Music Faculty
Chair
Associate Professor
Director of Jazz Ensemble
Email: lavermark@grinnell.edu
Saxophonist and ethnomusicologist Mark Laver is an Associate Professor of Music at 51²è¹İapp College, where he directs the jazz band and teaches classes on jazz and popular music. As a performer, Professor Laver has shared the stage with such leading jazz and improvising artists as Lee Konitz...
Applied Music Associate
Lecturer
Flute and Director of the 51²è¹İapp College Fresh Flutes Ensemble
Email: anderso5@grinnell.edu
Claudia Anderson is known for her originality and brilliance as a solo and chamber music performer across the U.S. She is a founding member of the innovative flute duo ZAWA! and of New Prairie Camerata, a chamber initiative based in 51²è¹İapp that showcased the community's historical and...
Professor
Director of Collegium Musicum
Email: brownjen@grinnell.edu
Jennifer Williams Brown (musicology) is a specialist in the history and performance of Baroque music, particularly 17th-century Italian opera. Her research focuses on decoding clues in 17th-century manuscript and printed sources, then making the results accessible to modern performers, students, and...
Applied Music Associate
Banjo
Email: buckf@grinnell.edu
Fred Buck is currently a AMA of Music at 51²è¹İapp College, where he currently teaches banjo, resphonic guitar (Dobro) and mandolin. He played piano and accordion in his youth and became interested in old time and bluegrass music and has become proficient in most of the old time time instruments...
Associate Professor
Email: chajee@grinnell.edu
Jee-Weon Cha is a music theorist with interests in analysis and interpretation of 19th- and 20th-century music, music perception and cognition, music aesthetics and semiotics, and the history of music theory. He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in Music History and Theory)...
Applied Music Associate
Bagpipe
Email: clowerr@grinnell.edu
Rob Clower has been teaching Highland bagpipes for more than 40 years. His students play in pipe bands throughout that U.S. and abroad, many also competing successfully as soloists. In 2007, Rob founded Turlach Ur, now the largest band in Iowa. Under his direction, Turlach Ur enjoyed a highly...
Applied Music Associate
College Organist
Organ
Email: elsbernd@grinnell.edu
Michael Elsbernd teaches organ and provides ceremonial music for various gatherings in Herrick Chapel as 51²è¹İapp’s College Organist. His research on the North German Baroque musician Johann Adam Reincken was funded by a grant from The Presser Foundation in 2001, upon the recommendation of the...
Lecturer
Applied Music Associate: Jazz Voice and Director of Latin American Jazz Ensemble
Email: espinosa@grinnell.edu
Gabriel Espinosa was born in Merida, Mexico. His love of music began at a very young age. With the help of his mother he began playing the guitar at the age of six. By the age of fourteen, along with his brothers Victor and Patricio, Gabriel performed with their group “Los Deltonsâ€, where he played...
Professor
Senior Faculty
Email: gaub@grinnell.edu
Pianist Eugene Gaub is Professor of Music at 51²è¹İapp College, where he teaches courses in music theory as well as piano. He has recently given lecture-recitals for the International Festival of Spanish Keyboard Music, held in Mojácar, Spain, and at the Université Laval in Québec City, with another...
Applied Music Associate
Violin
Email: gentzsch@grinnell.edu
Andrew Gentzsch, a native of Iowa City, is the violin instructor at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa and 51²è¹İapp College in 51²è¹İapp, Iowa. Mr. Gentzsch has led the University of Delaware Chamber Orchestra and the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Mr. Gentzsch received music...
Lecturer
Email: grimmma@grinnell.edu
Marlys Grimm attended Sheldon High School and Central College, where she studied piano with Donald Gren. She has collaborated at Dordt, Northwestern, 51²è¹İapp and Central colleges in student and faculty recitals. Grimm has accompanied high school, college, community and professional singers...
Applied Music Associate
Cello
Email: hensonal@grinnell.edu
Alan Henson is the cello instructor at 51²è¹İapp College and has an active private studio in Ames. He is Principal Cellist of the Central Iowa Symphony, and plays double bass for touring Broadway shows at Des Moines Civic Center. He is former Principal Bassist of the Des Moines, Dubuque, and Waterloo...
Assistant Professor
Email: hiranmay@grinnell.edu
Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena is an Indonesian artist-scholar serving as Assistant Professor of Music (Performance and Creativity), where he directs the Balinese Sound Ensemble and teaches courses on Heavy Metal Music, Electronic Music, and Noise and Activism. He also is a founding member of Balinese...
Lecturer
Director of the Young, Gifted, and Black Gospel Choir
Email: jonesbar@grinnell.edu
Barry Jones has been the full-time director for the Young, Gifted, and Black (YGB) Gospel Choir since the fall of 2006. He served the roles of guest director and interim director during the three years prior to his full-time appointment. Barry is also known in the Des Moines, Iowa, community and...
Applied Music Associate
Collaborative Pianist
Email: joohyeji@grinnell.edu
Dr. Hyejin Joo won the gold medal at the Seattle International Piano Competition and top awards from the Wideman, Chautauqua, Indiana University Concerto Competition, Seoul National University Concerto Competition, and the Kumho Art Foundation Audition. She is a member of the Civic Orchestra of...
Instructor
Email: klassenan@grinnell.edu
Andrea Kate Klassen specializes in medieval plainchant and early music, with an emphasis on medieval notations and manuscript contexts. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music History from the University of Manitoba, and a Master of Arts from Dalhousie University in Musicology. She is currently a...
Applied Music Associate
Email: liuhsinh@grinnell.edu
Hsin-Hui Liu is a passionate performer who enjoys various musical career as a soloist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, and educator. She has presented solo and collaborative recitals in Austria, Canada, China, Taiwan, and the United States. Liu holds a D.M.A in Piano Performance and...
Applied Music Associate
Voice
Email: maynetay@grinnell.edu
Taylor Mayne, an Iowa native, holds a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from the University of Iowa and an Master of Music in voice performance from Ohio University. He is currently on faculty at 51²è¹İapp College as an applied music associate in voice, and Drake University as a teaching artist...
Professor
Director of 51²è¹İapp Symphony Orchestra
Email: mcintyr2@grinnell.edu
Eric McIntyre maintains careers as a conductor, composer, instrumental performer, and educator. At 51²è¹İapp College he teaches music composition courses and directs the 51²è¹İapp Symphony Orchestra. He also contributes to 51²è¹İapp's Liberal Arts in Prison Program, for which he has presented lectures...
Professor
Director of Zimbabwean Mbira Ensemble
Email: permanan@grinnell.edu
Tony Perman (ethnomusicology) is a specialist in the music of Zimbabwe and the semiotics of music and emotion. He has received degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (PhD), the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (MMus), and Kenyon College (BA). Before coming to...
Applied Music Associate
Lecturer
Percussion
Email: ramirezs@grinnell.edu
Stacey Bostwick-Ramirez is currently a faculty member at 51²è¹İapp College and Des Moines Area Community College. She has presented clinics for the Percussive Arts Society and the Illinois Summer Youth Music Festival. Stacey maintains a private teaching studio at Rieman Music and her students have...
Professor
Blanche Johnson Professor of Music
Email: rommer@grinnell.edu
John Rommereim is Blanche Johnson Professor of Music at 51²è¹İapp College, where he conducts the 51²è¹İapp Singers and the 51²è¹İapp Oratorio Society, and teaches composition. His choral works have been performed by distinguished ensembles across the U.S., including Magnum Chorum, the Princeton Singers...
Applied Music Associate
Guitar
Email: smithrex@grinnell.edu
Pat Smith started playing guitar in 1969 and began teaching in 1974. Growing up in the Chicago area he has always been deeply into Blues and R&B music. Attended two years at Coe College playing in the jazz band and show choir. Graduated from Cornell College in 1987. Many years of professional...
Applied Music Associate
Horn
Email: stoutama@grinnell.edu
Amanda Stout graduated with her BM in horn performance, BA in studio arts, and BA in arts management at the University of Iowa where she studied with Jeffrey Agrell. She received her MM in horn performance from Western Michigan University where she studied with Lin Foulk Baird and actively performed...
Professor
Emeritus
Email: vetter@grinnell.edu
Javanese gamelan music is Vetter's primary research area. He has carried out research on this subject in the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta during several visits between 1973 and 2017. These research visits have resulted in published articles on Javanese musical traditions in journals such as...
Applied Music Associate
Lecturer
Piano
Email: westphal@grinnell.edu
Dr. Melinda Westphalen received her Bachelor or Music degree from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she studied with Professor Robert Lawrence. She went on to receive both her Master of Arts and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa, where she...