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.
Jamie-Rose Guarrine

Interim Associate Chair; Professor, Voice

Jamie-Rose Guarrine in front of a brick wall.
Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine is acclaimed for her “utterly thrilling, agile voice” and praised for bringing “pathos, beauty, and heartbreaking skill” to her performances. She has performed on the stages of Los Angeles Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and on the concert stage with the Madison Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the Santa Fe Symphony, among many others.
Jamie-Rose Guarrine in front of a brick wall.
Duane Lee Holland Jr.

Director of Dance Program; Associate Professor of Dance

Duane Lee Holland, Jr.
Duane Lee Holland Jr. began his professional dance career at the age of 17, dancing for Hip-Hop theater dance company, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM); he was later named Assistant Artistic Director of the company. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Dance (Magna Cum Laude), with a focus in Choreography, from the University of Iowa.
Duane Lee Holland, Jr.
Christopher White
Graduate Program Director
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.
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

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

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray

Nathaniel Gowen profile

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Craig Kaufman

Director of Marketing and Publicity

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray

Craig Kaufman profile

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Cathleen A. Maclutsky

Administrative Coordinator, Dance Program

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Ashley Nolan-Zeller

Personnel Coordinator and Assistant to the Dept. Chair

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray

 

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Angelie Peterson

Business Manager

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Eric Roth

Website Manager; Publicity/Marketing Assistant

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray

Eric Roth profile

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
Christine McHugh Sirard

Student Teacher Coordinator; Lecturer, Assistant Conductor & Visual Coordinator of the Minuteman Marching Band

Christine Sirard

Christine Sirard has been the Assistant Director of the UMass Marching Band, serving as Color Guard Director and Visual Coordinator, since 2015. She previously worked as Color Guard Instructor for the UMMB from 1990-1995.

Christine Sirard
Greg Williams

Facilities and Scheduling Coordinator

UMass collegiate M in maroon on gray
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.
Duane Lee Holland Jr.

Director of Dance Program; Associate Professor of Dance

Duane Lee Holland, Jr.
Duane Lee Holland Jr. began his professional dance career at the age of 17, dancing for Hip-Hop theater dance company, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM); he was later named Assistant Artistic Director of the company. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Dance (Magna Cum Laude), with a focus in Choreography, from the University of Iowa.
Duane Lee Holland, Jr.
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.
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.