Dean O'Connell (center), Dr. Kylie Stultz-Dessent, and her clarinet students at the Dons' College Picnic 2025. For the 7th year in row, VPA had the highest student turnout at the picnic and got to keep the coveted prize trophy.

A Word from Dean O'Connell...

“It is with a heavy heart that on August 20, I announced to my great colleagues here in the College of Visual and Performing Arts my intent to retire in June 2026 from the BEST job I’ve ever had! I did not come to this decision easily as I truly cherish all the students, staff and faculty in this wonderfully creative and inspiring college. We are not leaving Fort Wayne, so I shan’t be far from the many happenings here on campus and in this college.”

Please save the date for Thursday, April 30, 2026 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the PFW Alumni Center for a special retirement party to celebrate Dean O'Connell's service to the College, University, and Fort Wayne communities. More details to follow in future editions of Expressions.

In the meantime, if you'd like to see him in action as a director for the PFW Department of Theatre this spring, tickets are on sale for William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew: The March for the Vote, opening on February 20, 2026. Let's say thank you to John by making every show a sell-out in his honor!

CVPA Welcomes Five New Full-Time Faculty Members

Dr. Chukwuemeka Vincent Chukwuemeka

Assistant Professor of Practice, Interior Design

Department of Art and Design

Corey E. Lee



Clinical Assistant Professor, Lighting Design

Department of Theatre

Gregor Roth

Assistant Professor of Practice, Graphic Design

Department of Art and Design

Dr. Daniel Evans

Assistant Professor of Music, Director of the Music Therapy Program

School of Music

Dr. Kelly Evans

Clinical Assistant Professor,

Music Education

School of Music

Students Celebrate the Lasting Legacy of Susan Dorian

For more than 20 years, pianist and limited-term lecturer Susan Dorian has worked behind the scenes in the School of Music, becoming an invaluable and steady presence in the lives of many vocal and instrumental students. This feature article by Blake Sebring for PFW News describes the impact of Dorian’s legacy on the School of Music and the countless students and alumni whose confidence has blossomed under her tutelage.

“You need somebody who is very adaptable, but then can also coach them as well," said Dr. Jeremy Grall, director of the School of Music. “That may be in terms of simply confidence or encouragement, or something much more complex, all of which can make a huge difference."

A Summer of Fun for Community Arts Academy

Featuring day camps for young artists, thespians, gamers, musicians, and more, it was a summer of fun, learning, and friendship for the participants of PFW's Community Arts Academy (CAA) camps. Taught by CVPA faculty, current students, alumni, and local teachers, these camps are always a community outreach highlight of the year.



And the fun doesn't stop when summer ends...

Bows are raised as Dr. Kevin McMahon, PFW assistant professor of music, starts the next lesson at Purdue Fort Wayne’s 30th Annual Summer String Camp. This five-day opportunity for K–12 students, part of the Community Arts Academy’s summer offerings, took place the week of June 23-27, 2025. Classes included work with string orchestra, chamber ensembles, and other group sessions for violin, viola, cello, and bass. 

The Debutants’ Bluegrass Camp is a Hoot at PFW: From July 28-August 1, 44 young bluegrass fans from age 10 to 18 took over PFW’s School of Music for the first ever Debutants Hoot Camp. Part of PFW’s Community Arts Academy, the camp is a collaboration with local “newgrass” sensation the Debutants, who formed in 2019 and have been entertaining audiences ever since. Many of the musicians in the Debutants are also educators and see the camp and its capstone concert as an opportunity to give back to the community and inspire future musical artists.

Read more:

Local Living 15 interview with the Debutants, June 12, 2025

Young musicians invited to show their chops during Newgrass Hoot Camp concert, PFW News July 29, 2025

Dr. Hamilton Tescarollo served as director, faculty, and performer at the Gene Marcus Piano Camp and Festival, which took place on PFW’s campus from June 8-13, 2025 The program included lessons, masterclasses, workshops, piano ensemble, and daily recitals. This was the 14th edition of the camp and festival, which featured internationally renowned guest artist Thomas Lymenstull and included 13 young pianists from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Learn more about the Gene Marcus Piano Camp and Festival here.

PFW and Levan Scott Academy

Continue Music Therapy Partnership

With generous funding from the Community Connections: Southeast Arts Project Grant program, PFW has renewed its partnership with Levan Scott Academy to provide invaluable music therapy to its students and real-world experiential learning for the college students providing the therapy. The focus of the music therapy group is to facilitate the building of strong relationships among group members, supporting music engagement between each child, while addressing their unique individualized needs.



This is not the only grant PFW’s Community Arts Academy (CAA) received this summer! CAA has also been awarded a 2026 Spring Arts Project Support grant by the Indiana Arts Commission. This funding will allow CAA to continue their successful scholarship program for Fort Wayne Community School students in need. 

The art of summer classes: Art and Design students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts learn airbrushing skills from John Motz, senior lecturer and assistant chair, in the second-floor studio of the Visual Arts Building on May 29, 2025. Left to right: Kennedy Phillips, Diego Munoz, and Gwyn Widener. Photo: James Whitcraft.

Andres Montenegro, professor of computer animation in the Department of Art and Design, has a piece and profile featured in the June 2025 issue of Fort Wayne Magazine, page 66. In it, he offers his perspective on the likelihood of AI replacing human creativity and art. “At the level of the students’ opinion,” he said, “they are quite reluctant to use AI, because it hinders respect for the artist.”

Montenegro’s article "Implementing 2D and 3D Interactive Animations as an Expanded Narrative to Render the Pictorial and Virtual Simulation of Andrea Mantegna’s Fresco ‘The Wedding Chamber’ Through a Mixed Reality Environment Installation", was also recently accepted for publication in the book Dimensions of Animation by Bloomsbury Publishers, demonstrating the international impact of Montenegro’s research and creative endeavor.

Last but not least, an exhibition of Montenegro's work entitled The Color Bleeding is currently on display in the PFW Visual Arts Gallery through October 5, 2025. A whimsical journey through color and light that blurs the lines and limits between digital and physical media, this experience is not to be missed. See Montenegro reflect on his new exhibition in this clip from WANE 15 News.

Dr. John Romey, assistant professor in musicology, spent 9 weeks in Leipzig, Germany on a Fritz Thyssen Stiftung Travel Subsidy for the project “Constructing French Music, Myth, and Identity: Operatic Echos and Transnational Circulation of Early Modern French Music.”

Romey was sponsored by the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar while he worked in archives in Hannover and Berlin, with a short trip to Prague. While in Europe, he was invited to present at the Cambridge Early Modern Symposium, where he gave a 50-minute talk at Cambridge University: “‘Enchanted by these sweet sounds’: Male Anxiety, Feminocentric Conversations, and Opera Madness in Seventeenth-Century France,” featuring vocal samples from Dr. Julie Lyn Barber.

Romey’s article, “An Instrument ‘With Which Gentlemen, Merchants and Other Men of Virtue Pass Their Time’: The Viola Da Gamba in Sixteenth-Century France’ was published by Cambridge University Press in June. 

Dr. Julie Lyn Barber, assistant professor and head of musical theatre, debuted her new one-woman show, Turbulent Architect, at the 2025 Guelph Fringe Festival in Ontario, Canada in early August. Written and performed by Barber, the performance was directed and dramaturged by Dr. Michelle Dvoskin, associate professor of theatre and dance at Western Kentucky University. Learn more about this stage celebration of a magical life in this article by Broadway World.

In a busy and exciting summer for Barber, her original musical, Madwomen’s Late Nite Cabaret, was produced by Miller Community Theatre, Gary, IN in July. She also presented “Actor Training in Higher Education MT Programs: How Does it Work?” At the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance (MTEA) Summer Symposium as a member of MTEA-Acting, appeared as an actor in the Actors Theatre of Indiana DIY Playwriting Workshop Performance at Carmel Clay Public Library, and provided vocal examples for Dr. John Romey’s presentation, "‘Enchanted by these sweet sounds’: Male Anxiety, Feminocentric Conversations, and Opera Madness in Seventeenth-Century France” at Cambridge University.

Seth Green (fifth from left), associate professor of ceramics, spent two weeks teaching at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado this summer. 

Dr. Suining Ding, professor of interior design, presented at the EDRA 56 2025 Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, this summer.

Her presentations were titled "Synthesizing Environment‐Behavior Studies Theoretical Groundwork and Research Evidence for Senior Living Facility Design" and "Designing Physical Therapy Office Interiors: Research Integrated into Service-Learning Capstone Project,” respectively. 

In addition to leading the 5^th Annual PFW Alumni & Friends Summer Chorus, Dr. William Sauerland (right), associate professor of music and director of choral studies, performed twice with Echoing Air at the South Carolina Baroque Festival in Greenville, South Carolina.

He also gave two presentations at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Toronto, Canada in August: “Equity, Empathy, & Empowerment: Adopting Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in the Applied Studio,” and “Reimagining Feminine Sounds,” both with co-presenter Megan Durham from the University of Louisville.

Professor John Hrehov’s painting, “Neighbor Flowers,” has been selected for inclusion in the 101st Annual Exhibition of The Hoosier Salon. This exhibition is one of the Midwest’s oldest and most respected juried exhibitions.

It will be on display at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, IN, from Saturday, August 23, through Sunday, October 19, 2025.

Austin M. Rausch, assistant professor of theatre, spent his fourth season at Bigfork Summer Playhouse in Bigfork, Montana where he served as costume shop manager. In this role, he oversaw the costume production of Shrek: The Musical, All Shook Up, and Something Rotten! He also served as costume designer for Something Rotten!

The Bigfork Summer Playhouse produces four full musicals over a period of just seven weeks, with actors, directors, choreographers, designers, and countless other staff members collaborating tirelessly to produce professional-level performances that are presented in rep (rotating all four productions throughout the week) through September.

This summer, Dr. Daniel Tembras, professor of music and director of instrumental studies, participated as a guest conductor/clinician at the Mid-Europe Festival in Austria with the World Youth Wind Orchestra Project and the World Adult Wind Orchestra Project. Tembras then travelled to Puebla, Mexico and conducted the International Wind Symphony, which is made up of young musicians from all over Latin America, and taught conducting to students there as well.

Jeff Casazza, professor of theatre, traveled to Oklahoma to complete his Level 5 certification in the Margolis Method, an acting method that integrates acting, movement, and voice using the intuitive understanding of physics as a foundation this summer. Casazza led a workshop at the International Margolis Method Conference highlighting how he introduces the Margolis Method in his Acting 3 course using exercises that he created.

In August, he visited Chicago for a 5-day symposium and training in consent-based practices in the classroom and in rehearsal, building upon previous workshop training in choregraphing theatrical intimacy. 

Casazza is also set to direct The Love Talker, the first play of the PFW Department of Theatre's 2025-2026 season, running from September 26 through October 4, 2025 at the Williams Theatre. Get your tickets now.

Dr. Hamilton Tescarollo (second from right), professor of music and director of keyboard studies, served as a faculty artist at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy in July. Activities included teaching piano and chamber music lessons, presenting a piano masterclass, and performing as a soloist at the International Artists-in-residence series.

Four PFW pianists attended the festival as students: Allyn Beifus (BSMOF – Music Technology ’23 and Performance Certificate ’24), Olivia Bressler (BM Performance ’22, current CAA piano instructor), Benjamin Morton (CAA piano student 2020-2024, current BM Performance at IU-Bloomington), and Christian Urizar (current BM Performance, senior). The student attendees had piano and chamber music lessons, performed solos and chamber music, and participated in piano masterclasses with festival artists.

Tescarollo also taught and performed for the 5th year at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan (https://www.interlochen.org/). There, he worked with young pianists from throughout the US as well as Singapore, Taiwan, and the UAE and performed at the Piano Faculty Recital. 

Dr. Julie Lyn Barber, assistant professor and head of musical theatre, and Dr. Matthew Giallongo, assistant professor of music and director of vocal studies, both appeared in the epic, Tony-winning musical, Titanic, at the Palladium in Carmel, Indiana in June. The show was a stunning collaboration between Actors Theatre of Indiana, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Arts Chorale. Barber played Ethel Beane, a second-class passenger travelling with her husband, while Giallongo played Charles Lightoller, Third Officer on the doomed Titanic. 

School of Music student Hailee Richmond stars in this feature article by Blake Sebring for PFW News. Richmond is a sophomore in the commercial music program making a name for herself in the local and national scene whose talent as a singer and songwriter is matched by her work ethic and positive attitude. 

Willow Cribb, a senior in the Department of Art and Design and a Top 50 scholar, was officially inaugurated as Purdue Fort Wayne student body president by the Student Government Association in late August. Cribb (right) and fellow executive branch members celebrated the moment with Chancellor Ron Elsenbaumer. 

Art education student Dorian Soto’s inspiring journey from chemical, biological, and radiological nuclear specialist in the U.S. Army National Guard to finding joy and purpose in art education and self-expression is a must-read in this feature article by Blake Sebring for PFW News. 

Music therapy major Emma Keeling recently spent a few days of her senior year helping at the School of Music's annual September music therapy recitals. After serving as a client escort for two years, she ascended to stage manager last year, a position that saw her changing chairs, music stands, lighting, and whatever else was necessary. Once, she even performed with a client.

“I love the recitals because you can feel the positive energy, and I support the clients, music therapists, and families,” Keeling said. “While these recitals are often fun, they are also a demonstration of music therapy’s results in action.”

Read more about Emma's passion for helping others in this heartfelt feature by Blake Sebring for PFW News.

Recent Department of Art and Design alumnus Zachary Macke and his compelling senior thesis project star in this feature article by Blake Sebring for PFW News. As part of his bachelor’s in fine arts requirements, Macke spent over 800 hours passionately developing FortWayneConnect.org, a user-friendly website that could revolutionize and improve the lives of local students, residents, and visitors by showing the best of what the city has to offer—and how to get there on foot.

“I think making those kinds of connections is very important to encourage people to actually explore the city and connect with it,” Macke said. “The idea was this would be able to fit in seamlessly with Fort Wayne’s current, established situation, including work and branding. Maybe this is a way of drawing you in to see what is out there.”

Art and Design alumna Julie Wall has been commissioned to create a new 2,000 square foot mural in Fort Wayne’s Promenade Park. “I’m very excited to contribute another piece to our downtown art landscape,” Wall, whose murals can also be enjoyed at Jefferson Pointe and The Sidecar, said in a statement to the Journal Gazette.

“This composition is very near and dear to my heart because it contains so many natural elements from our area. I love the idea that you drive through the piece to park your car and go across the street to see some of the botanicals in person at the gorgeous Promenade Park.”

Look for Wall’s completed mural next month, and read more about the project here. 

Class of 2025 music therapy alumna Brooke Sullivan shares her story with Blake Sebring for PFW News in this thoughtful feature. Carving her own path in the emerging world of music therapy in elder care, Brooke was mentored through her time at Purdue Fort Wayne by former program director Dr. Nancy Jackson; Peggy Farlow, senior lecturer; and Dr. Eileen Garwood, clinical associate professor. Including classes, these faculty members helped her find practicums working with the elderly—essentially creating a new field of study.

“The thing is, there is such a growing population with dementia and similar issues,” Sullivan said. “It’s so important to be able to use music to communicate with those who sometimes no longer have the use of their own language. Even that engagement is so much better than no engagement at all. This provides sensory stimulation and ensures they are getting attention so they don’t fall into social isolation.”

Sullivan said this mission of helping enhance people’s quality of life brings her joy as an activities assistant at Lutheran Life Villages at the Village at Inverness.

Theatre alumnus Evan Snaufer spent his summer touring with Lagniappe Productions as an actor in Tumbleweed Crossing.

Watch the show here. Yee haw!  

Art alumna Deborah Ann Lucas released her memoir, Dance While the Fire Burns, and celebrated its publication with a book release and art show in early September in Rockford, Illinois. 

Dance While the Fire Burns tells Deborah’s story of perseverance and determination, finding her authentic life with art and horses, while repaying an unspoken debt to her brother that risked it all. 

Learn more about Deborah’s art and writing here. 

Remembering Ann Hayes...

Ann Hayes passed away peacefully in Mesa, Arizona, on August 3, 2025 at the age of 91. A graduate of IPFW’s School of Music program, Hayes served as an assistant professor of music at IPFW for many years and is fondly remembered by faculty, staff, and students on campus.