University of Rochester Vice President Paul Burgett will launch a series of three presentations this spring as part of the Eastman School of Music’s “Expanding Our Horizons” guest speaker series.
The presentations, which are sponsored by the School’s Diversity Committee, are open to the community and address issues and challenges of diversity in music schools.
Burgett will speak at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, in 1 Messinger Hall. Burgett earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Eastman School, where his Ph.D. dissertation treated the musical aesthetics of black Americans. As Vice President and General Secretary and Senior Advisor to University President Joel Seligman, he has key responsibilities for the business of the Board of Trustees, advising the President and representing his office among internal constituencies as well as alumni, civic, and local community constituencies.
A former Dean of Students both at Eastman and at the College, Burgett is the principal interface between the president and students of schools across the University. As a faculty member in the College music department, he teaches courses in jazz history and the music of black Americans, is an undergraduate faculty advisor, and continues to advise several student organizations.
Future speakers in the “Expanding Our Horizons” series are Myra Hindus, vice president for cultural diversity at Berklee College of Music, at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 24, in Howard Hanson Hall; and Velvet Brown, professor of tuba and euphonium at Penn State, at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, in Ciminelli Lounge.
For more information about the Eastman School’s Diversity Committee and “Expanding Our Horizons,” contact Ellen Koskoff, ekoskoff@esm.rochester.edu, (585) 274-1454, or Caterina Falli, cfalli@esm.rochester.edu, (585) 274-1254.
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