Faculty
Our unparalleled faculty is the cornerstone of the educational experience in the School of Music. Our faculty consists of internationally recognized scholars, musicians, and teachers, who bring their real-world experience directly into the classroom, rehearsal hall, and studio. With some of the most prominent musical experts in the Twin Cities--many members of the Minnesota Orchestra or the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra--our collaborative and creative faculty guide students as they develop into scholars, teachers, composers, and performers.
200E Ferguson Hall
612-624-7060
[email protected]
Strings
Kyle Motl
Specialties
Double Bass; Improvisation; Contemporary Music; Creative Music; Jazz
Maja Radovanlija
Specialties
early music, conteporary and improvised music
Woodwinds
Immanuel Davis
Specialties
Contemporary 20th-century flute and chamber repertoire; Classical; Flute; Specialized breathing techniques in flute performance
Brass
Marissa Benedict
Specialties
Trumpet Performing; Classical, Jazz and recording Instruction; Chamber Music Coaching and Leadership; Masterclasses and instruction; Collaborations with Faculty and colleagues (see website)
Percussion
Fernando Meza
Specialties
Percussion literature, techniques, and pedagogy; Percussion; Orchestral and contemporary music; North Indian tabla drums; The folkloric marimba traditions of Costa Rica; Music technology as applied to education
Keyboard
Timothy Lovelace
Specialties
Collaborative piano; Chamber music
Voice
Matthew Mehaffey
Specialties
Conducting; Choral music and performance; Choral music pedagogy; Choral music instruction
Samantha Laumann
Specialties
Outstanding Member of the National Association of Teacher Singers - Current; BroadwayVox MTVP - 2024; Bridging Classical To CCM - Shenandoah University - 2022; Certification - Somatic Voiceworks - 2022; The Visceral Voice Workshop - Musical Theatre/CCM -NYC - 2021; Certificate of Vocal Pedegogy Distinction - Boston Conservatory - 2020; Music Directing/Vocal Coaching; Cross Training the Voice; Conducting/Orchestration
David Walsh
Specialties
Managerial abilities; Administration; Opera history; 20th-century contemporary operatic literature and design
Jazz and Improvisation
Scott Currie
Specialties
Ethnomusicology, Carribean Music, Jazz, Reggae, Improvisation in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Sivan Cohen Elias
Specialties
Acoustical and Electroacoustic Music Composition; Improviser Performer with sound instruments and Electronics; Sound and multimedia Artist; Sound design software techniques including working with iZotope RX, and Ozone; Field and studio Recording techniques; Fixed media with any Digital Audio Workstation, including ProTools, Cubase, Reaper, Abelton Live, Logic Pro, Adobe Audition; Graphical programming with Max MSP and Jitter including MC and Gen; Classical and contemporary notation and orchestration techniques; Notation and graphical software include Finale, Sibelius, and Adobe Illustrator; Video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, and Final Cut
Kyle Motl
Specialties
Double Bass; Improvisation; Contemporary Music; Creative Music; Jazz
Maja Radovanlija
Specialties
early music, conteporary and improvised music
Dean Sorenson
Specialties
Jazz; Music composition; Trombone
Conducting and Ensembles
Betsy McCann
Specialties
Contemporary Music, Concert Band, Leadership, Group Culture, Marching Band
Matthew Mehaffey
Specialties
Conducting; Choral music and performance; Choral music pedagogy; Choral music instruction
Mark Russell Smith
Dean Sorenson
Specialties
Jazz; Music composition; Trombone
Emily Threinen
Specialties
Conducting Pedagogy, Wind Band emphasis; Concert Art Music and Programming, Wind Band emphasis; Leadership and Management; Instrumental Music Education
David Walsh
Specialties
Managerial abilities; Administration; Opera history; 20th-century contemporary operatic literature and design
Composition and Electronic Music
Sivan Cohen Elias
Specialties
Acoustical and Electroacoustic Music Composition; Improviser Performer with sound instruments and Electronics; Sound and multimedia Artist; Sound design software techniques including working with iZotope RX, and Ozone; Field and studio Recording techniques; Fixed media with any Digital Audio Workstation, including ProTools, Cubase, Reaper, Abelton Live, Logic Pro, Adobe Audition; Graphical programming with Max MSP and Jitter including MC and Gen; Classical and contemporary notation and orchestration techniques; Notation and graphical software include Finale, Sibelius, and Adobe Illustrator; Video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, and Final Cut
Matthew Rahaim
Specialties
Hindustani Music, American Experimentalism, music for new instruments, analog synthesis, gesture, anthropocene sonic ecology, ethnomusicology, voice studies, speculative musical philosophy, raga theory, practices of listening, speculative harmonics, music
Music Education
Akosua Addo
Specialties
Elementary music methods; International music education; Play; World music; International teacher education; Arts Integration; African Music
Catherine Grimm
Keitha Lucas Hamann
Specialties
rural music education; arts assessment; history of music education; music teacher development; sight singing; middle level music education; choral music education
Music Entrepreneurship
Music Therapy and Health
Brian McCullough
Edward Todd Schwartzberg
Specialties
Music therapy with Autism Spectrum Disorder and related intellectual disabilities; Music therapy in Early Childhood and Special Education
Michael Silverman
Specialties
Illness management and recovery; Evidence-based music therapy; Music therapy in adult mental health; Music therapy in addiction
Musicology and Ethnomusicology
Gabriela Currie
Specialties
Global perspectives: historical ethnomusicology (pre- and early-modern); Eurasian music iconography and archaeology; Early ethnographic accounts of musical traditions in Eurasia and Africa; Intersections between musical and scientific thought in the early- and pre-modern eras; Music and culture of the Balkan Penninsula, Western and Central Asia
Scott Currie
Specialties
Ethnomusicology, Carribean Music, Jazz, Reggae, Improvisation in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Peter Mercer-Taylor
Specialties
Felix Mendelssohn; History of popular American music and culture; 19th century Romantic German music; Music history 1750 - 1900; American hymnology
Karen Painter
Specialties
music and politics; music criticism; Jewish studies; social history; German and Austrian history; implicit bias and racism; Chinese music
Matthew Rahaim
Specialties
Hindustani Music, American Experimentalism, music for new instruments, analog synthesis, gesture, anthropocene sonic ecology, ethnomusicology, voice studies, speculative musical philosophy, raga theory, practices of listening, speculative harmonics, music
Patrick R. Warfield
Specialties
American Music, military music, African American Music
Music Theory
Matt Bribitzer-Stull
Specialties
Richard Strauss; music theory; German Romantic music traditions; french horn; Richard Wagner; theory pedagogy; nineteenth-century theory and analysis; musical form and tonal structure; musical associativity; chromatic harmony; queer theory and subjectivity
David Damschroder
Specialties
Fortepiano performance and repertoire; Theories of harmony (18th – 21st centuries); Music of the nineteenth century; Analysis of tonal music (Schenkerian emphasis)
Sumanth Gopinath
Specialties
Sound studies; Popular music; Musical hermeneutics; Music and politics; Avant-garde and experimental musics; Music after WWII; Music and globalization
Guerino Mazzola
Specialties
Classical symbolic thinking in music and performance theory; Transformational theory using category theory; Gestures in music; Software for musical analysis, composition, and performance; Free jazz
Affiliated Faculty
Michael Gallope
Specialties
Music and Sound Studies; Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory; Cultural and Intellectual History; Political Economy; Academic Freedom
Charles Kronengold
Specialties
20th- and 21st-Century Music (Including Musics of the African Diaspora, Western Art Music, Popular Music of the Americas, Experimental Musics and Avant Gardes, Electronic Dance Music); Film and Audiovisual Media; Aesthetics (Especially in Relation to Ethics); Poetry and Poetics; Comparative Modernisms; Theories of Genre
Elliott Powell
Specialties
American popular music and culture; Comparative and relational race studies; Feminist and queer studies; Afro-Asian studies; Black cultural studies; Afro-diasporic popular music; Inter-/cross-cultural music making; Sound studies