TJC music department undergoes staff changes

With the promotion of longtime fine and performing arts director Dr. Cheryl Rogers to director of institutional effectiveness, a few staff changes have taken place in the Tyler Junior College fine arts department.

Kerry Baham of Whitehouse succeeds Rogers as director of fine and performing arts. Nathan Russell has joined the TJC music

faculty as director of choral activities, and Angela Smith of Whitehouse is the new director of the college vocal performance group, Harmony & Understanding.

Baham, who joined the TJC faculty in 1997, is an instructor of music theory, music literature, class piano, private lessons in piano and accompanying, and ser ves as accompanist for TJC's A

Cappella Choir.

He received his bachelor's degree in piano performance from Southeastern Louisiana University and his master's degree from the University of North Texas. He also studied in Vienna and Salzburg, Austria, through a scholarship program with the University of Miami.

He has received top prizes in solo competitions at the state, regional and national levels. As an active accompanist as well as soloist, he has collaborated with winners of the Metropolitan Opera auditions in concerts in the U.S. and Europe.

A third-generation Texas educator, Russell holds a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in administration from West Texas A&M University, and has also completed post-graduate work there.

He is a former assistant director of choirs at Canyon High School, where he taught the freshman choir, advanced placement music theory, assisted and accompanied all other ensembles at the high school, junior high and intermediate.

Russell served as the Office of Enrollment Management graduate assistant at West Texas A&M for one year and completed grant applications to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the University Success Academy, a summer program initiative designed to increase the number of firstgeneration students completing a baccalaureate degree.

He is a member of the Texas Choral Directors Association, the American Choral Directors Association and the Texas Music Educators Association.

Angela Smith joined the TJC music faculty in 2001. In addition to her new duties as director of Harmony and Understanding, she instructs music appreciation courses and teaches private voice lessons.

Smith received her bachelor's and master's degrees in vocal performance from the University of Texas at Tyler. She attended TJC, where she was a member of Harmony and Understanding, A Cappella Choir and served as secretary of the TJC Phi Theta Kappa chapter.

In addition to her voice studio at TJC, she has maintained a private voice studio since 1998. Her students have placed in UIL all-state and region choirs and have moved on to successful college careers in music and theater. Her students have competed in national competitions and participated in theater workshops in New York and abroad.

Smith has worked as a guest conductor and voice clinician for area schools. Since 2003, she has instructed a summer voice program at TJC and has conducted a theater camp.

Organized in 1971, Harmony and Understanding is a select group of students from the Tyler Junior College A Cappella Choir. The group averages about 25 appearances a year, including such events as: State Fair of Texas; Texas Rose Festival; Miss Texas Pageant; July 4th celebrations at the Cotton Bowl; Texas Breakfast Club in Washington, D.C.; Nice, France - Carnival; Yachiyo, Japan - Sister City Concert; London Millennium Concert Series and Parade; Military Bases, Hawaii; and Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany.