Welcoming New Faculty

The following people have joined the College faculty since last fall. Welcome!

Lydia Brown, collaborative piano faculty chair, earned degrees in solo piano from the Eastman School and holds a DMA from Juilliard, where she studied with Margo Garrett. She’s also a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program and has served as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan and San Francisco operas. Recital appearances include the Salle Cortot, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 92nd St. Y, Phillips Gallery, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She has overseen the vocal program at the Marlboro Music Festival and School since 2006, and her previous faculty positions include the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

William Burden, voice faculty, has appeared in the world’s great opera houses including the Met, San Francisco, La Scala, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe, and Bayerische. His many roles include the title roles of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Faust, The Rake’s Progress, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Candide, as well as Don José in Carmen, Captain Vere in Billy Budd, Loge in Das Rheingold, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, and Lensky in Eugene Onegin. He has also created roles in new operas by Jake Heggie, Mark Adamo, Christopher Theofanidis, and Tobias Picker (Pre-College ’69; MM ’78, composition). In concert, he has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic; the Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Houston symphony orchestras; at the Edinburgh Festival; and on tour with Les Arts Florissants. He’s taught at Mannes and the Peabody Institute.

Gerald Cannon, jazz bass faculty, a performer, composer, and visual artist, studied at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, where he’s also taught. He’s performed with legendary musicians including Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Dexter Gordon, Cedar Walton Trio with Billy Higgins, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy Scott, James Williams, Hamiet Bluiett, Ed Thigpen, Stanley Turrentine and Bunky Green, Roy Hargrove, George Coleman, Elvin Jones, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, the Cannonball Legacy, Ernestine Anderson, Carmen Lundy, Abbey Lincoln, Gary Bartz, Joe Lovano, Eddie Henderson, Steve Turre, Eric Reed, and the Dexter Gordon Legacy Ensemble. He’s the musical director for the McCoy Tyner Trio, performs at major jazz festivals all over the world, and conducts master classes throughout the U.S. and Europe. Cannon has also taught at Oberlin, the New School, Long Island University, and the Conservatory of Maastricht.

Roxy Coss, jazz ensemble faculty, is a soprano saxophone player who’s headlined, performed, and recorded with jazz greats around the world. She is the founder of the Women in Jazz Organization and serves on the board of the Jazz Education Network. She’s also a composer and an educator who’s worked with private students and led master classes around the country. She’s taught at Ramapo (N.J.) and Beacon (NYC) high schools as well as at the William Paterson University and NYU summer jazz workshops, in addition to numerous guest lecturing and teaching stints.

Fredara Hadley, Graduate Studies, who’s teaching Introduction to African American Music, has a bachelor’s from Florida A&M, a master’s from Clark Atlanta University, and is getting her PhD from Indiana University. She has presented work at major conferences including annual meetings of the Society of Ethnomusicology, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US), Experience Music Project’s Popular Music Conference, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and South by Southwest. In addition to her research, Hadley founded Jooksi, a New York-based company that provides music education classes for the public, and music-based walking tours of New York City.

Francesca Harper, dance faculty, was a member of Dance Theater of Harlem and Ballet Frankfurt and performed on TV, in movies, and on and off Broadway, and has made multiple recordings. She has choreographed works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Tanz Graz, Hubbard Street II, Dallas Black Dance Theater, and her own company, The Francesca Harper Project, which was founded in 2005. She’s adjuncted at NYU, is an associate professor at Barnard, and teaches for the Ailey School, Fordham, and the Susan Batson Studio.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, cellist Clara Minhye Kim, a longtime Pre-College faculty member, has joined the college cello faculty. She has performed worldwide and been a guest performer and faculty member at the Jerusalem Music Center in Israel; Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Perlman Music Program in the U.S.; Seoul, Busan, and Pyeongchang Great Mountains music festivals in Korea; Beauvais and Festival Music Alp in France; and Morningside Music Bridge in Poland. She holds a BM from New England Conservatory and a master’s as well as a doctorate in the college teaching of English from Columbia. Her principal teachers included Channing Robbins, Laurence Lesser, and Aldo Parisot. She founded and heads the cello section of the New York Music Competition; conducts master classes; has adjudicated for international competitions; recorded for the CRI, SNK, and Albany labels; written a book on cello method (Korea Economic Daily and Business Publications Inc.); and, in 2011, was a U.S. State Department representatives in the arts.

Christopher Martin, trumpet faculty, has been principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic since 2016, having previously served as principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony for 11 seasons. He was also principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony and associate principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, a position he won at the age of 22. He has appeared as a soloist numerous times with both the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, including the world premiere performance of Juilliard faculty member Christopher Rouse’s concerto Heimdall’s Trumpet in 2016. He is also heard in a solo trumpet performance in John Williams’ (’55, composition) score to Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln. He previously taught at Northwestern University and coached the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Michael Mossman, who’s joined the jazz theory faculty, is a trumpeter who has a master’s from Rutgers and has been active on the international scene since the age of 17. He has extensive recording credits, has conducted the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in Spain, and has composed and arranged scores for dozens of groups. He’s served as musical director of Blue Note Records’ Young Lion group Out of the Blue, has toured extensively, and is a key performer in Latin Jazz. He’s also a professor and director of jazz studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.

Sean Smither, jazz theory, is a music theorist and jazz drummer from Somerville, N.J. A PhD candidate at Rutgers University, he holds an MA in music theory from Rutgers, and a BFA from the New School in jazz and contemporary music. His research focuses on the analysis of jazz standards, improvisation, and interaction, and it utilizes tools from linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive psychology to shed light on music-theoretical concerns. He has presented his research at national and regional conferences throughout North America. In addition to teaching at Juilliard, Smither also teaches music theory and analysis courses at Rutgers.

Todd Williams, Historical Performance natural horn, is based in Philadelphia and serves as principal horn of numerous ensembles across the country, including the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Trinity Wall Street, Clarion Society, Apollo’s Fire, Mercury, Opera Lafayette, and Tempesta di Mare. Guest principal horn appearances include Tafelmusik (Toronto), American Bach Soloists (San Francisco), and the Bach Societies of Washington, Philadelphia, Dallas, Madison, and San Diego. He’s given natural horn lectures at conservatories around the country and been adjunct faculty at Temple. On the modern valved horn, he is a staple of the Philadelphia music scene and, from 2003-2014, he was solo horn of the opera festival Lyrique-en-Mer, France. Williams, who has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, RCA/Sony Records, Atlantic Records, CORO, Naxos, Musica Omnia, Chaconne/Chandos, and Warner Brothers, is a graduate of Indiana University.

Areta Zhulla, violin and chamber music faculties and first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia, and was a member of Chamber Music Society Two. Collaborations include performances with Itzhak Perlman at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as Michel Plasson, Pinchas Zukerman, Gary Hoffman, Gilbert Kalish, Colin Carr, and members of the Cleveland, Emerson, and Cavani string quartets. Her performances have been broadcast all over the world. Zhulla was a teaching assistant to Perlman, has been on the Pre-College and Perlman Music Program faculties, and is artistic director of the Perlman-Genesis Violin Project. At Juilliard, she studied with Perlman and Catherine Cho; other teachers include Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, and her father, Lefter Zhulla.