Category Archives: Music

The American Prize Logo

2023 American Prize Winners Announced and CSU Music Faculty Make the List

Three of CSU’s music faculty received 2023 American Prize recognition in the Instrumental Performance professional division. The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the classical arts. The prize is “nonprofit, unique in scope and structure, and is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward […]


Budapest Scoring Orchestra Recording Photo

Assistant Band Director Kevin Poelking’s With Eyes Anew performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra

CSU music instructor and assistant director of bands, Kevin Poelking (M.M. Conducting Specialization, 2019), was honored in July 2023 to work with the award-winning Budapest Scoring Orchestra on a recording of his new composition, With Eyes Anew. The work, which takes the audience on a five-minute journey conveying a “story of ego, reflection, growth, and […]


The Duo Francois FICA21 Promotional Poster

Violin Professor Ron Francois and the Duo Francois travel to Mexico for annual festival

The Duo Francois – comprised of CSU faculty violinist Ron Francois and pianist Silvana Santinelli – will be featured at the FICA21 festival at the University of Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico. The International Camerata 21 Festival (FICA 21) of the Faculty of Music of the Universidad Veracruzana (UV) has been held uninterrupted since 1998. Founded by […]


Dawn Grapes headshot

Dr. K. Dawn Grapes presents at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Dr. K. Dawn Grapes, associate professor of Music History in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, was invited to present a paper at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gordon Jacob’s “William Byrd Suite.” According to windrep.org, Jacob’s William Byrd Suite is one of 400 pieces completed by the prolific […]




Rebecca Phillips Conducting ABA

Dr. Rebecca Phillips Honored as Guest Conductor of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band

Dr. Rebecca Phillips, Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Colorado State University, grew up in Washington D.C., attending many military band concerts. Phillip’s father and grandfather were trombonists in the U.S. Navy Band, which instilled in her a natural reverence for military band traditions. Phillips was incredibly honored when Col. Jason K. Fettig, […]


TEDxCSU Paul Rose Promotional Photo

CSU Music Student, Paul Rose, Inspires Others to Retrace and Create a Diverse Canon with his TEDx Talk

On Saturday, March 5, 2022, senior music student Paul Rose delivered his TEDxCSU talk, “Music Education: Creating a Canon as Diverse as We Are” at the Colorado State University Lory Student Center. Rose was inspired to create the talk after many conversations on diversifying music in his classrooms at CSU. Rose said, “after many of […]


Promotional Photo of University Center for the Arts External Spring

Benjamin Pouncey Selected for the 2022 Young Composer/Conductor Mentor Project

Colorado State University graduate conducting student Benjamin Pouncey, was recently selected from a national pool of applicants to conduct the U.S. Air Force Band this summer in the National Band Association’s (NBA) Young Composer/Conductor Mentor Project in Washington D.C. The Young Conductor Mentor Project was implemented in 2004 at the suggestion of mentor Frank Ticheli […]


Promotional Photo of University Center for the Arts External Spring

Emily Anderson takes first place in the West-Central Regional NATS Competition

Colorado State University vocal student Emily Anderson participated in the 2021 West Central Regional Student Auditions for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS); the 59th annual competition for Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas vocalists. Emily Anderson, a CSU master’s student, placed first in the graduate category of the West-Central regional National Association of Teachers of […]