David A. Gier, professor and director of the University of Iowa School of Music, has been appointed dean of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. His appointment, approved Thursday by the Board of Regents, is effective Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2023. Gier, who also was named the Paul…

SMTD’s new Wellness Initiative is addressing the unique physical and psychological challenges faced by performing arts students. With the exception of intercollegiate athletics, there is no program at the University of Michigan that is more physically taxing than the study of the performing arts. Instrumentalists, singers, dancers, and actors constantly use their bodies in service to…

U-M organ students Kaelan Hansson (PhD, aerospace engineering) and James Renfer (BM, organ performance & sacred music) have been named winners in the American Guild of Organists’ national AGO Student Commissioning Project. The AGO has provided a cash award for Hansson to compose a new work for organ which Renfer will premiere.

The University of Michigan Bicentennial marks 200 years of extraordinary research, education, and public service. According to U-M’s official history, the institution was founded as one “that stresses both the life of the mind and the life of practical achievement; that is both broadly accessible and devoted to educating the leaders of the future.” While…

When graduate student Ashley Stanley (flute and chamber arts) arrived at Michigan in the fall of 2014, she recognized immediately that she was receiving a world-class education. “My playing ability was improving exponentially and I was getting the chance to work with serious colleagues with unbelievable talent,” she recalled recently. But Stanley also felt that…