Convocation is one of my favorite events of the academic year. UNC Greensboro’s convocation, “Nav1Gate,” for first-time Spartans occurred last month. As CVPA’s freshmen and transfer students filed into Tew Recital Hall, Scott Garrison, Technical Director of the UNCG Auditorium, cranked up Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).” Members of the Class of 2027 began to twirl and dance as they took their seats. Their exuberance and Scott’s playlist were infectious.

Over the next hour, a PowerPoint presentation narrated by school directors, faculty, staff, and current students detailed all that CVPA has to offer, from animation to popular music, from a residential arts dormitory to study abroad, from student leadership to community engagement, and from affordable student tickets to masterclasses with renowned artists. The PowerPoint was interspersed with videos of CVPA performances in dance, music, and theatre as well as photographs from last spring’s BFA art exhibition. The incoming students applauded the artistry of their fellow Spartans. 

In my own remarks, I reminded the students that they had chosen to study in the largest and most comprehensive set of arts programs in North Carolina and whose arts education alumni can be found in all 100 counties of the state. I repeated the adage that “no one works harder than a beginner,” and as these students began the academic year, I invited them to follow their ABCs by asking questions, bouncing back from disappointments, and creating opportunities to practice their artforms. Success is not a straight line, and a life in the arts is full of twists and turns. 

In her comments about the transfer student experience, Music Education major Shannon Mala shared that transitioning from a private liberal arts college to a public research university had been daunting, and she wondered if she would receive the same type of attention from her professors that she had previously enjoyed. In her own words, she described CVPA as a “family” and underscored the close attention that students receive from our faculty. She closed her remarks by welcoming the new transfer students “home.” 

All told, this fall we are welcoming 329 first-year students, 100 transfer students, and 70 new graduate students, which represents a 4.82% increase in enrollment for CVPA. These 499 new students hail from 21 states with international students joining us from China, Cuba, Honduras, Italy, and the Netherlands. As “Nav1Gate” concluded with a QR code for a raffle giveaway and refreshments, I felt buoyed by these students’ passion and exuberance, and cannot wait to see how they will shape our future in the arts! 

Sincerely,

bruce d. mcclung, Dean

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Jonah Carrel (’23 BFA Dance), Ashlee Dance (’18 BFA Dance), Christine Fisher (’05 MFA Dance), kt williams (’23 MFA Dance), and Chania Wilson (’21 BFA Dance) have been selected for the North Carolina Dance Project’s 2023–2024 Choreographer Residency Program.  

Alex Johnson (’23 BM Music Ed) has been named Orchestra Teacher at Kernodle Middle School in Greensboro. 

Destiny King (’23 BM Music Education) did a summer residency with the Creative Generation, a collective of artists, educators, administrators, researchers, storytellers, and activists from around the country. 

Autumn Paschal (’23 BM Music Education) has been named Elementary Music Teacher at Moss Street Elementary School in Reidsville, North Carolina. 

Abigail Domorod (’22 BA Music) has been named Director of Choral Activities at

H.J. MacDonald Middle School in New Bern, North Carolina. 

Celena Forrest (’22 BA Theatre Education) is starting her second year teaching elementary school theatre at Audrey Garrett Elementary School in Mebane, North Carolina. She is also performing in the upcoming production of Be More Chill with the Community Theatre of Greensboro. 

Allison McCarthy Roux (’22 MFA Dance) has been named Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre Dance at Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina. 

Kyrese Washington (’22 BM Flute Performance) attended, as a composing and performing fellow, the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival hosted at the Juilliard School this summer. 

Taylor Barlow (’21 BM Clarinet Performance) has been appointed Instructor of Clarinet and Music History at the University of Alabama in Hunstville. After UNCG, she attended the San Francisco Conservatory to earn a master’s degree in Clarinet Performance. She also serves as Executive Director of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra.  

Daniel Hayden (’21 BM Clarinet Performance) has been named Adjunct Instructor of Clarinet and Saxophone at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Yophi Bost (’20 BM Music Education) has accepted a role as a mainstage performer with Disney Cruise Line. 

Bethany Uhler Thompson (’20 DMA and ’17 MM Cello Performance) and the music programs she directs are highlighted in the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s recent newsletter. Thompson’s work was also featured in an ABC Action News Tampa Bay news segment.  

Iyanna Huffington Whitney (’20 BA Theatre) has been accepted to the Yale School of Drama as an MFA candidate in Theatre Management. 

Melody Causby (’19 PhD and ’08 MM Music Education) was awarded the 2023 University of Southern Mississippi Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. 

Robin McLaughlin Conine (’18 MM Music Composition) was recently named a winner of the inaugural Call for Scores at the Festival of New American Music at Cal-State Sacramento. Her chamber work “Falling Up” will be performed by the Citywater ensemble in Sacramento in November. 

Nicole K. Ramsey (’18 MM and ’14 BM Music Education) has been appointed Assistant Professor and Director of Music Education at Drake University following a year as Visiting Assistant Professor. Prior to her higher education career, Dr. Ramsey taught choir, musical theatre, and AP music theory in North Carolina. Her research centers around professional development for preservice and inservice music teachers, particularly in the areas of leadership and the intersection of personal and occupational identities. 

Trevor Davis (’17 DMA and ’13 MM Clarinet Performance) has been appointed Director of Woodwinds at Southern Utah University after a successful tenure at Louisiana Tech University as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Activities.  

Joyce King (’17 MFA Studio Arts) is showing her work at the Fiberart International Exhibition in Fort Collins, Colorado. 

Jackson Cooper (’16 BA Theatre) has written an entry in Grove Music Online about Grammy- and Pultizer Prize-nominated conductor and composer William Henry Curry, Music Director/Conductor of the Durham Symphony. 

Gretchen Krupp (’15 BM Vocal Performance) made her Santa Fe Opera debut this summer as Mary in The Flying Dutchman.  

Jeremiah Quarles (’15 BM Oboe Performance) has been named Lecturer of Oboe at Western Michigan University. 

William Kelley (’14 BM Piano Performance) recently made his debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg conducting Bizet’s Carmen. 

Annalisa Chang (’13 MM and ’09 BM Music Education) is the recipient of the 2022–2023 Clayton State University College of Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award.  

Michelle Lanteri (’13 BA Art History and Museum Studies, ’02 BA Media Studies) has begun a new position as Curator of Collections at the Albuquerque Museum. 

Tricia Zweier (’11 MS Kinesiology, ’10 MFA Dance) has combined her cross-disciplinary interests in dance and science with the publication of The Dance Anatomy Coloring Book. Zweier is Associate Professor of Dance and Dance Program Coordinator at Lindenwood University in

St. Charles, Missouri where she teaches contemporary and jazz technique courses as well as anatomy and kinesiology in the BA/BFA dance program.  

Ian Passmore (’09 BA Music) will make two notable debuts in the 2023–2024 concert season. In November, Passmore will conduct the Charlotte Symphony in two concerts featuring the New York-based jazz ensemble The Hot Sardines. In April he will conduct the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra in their season finale concert. Passmore is represented by Parker Artists in New York and is an endorsing artist for Work of Art Custom Batons. 

Paul Pietrowski (’07 MM Trombone Performance) has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of the St. Louis Symphony. Paul has served as Personnel Manager for the Richmond Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. 

Rebecca Wade-Chung (’07 BM Music Education) has accepted a new position as an MYP/DP Music Teacher and Orchestra Director at the International School of The Hague in the Netherlands.  

Marc Foster (’05 DMA Choral Conducting, ’94 BM Music Education) was recently awarded the Meredith Clark Slane Distinguished Teaching-Service Award at High Point University where he is Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choral Activities.  

Wade Elkins (’04 BM Vocal Performance) is in his eleventh year performing as a Blue Man with the Blue Man Group. As a composer, Elkins’s work is featured in Methacular, the award-winning and critically acclaimed show by Steven Strafford. 

Doug Risner (’03 PhD Education, ’91 MFA and ’88 BFA Dance, and 2017 CVPA Distinguished Alumnus) has received the 2023 Wayne State University Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award for his book Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity: Why Boys (Don’t) Dance (Palgrave MacMillan 2022). Dr. Risner received the Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, Board of Governors, Wayne State University in 2019. 

Michael Kolstad (’96 DMA, ’90 MM Trombone Performance) serves as Chief of Staff and Executive Vice President at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. This past year he was named by the Springfield Business Journal as a “Man of the Year.” The award recognizes the professional, philanthropic, and civic contributions of businessmen throughout the Southwest Missouri region. 

Stephanie Caulder (’95 BA Music) has been named the Founding Dean of the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Dr. Caulder comes to the university with nearly twenty-five years of administrative experience, including most recently as Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Radford University. She previously served as the chairperson, assistant chairperson, and coordinator of graduate studies in the music department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, as well as the associate director for the UNC Greensboro Community Music School.  

Fu Chiawen Lien (’84 MFA and ’82 BFA Studio Arts) had a showing this summer of her work at Long Island City Artists open studio in the exhibit “Love of Labor, Art of Craft.”