At the Lied Center...

Teaching Artists

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  David von Kampen

  Award-winning composer, lecturer at Glenn Korff School of Music
  David von Kampen

  Award-winning composer, lecturer at Glenn Korff School of Music

  Biography:

  David von Kampen (b. 1986) is a composer based in Lincoln, Nebraska. David’s creative work spans a wide variety of genres and styles, including jazz, choral music, hymnody and liturgy, solo voice, chamber music, and musical theater. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Nebraska. He has studied composition with James Barnes, Dan Gailey, Forrest Pierce, Eric Richards, and Randall Snyder.

  David is a six-time Downbeat Award winner in graduate-level jazz writing categories, a finalist for the American Prize in composition, and was named the MTNA Distinguished Composer of the Year for his song cycle "Under the Silver and Home Again." He has been among ten winners of the ORTUS International New Music Competition, the recipient of an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer award, winner of the San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices Project, winner of the National Band Association’s Young Jazz Composers Competition, and received Honorable Mention in the New York Youth Symphony First Music Commissions. Puddin’ and the Grumble, David’s original musical with playwright Becky Boesen, was one of seven finalists for the Richard Rodgers award.

  David has over 80 choral and instrumental compositions and arrangements published with Walton Music, G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard, Santa Barbara, Concordia Publishing House, Pavane Publishing, UNC Jazz Press, Graphite Publishing, MusicSpoke, and others. His music has been performed by the KHORIKOS Vocal Ensemble, the Cambridge Chamber Singers, the L.A. Choral Lab, KC VITAs Chamber Choir, the Taiwan Youth Festival Chorus, San Francisco Choral Artists, the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and by collegiate, all-state, high school, and church ensembles throughout the United States and internationally.

  David is a lecturer of music theory and literature at the University of Nebraska, where he directs the UNL Jazz Singers and Jazz Orchestra. He also teaches applied composition at Concordia University, Neb., and serves as Music Coordinator for Sanctuary Worship at Christ Lutheran Church in Lincoln. David is a member of ASCAP, the Jazz Education Network, and the American Choral Directors Association. He is active as a conductor and pianist, and as a clinician for vocal and instrumental ensembles. He lives in Lincoln with his wife Mollie and two daughters.

   

  
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  Jason Michael Webb

  Broadway Music Director, Arranger, and Composer
  Jason Michael Webb

  Broadway Music Director, Arranger, and Composer

  Biography:

  2019 Special Tony Award recipient and Drama Desk winner, Jason Michael Webb is a composer, lyricist, musical director, producer and arranger. From conducting orchestras in Broadway pits to writing and arranging music for a President’s inauguration, Jason has dedicated his life to using music to heal, uplift and encourage. 

  Mr. Webb’s early musical training consisted of formal classical study, playing in small churches and listening to pop music. By 21, he had a degree in classical piano, played in the biggest churches in New York City and made his orchestral solo debut with the Queens Symphony. 

  He then went on to become Musical Director of the six-time Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Tabernacle, for whom Mr. Webb co-wrote and produced four albums for The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, leading to two Stellar Award nominations and a Dove Award win. His arrangement of BTC’s “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was featured at the 2013 inauguration of President Barack Obama and simultaneously heard by over one billion people worldwide.

  Mr. Webb wrote music and lyrics for Kenny Leon’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, running currently in Central Park (Shakespeare in the Park, The Public Theater) (also Music Supervisor/Incidental Music). His writing can also be heard on the hit TV series “Empire” (Fox), Netflix film “Juanita” (starring Alfre Woodard), recording projects and original musicals, including the new South African musical “WiLDFLOWER” (currently in development with NBT/Apollo Theater).

  Mr. Webb will receive a 2019 Special Tony Award for his "outstanding arrangements" in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s breathtaking play “Choir Boy” (MTC). He is also a Drama Desk nominee for Outstanding Original Music. 

  He served as Musical Director of the gorgeous Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning 2016 Broadway Revival of "The Color Purple", directed by John Doyle and based on the timeless novel by Alice Walker. Mr. Webb is now currently Music Director/Arranger for Cynthia Erivo, who won a 2016 Tony Award as Celie in the Broadway Revival.

  Other credits include Associate Production Music Supervisor for The Greatest Showman (20th Century Fox); Musical Director and Arranger/Adaptor for Disney’s “Frozen: Live at the Hyperion” (Anaheim, CA); and Associate Musical Director of Broadway shows including Berry Gordy’s “Motown: The Musical”, Alan Menken’s “Leap of Faith” and Jeanine Tesori’s “Violet” (also Additional Arrangements).

  Mr. Webb has appeared as a Pianist onstage with Dame Shirley Bassey, Michael Bolton, Cece Winans, and Chaka Khan. He has conducted live and recording orchestras from New York to LA, including internationally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang’s 2016 love letter to NYC, “New York Rhapsody” (PBS), which featured performances by Rufus Wainwright, Regina Spektor and Suzanne Vega.

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  Katie Pohlman

  Featured Instructor
  Katie Pohlman

  Featured Instructor

  Biography:

  Katie Pohlman is a professional dancer, actor, and singer from Omaha, NE. She graduated from Oklahoma City University with her Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance Performance and trained in New York City at Broadway Dance Center in their Professional Semester program. Katie has spent the past several years performing around the country at Music Theatre Wichita and The Muny. She was most recently seen as the swing and dance captain on the first national tour of Bandstand. Katie is over the moon excited to be sharing her passion and knowledge of dance with the musical theater students in Nebraska!

  
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  Paul Barnes

  LIED CENTER PIANO ACADEMY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND UNL GLENN KORFF SCHOOL OF MUSIC MARGUERITE SCRIBANTE PROFESSOR OF MUSIC, PIANO AREA OF FOCUS: KEYBOARD
  Paul Barnes

  LIED CENTER PIANO ACADEMY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND UNL GLENN KORFF SCHOOL OF MUSIC MARGUERITE SCRIBANTE PROFESSOR OF MUSIC, PIANO AREA OF FOCUS: KEYBOARD

  Biography:

  Praised by the New York Times for his “Lisztian thunder and deft fluidity,” and the San Francisco Chronicle as “ferociously virtuosic,” pianist Paul Barnes has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured seven times on APM’s Performance Today, on the cover of Clavier Magazine, and his recordings are streamed worldwide.

  Celebrating his twenty-four-year collaboration with Philip Glass, Barnes commissioned and gave the world premiere of Glass’s Piano Quintet “Annunciation.” The work is Glass’s first piano quintet and first work based on Greek Orthodox chant. In a Journal Star interview, Glass stated: “You have a world-class pianist in Paul Barnes. He’s a pure piano virtuoso.” The Journal Star described the world premiere performance as “meditative… striking… touchingly played by Barnes and the Chiara Quartet, ‘Annunciation’ is a romantic, late-period Glass masterwork.” Fred Child, host of APR’s Performance Today was present for the premiere and wrote: “Pianist Paul Barnes put together and performed a thrilling evening of music!” Child’s interview with Barnes and Glass and the word premiere performance of the quintet was featured twice on Performance Today. The New York premiere took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where New York Classical Review called the quintet “a fascinating mosaic of Glass’s late style…with a warm inner expression that seemed to echo Brahms.” PBS NewsHour recently featured a Nebraska Educational Telecommunications video production highlighting Barnes’ creative collaboration with Glass and the new quintet. Barnes recording of the quintet with string quartet superstars Brooklyn Rider was released in October of 2019 to critical acclaim. French publication ResMusica wrote: "Paul Barnes, whose pianistic lines are always clear, is a marvel of diologue with Brooklyn Rider."

  Barnes’ twelfth CD New Generations: The New Etudes of Philip Glass and Music of the Next Generation has also received rave reviews. Gramophone Magazine wrote, “Pianists of Barnes’s great technique and musicality are a boon to new music.” And American Record Guide commented, “This disc provides further proof of Barnes’s ability to communicate new music with flair and passion.” Produced by Orange Mountain Music, the recording features a selection of Glass’s etudes juxtaposed with works by N. Lincoln Hanks, Lucas Floyd, Jason Bahr, Zack Stanton, Ivan Moody, and Jonah Gallagher. The sonic result is a breathtaking panorama of the energetic and expressive landscape that is twenty-first century piano music. Barnes has performed the recital version of New Generations in Vienna, Seoul, Rome, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Interlochen, and most recently at the Music Teachers National Association Convention in Glass’s hometown of Baltimore. Barnes also commissioned and gave the world premiere of Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark). The Omaha World Herald praised Barnes playing for his “driving intensity and exhilaration.” Nebraska Educational Telecommunications' production "The Lewis and Clark Concerto," a documentary/performance of the concerto featuring Barnes, won an Emmy for Best Performance Production. Additional performances included collaborations with conductor Marin Alsop at the prestigious Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra where the Seattle Times called Barnes' performance "an impressive feat." The world-premiere recording with the NWCO was released by Orange Mountain Music. Gramophone Magazine remarked that this recording is "certainly one of the most enjoyable recent releases of Glass's music...Paul Barnes is a shining soloist." Barnes recently gave the Chinese premiere of the concerto at the famous Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu China as part of an inaugural American Music festival.

  Orange Mountain Music also released Barnes' recording of his transcriptions from the operas of Philip Glass, including both the Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano. Gramophone Magazine observed, “Barnes offers a surprisingly expressive reading…. Atmosphere and rhythmic vitality are important, and these qualities Barnes has in abundance.” The American Record noted, "Barnes is an expressive pianist with a lovely tone and a flair for the dramatic." The Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano are published by Chester Music of London and are available at sheetmusicplus.com. Barnes’ eleventh CD The American Virtuoso featuring the music of Philip Glass, Samuel Barber, and Joan Tower was released on Orange Mountain Music to much critical acclaim. The American Record Guide wrote, "Another fine release from the amazing pianist Paul Barnes...with a pianist like this, new American music is in good hands." Barnes also commissioned a new piano concerto Ancient Keys written by Victoria Bond based on a Greek Orthodox chant. The world-premiere recording of this concerto as well as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was released on Albany Records. Barnes also commissioned Victoria Bond to write a new piano work based on a Greek Orthodox crucifixion hymn. Simeron Kremate (Today is Suspended) was co-commissioned by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and the SDG Music Foundation in Chicago. The world premiere of Bond’s new work was given at Kimball Recital Hall on March 3, 2019 with the Chicago premiere on March 10 at the beautiful Nichols Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago. Barnes is Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music. He teaches during the summer at the Vienna International Piano Academy and the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. In great demand as a pedagogue and clinician, Barnes has served as convention artist at several state MTNA conventions, most recently at Virginia in October of 2018, and was recently named ‘Teacher of the Year” by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association.

  Barnes latest recital A Bright Sadness: Piano music inspired by Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Native American chant features a contemplative and cathartic program of piano works inspired by the mystical world of chant. Barnes, also a Greek Orthodox chanter, has collaborated most recently with Philip Glass and Victoria Bond to create piano works based on ancient byzantine and Jewish chant. Barnes has also been a passionate champion of the works of Liszt and performs Liszt’s late masterpiece, Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross exploring the painful but ultimately hopeful journey of Christ to the cross. The overall theme of “bright sadness” permeates the program as the tremendous depth and intensity of ancient chant is seen through the bright prism of hope and love. New chant-based works by Native flutist Ron Warren, David von Kampen, and Matthew Arndt are given their premiere performances. Barnes’ recordings are available on Spotify, Pandora, ITunes, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon.

  
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  Q Smith

  Lied Center Triple Threat Broadway Intensive Instructor
  Q Smith

  Lied Center Triple Threat Broadway Intensive Instructor

  Biography:

  Q. Smith was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska! She attended Fontenelle Elementary School, Brownell Talbot Prep, North High School, UNO, and then graduated with a MFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY.  Q. was a part of the original cast of the Tony Award winning (for Best Director) show, Come From Away playing the role of Hannah. It is currently streaming on Apple Plus.  Before Come From Away Q. was last seen on Broadway as the first African American actress to play a leading role in Disney’s Mary Poppins. Also on Broadway Q. was in the 1^st revival of Les Miserables and Off Broadway she has performed and recorded the soundtrack for  Fame: On 42^nd Street.She has toured with the North American Broadway show- A Night With Janis Joplin playing the roles of Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone.  Other noted credits include Abyssinia: A Gospel Celebration with Wynton Marsalis at the Lincoln Center, Showboat in concert at the renowned Carnegie Hall, guest soloist for Hillary Clinton’s Vital Voices awards at the Kennedy Center and a guest soloist Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremonies representing the state of Nebraska. She has shared the stage with Gladys Knight, Rita Coolidge, and Gary U.S Bonds in Smokey Joe's Cafe' amongst others and has traveled the world with various productions; including Central America, Germany, and the entire US. Television credits: The Good Fight, The Black Box, FBI Most Wanted, and multiple voice over commercials and campaigns.  Not only is she an entertainer, but a passionate educator.  Q. and her husband conduct workshops and masterclasses for groups as well as offer private coaching sessions for all ages! She has been developing a curriculum entitled Comprehensive and Restorative Art Conditioning, which helps children with behavioral problems and learning disabilities maintain their curriculum through the arts. Her goals are to build a performing arts school integrated with the juvenile system, open a bed and breakfast in Hawaii, travel the world, and finish her book Queens of the Theatre! For more information go to: QdotSmith.com

  
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  Rebekah Stiles

  Lied Center Piano Academy Instructor
  Rebekah Stiles

  Lied Center Piano Academy Instructor

  Biography:

  Originally from Souderton, PA, Rebekah Stiles is a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Glenn Korff School of Music, where she serves as studio assistant to Dr. Paul Barnes. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Piano Performance and Bible from Cairn University, and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

  As a performer and collaborator, Rebekah has exercised her versatility over the past six years in the solo, chamber, and church settings. Her recent solo recitals have featured the works of Liszt, Schubert, Rameau, Janáček, Bartók, and Messiaen. As a collaborative musician, Rebekah has performed three times as soloist with orchestra, performing with the Cairn Symphony Orchestra in 2019 and with the UNL Symphony Orchestra in 2022 and 2023. During her time at Cairn, she specialized in piano duet repertoire, and she has since expanded her scope to encompass a wide variety of works, most recently George Walker’s Music for 3 and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor. Rebekah also holds seven years’ professional experience as a choral accompanist, and she also has led a fruitful career as a church pianist for the past ten years.

  Rebekah is also a seasoned educator, having taught at the collegiate level in both classroom and private settings. She holds a graduate teaching assistantship from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she serves as an instructor of record within the Keyboard Skills program. In addition, she served this year as Assistant Coordinator for the Lincoln Community Piano Experience, a recreational group piano course for adults. As studio assistant to Dr. Paul Barnes, Rebekah has taught privately on the undergraduate level, as well as conducting studio classes and serving as lecturer in the graduate Piano Literature course when needed.

  During the remainder of her degree, Rebekah’s scholarship will focus on the intersection of worldview and art, specifically the musical implications of major theological rifts within Christendom. Her upcoming lecture recital, “Creed and Variations,” will explore the musical trichotomy of Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant traditions, featuring works of J. S. Bach, Olivier Messiaen, and Arvo Pärt.

  
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  Sarah McKinistry-Brown

  Seminar Facilitator
  Sarah McKinistry-Brown

  Seminar Facilitator

  
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  Solungga Liu

  Lied Center Piano Academy Guest Instructor
  Solungga Liu

  Lied Center Piano Academy Guest Instructor

  Biography:

  Acclaimed as a pianist of great breadth, Solungga Liu is a champion of early twentieth-century American music, under-represented works of the standard repertoire and is also known as an uncanny interpreter of new music. Her discography is both wide-ranging and extensive.

  Her 2017 debut at the Library of Congress was praised by the Washington Classical Review for its “rhythmic precision, expression and finely calibrated sense of balance between all of the moving parts.” There she performed a solo recital of works by Charles Griffes, Amy Beach and César Franck, a concert tailored to her strengths and uniquely composed of music from the Library’s manuscript collection and which included the premiere of Charles Griffes’s 1915 piano transcription of Debussy’s Les parfums de la nuit from Iberia, once thought lost by Griffes’s biographers.

  A dedicated performer of new music, Liu has had numerous premieres, recordings, solo and concerti performances of contemporary works and has collaborated with many composers of our time. Her recent projects have included seven video releases of works by Stephen Hartke, Eric Nathan and Aaron Jay Kernis, Other major performances included Lutoslawski’s Piano Concerto with OSSIA, Steve Reich’s The Desert Music and Tehillim with Alarm Will Sound, Aaron Travers’s Concierto de Milonga, written for her and the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, and Gregory Mertl’s Piano Concerto, commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for her, conductor Craig Kirchhoff and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble.

  Liu enjoys an active career across five continents as a recitalist and concerto soloist in the USA, Canada, Austria, Australia, Romania, Brazil, Greece, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, including venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Taiwan National Concert Hall, the Goethe Cultural Center in Bangkok, and the National Museum of Sculpture in São Paulo. At the invitation of the Brazilian Government in 2022, Liu gave a series of recitals in Brasília, the capital, for the public as well as for the Cabinet of Brazil and the Supreme Labor Court. In Spring 2024, she will perform the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue with the physicians and researchers of the National Institute of Health's Philharmonia in Washington D.C.

  Liu is Professor of Piano and Piano Area Coordinator at the College of Musical Arts, Bowling Green State University. In addition to her dedication to students at BGSU, Liu is a sought-after artist teacher at major international conservatories and competitions, among them the Eastman School of Music, the Atlantic Music Festival, Sicily International Piano Festival and Competition, the Thailand International Mozart Competition, and the Corfu International Piano Festival in Greece.

  
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  Tom Larson

  UNL GLENN KORFF SCHOOL OF MUSIC ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION, EMERGING MEDIA AND DIGITAL ARTS AREA OF FOCUS: COMPOSITION, EMERGING MEDIA ARTS, JAZZ STUDIES
  Tom Larson

  UNL GLENN KORFF SCHOOL OF MUSIC ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION, EMERGING MEDIA AND DIGITAL ARTS AREA OF FOCUS: COMPOSITION, EMERGING MEDIA ARTS, JAZZ STUDIES

  Biography:

  Tom Larson is Assistant Professor of Composition (Emerging Media and Digital Arts) at the Glenn Korff School of Music. At the GKSoM, Tom has taught courses in Film Scoring, Digital Audio Recording and Production, Jazz History, Rock History, and Jazz Piano. His current course work includes teaching Film Scoring and Creative Sound Design, Digital Audio Recording/Production, and private Composition lessons. He also is a member of the UNL Faculty Jazz Ensemble, for which he serves as Music Director and Composer in Residence.

  Prior to becoming a faculty member at UNL, Tom was the co-owner of Studio Q Recording in Lincoln, where he produced music for TV and radio advertising, industrial videos, and documentary films. Among his credits are the scores for three documentaries for the PBS American Experience series (a production of WGBH-TV, Boston): In the White Man's Image, Around the World in 72 Days, and Monkey Trial (which won a 2002 Peabody Award). He also scored the documentaries Willa Cather: The Road is All for WNET-TV (New York), Ashes from the Dust for the PBS series NOVA, and the PBS specials Standing Bear's Footprint, Most Honorable Son, and In Search of the Oregon Trail. Tom has written extensively for the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and the University of Illinois Asian Studies Department. His music has also been used on the CBS-TV series The District. His commercial credits include music written for Phoenix-based Music Oasis, LA-based Music Animals, Chicago-based Pfeifer Music Partners and General Learning Communications, and advertising agencies in Lincoln and Omaha.

  As a recording engineer, Tom has worked on numerous projects as tracking, mixing, and/or mastering engineer for artists such as Paul Barnes, Jackie Allen, Hans Sturm, François Rabbath, Diane Barger, Hannah Huston, Jandy Shin, The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, The Concordia String Trio, Brad Colerick, and others.

  Tom is also the author of three textbooks, The History and Tradition of Jazz (6th ed.), Modern Sounds: The Artistry of Contemporary Jazz (2nd ed.), and The History of Rock and Roll (6th ed.), all of which are published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing (Dubuque, IA). He has released two albums of original jazz compositions, Flashback (2003), and Focus (2019). He has studied jazz piano with Dean Earle, Fred Hersch, Bruce Barth, and Kenny Werner, jazz arranging with Herb Pomeroy, and music composition with Robert Beadell and Randall Snyder. In addition to performing with jazz ensembles throughout the Midwest and East Coast, he has performed with The Tokyo Brass Art Orchestra, Paul Shaffer, Victor Lewis, Dave Stryker, John Ellis, Jerry Bergonzi, Chris Potter, Alex Riel, Howard Levy, Jackie Allen, Bobby Shew, Claude Williams, Bo Diddley, the Omaha Symphony, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, and Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra.

  A Lincoln native, Tom received a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also an avid runner and completed the Boston Marathon in 2005, 2006, and 2007.