College of Music Welcomes New Faculty

Alan Blanchard
Teaching Faculty – Music Industry
A proud FSU alum, Blanchard has served as project manager and Director of Operations at Outside in Music, a prolific indie jazz record label based in New York City, and day-to-day manager for artists including five-time Billboard Reggae Album chart topper Mishka, AAA/Rock Radio regular Jonathan Tyler, and Sirius XM regulars The Wheeland Brothers. Blanchard maintains his own management roster, representing artists including jazz pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, saxophonist and educator Roxy Coss, vocalist Lauren Henderson, and alto-saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin.

Carrie Danielson
Assistant Professor of Musicology;
Les and Ruth Akers Endowed Chair in Community Music
Danielson’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersections of children’s musical cultures, community music, music and migration, care ethics, and applied ethnomusicology. Current projects focus on music-making among young Syrian and Afghan refugees in Sweden, Scandinavian-American folk music and dance in the Upper Midwest, and intergenerational musical activism in Madison, Wisconsin. Her forthcoming book project, Culture Guaranteed: Music, Migration, and Relations of Care, applies feminist care ethics to larger questions of social mobility and migration within community music and arts education programs in Sweden.

Wellington (Wells) Gordon
Teaching Faculty – Music Recording
Gordon is a musician, audio engineer, and educator with degrees in Recording Industry Management, Jazz Studies (upright and electric bass), and Performance (with additional studies in commercial music). Gordon is at home in traditional recording studio environments and enjoys working with singer-songwriters as well as a broad range of genres and collaborators. His research interests include topics in ear training and music production, and he has published papers on the topics of music proficiency in sound recording technology programs, cloud-based music production, and technical ear training.

Rod Harris, Jr.
Adjunct Faculty – Jazz (Electric Guitar)
While Harris’s musical roots are steeped in jazz, his professional collaborations include performances with artists spanning multiple musical genres from gospel, soul, hip-hop, jazz and R&B. Harris’s professional collaborations include performances with artists including Russell Gunn, Wycliff Gordon, Red Holloway, Bishop Paul S. Morton, Marcus Printup, Musiq Soulchild, Monica, Maysa, Beyonce, Rueben Studdard, Queen Latifah, Melanie Feona, Mark Whitfield, Doug Carn, Fred Wesley, Syleena Johnson, Jagged Edge, Maxwell, Joi, Keiko Matsui, Brian Bromberg, Dionne Farris, Jennifer Holliday, Regina Belle, and many others.

Erol Köymen
Assistant Professor of Musicology
Köymen is an ethnographer of music and sound interested in how listening shapes modes of embodiment and belonging in modern Turkey and Turkish diaspora. His theoretical interests include religion and secularity, post- and inter-imperiality, and populism and social class, and he engages analytical approaches to sound and social life rooted in atmosphere studies and Peircian semiotics. Prior to his appointment at Florida State University, Köymen held a visiting professor position at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago.

Suzanne Lommler
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice
Lommler has performed numerous title roles including Carmen for Opera Kelowna, Xerxes for Haymarket Opera, and Dorabella and Cherubino for the Hamburger Kammeroper and has performed in recital with twice-Grammy- nominated harpsichordist Jory Vinikour at Great Lakes Baroque Festival, the Flying Forms Trio at Grinnell College, and Mobile Opera’s Winter Gala. She has been a soloist with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, The Grinnell Singers and Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the Central Iowa Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Lommler earned the M.M. in performance from the Manhattan School of Music and the B.M. in performance from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

James Marvel
Assistant Professor of Opera;
Stage Director of FSU Opera
Since his professional directing debut in 1996, Marvel has directed over 100 productions and was named Classical Singer’s “2008 Stage Director of the Year.” Career highlights include groundbreaking new productions for national and international opera companies, including a new production of Carmen for Opera Africa in Johannesburg and a new production of Die Zauberflöte for the Seoul International Opera in South Korea. Marvel received the MFA in Acting from the University of Tennessee and the B.A. in World Literature from Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford University, England, with additional studies at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Rob McNeely
Adjunct Assistant Professor – Community Engagement
Rob McNeely is a litigation and transactional attorney and adjunct law professor with Messer Caparello, P.A., one of Tallahassee’s oldest and most-respected law firms. McNeely’s 23-year background as an attorney includes work in both real and intellectual property law. He teaches Entertainment Law at the Florida State University College of Law, which includes matters of trademark, copyright, state and federal case law, and statutory interpretation.

Devan L. Moore
Assistant Director of Athletic Bands
Devan L. Moore joins the College of Music as the Assistant Director of Athletic Bands, where she will assist with all aspects of the athletic bands (Marching Chiefs and Seminole Sound), conduct the University Concert Band, and teach classes in music education. Prior to her appointment in the College of Music, Moore was the Assistant Director of Bands at Oklahoma State University. Moore has previously held positions as Director of Bands and Orchestra middle schools and high schools in Florida and Georgia. Moore received the B.S. in Music Education from FAMU, MME and Ph.D. in Music Education with an emphasis in Wind Band Conducting from FSU.

Mauricio Peña
Specialized Teaching Faculty;
Program Director of Arts Administration
Mauricio Peña designed and coordinated the arts administration curriculum for the undergraduate program and the non-degree certificate program in Arts Administration at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and has taught courses in the Arts Administration programs at Colegio Mayor del Rosario and Universidad Externado in Bogota. Peña has been at the forefront of some of Colombia’s most important music institutions, headed his own artist management agency, and consulted for and curated concerts and concert series for the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Colombia and other organizations.

Dylan Principi
Assistant Professor of Music Theory
Principi comes to FSU from Wesleyan University, where he served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music. Prior to this appointment, Principi was a lecturer and Postgraduate Research Associate at Princeton University. Principi’s research explores how the intellectual history of music has been shaped by the belief that music is intrinsically special, while his analytical projects focus on extended tonality in the music of Les Six and computational analysis in mid-century bebop improvisations. Principi’s work has appeared in multiple scholarly publications and at conferences across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

Bryan Stenson
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Stenson was raised in music through his parents who worked at St. Mary’s International School. His international upbringing in music shaped his perceptions of choral singing, and he seeks to share a global perspective with the students and collaborators he works with. Intent on fostering cross-cultural communication, his research centers on Japanese choral music and folk songs. Past organizations include the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, the Tacoma Youth Chorus, the Children’s Chorus of Washington, and Columbia College in Missouri.

McKenna Stenson
Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education
An innovative conductor, teacher, and vocalist, Stenson has built a career inspiring students to sing with confidence and motivating communities to create lasting change through song. Prior to her appointment at FSU, Stenson served as Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Kansas (KU). Stenson earned the DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas, M.M. in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University, and B.M. in Music Education and B.M. in Vocal Performance from Ohio State University. Stenson also enjoys amplifying the voices of women conductors on her podcast, conduct(her), with co-founder (and sister) Kyra Stahr.