Alumni Updates

2020s / 2010s / 2000s / 1990s / 1980s / 1970s / 1960s

In February 2026, Samuel Lien Hsieh (MM ’25, chamber music; SM ’25, clarinet) started working as the new community and audience programs manager for UMS, after previously working for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In this new role, he is able to engage with the community through many events while meeting some of the best musicians in the world. His nonprofit organization, East Zodiac, based in Ann Arbor, highlights Asian composers and their voices. East Zodiac recently held its fourth annual concert in Ann Arbor, where the community came together to celebrate culture through music. As the organization continues to grow, Hsieh looks forward to sharing the music of the Asian Pacific Islander community with everyone.

Alexis C. Lamb (DMA ’25, composition) was appointed assistant professor of music theory at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Music & Dance, beginning with the fall 2026 semester. An experienced and dedicated educator, Lamb has served as a part-time lecturer at Eastern since 2024, teaching courses in compositional and analytical techniques, form and analysis, and music appreciation. Lamb will serve as the program coordinator for the music theory department and also plans to build a composition area within the school. Lamb is the founder of the Refugia Festival, which will begin its third season on October 4, 2026, in Nichols Arboretum in Ann Arbor. Developed with significant support from the EXCEL Lab, U-M Arts Initiative, Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Nichols Arboretum, and many other U-M partners, the festival combines music and dance performances with educational workshops and stewardship to advocate for environmental conservation through the sense of sound.

Eric D. Reyes (MM ’20, DMA ’25, conducting) has been appointed artistic director of the Grand Rapids Choir of Men & Boys. He continues to serve as assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Hope College. Reyes is honored to be leading one of West Michigan’s premier choral organizations while advancing its longstanding tradition of artistic excellence and music education.

Renata Schmult (BFA ’26, performing arts technology) has won a Regional Emmy Award from the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television, Arts, and Sciences. She took home the award in the Audio Recording, Mixing, and Design category for her work on the University of Michigan CRLT (Center for Research on Teaching and Learning) Players’ feature film How Do We Begin, which was completed during her time at the Duderstadt Center as a student employee for the audio and video studios. How Do We Begin was nominated in seven categories total and left with four Emmy Awards.

Taryn Wood (BM ’09, MM ’20, music education) was honored with the 2025 VMEA Outstanding Music Educator Award at the VMEA (Virginia Music Educators Association) 2025 Professional Development Conference. With 17 years of continuous teaching in Virginia, Wood has built a program where her students consistently achieve at high levels, and her leadership has earned professional and program recognition across the commonwealth. Wood has introduced a comprehensive digital rubric and scoring system for band and orchestra auditions, revolutionizing the process by making it faster and more reliable and providing students with clearer, more constructive feedback.

Sagar Anupindi (BM ’18, oboe) was appointed second oboe and English horn in the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and third oboe and English horn in the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra after successful auditions in April 2026. The upcoming season’s English horn highlights include Maurice Ravel’s Rhapsodie espagnole, Antonín Dvořak’s Symphony No. 9, and Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome.

Justin Benavidez (MM ’07, DMA ’10, tuba) was the featured tuba soloist on Renewal, the recently released album of the music of Viet Cuong with the Albany Symphony and conductor David Alan Miller. On this recording, Benavidez performs the orchestral premiere of Cuong’s Higher Ground concerto for tuba. Benavidez continues to serve as the associate professor of tuba and euphonium at the Eastman School of Music and principal tuba of the Syracuse Orchestra.

Laura Beth Cohen (BFA ’13, theatre design & production) was recently appointed to the inaugural board of directors of the Returning Citizens Assistance Network (RCAN), an organization that provides material and social support to people impacted by the criminal legal system in Washington, DC.

Founded in 2016 by alumni Jameson Eisele (BFA ’15, performing arts technology), David Newton (BM ’16, percussion), and Patterson McKinney (BM ’15, MM ’17, percussion), Sly Pup Productions proudly celebrates 10 years of creating video and audio media for the classical music and performing arts community. The company began by producing engaging videos for fellow students. In the past decade Sly Pup Productions has expanded its offerings and continues to serve the needs of student and faculty performers, the greater U-M community, and local arts organizations such as Detroit Opera and UMS.

Sommer Forrester (MM ’08, PhD ’15, music education) recently published Women Unsilenced: Hope, Freedom, and Music in Palestine (Routledge), which explores how Palestinian women use music to express, protest, and celebrate their identities. The work uses evocative auto-ethnography to illuminate the experience of traveling through Palestine and meeting the women whose stories are told through narrative case studies. It also includes the untold stories of women living under military occupation and patriarchal oppression. These harrowing accounts of the women’s daily life challenge dominant narratives about Palestinians and women in the Middle East, and they disrupt assumptions that are rooted in settler colonialist and imperialist narratives.

Last June Ned Hanlon (MM ’08, SM ’10, voice), who has served as president of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) since 2023, attended the AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention in Minneapolis. He spoke to over 1,500 labor leaders from around the country about the critical importance of supporting the arts. He also organized a musical program that closed out the convention’s third day, with AGMA artists performing with members of SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity, and the Twin Cities Federation of Musicians, along with community groups Singing Resistance Twin Cities and StreetSong MN, to show the solidarity of music and song with the labor movement.

Gee Hoon Lim (BFA ’13, theatre design & production) is the director of finance at the Joffrey Ballet.

Mary Martin (BM ’10, MM ’12, voice) was recently appointed to the faculty of Texas Tech University, where she is now serving as assistant professor of voice and opera. She recently served as assistant professor of voice at DePauw University, 2021–26. While in Indiana, she also earned her DM from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Recent performance highlights include Musetta in La bohème with South Bend Lyric Opera and soprano soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. She also directs Operetta Remix at Detroit Opera every summer – a program for high schoolers that she co-created with the team at Detroit Opera.

Joanna Miller (BTA ’14, performing arts management), founder of wedding officiant business Married by Miller, marked her 100th ceremony and fourth year officiating professionally, earning her certified professional wedding officiant credential and cementing a commitment to the belief that every love story deserves to be told. She also launched J Miller Consulting, a fundraising consultancy serving small and mid-sized nonprofits in the Washington, DC, area on a sliding-scale model. Miller also moonlights as a standardized patient, portraying clinical cases for medical trainees at multiple universities, a role that has brought her back to performance for the first time since her “Acting for the Camera” classes.

Jackson Pierce (BFA ’15, theatre & drama) is self-publishing his debut fantasy novel, Stone of Shadow. He began an advanced reader copy campaign prior to the official release date of October 15, 2026.

Elliot Polot (BM ’18, euphonium, music education) is in his third year as director of bands at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. In January, the Pioneer Symphony Band performed at the Michigan Music Conference, where they were guest conducted by SMTD’s director of bands Jason Fettig. In March, the Pioneer Symphony Band and Concert Band Purple performed in Carnegie Hall in New York City. Polot is currently working on a master of science degree in curriculum and instruction from Western Governors University. He and his wife Anna bought a house in Ann Arbor in June.

Important career transitions are coming to the fore this summer for pianist Nicholas Susi (MM ’11, DMA ’17, piano). He was recently named artistic director of the Southeastern Piano Festival, with planning already underway for the 2027 festival. Susi has been awarded tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor of piano at the University of South Carolina, where he maintains a full studio and a satisfying schedule of national engagements. He looks forward to the release of an album of world premiere recordings in late 2026 on the Naxos label.

Emmanuel Toledo (MM ’10, clarinet) earned Massachusetts licensure as a supervisor/director of the arts and completed Orff-Schulwerk Level I training through the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. As senior program director for the performing arts at Boston Public Schools, he helped produce the district’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and a record-setting Citywide Arts Festival, while also leading the design of districtwide professional learning initiatives for arts educators.

Brandon Bascom (MM ’08, piano performance and pedagogy) was recently elected to serve as the director-elect of the Southwest division of Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). This two-year term will be followed by Bascom serving as the Southwest Division director for 2028–30. Bascom serves as the MTNA Fresno City College Collegiate Chapter advisor, which recently was co-awarded Collegiate Chapter of the Year in 2024.

Mark Craig (BM ’00, voice) assumed the position of general director of the Taos Opera Institute (TOI) of New Mexico in 2022. In addition to leading the Young Artist program, he stage directs the Festival Showcase performance and steers all related programming throughout the year. TOI’s 18th festival season ended in June with record audience attendance and the formation of an endowed scholarship fund. TOI’s recent faculty and guest artists include Elizabeth Futral, Susanne Mentzer, Dimitri Pittas, Stanford Olsen (voice & opera), Jamie Barton, Amanda Majeski (voice & opera), Lydia (Katarina) Grindatto, and more. Craig will stage direct Amarillo Opera’s production of Pirates of Penzance in October 2026.

Kate (Meyer) Francis (BM ’01, music education) established Madison (Alabama) City Schools’ first elementary orchestra program, including an after-school orchestra and a fourth-grade introductory strings program, through grants from the Alabama Arts Education Initiative supported by the Alabama State Department of Education. She currently serves as president-elect of the Alabama Orchestra Association and, in January 2026, received the CASMEC Medal of Honor in recognition of her contributions to the California All-State Music Education Conference. In June 2026, she was appointed conductor of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra’s Philharmonia.

Conductor Laura Jackson (MM ’02, DMA ’05, orchestral conducting) has been appointed music director designate of the Madison Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin, where she will assume the full title of music director and conductor in fall 2027. She continues as music director and conductor of the Reno Philharmonic in Nevada. Recent guest appearances have included the NOSPR-Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Germany’s Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia. In April, she presented the world premiere of Michelle Isaac’s Pressing Truths, an orchestral drama for a soprano soloist telling the forgotten America250 story of the Revolutionary-era publisher Mary Katherine Goddard.

Alex Lapins (MM ’02, tuba) joined the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, where he plays with the faculty brass quintet, teaches lessons, and coaches chamber groups. He continues as a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Natalie L. Haslam College of Music.

Donald Milton III (BM ’07, choral music education) published his book The Second Voice Change in July. Based on his lecture “The Second Voice Change: The Aging Voice,” which he has presented across the United States and internationally for the past 12 years, the book helps amateur singers understand the normal changes that come with vocal aging and offers practical ways to keep singing with confidence and joy. In July 2027, Milton will conduct Brahms’s A German Requiem in Uppsala, Sweden, leading a festival chorus of singers from around the world with the Stockholm Concert Orchestra.

New York composer Jeff Myers (DMA ’07, composition) has recently released his third album, Dark Imagining. The album features art songs set to texts by Poe, Baudelaire, Jennifer de Guzman, and traditional Hawaiian sources, exploring themes of beauty, darkness, and transformation. Soprano Rachel Schutz and pianist Andrea Christie carry the album from start to finish, with cellist Christopher Gross and clarinetist Ashleé Miller adding color to two Hawaiian-inspired works. La Scena Musicale praised the work’s nuanced response to poetry, writing, “Myers displays a deep understanding of the chosen texts through his compositions.” The album is available on Bright Shiny Things and all major streaming platforms.

Andy Papas Appears in Cendrillon with Fellow Alum Sara Coit

The 2025–26 season for Andy Papas (BM ’07, voice) included a return to Massenet’s lush Cendrillon as Pandolfe, father to Cinderella (Sara Coit, MM ’15, voice), for Vashon Opera, and a return to his signature Major General (The Pirates of Penzance), this time for Salt Marsh Opera. His auspicious debut as Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow for Opera Orlando in April was followed by his solo debut in Verdi’s Requiem with the Fox Valley Symphony. Papas spent last winter on snow at Bromley Mountain, Vermont, as content producer, capturing photo and video for the Southern Vermont ski mecca, skiing more than one million vertical feet over 100-plus days.

Ben Robinson (BM ’06, voice) was named general director and CEO of Kentucky Opera after serving as general director of Anchorage Opera and artistic director of Raylynmor Opera. Over the past season, he has directed productions of Aida and Gianni Schicchi (Anchorage Opera), Macbeth (Opera Tampa), Le nozze di Figaro (Raylynmor Opera), and Acis and Galatea (Ithaca College).

Darryl Semira (BFA ’01, musical theatre) will be appearing as Astrov in Annie Baker’s new version of Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov, at Road Less Traveled Productions in Buffalo, New York. He previously appeared at this theatre as Babur in its acclaimed production of Guards at the Taj and as Mr. Bingley in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. He also recently played Aegisthus in the North American premiere of Marina Carr’s Girl on an Altar at the Irish Classical Theatre Company.

Mindy J. (Greenblatt) Streem (BMA ’01, voice) is the director of orthodontic support at Aspen Dental Management Inc. Her journey at SMTD led her to many opportunities in higher education, and she believes her background in music led to much of her career successes. Streem shared gratitude for the late voice professor Rosemary Russell for always believing in her and her unique path.

Sara Avery (MM ’95, violin) was interviewed on the podcast Hello Trauma Brain. She explained how her research-based work, the Learned Distress Removal Process, addresses complex trauma in a unique way that brings about deeper and more profound results than other therapies.

Alexandra Beller (BFA ’94, dance) had her new book, The Anatomy of Art, published by Bloomsbury in August 2026. It explores creative process and embodied knowledge through somatic theory and movement analysis. She is designing an educational residency model across New England, bringing intensive workshops and talks on creative practice to universities and communities in the Northeast and upstate New York. Beller hosted her 13th annual summer intensive in New York City. She published articles on dance pedagogy in Dance Magazine and Dance Teacher magazine and received a book deal for The Embodied Conductor (Oxford, August 2027), a somatic embodiment guide for music conductors.

Barrett Foa (BFA ’99, musical theatre) recently joined the Broadway cast of Oh, Mary!, playing Mary’s Teacher for performances through December 6, 2026. He plays opposite Emmy nominee and Hacks star Meg Stalter. Foa joins fellow SMTD alumnus Ryo Kamibayashi (BFA ’24, musical theatre), who plays Mary’s Husband’s Assistant.

Mark Katz (MA ’95, PhD ’99, musicology) is the John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has been teaching since 2006. In the past year he established the Carolina Prison Music Initiative, a program that brings music instruction into the state’s prisons, and won the Densmore Prize from the American Musical Instrument Society for his article “The Great War, the Little String, and the Transformation of Modern Violin Playing.” He is currently preparing a third edition of his book Capturing Sound and in 2027 will be a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at Yonsei University, where he will be researching analog culture in Korea.

Cellist Jeffrey Butler (BM ’81, cello), 1981 Albert A. Stanley Medal recipient and member of the Houston Symphony since 1986, was delighted to learn that Lauren Mathews (BM ’25, cello), his stand partner for the week during rehearsals for a January 2026 Houston Symphony program, also graduated from Michigan. Mathews is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Harvey Felder (MM ’82, SM ’82, music education) just completed a two-year residency at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He served as the conductor of the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra.

Compositions by Stephen Gryč (BM ’71, music ed; MM ’76, music theory; DMA ’83, composition) are featured on the album Virtuosity, released by Navona Records in August. The recording features three concerted works performed by renowned soloists: trombonist Joseph Alessi (New York Philharmonic), trumpeter Hugh Morgan (Basel Symphony Orchestra), and violinist Leonid Sigal (concertmaster, Hartford Symphony Orchestra). Accompanying the soloists is the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Miran Vaupotič. In 2026 Gryč’s music has been performed in Europe by La Concordia Fribourg wind orchestra (Switzerland), flutist Kathy Weidenfeller (Lahti, Finland), and the violin and viola Miller-Porfiris Duo (Reykjavik, Iceland).

Kevin Malone (MM ’85, composition) has been awarded a sixth Arts Council England grant, this year for research into abating hearing loss when composing acousmatic music. A professor emeritus at the University of Manchester, his composition Your Call Is Important to Us was selected for the June 2026 MISE-EN Festival in Manhattan, where he also gave a conference talk at New York University. His award-winning Zalophus Mantras (2025) will be released on the Cero label in autumn 2026. He is completing a digital album on social eco-anthropic issues. His chapter on the expansive 9/11 piano piece Sudden Memorials (2021) is being published in Spontaneous Memorials (Routledge).

Michael Mazzatenta (BM ’85, MM ’86, organ) announces the publication of RingCraft: Building Technique through Music by Handbell Musicians of America. This educational collection of original compositions for handbells is meant to teach specific techniques utilized in handbell playing. Mazzatenta has over 90 published compositions for handbells (many of them competition winners) as well as for piano solo.

In February 2026, John Mortensen (BMA ’88, piano) was a guest artist and teaching faculty at the Erstes Internationale Klavierimprovisations Festival in Bad Ischl, Austria. The festival pursues the art of historical improvisation through concerts, lessons, and master classes. Mortensen serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and Cedarville University.

Stephen Pratt (MM ’83, flute) was a guest conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphonic Band at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago in December and of the Ohio Music Education Association All-State Band in Columbus in January. In February he was a guest conductor at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, and in June he was the conductor of the Honor Band at the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic in Bloomington. He is professor of music emeritus at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and retired director of bands/wind conducting. He remains active conducting the Southern Indiana Wind Ensemble and as a clinician and private conducting teacher.

Gary Sanborn (MM ’82, woodwind instruments) retired as the audio engineer of Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa in August 2026.

Morton Achter (BM ’61, MM ’63, music theory; PhD ’72, musicology) continues to provide instruction for Midcoast Senior College located in Brunswick, Maine. Earlier this year he participated in a team-taught course on the Romantic Era, offering a session on orchestral music. And in winter 2027 he will direct his sixth community theatre production for the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, Maine: Neil Simon’s California Suite. Achter resides in Topsham, Maine.

Since his retirement as Regents Professor of Music at the University of North Texas in Denton, Brian L. Bowman (BM ’70, MM ’70, euphonium) has been the music director for the Brass Band of Northern Virginia. In addition to local concert series, the band has appeared for the last three years at the North American Brass Band Championships. Bowman has continued to be a summer guest artist and faculty member at the International Tuba Euphonium Institute in Atlanta and at the Rafael Méndez Brass Institute in Denver. Last summer he was at the Lieksa Brass Institute in Finland and the International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Spain.

Jacqueline DeBoey (BM ’72, viola) is retired and living in Florida. Foreign languages are her current academic hobby with Chinese and Spanish at the top of the list. French is already conquered. Learning to play Mahjong is next.

Steven Gross and Metropolitan Trio Perform European Premiere of Jennifer Higdon Work

Steven Gross (BM ’76, horn) presented the European premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano, which he commissioned, with the Metropolitan Trio, which also includes Phil Ficsor (BM ’97, MM ’98, violin). The venue was the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music during the International Horn Society Symposium. Following the performance, Gross recorded the work in Studio Martínek in Prague. After the recording, Gross taught and performed at the I-AME Summer Music Academy in Prague. He was also featured as a natural horn soloist with the Roanoque Baroque orchestra, performing Sammartini’s Sinfonia.

Female, Ashkenazi with a Sewing Machine, by Richard Jennings (MM ’78, composition), premiered at Inferno Theatre’s Contemporary Performance Diasporas Festival in April 2026, in Berkeley, California. This ten-movement suite for violin, viola, and female voice was inspired by the solo violin score he wrote for Jamie Greenblatt’s play of the same name after its successful Chicago production. Upcoming suite performances are scheduled in Chicago. Quaranteen, a ghost story film scored by Jennings, was recently released and is doing well in the festivals. He is working on a new musical and other composition projects as he continues to teach voice in Berkeley.

Charles M. Atkinson (MM ’65, music education) presented “The enechemata and epechemata in Byzantium and in the Alia musica” at the 17th International Scientific Conference “Antonovych’s Readings,” held at the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy in Lviv, Ukraine, March 6, 2026. He also presented “On Boethius, Ptolemaios, the τόνοι and the Modes” at MedRen Warsaw 2026 (Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference) in Poland in July and at the biennial meeting of the International Musicological Society Study Group “Cantus Planus,” which met in Évora, Portugal, in September. He also chaired sessions at the latter two meetings.