Boston University College of Fine Arts Welcomes New Professors
Top left: Sarah Ioannides, Associate Professor of Music, Orchestral Conducting and Boston University’s new Director of Orchestral Activities; Thomas Cannon, Assistant Professor of Music, Voice; and Olivera Gajic, Assistant Professor of Costume Design. Bottom left: Harry Castle, Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre; Rebecca Roesler, Visiting Professor, Music Education; Daniela Rivera, Visiting Professor of Art, Painting
Boston University College of Fine Arts Welcomes Four New Professors, Two Visiting Professors
Boston University College of Fine Arts appoints new full-time faculty members in the areas of costume design, lighting design, music education, musical theatre, orchestral conducting, painting, piano, and voice to begin this fall.
Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is proud to announce the appointments of full-time professors joining the arts faculty at Boston University for the coming academic year. Boston University School of Music welcomes Sarah Ioannides as Associate Professor of Music, Orchestral Conducting and Boston University’s new Director of Orchestral Activities; and Thomas Cannon as Assistant Professor of Music, Voice. Joining the Boston University School of Theatre faculty is Olivera Gajic as Assistant Professor in Costume Design and Harry Castle as Assistant Professor in Musical Theatre.
Our community of exceptional educators and accomplished artists is growing. I am thrilled to welcome these gifted faculty to CFA.
CFA is also appointing two visiting faculty members. Rebecca Roesler, a Professor of Music Education and Violin at Brigham Young University-Idaho joins BU School of Music as a Visiting Professor of Music Education. Daniela Rivera, a Professor of Art at Wellesley College, will be a Visiting Professor of Painting at Boston University School of Visual Arts.
MEET 6 NEW FACULTY MEMBERS JOINING CFA IN 2024
Sarah Ioannides
Associate Professor of Music, Orchestral Conducting, and Boston University’s New Director of Orchestral Activities
As a music director and conductor who is committed to diversity, collaboration, innovation and education, Sarah Ioannides invigorates programming and inspires audiences. Praised by the New York Times for her “unquestionable strength and authority”, she is the Music Director of Washington State’s Symphony Tacoma. As the newly appointed Director of Orchestral Activities and Professor of Orchestral Conducting at BU College of Fine Arts, she is the Founding Artistic Director of Cascade Conducting & Composing.
Born in Australia of Cypriot and Scottish descent, Ioannides trained in the UK (Oxford University, Guildhall School) and USA (Juilliard School and Curtis Institute) on a Fulbright Scholarship receiving degrees including a Masters in Music and a Master of Arts. Before assuming her role at Symphony Tacoma, she established a reputation as the dynamic music director of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and the Spartanburg Philharmonic.
Since becoming the first woman to hold a full-time conducting position as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, her conducting career has taken her to six continents. She has appeared as a guest conductor with major orchestras across North America, among them the Buffalo Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Hawai’i Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Rochester Philharmonic, San Antonio Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony (untitled series) and the Toledo Symphony.
Beyond North America, Ioannides’ engagements include the Bilbao Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Konzerthausorchester, Malmö Symphony, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Orchestra. Her extensive repertoire, which spans four centuries, has been enriched through her work with living composers, not least as the conductor of over 60 world, North American and European premieres.
Thomas Cannon
Assistant Professor of Music, Voice
Thomas Cannon is a passionate performer and instructor of voice. Dually recognized for his “strong and striking” instrument (Opera Today) and “keen dramatic sense” (Texas Classical Review), Cannon has continually gained recognition performing technically and dramatically demanding roles that range from the classics of Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini, to the contemporary works of the American operatic stage.
He recently had an impressive debut in the role of Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida at the Utah Festival Opera and reprised the role of Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess at Greensboro Opera alongside Rhiannon Giddens to great acclaim. Further performances with distinguished arts institutions include appearances as Germont in La Traviata at Opera Orlando, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Indianapolis Opera, and Scarpia in Tosca at Opera Roanoke. Other roles of note include Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore, Albert in Werther, Figaro in Ghosts of Versailles, and title roles of Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi.
Cannon has sung extensively with Arizona Opera where he was engaged as a resident artist and has returned to perform roles in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers and Redler’s The Falling and The Rising. In addition, he is a graduate of the training programs at The Glimmerglass Festival, Chautauqua Opera, Santa Fe Opera, The Dallas Opera, and Music Academy of the West.
Cannon appears regularly as a concert soloist. He has performed Verdi’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall-NYC conducted by Hiroya Aoki, and Delius’ Eine Messe des Lebens with The American Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leon Botstein. He has sung Haydn’s Die Schöphfung and Mozart’s Requiem at The Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria.
Cannon has performed as an artist-teacher and clinician throughout the country, and he holds a Bachelor of Music from Baylor University, a Master’s in Vocal Performance from The Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Oklahoma. Cannon has served on the faculties of The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and The Hartt School at The University of Hartford.
Olivera Gajic
Assistant Professor of Costume Design
Costume designer Olivera Gajic was born and raised in Serbia. She began her career designing costumes for Serbian theater and television after studying at Belgrade’s Academy of Fine Arts. In 1999, Gajic moved to the U.S., where she received a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design. She has been living and working there ever since. A resident designer at the Berkshire Theatre Festival for the past 14 summers, she designs regularly for Trinity Repertory Company; the Juilliard School; Company XIV; numerous New York and regional theatres; and Chekhov at Lake Lucille, with director Brian Mertes.
Her work includes: The Long Christmas Dinner (American Symphony Orchestra); God’s Ear (Vineyard Theatre); The Americans and The Greeks (The Juilliard School Drama Division); A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Le Comte Ory (The Juilliard School Opera Division); Terrible Things (P.S.122, NY); Red Fly/Blue Bottle (Here Arts Center, NY); This Was the End (The Chocolate Factory, NY); Chekhov Lizardbrain, Twelfth Night (Pig Iron); Ivanov, Uncle Vanya, Platonov, Seagull (Lake Lucille); The Necklace, New Island Archipelago, The Peripherals (Talking Band); Wonderland (The Flying Machine); Miss Julie (Rattlestick); One Million Butterflies (Primary Stages). Her regional work includes: Arden Theatre Company; Berkshire Theatre Festival; Long Wharf; Trinity Repertory Company; Two Rivers; Riverside Theatre; Playmakers Repertory Company; California Shakespeare Theatre; Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Theatre Works; American Stage, among others. Gajic’s work has been shown at exhibitions including the U.S. national exhibit at the 2004 & 2007 Prague Quadrennial and Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance (Lincoln Center). Olivera is a recipient of the 2004 NEA/TCG CDP for Designers, 2010 IT Award for Outstanding Costume Design, 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, 2012 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Costume Design. She recently received the 2014 Bessie Award Recipient for Outstanding Visual Design.
Harry Castle
Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre
Harry Castle is a British composer, tenor, and music director. He works at the intersection of contemporary classical, pop, jazz and musical theatre genres. Castle is particularly drawn to musical storytelling, and as an LGBTQ+ creative he is especially interested in telling stories that center queer and marginalized narratives.
As much in demand for his electronic music as his musical theatre work and pop/jazz originals and arrangements, Castle maintains a busy schedule of projects and commissions across a wide spectrum of musical styles. Some ongoing projects include State of Motion, an original musical exploring competition and success in the fashion influencing industry through the lens of a queer neurodivergent relationship, and I am your mother; this is your home, an extended work for soprano and ensemble, conceived and written in collaboration with t.r.h. (torri) blue.
Castle is an experienced vocalist, with training in classical, choral, pop, musical theatre and jazz styles, as well as extended vocal techniques. As a music director, Castle has worked with many ensembles and casts. Some recent highlights include a workshop performance of Siluetas by Robi Hager & Erlina Ortiz (U-M New Works Festival), Take Flight, a concert of brand new vocal and instrumental jazz at the U-M Museum of Art (Touch of Blue: New American Vocal Ensemble), and a concert of his own musical theatre work, Isn’t It Queer? (McIntosh Theatre, Ann Arbor).
A passionate educator, Castle brings his practical experience and poly-stylistic expertise into the classroom. College-level classes he has taught include composition for non-majors, aural skills for music majors, theory & ear training for musical theatre majors, and musical theatre composition. Castle has held graduate teaching positions in the Composition department at Yale University and the Theory department at the University of Michigan, as well as forming part of the collaborative piano staff for the Musical Theatre department at U-M. Most recently, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Drama at Syracuse University.
Rebecca Roesler
Visiting Professor, Music Education
Rebecca A. Roesler has prepared future music educators, taught studio violin, conducted orchestras, and coached chamber music for nine years as Professor of Music Education and Violin at Brigham Young University–Idaho. Previously, Dr. Roesler was Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of North Texas, where she taught graduate and undergraduate music education courses and directed the UNT String Project. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Brigham Young University, and a PhD in Music and Human Learning from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Roesler has presented her research or conducted clinics at conferences for the National Association for Music Education, American String Teachers Association, Society for Music Teacher Education, and the International Research Symposium on Talent Education, and several state MEAs including Texas, Florida, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Hawai’i, and Colorado. Her articles appear in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Psychology of Music, String Research Journal, Music Educators Journal, and American String Teacher. Her research investigates the creative and collaborative problem-solving process during private instruction and chamber music rehearsals.
In a past life Dr. Roesler taught delightfully musical teens (who always won water fights but were no match for her post-festival Wendy’s straw wrapper skills). She directed orchestras at Logan High School and Mt. Logan Middle School in Logan, Utah and taught beginning through advanced orchestra, general music, and A.P. music theory at Lehi High School and Lehi Junior High School in Lehi, Utah. Under her direction, these orchestras regularly received superior ratings at Utah State Music festivals, though her students’ most celebrated achievement was effectuating tears from an adjudicator during a string orchestra performance of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. VIII. Roesler has performed on violin and viola with ensembles such as the BYU-I Seranata Strings faculty string quartet, the UNT Summer Music Institute faculty chamber strings, the Interlochen World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra at Temple Square, including internationally-televised broadcasts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Daniela Rivera
Visiting Professor, Painting
Born in Santiago, Chile, Daniela Rivera received her BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1996 and her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, Boston in 2006. She is currently a Professor of Studio Art at Wellesley College. She has exhibited widely in Latin American cities including Santiago, Chile, as well as in the United States. She has been awarded residencies at Surf Point, Proyecto ACE in Buenos Aires, Vermont Studio Arts Center, and the Skowhegan School of Paintings and Sculpture. And she has been the recipient of notable fellowships and grants including from The Rappaport Prize, Now + There, the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award, VSC, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, The FONDART in Chile, and the Saint Botolph Club foundation Distinguish Artist Award.
Recent or upcoming exhibitions include: Políticas del Espacio, Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (October 2021), Stop, LaMontagne Gallery (2020), Labored Landscapes; Where The Sky Touches the Earth, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fragmentos para una Historia del Olvido/ Fragments for a History of Displacement, The Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA (2018–2019); En Busca de los Andes, solo exhibition with Proyecto ACE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (June 2019); Sobremesa (Karaoke Politics), a public art project developed as her Now + There Accelerator Fellowship, Boston MA (summer/fall 2019), and The Andes Inverted, solo show at the MFA, Boston 2017-18.
CFA also welcomes new full-time lecturers!
BU School of Music
Victor Cayres, Lecturer, Piano & Collaborative Piano, and Co-Director of Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Piano Program; Jihye Chang Sung, Senior Lecturer in Music, Piano; Lorenzo Sánchez-Gatt, Visiting Lecturer, Music Education
BU School of Theatre
Victoria Sweetser, Lecturer in Lighting Design
BU School of Visual Arts
Rina Goldfield, Lecturer in Art, Painting, Interim Co-Chair, MFA Painting; and Wilhelm Neusser, Lecturer in Art, Painting and Drawing
Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 34,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Learn more at bu.edu.
Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a community of artist-scholars and scholar-artists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, CFA prepares students for a meaningful creative life by developing their intellectual capacity to create art, shift perspective, think broadly, and master relevant skills. CFA offers a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, as well as a range of online degrees and certificates. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa.
Founded in 1872, the School of Music combines the intimacy and intensity of traditional conservatory-style training with a broad liberal arts education at the undergraduate level, and elective coursework at the graduate level. The school offers degrees in performance, conducting, composition and theory, musicology, music education, and historical performance, as well as Artist and Performance diplomas and a certificate program in its Opera Institute.
The School of Theatre at Boston University College of Fine Arts offers conservatory-style education for the study of acting, stage management, design, production, and all aspects of the theatre profession within the setting of a major research university. The School of Theatre seeks to provide students with opportunities for artistic growth through a rigorous curriculum, professional connections, and an emphasis on collaboration and new work.
Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts prepares students to think seriously, to see critically, to make intensely, and to act with creative agency in the contemporary world. The School of Visual Arts merges the intensive studio education of an art school with the opportunities of a large urban university, and is committed to educating the eye, hand, and mind of the artist. With rigorous graduate and undergraduate fine art programs that are rooted in studio practice, CFA School of Visual Arts provides highly motivated students with programs in the bedrock disciplines of the fine arts coupled with a vast array of electives and liberal arts opportunities.