Adjunct Faculty
Quentin Baxter, jazz percussion
Quentin Baxter is a graduate of the College of Charleston and also studied at the University of South Carolina. He appears throughout the Lowcountry. He facilitated the drum position at Serenade, a major production/musical review, and toured Japan, Guam, St. Croix, and Hawaii. Mr. Baxter has performed with many musicians including Charlie Byrd, Billy Childs, and Marcus Roberts. His group Emanon has an affiliation of approximately twelve musicians and its configuration varies from duos to octets. Emanon has a two-fold agenda: 1) to present the only "true" American artform with a continual fresh approach, however never sacrificing the intent and integrity of true improvisation and swing, and 2) to continue to explore and/or create new ways to present their instruments as an extention of human expression.
William J. Bennett, university chorus
William J. Bennett, from Fort Mill, South Carolina is the conductor of the University Chorus at the College of Charleston and the Director of Choirs at Cane Bay High School where he was named the 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year. At Cane Bay he serves as the Department Chair for the Fine Arts Department, the Music and Technical Director for school musicals, is a member of the School Improvement Council, and is a member of the Berkeley County School District Teacher Forum. He is the Assistant Director of the Taylor Festival Choir, a professional choir based in Charleston under the direction of Dr. Robert Taylor. Prior to coming to Cane Bay he was the Associate Director of Choirs at Wando High School for two years. Mr. Bennett received his Masters Degree in Music: Choral and Orchestral Conducting from Louisiana State University where he studied conducting with Dr. Kenneth Fulton, Dr. Sara Lynn Baird and Dr. Julian Shew. He received his BA in Music from the College of Charleston where he graduated Cum Laude. He was the inaugural recipient of the Charleston Men’s Chorus Scholarship at the College of Charleston.
Art Bumgardner, voice
Dr. Bumgardner has a DMA from the University of Texas at Austin in Vocal Performance with a minor in musicology. He has appeared as baritone soloist in numerous recitals, operas, oratorios and cantatas in the Midwest. He has served as Chorus Master for the Duluth-Superior Symphony Chorus for several major works including Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Handel's Messiah and the Requiem of Brahms and Verdi. Dr. Bumgardner served for more than thirty years as instructor of voice and twenty-five years as Music Department Chair at the University of Wisconsin-Superior where he received the Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992. He has published articles on the life and works of American composer Norman Dello Joio. Most recently, Dr. Bumgardner served as Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
Frank Duvall, jazz bass
Frank Duvall is one of the most respected and sought-after bassists in South Carolina. A native of Rome, Georgia, he received a Masters degree from the University of South Carolina. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City, where he played the Blue Note and Birdland jazz clubs, performed in off-Broadway shows and worked extensively in recording studios on music for television and movies. Mr. Duvall's resume includes performances with Marian McPartland, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy DeFranco, Chris Vadalla, Carl Fontana, Nneenna Freelon, Chris Potter, and Bill Charlap. Mr. Duvall leads the Frank Duvall Jazz Trio and performs throughout the area with other various ensembles. For more information: www.frankduvall.com
Tacy Edwards, flute
Tacy Edwards is piccoloist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.She has published two flute method books, Developing Doubtful Digits and The Ultimate Workout Book for Professional Flutists, and is nearing publication of a third book entitled Bach and Beethoven for Flute and Guitar. She has been a member of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra, the East Texas Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. She is a member of the chamber group Chacabuco which specializes in music of Latin America. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree in flute at the Univerisity of Kansas. This past year she has founded two new companies, www.SymphonyConsultant.com and www.ClassicallyCharleston.com, to aid people in the music industry. She chaired the 1994 and 1995 CSO Designer Showhouses and formed two flute clubs in the USA: The Niagara Frontier Flute Association and the Central Ohio Flute Association. She plays an Anton Braun flute and piccolo.
Scott Flaherty, voice
Mr. Flaherty first came to international acclaim in the dramatic Italian operatic repertoire. He has appeared with distinction at the opera houses of North America, Europe, Russia, Asia, and has toured the United States and Canada with New York City Opera. Some of Mr. Flaherty’s most prominent portrayals include the principal tenor roles in Carmen, I Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Aida, and Il Trovatore. A versatile performer, he has been featured on PBS’ Great Performances and Evening at Pops! with esteemed actress Claire Bloom, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra; has appeared in national tours, film, television, and recorded his operatic vocals to popular commercials for Kodak and Schweppes. Mr. Flaherty’s private students have been the recipients of important awards, among them the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Prize, Richard Tucker Foundation and George London Foundation Grants.
Suzanne Fleming-Atwood, voice
Soprano Suzanne Fleming-Atwood is an active performer and music educator in Charleston, South Carolina. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Catholic University of America. Ms. Fleming-Atwood studied opera and voice in Milan, Italy as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar. She has sung as a soloist with the Charleston Symphony on various occasions and performs regularly with Chamber Music Charleston. Currently, Ms. Fleming-Atwood is an Artist-in-Residence at the College of Charleston, where she teaches voice, ear-training and phonetics.
Mark Gainer, oboe
Since 1984, Mark Gainer has been principal oboist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and its woodwind quintet, and has been a featured soloist with the CSO on numerous occasions. He holds degrees from The Hartt School and the Juilliard School of Music, and has performed with the Mexican State Symphony and the Filarmonica de Caracas. As an active chamber musician, Mr. Gainer organized and performed in recitals all over the Americas and spent his summers participating in the Colorado Music Festival, the Bedford Springs (PA) Music Festival, the New Southwest Chamber Orchestra (NM), the Vale Veneto Music Festival in Brazil, and was a soloist in the Spoleto Chamber Music Series.
Tommy Gill, jazz piano
A native of Charleston, Tommy Gill began studying piano at the age of five. His interest in jazz performance and composition compelled him to continue his studies in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied jazz piano with Fred Hersch and Jaki Byard. After completing his degree in piano technology, Mr. Gill moved to New York where he became a Steinway Concert Piano Technician working for great pianists such as Vladimir Horowitz and Herbie Hancock. He has performed and recorded from Boston to Los Angeles leading his own group as well as performing with other jazz artists including Billy Harper, Jimmy Knepper, Johnny Coles, Bud Shank, Shorty Rogers, Bob Belden, Ronald Westray, Sonny Fortune, Ron Free, Terry Gibbes, and Buddy De Franco. He completed his piano performance degree while studying with Enrique Graf at the College of Charleston.
Julia Harlow, harpsichord, organ
Julia Harlow is currently Organist at Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Oregon, the Master of Music in Early Keyboard Performance at the University of Oregon, and the Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from the University of Iowa. She has extensive performance experience of early music, as well as European, Balkan and Middle Eastern folk music. She has often performed as harpsichordist or organist in Piccolo Spoleto, on the Early Music, Choral Artists/Festival of Churches, and L'Organo series. In her spare time she enjoys playing the bagpipes with the City of Charleston Police Pipes and Drums.
David Heywood, jazz flute, pep band, wind ensemble
David Heywood received his Bachelor's Degree in Flute Performance from North Texas State University, and his Master's Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of South Carolina. While living in Texas, he was a member of Fort Worth Early Music and the Dallas Bach Society for ten years, with performances in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas, as well as three appearances at the Boston Early Music Festival. Since moving to Charleston, Mr. Heywood has become a regular fixture in the local jazz scene, and has also been a guest soloist with the University of South Carolina Swing Shift Big Band, as well as being featured on the Macon-based jazz group Inside Out's premier CD. He has performed with Dave Pietro and Bert Ligon, to name a few. Mr. Heywood is also a published arranger of flute choir music, with offerings in the Southern Music Company and Alry Publications catalogs. His current responsibilities at the College of Charleston include directing two of the jazz combos, the Basketball Pep Band, and teaching private lessons.
Edmund LeRoy, voice
Baritone Edmund LeRoy holds the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School where he was twice awarded the Enrico Caruso Memorial Prize. He is a past unanimous first prize winner of the prestigious Naumburg International Competition in Lieder, making his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. He has since concertized in this country and abroad, in solo concerts, with orchestra, and in radio broadcasts. With an intense interest in new music, he has premiered many new works for voice including Ellen Taafe Zwilich’s Einsame Nacht. Dr. LeRoy also holds a Master of Sacred Music in organ from Union Theological Seminary (New York) and continues to perform on that instrument. For 26 years he was Professor of Music, head of the voice area, and sometime chair of the Department of Music at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2009.
Yen-Ling Liu, world music
Yen-Ling Liu earned a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University in 2009. She studied ethnomusicology and music theory at National Taiwan University, earning an M.A. in music theory with a thesis on the development of set theory and the reception of the Second Viennese School in the United States. Her undergraduate training at National Taiwan Normal University focused on piano and clarinet performance. Her dissertation (“Music for the People, Music for the Future: Monumentality as Expressive and Formal Ideal in the Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt”) examines Liszt’s symphonic poems in terms of the history of the symphony in the nineteenth century and the cultural environment of mid-nineteenth-century Weimar. Other areas of interest include the aesthetic traditions of German and French Romanticism and creative partnerships in nineteenth-century music and literature. While at Stanford, she won the Geballe Dissertation Prize (2008) and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Award for International Scholarly Exchange from Taiwan (2007). She has recently published an article on the aesthetics of terror in German and French Romanticism. She was a visiting lecturer at the University of California in Santa Cruz in 2007.
Charles McDonald, gospel choir
Lorenzo Muti, orchestra
Lorenzo Ricci Muti was born in Spoleto, Italy. He started his musical career at the age of seven, when he was chosen for a singing role in Menotti's opera "Matia Golovin." He performed at the Brussels International Expo, on New York City's Broadway, and at La Scala Theatre in Milan. After an intense singing career, he started conducting studies at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and then moved to the U.S., where he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School. His conducting debut took place during the 1977 Spoleto Festival. Since then, Maestro Muti has conducted both for the Italian and Charleston Spoleto Festivals, in major European cities such as Rome, Florence, London and Amsterdam; and for several American opera companies. Muti is the Artistic Director of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle since 1988 and Conductor/Artistic Director of the Tar River Philharmonic Orchestra since 1989.
Brandon Nichols, horn
Brandon Nichols has served as Principal Horn of the Charleston Symphony since 1991, having been a member since 1989. As a frequent soloist with the Charleston Symphony, Mr. Nichols has performed Schumann's Concertstuck and Mozart's Symphonie Concertante on the Masterworks series as well as works by Haydn, Telemann, Richard Strauss, Fiala, Franz Strauss and Bach on the Chamber Series. During the 1993-94 season he took a one year leave to serve as Principal Horn of the Milwaukee Symphony, where he can be heard performing on several compact disc recordings on the Koss label. In the summer of 1998, Mr. Nichols was invited to Toronto to play with the Canadian Brass Quintet. He was one of a select few hornists worldwide being considered for the horn position in the Canadian Brass.
Irina Pevzner, piano
Irina Pevzner, born in Ukraine and raised in Latvia, earned her bachelor’s degree in piano performance and music education from Mansfield University (Pennsylvania), magna cum laude. She earned her master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Irina has performed throughout Latvia, Ukraine, and throughout the east coast of the U.S. She is a certified music teacher in Pennsylvania and has taught extensively at the Carnegie Mellon University Preparatory School. Currently, Irina is enrolled in the Artist Certificate Program at the College of Charleston, where she studies with Enrique Graf.
Tyler Ross, jazz guitar
Tyler Ross is an avid performer, composer, and educator in the Charleston area. He completed his undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a master’s at Western Illinois University both in jazz performance. With eclectic tastes ranging from jazz to folk to rock, Tyler continues to acknowledge and explore his broad musical interests through a variety of projects. More info at www.TylerRossMusic.com
Charlton Singleton, jazz trumpet
A native of Awendaw, SC, Charlton Singleton began his musical studies at the age of three on the piano. He would then go on to study the violin, cello, and the trumpet throughout elementary, middle and high school. In 1994, he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance from South Carolina State University. Since that time, he has taught music at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, as well as being an adjunct faculty member at the College of Charleston. Currently, he is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra; a 20 piece jazz ensemble of some of the finest professional musicians in the Southeast and the resident big band in Charleston, SC. As a performer, Charlton leads his own traditional jazz group (Charlton Singleton Quintet) and a contemporary group (Charlton Singleton Band). He has had the good fortune to play in France, Great Britain, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, as well as many great cities throughout the United States. He has also shared the stage with and/or worked with some of most talented entertainers in the world. Outside of music and entertainment, he is a devoted husband and proud father of two.
Eunjoo Yun, piano
Eunjoo Yun has won prizes in competitions such as the Jewish Community Competition in Baltimore, the Brevard Festival Concerto Competition, and the Southeastern Competition in North Carolina. She received the 1995 South Carolina Arts Commission Fellowship in music and was named to the Community Tour Artist Roster. She studied at the College of Charleston with Enrique Graf and received the Outstanding Student Award from the Music Department and the Edwin Davis Peacock Award for Outstanding Piano Performance. She is founder and director of the piano faculty of the Charleston Academy of Music.
