Faculty & Staff

Dr. C. Kevin Bowen, Director of Bands, earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, the Master of Music degree in trumpet performance from the University of Louisville, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from the Florida State University.

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As Director of Athletic Bands and Assistant Teaching Professor of Music at Wake Forest, Dr. Tim Heath oversees all aspects of the athletic band program and serves as a member of the conducting faculty assisting the concert bands.

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A conductor praised for his “precision and clarity,” and performances hailed as “enlightened,” Christopher Gilliam is the Director of Choral Activities at Wake Forest University, the artistic director for the pro chorus Vox Humana, director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus, and Director of Music at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.

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This is David Hagy’s 27th season as the WFU Orchestra Director. The Orchestra’s Halloween concert begins at midnight with the orchestra in full costume. The Orchestra also plays many classical masterworks, concertos with student soloists, and musical theater productions.

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Elizabeth Clendinning is an Associate Professor of Music specializing in ethnomusicology and director of Wake Forest University’s Gamelan Giri Murti Balinese gamelan ensemble. Her research concerns concepts of space, time, cultural representation, and pedagogy within international Asian performance communities and in film and television music. At Wake Forest, she teaches courses in world, popular, and Asian musics, and is the director of the WFU performing arts study abroad program in Bali.

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Dr. Chen received her Ph.D. in Translation Studies from the State University of New York, Binghamton, and her master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting from Beijing Foreign Studies University. She graduated from Nanjing University with a BA in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, where she learnt Guqin from the inheritor of the Jinling School. Dr. Chen has also been an Erhu player since 1997. At Wake, she teaches translation and interpreting at the Graduate School.

BS Ed (Ohio State), MME (Florida State). Studied oboe with William Poland, Marc Lifschey, Laila Storch, Rhadames Angelucci; English horn with Thomas Stacy; clarinet with Frank Lucas; bassoon with Harold Andrews, baroque oboe at B.P.I., Oberlin. Former member of Camerata Academica, Oklahoma City, Dallas, St. Paul Opera, Savannah, and Tucson Symphonies. Performed with Mozarteum, Bombay Chamber and Apollo’s Fire orchestras. St. Paul Chamber, Minnesota, Piedmont Chamber, North Carolina Symphony and Bombay Chamber orchestras. English horn in Salisbury, NC Symphony. Taught in Euclid, OH schools, Salem College,  Kala Academy, Goa, India and Catawba College. Director of Bands, Wake Forest (1985-87). Directed pep band for women’s basketball. (1985-2005). Assistant Director of the Athletic Bands.(1957-2005).

Admired by Opera News as “a superb singing actor with a clear, ringing instrument and peerless diction,” tenor Bryon Grohman has received international recognition for his performances of opera, oratorio, and ensemble repertoire, most notably with Seraphic Fire, one of America’s leading professional vocal ensembles.

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Lyric soprano Elizabeth Pacheco Rose possesses an alluring stage presence with dramatic flexibility; whether singing Mimí, Pamina or Mélisande, she captures the essence of each role. She excels on the operatic stage, as well as in concert, recital and musical theatre. Her repertoire encompasses a wide range of works from baroque to contemporary music.

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Born in Los Angeles, Peter Kairoff received Master’s and Doctoral degrees in music performance from the University of Southern California and studied in Italy for two years as a Fulbright Scholar and Rotary International Fellow. He joined the faculty of Wake Forest University in 1988 and is currently Professor and Chair.

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Winner of the 2019 NYCA Worldwide Debut Audition and a laureate of the 2016 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition, Larry Weng has been described in The New York Times as playing with “steely power and incisive rhythm.” Of his 2014 New York debut at Weill Hall, the New York Concert Review described him as “an extremely sensitive musician and mature interpreter,” and “mature beyond his years.”

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Associate Teaching Professor of Piano, Joanne Inkman, received her early music training in piano, viola and theory in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Dr. Yong Im Lee Federle has performed numerous solo and chamber recitals throughout South America and the United States. She is a recipient of the Steinway & Sons Top Teacher Award for three consecutive years (2016, 2017, 2018) and is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music.

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Susan Bates has served as Organist and Music Associate at Centenary United Methodist Church since March 2011, with previous appointments at West Market St. United Methodist Church in Greensboro and at Home Moravian Church. She serves on the music faculties of Wake Forest University, Greensboro College, and High Point University.

Ryan McCollum is a jazz pianist and the instructional technologist for the Music, Theatre and Dance, and Art departments at Wake Forest University. Ryan graduated from Wake Forest with a BA in Piano Performance in 2009 and went on to get his MM in Jazz Performance from North Carolina Central University in 2012.

Anthony M. Tang is a 2011 graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. During his four years at Wake Forest, Anthony served as Percussion Section Leader in 2008 and as Drum Major in 2009 and 2010 for the Spirit of the Old Gold and Black, and he has played the WFU carillon since his sophomore year.

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Violinist Jacqui Carrasco has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico and Russia, and in styles as diverse as Argentine tango, jazz, and avant-garde new music.

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Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Marco Sartor is a top prize winner in numerous international competitions, and has performed solo and chamber music recitals in three continents to critical and public acclaim. He has appeared with orchestras such as the Allentown Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Ann Arbor Symphony, and SODRE in Uruguay.

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Evan Richey has used his well trained ear to make recordings for over 30 years. His interest in recording started while at The Juilliard School in New York City where he studied with Lynn Harrell, one of the world’s foremost cellists.

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Matt Kendrick is an award-winning jazz bassist and composer. From bebop, to swing to avant-garde, he moves audiences with his music. Whether it’s listening to Matt’s original songs or those by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin or Charles Mingus, audiences come away refreshed and enriched by Kendrick’s soul-stirring compositions and heart-felt musicianship.

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Helen Rifas began playing the harp at age 12, with the encouragement of her school orchestra director. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Reed College and a master’s degree in harp from the University of Oregon School of Music, where she was a recipient of the Ruth Lorraine Close Musical Fellowship.

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Kathryn Levy serves as Professor of the Practice in Flute at WFU. In addition to her studio teaching, she has developed flute choir and wind chamber music programs.

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John Sadak, Assistant Professor of the Practice at Wake Forest University, teaches individual clarinet instruction, chamber music and clarinet choir. Mr. Sadak’s diverse performance career in symphonic, opera, ballet, chamber and Broadway show performances translate directly into his teaching pedagogy.

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Dr. C. Kevin Bowen, Director of Bands, earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, the Master of Music degree in trumpet performance from the University of Louisville, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from the Florida State University.

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Susan Fancher is an internationally-recognized concert saxophonist known for her deep and poetic musical interpretations. She performs regularly with pianist Inara Zandmane, the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, Blue Mountain/Forecast Music, the Women’s Wind Ensemble, and The Difficulties. She holds the Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University.

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Dr. Anna Lampidis is principal oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and Salisbury Symphony Orchestra and also holds positions of oboe and English horn with the Greensboro Symphony. Her playing has been described as “impeccable”, “lovely” and “outstanding” in concert reviews by Classical Voice North Carolina.

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Amber Ferenz Spuller is the Instructor of Bassoon at Wake Forest University. She holds the 2nd Bassoon position with the Asheville Symphony and the Contrabassoon position with the Greensboro Symphony. Amber received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is a composer and artist as well as a bassoonist and has a growing catalog of published solo and chamber works involving the bassoon.

Robert Campbell is the principal horn for the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. He has been a member of the Charlotte Symphony and NCSA’s International Music Program Orchestra. He was soloist and Principal Horn player of the IMP orchestra for their 1985 European tour which took him to Italy and Germany.

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Brian is currently principal trombonist for the Winston-Salem Symphony, with whom he made his Wachovia Masterworks Series solo debut in February 2002. As an active freelance musician, he appears frequently with the North Carolina Symphony, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the Carolina Chamber Symphony Players, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. Brian is on the music performance faculty of Wake Forest University and previously taught at Davidson College.

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Raised in Apple Valley, Minnesota, Dr. Brent Harvey serves as Assistant Professor of Low Brass at Winston-Salem State University in addition to his teaching at Wake Forest. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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John R. Beck, Professor of Percussion at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, also teaches at Wake Forest University. He is the principal percussionist of the Winston-Salem Symphony and is a member of the Greensboro Symphony, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the Philidor Percussion Group.

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As Director of Athletic Bands and Assistant Teaching Professor of Music at Wake Forest, Dr. Tim Heath oversees all aspects of the athletic band program and serves as a member of the conducting faculty assisting the concert bands.

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Stewart Carter teaches music history and co-directs the Collegium Musicum. He is Past-President of both the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music and the American Musical Instrument Society. Recent publications include The Trombone in the Renaissance (Pendragon) and, with Jeffery Kite-Powell, A Performer’s Guide to Seventeenth-Century Music (Indiana).

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Elizabeth Clendinning is an Associate Professor of Music specializing in ethnomusicology and director of Wake Forest University’s Gamelan Giri Murti Balinese gamelan ensemble. Her research concerns concepts of space, time, cultural representation, and pedagogy within international Asian performance communities and in film and television music. At Wake Forest, she teaches courses in world, popular, and Asian musics, and is the director of the WFU performing arts study abroad program in Bali.

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David Geary is an Assistant Professor of Music at Wake Forest University and teaches courses in music theory and music history. He earned his PhD in Music Theory from Indiana University where his dissertation analyzes rhythm, meter, and the evolution of the drumset in American popular music.

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The music of Dan Locklair is widely performed throughout the United States and around the world. His prolific output includes symphonic works, a ballet, an opera and numerous solo, chamber, vocal and choral compositions.

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Megan Francisco holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Washington where her research drew on film, race, and gender theories to analyze Battlestar Galactica‘s landmark science fiction score.

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