VICKI CURRY, Assistant Professor
Vicki Curry is an Assistant Professor of Music in General Studies and Music Theory at James Madison University. Dr. Curry holds a B.M. degree in music education from Butler University (Indianapolis), an M.A. degree in music theory and composition from the University of Denver, and Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Utah. Prior to coming to James Madison, she taught at Westminster College (Salt Lake City) and, most recently, the University of Utah.
During her years at the University of Utah, Vicki Curry taught the whole gamut of undergraduate music theory for majors in addition to miscellaneous music history and appreciation courses for nonmajors. Twice, she offered short study-abroad courses that traveled to European cities such as London, Paris, Rome and Vienna.
Dr. Curry’s awards in teaching include Delta Gamma, "Anchor" Award for Teaching, 1997 and the “Student Choice Award for Excellence in Teaching,” University of Utah, 1999.
Over the years, Dr. Curry has reviewed numerous textbook manuscripts for publishers, written extended syllabi for correspondence courses in music theory and music appreciation, and published two workbooks to accompany textbooks used in general education. In addition, she created all the listening charts and musical analyses for Music: The Art of Listening, 5th edition by Jean Ferris. In 2005 she published Introduction to Music Theory--an interactive, multimedia textbook/workbook on CD-ROM. Currently, Vicki Curry is creating online tutorials for Joseph Kerman’s text Listen.
Email: curryvl@jmu.edu
Office: 540.568.5119
B.A., Austin College (summa cum laude), M.M. and D.M. in Composition, Indiana University. He was chosen as a National Merit Scholar in 1988. His latest CD, Resonant Edges, was recently released by Capstone Records. (It is also available from Amazon.) His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Scotia Festival, Music2000 in Cincinnati, the Composers Inc. concert series in San Francisco, Richmond’s ChamberFest, the Staunton Music Festival, and elsewhere throughout the US, as well as in Canada, Europe and Hong Kong, and by groups such as the New Millennium Ensemble, the Chester Quartet, the Sunrise Quartet, Colloquy, and the Indiana University New Music Ensemble. He has won awards and honors from ASCAP, the National Association of Composers USA, the Music Teachers’ National Association, the Washington International Competition, top honors in the University of Oregon's international Waging Peace Through Singing competition and a Dean's Prize from the Indiana University School of Music. He has earned residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation and the Deer Valley Institute. His Symphony No. 1 was premiered in January, 2008, by the orchestra of Freiberg, Germany.
D.M.A. in composition, Cornell University. His works have had wide international performances in Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, South America, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States including performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Merkin Hall NYC and at over 20 new music festivals. His works have also been performed by the St. Louis Symphony and the Richmond Symphony. His piano concerto Okeanos was premiered by the JMU School of Music in 2000 in honor of the 20th-year celebration of the Contemporary Music Festival. Recent awards include an annual ASCAP Award, a commission from the International Horn Society and the first-place award in the Virginia Music Teachers Association's commissioned composer contest for 1992. In 1995, Hilliard was given a six-month residency grant to be an Artistic Fellow for the Japan Foundation in Tokyo. He has previously taught at the National Music Camp, Cornell University and Washington State University. Dr. Hilliard's teachers include Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Karel Husa, Donald Erb, W. Francis McBeth, George B. Wilson, William Grant Still and Ned Rorem. In addition, he has attended masterclasses with Erza Laderman, Alan Hovhaness, Wlodzimierz Kotonski, George Crumb, Milton Babbitt, Ben Johnston, and Olivier Messiaen.
J. RANDALL WHEATON, Assistant Professor