2018 Conference Program

Jamal J. Rossi is the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music. Having served in leadership roles in music for more than two decades, Rossi has spearheaded significant collaborative educational and community initiatives and has wide-ranging experience in academic scholarship and leadership, teaching, performance, recording, and fundraising.

Prior to his appointment as Dean, Rossi served as the Executive Associate Dean at Eastman. Previous academic leadership appointments include serving as Dean of the School of Music at the University of South Carolina, and Assistant and Associate Dean of the Ithaca College School of Music.

An active saxophone soloist and chamber musician, Rossi is featured on numerous recordings, he has commissioned/premiered more than twenty compositions, and he has been a soloist with symphony orchestras and military/college/university bands. His articles and reviews have appeared in leading wind publications. A founding and current member of the Kilbourn Saxophone Quartet, Rossi was formerly a member of the Carolina and Empire Saxophone Quartets. Rossi earned a Bachelor of Music Education and Performance degree from Ithaca College (summa cum laude), the Master of Music from the University of Michigan, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music.

Rossi is active with numerous national, regional, and local arts and civic organizations, including the National Association of Schools of Music, the New York State Association of College Music Programs, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council, and the North American Saxophone Alliance.

Donna Brink Fox is Senior Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York. Dr. Fox joined the Eastman music education faculty in 1984 and was named Eisenhart Professor of Music Education in 1998, the first endowed professor to be named at the School. Earned degrees are a PhD in Music Education (The Ohio State University, 1982); an MM in Music (Ohio University, 1975); and a BA in Music History and Music Education (Calvin College, 1972). Additional study includes Harvard’s Management Development Program (1996) and a semester as Provost’s Bridging Fellow in the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester (2006). Previous full-time collegiate teaching positions were at Illinois State University (1980-1984) and Ohio University (1975-1976). She has been visiting faculty at Sydney Conservatorium in Australia (1992) and a Visiting Professor at the Shenyang Conservatory in China. In 2015 she was appointed as a Global Academic Advisor for the Cyprus Centre of Research and Study in Music Education. Dr. Fox is currently responsible for faculty affairs, including promotion and tenure reviews, annual activity reports, studio assignments, and hiring of part-time faculty. She supervises the program areas of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs (Residential Life and Student Activities), along with the Eastman Writing Center, Eastman Community Music School, and Summer Session. She chairs the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Professional Development Committee, and supervises the Certificate in Community/Collegiate Music Teaching. In music education, Dr. Fox taught undergraduate and graduate classes, served as the doctoral academic advisor, and supervised research projects of doctoral and master’s students, including more than two dozen dissertations. She founded (1992) and continues to direct the summer Orff Schulwerk Teacher Education course, and is director of the early childhood music program in the Eastman Community Music School, now in its 32nd program year. Based on her practice and research in early childhood music education, she has given presentations and clinics around the world, including Hungary, Austria, Denmark, Spain, China, and Canada. Dr. Fox has written articles for a variety of music education publications, including the Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, and the Orff Echo. She co-authored a three-volume curriculum for teaching music in early childhood classrooms, Classroom Music for Little Mozarts (published by Alfred), earning a Parents Choice Award for Volume 1. She has received grants from the Music Educators National Conference, Paul Foundation, American Orff-Schulwerk Association, Texaco Foundation, and the New York Council on the Arts, for research and program models related to early childhood music education and to music teacher education. In 1996, Dr. Fox received Eastman’s Eisenhart Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2016 was recognized by the University of Rochester with the Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award. She has received alumni achievement awards from the School of Music at both The Ohio State University and Ohio University, and a Music Educators Award from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for community contributions.

“Before beginning work as director of the Butler School of Music in June 2014, Mary Ellen Poole served for ten years as dean of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she increased enrollment, built a renowned faculty, and oversaw construction of an $80 million facility in the heart of the city’s arts district. She is known in the Bay Area for her partnerships with civic organizations, including the San Francisco Opera, and she helped to internationalize the Conservatory’s programs and student body.

Dr. Poole joined the San Francisco Conservatory after 18 years at Millikin University in Illinois, where she was named director of the School of Music in 1997. Before her appointment as director, she taught honors humanities, chamber music, Western music history, jazz history, world music, and flute. In 2002, her colleagues recognized her achievements with the university’s Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award.

As a musicologist, her research, publications, and presentations have focused on fin-de-siècle Paris: cabaret chansons and chansonniers, music as political propaganda during the Radical Republic, and the ideology of teaching music to the working class. She is currently active as a visiting evaluator and member of the Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Music.

A native of Louisiana, she earned her degrees in flute performance from Baylor University and Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana.”

Matthew Ardizzone

joined the Eastman Admissions team as the Associate Dean of Admissions in 2009. He is now Associate Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management, overseeing admissions, financial aid and the Registrar. An Eastman alumnus, he was the first guitarist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts degree (1997) and was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate. Prior to attending Eastman, he received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in guitar performance from Ithaca College. His extensive background as a performer includes numerous concert and festival appearances across North America. He has been on the faculties of Bowling Green State University, Nazareth College, and the Eastman Community Music School. In the summer he teaches guitar for the Summer@Eastman: Music Horizons program.

With his admissions colleagues at the Juilliard School and Ithaca College, Matthew developed an annual touring information session on Applying to Music Schools, with recent sessions in San Diego, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and New Orleans. He was featured in Amy Nathan’s publication, The Music Parent’s Survival Guide, and is serving as Chair of the Independent Consortium on College Admissions in Music (ICCAM). In 2016, he presented a session on Recruitment and Enrollment Management with his colleague Laura Hoffman of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the annual meeting of NASM (National Association of Schools of Music).

Previous positions include Executive Director of Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates and Assistant Director of Admissions at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Cathy Hain has fifteen years of experience working in development for the performing arts and higher education. She is currently Assistant Vice President of Advancement for the Eastman School of Music.While at Eastman, she has led the school to successfully complete an $86 million campaign, surpassing the original goal by over $20 million.In addition to raising financial support, she has experience building successful volunteer leadership groups and engaging alumni.Prior to coming to Eastman, she held development positions at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and University of Rochester.She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business.

Robert Cutietta is dean of the Thornton School of Music and the Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California. Since 2002, he has overseen an expansion in endowment, programs, and space within Thornton while building upon the traditional quality of education that is the school’s trademark.

Under Dr. Cutietta’s leadership, the Thornton School has introduced innovative new degrees in music education, arts journalism, visual and performing arts studies, choral music, vocal jazz, and the groundbreaking popular music performance program. In the fall of 2014, a graduate degree in Music Leadership was introduced further positioning the Thornton School as an innovator in music instruction.

In 2011, he was asked to create the first new school at USC in 41 years; the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Since then he has overseen the hiring of the entire faculty and staff of the new school as well as the construction of the 59,000 square foot Kaufman International Dance Center. The Kaufman School officially opened in the fall of 2014.

In 2010, USC Thornton moved into a combination of new and newly renovated spaces, constituting a 40% increase in physical size. A new practice room facility, orchestral rehearsal hall, and amplified rehearsal hall was added to totally renovated homes for jazz, studio/jazz guitar, student services, film scoring, and technology.

During his tenure, the Thornton School’s endowment has seen a dramatic increase with the addition of five new endowed faculty chairs and one professorship, tens of millions of dollars in new scholarships, and funding for new endeavors such as an ensemble touring fund and a travel fund for student finalists in national and international competitions. He has been especially effective supplementing the already illustrious faculty with new world-class artist/teachers such as Midori, Bob Mintzer, Glenn Dicterow, Ralph Kirshbaum, Patrice Rushen, Peter Webster, Lamont Dozier, and Young Guru.

Since 2006, he has hosted Ask the Dean, a popular weekly segment on Classical KUSC, the largest classical music station in the nation. He has also performed and composed music for television and movies.

He is a founding member of Montana Public Broadcasting and currently a member of the Advisory Board of Classical KUSC Radio in Los Angeles, The Orange County School of the Arts, The Maestro Foundation, and the GRAMMY Blue Ribbon Adjudication Committee. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and was designated the 2001 Alumni of the Year from the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State University. In 2007, he received the Amicus Poloniae Award from the Government of the Republic of Poland. Cleveland State University awarded him the 2008 Alumni of the Year from the College of Arts and Letters. He has published a wide range of articles on many subjects related to Music Education. These have appeared in journals such as The Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, The Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Psychology Today, The Psychology of Music, The American Music Teacher and many others. He is also author, co-author or editor of four books and has contributed chapters to several others including The Handbook of Research on the Teaching and Learning of Music. He has sat on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, and Contributions to Music Education. His two most recent books are Raising Musical Kids: A Parent’s Guide (2013), and Who Knew? Answers To Questions About Classical Music You Never Thought To Ask (2016) both published by Oxford University Press.

Prior to his appointment as dean, Cutietta had a successful career as a musician and researcher. He was director of the School of Music and Dance at the University of Arizona and held faculty positions at Kent State and Montana State Universities. He received his doctorate in music education and psychology from Penn State University and his undergraduate and masters degrees from Cleveland State University.

Michele Gibson is Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Finance at the Eastman School of Music, where she heads up Eastman’s administration and finance functions. In her ten years at Eastman, she has provided financial leadership instituting multi-year strategic financial planning and modeling, was a lead contributor on a complex but very successful multi-year construction and renovation project (including the new Eastman East Wing and renovations to performance spaces), and established and implemented a strategic safety and security plan for the Eastman campus. A graduate of St. John Fisher College and Cornell University, Ms. Gibson has also served as Director of Finance for Citibank Student Loan Corporation; CFO –Affluent Client Segment for Citibank Latin America Consumer Bank; and Director and Senior Finance Officer for Cornell University.

Tayloe Harding is a composer, music administrator and Dean of the School of Music at the University of South Carolina. A passionate advocate for advancing the impact of higher education music study and experience on American communities and national society, Tayloe Harding is devoted to an array of organizations whose missions are consistent with this advocacy. As President of the College Music Society (CMS) from 2005-2006, he led the creation of the Engagement and Outreach Initiative where the efforts of the music professoriate are articulated with a variety of national constituencies, including other higher education disciplines and populations, music businesses and industries, and general audiences in an effort to meet common musical and civic goals. He was a co-founder of the Brevard Conference on Music Entrepreneurship (BCOME), the Round Top Roundtable: The Next Generation of Music Leadership in America and the independent National String Project Consortium (NSPC), has served as President of The CMS Fund, and is currently both the national Secretary of the National Association for Schools of Music (NASM) and the national President of Pi Kappa Lambda (PKL), the American professional honorary society in music. As Dean at South Carolina he has brought a bold idea to fruition: to more fully prepare tomorrow’s professional musicians by combining conventional professional music study with a systematic curricular and co-curricular exploration of music advocacy, music entrepreneurship, and community engagement by forming SPARK: Carolina’s Leadership Laboratory (formerly the Carolina Institute for Leadership and Engagement in Music). His 2014 TedX talk “Music and Hope: Towards a More Musical America” constitutes a public expression of his interests and work at Carolina and beyond. An active consultant for NASM, CMS, and PKL, he is a frequent presenter on issues facing the future of university music units and their leadership, and remains active as a composer earning commissions, performances, and recordings for his works around the world.

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Jamal Rossi, Mary Ellen Poole, Robert Cutietta
With over 75 years of combined experience in innovative music school leadership and administration, our panel of music school deans offers important insight into the world of music school leadership.