With the start of new semester, the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ School of Performing Arts is welcoming several new faculty members and new appointments to the administration team.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey M. Moore, who has been the director of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ School of Performing Arts since its inception in 2013, has been named as the new dean of the College of Arts & Humanities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored to have the opportunity to join Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s outstanding senior academic leadership team,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThroughout my career, I have always enjoyed collaborating with faculty, students and our community partners. This new position will allow me to expand on those activities and enhance our presence even more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steven Chicurel-Stein, professor of theatre and associate director of the School of Performing Arts, has been named interim director of the school while the university conducts a national search for Moore\u2019s permanent replacement.<\/p>\n
Chicurel-Stein\u2019s new position grants him oversight over the school\u2019s music and theatre curriculum, facilities and faculty. \u201cI\u2019ve been teaching at universities for 25 years now, and I\u2019ve always been a professor in theatre, but my degrees are in music. For me, it\u2019s an easy fit\u2014I understand the cultures of both music and theatre. There\u2019s still a learning curve, but I\u2019m comfortable working within both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor of Music David L. Brunner will assume Chicurel-Stein\u2019s associate director duties for the interim period, complimented by Dr. Keith Koons, who remains in his associate director position.<\/p>\n
Theatre professor Julia Listengarten has been named as the artistic director for Theatre Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½. The artistic director is typically responsible for conceiving, developing, and implementing the artistic vision of a theatre company.<\/p>\n
Listengarten envisions her role as working with the theatre faculty to reimagine artistic goals of the department and develop a vision for upcoming seasons. Theatre associate professor Bert Scott, as director of production, will facilitate the technical production needs of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the exciting parts of this position for me is the fact that now we\u2019re a School of Performing Arts\u2014so there are theatre and music,\u201d says Listengarten. While her position does not directly impact the music department, she looks forward to bringing the two areas closer together. \u201cI\u2019ve always tried to collaborate with musicians in the productions that I\u2019ve directed, and I see artistic collaboration as a very important part of the merger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tremon Kizer has been hired as associate director of bands and director of athletic bands. In this role, he will oversee all aspects of the athletic band program and teach courses in music education. As an award-winning educator, Kizer hopes his students take the skills they learn and apply them to every area of their lives. \u201cI want to help our students become the best doctors, lawyers, educators, musicians, mothers, and fathers they can be,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, they will apply what they learn into their path of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kizer earned his doctorate in musical arts from the University of South Carolina, his master of arts in music from the University of Central Missouri and his bachelors in music education from Kansas State University.<\/p>\n
While the School conducts a nationwide search for a new director of bands, Dr. Chung Park, director of orchestras, will lead Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s Wind Ensemble in addition to the orchestra.<\/p>\n
Assistant Professor Si-Yan Darren Li has been added to the music faculty, where he will be leading the cello studio. Li holds his bachelor of music degree from The Juilliard School, and his master of music degree and artist diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n
Li started studying cello at age 5 and now holds\u00a0prizes from numerous prestigious competitions around the world, such as the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. He is also the recipient of the \u201cAmerican Masterpieces\u201d Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeaching cello has really become my biggest passion in life,\u201d said Li. \u201cI find it incredibly rewarding to help my students to grow as a cellist, a musician and a human being by sharing my experience, knowledge and wisdom. I believe that passion, devotion and honest communications are essential elements to great teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theatre department also welcomes Assistant Professor Shawn Boyle to the faculty, where he will be teaching lighting design and working on Theatre Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s productions. Boyle has an extensive background as a projection and lighting designer, working in theatre, musical theater, opera, dance, installation, and architectural projects, as well as designing for several theaters and theme parks in the United States. As an associate projection designer for Elaine J. McCarthy, Boyle worked on productions of Wicked <\/em>in the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Holland and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n Boyle earned his MFA in projection design from Yale School of Drama in 2015 and his BFA in Lighting Design from Rutgers University\u2019s Mason Gross School of the Arts.<\/p>\n Cynthia White, who has been serving on the theatre faculty as interim professor focusing on acting and directing, has been awarded the permanent position of lecturer in directing. The position is a shared one with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, where she will also serve as the director of new play development. She was associate director and director of play development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and taught at Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, and Western Washington University in Bellingham. She has directed professionally at numerous Shakespeare festivals, universities, and regional theatre around the country.<\/p>\n David Willmore will be Theatre Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s master electrician. Willmore holds a B.A. in theatre and dance with a concentration in design and technology from James Madison University and has been working in the electrics department at the Glimmerglass Festival in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the start of new semester, the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ School of Performing Arts is welcoming several new faculty members and new appointments to the administration team. Jeffrey M. Moore, who has been the director of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ School of Performing Arts since its inception in 2013, has been named as the new dean of the College of Arts & Humanities. \u201cI…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":73868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3,18,28,29],"tags":[1196,2446,4165,15368],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-73867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-music","category-theatre-ucf","category-visual-arts","tag-david-brunner","tag-jeffrey-moore","tag-school-of-performing-arts","tag-steven-chicurel-stein"],"yoast_head":"\n