Hixson-Lied Professorships

Michael Hoff, Professor of Art History

First term

Michael Hoff has been at UNL since 1989 and is currently Professor of Art History. He received his Ph.D. in art history from Boston University, his M.A. in classics from Florida State University, and his A.B. in art history and archaeology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Prior to coming to UNL, he taught at Tulane University, and he was the adjunct curator of ancient art at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla.

Hoff specializes in Greek architecture and the topography of Athens and has dedicated his career to studying Anatolian Archaeology. He has worked on excavations at Corinth and the Athenian Agora, as well as others in Turkey,Crete and Wales.

Since 2005, he has served as the project director for the Antiocheia ad Kragos Archaeological Research Project in Turkey. He was co-director of the architectural survey of the Rough Cilicia Archaeological Research Project in Turkey from 1997-2005.

Hoff is also the editor of the book "The Romanization of Athens" and has lectured and written numerous articles on his archaeological research.

Scott Anderson, Professor of Trombone

First term

Scott Anderson is Professor of Trombone at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the head of the Brass and Percussion Area and trombonist in the University of Nebraska Brass Quintet.

Anderson has taught at St. Cloud State University, the University of Minnesota, the MacPhail School of Music and Dana College. He earned degrees from the University of Minnesota (DMA 1995), Northwestern University (MM 1987) and Iowa State University (BM 1985).

Anderson is active as a recitalist and chamber musician with the University of Nebraska Brass Quintet and as an orchestral musician. He has performed solo recitals throughout the United States. As a member of the University of Nebraska Brass Quintet, he has toured extensively throughout the United States as well as internationally with recitals in the Czech Republic.

Anderson is an active orchestral performer on trombone, tenor tuba and bass trumpet and has performed nationally and internationally as Principal and Second Trombone with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony and the Des Moines Symphony and as second trombone in the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet and Opera Omaha. As lead or principal trombonist, Anderson has performed on numerous national touring productions including "Chicago," "The Producers," "Ragtime," "42nd Street," "A Chorus Line," "Hello Dolly" and "Victor/Victoria." He has also played in concerts backing Lou Rawls, The Lettermen, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme, The Moody Blues, The Temptations, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Pam Tillis, Mannheim Steamroller, Marvin Hamlisch and Mark O'Connor to name a few.

Peter Lefferts, Professor of Music

Second term

Music historian Lefferts’ teaching responsibilities span the broad range from introductory courses in listening for freshman non-majors, and courses in music history and theory for undergraduate majors, to doctoral seminars. In the summer of 2006 he stepped down as head of the Division of History/Theory/Composition after serving in that role for 17 years, and he has also served a term as the Director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at UNL.

Lefferts was appointed in Fall 2007 to be the Chief Adviser for UNL music majors on the BA and BM degrees. In 2009 he won a UNL Teaching Council and Parents Association Certificate of Recognition for Contributions to Students, and in 2010 he won the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Achievement Award in Academic Advising.

Lefferts has lectured and published extensively in North America and Europe. As an author and editor, Lefferts‘s areas of research specialization include medieval and Renaissance English music, the medieval motet, early music notation, early music theory in Latin and English, the tonal behavior of 14th and 15th century songs, and the relationship between church architecture and liturgy. He is a member of the international advisory board of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music based at Oxford University, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature at Indiana University.

At UNL he directs the web-based project entitled "Texts on Music in English from the Medieval and Early Modern Eras (TME)," which is found online at www.music.indiana.edu/tme, and he also runs a project center of the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML). Lefferts was an associate editor for Medieval England: An Encyclopedia, with responsibility for writing or commissioning all entries on music and liturgy. He has also contributed articles to the revised The New Grove Dictionary of Music, the revised Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the new Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. He is the contributor of two chapters to the Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music.

A fresh research area for Lefferts since 2002 involves topics growing out of local Nebraska history through the role of music at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition held in Omaha from June-October 1898, and at its 1899 offshoot, Omaha's Greater America Exposition.

Lefferts holds the B.A., M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. degrees, all from Columbia University.

William Shomos, Professor of Voice and Director of Opera

Second term

At UNL, he has staged a wide variety of productions ranging from traditional fare (The Marriage of Figaro, La Bohème) to world premieres and new works (O Pioneers!, Dead Man Walking). His staging of Tyler White's O Pioneers! received regional and national acclaim and was aired on Nebraska Educational Television (NETV). His productions of Così fan tutte and Street Scene won first place in the National Opera Association's Opera Production Competition.

Shomos makes frequent guest directing appearances throughout the country. In the spring of 2004 he staged productions of Donizetti's Elixir of Love with Pensacola Opera and Nevada Opera. He has subsequently returned to Nevada Opera to stage Puccini's Turandot, and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Così fan tutte. In 2006, he returned to Pensacola Opera to stage Le Nozze di Figaro. Since the summer of 2006, he has directed opera with La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy, staging productions of Donizetti’s Il Campanello, Puccini's Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.

Shomos has also directed outreach programs for both the Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera Omaha. As a singer, he has performed numerous leading baritone roles including Marcello in La Bohème, Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, and the title role in Sweeney Todd. In 2006, Shomos appeared as a faculty artist with UNL Opera's production of The Most Happy Fella featured at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera in Waterford, Ireland, where Shomos was awarded "Best Male Singer" for his portrayal of Tony Esposito.

Shomos holds degrees from the University of Illinois (DMA), Northwestern University (MM), and Knox College (BA).

Diane Barger, Professor of Clarinet

First term

Diane Barger is Professor of Clarinet in the School of Music and a member of the Moran Woodwind Quintet. She currently serves as principal clarinet with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra, is Nebraska State Chair (2010-present) and Past-Treasurer (2000-2010) of the International Clarinet Association, and is a Buffet Crampon USA Artist/Clinician.

In addition to her work as a collegiate educator, Barger actively works with pre-college clarinetists and is involved in mentoring her cadre of clarinet instructors at Cornerstone Academy of Clarinet, LLC where she serves as Founder and Professor of Clarinet. She is also a member of the Trade Winds ensemble as an educational recording artist for Carl Fischer Music.

Barger is an active soloist and chamber musician, master class clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States. A specialist in the genre of operatic fantasies for clarinet based on Vincenzo Bellini operas, Barger can be heard as a featured soloist on the International Clarinet Association's 1998 Recording Project compact disc in a performance of Domenico Mirco's "La Sonnambula" Fantasia for clarinet and piano.

With the Moran Woodwind Quintet, one of the most active and visible quintets in the Midwest, Barger performed at the 2010 College Music Society (CMS) National Conference in Minneapolis. The quintet also participated in two lecture/performances at the 2008 CMS National Conference in Atlanta, the 2005 CMS International Conference in Alcala de Henaras, Spain, and the 2005 CMS National Conference in Quebec City, Canada. The quintet has also performed at the Grand Valley Music Festival, the North Central Music Educator's National Convention, and at various colleges and universities around the United States.

Barger received the Doctor of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Florida State University. She completed the Graduate Certificate in Performance and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University. She also received the 2001 Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Distinguished College Teaching Award and numerous teaching awards by the UNL Parents Association and Teaching Council. In addition to being a member of the International Clarinet Association, Barger is a member of the Music Educators National Conference, the Music Teachers National Association and Sigma Alpha Iota.

William Grange, Professor of Theatre

Second term

Grange is the author of six books, along with numerous scholarly articles, essays, book chapters, reviews, and encyclopedia entries. He was awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna for 2007 and has held other Fulbright guest professorships in Germany.

His numerous awards for research and scholarship include the Dorot Fellowship, the Mellon Family Prize, fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Nebraska Research Council, grants from the Arts and Humanities Enhancement Fund, the Jane Robertson Layman Fund, the Hixson-Lied Endowment, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.

A graduate of the University of Toledo, Columbia University and Indiana University, Grange teaches academic and performance courses and is head of the Graduate Committee in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. He has been an Equity actor for more than 30 years, appearing in several professional productions in New York and throughout the United States.

Pete Pinnell, Professor of Art

Second term

Pinnell made his living as a potter for 12 years before moving to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he is currently Professor of Art. In addition to his teaching, he has continued to exhibit widely, with more than 120 exhibitions since 1995.

His work has appeared throughout the U.S., and in the Netherlands, South Africa, Japan, China, New Zealand and Australia. Images of his work have appeared in a number of noted ceramic books, Clay Times magazine, Ceramics Monthly, Studio Potter, and Purple Sand, a Taiwanese ceramics journal. An in-depth article about his work appeared in Ceramics: Art and Perception, a noted Australian Magazine, in 2001. In March of 2001 he was a featured artist at the NCECA (National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts) national conference, where he spoke and demonstrated.

In addition to his teaching and exhibition career, Pinnell has been an active writer on ceramic art, with articles in American and Australian ceramic journals, and a regular column, "As far as I know. . .," which appears in Clay Times magazine.

Pinnell earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Columbia College in Columbia, Mo., a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Paul Barnes, Professor of Piano

First term

Barnes has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured four times on American Public Media’s Performance Today and on the cover of Clavier Magazine. He has performed in England, China, Korea, Russia, Czech Republic, Austria, and Greece and in all major cities throughout the U.S.

Deeply inspired by the aesthetic challenge of minimalism, Barnes gave the world premier performance of Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark) with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra under Victor Yampolsky. Orange Mountain Music also released Barnes' solo recording of his transcriptions from the operas of Philip Glass, including both the Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano. With performances throughout Europe, the Near East, the Far East, and the U.S., Barnes' unique lecture/recitals have received international acclaim. "Liszt and the Cross: Music as Sacrament in the B Minor Sonata" explores the fascinating relationship between music, theology, and the Orthodox icon. Barnes' live recording of this lecture recital was recently released on the Liszt Digital label.

He teaches during the summer at the Bösendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna and also coaches the students of Menahem Pressler, Barnes' own teacher, at Indiana University where Barnes received his doctorate in Piano Performance. He was named "Teacher of the Year" by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association at their 2006 state convention. Barnes recently returned from China and Korea where he performed and taught as part of his spring 2007 sabbatical leave. His eleventh CD “The American Virtuoso” featuring the music of Philip Glass, Samuel Barber, and Joan Tower was released in February of 2008 to much critical acclaim.