Alumni Updates

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

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. Alexander is proud to be a part of that mission through her work engaging with patrons, planning events and fundraisers, managing the donor database, and reading scripts for the O’Neill’s year-round season.

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.

Since graduating, Rachael Hymowitz (BFA ’25, theatre design & production) has joined Nike as part of the Bodywear COE Technical Design team. In this role, she is gaining hands‑on experience and developing the foundational skills needed to become an expert in fit, construction, and pattern correction. She works closely with the team to understand how materials, silhouette, and performance needs all come together in products that stretch to fit, particularly within the sports bra category. This role allows her to deepen her technical knowledge while contributing to innovative, consumer‑focused designs. She looks forward to growing and refining her craft within this dynamic and specialized area.

In fall 2025, James A. Long (DMA ’21, tuba) was appointed assistant professor of music, director of bands, and professor of low brass at Victoria College in Victoria, Texas. Long brings to his position extensive experience in collegiate band leadership, low-brass pedagogy, and community music-making. He previously held faculty appointments at San José State University; California State University, Sacramento; and Oakland University, and he remains active as a conductor and performer at national and international levels. At the University of Michigan, he studied with Fritz Kaenzig and David Zerkel.

Godfrey Lubuulwa (MM ’23, music education, improvisation) is a PhD candidate in jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh. His doctoral research, “Ugandan Roots in Motion: Musical Fusions and Sonic Negotiations in Kampala, 1980–2026,” examines how Ugandan musicians engage indigenous musical traditions and global genres to articulate cultural identity and negotiate postcolonial realities. By framing musical fusion as a site of innovation and knowledge production, his work addresses a critical gap in diasporic and African popular music scholarship, foregrounding underrepresented Ugandan musical practices within transnational music studies.

Nate Musch (DMA ’24, trombone) was featured at the 2025 International Trombone Festival in London, Ontario, where he premiered Margaret Brouwer’s Sonata for Trombone and Piano alongside collaborative pianist Liz Ames. Musch was also recently named principal trombone of the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra and continues to teach applied low brass and aural harmony skills at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Corazon Szell (BM ’25, jazz & contemporary improvisation) has the pleasure to announce that the band she leads, North Ingalls, released their debut album, To Be Loved Back, on January 2. The album explores the love we all have in our hearts for our families, friends, and the one we seek to find and call our partner. It takes listeners through the joys and heartbreaks of navigating love as we grow older and experience it in depth. 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 the unique sound of the seven-piece band that was honed over two years of playing and performing together at the University of Michigan.

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.

Ashley Ahr (BFA ’14, interarts) has worked as a producer for parts of Universal Epic Universe, a new theme park that opened in Orlando. She worked on three projects that received 2025 Thea Awards for Outstanding Achievement presented by the Themed Entertainment Association (in the categories of Ride Experience for “Harry Potter & the Battle of the Ministry,” Attraction for “Monsters Unchained,” and Theme Park for Universal Epic Universe).

In June 2025, Sagar Anupindi (BM ’18, oboe) was awarded the Second Prize at the Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox International Competition for Oboe. He was the only American selected out of five finalists to attend the competition at Butler University in Indianapolis, hosted by the International Double Reed Society.

Claire DiVizio (BM ’11, voice) has been based in Chicago since 2016, working as a producer, director, music educator, and performer. After discovering a love of contemporary music at SMTD, DiVizio founded Thompson Street Opera Company, which performs works by living composers, with a focus on underrepresented voices and queer stories. In 2025, the company received a record number of grants from the BMI Foundation, the City of Chicago, the Illinois Arts Council, the Wilhelm Family Foundation, Americans for the Arts, and PayPal Giving Fund. In 2025, DiVizio also became full-time voice and opera faculty in the music department of Northeastern Illinois University, where they have taught since 2022.

Josh Graham (MM ’13, percussion) is in his second year directing the percussion program as assistant professor and percussion program coordinator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In the past season, he has premiered works by composers Donnacha Dennehy and Chen Yi with his trio F-PLUS and by Augusta Read Thomas with the Chen String Quartet (led by Chicago Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Robert Chen). He will also premiere a new solo marimba work by Pulitzer Prize–winner Shulamit Ran. Along with master classes and performances across the country this year, Graham looks forward to returning to U-M for a master class in April 2026.

Pomme Koch (BFA ’11, theatre & drama) appeared in a production of The Tragedy of Coriolanus at Theatre for a New Audience (Off-Broadway) starting on February 1, 2026.

After earning a PhD in theatre and performance studies from Stanford University, Westley Montgomery (BMA ’17, performance; MM ’19, voice) joined the faculty of Yale University as assistant professor in the program in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Montgomery’s article “The Many Voices of Sissieretta Jones: Opera and the Sonic Necromancy of the Black Phonographic Archive” was awarded the Gerald Kahan Scholar’s Prize by the American Society for Theatre Research.

Anna Nordmoe (BM ’19, violin) is a freelance musician based in New York City. During the summer of 2025, she performed for the FIFA Club World Cup and played multiple shows on the concert tours of Attack on Titan and Stardew Valley. She appears as a featured violinist in the movie Kygo: Back at the Bowl, which was released in cinemas worldwide in September. On Broadway, she subbed in Cabaret, a production starring Adam Lambert, Auli’i Cravalho, Orville Peck, and Eva Noblezada, and in The Last Five Years, featuring Nick Jonas. She currently holds the violin chair on the first national tour of The Outsiders.

Piotrowski Strings, the Chicago-based wedding and private event business of Anna Piotrowski (BM ’14, violin), received the Best of Zola award for the fourth consecutive year. The team doubled in size and increased the number of bookings by 40 percent throughout 2025.

Elliot Polot (BM ’18, euphonium, instrumental music education) is in his second year as director of bands at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. In January, Pioneer’s Symphony Band performed at the Michigan Music Conference, where they were guest conducted by Professor Jason Fettig. On March 30, the Symphony Band and Concert Band Purple performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Alexandra Rodriguez (BM ’14, flute) has been appointed as Ravinia Festival’s director of performance programs for Ravinia Reach Teach Play. Her program oversight includes Sistema Ravinia, an El Sistema–inspired orchestra training program serving students throughout the west side of Chicago and in Lake County; Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School; and Ravinia Jazz Mentors. Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play education and community engagement programs open doors for everyone to access and experience the joy and positive impact of music.

EmmyJean Jenkins, the queer country alter ego of Annika Socolofsky (MA ’14, composition), will be releasing her first album in April 2026 on Adhyâropa Records. The album, Gay All This Time, is an EP of original songs with San Francisco’s Friction Quartet. The release features original songs that combine country-folk songwriting with string quartet arrangements, delving into themes of queer discovery, hope, and love. Jenkins’s comedic country cabaret, Detective Convention, a true story of murder, intrigue, romance, and comedy, premiered at Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and has seen additional performances at MASS MoCA and the University of Colorado.

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.

Warren & Flick Release Third Album

Jacob Warren (BM ’17, double bass; MM ’19, improvisation, chamber music) continues to teach double bass at Bowling Green State University while maintaining an active performance schedule with a variety of ensembles. 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. The album reflects the duo’s ongoing exploration of original chamber music rooted in multiple musical traditions. Warren & Flick remained engaged in both performance and educational work, including a multi-day residency and performance at DePauw University. Warren & Flick have also been hard at work on a new original double concerto featuring the ensemble with full orchestra.

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.

In fall 2025, Stanley Bahorek (BFA ’03, musical theatre) appeared as Carl in Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Paula Vogel’s new work The Mother Play at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. He also served as music supervisor and associate director for the 2025 deaf and hearing production of Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, with Visionaries of the Creative Arts. Bahorek lives in Washington, DC, and works in community engagement and development for the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University, where he was recently honored with the award for Outstanding Commitment to the LGBTQ+ Community.

In collaboration with Third Angle New Music (Portland, Oregon), Nikolas Caoile (DMA ’07, orchestral conducting) released the premiere recording of the rarely performed Philip Glass sci-fi epic, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. This season, Caoile celebrates 16 years as music director and conductor of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra and 20 years as director of orchestras at Central Washington University. Recent guest-conducting engagements include the Missoula Symphony, the Walla Walla Symphony, and collaborations with Pink Martini.

Nico de Villiers (MM ’07, collaborative piano), deputy head of vocal studies at the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, England), has published the first monograph dedicated to the art songs of the Academy Award–winning, Dutch-born American composer and conductor Richard Hageman (1881–1966). Richard Hageman: The Becoming of a Song Composer, published by Peter Lang in fall 2025, offers a deeper look into the background of several of Hageman’s songs and puts them in the context of his greater creative output within Hollywood and beyond.

Kathryn Goodson (MM ’89, DMA ’05, collaborative piano), SMTD coach and pianist across multiple departments since 2005, continues as artistic director of the SMTD series she founded, Chamber Music & Dance with a View, which features student, faculty, and staff performers. In 2026 her duo partnership with bass trombonist Randall Hawes was reinvigorated with the Parma album release Liquid Architecture; the title piece was composed by David Biedenbender (MM ’09, composition, euphonium; DMA ’13, composition). The Hawes-Goodson duo is performing recitals, and Goodson is offering her Songs4Winds class at venues including Kerrytown Concert House, the Shepherd School of Music, Interlochen Arts Academy, and Eastern Michigan University.

Daniel Knaggs (BMA ’07, voice) recently founded Cor Mundi, a Houston-based arts organization dedicated to presenting high-level performances of sacred music from all eras. As artistic director, he leads the organization in its premiere season (2025–26), marking the debut of the professional Cor Mundi Chamber Choir. The season features thoughtful and inspiring choral and chamber vocal programs spanning from chant to contemporary works, highlighting both familiar and lesser-known composers, including J.S. Bach, Górecki, Byrd, Rachmaninoff, Messiaen, and Galina Grigorjeva. Knaggs is energized by the opportunity to shape this new ensemble and looks forward to the artistic possibilities ahead.

Jeremy Leiner (BFA ’03, musical theatre) was recently named a partner at Nicolosi & Co., where he represents actors working in film, TV, and theatre. His roster now includes recent Tony winners J. Harrison Ghee and Francis Jue, along with a mix of Grammy, SAG, Tony, and Emmy nominees and winners. In his new role, Leiner negotiates deals for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, national tours, streaming and network series, and studio and independent films, and he continues to be deeply involved in helping clients shape and grow their careers.

Colin Roust (PhD ’07, musicology) has been promoted to full professor at the University of Kansas and has just published Francis Johnson (1792–1844): Complete Works (A-R Editions, 2025). This edition expands knowledge of the Black bandleader and composer, including more than 100 works previously thought to be lost.

Alex Springer (BFA ’07, dance) and Xan Burley, assistant professors at the University of Florida, advanced their collaborative choreographic practice through a distinguished series of extended residencies with Treasure Hill Artist Village (THAV) in Taipei, Taiwan. Their sold-out, site-responsive works activated movement, sound, sculpture, and video across the historic village and into the streets of Taipei. Initially selected through THAV’s highly competitive International Residency program, they were subsequently commissioned to return as featured artists for both the annual Treasure Hill Light Festival and the SouthSpark Art Fest. This work was supported by a University of Florida International Center Global Fellowship.

Alexandra Beller (BFA ’94, dance) is a choreographer, director, and educator specializing in embodied pedagogy and creative process. In summer 2026, she will publish two books: The Anatomy of Art: Unlocking the Creative Process for Theatre and Dance (Bloomsbury), a resource for artists and teachers working across performance disciplines; and The Embodied Conductor: A Somatic Approach with Laban and Bartenieff (GIA Publications), co-authored with David Vickerman, applying movement analysis to musical leadership. Beller continues to teach and lecture nationally and internationally, integrating somatics, composition, and reflective inquiry into higher education and professional training contexts.

Mark Broomfield (MFA ’96, dance) toured with his most recent book, Black Queer Dance: Gay Men and the Politics of Passing for Almost Straight. The tour included performances of his choreopoem “Passing Out” at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium (where his talk and performance will be archived in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division), the Coral Gables Museum (in collaboration with Florida International University), and St. John Fisher University (for the Cavanaugh Reading Series).

In March 2025, a new book by Catherine Gordon (PhD ’94, musicology), Catholicism as Musical Discourse: The ReConversion of Women Through Seventeenth-Century French Sacred Songs, was published by Oxford University Press.

The Locrian Chamber Players gave the New York City premiere of The (Little) White Album, a song cycle by Mark Kilstofte (MM ’85, DMA ’92, composition), alongside the world premiere of “Resonance” by Serra Hwang (MM ’90, composition, piano; DMA ’93, composition). In fall 2025, Kilstofte’s “Everyone’s Voice” was performed by Orlando’s VoxO and the Stockton Chorale (California). The Florilegium Chamber Choir featured two of his recent Rilke settings, “To Music” and “Invisible Angels,” on its autumn concert in Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan.

Brian Moll (MM ’91, collaborative piano) has been department chair of keyboard studies and is a longtime piano faculty member at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, where he created the master of music degree in collaborative piano. At the Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music, Moll teaches German and French repertory classes, previously serving as music director for opera productions. As a visiting faculty member at New England Conservatory, Moll took over as French song class instructor following the retirement of John Moriarity and has also served as opera coach for the opera program, most recently preparing Cavalli’s La Calisto. Since 2019, he has been director of the Lieder Akademie for the Dramatic Voices Program in Berlin.

Daniel Neer (SM ’95, voice) recently received critical acclaim for the world premiere of his new play Dachau for Queers at Philadelphia’s Theatre Exile as part of the 2025 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. In collaboration with composer and pianist Ellen Mandel, Neer performed a sold-out performance of Hopper Haiku: New Art Songs Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper, for which he also wrote the lyrics, at OPERA America in New York City.

Larry Visser, JanEl Will, and James Kibbie Reunite to Celebrate Anniversary

Larry Visser (MM ’90, organ, church music; DMA ’95, organ) composed “Prelude and Fugue-Toccata on What Wondrous Love Is This” for the occasion of the 30th anniversary of JanEl Will (DMA ’95, organ) as organist at Bruton Parish in Colonial Williamsburg. The celebration included an organ recital by Will on the church’s 2019 Dobson organ and an American Guild of Organists master class on the organ works of J.S. Bach led by James Kibbie, professor emeritus of organ. It also featured a recital by Kibbie that included Visser’s piece, which Kibbie had commissioned to be written in honor of Will’s 30th anniversary. The event provided the opportunity for professor/performer/commissioner, dedicatee, and composer to reunite after several years.

In September 2025, Peggy Trecker White (BFA ’93, musical theatre) began a position as the artistic director of the South Carolina Children’s Theatre, after spending a decade as director of intermediate musical theatre production at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

Jonathan Holtfreter (BM ’74, MM ’80, music education) has presented and sold his patented orthopedic devices for the trombone, euphonium, and horn at music educator’s conventions in eight states. From his website, TromboneSpineSaver.com, he has sold these devices to customers in five countries and in 23 states in the United States. His published works, including Music Study Cycles Handbook – Music Algorithms for Independent Student Learning, The Rhythm Study, Gradients of Diatonic Consonance and Dissonance, and Diatonic Modes Drills (winds, percussion, strings) are available at musicstudycycles.com.

James Johnston (BM ’81, composition) released two primarily orchestral compositions in fall 2025. The first work, Man from the Hudson, is scored for orchestra and narrator and deals with the life and times of American poet Walt Whitman. It is a subtle yet moving work that encompasses several excerpts from his poems as well as narration describing his life. The second work, Lux Aeterna, is a large work that presents a sonic meditation on the journey of light from its genesis through decay, metamorphosis, reflection, and transcendence. Each movement explores a different phase of this metaphysical cycle, blending orchestral, ambient, and progressive rock textures.

Scott Messing (PhD ’86, musicology), Charles A. Dana Professor of Music Emeritus at Alma College, has had his article accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Beethoven Journal. Its title is “The Small Reveal: The Identity of Beethoven’s Brutus Bust.”

Patricia Plasko (MFA ’89, dance), a lifelong dancer and creative, retired from 23 years in dance education in 2022, and she continues to teach classes as a certified artistry instructor for BeMoved® Dance and as an experienced registered yoga teacher at the Portage Zhang Senior Center in Portage, Michigan. Her other creative interests include jewelry design, costume design, and making designer pillows for her Etsy business, Plasko Design. Plasko loves being “retired,” loves sharing her love of dance and movement with everyone, and is enjoying good health at 66. Her goal is to dance forever.

Sonya Szabo-Reynolds (BM ’81, MM ’83, piano) premiered Lauren Spavelko’s “An Iridescent Fantasy” (piano quartet commissioned by Cincinnati Chamber Music Network) at the Cincinnati Art Museum on October 18, 2025. Additional activities in the fall of 2025 included presenting at the Kentucky Music Teachers Association State Conference and serving as panelist for the Royal Conservatory of Music session at the Ohio Music Teachers Association State Conference. Ongoing performances of Kile Smith’s song cycle, Sometimes It Happens So, which Szabo-Reynolds premiered with baritone Ben Flanders in 2023, have included the Skald Festival of Song at Northern Kentucky University and the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center.

Brian L. Bowman (BM, MM ’70, euphonium), Regents Professor of Music Emeritus, University of North Texas, is the music director of the Brass Band of Northern Virginia. The band will be participating in the North American Brass Band Association competition in April 2026. Bowman is also the euphonium artist faculty for the 2026 Equity Arc Wind Symphony. He is the conductor of the Interservice Euphonium Choir for the 2026 Tuba-Euphonium Workshop in February 2026. Last summer he was a guest artist at the International Euponium and Tuba (IET) Festival in Atlanta and the International Tuba Euphonium Conference (ITEC) in Spain, and he was on the faculty of the Mendez Brass Institute in Denver and Lieksa Brass Festival in Finland.

Undersea Jubilee, the fourth picture book by Connie Bergstein Dow (MFA ’76, dance), will be published by Roan & Weatherford in spring 2026. Dow’s books are light and playful and highlight the importance of movement in young children’s lives.

Carolyn Eynon (BM ’69, MM ’70, music education) will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Carolyn Eynon Singers in 2026–27. She is traveling to Paris with composer Elaine Hagenberg’s tour in June 2026 to join other choristers at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.

Four compositions by Stephen Michael Gryč (BM ’71, music education; MM ’76, music theory, composition; DMA ’83, composition) were recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during sessions held in Scotland’s Studio in Glasgow, January 13–15, 2026. Soloists included New York Philharmonic trombonist Joseph Alessi, Hartford Symphony Concert Master Leonid Sigal, and Basel Symphony trumpeter Huw Morgan. Miran Vaupotic conducted the orchestra, and Jan Košulič of Parma Recordings was the producer. The recording should be released in about a year’s time on the Navona label.

Richard Jennings (MM ’78, voice) has recently been composing Female, Ashkenazi with a Sewing Machine Suite (violin and viola) for Berkeley and Chicago spring premieres. The material is drawn from the recent violin score of the Chicago production of the play by Jamie Greenblatt, a score that utilized the Freygish/Phrygian Dominant scale. One critic said, “The truly affecting Hebraic-esque score adds tremendously to the piece, enhancing dramatic scenes and adding sweet undertones.” Jennings is also composing a banjo score for a play in development. Jennings is the author of the article “Music for Plays,” published by American Theatre magazine.

Carolyn Sellinger Shapiro (BFA ’79, dance) is on the board of directors for the Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, an organization that celebrates the transformative power of the arts. She looks forward to helping Terminus grow its impact and continue to be a beacon of artistic innovation.

Scott C. Shuler (BM ’75, music education) contributed the afterword to Music Between Your Ears: How Musical Engagement Powers the Human Brain, by neurologist Samuel Markind, published by Johns Hopkins Press. His afterword reviews changes over the centuries in how philosophers, theologians, educators, and – more recently – scientists have explained how music so powerfully affects the human soul, mind, and brain.

Charles Μ. Atkinson (ΜΜ ’65, music education) presented “The Alia musica in the Formation of a Medieval Concept of Mode” to the joint Symposium on Music Theory between the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis of Basel, Switzerland, and the Institut für Musikforschung of the Universität Würzburg, which took place in Würzburg October 31 to November 1, 2025. On November 14–15, he presented “Boethius, Ptolemaios, the Expositor of the Alia musica, and the Modes” for the symposium Medieval Chant, Its Theories and the Ancient Classical Musical World: Points of Intersection? held under the aegis of the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi in Venice, Italy.

Sheilah Rae (née Bernstein) Gross (BM ’67, voice), award-winning composer/lyricist, has written the foreword to a new book by neurologist Sam Markind about music and the brain. Music Between Your Ears: How Musical Engagement Powers the Human Brain is a must-read for anyone interested in how the brain is wired to respond to music and how music and dance bring essential joy.

Greg Heuer (BM ’69, music education) has accepted the principal clarinet chair with the Nelson County Community Orchestra (Virginia).