Music Professor Named Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

Dr. Carl DuPont, an assistant professor of voice in the Department of Music, has been named a 2018 Emerging Scholar by the publication Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. The magazine’s January 25 edition profiled 15 scholars from colleges and universities from around the country, many of them under 40, who are making their mark at their institutions through teaching, research, and service.

DuPont made his first operatic appearance as a boy in the title role of Amahl and the Night Visitors in his hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida, and has been singing ever since. He performs operatic roles around the country and recently appeared in the Opera Carolina production of Cyrano. Last summer, he participated in the Young Artists Program at Glimmerglass Festival, a highly regarded summer opera and musical theatre festival in Cooperstown, NY.

At UNC Charlotte, DuPont instructs undergraduate students in applied voice, as well as French, German, Italian, and English diction. Additionally, he is an affiliate faculty member of the Africana Studies Department and has collaborated with the German and dance departments.

DuPont’s scholarly interest focuses on diversity and inclusion in higher music education, specifically the contributions of black musicians, composers, and educators to the discipline.

In his nomination letter, Music Department Chair Jay Grymes said DuPont “has committed himself to augmenting the standard canon of European art songs that are studied and performed all over the world with ones that champion blackness and the black experience.”

Grymes added: “In addition to unearthing unpublished and rarely performed works by black composers, he has commissioned new compositions. He performs these pieces all over the country, including at New York City’s Bruno Walter Auditorium and Carnegie Hall, and he recently recorded a compact disc of art songs by black composers.”