Four new faculty members will join the WVU College of Creative Arts in August 2015 in the areas of voice, music theory & composition, music education and the new music therapy program. In addition, two interim music faculty members will also be returning to the Creative Arts Center next year.

“I am excited about our newest crop of faculty in the College of Creative Arts,” said Dean Paul Kreider. “They bring an extensive array of professional and academic credentials that will most assuredly contribute to the excellence that exists among our faculty ranks. We are extremely proud to have recruited this group of outstanding talent to WVU.”

Tenor Robert Chafin will join the School of Music assistant professor of voice. He has garnered accolades for his performances on the international opera, concert and recital stages. He has more than 70 operas in his repertoire and has performed as a guest artist at New York City Opera and at Carnegie Hall. He has performed internationally in Berlin, Paris, Salzburg Summer Festival, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Vienna, Frankfurt, Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Leipzig and in Israel. He has critically acclaimed recordings of the operas of Franz Schreker, Richard Strauss, Leonard Bernstein and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Upcoming engagements include concerts in France and Germany. This summer, Chafin will also return to the faculty of the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and the international Napa Opera Festival in California.

Dena Register, formerly of the University of Kansas, will join the School of Music as coordinator of the new Music Therapy program in Music Education. She earned degrees from the Florida State University and previously worked as a private practice music therapist in Florida, providing services to early intervention programs, students with special education needs, bereaved children and battered women and children. Her research interests include music therapy in early intervention and literacy skill development, as well as working with early childhood educators on incorporating music in their classrooms. In 2009, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research at Mahidol University, Thailand. She continues to work in Thailand as a consultant for the first music therapy training program in the country.

Matthew Heap, who is joining the School of Music as assistant professor of Music Theory and Composition, is an internationally performed composer whose music has been featured in several American and English cities and on WQED and WCLV radio. His compositions range from completely atonal concert music to musical theater. He is also involved in theater as an actor, director, and writer. Heap received degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, the Royal College of Music in London, and the University of Pittsburgh. His recent research projects include a full analysis of Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, with a focus on the narrative function of various elements within the work. He is also researching how theories of perception can be applied to works of current composers such as Matthias Pintscher.

Lindsey Williams joins the Music Education faculty as associate professor. He earned degrees from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Florida State University. His public school teaching has included elementary, junior high, and high school instrumental and choral music in Kansas, Florida and Georgia. Williams is an active performer, conductor and clinician for music educators and young musicians throughout the United States and Southeast Asia. In 2012, he was named a Fulbright Scholar and continued his work with music educators in Thailand. His research interests include musicians’ focus of attention, musical complexity, life-long learning and music teacher training. He is a founding co-editor for the ASEAN Music Journal and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Music Education.

In addition to the four new music faculty members, two other interim faculty members will be returning to the School of Music next year.

Kym Scott, interim director of the Choral Program, graduated from Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1997 and received a Master of Music degree from the University of Queensland in 2010. She taught choral music at the Brisbane Girls Grammar School and contemporary music and theory at the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE. Scott is currently completing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music at the University of Southern California, where she conducted the USC Thornton Oriana Women’s Chorus. In 2013, she conducted members of the USC choirs in several performances with The Rolling Stones during their “50 and counting” world tour. She also went to China and South Korea in 2014, performing with the USC Thornton Chamber Singers.

Robert Lauver, who came to the School of Music as visiting professor of horn last year after the death of long-time Horn Professor Virginia Thompson, will continue as interim horn professor for the next two years. Lauver received degrees from The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University. He has performed with the Chicago Chamber Brass and the Austin, Alabama, Columbus and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, and is currently second horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has toured worldwide in South Africa, Europe and Asia, including a special performance at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II. He also teaches privately at his home in Pittsburgh and has taught at Southern Illinois University, the University of Missouri, Carnegie Mellon University and The Barry Tuckwell Institute.

-WVU-

cl/06/05/15

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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