Welcome back to the Faculty Features series! Every Friday during this eight-week series we’ll be sharing a short interview with some of our faculty members; highlighting their teaching, upcoming courses, and getting to know them better! Today we’re featuring Professors David Garcia, Michael Kris, Susan Moeser, Mimi Solomon, Timothy Sparks, and William Stewart.
Professor and Chair David Garcia
What is your position on faculty and what courses are you teaching next semester (and this summer, if applicable)? I’m chair of the department, and I’m currently scheduled to teach MUSC 234 World Music in Theory and Practice on MWF 9:05-9:55 am.
What is your favorite part of teaching? My favorite part of teaching this course is it allows me to work with music majors. MUSC 234 satisfies our current “global music” requirement, but most music students take it because they have a deep interest in learning about the theoretical systems of music from cultures beyond Europe. So we learn the basic theoretical and performance elements of Hindustani classical music, Arab maqam, Afro-Latin/Caribbean music, and Javanese gamelan.
What is the project that you’re most excited about currently? I’m currently researching the history of Latin music, dance, and theater in the United States from 1783 to 1900. This project is the largest in terms of time span I’ve ever attempted, but it is the first one of all my past projects where I feel I am researching my own history as a Latino born and raised in the United States. Very little research exists on this topic, so I’m also excited about what I hope to contribute in terms of the knowledge of Latinx people and their music in the United States.
What are some of your non-musical hobbies? I love baseball and basketball. I’m from Los Angeles and am a lifelong Dodgers and Lakers fan. I try to watch all their games through livestream which means I’m up very late when my teams play on the west coast!
If your students could learn one thing from you, what do you hope it will be? How to see themselves in a broader more diverse world in which many kinds of music and understandings of artistic beauty exist. History is a central part of my research, teaching, and thinking, and I try to teach within a historical framework.
What music are you currently listening to? I can’t stop listening to George Harrison’s last album Brainwashed. One of my closest college friends turned me on to this album over the summer, and I’ve continued to listen to it track by track since then. He wrote the songs over many years, but he recorded most of the tracks as demos while he was dying from cancer. His son Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne finished the album after Harrison died in 2001. Whether you’re a Beatles fan or not, his lyrics and music resonate with the fact, joy, and pain of dying.
Anything else you’d like students to know about you or your teaching? I very much look forward to returning to the classroom with students; we may still have to be masked and distanced, but I’m optimistic that in-person will be safer by then.
Teaching Professor Michael Kris
What is your position on faculty and what courses are you teaching next semester (and this summer, if applicable)? I am a teaching professor in the music department and I teach low brass (trombone, tuba, and euphonium) as well as chamber music ensembles for mixed brass such as brass quintet, trombone quartet, etc.
What is your favorite part of teaching? Helping people, plain and simple.
What is the project that you’re most excited about currently? Since 2017, I’ve been leading a collaborative performance of historic music in Salzburg with students and professors from UNC, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland. When travel is safe again, I plan to travel to Europe to help organize a commercial recording of this unique collaboration. With any luck, we will travel to the US in the summer of 2022 and present a concert and make our recording.
What are some of your non-musical hobbies? I have quite a few – running, cooking, gardening, backpacking, and N scale model trains.
If your students could learn one thing from you, what do you hope it will be? A system of learning that will allow them to see the connection in all things.
What music are you currently listening to? It varies all the time, but today I’ve been listening to the early music group InAlto, mandolin artist and singer Sierra Hull, and I will likely check out some R&B while I cook dinner.
University Organist Susan Moeser
What is your position on faculty and what courses are you teaching next semester (and this summer, if applicable)? My title as an adjunct faculty member is University Organist and Instructor of Organ. Due to the pandemic, there are currently no organ students, so I am taking a short leave of absence, but I look forward to teaching applied lessons, MUSC100 again in the fall.
What is your favorite part of teaching? I enjoy working with students individually, and I take great pride in motivating them to acquire the discipline needed to learn new repertoire accurately and efficiently.
What are some of your non-musical hobbies? Other activities I have enjoyed through the years include hiking, travel, tennis, beekeeping, cooking, and reading.
What music are you currently listening to? My own taste in music is eclectic; favorites include jazz, classical guitar, piano, and chamber music. Have most recently been listening to Philip Glass’ Piano Etudes which were performed here a few years ago.
Lecturer Mimi Solomon
What is your position on faculty and what courses are you teaching next semester (and this summer, if applicable)? I’m a lecturer at UNC-CH. I’m teaching Music 200 and Music 211 next fall, and I usually also teach Music 286 in the spring.
What is your favorite part of teaching? I love the energy, optimism, and curiosity that my students bring to their lessons, coaching, and classes.
What is the project that you’re most excited about currently? My husband (Nick DiEugenio) and I were recently working on a project recording some music on UNC’s Regier-Graf copy. We were playing Schubert’s Grand Duo, and it was so much fun to work on that piece on an instrument inspired by that place and time. We’re excited to continue working on new repertoire on those instruments.
That project ties in with the class I teach in the spring — Music 286 (Traveling Through Time on the Ivories), in which we explore UNC’s historic keyboard instruments. The class really focuses on UNC’s 1843 Pleyel (donated by Tom Kenan), but we also get to know the Regier/Graf. During the course of the semester, we curate and present a concert of music (coming up on April 24 at 2 pm) for the Pleyel; along the way, we also document the instruments and explore the culture and music of the time in which the Pleyel and Graf/Regier were built.
During the course, we always do some library work with materials from the vault, and often, those materials inspire new projects for me too! Last year, for instance, we discovered a sonata by a composer I wasn’t familiar with — Helene Liebmann — that we hope to learn and perform on the Graf/Regier soon.
What are some of your non-musical hobbies? I love reading fiction, so I’m a big fan of the Chapel Hill public library and Flyleaf Books. I also like cooking. And walking in the woods — I’ve discovered lots of fun places in CH to hike during the quarantine.
If your students could learn one thing from you, what do you hope it will be? I’m still learning and growing every day, and I hope my students will learn that growth is a lifelong process!
What music are you currently listening to? I recently discovered the music of Nathaniel Dett, so I’ve been getting to know some of his music. I also listen to a lot of jazz: I love our local jazz station, WNCU.
Lecturer Timothy Sparks
What is your position on faculty and what courses are you teaching next semester (and this summer, if applicable)? I am a Lecturer in Voice, teaching applied voice lessons for majors, minors, and non-majors. Administratively, I coordinate voice study for minors and non-majors, interviewing interested students and helping to place them in level-appropriate group lessons or in a studio for one-on-one lessons. Also, I teach lyric diction courses for voice majors, covering English/Italian, French, and German, in a 3-course rotating sequence. This coming fall the sequence will restart with the English/Italian diction course (MUSC 123: Diction for Singers I).
What is your favorite part of teaching? I enjoy the opportunity to be a part of a student’s unique journey during their undergraduate experience. Students in the Voice Area are wonderfully talented and it’s exciting to witness their development in both technical skills and interpretation, growing into their full potential as artists.
What is the project that you’re most excited about currently? During the pandemic, I have been posting weekly performances on Facebook and on my personal YouTube channel as a part of the #keepthemusicgoing and #TogetherAtHome online events. These offerings vary from opera arias, Art Songs, Musical Theatre songs, Sacred songs, and folk songs. Since performances have been canceled and venues are closed worldwide, these virtual posts have been rewarding for me to keep active and share a moment of musical comfort during difficult times.
What are some of your non-musical hobbies? When not caring for my family, a wife with a chronic disease (MS), and 2 teenaged sons in high school, I enjoy reading and visual art (drawing and painting). Hopefully, I can spend more time at the easel once my sons go off to college in a few years. I also chair a concert series committee through my church that is offering virtual events during the pandemic. You can watch some of these virtual events at Sounds on Oberlin.
If your students could learn one thing from you, what do you hope it will be? Most importantly, to be the best person possible, spreading benevolent humanity through all their artistic endeavors.
What music are you currently listening to? In the last few months, I have been exploring and enjoying listening to music by underrepresented composers, including a recent virtual recital by UNC Voice students featuring songs by African-American composers.
Anything else you’d like students to know about you or your teaching? Given every person has a unique vocal identity or authentic core tone, like your DNA or fingerprint, my teaching philosophy is designed to help each student identify this core tone identity and develop it in a healthy manner. My goal is to instill a passion for this authenticity by enabling each student the ability to pursue whatever style of music they choose after graduation, employing their “real voice” or true core tone. It is extremely rewarding to know I have students working professionally in classical music, Musical Theatre, Jazz, Folk music, and contemporary commercial music venues, living this truth.
Assistant Teaching Professor William Stewart
What is your position on faculty and what courses are you teaching next semester (and this summer, if applicable)? Assistant Teaching Professor. I teach beginning guitar classes [MUSC 112 – 3 sections], Guitar for non-majors [MUSC 103.008], Guitar for Majors/Minors [MUSC 203.008], and Guitar Ensemble [MUSC 211.008]
What is your favorite part of teaching? Watching my students improve!
What is the project that you’re most excited about currently? I’m currently exchanging thoughts and lessons with our Jazz Guitar Faculty, Baron Tymas.
What are some of your non-musical hobbies? I play chess, I read, and I take walks.
If your students could learn one thing from you, what do you hope it will be? To enjoy the guitar, as a player or listener, for a lifetime!
What music are you currently listening to? The works of American composer/guitarist, Ralph Towner.
Anything else you’d like students to know about you or your teaching? I use classical guitar technique to teach them music theory and, hopefully, how to play the music they want to learn.