Music
Vincent Vaccaro
Hometown: Concord, NC Bachelor of Music, Concentration in Jazz Studies 2025 How did you first get interested in music? I grew up with a family that was very passionate about music. All of my family members had played an instrument at some point and had an appreciation for higher forms of music. My parents always […]
Tohoku University Musical Exchange Creates Lifetime Memories
Just two days into their two-week exchange trip to Charlotte, the 17 students from Japan’s Tohoku University were scattered across the floor of Robinson Hall lobby, sitting in circles with members of the Women’s Chorus and laughing as they discussed foods they would “never eat.” Professor Ginger Wyrick, director of the Women’s Chorus, also known […]
Music Student To Present at American Musicological Society Conference
Senior music education major Emily Sheffield has been invited to present her paper, “Hedda Grab-Kernmayer and the Intersectionality of Gender and Cultural Identity in the Nazi Ghetto of Theresienstadt,” at the Southeast Chapter conference of the American Musicological Society. The conference will be held on October 1 at N.C. State University. Sheffield began her research […]
Jennifer Merry
Band Director at Hickory Ridge Middle School
Lily Cagle
Hometown: Mount Pleasant, NC Degree: BA in Music Performance and a minor in English Graduation Year: 2025 How did you become interested in music?I got into music by wanting to do something different from my family and always having a love for it. When I started band, it made me realize that I had a […]
Students Excel at Hawaii Performing Arts Festival
Musical Theatre Certificate students Logan Pavia and Charity Williams had the opportunity this summer to participate in the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, a prestigious, international professional development program for emerging artists. Now in its 17th season, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival offers tuition-based training in which students participate in workshops, voice lessons, and classes with […]
Role in Japanese Opera Continues Professor’s Explorations of Asian and Asian-American Composers
Dr. Brian Arreola will perform the lead tenor role of “Yoshizo” in the Japanese opera Hebionna (Snake Woman) by Asako Hirabayashi. The opera will receive its world premiere on June 27 in a production in Rowe Recital Hall and will be filmed for future distribution. The performance is the latest project in Arreola’s ongoing creative […]
Music Department Announces New Director of Bands
The Department of Music has announced that Hunter Kopczynski will join the faculty as Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music this fall. He will conduct the UNC Charlotte Wind Ensemble, teach courses in conducting and music education, and oversee the university bands program. Kopczynski comes to Charlotte after his role as Director of […]
UNC Charlotte to present East Coast premiere of “Violins of Hope” Song Cycle
A new song cycle about violins recovered from the Holocaust will be the centerpiece of Charlotte’s Holocaust Remembrance Day event, the Community Yom HaShoah Commemoration. Presented by the UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture in partnership with community and educational partners, Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope will receive its East Coast premiere […]
Voice Professor’s Opera Performed at Kennedy Center
The Washington, D.C. company IN Series presented an opera composed by Professor of Voice Brian Arreola at The Kennedy Center on Saturday, April 9. ¡Zavala-Zavala!: an opera in v cuts received top billing in a production of three world premieres Saturday evening. ¡Zavala-Zavala!, with a libretto by Anna Deeny Morales, is inspired by the story […]