A new Lied Center director and chair of Kansas University's music and dance department are just around the bend.
Toni-Marie Montgomery, dean of KU's School of Fine Arts, said Thursday that offers have been made for both positions. An announcement about the new hires is expected to come at the end of next week or the beginning of the first week in April.
Finalists for the Lied Center position are Ellis Finger, who has served as director of the Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., since 1983; Timothy Van Leer, who has served as executive director of the El Camino College Center for the Arts in Torrance, Calif., since 1992; and Evy Warshawski, who has been executive director of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival in Ann Arbor, Mich., since 1999.
"I have been excited by the pool of candidates and the breadth of their experience," said Montgomery, who is marking her one-year anniversary as dean in early April. "It's been a good opportunity for me to learn how important the Lied Center is to the community and its connection to Kansas City."
The search for the new chair of the music and dance department has been narrowed to two candidates: Lawrence Mallett, interim dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Robert Chumbley, executive and music director at the Atlanta Ballet.
George Duerksen, a music professor who has been interim chair of the KU music and dance department, recently withdrew his name from the pool of candidates.
Montgomery said seven new music faculty members have been hired: Kip Haaheim, composition, doctorate degree from the University of Arizona; Clarence Henry, ethnomusicology with an emphasis in Brazilian music, doctorate from the University of California; Genaro Mendez, tenor, doctorate from the University of Oregon; Scott Murphy, music theory, doctorate from the Eastman School of Music; Roberta Schwartz, musicology, doctorate from the University of Illinois; Joyce Castle, mezzo-soprano, a KU alumna with a master's degree from the Eastman School of Music; and Pamela Hinchman, soprano, bachelor's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
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