On Friday, November 11, the Department of Music Therapy hosted the third international Arts & Quality of Life Research Center conference, Advanced Practice in Music Therapy, also marking the 10th conference since the Center's first one in 2006. In addition to sessions with Boyer music therapy faculty, the all-day event featured guest presenters from around the world including the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), University of Melbourne (Australia), Anglia-Ruskin University (England), Aalborg University (Denmark) and The Norwegian Academy of Music....

Baker Purdon’s debut album, Walking Through the Valley, includes work by Black composers, nearly all of which is being recorded for the first time. This past July, Boyer College of Music and Dance PhD student Baker Purdon released his debut album, Walking Through the Valley: Choral Music from Black Composers, 1919–2022. The project is a triumphant celebration of works by Black composers, and nearly all of the music on the album has never before been recorded. Following the summer of 2020 when protests erupted across the country in response to the murder of George Floyd at...

Boyer College mourns the loss of world-renowned, Grammy®-nominated jazz artist Joey DeFrancesco, largely considered one of the most significant jazz organists of our time. A native of the Philadelphia area with training at the Settlement Music School and the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, DeFrancesco has long been recognized in the local jazz scene. His remarkable career includes more than 30 studio albums and countless collaborations with artists like Boyer’s own Terell Stafford and Tim Warfield, Randy Brecker, Pat Martino, Van Morrison, and...

The newest minor program from the Boyer College of Music and Dance will provide a comprehensive study of hip-hop dance and culture. Boyer College of Music and Dance’s minor in hip-hop dance and culture is set to launch during the fall semester of 2022. The program, which is open to non-dance majors across the university, will explore the history and culture surrounding hip-hop dance through a talented cast of Philadelphia-based dance icons and experts. In the wake of the recent Black Lives Matter protests and their calls for social justice, scholars working in the field...

Boyer College of Music and Dance mourns the loss of Professor Emeritus Roger A. Dean, who passed away on June 3. He was 87. Dr. Dean was a professor of music education and former chair of the Department of Music Education and Therapy. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Dean was also active in his local community as a longtime member of the Doylestown United Methodist Church. “He was an exceptional professor and mentor to his students, a fine musician, a person of character and principle,” said Dr. Jeffrey Cornelius, former dean of Boyer College. “[His] vision helped...

Dr. Stephen Willier has announced his retirement from Boyer College of Music and Dance and Temple University. Willier is an associate professor in the Department of Music Studies, known well for his courses on the history of opera and music from 1600-1950. He completed his doctoral studies in musicology at the University of Illinois in 1987, where his dissertation was The Impact of the Gothic on Early Nineteenth-Century Opera. Willier taught at Arizona State University and the University of Illinois before coming to Temple in 1989. In more recent years, his book Vincenzo...

Boyer College is pleased to announce that the Temple University Jazz Band (TUJB) placed second at the 2022 Jack Rudin Jazz Championship, hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) on April 19 and 20. Judges included pianist Ayn Inserto, saxophonist/vocalist Camille Thurman, drummer Jeff Hamilton, trumpeter Randy Brecker and JALC Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis. Directed by Terell Stafford, TUJB competed against nine well-regarded university jazz programs from across the country. An evening combo showcase in The Appel Room kicked off day one of...

Boyer College congratulates Dr. Shana Goldin-Perschbacher on the release of Queer Country, published by the University of Illinois Press on March 22, 2022. Her new book examines transgender and queer performances of country and Americana music through explorations of sincerity, genre trouble, journey, rurality, misrepresentation, masking and collaboration. Goldin-Perschbacher is an assistant professor of music studies who teaches courses for music majors, non-majors and graduate students in popular music, critical theory (especially engaging issues of...

At the conclusion of the 2021-22 academic year, Professor Kun-Yang Lin will retire from his position at Boyer College. The dance department will celebrate Lin's 19 years of service through a special, end-of-semester free event entitled Dancing Mind, Thinking Body. Lin is well-known in the dance community as the founder and artistic director of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (KYL/D), based right here in Philadelphia. He also co-founded KYL/D's CHI Movement Arts Center, a product of his devotion to artistic excellence and movement research and his...