By Sydney Hawkins
When Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (MT ’18) was a young girl growing up in the Bronx, she remembers many of Tina Turner’s songs playing in the background of her Saturday and Sunday mornings.
By the time Obi-Melekwe heard those hits coming from her father’s stereo, some of them would be more than 40 years old—which is why many found it hard to believe she could step into the title role for “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical” last spring at just 22 years young.
On May 28, 2025, the BMI Foundation and BMI announced the recipients of the 73rd annual BMI Composer Awards. The winners include two SMTD students: Cole Reyes, who is pursuing a DMA in composition, and Jason Zhang, who graduated in April with a bachelor’s degree in...
Nancy Murphy, associate professor of music theory, has recently published a research article in Theory and Practice, the journal of the Music Theory Society of New York State. Titled “The Performed-Out Fermata from the 1920s to Bob Dylan,” the article explores the...
Over the past two years, the Cerus Quartet has taken top honors in several notable competitions. In 2023 the quartet won first prize and the Michigan Prize (awarded for best performance of a piece written by a U-M composer) in SMTD’s Briggs Chamber Music Competition....
The 2025 State of the Arts Tour took the University of Michigan Symphony Band around Michigan to engage local communities, connect with high school students and educators, and showcase the university’s world-class performing arts programs. With support from the U-M...
