On December 5, the campus celebrated this year’s Arts+ initiative with five concurrent events featuring UMBC students, faculty, and guest artists. In a sold out concert in Linehan Concert Hall, the UMBC Symphony Orchestra and String Chamber Orchestra, directed by assistant professor Philip Mann, performed Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto, featuring professor Airi Yoshioka, and works by professor Linda Dusman and Rich Sigwald ’03, music.

Down the hall in the Black Box Theatre, UMBC Theatre presented Street Scenes, with text by Langston Hughes and his contemporaries, with music by Kurt Weill, adapted and directed by associate professor Eve Muson, with musical direction by adjunct professor Andrew Hann—also to a sold out house.

The Department of Dance presented the Fall Dance Showcase on the stage of the Proscenium Theatre, featuring striking capstone works by senior students and independent student research.

The PAHB lecture hall was home to a Film and Animation Showcase, featuring works by 18 students and recent graduates of UMBC’s Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) program.

The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture presented a collaboration between 2023 MacArthur Fellow María Magdalena Campos-Pons and musician Kamaal Malak, known collectively as KaMag. Their work, entitled Vignettes in 3 Sessions: An Immersive Ancestral Experience, delighted a capacity audience and was followed by the launch of a new public projection by KaMag, I Am Soil — My Tears Are Water, in the Fine Arts Building amphitheatre.

The Arts+ initiative will continue in spring 2026 with performances by Baltimore Dance Project and Orange Grove Dance, a faculty art exhibition, a lecture by visual artist Lynda Barry, a production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and more than a dozen music concerts by faculty and guest artists. A full schedule will be available in January 2026.

Strolling through campus, you might have noticed the blend of architectural styles, with a strong leaning toward brick brutalism (nicknamed “brickalism”), normalized in the 1960s; a typical look for a chemistry or engineering building. But you’ve probably wondered why the Fine Arts building doesn’t look so “artsy”?

From the outside, it may appear like a stereotypical late 60s/early 70s college building. But inside, you’ll find brilliant creative minds hard at work, taking photos, painting, or rendering animations. Now, thanks to UMBC’s new Arts+ initiative, a public art installation by the Cheeky Magpie Collective—made up of more than 20 alumni and current UMBC artists—is transforming the windows of the first four floors of the Fine Arts Building. The bold colors and patterns give visitors an idea of the artistic processes and world-expanding learning that’s going on behind the facade.

“The Fine Arts Building was really integral to our development, not only as designers but as growing students, and now alumni. All the effort we put into this design is a direct reflection of how amazing all the people in the building are,” says Thomas Hammond ’25, design, a member of the artist collective.

Funding for creative endeavors

This fall, UMBC launched Arts+ to celebrate and connect our vibrant and multifaceted arts scene throughout campus and with the region. Through this initiative, funding was allocated for a public art installation. The Cheeky Magpie Collective’s pitch to install a window treatment on the Fine Arts Building, where many of them spent most of their undergraduate career, was accepted. Collective members Gwen Knott ’25, design, and Jayden Rhodes ’25, design, were the lead designers of the project, with administrators Jalen Boyd ’25, design,Hammond, and Ni Truong ’25, design.

“I taught with the students who are now the Cheeky Magpie Collective in one of our capstone design classes,” says Kelley Bell, M.F.A. ’06, imaging and digital arts, the visual arts coordinator for Arts+. “It’s almost magical to see what we at UMBC have taught them in action. This was a fantastic opportunity for visual arts and UMBC to shine and give visitors to the campus and our UMBC community a new way to see our campus.”

Members of the collective say that by showcasing the Fine Arts Building in an attention-calling way puts a crack in the perception of UMBC as “just a STEM school,” bringing the groundbreaking art by UMBC students and faculty out into the light. The building and the faculty working inside were “great creative inspirations to the collective as student designers,” says Hammond. The art installation highlights this creativity, becoming a beacon of encouragement and inspiration for emerging artists.

A meaningful mark

“I knew this project would be perfect to support a group of alums who are doing something exceptional in forming this collective,” says Bell who was the coordinator and art director for the job, “but the design and thinking behind that design was all theirs,” she adds.

“It felt like we were able to really contribute to the university and leave a meaningful mark on what arts can do for a community and how we can use it to build up our already pretty great university,” says Boyd.

The visual style is a fusion of different inspirations, selected for their use of pattern, color, repeating motifs, and geometric and organic forms. The primary inspirations were the Arquitectonica style, and artist Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings which are characterized by their bold use of color and form and exacting geometric precision, and finally, in line with the modern influences of UMBC, the Memphis and post-modern style which was emblematic of the 1980s.

While the design was handled by the members of the Cheeky Magpie Collective, the print and installation was done by the UMBC Facilities Management Sign Shop on cut vinyl.

“UMBC is about the community,” says Truong. “It just makes you feel like it’s home because they’re always trying to give back and looking to support local companies and businesses like the Cheeky Magpie Collective. And this is our way of giving back.”

Moments after the final notes of a Mozart flute concerto resounded from the walls of UMBC’s Linehan Concert Hall, the sold-out audience rose to their feet to applaud Martha Long, principal flutist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Beside her, conductor Jonathon Heyward beamed in admiration, letting the applause linger before signaling the start of the next piece. 

The BSO’s concert on September 17 served as a fitting kick off for Arts+ at UMBC, a new initiative created to uplift the visual and performing arts at UMBC and to bring the surrounding community to campus to enjoy a vibrant celebration of creativity. 

“As the inaugural performing arts event of our 2025 – 26 season, the BSO’s performance perfectly exemplified the power of the arts to bring together a diverse community—students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, and the general public—for a marvelous shared experience,” says Tom Moore, co-chair of the Arts+ initiative and director of arts and culture. “As we build on the momentum of the BSO, it’s our intention that Arts+ events across the disciplines create similar opportunities to build a more vibrant campus community, to raise awareness of the excellence in our arts programs, and to establish UMBC as a renowned destination point for exhibitions, performances, lectures, and more.”

Impact of the arts

Throughout the year, Arts+ will explore a number of thematic areas, including Trailblazers; The Harlem Renaissance; Space, Place, and Justice; Connecting the Arts; and Artful Stories. Programming will celebrate not only work produced by faculty, departments, and centers, but also highlight student-produced pieces. Through a partnership with the Division of Student Affairs, more than 40 student events ranging from film festivals to exhibitions to music theater will celebrate the impact of the arts on the lives of our students, regardless of major.

With the support of the Arts+ initiative, alumni and student organizations are adding their artistic endeavors and passion for creativity to the campus landscape. For Jayden Rhodes ’25, design leader of the Cheeky Magpie Collective, that means helping transform the Fine Arts Building with window art on all five levels with playful shapes and colors. “We wanted to create a vibrant and energetic composition that called attention to the creativity contained within the university’s walls while also encouraging the emerging artists at UMBC,” says Rhodes, a Linehan Artist Scholar. The Cheeky Magpie Collective is made up of fellow class of 2025 design majors Gwen Knott, Jalen Boyd, Thomas Hammond, and Ni Truong.

On December 5, there will be a campus celebration of the Arts+ programming, says Linda Dusman, co-chair of the Arts+. “This is our pilot year—we’ve never done anything this big,” says Dusman, music professor, who looks forward to seeing the interdisciplinary success of the initiative, threading all of UMBC’s arts programming together more seamlessly. The end-of-fall celebration will feature collaborative performances and exhibits from each art department and center on campus. In one night, the festival atmosphere will highlight all the possibilities the arts possess. “Especially in dark times, art can bring things into focus that allow for reflecting, enjoyment, and processing,” says Dusman. She adds: “Everyone is going to be shining that night.”  

Find other Arts+ events and keep up with UMBC’s arts and culture on campus. 

Kayla Logue ’27 is a 2025 UCM intern and Linehan Scholar who is majoring in dance.

The Jim Crow era was marked by strict racial segregation, severely limiting Black individuals’ mobility and dignity. Public leisure spaces were often segregated, making travel dangerous and humiliating for Black people, which affected their leisure habits and options. Picturing Mobility: Black Tourism and Leisure During the Jim Crow Era, an exhibition curated by Elizabeth Patton, chair and associate professor of media and communication studies, is on view through December 19 at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

The new exhibit, curated with organizational support from Beth Saunders and Emily Cullen ’06, with exhibition design by Tony Venne and Cullen, highlights how ordinary people captured moments from their personal lives.

These images depict mobility through scenes of relaxation, happiness, amusement, and community, challenging the dominant narrative of Black life during Jim Crow as primarily defined by restrictions and struggle. This exhibition emphasizes the power of these images to affirm Black humanity and provide meaningful insights into life fully lived despite the oppressive system of segregation.

Picturing Mobility invites viewers to explore what it meant for Black Americans to seek joy, rest, and travel amid a world shaped by exclusion and segregation. It draws on photographs, oral histories, audio, video, and travel ephemera related to Black tourism and leisure activities, mainly from the mid-Atlantic region, from the 1920s to the 1960s. The artifacts show how documenting and taking part in leisure and mobility were powerful forms of resistance.

Patton’s current book project, Documenting Black Leisure as a Form of Resistance, examines the history of Black leisure and tourism in the U.S. through Jim Crow-era media. The AOK Library Gallery will host an opening reception and curatorial talk with Patton on September 19 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The presentation of this exhibition and its public programs is supported by the Arts+ Initiative; the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; and an arts program grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from the Libby Kuhn Endowment Fund, as well as individual contributors.

As flowers start popping up on campus and we get some warmer (if rainy) days, it’s the perfect time to go out and catch some of the arts events happening at UMBC. Whether you need a break from studying, work, or are just looking for some fun, you can be sure to find many entertaining and thought provoking arts and culture events happening on campus!

1. Enjoy an Artful Conversation All About Dance

No dance skills are required to enjoy an evening all about dance with Artful Conversations: An Evening with Misty Copeland. On the night of March 6, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Misty Copeland, the first African American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, and a New York Times best selling author, will be discussing topics all about dance and her historical performances. The night will begin with dance works performed by UMBC students and faculty. Later, in conversation with College of Art, Humanities, and Social Sciences Dean Kimberly Moffitt, Copeland will talk about her ground-breaking career.

In case the event is sold out or if you just want to watch on a later date, a livestream and recording will be available via the UMBC Youtube Channel. (Photo by Drew Gurian/MasterClass)

2. Bask in the Glow at a Poetry Reading

If you’re unable to make the Misty Copeland event, the English Department’s spring reading series event on March 6 features Taylor Johnson, poet laureate of Takoma Park, Maryland. Johnson is the author of Inheritance, and winner of the 2021 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Inheritance was influenced by living in Washington, D.C., and it explores the complexities of language. The event, which includes a reading, Q&A, and book signing, is free, and runs from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Albin O. Kuhn Library. (Photo by Sean D. Henry-Smith)

3. Listen to an Enchanting Evening of Music from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

On March 8, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform at UMBC. The ensemble will be led by conductor Ken-David Masur. The program includes Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Toshio Hosokawa’s Meditation to the victims of Tsunami 3.11, and the orchestra will be joined by cellist, Zlatomir Fung, for a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto. The performance is being held at the Linehan Concert Hall from 8 to 10 p.m., and tickets are only $5 for students. (Ken-David Masur conducting. Photo taken by Stu Rosner.)

 4. Join WMBC for its Entertaining Spring Music Festival

WMBC Radio, UMBC’s independent, student-run radio station, will be hosting their second annual music festival on March 29 in the UC Ballroom, from 6 to 11 p.m. The festival will be featuring some student artists, bands, and other creatives! The bill includes Fly by The Seat, Regan Lewis, Eat the Cake, and more. Don’t forget to check out the art vendors who will be there as well!

5. Chuckle with Dog Collar at “Saturday Bite Live”

Either before or after WMBC’s music festival, stop by Saturday Bite Live, a free improv show put on by UMBC’s comedy troupe, Dog Collar. Contrary to its name, the show will be on a Friday, March 29, and will take place in the ITE building in room 104. Doors open at 7:30, and the show begins at 8 p.m. Come out and support these students while having a laugh! (Members of the Dog Collar troupe performing at the UMBC Gritty Kitties charity show. Photo by Anthony Rivera.)

6. Check out Plays for Our Planet

Get an early start on Earth Day this year at one of the UMBC Department of Theatre’s multiple plays centered around the theme of climate science and activism. The play Slime, by Bryony Lavery, directed by Nigel Semaj, will run from April 4 to the 14 in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building’s Proscenium Theatre. Slime is a dystopian comedy about seven grad students who are translators of different animal species, who must work to save all life on earth from a toxic slime. On April 14, there will be a free matinee for UMBC students and post-show actor talk-back. 

For more theatre events, you can check out the entire production season here!

7. Explore the FloodZone

The eerie and alluring photographs of Anastasia Samoylova’s FloodZone, depict the painstaking reality of what it’s like to live in the southern U.S. at a time when the climate crisis has greatly affected the environment. The exhibition was first featured at the George Eastman Museum in 2022, and has been on display in a few other locations throughout the U.S. as well as internationally, but the alligators and flamingos and other coastal life forms have now arrived at UMBC for a limited time. The exhibition will be on display at the AOK Library Gallery until May 29.

On Monday, April 22, in the Library Gallery, the artist will participate in an Earth Day panel on Climate Change, Science Communication, and the Arts. How do climate scientists share their research and data with the wider public in a way that non-specialists can understand? How might art contribute to this urgent work? Samoylova will discuss her photography while in conversation with scientists and media historians specializing in science communication.

From October 18 through 21, Livewire, UMBC’s annual festival exploring the music of our times, takes center stage in Linehan Concert Hall. This year, Livewire investigates the power of music to transform. A recital by pianist Idith Meshulam Korman and her collaborator Reese Todd Basile opens the festival with an intimate view of how music has delivered hope and possibilities in a correctional facility; on Saturday, the Decoda ensemble will perform songs and music written by incarcerated musicians.

“We’re asking some challenging questions,” says Airi Yoshioka, professor of music and violinist, who serves as director of this year’s Livewire festival. “What is the role of music in our society? What are the inherent powers that lie within music to transform our lives?” At times, Livewire’s exploration of the transformative power of music is more subtle and layered, ranging from personal journeys through Covid to challenges of political instability.

Student, alumni and faculty collaborations and premieres

UMBC faculty, students, and alumni are featured throughout the festival, especially on Thursday, October 19, when the Ruckus faculty ensemble performs, and on Saturday, October 21, when UMBC’s music students present a concert of their own, as both performers and composers. Livewire includes premieres of works by music alumni Kathryn Blake ’21 and Karena Ingram ’16, a premiere by faculty member Linda Dusman, and premieres of works by student composers D’Juan Moreland and Aaron Statham. The music of Vittoria Tchotche, an exchange student from Piacenza Conservatory in Italy, is also featured.

While many college and university music programs across the country focus primarily on the music of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, faculty at UMBC have embraced the exploration of the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. UMBC’s faculty have been advocates of new music for decades, stretching well beyond the inaugural Livewire festival in 2010.

Six concerts over four days

The complete concert line-up includes three evening and three daytime performances:

Wednesday, October 18, 1 p.m.
Pianist Idith Meshulam Korman and poet-creator Reese Todd Basile

Thursday, October 19, 7:30 p.m.
Ruckus, the UMBC faculty new music ensemble

Friday, October 20, 12 p.m.
Duo della Luna

Friday October 20, 7:30 p.m.
Decoda

Saturday, October 21, 1 p.m.
UMBC Student Concert

Saturday, October 21, 5 p.m.
Stick&Bow

Financial support for Livewire has been provided by the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), with additional funding from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Office of the Provost, the Linehan Fund for Excellence in the Arts, and an Alumni Engagement Grant.

Header image: the Decoda ensemble performs on Friday, October 20.

The Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium, one of the nation’s leading performing arts venues, is typically busy year-round, bustling with performers playing to capacity audiences. Now, with the venue silenced by the coronavirus pandemic, the Library has launched a new kind of program, The Boccaccio Project.

During the darkest period of the plague in 14th-century Italy, author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) wrote the Decameron, structured as a collection of stories told by ten characters, all of whom were in self-isolation. This artistic response during a time of quarantine inspired the Library of Congress’s contemporary Boccaccio Project, in which the Library has commissioned ten composers and ten performers to create and record new works of music that will reach audiences online.

UMBC’s Daniel Pesca, a pianist and assistant professor of music, is one of these performers. He was chosen by David Plylar, music specialist and concert producer at the Library of Congress. 

“I’ve known Daniel’s phenomenal work as a pianist and composer for many years,” says Plylar. “He has performed at the Library of Congress in the past, so our concert team knows him as well. We were thrilled to work with him again.” 

To bring Pesca into The Boccaccio Project, the Library of Congress collaborated with the University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble, a nationally-recognized new music group of which Pesca is a member.

Selecting a composer

Each commissioned performer was asked to select a composer with whom to partner. In Pesca’s case, he immediately turned to Aaron Travers, an assistant professor at Indiana University Bloomington. “I’ve long admired Aaron’s exquisite writing, and particularly love his piano solo piece Songs of Loss,” says Pesca.

“It’s a special thing as a performer when you encounter a composer who you feel understands not just what is technically possible on your instrument, but your instrument’s soul, its voice,” says Pesca. “Aaron has that affinity for the piano—I knew this from his earlier work, and I see that again in his new piece, Olcott Park. What I love here in particular is the layers of sound that he draws out of a solo instrument. I find this kind of layered writing particularly rewarding to play.”

Virtual performance

Pesca’s performance of Travers’s new composition, Olcott Park, will be broadcast on Tuesday, June 23 at 8 p.m. on the Library of Congress YouTube channel, and simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter. The performance will remain on the Library of Congress YouTube channel indefinitely. Other performances in The Boccaccio Project are already underway and will continue through Friday, June 26.

“We are thrilled that Daniel Pesca will be one of the select few performers chosen to premiere new works as part of the Library of Congress’s Boccaccio Project,” says Linda Dusman, chair of music. “This marks him not only as a pianist of note, but also as a socially conscious musician who responds dynamically to important contemporary issues.”

Banner image: Daniel Pesca by Rosen-Jones Photography.

This fall, UMBC will bid farewell to one of its senior leaders as Scott Casper, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), departs the university to assume the presidency of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). His new position speaks not only to his administrative skills, but also to his national eminence as a scholar of 19th-century U.S. history. 

“We are very proud of our colleague Scott Casper, and know he will do a superb job as president of the American Antiquarian Society,” says President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III. “He is one of UMBC’s most admired leaders—as a scholar, academic administrator, and human being, and he has done a masterful job as dean of our College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.” 

“Most important, Dean Casper lives the values we consider most significant in the humanities, including intellectual curiosity, compassion for others, and an abiding commitment to social justice,” Hrabowski says. “He will always be part of the UMBC community.”

“I want to express my gratitude to everyone at UMBC,” Casper shares. “This extraordinary community has changed me in deep, powerful ways, and UMBC’s values will go with me on this next step in my journey.”

Transformative leadership

Under Dean Casper’s leadership, UMBC received the distinguished Community Engagement Classification from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in January 2020. This achievement required a rigorous campus-wide self-study of UMBC’s work with communities in Greater Baltimore and beyond, a process that involved more than 120 members of the UMBC community as well as dozens of community partners.

During Casper’s tenure as dean, CAHSS scaled up research in significant ways, including the creation of the Center for Social Science Scholarship. The college’s commitment to community engagement and civic agency has been notable, reflected in UMBC’s most recent Mellon Foundation grant, in hosting the Imagining America conference in 2015, in establishing studios and a classroom at the Lion Brothers building in downtown Baltimore, and in the new Community Leadership MPS and Public Humanities minor. 

And, in the time since Dean Casper’s arrival, CAHSS has hired one third of its current faculty, enriching the campus with the addition of an extraordinary, diverse cohort of brilliant scholars and artists, and outstanding teachers.

“Everything we’ve accomplished these past seven years has come from collective effort by so many people—faculty and staff and students across the college and the university,” says Casper. “We have an exceptional college—broad and diverse and also truly collegial and supportive. It’s been a privilege and a joy to serve it and UMBC.”

Building community relationships

Dean Casper has also worked to develop robust relationships with external organizations. Under his guidance, UMBC signed an MOU with The Walters Art Museum. And Casper served on the advisory committee for the reinstallation of The Walters’s 1 West Mount Vernon Place. He also serves on the boards of Maryland Humanities and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

“In my former role as executive director of Maryland Humanities, I saw the impact of Scott’s many community contributions,” says Phoebe Stein, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. “He was consistently generous, level-headed, and a real cheerleader for the work.”

“His commitment also extends to other nonprofits,” says Stein. “On the board of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, there too he is a generous contributor and colleague who brings intellectual rigor, a passion for the humanities, and common sense.”

Eminence as a scholar

Casper, who received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University, joined the UMBC community in 2013, after many years on the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno. 

A historian of the nineteenth-century United States, he is the author of Sarah Johnson’s Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine (Hill & Wang, 2008) and Constructing American Lives: Biography and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (University of North Carolina Press, 1999). He is the co-author, editor, or co-editor of seven other books, most recently The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Casper’s commitment to teaching is also evident through his publications. He edited the annual “Textbooks and Teaching” section of the Journal of American History from 2008 to 2018, and was acting editor of the William and Mary Quarterly in 2008–09. He has worked extensively with K–12 history and social studies educators through the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the Center for Civic Education, and the Northern Nevada Teaching American History Project.

The American Antiquarian Society

Dean Casper will become the 8th president in the 208-year history of the American Antiquarian Society. “At a time when deepened understanding of our past has never been more important, I look forward to leading an institution that fosters the essential work of telling America’s complex, contested stories,” says Casper, reflecting on his upcoming role.

The American Antiquarian Society was founded in 1812 by Revolutionary War patriot and printer Isaiah Thomas, and is both a learned society and a major independent research library. The AAS library, with some four million items, today houses the largest and most accessible collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, music, and graphic arts material printed through 1876 in what is now the United States. It also houses manuscripts and a substantial collection of secondary texts, bibliographies, and digital resources and reference works related to all aspects of American history and culture before the twentieth century. AAS was presented with the 2013 National Humanities Medal by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House.

“We are thrilled that Scott Casper has agreed to become the next President of the American Antiquarian Society,” says John Herron, Jr., chair of the AAS Council. “Our nation’s past is as present as ever in this important time in our civic life. As a scholar, administrator, mentor and more, Scott is unusually well prepared to further leverage the Society’s long-standing commitment to evidence-based history and to preserving and sharing the stories of all Americans.” 

Images by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Majoring in the arts requires intense levels of stamina and self-discipline—long hours rehearsing, creating, writing, designing, interpreting—coupled with an inner drive for inquiry and perfection. UMBC’s undergraduate and graduate students in the arts are no exception, reaching forward even in this era of social distancing.

UMBC’s 2020 graduates in dance, theatre, music, and visual arts include scholars looking forward to graduate study, teaching, and professional creative work in their fields. Some have been able to move ahead with long-planned next steps. Others have been making adjustments in response this unique and challenging moment.

Listening to the natural world

Percussionist Jonathan Sotelo ’20, music, came to UMBC to study music education, but discovered his love of timpani by playing in the UMBC Symphony. Since then, he has been a member of the UMBC Percussion Ensemble and studied with associate professor Tom Goldstein and Baltimore Symphony principal timpanist James Wyman.

With a strong interest in new music, Sotelo has commissioned a number of his student composer colleagues to write solo percussion pieces for him.

“My most important achievement at UMBC,” says Sotelo, “was learning how to listen. I’ve learned how to listen to the natural world, and how to apply it to music. Because of that, I am able to make my performances more connective to the audience, in any type of music—improvisations to the orchestral repertoire.”

He looks forward to attending graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park, with the goal of becoming an orchestral timpanist.

An athlete, an artist

Linehan Artist Scholar and Division I soccer player Courtney Culp ’20, visual arts, has combined her loves of sport and visual arts to create impactful works during her time at UMBC.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis screened her film A Mile in My Cleats as the opening presentation of the 2020 Race and Sports Day, held just before Martin Luther King Day. Through her documentary, she gave others space to share their stories of what it’s like to be a black female athlete. She shares, “I finished the project with an immense amount of new knowledge of my craft and closer relationships with my peers at UMBC.”

Studying Italian art and culture in Rome in 2019, with UMBC visual arts faculty Kimberly Anderson and Lynn Cazabon, also played a significant role in Culp’s UMBC experience. “I have gained lifelong friends at UMBC that have pushed and challenged me for the better,” she says. “I will forever be grateful for my time here.”

Culp will begin an M.F.A. program in illustration with minors in production design and themed entertainment design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) this fall. “My hope is to become a visual designer for animation, film, and interactive entertainment projects.” She is also slated to play soccer at SCAD.

Contemporary musician

Few musicians are equally adept at more than one instrument, but Christian Hartman ’20, music, is an exception. He has made a name for himself as both a cellist and percussionist.

The principal cellist of the UMBC Symphony and a Linehan Artist Scholar, Hartman will attend the University of Delaware in the fall for graduate studies in cello performance. While at UMBC, he received a Music Performance Fellowship and Music Achievement Award.

“I’m considering an academic career, which would allow me to perform, teach, and research,” says Hartman, “especially in the fields of contemporary and early music in which I’m most interested.”

His interest in contemporary music has led to collaborations with composers, and he has premiered a number of new compositions. A composer and arranger himself, he has written and arranged music for a variety of ensembles, including works premiered by high schools, honor groups, dance companies, and collegiate ensembles.

As a percussionist, Hartman plays snare drum in the Baltimore’s Marching Ravens Drumline, which he intends to continue through graduate school. He also drums for the Baltimore-based rock band The Negative Men and serves as percussion director for Manchester Valley High School marching band, his high school alma mater.

Lighting a new path

Linehan Artist Scholar Corey Goulden-Naitove ’20, theatre, has already had the opportunity to work professionally as a lighting designer at the Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Abington Friends School, and Long Lake Camp for the Arts. He had planned to continue this path when he graduated. But as coronavirus stay-at-home orders rolled out, and show after show was cancelled, he watched as five months of work evaporated in 24 hours.

Remarkably, the next day Goulden-Naitove received a call from Indiana University, Bloomington, inviting him to their Design + Technology program. At the time, it seemed “out of the blue.”

“They called up to offer me a spot in the M.F.A. program, with an assistantship with a living wage and tuition remission,” he says. Now, he will have a chance to continue studying his craft and remain connected to the theatre industry during COVID-19 closures.

This past winter at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Goulden-Naitove presented his lighting design for the 2019 UMBC production of Anon(ymous), and won First Place in the Undergraduate Lighting Competition. He would later learn that it was that lighting design and award that caught the attention of the University of Indiana.

“UMBC was definitely the right choice for me—I have had opportunities here that I don’t think I would have found anywhere else in the world,” Goulden-Naitove says. “I am very grateful to all of my professors, to the university, and to Earl and Darielle Linehan for helping to make this happen.”

Inspiring the next generation of students

It’s no wonder that Linehan Artist Scholar Teresa Whittemore received the dance department’s Outstanding Senior in Choreography Award—her work has been twice featured at the American College Dance Festival. This includes the work Giving Skin, performed this spring.

Whittemore has also twice presented for UMBC’s Undergraduate and Creative Achievement Day, and through departmental dance showcases. And Arts by the People has presented her choreography in New York.

In addition to choreography, Whittemore also loves to teach. Following graduation, she plans to teach at three area studios—JMD Studios, EMC Performing Arts, and Kinetics Dance Theatre, where she is currently assistant school manager.

Everyday activities become something more

Brandon Ables, who earns his M.F.A. in Intermedia and Digital Arts this spring, had expected to travel to Romania this September as a Fulbright scholar. Fortunately, although coronavirus complications have delayed his travel, it will still move forward in February 2021. In Romania, he’ll teach English at a university and will conduct an arts research project on the Romanian deadlift weightlifting form and history.

In the meantime, Ables will continue his research in the U.S. His work replays dreams, notes, and ideas using everyday environments and actions, accompanied with hypnotic suggestions. “I’m interested in discovering and creating triggerable actions within daily routines to score with audio and visual self-help style suggestions, guiding the subconscious to solve practical and absurd challenges,” he says.

“Activities like lying in bed, chewing, and looking in the pantry become opportunities to carve the subconscious into a desirable shape with no extra effort required.”

This summer, Ables will complete an interactive novel about parking, autonomous cars, and impulse purchases. He will also develop a one-man-band live performance to add more complexity to the actions he’s using to trigger self-hypnotic audio and visuals. And then, onward to Romania.

Performer, producer, teacher

Raymond Robinson ’17, music technology and jazz studies, and ’20 M.A.T., music, came to UMBC in 2013 as Linehan Artist Scholar and a multifaceted musician. He already was a skilled pianist and saxophonist, but he credits UMBC and his professors for his mastery of music theory and music technology.

“Now I produce, engineer, and know advanced jazz theory, arrangement, and composition,” he says. “I would not be the musician and educator that I am today without the guidance of all my teachers. I feel like I owe it to them to also be a teacher.”

Robinson feels that it’s important to have more men in the education system, especially black men. “I hope to have the opportunity to teach students of all ethnicities about acceptance and open-mindedness before perspectives and deeper implicit biases get locked-in,” he says. And he hopes to be a role model for black boys and young men.

He looks forward to teaching instrumental and general music in Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County public schools. He also looks forward to resuming performances at popular venues around Washington’s U Street corridor and with A.B.M and New Impressionz, two of the major Go-Go bands in the District.

Intensive training, unique opportunities

Linehan Artist Scholar Emily Godfrey ’20, dance, has performed at the Kennedy Center not once, but twice. Godfrey first appeared there in 2018 at the American College Dance Festival, performing choreography by Maia Schechter ’18, dance. She then appeared again in 2019 in choreography by assistant professor Ann Sofie Clemmensen.

Godfrey’s own choreography, terminal, was chosen in 2020 for the American College Dance Association (ADCA) Mid-Atlantic North Conference Gala, along with Giving Skin by Teresa Whittemore. At UMBC, she has appeared on stage with Baltimore Dance Project and in many dance department programs.

With the financial support of the Linehan Summer Award and the Dance Department Summer Award, Godfrey attended several intensive programs. These include the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Summer Intensive, the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Summer Intensive, the Peridance Blueprint Summer Intensive, and study at the Gerlev Sports Academy in Denmark.

Following graduation, Godfrey plans to pursue a professional career in dance performance with national and international companies.

Satisfying “my creative side”

Double majoring in the arts and sciences can be daunting, but Linehan Artist Scholar and Honors College student Sarah Brewer ’20 will graduate with a B.A. in dance and a B.S. in biology. She credits open communication with dance and biology faculty, a team of advisors, and her own focus on time management for making it work.

As she prepares to leave UMBC, Brewer remains committed to both art and science. She is interning at a molecular biology lab within the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and recently interviewed for a full-time position. She says the work at the lab “satisfies some of my creative side and all of my scientific side.” Still, she’s already reaching out to contacts at local companies to find ways to continue her work in dance. 

Brewer says her proudest undergraduate moment was a duet performance choreographed by Teresa Whittemore ’20, When Eve and Eve Bit the Apple, at an ACDA gala performance in spring 2019. The piece was one of only two undergraduate works among twelve selected for the gala.

She shares, “To be a part of Teresa’s choreographic process, and build a creative relationship with her and my duet partner Michelle Ye ’22 was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had at UMBC.”

The perfect fit

Some UMBC students dream of attending the university for years before they arrive on campus. Linehan Artist Scholar Olivia Mills ’20, visual arts, had a different experience.

“I’m not from Maryland, and I wasn’t familiar with UMBC until the end of my college search,” Mills says, “but once I researched it and was offered the Linehan Artist Scholarship, it rose to being my first choice—and it was the perfect fit for me,” she says.

Mills’s focus has been on animation. Her senior capstone project and 2020 URCAD presentation, the animated film Creatures in Crisis, challenged the notion that robust animated film projects emerge only from major studios.

As an artist at UMBC, she especially enjoyed Commonvision programs, and made a point to share her work during annual Art Week festivities and in seasonal zines.

Given the impact of coronavirus on the arts, Mills plans to use her time immediately following graduation to build her artistic portfolio. “While the coronavirus situation saddens me and has been a source of stress, a silver lining is I now have to stay in and work on my art,” she says. “I’m also glad there is a virtual network through UMBC’s Career Center and Alumni Association to get on-track with my professional goals.”

Catherine Borg contributed to this article.

Banner image: Emily Godfrey ’20 performs with colleagues in Baltimore Dance Project’s 2020 concerts at UMBC.

All Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Linda Dusman, professor and chair of music, has been named the Bearman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship for 2020 – 2023. This role is designed to recognize and support a faculty member with an interest in entrepreneurship, outstanding teaching skills, and a strong record of scholarship in entrepreneurial studies or a field related to entrepreneurship.

The three-year appointment will enable Dusman to further her work with EnCue, an audience engagement app she co-designed for use during classical music performance. EnCue is intended to be used by the audience on tablets or smartphones in real time during performances, especially symphony orchestra concerts.  It helps listeners understand and more fully appreciate the music, thereby deepening the experience. EnCue was co-developed by Eric Smallwood, former assistant professor of visual arts, and received support from UMBC and the Maryland Innovation Initiative.

“Linda Dusman’s work exemplifies entrepreneurship in the arts,” says Scott Casper, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. “Through EnCue, Linda translates classical music for broader audiences in ways that enrich the listening experience.”

Audience experiences around the world

“The thing I’m most excited about,” says Dusman, “is that Bearman support will enable me to try to answer the questions I started asking ten years ago, which are: Can people learn about music in real time during concerts, and if they do learn, does that make a difference? Does it enhance their engagement of the experience? Does it make it more likely for them to want to return?”

“Now I’m going to be able to actually work with an educational psychologist — Linda Baker, recently retired professor of psychology here at UMBC — to test that hypothesis,” Dusman explains. “I’ll also be able to travel to orchestras that are engaged with this process, to see how audiences respond in different parts of the world.”

Last fall, Dusman was asked to speak at a conference in Berlin at the German Orchestra Days (Deutsche Orchestertag) about real-time education using mobile technologies. There, she described how EnCue has been used by orchestras in locations as diverse as Baltimore, Winnipeg, London, and Augusta, Georgia.

“I want to better understand EnCue’s impact in diverse geographic regions with diverse audiences,” says Dusman. “Obviously, audiences in London are very different than audiences in Augusta, Georgia, yet they’re listening to the same music played by symphony orchestras. How does that impact the engagement of the audience, and what does the live classical music experience mean for them?”

The Bearman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship was established by The Herbert Bearman Foundation to acknowledge and honor the contributions of Arlene Bearman, who taught in UMBC’s administrative and managerial sciences program for many years.

Featured Image: Linda Dusman. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.