Every year, the Florida State University College of Music welcomes multiple Housewright Eminent Scholars to campus, thanks in part to a generous endowment by the late Wiley and Lucilla Housewright. Dr. Wiley L. Housewright was a distinguished educator, author, scholar, lecturer, and administrator. He joined the faculty of what was then the School of Music at Florida State University in 1947 and later served as Dean from 1966 until his retirement in 1979. The Housewright Music Building is named in their honor and is a testament to the significant contributions they made to the education of generations of music students and to the musical life of the University.
This year’s Housewright Eminent Scholars feature: David Russell (classical guitar), Joel Lester (music theory), and Evangelos Himonides (music education). The three scholars have residencies at the College of Music for the spring 2019 semester.
David Russell is a Grammy Award winning classical guitarist from Spain. He has enjoyed a highly successful career and is world renowned for his superb musicianship and inspired artistry. In November 2003 he was given the Medal of Honor of the Conservatory of the Balearics. After winning the Grammy in 2005 for his CD Aire Latino (in the category of best instrumental soloist in classical music), the town of Nigrán in Spain, where he resides, gave him the silver medal of the town in an emotional ceremony. Russell has recorded sixteen CDs on the Telarc International label. During his studies at the Royal Academy, Russell won the Julian Bream Guitar Prize twice. Later he won numerous international competitions, including the Andrés Segovia Competition, the José Ramírez Competition and Spain’s prestigious Francisco Tárrega Competition.
Dr. Joel Lester (Ph. D., Princeton University), former Dean of the world renowned Mannes College of Music of NYC, is a distinguished scholar, educator, violinist, and administrator. He is the author of Harmony in Tonal Music (1982); The Rhythms of Tonal Music (1986); Analytic Approaches to 20th Century Music (1989); Between Modes and Keys (1989); Compositional Theory in the 18th Century (1992) which received the Wallace Berry Outstanding Publication Award by the Society for Music Theory; and Bach’s Works for Solo Violin (1999), recipient of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He is also the author of numerous articles on Bach, Beethoven, Nielsen, performance, analysis, form, and structure. Dr. Lester was a violinist with the Da Capo Chamber Players, winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award (1973), President of the Society for Music Theory, and editor of the Society’s prestigious journal Music Theory Spectrum.
Dr. Evangelos Himonides held the University of London’s first ever lectureship in music technology education. He is now Reader in Technology, Education and Music and teaches Music Education, Music Technology and Information Technology, at a post-graduate level, at the University College London Institute of Education and also leads the post-graduate course “Music Technology in Education.” As a musician, technologist and educator, Evangelos has had an ongoing career in experimental research in the fields of Psychoacoustics, Music Perception, Music Cognition, Information Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Special Needs, the Singing Voice and Singing Development. Publications currently number over one hundred, in high-profile international journals, such as Psychology of Music, IJME, RSME, Journal of Voice, Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology and others. When time is available, Evangelos works as an electric guitarist, vocalist and guitar luthiery enthusiast!
A sampling of previous Housewright Eminent Scholars include: Famed conductor Robert Shaw (the first Housewright Scholar), Bruno Nettl, Morton Gould, Gunther Schuller, Frederick Fennell, Ruth Laredo, Edward Tarr, Sherrill Milnes, David Dubal, Gary Tomlinson, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Andre Watts, Keith Locke, Barry Tuckwell, Philip Glass, Donald Hunsberger, Mantle Hood, Stanford Olsen, Marilyn Horne, The Canadian Brass, John Corigiliano, Carl Schachter, Phyllis Curtin, Libby Larsen, Bobby McFerrin, Ellis Marsalis, Garrick Ohlsson, Anthony Newman, Christopher O’Riley, Joshua Bell, The TransAtlantic Horn Quartet, Krzysztof Penderecki, R. Larry Todd, John Kimura Parker, Chen Yi, Robert Morris, The Mozart Piano Quartet, Melvin Jones, Zhou Long, New York Voices, The Penderecki String Quartet, Stephanie Blythe, Ursula Oppens, Vince DiMartino, and David Lang.
