Faculty Highlights: Spring and Summer, 2025

Myriam Athanas, assistant director of athletic bands, presented a session at the NAfME Music Research and Teacher Education Conference in September 2024. The session was titled Self-assessing the quality of verbal feedback from the podium: Psychometric characteristics of developing instrumental pre-service music educators. 

Rebecca Atkins, associate professor of music education (vocal/choral), was a National Semi-Quarter Finalist for the Grammy Music Educator Award in 2025.

Daniel Bara, interim director, conducted the National Concert Chorus and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall April 12, 2024. This concert included the world premiere of “Monster, Monster” by Composer-in-Residence Jennifer Lucy Cook and was presented at Carnegie Hall by National Concerts.

Brett Bawcum, Director of Athletic Bands, Asst. Director of Bands, received the National Band Association Citation of Merit and was a National Semi-Quarter Finalist, Grammy Music Educator Award in 2025.

Joshua Bynum, professor of trombone, was recognized with the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship in 2025.

Daniel Ellis, director of UGA Opera Theatre, had his professional work acknowledged with a 2024 Broadwayworld.com Award in Minneapolis/St. Paul’s as “Best Opera of the Year” for his production of Elixir of Love for Minnesota Opera.

Emily Gertsch, associate director for graduate studies and administration, senior lecturer of music theory, received an Active Learning Change Grant.

Elizabeth Johnson Knight, associate professor of voice and voice area chair, returned to Carmel Bach Festival  in July for her 21st season as a core member of the Chorale. Season highlights included Bach’s B Minor Mass and Mozart’s Requiem. She returned as Artist/Faculty in Residence at the University of Minnesota International Choral Academy, and also was returning faculty at UGA’s Maymester program in Italy. She taught UGA and international students in lessons and masterclasses, and gave several performances.

Michael Hadary, lecturer of voice (musical theatre), received the Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Award in 2025.

Michael Heald, professor of violin, was recognized with the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship in 2025.

Jean Kidula, Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology), was named a Special Collections Library Fellow.

James Kim, assistant professor of cello, was a Prizewinner in the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition.

Peter Van Zandt Lane, associate professor of composition and director of the Dancz Center for New Music, composition & music theory area chair, received a Franklin College Research Intensification System Grant. Additionally, Lane’s work “Coastal Portrait: Cycles and Thresholds” for string orchestra and electronics was jury-selected for performance by Grammy-nominated string orchestra “A Far Cry” at the 2025 International Computer Music Conference in Boston, Mass. The work, to be performed at the new Thomas Tull Concert Hall at MIT, incorporates sonified data from UGA Marine Science faculty and other scientists associated with the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research Project (GCE-LTER) with support from the Georgia Sea Grant Artists, Writers, and Scholars program.

Dickie Lee, assistant professor of music theory, received an Active Learning Change Grant as a Principal Investigator. Lee also published an article— “A Speedrun within a Rock Show: Interpreting Bit Brigade’s Video Game Performance Art and Analyzing Their Speedrun of Zelda”—in the interdisciplinary journal Journal of Sound and Music in Games in Oct. 2024.

Amy Petrongelli, assistant professor of voice, received grants  for her residencies as part of the Khemia Ensemble, including the 2025 Willson Center Department-Invited Artist / Lecturer and Budds Center for American Music Studies at Univ. of Missouri-Columbia, as  well as a sponsorship from Safanad: A Global Holding Company for a 2025 Commission Contest and an Aaron Copland Fund for Music Performance Program Grant.

Rumya Putcha, assistant professor of music and women’s studies, won the Bernard S Cohn Prize from the Association for Asian Studies for her book: The Dancer’s Voice: Performance and Womanhood in Transnational India. She was also recognized with a UGA Creative Research Medal for outstanding research or creative activity within the past five years that focuses on a single theme identified with the University of Georgia.