The UNCG School of Music is pleased to announce that conductor Jonathan Caldwell has been appointed to the faculty as Assistant Professor of Conducting and Assistant Director of Instrumental Ensembles, effective Fall 2019.

“Since I left North Carolina in 2009, I’ve always hoped I could come back home,” said Caldwell. “The chance to work at a school with UNCG’s reputation for musical excellence and to bring our family back to North Carolina is just about everything my wife and I could have hoped for. We’re very excited to contribute to the amazing musical community at UNCG.”

Prior to his appointment at UNCG, Caldwell was Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Virginia Tech, interim Director of Bands at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and Director of Bands at Garner (NC) Magnet High School. Ensembles under his guidance have performed at the College Band Directors National Association Southern Division Conference, the National Band Association–Wisconsin Chapter Convention, and in Carnegie Hall. The Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble (Raleigh, NC) won the Youth Open division at the 2008 and 2009 North American Brass Band Association competitions. His writings have been published in the Journal of Band Research and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series.

Caldwell received a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music in instrumental conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park. He also holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Caldwell’s conducting teachers include Michael Haithcock, Michael Votta, Jerry Schwiebert, James Ross, and Tonu Kalam. He has studied horn with Gregory Miller, Kimberly Van Pelt, Andrew McAfee, and Pamela Halverson.

Caldwell currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Conductors Guild. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (Alpha Rho), Tau Beta Sigma (Beta Eta), Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi.

Provost Dunn has announced the new dean for the College of Visual and Performing Arts:

I am pleased to announce that Dr. bruce d. mcclung has accepted the position as Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Dr. mcclung will serve as the inaugural dean of the college (first dean hired into the new College of Visual and Performing Arts), following Dr. Peter Alexander’s service as founding dean.

As the premier, most comprehensive, and largest set of visual and performing arts programs in North Carolina, the College of Visual and Performing Arts comprises the School of Art, School of Dance, School of Music, and School of Theatre, as well as the Arts Administration program.

Dr. mcclung is currently Head of the Division of Composition, Musicology, and Theory at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. For two years he served as Interim Dean and Thomas James Kelly Professor of Music also at the College-Conservatory of Music.

An American music scholar, Dr. mcclung’s book Lady in the Dark: Biography of a Musical from Oxford University Press won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, the Kurt Weill Prize, and the Musical Library Association’s George Freedley Award-Special Jury Prize. Last year, his co-edited critical edition of Lady in the Dark was published as part of the Kurt Weill Edition. The Society for American Music presented Dr. mcclung with its Lifetime Service Award also in 2018. At the University of Cincinnati, Dr. mcclung received the Mrs. A. B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Distinguished Excellence in Teaching and the Graduate School’s Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring Award, and was elected to the Academy of Fellows for Teaching and Learning.

Dr. mcclung holds a baccalaureate degree from the New England Conservatory and a PhD in musicology from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music.

Please join me in welcoming bruce to the UNC Greensboro community. He will begin his new role on July 14, 2019.

I would also like to express thanks to the search committee for their outstanding work to help us select a new dean. Finally, thanks are due to Dr. Lawrence Jenkens who stepped into the role of interim dean in January of this year.

The 350-seat recital hall at UNC Greensboro’s College of Visual and Performing Arts has long been known as one of the most visually and aurally stunning performance spaces in the Triad. It is now known as the Tew Recital Hall in honor of Christopher and Laura Braxton Tew, both UNCG Class of 1969 alumni. The Tews provided a generous gift of $1 million to name the hall, honor the School of Music, and mark the 50^th anniversary of the Class of 1969’s graduation.

The event to formally name the Tew Recital Hall was on April 11, 2019. The program featured compositions by Christopher Tew, including two songs for soprano and piano written while he was a student at UNCG, a piece for viola and piano, excerpted movements from three larger works for strings, and the premiere of “3 Panoramas: Memories of Japan” for string orchestra. The performances will also featured work by UNCG student Shar Joyner, Class of 2019. 

“We are proud that this revered space will bear the names of Laura Braxton Tew and Christopher Tew,” Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. said. “Their support of UNC Greensboro, the School of Music, and the students and faculty is heartfelt and longstanding. It is truly an honor to share this gift with both the University and the community.”

Laura Braxton Tew ‘69 grew up on tobacco farms in Pitt County, North Carolina. Her interest in mathematics and science was sparked by public school teachers in Winterville. She considers UNCG her lucky break, an opportunity for work and study on campus while living in Gray, Guilford, Mary Foust, and Shaw dormitories. While at UNCG, she was an undergraduate research and teaching assistant, guided and mentored by members of the strong and gifted chemistry faculty under department chair Walter Puterbaugh.

Laura’s further educational initiatives included graduate studies in chemistry at Duke, an MBA from Pace University, and a Certificate in Corporate Citizenship from Boston College. She spent 37 years in the chemical manufacturing industry, working in ten states and on four continents and reaching for and breaking glass ceilings as she rose from the position of bench chemist to become Corporate Director of Stakeholder Relations with global responsibilities.

Upon retirement in 2009, Laura followed her proven approach in life, study first and then act. She earned a certificate in Non-profit Management from UNCG in 2013. This course of study, along with the year-long IMPACT Greensboro program at the Center for Creative Leadership, prepared her for an active life of volunteerism and philanthropy, always giving back to the community. She also made time to become a Master Gardener and serve on the board of Heads Up for Our Youth. Her retirement bucket list has afforded many interesting opportunities, and she is currently following her passion to further the STEM pipeline for women through science and technology education for girls. Laura credits UNCG for its generosity in providing facilities and staff services for events coordinated with Women in STEM, her colleagues at the American Association of University Women.

Christopher C. Tew is originally from McLeansville, NC and a graduate of UNC Greensboro. A professional composer, Tew was the first UNCG student to ever have his works performed by the UNCG Sinfonia and Symphony. Over the last 50 years, he has composed concert music for school, community, and professional orchestras. He has received commissions from groups as diverse as Louisville’s Jewish Community Center, Chattanooga’s Girls Preparatory School, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee. His works have been performed by numerous professional orchestras, including the Salisbury and Hickory Symphonies and the NCSU Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Livonia, MI; Lake Charles, LA; West Hartford, CT; and Lone Tree, CO, as well as featured in a festival in Lviv, Ukraine. The Bratislava Symphony Orchestra in Slovakia has recorded two CDs of his compositions, including most of the works featured in the dedication program.

Art History and English double major Eliza Rosebrock won the Special Award for
First Prize in the Arts & Humanities category at the 2019 Honors Symposium in
early March. Her award-winning research paper entitled, “Is Cleanliness Close to
Godliness? The Restoration of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling Frescoes,” developed from
her project of the same name, which she completed as an Honors Contract Course
requirement for Dr. Heather Holian’s art history class, ARH 322: Art of the Italian
High Renaissance and Maniera, 1480-1600 during the Spring of 2018.

Eliza also recently received the prestigious and highly competitive Student
Excellence Award for 2019, which is the highest academic honor given at the
University of North Carolina, Greensboro and is awarded by the Lloyd International
Honors College.

Feb. 12, UNC Greensboro and the Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program received an extraordinary visitor: 14-time Grammy winner, and illustrious visionary in the jazz fusion world for nearly six decades, Herbie Hancock.