Alumni in the News

Flordelino Lagundino (M.F.A., Theatre, 2004) was named Artistic Director of Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Lagundino is a director, actor and producer whose performance in “VIETGONE” led to a Best Ensemble Ivey award. He is the Sir John Gielgud Classical Directing Fellow at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. 

Alan E. Hicks (D.M.A., Music, 2009) has been appointed Director of Opera Theatre at San Diego State University in a newly created joint position with San Diego Opera. In addition to his duties at SDSU, Dr. Hicks will serve on the staff of San Diego Opera.

Hank Hehmsoth (M.M., Applied Music/Voice/Piano, 1976) has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for his ongoing project, Reminiscences of NEA Jazz Master Dan Morganstern. The project will capture Morgenstern’s first-hand reminiscences and decades-spanning scholarly research on Kansas City jazz and its big bands, as well as preeminent individual artists and their styles and innovations. Hehmsoth received his first NEA grant in 1979.

Reema Bounajem (B.F.A., Dance, 2015) is performing in "The Lost Supper," an immersive, theatrical dinner party at the McKittrick Hotel in New York City, through Aug. 18. 

Claire Costin (B.F.A., Music Performance, 2004) was installed as a Board Director on the Alpha Phi Foundation 2018-2020 Board of Directors on June 23, 2018.

Raul De Lara (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2015) is showing his recent work, "Homecoming: How do you know your/you're home"  at Prizer Arts & Letters in Austin, Aug. 10th-12th. An opening reception will take place Aug. 10th from 7-10pm with an artist's talk Saturday, Aug. 11th at 2pm. The exhibition will include works by De Lara that play with typical household objects to subvert their associated uses, deploying dark humor to reckon with the uncertainty of a place the artist considers home.

Angela Ahlgren (Ph.D., 2011, Theatre), an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University, has published a new book, "Drumming Asian America: Taiko, Performance and Cultural Politics." 

Andrew Rudin (B.M., Composition, 1962) received an American Academy of Arts & Letters Music Award in May 2018. A grant from the Academy will support two new CD's and a March 2019 concert at The Academy will feature his music. He will be a guest composer in April 2019 at Piano on the Rocks festival in Sedona, Arizona, and in May of that same year, his opera, "Purewater" will have its premier with the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC.

Joseph Kingma (D.M.A., Piano Performance, 2017) has been appointed assistant professor of piano at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He previously worked as the assistant professor of music at Louisiana College. Photo by Michelle Palmer.