FACULTY AND STAFF- Bios

Keyboard Faculty

Stephanie Bruning, piano, has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. Her area of expertise is Native-American-influenced music from the early Twentieth Century and she frequently performs and lectures on the subject. Additionally, she maintains an interest in helping students address issues of performance anxiety. She has been on the faculty of Shepherd University, Anne Arundel Community College, and Trinity University. Dr. Bruning is an active member of the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA), the Greater Baltimore Music Teachers Association (GBMTA), and the Anne Arundel Music Teachers Association (AAMTA). D.M.A., M.M., Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, B.M., Drake University.

Eric Conway, Chair of the Fine Arts Department, piano, Director of the Morgan State Choir, is sought after as a dynamic soloist as well as chamber musician. He has performed as orchestral pianist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 1994. D.M.A., M.M., B.M., Peabody Conservatory.

Robert Jordan, piano, has enjoyed an international concert career that has taken him to five continents, where he has appeared both in recital and as a soloist with orchestra. He is Professor Emeritus of State University of New York College at Fredonia after 24 years of teaching. Professor Jordan joined the Morgan piano faculty as an Artist-in-Residence from 1976-1979 and returned in 2000. M.S., Juilliard School, B.M., Eastman School.

Adam Mahonske, piano, piano class, accompanying, theory, was a student of Menahem Pressler, founding pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio at Indiana University while pursuing his Masters degree. He has taught at University of Maryland (Baltimore County), the Baltimore School for the Arts. He has appeared as pianist and chamber player in recitals in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Toronto, and Montreal, including concerts at the Kennedy Center, the Meyerhoff, the Phillips Collection, the National Gallery, the Roerich Museum, many Washington embassies, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, Res Musica, Baltimore Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Gallery 409, St. John's Concert Series, the Park School, Ethel's Place, Peabody Conservatory, George Washington University, Catholic University, Towson State University, Villa Julie College and University of Maryland. He has collaborated with many of this region’s finest musicians including recent concerts with the principal string players from the Baltimore Symphony. In the Fall of 2004, he was appointed the artistic director of the Baltimore based chamber music concert series, Music in the Great Hall. M.M., Indiana University, B.M, University of Toronto. Additional studies toward D.M.A. degree at the University of Maryland.

Audrey McCallum, piano, aural skills, has been a faculty member at Morgan for seventeen years and participates in numerous professional organizations including the Johns Hopkins Alumni Council and the Nathan Carter Memorial Foundation. Honorary Doctorate of Sacred Music, Eastern Theological Seminary.

Samuel Springer, organ, piano, graduate research methods, opera workshop music director, accompanying, was born in Barbados and his teachers include Thomas Murray and Charles Krigbaum. Dr. Springer has performed concerts in England and the West Indies as well as the United States. He has served as accompanies for the Trinity Singers conducted by Stephen Jackson, former Chorus Master for the BBC Singers. He has also accompanied the Recital and Repertoire Choruses at Yale, the Morgan State University Choir and the Peabody Opera Department. He is Director of Music at Concord-St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. D.M.A., Peabody Conservatory, M.M., Yale School of Music, G.T.C.L., Trinity College of Music, England.

Theory and Composition Faculty

James Lee III, theory, composition, piano, cites as his major composition teachers Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Betsy Jolas, Susan Botti, Erik Santos and James Alkman. As a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002, he added Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, Steven Mackey and Kaija Saariaho to his roster of teachers, and studied conducting with Stefan Asbury. Commissions include the piano work …of Love and Peace in 2003. Among premieres in the last five years; Papa Lapa by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Wilkins conducting, in 2001; the premiere of Sympathy, for flute, percussion, harp and chorus, given by the Leigh Morris Chorale in St. Paul in 2002; A Place for God's People, an orchestral work premiered at Andrews University, two premieres at Tanglewood in that year: The Appointed Time, and Through the Eyes of Time, commissioned by the Alabama All-State Festival Orchestra and introduced in Mobile under Anthony Elliott in 2004. D.M.A., M.M., B.M., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.