UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance - About Us

School of Music, Theatre & Dance announces new faculty appointments.

July 2008

All appointments pending Regental approval.

Steven Ball

Assistant Professor of Music (Carillon)

Department of Organ

Dr. Ball earned a bachelor of music in organ performance in 2000, a master of music in organ performance in 2003, and a doctoral degree in 2008, from the University of Michigan. He holds the unique distinction of being the first organist in modern academic history to have received a diploma by demonstrating his abilities as a performer on both the classical and theater organ. He is also the first Theater Organist to have received a DMusA. Recognized now as one of the world's foremost authorities on the interpretation and scholarship of silent films, he has concertized and lectured around the world including solo performances and silent film presentations in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal, Ireland, England and Switzerland.

Dr. Ball is one of fewer than a half dozen organists in the world to hold a staff organist position at a movie theater, the premiere organist for the world's first concerto for Theater Organ and Orchestra and the first person ever to accompany a silent film on the carillon. He was also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the Netherlands in 2001 for his work in the world of Campanology and Carillon Performance. In addition to his duties as Staff Organist of the Michigan Theater, he is currently Carillonneur at the University of Michigan where he both performs and teaches.

Kate R. Fitzpatrick

Assistant Professor of Music

Department of Music Education

Dr. Fitzpatrick received a bachelor of music education in 1999, and a master of arts in music education in 2004 from the Ohio State University. In 2008, she earned a doctor of philosophy in music education from Northwestern University. Her collegiate teaching experience consists teaching at the University of Louisville, directing the University of Louisville Symphonic Band, and adjunct and instructor positions at DePaul University and Northwestern University respectively.

Dr. Fitzpatrick’s research focus is on urban music education. She is published in the premier research journal in music education, and is increasingly active in conference presentations and as an invited lecturer at music education conferences. From The Ohio State University, Dr. Fitzpatrick received a Presidential Scholarship, and the School of Music Outstanding Graduate Award. She was also awarded a University Fellowship from Northwestern University.

Meilu Ho

Assistant Professor of Music

Department of Musicology (Ethnomusicology)

In 1987, Dr. Ho received a B.A. in History (Asia) from Stanford University. She then received a M.A. in Music in 1991, and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology in 2006, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Ho began her professional career as a teaching associate and assistant at UCLA from 1989 through 1992. From 1989 through 1992, she worked as a research assistant at UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive and on a project for the Smithsonian Institution. From 1995 through 1996, she was a teaching fellow at UCLA teaching in the ethnomusicology major core. She moved to the University of California, San Diego to begin an appointment as lecturer from 1997 through 1998. In 1999, she began an appointment as Lecturer at the Science University in Malaysia. From 2002 through 2006, she worked as a freelance music journalist. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Ho was a visiting fellow at the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Ho’s research concerns the historical relationship between Hindu temple music and (largely Muslim-based) Indian classical music. Though her specialty is Hindustani music, she also might be described as a historical musicologist of the Indian raja system and a student of contemporary trends in Indian music. Dr. Ho has an impressive list of publications. She has received numerous honors and awards including an International Scholarship and Music Guild Award from Stanford University. From UCLA, she has received an International Fellowship, Edna Yu-Shan Han Award, the Clifton Webb Award, a Graduate Distinguished Scholar Award, and a Chancellor’s Dissertation Year Fellowship. She was also awarded a Charles Seeger Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology, and a junior fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies.

Joan Raeburn Holland

Associate Professor of Music (Harp)

Department of Strings

Professor Holland’s harp studies began under the tutelage of Eileen Malone in the preparatory department of the Eastman School of Music. At the age of 12, Ms. Holland continued her study of the harp with Alice Chalifoux, through college. In 1977, Ms. Holland earned a bachelor of music in harp performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She maintains an active career in solo, chamber music and orchestral performing, in addition to her strong commitment to teaching.

Ms. Holland has been the Instructor of harp for the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Interlochen Arts Camp since 1978. She is the principal harp for the Midland Symphony Orchestra and co-principal of the Traverse Symphony. Prior to her position at Interlochen, she was principal harp for the Phoenix Symphony and the Cleveland Ballet Orchestra. She acted as substitute harpist for the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony and the Ohio Chamber Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Ms. Holland frequently performs with her colleagues and has participated in recital programs for the regional and national conventions of the American Harp Society (AHS). She performed as guest recitalist for the Philadelphia and Toledo AHS chapters and as a chamber musician for the World Harp Congress and the International Viola Congress. Concerto performances include collaboration with the Midland Symphony Chamber Orchestra, The Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, the Traverse Symphony, the Sault Symphony, the Bach Festival in Lexington, Michigan, and the Interlochen Arts Academy String Orchestra.

Kristen Kuster

Assistant Professor of Music

Department of Composition

In 1995, Dr. Kuster earned a bachelor of arts from the University of San Diego. She received a master of music in theory and composition from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1998, and a doctor of musical arts in music composition from the University of Michigan in 2002. From 2002 through 2004, Professor Kuster was a visiting and adjunct lecturer at the University of Michigan, School of Music. She was a visiting assistant professor at Denison University from 2004 through 2005. Since that time, she has been building an impressive professional career, and has become well known as an up-and-coming freelance composer in the East Coast new-music scene.

Dr. Kuster’s music reflects intellectual breadth, depth and sophistication. She is an excellent orchestrator who brings a deep understanding of vocal music to her writing. Dr. Kuster has developed a promising and rapidly developing professional career profile that reaches across contemporary and early music styles. She has been invited as a guest composer at numerous institutions around the country, and has established an impressive list of commissions and upcoming performances.

Paul Schoenfield,

Professor of Music

Department of Composition

Professor Schoenfield received a Bachelor of Music from Converse College in 1967, a Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1968, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona in 1970. Professor Schoenfield’s academic career began at the University of Toledo as an assistant professor, progressing through the academic ranks to professor of piano and composition at that same institution. He has also served as an adjunct professor of composition at the University of Minnesota, and an associate professor of piano at the University of Akron. Professor Schoenfield is currently professor of composition at the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music. Professor Schoenfield is an American original; he is one of the few composers in the field to be so actively sought-after that he has for many years worked outside the academy, producing compositions on commission for many leading performing organizations, an exceedingly rare state for composers in these times. He is also a highly accomplished pianist with credentials as a recording and performing artist on the highest level. The depth of his knowledge of mathematics, with a special interest in number theory, and his serious study of the Talmud from the perspective of orthodox Judaism (he is fluent in modern Hebrew) qualify him as a genuine embodiment of intellectual and artistic diversity.

Professor Schoenfield is a brilliant composer with a list of works to his credit that place him at the top of the field in terms of quality and content. Although the list of compositions is not vast, it is ample and extraordinary in its breadth of media and its human depth. It is also exceptional in the frequency of performance by leading artists and the number of his works recorded. Professor Schoenfield is also a formidable pianist and chamber music collaborator, which fact is illustrated in his recordings as a pianist and the reports of School of Music, Theatre & Dance faculty who have performed with him. Perhaps the most striking evidence of his rare attainment as a performer is found in his having spent three years at Marlboro as resident artist, performing with and learning from the legendary Rudolf Serkin.

Aleksandra Vojcic

Assistant Professor of Music

Department of Music Theory

Dr. Vojcic received a B.M. and a M.M. from The Juilliard School in 1994 and 1996, respectively. In 2001, she began D.M.A. studies in piano prior to transferring to the CUNY Graduate Center from which she received her Ph.D. in Music Theory in 2007.

Dr. Vojcic began her professional career as an adjunct assistant professor in music theory at the Baruch College in New York City. In 1996, she joined The Juilliard School teaching studies in music theory. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she was a visiting assistant professor in music theory at the University of Massachusetts. Her developing research delves into a series of categories for complex rhythmic phenomena in the repertoire that is her specialty. Her skills as a virtuoso pianist predict a highly successful career theorizing the problems of recent music from a performer’s perspective.

Block M Records Releases Music of Ryan Jones on iTunes.

June 2008

Music composed and performed by Ryan Jones, Midland native who died in January 2007, has been published and released posthumously by the University of Michigan’s Block M Records, Ann Arbor, Mich. The album of 18 original compositions of electronic music is titled “Ryan Jones: In Memoriam” and is available on iTunes.

Royalties earned from the sale of the album will go to the Ryan C. Jones Student Assistance Fund, an endowment established by Jones’ parents, Curt and Jan Jones. The fund provides financial help to students in the Performing Arts Technology (PAT) Department of the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance. At the time of his death, Jones was a senior majoring in PAT, which seeks to advance the aesthetics of technology-based arts through performance, the development of emerging technologies, and research.

“Ryan’s contributions to the department were through his drive to push music-making in new directions,” stated Mary Simoni, Chair of the PAT Department. “His music had an insatiable edginess that skirted the limits of the imagination. His untimely death leaves us wondering what we could and should have heard.”

“Ryan Jones: In Memoriam” or any of the album’s individual compositions can be previewed and purchased on iTunes. Block M Records is a University of Michigan organization that promotes the vitality, diversity, and artistic excellence of the University of Michigan through recording, production, and dissemination of musical compositions and performances by our faculty, staff and students. Click here for more detailed information on the album.

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