Megan Lanz (She/Her)

Contact Information
Phone: (720) 695-4287
Email: Megan.Lanz@colostate.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-lanz-dma-cmi-a531153a/
Website: http://www.meganlanzflute.com
Office: UCA 321B (a designated Safe Space)
Office Hours: as posted on door and in syllabi
Role: Faculty
Position: Senior Instructor of Music; Faculty Advisor: Planned Parenthood Generation; Member: Non-Tenure Track Faculty Advisory Council
Biography
"The effect of Lanz's performance was breathtaking... tremendous skill... dazzlingly brilliant..."
- Santa Barbara News Press -
Dr. Megan Lanz (Miyazawa Performing Artist and Trevor James Low Flutes Artist) teaches, coaches, and performs as a solo artist and chamber musician. She finds great joy and fulfillment in helping students make the connection between the multi-faceted components of playing an instrument. Her holistic performance and pedagogical approaches encompass all physical, mental, and emotional components of being a human musician.
Dr. Lanz has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with great artists such as Andrea Bocelli, The Who, Stephen Hough, David Foster, Natalie Merchant, Time For Three, Charles Yang, Jackie Evancho, Celtic Woman, Hillary Hahn, and Edgar Meyer. She has performed with a variety of ensembles and productions, including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (under Andrew Litton and Peter Oundjian), Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Crested Butte Music Festival Orchestra, Opera Steamboat, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the first national tour of Wicked, Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, and Disney’s The Lion King.
She regularly finds inspiration in connecting with composers to commission and premier new works. Her most recent (2023) commissions include a work by Canadian composer Frank Horvat for bassoon and flute (funded by a New Music USA grant award) and Mask by CSU colleague Kevin Poelking. Additionally, she commissioned and premiered Unbroken for flute and piano by Professor Poelking in April 2022. This performance has earned Dr. Lanz a finalist position in the 2023 American Prize Professional Instrumental Soloist competition. (For a more complete list of commissions and premieres, click here.) Her admiration for new music goes back to her graduate degree, as her doctoral research focused on Salvatore Sciarrino and his attempt to use instruments to imitate sounds we might normally disregard in our daily lives. The resulting research document, a style analysis and performance companion to his collection L'opera per flauto, was published in 2010 and is available here.
In addition to instructing at Colorado State University, she maintains an active private flute studio. Her students are members of Colorado's All-State Ensemble, the University of Northern Colorado High School Honor Band, the Colorado State University High School Honor Band, and the University of Colorado High School Honor Band. Dr. Lanz's students have continued on to perform with professional ensembles, including the Pershing's Own, American Youth Symphony, and Music Academy of the West. Her former students attend the Interlochen Arts Academy, The Colburn School, University of North Texas College of Music, and various other colleges and universities.
On campus at Colorado State University, Dr. Lanz serves on the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Advisory Committee, is the Faculty Advisor for the Planned Parenthood Generation student organization, and is active as a volunteer for Visible Voices discussion panels through the Pride Resource Center.
She is associated with a variety of professional organizations, including the National Flute Association and the American Federation of Musicians (Local 20-623, Denver). She is also a member of the Colorado Flute Association, Golden Key Honor Society and the Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Eta Sigma Honor Societies. She has recorded on the GIA, Klavier, and Mark Custom record labels, plays a 14k gold Miyazawa flute, Hammig piccolo, and Trevor James alto and bass flutes.
Selected Performance videos
Education
Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) - Performance, University of Nevada Las Vegas; Master of Music (M.M.) - Performance, University of Nevada Las Vegas; Bachelor of Music (B.M.) - Performance, University of North Texas
Publications
Scholarly Publications
- (under contract) Music and the Human Experience: A Guide for Informed Listening, Cognella Academic Publishing. (Collegiate level textbook, anticipated release 2024)
- Silence: An Exploration of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Style through L’Opera per Flauto, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (2010).
Recordings
- (in planning) Untitled CD: Premiere recordings for flute and bassoon works by Poelking, Horvat, Brandon, and Lacerda (in rehearsal stages, live performances and recordings scheduled for 2023), Mark Masters Series.
Curriculum Vitae
Courses
Music Appreciation (Spring 2023) - Syllabus
There is no better place to begin the discussion of advancing our global awareness than with an exploration of how we express human experiences through music. Music has existed in every human culture throughout every era and is an intrinsic and accepted form of expression that we rely upon. This course provides an overview to musical terminology and a sampling of music from various time periods and geographic locations, with the goal of broadening our horizons and making us more globally aware citizens. Through listening, sharing, and writing, this course encourages students to consider why they like particular genres of music and which parts of themselves are reflected in each genre.
Honors 193: “What Unites Us: Music as Human Expression” (Spring 2023) - Syllabus
Humans use expressive activities and creative outlets for a variety of purposes, including building community and a sense of individual identity, expressing happiness or grief, and influencing political and social change. Listening to and creating music has been a function of human expression, community-building, and validating a sense of identity and belonging for as long as we have recorded history. This course will direct students to engage with music on a level deeper beyond noticing whether something is enjoyable or not. Listening to music beyond the superficial aesthetic requires a knowledge of technical musical components in addition to those that are extra-musical – what you, as a listener, experience that is not the actual sound. Through writing, presenting, and discussing, this course encourages students to consider what associations or memories they have with types of music, to explore how other cultures express these concepts, and to consider how that experience connects each of them with other humans around the planet.