Faculty | Music | SIU

Robert Allison hails from Memphis, Tennessee, and is Associate Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University. He has also taught at Millikin University and the Latvian National Conservatory in Riga, Latvia.

Besides fulfilling his teaching duties, Dr. Allison is active as a recitalist and clinician, and in addition to the New Arts Jazztet, also performs regularly with the SIUC Faculty Brass Trio and the Brass Ensemble of Illinois.

Education

• 1965-1969: Béla Bartók Music Conservatory, Budapest, Hungary
• 1969-1975: Franz Liszt Academy (University), Budapest, Hungary, Degree with Highest Honors as an Artist/Teacher
• 1975: post-graduate study with Arthur Grumiaux, Belgium

Edward Benyas is Emeritus Professor at SIU Carbondale, where he was Music Director of the Southern Illinois Symphony and Professor of Oboe and Conducting for 29 years. He is Music Director of the New Chicago Chamber Orchestra—with which he made his European conducting debut—and founder and Artistic Director of the Southern Illinois Music Festival, which presents three-dozen concerts annually each June. He also serves as Executive Director of the Cascade Symphony Orchestra in Washington state, and principal conductor at Winter Opera St. Louis and Musica Malicorne-sur-Sarthe in the Loire region of France.

Mr. Benyas previously served as Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony, the North Shore Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Fantastique! and the Southern Illinois Youth Orchestra. He appeared on national television leading a chorus and orchestra comprised of musicians from throughout Illinois during funeral services for Senator Paul Simon.

Composer, jazz artist, and music educator, Philip Brown, is Professor Emeritus of Double Bass and Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University.

His performance career has included occasional dates with first-line jazz artists, as well as full-time seasons with professional symphony orchestras. Based in southern Illinois, Brown is the bassist with the New Arts Jazztet (NAJ), and continues to be active as a free-lance musician. His writing efforts have produced nearly 50 original tunes for the NAJ, and he has released four recordings as leader featuring many of those compositions. In 2003, the Illinois Arts Council honored Brown for his work and commitment within the arts with an Artist Fellowship Award in music composition.

Director of Athletic Bands, Assistant Director of Bands

George Brozak begins his fifth year as Director of Athletic Bands in the School of Music at Southern Illinois University. A native of Ohio, Brozak received his Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Master of Music in Music Education Degrees from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and an Ed.D. in Music Education from the University of Illinois.

Most recently, he served as Director of Athletic Bands and Associate Director of Bands at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to his tenure at SIU, Brozak served as Visiting Assistant Director of Bands at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee and Lecturer in Music Education and Assistant Conductor for the renowned University of Illinois Bands, where he assisted both the Marching Illini and conducted Concert Band IIB.

Percussion & Music Technology

Dr. Christopher Butler is a percussion educator, artist, conductor, author, and composer with experience in all facets of percussion. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Practice and Director of Percussion Activities at Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, Illinois).

Dr. Butler teaches all percussion courses including applied lessons and percussion ensemble, as well as several important courses in music technology. In 2020, he received the SIU College of Liberal Arts Teaching Innovation Award that included grant funding to develop new courses for music video production and live streaming.

Trombone and Low Brass

Dr. Jessica Butler is currently an Associate Professor of Practice of Low Brass at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She also serves as the Brass Area Coordinator at the School of Music.

Dr. Butler has performed and presented her research at the International Trombone Festival, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the Midwest Trombone Euphonium Conference, and the Savannah Trombone Seminar. She has had the honor of routinely performing with the Southeast Trombone Symposium’s Professors Choir as well as the esteemed Cramer Trombone Choir and the International Trombone Festival. Dr. Butler serves on the International Trombone Association’s Advisory Council on Trombone Literature.

Italian-Brazilian violist and conductor Dr. Rossana Cauti is an active soloist and chamber musician who performs across Europe, Latin America and the United States. She is the Assistant Professor of Practice (viola) and Director of String Orchestras at Southern Illinois University. Dr. Cauti is the Assistant Principal Viola of the Pensacola Symphony and the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra.

Music

Susan Davenport is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University. While at SIU, she has also held positions as Assistant Director of the School of Music and Associate Dean for Students and Curricular Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts.

Currently, Dr. Davenport conducts the Concert Choir and Choral Union, teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting, choral literature and methods, and administers the choral program.

Dr. Anthony Gray is currently Assistant Professor of Practice (Collaborative Piano) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He was previously Adjunct Instructor in Piano and Collaborative Pianist at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise as well as Collaborative Pianist at East Tennessee State University.

Taylor Hesskamp is an enthusiastic teacher and performer based in the greater St. Louis area. She is an adjunct professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, McKendree University and Jefferson College. Additionally, Taylor teaches at various other locations in the region, managing a large studio of students.

Maria Johnson is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Music at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale where she regularly teaches two CORE Curriculum courses-- Music 203 - Diversity & Popular Music in American Culture and Music 303I - Women, Blues & Literature, offers topics courses in Ethnomusicology-- Women in Music and Music and Social Change, and supervises graduate and undergraduate independent studies in ethnomusicology.

Music

Yuko Kato has performed as a soloist and collaborative musician in the United States and internationally.

She has performed recitals at The Banff Centre in Canada, at Musiksalon Erfurt in Austria, and in various music festivals, including the Friday Recital Series at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, the New Sound Festival at SUNY Fredonia, the St. Paul Concert Series in Cincinnati, the New Music Circle in St. Louis, the Gesher Music Festival in St. Louis, the Austin Chamber Music Center Festival in Texas, the Cedarhurst Chamber Music Series at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Illinois, and the Outside the Box Festival at Southern Illinois University. The winner of the Artists International Competition in New York, Dr. Kato gave her New York solo debut at Carnegie Hall in 2004. The New York Concert Review described her playing as, “Powerful and the technical skill impressive…One could fully enjoy the richness of the performer’s imagination."

Saxophone

Richard Kelley has been Associate Professor of Saxophone and Director of Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale since 2008, performing numerous engagements across the United States, Mexico, Canada, much of Europe and several Caribbean countries. Active in all genres that welcome the saxophone, he has been featured as concerto soloist with several orchestras and bands, served as guest soloist with numerous jazz ensembles, and is often called upon to perform with touring groups throughout the United States.

Edwin Lacy, Assistant Professor of Practice in Bassoon and Woodwinds at SIU-C, retired from full-time teaching in 2008 after a career of 48 years, including 41 at the University of Evansville, and continues as UE’s Adjunct Professor of Bassoon and Saxophone.

He held the position of Eades Distinguished Professor of Music, and served as Chairman of the UE Department of Music on three occasions for a total of seven and one-half years. A native of Hopkinsville, KY, he holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Murray State University and the Master of Music in Bassoon and Doctor of Music in Woodwinds from Indiana University.

Guitarist, composer and writer Dr. Isaac Lausell oversees the Jazz and the Guitar programs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. At SIU Dr. Lausell teaches classical and jazz guitar, electric bass guitar as well as support courses for the guitar and jazz areas. He is also the director of the SIU Jazz Ensemble and an active member of the New Arts Jazztet, the faculty jazz ensemble in residence.

Pianist Junghwa Lee, a native of Korea, performs actively in solo recitals, chamber concerts and lecture recitals, and has frequently appeared in concerto performances as a soloist.

Lee has presented solo performances in 16 countries - Korea, Holland, France, Hungary, Romania, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Clarinetist, Composer

For more than 40 years clarinetist/composer Eric Mandat has been at the forefront of clarinet
extended performance techniques exploration, particularly multiphonics, microtones, and timbral
modulations. Through his work with these extended techniques, Eric has developed a deeply
personal artistic expression as a performer and composer, and he is recognized worldwide as one
of the foremost authorities on clarinet extended techniques.

Dr. Christopher Morehouse is Director of Bands and Professor of Conducting at Southern Illinois University, where he serves as conductor of the SIU Wind Ensemble, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting, wind literature, and instrumental methods, and administers the entire SIU Bands program.

Morehouse made his Carnegie Hall debut with the SIU Wind Ensemble at the New York Band and Orchestra Festival in March 2008 and toured the People's Republic of China with the SIU Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir in May 2009. In 2011, the SIU Wind Ensemble hosted percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie for a four-day residency, culminating in a concert of Sean Beeson’s Prometheus Rapture: Seven Legends for Snare Drum (world premiere wind version) and Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto, and gave a concert, with the SIU Concert Choir, at Chicago Symphony Center Orchestra Hall. Morehouse has worked with several notable composers in the preparation and performance of their works and with guest artists as soloists with the SIU Wind Ensemble. Recent artistic collaborations include composers Augusta Read Thomas, Morten Lauridsen, Bernard Rands, Chen Yi, Susan Botti, and Dana Wilson, as well as soloists Third Coast Percussion and numerous SIU School of Music faculty.

A West Virginia native, Jennifer Presar currently is the Assistant Director and Instructor of Horn and Music Theory at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She holds degrees in Music Theory and Composition and Horn performance from University of Illinois and West Virginia University, respectively.

James L Reifinger, Jr. is Music Education Coordinator and an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses music education.

Dr. Reifinger also serves as the faculty advisor for National Association for Music Education Collegiate Chapter and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He earned a Doctorate in Music Education at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, a Master of Special Education at Lehigh University, and a Master and Bachelor of Music at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.

Carissa Scroggins serves Southern Illinois University as Voice Area Coordinator, Opera director, and Assistant Professor of Practice in Voice. She has her Doctor of Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of Northern Colorado with a secondary emphasis in musicology (2021). Dr. Scroggins is a member of several music organizations, including National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), National Opera Association, Opera America, College Music Society, and Music Teachers National Association. She also serves on NATS’s Development Committee.

Angela Shultz is a MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) Award winning singer, actor and teaching artist who has appeared in cabaret clubs across NYC and was part of the 100thAnniversary US/Canada tour of Titanic as Alice Beane. She appeared in NYC productions including Assassins (Sara Jane Moore) This Very Moment (songs of Brett Kristofferson), Making God and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Midtown Int’l Festival), and A Casual Gathering (Theatre for the New City). She has many regional performing credits including Closer Than Ever (Miss Byrd), Titanic (Alice Beane) and has been in several incarnations of Nunsense! Angela also wrote book and lyrics for the musical In Her Place, partially based on the life of Annie Smith Peck. 

Brittainy Spears currently serves as Assistant Lecturer of Music at Southern Illinois University -Carbondale. Spears holds two degrees from the University of Oklahoma (MM ’06, BME ’04), where she studied trumpet with Dr. Karl Sievers. She is currently completing her Doctorate in Global Educational Leadership at Lamar University, with her dissertation research focusing on the dual musician/teacher identities of K-12 music educators. 

Trumpet

Dr. Ricky L. Spears is the Assistant Director of Athletic Bands and Assistant Professor of Trumpet at
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He holds degrees from Morehead State University (BME
'08), Eastern Kentucky University (MM '11), and the University of Oklahoma (DMA '23).

An accomplished trumpeter in orchestral and commercial music, Dr. Spears performed with artists
such as the Temptations, The Four Tops, Dave Koz, Wycliff Gordan, Sandi Patty, Kyle Dillingham,
Lucas Ross, Susan Powell, Sherman Andrus, and recently can be found on the 20th anniversary
album of “Celtic Woman”.

Music

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and provoked by a family of passionate and latitudinous overachievers, creating music has been a part of everyday life for Christopher Walczak from kindergarten afternoons until the present.

Many years and three degrees later, Christopher finds himself reconciling the kaleidoscopic array of sound and thought absorbed along the way. His repertoire includes works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles of various sizes, full symphony as well as chamber orchestra, music for computer, and interactive electro-acoustic music.

Music

In 2018, Douglas Worthen was given a sabbatical leave to study how musicians signal and communicate to both each other and the audience through physical gesture.

In addition, his study focused on German sources of early nineteenth century performance practice and repertoire. As of November, 2018, his online research papers and Youtube videos have been downloaded over twenty thousand times. He has become a regular member of the Kingsbury Baroque Ensemble in St. Louis, and performs with the Altgeld Chamber Players at SIU. He now conducts the Southern Illinois Senior and Junior Flute Choirs.