Administration & Staff

Our administrative leaders and dedicated staff are fully committed to providing a warm, caring and inclusive teaching and learning environment for all of our faculty, students, and guests.

Administration

Matthew Westgate
Department Chair
Matthew Westgate sitting with hands clasped.
Conductor Matthew Westgate “leads with a combination of expressivity and crispness” (San Francisco Chronicle). His performances are praised as “dramatic, incisive, and passionate” (Audiophile Audition) and full of “verve and swagger” (MusicWeb International).
Matthew Westgate sitting with hands clasped.
Thomas Vacanti

Dance Program Director, Professor

A black and white headshot of Thomas Vacanti.
Thomas Vacanti (BS in Dance, Skidmore College ‘02. MFA in Dance, Smith College ’04) is Professor of Ballet and Director of the Dance Program at UMass Amherst. In 2012, Tom received one of UMass Amherst’s highest honors, The Distinguished Teaching Award.
A black and white headshot of Thomas Vacanti.
Christopher White
Graduate Program Director
A headshot of Christopher White.
Christopher White remains an avid organist, having studied with Haskell Thompson and James David Christie. As a member of the Three Penny Chorus and Orchestra, he has appeared on NBC's Today Show and as a quarterfinalist on America's Got Talent. He currently serves as secretary for the New England Conference of Music Theorists.
A headshot of Christopher White.
Erica Drake

Undergraduate Program Director & Director of Undergraduate Advising

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray

Staff

Nicole Avakian

Graduate Program Coordinator

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Jacqueline "Jacqui" Bodin

Assistant to the Department Chair

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Abigail Clark

Undergraduate Program Coordinator

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Erica Drake

Undergraduate Program Director & Director of Undergraduate Advising

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Nathaniel Gowen

Director of Recruitment, Admissions & Career Planning

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Cathleen A. Maclutsky

Administrative Coordinator, Dance Program

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Angelie Peterson

Business Manager

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Thomas Reynolds

Music Education-Student Teaching

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Eric Roth

Website Manager; Publicity/Marketing Assistant

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Remy Vallerand-Parisi

Piano Technician

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Greg Williams

Facilities Coordinator

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UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray

Program Directors

Lindsay Pope
Choral Studies
Lindsay Pope.
Lindsay Pope is Director of Choral Studies at UMass Amherst, where she directs the Chamber Choir and teaches conducting. Previously, she directed the programs at Mount Holyoke College and Williams College. She was also Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Chorus, for which her work was praised as “exemplary and well-prepared” (Texas Classical Review). Pope’s research interests include early music performance practice, the ethics of choral programming, and the intersection of women and gender studies with choral music.
Lindsay Pope.
Thomas Vacanti
Dance Program
A black and white headshot of Thomas Vacanti.
Thomas Vacanti (BS in Dance, Skidmore College ‘02. MFA in Dance, Smith College ’04) is Professor of Ballet and Director of the Dance Program at UMass Amherst. In 2012, Tom received one of UMass Amherst’s highest honors, The Distinguished Teaching Award.
A black and white headshot of Thomas Vacanti.
Jeffrey W. Holmes
Jazz & African American Music Studies
Jeffrey W. Holmes.
Holmes plays keyboards with the Paul Winter Consort, leads the Jeff Holmes Big Band featuring his wife, vocalist Dawning Holmes, and plays lead trumpet with the New England Jazz Ensemble. Recent recordings as performer and/or composer/arranger include the Jeff Holmes Quartet release "Of One's Own," the New England Jazz Ensemble’s “Peter and The Wolf“, HGTS’s “…and then they played…” and projects by Paul Winter, colleague Felipe Salles, and Earl MacDonald. He continues to appear as a guest conductor/clinician/adjudicator and performer/composer/arranger.
Jeffrey W. Holmes.
Timothy T. Anderson
Minuteman Marching Band
Timothy Anderson directing in front of a basketball game.
Timothy Todd Anderson has been at the University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2011. He is the director of the over-370-member, award-winning Minuteman Marching Band. Under Anderson's direction, the Minuteman Band has performed in both the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and the 2018 Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, CA. Both performances were televised internationally.
Timothy Anderson directing in front of a basketball game.
Gonzalo Alexander Hidalgo Ardila
Orchestral Studies
Hidalgo Ardila posed to conduct while sheet music falls around him.
From the conducting class of Eduardo Marturet and Teresa Hernández, Gonzalo has directed some of the most important youth and professional orchestras in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, United States and Argentina. Gonzalo was one of the finalists in the international competition for associate conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, as well as a finalist for the position of principal conductor of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston.
Hidalgo Ardila posed to conduct while sheet music falls around him.
Matthew Westgate
Wind Studies
Matthew Westgate sitting with hands clasped.
Conductor Matthew Westgate “leads with a combination of expressivity and crispness” (San Francisco Chronicle). His performances are praised as “dramatic, incisive, and passionate” (Audiophile Audition) and full of “verve and swagger” (MusicWeb International).
Matthew Westgate sitting with hands clasped.