Music

If music be the food of love, play on! The greatest playwright of all time knew the significance of music to the human story.

Today, we understand the deeper value of music. The talents of musicians are used in countless ways, from entertaining an audience with a live performance to invoking emotion in film and other media. Music is positively therapeutic, and accomplished musicians are vital and needed in all areas of the profession.

Audition Information

Members of the Parkside music faculty know the thrill of live performances. They are experienced performers, teachers, and researchers and are dedicated to helping you explore your love of music and discovering the best career path.

Whether your passion is singing, playing an orchestral string instrument, band instrument, classical guitar, or jazz, there's an ensemble for you. As a music student (full and part time) you will become a member of an ensemble, where you'll benefit from growth and creativity sparked by playing with your peers, led by professionals.

Learn more about the Music Department at Parkside.

Past Concerts on YouTube

CONCENTRATIONS

You'll graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Music with any of the following concentrations. Whichever concentration you choose, you can count on personal and individualized attention by dedicated, first-class educators who are also first-class musicians.

MUSIC EDUCATION

Music Education
Gain real-world experience through teaching in a variety of settings - our music education graduates get hired! Be part of a community of music educator-performers through participating in ensembles, joining the National Association for Music Education Collegiate Chapter, and participating in state conferences. Learn contemporary approaches to music teaching and learning to best connect with your future students.

JAZZ STUDIES

Jazz Studies
Jazz Week: 5 nights of performances and masterclasses featuring internationally recognized Jazz artists! Perform at off-campus events–for pay! Features an in-depth curriculum focusing on the development of the skills required to launch a successful career in today's musical market.

CONTEMPORARY COMMERCIAL MUSIC

Contemporary Commercial Music
Attend one of the only Contemporary Commercial Music programs offered in the country. Immerse in pedagogically-sound training and demonstrate sound engineering competencies. Perform contemporary styles that prepare for a modern musical career.

PERFORMANCE

Performance
Study repertoire that prepares you for graduate studies and entry into a performing career. Learn pedagogically sound techniques from dedicated teaching artists. Perform two required solo recitals and participate in varied ensemble experiences in beautiful, state-of-the-art facilities.

EXCLUSIVE MUSIC SCHOLARSHIPS
covering up to 100% of in-state tuition!

Music students have access to some of UW-Parkside’s best scholarships, including some renewable up to four years!

Scholarships are available to music majors, minors, and ensemble members. The Music Department makes scholarship awards in amounts that are competitive, allowing you to focus on what you love most: making music.

Your first step to qualifying for a scholarship is being admitted to Parkside.

Learn more about music scholarships.

Music note with dollar sign in the center

Program Entry Auditions

Auditions are required for entry into the Music major and minor. The Music Department is inviting prospective Music majors (and minors) to submit video auditions. Students who would prefer to audition live, in-person on the UW-Parkside campus may do so.

Ensembles

You'll gain valuable experience as a music major by playing alongside your peers with expert guidance by acclaimed faculty.

Learning in Action

As a music major at Parkside, you'll benefit from:

Personal and individual attention by a faculty of dedicated, first-class musicians and educators
Career oriented curriculum
Unique Music Education Program (all courses in music)
Performance opportunities with over 60 concerts per academic year
Professional experience by guest artists and master classes
State of the art facilities
Large ensembles open to all campus students

Careers after Parkside

Career opportunities for teaching music include instruction at the elementary, secondary, and university levels and independently with the opportunity to establish privately owned music studios. Many musicians who perform professionally can do so on a part-time basis opening up fields beyond teaching and performing.

Opportunities exist in many related areas such as music publishing, radio and television, arts management, recording engineering, and various other aspects of the music industry.

See what our students have to say.

PROGRAM CONTACT INFO

Laura Rexroth | rexroth@uwp.edu

Ami Bouterse, SLP-CF

Professor of Music

Ami Bouterse, SLP-CF has been a Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin - Parkside for two decades. She serves as the Voice Area Coordinator and Contemporary Commercial Music - Voice Program Coordinator. Her main teaching responsibilities include applied voice and directing the contemporary a cappella group, Parkside Range along with other courses in the CCM and voice areas.

Ami has performed soprano favorites and premieres in opera and musical theater with such venues as Skylight Opera Theatre, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, New York Japan Society, Operafestival di Roma, Dorian Opera Theater, Milwaukee Opera Theater, Theatre X, and locally with Music and More Concert Series, Belle Ensemble, Racine Symphony, Racine Theatre Guild, and Kenosha Symphony. Premieres have included works by composers Dr. Jorge Muniz, Ayesu Lartey, and Ruben Prieto. Former awards include those from Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, Metropolitan Opera District Auditions, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Kenosha Symphony, and Milwaukee Civic Music Foundation. Ms. Bouterse's solo performances have been praised as producing "sweetness and gentility," "fully-realized character," "exquisite mastery of pitch and nuance," and "the clarity of Purcell’s melodies."

Under the direction of Prof. Bouterse since 2016, Parkside Range has been the flagship ensemble of the Contemporary Commercial Music - Voice program. The group has appeared at SoJam’s A Cappella Festival, the National A Cappella Convention, Tall Tales Music Festival, A Cappella University, and on Acaville Radio. The group has worked with professional clinicians and vocal bands such as Tony Huerta, Edge Effect, Six Appeal, Freedom’s Boombox, and Christopher Diaz.

Prof. Bouterse received voice and opera theater performance degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and Carnegie Mellon University respectively. In addition, Ami earned Level III Certification in Jeanne LoVetri’s Somatic Voicework™, which featured contemporary commercial music vocal pedagogical technique at Shenandoah University. On a recent sabbatical, Prof. Bouterse completed a Master of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Emerson College for licensure as a speech language pathologist, which allowed her to specialize in habilitation and rehabilitation of vocal function, and learn effective teaching and learning strategies for motor planning, linguistic and cognitive skills required for singing.

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Alvaro Garcia Garcia, Mus M, Mus M

Full Professor - Music / Associate Dean College of Arts and Humanities

Alvaro Garcia, native of Spain, studied conducting with Delta David Gier and Professors Lawrence Leighton Smith and Gustav Meier. He earned two Master of Music degrees from Yale University in viola and orchestral conducting in 1999 and 2001. Mr. Garcia has held positions as Assistant Conductor for the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has also collaborated with conductors Ransom Wilson, Jesse Levine, Dante Anzolini, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Gustav Meier and Shinik Hahm. Mr. Garcia has conducted the Yale Philharmonia, Solisti New York orchestra, Norwalk Symphony, Racine Symphony, Kenosha Symphony (Feb 2012), Daejeon Philharmonic – South Korea, and Festival des Artes Orchestra – Brazil. In addition to his conducting, he also performs viola in solo recitals and in chamber groups. As an international musician, Mr. Garcia has performed in Spain, Italy, England, Portugal, South Korea, Brazil, and throughout the United States of America. Mr. Garcia has been actively involved as a music educator in the Kenosha and Racine communities in Wisconsin. He works as a clinician and educator at the middle, high and college level and he has conducted in several occasions the Kenosha Unified Orchestra Festival and the Racine Unified Orchestra Festival. At the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, he conducted many opera and musical productions. Alvaro Garcia is a Professor of Music and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at UW-Parkside. He is the music Director of the UW-Parkside Symphony and the UW-Parkside Community Orchestra, and teaches viola, chamber music, and digital orchestration.

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Kevin Gray

Sound Manager Instructor

Kevin earned is Bachelor of Arts in Sound Design with a Minor in Music Composition from Michigan Technological University, and has previously worked at the University of Southern Indiana. Kevin has received multiple certificates of merit from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for excellence in Sound Design.

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Donna Hewitt

Associate Professor

Donna Hewitt serves as Chair of the Music Department and Coordinator of Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She has thirteen years of public-school teaching experience and currently teaches preservice educators through courses such as Music Teaching and Learning, General Music Methods, and Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning. Her research interests center on popular music education and has publications in Music Educators Journal, Visions of Research in Music Education, and the Journal of Popular Music Education. She has also presented at conferences on the topics of social justice and activism in music.

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Russell Johnson

Professor - Jazz

Trumpeter Russ Johnson is a recent Midwest transplant after spending 23 years as an important member of New York City’s jazz community. He has 7 recordings as a leader or co-leader and performed on more than 75 recordings as a sideman. Russ has worked alongside many of the legendary figures in jazz including Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, Bill Frisell, and Joe Lovano. In addition, he has recorded and/or performed with a long list of the most prominent musicians currently on the international jazz scene, including Myra Melford, Ken Vandermark, and Tony Malaby. Russ has performed in more than 40 countries across the globe. His groups have recently performed at the Chicago, Winter Jazz Fest (NYC) Hyde Park, (Chicago) and Bergamo, (Italy) jazz festivals.

His most recent recordings, Meeting Point (Relay Recordings) and Still Out To Lunch! (Enja Records) received 4 1/2 & 4 stars respectively from Down Beat Magazine and appeared on many “Best Recordings of 2014/5” lists including Down Beat, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, NYC Jazz Record and Magnet magazine. Russ will be releasing a new recording by his “Headlands” Quartet in 2017.

Russ is also active as an educator/clinician, having taught at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Europe. He currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin Parkside where he won the university wide “Stella Gray” Teaching Excellence award in 2016 as well as the 2020 Research and Creative Activity Award.

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James Kinchen

Prof/Dir/Choral Acts - Music

“He’s the best!” "Dr. Kinchen is enthusiastic. His passion rubs off on you.” “The professor really makes you want to do your best.” “Knows his stuff!” “Encyclopedic knowledge!” “Knows his stuff!” These are among the comments used to describe the man affectionately known to many students and former students as "Doctor K." He is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities since 1989 and is driven by his passion for music and for people, and for bringing people together to experience excellence in the choral art. He has conducted on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center. His choral travels have taken him to Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Austria, Cuba, India, and China. He has served as President of Wisconsin Choral Directors Association and the North Central Division of American Choral Directors Association and is in frequently demand as a clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator. He is a frequent presenter at choral and music conferences and conventions, presenting on interpretation of the “spiritual” and other topics of interest to choral teachers and artists. He is also a member of Chorus America, the International Federation for Choral Music, the National Association for Music Education, Center for Black Music Research, and National Collegiate Choral Organization. He is on the Executive Board of Wisconsin Music Educators Association. He has won teaching excellence, faculty service, and diversity awards. He is most recently recipient of the Morris D. Hayes Award, given to an outstanding Wisconsin choral director by Wisconsin Choral Directors Association. He directs the three university choirs: University Chorale, Voices of Parkside, and Master Singers. He also teaches courses in conducting, choral conducting, choral teaching materials and methods, music appreciation, and African American music. He is pretty active on campus, too, joining various search committees and elected faculty committees, including the University Committee and Faculty Senate, which he presently serves. James Benjamin Kinchen, Jr., is a Jacksonville native who has studied at Jacksonville University, Southern Illinois University, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Before coming to UW-Parkside, he has taught and conducted music in Florida, Illinois, Virginia, and North Carolina.

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Laura Rexroth, DM

Associate Professor and Director of Bands

Laura Rexroth joined the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin Parkside in 2014. In addition to her duties as conductor of the UW-Parkside Wind Ensemble and UW-Parkside Community Band, she teaches courses in world music, music education, music history, and conducting. Prior to her appointment at Parkside, Rexroth held conducting posts at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Central College in Iowa, and The College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Her university bands have been selected to perform at several College Band Directors National Association and National Association for Music Education conferences. She has also led high school band programs in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Minnesota. Rexroth has guest conducted district, regional, and all-state bands in several states, as well as the Valley Festival Brass, the U.S. Army Field Band, the United States Military Academy Band, the Colorado Intercollegiate Band, the U.S. Army Band, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band, the Tactical Air Command Band, the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music Symphonic Band, the National Band Association-Wisconsin Chapter Intercollegiate Honor Band, the Virginia Symphony, and the St. Olaf Band. She has also been on the conducting faculty of the Hooked On Bands/New Horizons Band Camp in Door County, WI.

Rexroth did her studies in music education and conducting at St. Olaf College, Northwestern University, Indiana University, the Aspen Music School in Colorado, and the International Conductors Workshop in Zlin, Czech Republic. Her conducting teachers include Miles Johnson, Steven Amundson, John Paynter, Ray Cramer, David Effron, and Paul Vermel.

An advocate for new music, Rexroth has commissioned and conducted works from numerous composers, most recently Shuying Li, Jennifer Jolley, Jodie Blackshaw, Tim Mahr, Ryan George, James Crowley, Daron Hagen and Anthony O’Toole. She has taught conducting workshops in Missouri, New Hampshire, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts.

Rexroth enjoys collaborating with colleagues and guest artists, including Gaudette Brass, Ed Shaughnessy, JoAnn Falletta, Paul Vermel, Steven Bryant, David Bayles, Russ Johnson, Ami Bouterse, and Jana Batty. In addition to regular concerts, Rexroth’s bands have performed for numerous special occasions and guests, including Jane Goodall, Warren Burger, Lady Margaret Thatcher, and HRH Prince Charles.

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