Alumni in the News

Jacqueline Christina Heard (B.F.A., Dance, 2001) has choreographed the #IMomSoHard Live Tour as well as the comedy special by the female cast featured on Amazon Prime Video. She was also the producer, co-movement director, and dancer in the dance film Syzygy. Photo by Barry Weiss

Kathryn Louise St. Clair (B.F.A., Studio Art, 1993) exhibits her paintings as a series of abstracted landscapes in “Meditations on Volatility & Serenity / Landscapes of a New World: Paintings by Kathryn St. Clair,” which is seen as a metaphor for the shifting earth and climate. It opens October 5 and continues onto November 8. Photo by Kathryn St. Clair

Gregg G Wiggans (B.F.A., Theatre Studies, 2004) directed Steve Yockey’s Pluto which was presented at Broadway’s Circle in the Square. The production received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere and was shown at Actor’s Express, Forum Theatre, Know Theatre, and Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Photo by DC Anderson

Hank H. Hehmsoth’s (M.M., Piano, 1976) work on “Scary Movie” was praised by film reviewer James Jay Edwards and is receiving a Blu-Ray special edition release from the American Genre Film Archive. Hehmsoth was named a 2019 Morroe Berger-Benny Carter-Edward Berger Jazz Research Scholar by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University and is working with a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts NEA ArtWorks grant. Photo by Milo Hehmsoth

Michael Austin (M.M., Theory, 2007) was appointed Founding Director of the School of Music at Louisiana Tech University where he has developed a degree program in Music Industry Studies, focusing on music and audio production. Photo by Donny Crowe

Mike Osborne (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2006) released Federal Triangle, a book of photographs from Washington, DC. Excerpts of the book have appeared in the New Republic, Wired Japan, Der Greif, and It’s Nice That. An exhibition of the work was presented in summer 2019 by Lora Reynolds Gallery. Photo by Mike Osborne

Dustin Lee Williams (B.A., Music, 2008) became associate counsel for South by Southwest where he works on legal issues in connection with the SXSW conference and Austin festivals. Photo by John Duah

William Rayford Lyne (M.F.A., Studio Art, 1969) has released a book titled “Kalliste: Thothmes III’s Danaan Colony in New Mexico, ca. 1626 B.C.” Photo courtesy William Rayford Lyne

James A. Davis (M.M., Composition, 1987) has released his second book with the University of Nebraska Press, “Maryland, My Maryland: Music and Patriotism During the American Civil War.” He has also been named editor for a series of essay collections and monographs from Routledge titled “Modern Musicology in the College Classroom.” Photo by Lori Deemer

Altin Brennan Sencalar  (B.M., Jazz Studies, 2017) played and arranged music for the 60th anniversary of Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. He backed the Temptations, Jennifer Hudson, Neyo, Big Sean, and the Four Tops among others. He was also hired as Adjunct Professor of Music at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas.  Photo by Sarah Milligan.