood, Aspen, Ojai, & Talis Festivals. Her prizes and fellowships include those from the Guggenheim Foundation, Harvard-Radcliffe Institute, ALEA III, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, and multiple fellowship residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo Colony, Copland House, Bogliasco Foundation, Tyrone Guthrie Center (IRE) and Visby Center (Sweden), and was a League of League of American Orchestras/New Music USA composer in residence with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra (2014); as well as a rare two-time recipient of commissions from the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations.

Recent premieres include orchestral works Nightingales a poem for two violins and orchestra for Ariana Kim and Eleanor Bartsch, a harp concerto for Atlanta Symphony Principal Harpist, Elisabeth Remy Johnson and a saxophone ensemble work for the Northwestern saxophone Ensemble.

In reviews, her music has been called “captivating, artful and moving,” “music of infinite beauty” (NY Times), “ the genuine article…onto the ’season’s best list “ (Boston Globe); Colin Clarke wrote about her JACK CD QUARTETS, “the sheer intensity of the music is spellbinding…the passion shines through like a light.”

In 2025, she has several major premieres including a new choral work Silent Spring, commissioned by Cantori NY, based on Rachel Carson’s seminal book (May 2025 at Merkin Hall, NY), Ghost Music for the Chameleon Arts Ensemble in Boston (April 2025), Ghost Songs for Loadbang Ensemble (National Opera Center, NYC in February 2025), and she was awarded the Creative Arts Award ($30,000) for her third opera.

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Katz joins School of Music as bassoon teaching faculty

The School of Music is excited to announce Eleni Katz as a bassoon teaching faculty member starting Fall 2025. A graduate of UW–Madison and Yale, and an accomplished bassoonist, Katz has established herself as a prominent soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Her “thoughtful and expressive” (San Diego Union Tribune) approach to music making has led her from performances by the bright blue waters of Bermuda to the lights of Carnegie Hall.

“As a Madison native and a UW–Madison alumna, I could not be more honored and excited to join the Mead Witter School of Music and the Wingra Wind Quintet this fall,” Katz said.

Katz is a winner of the 2022 Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Nu Deco Ensemble, the Jupiter Chamber Players, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra, and as a member with the New World Symphony.

Other recent appearances include La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Series, Lake George Music Festival, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Death of Classical: The Crypt Sessions, and Newport Classical. Her approach to playing the bassoon has been described as “uncannily human” (The Royal Gazette) and she has always believed the bassoon should strive to emulate the organic resonance of the human voice.

“Eleni will bring a wide range of chamber and orchestral playing and we are excited for her to join us,” said Dan Cavanagh, director of the School of Music.

Professor of Bassoon Marc Vallon plans to retire from the School of Music this spring.

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Watch: Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos

Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy and Director of Graduate Studies Jessica Johnson recently produced a video featuring Missy Mazzoli’s Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos. Johnson filmed the piece in Collins Recital Hall at the Hamel Music Center on a DS Standard 5.5 keyboard.

According to the notes, “Isabelle Eberhardt was an explorer and writer who, at the beginning of the 20th century, abandoned a comfortable aristocratic life for a nomadic existence in North Africa. She was a liberated individual who rejected conventional European morality in favor of her own path. She died in a desert flash flood at the age of 27.

Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos imagines her riding on horseback through the desert, lost in thought, remembering sounds and sensations of her old life. Fragments of Schubert’s A Major Sonata pierce her consciousness and are quickly suppressed. In her fatigue she dreams of a piano half-buried in sand, a flash flood of sheet music swirling around her.”

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Voices of Hope: Pinsonneault and Gendel Release New Album

Albert Pinsonneault, Associate Director of Choral Studies, and composer Scott Gendel PhD’05 recently embarked on a profound musical journey together. Their collaboration resulted in the album HOPE EATS YOU ALIVE, a poignant and powerful work recorded by the Madison Choral Project, a group Pinsonneault founded in 2013.

In 2018, Pinsonneault approached his friend Gendel with a vision. He wanted a piece that would delve into a contemporary issue in a semi-extended form. What was especially striking to Pinsonneault was not the public discussions around immigration policies, but that some public actors were choosing language that dehumanized the people seeking refuge in the United States.

Gendel proposed using a text from National Public Radio’s StoryCorps, where forensic scientist Dr. Lori Baker recounts her mission to identify the remains of those who died crossing the border and match them with families who are looking for lost relatives. This story offered a counter-narrative to the dehumanizing rhetoric to those who can only describe immigrants as “them.”

“The musical story on HOPE EATS YOU ALIVE is not pro- or anti-immigration, it is not Republican or Democrat in nature,” Pinsonneault said. “It is a simple tableau offering a glimpse into the harrowing journey many are compelled to make. We were also careful not to tell the story of immigrants, which is not ours to share. Rather, we told the story of the forensic scientist Dr. Baker, who was doing something in her power to help.”

In addition to the title, HOPE EATS YOU ALIVE includes four other works by Gendel, each with its own unique message. Some are humorous, some warm, some contemplative, but all share a common theme: “Love is worth hoping for, even if it eats at you, even if it takes you alive. Loving one another is something we must do as often as possible.”

Gendel, who also sings in Madison Choral Project, “really produced an exceptional work for us,” Pinsonneault said. “His musical language is informed by opera, and he understands how to tell a story through pacing, silence, dissonance, and shockingly tender moments. We knew we needed to record this piece, and wanted to celebrate Scott’s other choral music in our first commercially produced album.”

Madison Choral Project is the only fully professional chorus in Wisconsin, specializing in 21st-century music and commissioning new works. Recording an album of Gendel’s music was a natural fit, a fusion of celebrating both new music and the artistry of Wisconsin musicians, Pinsonneault said.

The album was released December 13 by Navona Records, a label known for its high-quality choral music releases.

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Payung named Assistant Director of Bands

The School of Music is excited to announce Herb Payung as the next Assistant Director of Bands. He will serve alongside the band faculty to teach and help guide the historic University of Wisconsin Bands program in the School of Music. In addition, he will assist with aspects in both the athletic and concert band programs, and the undergraduate curriculum. Payung replaces Alexander Gonzalez, who has been hired as the Director of Bands at Southern Oregon University.

“As an alumnus of UW–Madison, I am aware not only of the well-established musical tradition of the Mead Witter School of Music, but of the tightly-knit community formed by its faculty and students,” Payung said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to re-enter this flourishing creative space in a new capacity and continue to build relationships through music making.”

Previously, Payung served as the Assistant Director of Bands at Elon University where he was involved with all aspects of the athletic band program and conducted the Concert Band. At the onset of his career, Payung taught instrumental music in eastern Pennsylvania. During his six years in public education, Payung conducted high school concert bands, jazz ensembles, pit orchestras, and marching bands. He taught courses in instrumental music and jazz improvisation. Payung also served as an elementary band director and brass and percussion instructor at the middle school level.

“We are extremely proud and excited to welcome Dr. Payung home to UW–Madison after an extensive national search by the Mead Witter School of Music,” said Corey Pompey, Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands. “Payung is an exceptional artist-teacher and high-caliber individual. Without question, our students will benefit from all that he has to offer.”

Payung holds music degrees from Penn State University (BME, MM Wind Conducting), Boston University (MM Music Education) and UW–Madison (DMA Wind Conducting). His primary conducting teachers include Scott Teeple of UW–Madison and Dennis Glocke of Penn State University.

“We conducted a comprehensive national search to find the individual best suited for our position,” said Scott Teeple, Director of Bands in the School of Music. “Dr. Payung brings a wealth of knowledge about Big Ten band programs. He exercises a deep appreciation for our traditions, while also bringing a forward-thinking philosophy to our students and programs.”

Payung is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the National Association for Music Education, the American Federation of Musicians, and Pi Kappa Lambda, Music Honor Society.

 

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Cook, Rowe set to retire

Professor Susan C. Cook and Professor Paul Rowe are retiring this spring.

Cook is a professor of musicology, and was formerly the academic associate dean for the Arts and Humanities in the Graduate School and director of the School of Music. She also held the Walt Whitman Chair in American Culture Studies as part of the Fulbright Distinguished Teaching Program in the Netherlands.

Cook’s teaching and research focuses on contemporary and American music of all kinds and demonstrates her abiding interest in feminist methodologies and cultural criticism. The author of Opera for a New Republic, she also co-edited 2 volumes of essays, Cecilia Reclaimed and most recently Bodies of Sound: Studies Across Popular Music and Dance, in collaboration with dance historian Sherril Dodds. As director of the School of Music, Cook played a critical role in the Hamel Music Center building campaign, as well as leading discussions on the department’s strategic vision and mission.

Professor of Voice Paul Rowe has also served on the voice faculties of the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, Vanderbilt University, State University of New York at Purchase, Lehigh University and Nazareth College of Rochester, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the Tennessee State Governor’s School. He was the Artistic Director of the Madison Early Music Festival, an annual festival he helped found in 2000.

Rowe has maintained a wide ranging performing career throughout the United States for the past 20 years. He has performed with many of the leading American musical organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York, American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera and Kennedy Center, and Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He has appeared as well with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Alabama and Arkansas symphony orchestras, the Folger Consort, and the Ensemble for Early Music, among many other groups.

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Pinsonneault joins Choral faculty

The School of Music is thrilled to announce Albert Pinsonneault as the incoming Associate Director of Choral Studies starting this fall. Pinsonneault will teach choir, conducting, and the graduate choral literature seminar.

“I am so honored to join the faculty at the Mead Witter School of Music and to begin my work making art collaboratively in this community,” Pinsonneault said. “I have a lifelong passion for ensemble singing and I am grateful for the opportunity to share, critically examine, and produce music here.”

Pinsonneault is founder and artistic director of the Madison Choral Project, a 24-voice professional chamber choir based in Madison. A fierce advocate for new music, he has commissioned and premiered dozens of new works for choir. He received second place in the American Prize for Professional Choirs in 2020, performed at Midwestern ACDA Regional conferences (2018, 2020), presented at ACDA National in 2017, and will headline the Iowa Choral Directors Association state conference in 2024. His booklet Choral Intonation is published through Graphite and in active use at over 150 high schools, universities, churches, and community choruses.

Pinsonneault was Director of Choral Activities at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota where he oversaw a large undergraduate choral program involving 200 student musicians, a nationally televised Christmas program, and a history of international travel. From 2015-2019 he was Associate Director of Choral Organizations at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where he helped administer a distinguished doctoral program in choral conducting, led two choirs, taught the graduate choral literature sequence, and served on dissertation committees.

A native of Minnesota, Pinsonneault attended St. Olaf College (BM Piano Performance) and the University of Minnesota (MM Choral Conducting) before completing his studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (DMA Choral Conducting, minor in Music Theory).

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Remembering Les Thimmig, 1943-2024

Professor Les Thimmig, who taught at UW–Madison for over 50 years, died April 28, 2024.

Leslie L. Thimmig (“Les”) grew up in Joliet, Illinois, where he played his saxophone as a teenager in jazz clubs. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition, and was awarded MMA and DMA degrees in composition from Yale University. He taught music theory at Yale before joining the faculty of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, to direct the composition/theory department. In 1971, Thimmig joined the music faculty at UW–Madison to direct the composition program. He later added woodwind performance and jazz studies to his teaching curriculum.

Thimmig was an internationally known soloist and composer. His compositions have been performed in North and South America, Europe, and Africa, and his commissioned work for the Da Capo Chamber Players premiered in Carnegie Hall. His jazz career included performances with the orchestras of Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Oliver Nelson, and Duke Ellington. He recalled fondly his dates in the Catskill Mountains with prominent band leaders of the ’60s, and his work during the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s with leading artists.

Additional performing affiliations included membership in The Thimmig-Johnson Duo (Madison), Present Music (Milwaukee), Adam Unsworth Ensemble (Ann Arbor), New Sousa Band (San Francisco), and Chicago Clarinet Ensemble. He was leader of the Les Thimmig 7, which performed his compositions exclusively.

Thimmig was revered as a devoted teacher and mentor by his students. His positive attitude and skill at enhancing their performance–and his excitement at assisting graduate students preparing for doctoral evaluations–were essential to what he believed was his obligation to the university.

In the jazz field, Thimmig’s role at the university evolved over the years. When he first arrived, he was involved with the UW Jazz Ensemble for a short period of time. Then he helped teach classes for a jazz major that was first developed in 1979, even though the major was short lived. From 1982 to 1988, Thimmig helmed the UW Jazz Ensemble again. While never his sole focus, jazz remained an important part of Thimmig’s career.

Thimmig most recently ran the Jazz Composers Group, one of several jazz ensembles at the School of Music. Sometimes called a “laboratory,” it was a place where jazz students were able to experiment under Thimmig’s tutelage. With a foundation library of Thimmig’s work, the group slowly became centered on student writing each semester.

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Wohn, Treviño join Music faculty

After competitive national searches, the School of Music is thrilled to announce the hiring of Dawn Dongeun Wohn as Assistant Professor of Violin, and Matthew Treviño as Assistant Professor of Voice. Wohn and Treviño join the faculty this fall.

Wohn, who is currently in a teaching faculty role at the School of Music, has performed in concert halls across five continents including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She has appeared as a soloist for live-broadcast performances with orchestras such as the Korean Broadcasting Symphony and the Aspen Conducting Orchestra, The New York Sinfonietta, and Japan’s Telemann Ensemble. In addition, she has performed recitals across the world including Carnegie Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, and Jordan Hall.

Her debut solo album Perspectives, featuring works by female composers, was featured by the New York Times, Spotify and Apple Music and was chosen as one of WQXR’s best albums of the year. Her recent release, Unbounded by Delos Music, explores music by American women.

“I’m very excited to continue working for the School of Music in this new position,” Wohn said. “I love working with our curious, creative and open-minded students, and our collaborative and supportive faculty and staff. I am happy to be able to add my voice and be able to serve our School of Music community.”

Hailed as “a bass of rare talent,” Treviño most recently performed the role of Bonze in Madama Butterfly and Ferrando in Il Trovatore with L’Opéra de Montréal, Dr. Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro with Calgary Opera’s and Austin Opera, Dr. P in Nashville Opera’s revival of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Friar Laurent in Roméo et Juliette with Florentine Opera, and Dr. Grenvil in La Traviata with the Calgary Opera.

Treviño is currently the chair of the voice department at McGill University in Montreal. A devoted and passionate educator, he is committed to a teaching approach which includes the science of healthy singing, a sensitivity to the artist’s physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing, and an unyielding commitment to guiding students towards a more productive life both personally and professionally.

“I am thrilled to join the faculty of the School of Music’s voice department and look forward to contributing to the school’s already stellar reputation,” Treviño said. “My wife, son, and I are so excited to begin our adventure in a city as vibrant and beautiful as Madison, and I’m eager to be a contributing member of its educational and artistic community. I’m humbled by this opportunity to teach, mentor, and guide the students at UW–Madison and help propel the School of Music to even greater heights.”

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Teeple inducted into American Bandmasters Association

Professor Scott Teeple, Director of Bands, has been inducted into the American Bandmasters Association (ABA). He’s conducting the United States Navy Band in concert in Washington, D.C. on March 7, 2024 as part of the ABA convention and induction. 

Being a member of ABA is one of the highest honors in the profession. Membership is granted through an extensive process that acknowledges the quality of someone’s work, musicianship, and contributions to the field. To be accepted into membership, an individual must be nominated by a group of members, submit a dossier of materials including a CV and performance recordings, and then be voted upon by the membership committee and the full membership of the organization.

Dr. Kevin Geraldi, Director of Bands at the University Illinois, and Dr. Mary Schneider, Director of Bands at Eastern Michigan University, served to nominate Teeple.

“Scott is most deserving and it was my honor to be one of his sponsors,” Geraldi said.

Founded in 1929, ABA recognizes outstanding achievement on the part of concert band conductors and composers. The current invitational membership comprises approximately 300 band conductors and composers in the United States and Canada.

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Cavanagh wins American Prize

Dan Cavanagh, director of the School of Music, won The American Prize in the “Composition, 2023, Social Justice related” category for his composition Even if the Last Bullet Hits My Chest. A work for wind symphony, the piece reflects on the patterns of war and hope, and its impact on human beings.

“Some number of years ago, I was listening to the BBC World Service on the radio, and through an interpreter, a Yemeni farmer was being interviewed about the civil war there,” Cavanagh wrote in program notes. “He said something so profound: ‘Even if the last bullet hits my chest, we must end this war.’ To me hearing that was like a flash of human connection across the globe, from a man I will never know, from a completely different culture. That has stuck with me ever since.”

The piece was also awarded second place earlier this year in The American Prize Wind Symphony Composition division.

“I’m glad I was able to tackle themes of war and cultural connection through this piece and I’m grateful that it continues to spread that message,” Cavanagh said.

The University of Texas at Arlington Wind Symphony premiered the piece, with a subsequent professional debut by the Dallas Winds. 

According to the organization, The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the performing arts. The American Prize is unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, directors, ensembles and composers in the United States at professional, college/university, community and high school levels, based on submitted recordings. The American Prize was founded in 2010 and is awarded annually in many areas of the performing arts.

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School of Music welcomes new faculty

The School of Music is excited to announce the hiring of four new faculty members for the fall: Gabrielle Cornish, Assistant Professor of Musicology; John Walsh, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology; Jesse Rathgeber, Assistant Professor of Music Education; and Sarah Brailey, Voice Instructor.

Cornish’s research broadly considers music and everyday life in the Soviet Union. In particular, her monograph-in-progress, Socialist Noise: Sound and Soviet Identity after Stalin, traces the intersections between music, technology, and the politics of socialist modernity during the Cold War. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Program, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Musicological Society, and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Her writing has appeared in the Journal of Musicology and the Journal of the American Musicological Society, and she has bylines in Slate, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

“I’m thrilled to be coming to UW–Madison,” Cornish said. “The research environment is everything a young scholar could hope for, and I’m eager to work with such a devoted, intelligent, and supportive community of students and scholars. The department is moving in very exciting directions, buoyed by its faculty, staff, and students, and I’m excited to be a part of these transformations.”

Rathgeber has been a faculty member at Augustana College in Illinois and James Madison University in Virginia. As part of his teaching, scholarship, and service, Rathgeber has founded AugiePlay and JMUke, both informal, community-based music projects. He also co-founded the Center for Inclusive Music Engagement and co-convened the Disability Studies and Music Education Symposium. Prior to his work at the collegiate level, Rathgeber was K-12 music teacher for Deland-Weldon Community Unit School District 57 and EC-5 general music teacher for Kildeer Countryside School District 96, both in Illinois.

“I’m excited to join everyone at the Mead Witter School of Music and UW–Madison, broadly, in order to build upon the deep and meaningful history of music education scholarship and practice and to help chart new pathways toward inclusive, responsive, critical, just, and playful lifelong music learning,” Rathgeber said. 

As an ethnomusicologist, Walsh is broadly interested in the relationships between music and cities. Specifically, his work explores the music scene as a flexible form of collective expressive culture that articulates relations between sociality, materiality, and aesthetics. His current research focuses on contemporary music scenes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under conditions of political transformation. Walsh’s research has been supported through two Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, the Cota Robles Fellowship, The John L. Simpson Memorial Research Fellowship, the Rocca Pre-Dissertation Research Grant, and UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies and Center for African Studies.

Brailey, a Wisconsin  native, received her MM and DMA from the Mead Witter School of Music. She has worked as a freelance soloist and chamber artist in New York City and around the globe for the past 15 years in a repertoire that includes historically-informed performance, contemporary classical pieces, and 18th- and 19th-century solo and orchestral music. A prolific recording artist, she won the 2020 Grammy in the category Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for her performance in Dame Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison.   She is a member of the Lorelei Ensemble and Roomful of Teeth, and is co-founder of the Just Bach chamber series in Madison as well as Artistic Director of the Handel Aria Competition. 

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Dan Cavanagh named next School of Music director

Dan Cavanagh has been named the next director of the School of Music, effective July 1, 2023. Cavanagh’s appointment concludes a national search led by Associate Dean Susan Zaeske of the College of Letters & Science; music professors Mimmi Fulmer, Christopher Taylor, Scott Teeple, Conor Nelson, and Daniel Grabois; and School of Music Assistant Director Wendy Johnson.

“I am thrilled that Dan will bring to the directorship of the Mead Witter School of Music a cutting-edge vision of research and curricular excellence combined with the wherewithal to get things done thanks to his many years of experience as a music and liberal arts administrator,” Zaeske said.

Cavanagh is a composer and pianist who has garnered numerous awards in both areas. As a composer he has written or arranged for Latin Grammy-winning AfroBop Alliance, the legendary Patti LaBelle, and a wide range of classical and jazz performers across North America and Europe. He has released five critically acclaimed jazz CDs as a leader.

His music can be heard on many other recordings both classical and jazz and he continues to be commissioned and programmed around the world. Cavanagh has also performed extensively in North America and internationally. He has been a finalist in the EuropaFest Jazz Contest in Bucharest, and in the Jacksonville Jazz Festival Piano Competition.

“I am very excited to join UW–Madison as the next Pamela O. Hamel/Music Board of Advisors Professor and Director of the Mead Witter School of Music,” Cavanagh said. “The school’s national reputation is bolstered by its amazing faculty, talented students, and accomplished staff.”

Cavanagh is currently the interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Arlington. Prior to serving as interim Dean, Cavanagh held various academic leadership roles, including program director, music department chair, and associate dean. He has also served in high-profile shared governance roles in the University of Texas System, including as Chair of the Faculty Advisory Council representing over 21,000 faculty members across the 14 institutions in the system.

From 2015-2020, he served as the Co-Chair of Region VI for the Society of Composers and currently serves on the executive board of a2ru, the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities. Cavanagh serves on the board of directors for Downtown Arlington Management Corporation (Arlington, TX), chairs Downtown Arlington’s Cultural Arts District Partners group and serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Dallas Winds, a five-time Grammy nominated professional Wind Symphony.

Cavanagh succeeds Director Susan C. Cook, who will be on research leave during the 23-24 academic year after serving 10 years as director of the School of Music.

“I look forward to engaging with the Board of Advisors, colleagues across the University, and individuals throughout the community to continue growing the impact, reach, and excellence the School of Music creates every day, and to advance the ideals of the Wisconsin Idea through the creative work and scholarship we will produce together,” Cavanagh said.

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School of Music celebrates new scholarship fund

The School of Music is thrilled to announce and celebrate the Susan C. Cook Scholarship Fund. This newly-established fund created by alumni, friends, and our Board of Advisors will provide eligible students with full in-state tuition and will build upon Professor Cook’s ten years of service as director of the School of Music.

Professor Cook’s legacy resonates throughout the school, from the students she has mentored to overseeing the building and completion of Hamel Music Center which she called “the Wisconsin Idea at its most audible” upon its opening in 2019. During her ten years as director, Professor Cook has also developed a larger culture of philanthropy and support and has expressed her deep appreciation for the generous philanthropic individuals who have continued to support music students through scholarships and support of all kinds.

Join us in celebrating the new fund during Day of the Badger March 28–29. All gifts made during Day of the Badger will be designated to support students through the Susan C. Cook Scholarship and will ensure Professor Cook’s pivotal contributions to the School of Music will be remembered for generations. Thanks to Garry and Joanne Owens, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar–up to $10,000–during Day of the Badger.

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Schwendinger wins Charles Ives Opera Prize

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has named Professor Laura Schwendinger and librettist Ginger Strand winners of the Charles Ives Opera Prize for their opera Artemisia. Based on the life of 17th-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, Artemisia premiered at the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble in 2019 and received an OPERA America Discovery Grant.

The Ives Opera Prize is is the largest and most prestigious award for opera composers in the US. As composer, Schwendinger will receive $35,000, and Strand, as librettist, will receive $15,000.

Operas were nominated by the Academy’s members, and winners chosen by a jury comprised of members John Harbison (chair), Anthony Davis, Tania León, Tobias Picker, and Shulamit Ran, who met in 2022. The awards will be given at the annual Ceremonial in May.

The first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin Prize, Schwendinger is a professor of composition at the Mead Witter School of Music.

 

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The Director Takes A Bow

Susan C. Cook sums it up perfectly: “You can take the professor out of the classroom, but not the classroom out of the professor.” After a decade as director of the Mead Witter School of Music, Cook will step down at the end of this year. But this isn’t the grand finale of Cook’s career; it’s just the beginning of a new movement.

Having worked 15 years without a sabbatical, Cook is looking forward to taking some time off. Then, she’ll be back to doing what she loves: teaching music history.

“My area of interest has always been contemporary music,” Cook says, “which used to mean the 20th century, but now it’s the 21st century as well. The world keeps changing around us and we have to change with it. I think it’s always important for faculty to be continuing to think about what it is our students need now and to be not teaching just the way we were taught, or just the way we used to teach even 10 or 15 years ago.”

That adaptability and forward thinking have been the cornerstones of Cook’s term as director. They served her well when things looked precarious for the school.

“I came into the role in somewhat of a challenging time,” she recalls. “The previous director had stepped down a couple years early, so it was a transition that we weren’t expecting.”

The school was experiencing budget cuts and limited hiring and had been struggling to move ahead with a new building project. Then, there came a new chancellor, provost, and dean in quick succession — all starting around the same time that Cook assumed her new role. The future was uncertain. However, following campuswide discussions, Chancellor Rebecca Blank quickly decided to move ahead with plans for a new music building, which would become the Hamel Music Center.

“That decision proved to be a really smart one,” Cook remembers, because it was the vote of confidence that signaled to the Mead Witter Foundation that the university was invested in the future of the school, and “that there was a real critical need here.” The foundation made a major gift that allowed the ambitious building project to proceed and attracted even more support.

“One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about this job was working with the incredibly generous philanthropic individuals who have helped make this building a reality and have continued to support our students, again, through scholarships and support of all kinds,” Cook says. She beams as she talks about the “larger culture of philanthropy and support” that has sprung up around the school. “We have wonderful fans that come and write students notes (after performances) and tell them how terrific they sounded and that has just been something really unexpectedly wonderful to be a part of.”

The Hamel Music Center opened its doors in fall 2019, glistening like a jewel at the heart of campus. Then came the blow that nobody expected: COVID-19. But as it turned out, even though the center wasn’t designed with a pandemic in mind, it met the needs of the moment perfectly.

“Had we not had this building, the pandemic would have been so much worse for all of us,” Cook says. “Because we did have the technology and the extra spaces in this building that allowed us to do things safely to continue to connect with each other and to connect with audiences, even if we couldn’t be in person. I know there were people who felt like the building was closed and empty, and I kept saying, ‘It’s not. There’s still life going on there.’ I would drive by, and I would see the lights on in the lobby. To me, it was a beacon of hope and a reminder that we would be back together and that the building was helping keep us connected even then.”

Looking ahead, Cook hopes that the school will continue to build on what the Hamel Music Center started, continuing to be “inventive in our programming, inventive in our use of the space.” She also hopes to get the additional rehearsal spaces and financial assistance that students need, though that is a quest that will pass to the school’s next director — and to the new Humanities building project, which is in development.

“This clearly is a big job, a challenging job,” Cook says. “Sometimes people have asked me what have been the rewards? And I would say that the rewards have been in the music.”

She says it’s like “being in this wonderful garden” and not knowing what’s going to spring up and blossom. “You’re doing a lot of digging and a lot of heavy labor at times, but then (you’re) rewarded with this kind of beauty that you couldn’t have imagined.”

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School of Music welcomes new faculty

From L to R, Amy Lewis (Music Education), Michael Weinstein-Reiman (Music Theory), and Lindsay Flowers (Oboe) joined the School of Music faculty this fall.

The School of Music is excited to welcome three new faculty members this fall: Amy Lewis (Music Education), Michael Weinstein-Reiman (Music Theory), and Lindsay Flowers (Oboe).

Dr. Amy Lewis is the daughter of Jayne McShann Lewis and Bennie Lewis and is the granddaughter of Frances McShann Shelton and jazz pianist Jay McShann. Dr. Lewis is a research associate as an Anna Julia Cooper Fellow in the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Her research is focused on systemic oppression, equity, and racism in music education. As a public music teacher, she taught K-1, 6-8 general music, beginning band, middle school choir, and jazz band in the Chicagoland suburbs. She received the 2022 Compass Visionary Award, the 2019 Black Faculty, Staff, and Administrators Association Emerging Leader Award, and was also named the 2015 Illinois Education Association Teacher of the Year.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be named an Anna Julia Cooper Fellow at the UW–Madison,” Lewis said. “I look forward to working with incredible colleagues in the Mead Witter School of Music and contributing to such a rich history of research in music education.”

Michael Weinstein-Reiman is a historian of music theory. His work seeks to elucidate music theory’s role in the history of ideas over the longue durée. His related research interests include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European philosophy, music pedagogy, literature, gender and sexuality, and disability studies.

In 2021, he received the Ph.D. in Music Theory from Columbia University, where he wrote a dissertation on the changing understanding of touch—considered as an action, a sense, and as a metaphor for music’s effect on the psyche—across the span of two centuries of French intellectual history. Research for the dissertation was supported by Columbia’s Dean’s Fellowship, a Georges Lurcy Fellowship, an honorary Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Embassy, and several travel grants. He holds degrees in music from The University of Oregon, Mannes College, and Brandeis University.

“It is a real honor to join the community of musicians and scholars at UW–Madison,” Weinstein-Reiman said. “I am excited about working with the School of Music’s top-notch and diverse performers. As I embark on my own research projects, I cannot wait to see our students flourish and forge their own paths.”

Dr. Lindsay Flowers is the Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music where she is a member of the Wingra Wind Quintet and guides student-generated community engagement projects. She received a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Linda Strommen and Roger Roe. Her background in athletics distinguishes her pedagogical approach in her emphasis on performance visualization, disciplined commitment, and supportive teamwork.

Lindsay is an Oboist and English Hornist with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra. She previously was a member of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Lindsay was a founding member of the Arundo Donax Reed Quintet, Bronze Medal Winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and recorded a duo album with Dr. Andrew Parker to be released in 2023. She has performed with the Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Utah, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras and during recent summers with the Santa Fe Opera, Grant Park, Midsummer’s, Lakes Area, Apollo, Lake George, Castleton, Aspen, and Banff Music Festivals.

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Faculty, DMA student presenting at ACDA 2023

Dr. Mariana Farah, director of Choral Activities, and incoming DMA choral conducting student Liz Olson are presenting as part of a panel session at the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association. This session will feature five active women conductors and a first-year doctoral student in a candid discussion about past, present, and future challenges for women in choral music. The presenters will offer strategies on how young and experienced conductors can fight new and longstanding matters involving gender bias in the choral field. Members will learn to:

a) identify instances of gender disparity in the choral profession;
b) fight challenges related to gender bias;
c) support students and colleagues who experience gender discrimination;
d) advocate for themselves and others;
e) promote change to help create more equitable spaces for women conductors

The conference will be held February 22-25, 2023 in Cincinnati, OH.

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Professor Margaret Butler receives IAML Vladimir Fédorov Award

Professor Margaret Butler has received the IAML Vladimir Fédorov Award for her article “Opening a Celebrity’s Closet: Cecilia Davies and the De Bellis Collection,” Fontes Artis Musicae 68/4 (2021): 288–314. The award honors the best article published in the journal during a given volume year.

The Publications Awards Subcommittee commented that “this article could well stand as a model description of uncatalogued collections: it provides historical background of both the collection and collector; description of the content together with the extensive research required to compile the listing; further reading and research suggestions, and a tantalising problem that set our detective pulses racing: there are still some unidentified pieces in the collection.”

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Di Sanza premieres “Ancient Echoes”

Professor Anthony Di Sanza recently premiered “Ancient Echoes,” a new concerto by Michael Udow commissioned by the Longmont Symphony Orchestra. In addition to a modern lithophone and percussion instruments from around the world, Professor Di Sanza played on a set of 6,000-year-old lithophones discovered by Longmont archaeologist Marilyn Martorano.

Read more –> “Ancient Echoes”: A Review

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