News

For the upcoming school year, the Department of Music and Dance has added three new faculty members - Assistant Professor of Music Theory Miriam Piilonen (pictured), Jazz Dance Lecturer Lauren Cox, and Five College Visiting Assistant Professor Evan MacCarthy (Music History)– and also promoted current Bassoon Lecturer Rémy Taghavi to the position of Assistant Professor.

The Dance Program’s senior recognition online event was held on May 8. Hosted by program director Tom Vacanti, it included short statements from all 17 graduating seniors.  Robert Lynch ‘71, CEO of Americans for the Arts, and award-winning choreographer David Dorfman, as well as dance faculty, shared their personal insights and congratulations. Video

Dr. Frederick C. Tillis - composer, performer, poet, educator, and arts administrator - died Sunday, May 3 at age 90 due to complications following hip surgery. In addition to being professor emeritus in the Department of Music and Dance, Tillis was also director emeritus of the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center and co-founder and director emeritus of the Jazz in July program. Legacy Concert highlights

Trombonist and composer Brian Martin ’19MM has been honored with a Student Music Award from DownBeat Magazine. A student in the Jazz Composition and Arranging graduate program from 2017-19, Martin won the award for Outstanding Arrangement for Studio Orchestra (Graduate College category) for his arrangement of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” 

Associate Professor of Music Education Lisa Lehmberg has been selected by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at UMass as a recipient of a TIDE Ambassador (Teaching for Inclusiveness, Diversity and Equity) faculty fellowship for 2020-21.

The Department of Music and Dance has met the challenges of remote instruction head-on through a mixture of imagination, technology, and enthusiasm. For example, Associate Professor of Piano Gilles Vonsattel has been providing students with his perspective on works they are studying, like this overview of Bach’s Concerto in G minor, along with video recordings like this one of him performing the piece.