Alumni Notes

Corazon Szell (BM ’25, jazz & contemporary improvisation) and her band North Ingalls released their debut album, To Be Loved Back, in January 2026. It was written and composed over two years and recorded over four days in May 2025, then mixed and mastered over six months. It captures a unique sound the seven-piece band honed while playing and performing together at U-M.

Chadwick Thomas (MM ’20, clarinet) was appointed clarinet instructor at the Hartt School Community Division at the University of Hartford, Wesleyan University, and Cheshire Academy. In summer 2025, he completed a three-year position as clarinet teaching fellow at Interlochen Arts Camp.

Eden West (BM ’25, piano, music education) was hired as a repetiteur and vocal coach with the Opera Company of Middlebury for their fall 2025 production of Trouble in Tahiti and a recital of Leonard Bernstein classics, including selections from Candide, West Side Story, and On the Town.

Nina Shekhar (BM ’18, composition) had performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony this season, including a world premiere with LA Phil conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and featuring a new original film by Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu. (Spring 2026)

Briana Ashley Stuart (BFA ’13, dance; BA ’13, sociology) is a performer and choreographer based in Brussels, Belgium. Recently, she toured performances of Re-Turn in France and Belgium as part of BIG BANG Festival for young audiences. She also co-founded KB Dance Hub, the only Black- and Brown-women-owned dance studio in Brussels. (Spring 2026)

Sam Vettrus (BFA ’14, theatre design & production) is currently touring the country on the first national tour of Kimberly Akimbo as the flyman through Juniper Street Productions. (Spring 2026)

Jacob Warren (BM ’17, double bass; MM ’19, improvisation, chamber music) teaches double bass at Bowling Green State University while maintaining an active performance schedule. In October 2025, his duo Warren & Flick – with fellow alum Grant Flick (BFA ’20, jazz studies; MM ’22, improvisation) – digitally released their third album, Cormorant, and an accompanying tune book.

Danny Wilfred (BFA ’13, musical theatre) won the 2025 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Leading Performance in a Musical for the role of Parmesan in Gay Mis, directed by Eric Jaffe and produced by Jaffe St. Queer Productions. The production also won the Barrymore for Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical.

Shelby Alexander (BTA ’25, playwriting) was hired as the development associate for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. The O’Neill is the country’s preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theatre. (Spring 2026)

Thani Brant (BFA ’21, musical theatre) returned to campus February 5, 2026, for the premiere performance of their original musical The Laugh of the Medusa, presented in the Arthur Miller Theatre as part of the All the Flowers Festival and directed by Megumi Nakamura (BFA ’19, musical theatre).

The music of composer Gala Flagello (MM ’19, DMA ’22, composition) received over 150 performances in 2025, reaching four countries and 38 states. Her 2026 premieres include new works for the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra, ROCO, the United States Naval Academy Band, and Thalea String Quartet.

Greg Gropper (BM ’22, voice) has been invited to be Opera Naples’ resident artist (baritone) for its 2026 season. He will be performing Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and the Commentator in Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg, and he will cover the role of Ping, Lord Chancellor, in Puccini’s Turandot.