Meet the Music Faculty
Emily Chua
Chair of the Music Department, Associate Professor of Music
B.A., Florida State University; M.M. and D.M.A., College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati
(e-mail)
(web site)
Pianist Emily Yap Chua made her international solo debut at The Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, where she was described as “a remarkably passionate piano soloist . . . vividly enchanting,” [The Daily Tribune] and praised for “tonal beauty and clarity,” “a graceful, effortless manner,” and a performance described as “vibrant, . . . spirited and movingly expressive.” “ . . . The overall impression Chua gave was of an exceedingly talented young pianist readying herself for greater acclaim. . . .” [The Philippine STAR]
An active soloist and chamber musician, her collaborations include performances with musicians of orchestras and institutions around the world, including recitals with members of the Cincinnati, San Francisco, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), Granada (Spain), Charlotte, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras, as well as faculty from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (CCM-UC), The Juilliard School, University of Virginia, and Florida State University, among others. Her recent sabbatical recital tour in the spring of 2011 included performances in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Nebraska.
Chua earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in music with minors in mathematics and dance from the Florida State University, graduating magna cum laude, and continued on to graduate study at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. As a full scholarship student and teaching assistant at CCM-UC, she earned the Master of Music degree in piano performance and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance with a cognate in music theory. She is an active clinician and adjudicator and in demand nationally as a collaborator, and her students have been prizewinners in competitions in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions. Her CD recording of the piano works of composer Kent Holliday, a project in collaboration with pianist Nicholas Ross, was recently released by Centaur Records. The recording can also be downloaded on iTunes.
Dr. Chua is Associate Professor of Music at Randolph College, where she coordinates the Guest Artist Series and teaches Piano, Accompanying, Music Theory, Women in Music, and Ensemble, and team-teaches in the interdisciplinary BFA Colloquium and Senior Seminar. She was recently named the first recipient of the Katherine Graves Davidson Faculty Scholarship Award at Randolph College.
Christopher Fosnaugh
Drum Instructor
B.M., College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati; M. M., Eastman School of Music; post-graduate studies, Cleveland Institute of Music
(e-mail)
Fosnaugh was a member of the Cadets of Bergen County Drum & Bugle Corps 1997-1999 and served as Lead Snare in 1998, during which they won the DCI World Championships. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where he was a Baur Scholarship awardee. He continued on to the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree and was a teaching assistant in the percussion studio of John Beck. Fosnaugh also pursued additional post-graduate work at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He can be heard on CD recordings of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and the Kansas City Symphony, and on recordings of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on iTunes. Fosnaugh maintains a private studio in Lynchburg, Virginia, and is a faculty member for the North Carolina Governor's School West (Winston-Salem). He is also an Artist with the Vic Firth Education Team.
Andrew Gabbert
Cello Instructor
B.A., Indiana University; M.A., Louisiana State University
(e-mail)
Cellist Andrew Gabbert performs with the ground-breaking flute and cello duo Terra Voce. Known for creative programs combining the diverse and the unexpected, they have thrilled audiences at venues across the country such as the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center and New York’s Riverside Church.
Mr. Gabbert previously held titled positions with the Tulsa Philharmonic and Opera orchestras for eleven years. He has performed as a soloist with the Tulsa Philharmonic and the National Repertory Orchestras, and been a member of the Baton Rouge Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Terre Haute Symphony, and Camerata Chamber Orchestra. Festival orchestral appearances include the Britt Festival (OR), Sunriver Festival, Texas Festival-Institute Orchestra, Wintergreen Festival, and the Solisti New York Orchestra at the OK Mozart Festival. As a chamber musician, he performed regularly in concerts and educational presentations as a member of the Tulsa Philharmonic String Quartet/Quintet.
In addition to performing, Mr. Gabbert is a dedicated pedagogue and has taught as a Visiting Instructor at the University of Oklahoma and as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State University.
Hermina Hendricks
Instructor in Music
B.S., Defiance College; M.M.Ed., James Madison University; C.A.G.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
(e-mail)
A native of Lynchburg, VA, Hermina is a music educator and multicultural student services administrator. Her daily work days at Randolph College are spent balancing time as Director of the Multicultural Services Office that involves coordinating and creating diverse programs, advising student organizations, chairing committees that oversees diverse issues along with student affairs matters and teaching music history courses, such as Jazz Appreciation and Popular music in America in the Music Department.
She is presently the Organist and Choral Director of the Senior Choir at Diamond Hill Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA and is also the artistic and music director for the “Soulsters from the Hill” (DHBC), vocal ensemble specializing in the presentation and preservation of black spirituals derived out of the century in America, and in the century spiritual music genre.
She teaches Music Appreciation courses part-time at Central Virginia Community College.
During the early 1990s, Governor Gerald Baliles appointed her to the Virginia Commission for the Arts, serving for five years and later was appointed to serve on the National Endowment for the Arts- Arts Education Review Board in Washington, D.C. Those appointments enabled Hermina to become exposed to the vast arts agencies and institutions not only in Virginia but throughout America that were totally committed to having diverse arts programs in their respective locales for citizens to experience and enjoy the value of the arts- musical, visual, theatrical, etc. Her service in these distinct organizations allowed her to see the larger picture of why art is so important and vital to each individual throughout America.
Presently, she is a member of the Lynch’s Landing Board of Directors, The Get! Downtown Steering Committee (mission is to host an annual downtown festival to welcome all college students to Lynchburg annually), Area II Advisory Panel for the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Sphex Club, The Lynchburg Chapter of The Links, Inc., The Lynchburg Chums, Inc., The Roanoke Chapter of The Girlfriends, Inc., Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, Friends committee of Sankofa Arts, and Pink Auction Steering Committee.
Her on-going research projects are entitled “A Journey Taken”. This research explores the life and educational contributions of Clarence W. Seay, principal and educator of Dunbar High School in Lynchburg, VA 1938-1968 and “My Soul Has Grown Deep”- research exploring the growth and development of African American spiritual from the centuries.
Hermina has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education from Defiance College, Ohio, Master of Music Education Degree from James Madison University, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Curriculum and Instruction specializing in music from Virginia Tech University. Her current status is ABD (All But Dissertation). She is married to Donald W. Hendricks.
Alycia Hugo
Flute Instructor
(e-mail)
Since completing her Master of Music in Flute Performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston, flutist Alycia Hugo has pursued a varied and interesting professional career as an orchestra member and recitalist. Her teachers have included John Wummer (New York Philharmonic Orchestra), James Pappoutsakis and Lois Schaefer (both with the Boston Symphony Orchestra), and Marjorie Lockwood (Phoenix Symphony Orchestra).
She is a four-time winner of the National Flute Association Convention Performers Professional Flutist Competition, achieving national recognition for her skills as a performer of twentieth century music, and is a two-time winner of the National Flute Association Professional Flute Choir Performer Competition performing at conventions throughout the United States. Ms. Hugo has also been a semifinalist and finalist in the Myrna Brown Artist Competition in Dallas, Texas.
For two summers, Ms. Hugo performed as a member of the Rome Festival Orchestra in Rome, Italy, and as a member of the Hugo/Garat Trio performed in recital at the Debussy birth place at St. Germaine-en-laye, France. She has performed as soloist with several orchestras in the New England area as well as with the Roanoke and Lynchburg Symphony Orchestras and currently serves as principal flutist with the Roanoke and Lynchburg Symphony Orchestras and the Opera Roanoke Orchestra. She is a member of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra and teaches flute performance at Liberty University, Lynchburg College, and Randolph College.
Nora Moore
Voice Instructor
B.A., Elon College; M.A., Boston Conservatory
(e-mail)
Nora Moore’s voice has been described as one with “genuine pearlescence.” She has performed with Opera Carolina, Opera on the James, Charlotte Symphony, Central Piedmont Opera Company, Central Piedmont Community Theatre, Cantate Singers of Virginia, and Charlotte Oratorio. She is currently active in opera, oratorio, and musical theatre. Some of her operatic roles include Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Euridice in Orfeo and Euridice, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, LRRH in Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Alice in Wonderland, and Leila in The Pearl Fishers. Her favorite oratorio work includes soprano solos in Messiah and Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore. She was recently the soprano soloist in Randolph College’s production of the Mozart Requiem with the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra.
Moore has employed her dance talents in performances of Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, Crazy for You, Blood Brothers, Carousel, and Hello Dolly.
After earning a degree in Voice Performance from Elon College, she went on to receive her Master's Degree in Opera from the Boston Conservatory. Moore thoroughly enjoys teaching at Randolph College.
Daniel Raessler
Charles A. Dana Professor of Music
B.A., Fresno State College; M.A., Ph.D., University of California (Santa Barbara)
(e-mail)
Whether participating in a national Sacred Harp sing in Birmingham, Alabama; watching Zuni Kiva groups perform the Comanche Dance at their Pueblo in New Mexico; or hearing Delta bluesman T-Model Ford sing for a small group of students in his living room in Greenville, Mississippi, Prof. Raessler enjoys a wide range of music.
His interests have led him to pursue research on a variety of topics, from historical keyboard performance practices to women in music, from Busoni's compositional style to his revisions of works by Liszt and Schoenberg, from humor in hillbilly music to disability issues.
His edition of two piano works by Jane Guest Miles appears in volume III of Women Composers: Music through the Ages, while his articles have been published in the U.S., England, and Europe in such journals and dictionaries as Early Music, The Music Review, The Piano Quarterly, Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, Quodlibet (a Spanish journal in which his article on keyboard touch was translated into that language), Exceptional Parent, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and in the Encyclopedia of the Blues and the 60-volume Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Those interests and scholarly activities, along with his having participated in summer seminars and institutes funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in the College's Colloquium and American Culture Program, and continued study of literature inform his teaching of European and American music history.
Jana Ross
Violin Instructor
B.A, Oberlin Conservatory of Music; M.A., Rice University
(e-mail)
Violinist Jana Vander Schaaf Ross is a much sought after soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player in Central and Southwest Virginia. As a member of the James Piano Quartet, she is Artist-in-Residence at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival. She serves as concertmaster of Opera on the James in Lynchburg and principal second violin with Opera Roanoke and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, with whom she has also appeared as soloist.
Ms. Ross began her violin studies at the age of three at the St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts. She holds a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and Rice University, respectively. Her teachers include Sergiu Luca, Taras Gabora and Paul Kantor.
She has appeared in the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals, as well as being concertmaster and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado. She has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Houston and Richmond Symphonies, and was a tenured member of the Colorado Symphony for two years before moving to Lynchburg, where she now resides with husband, Nick, and two sons. Ms. Ross serves on the faculty of Sweet Briar and Randolph Colleges, is Director of Music at James River Day School, and maintains a private violin and viola studio at the Ross School of Music.
Randall Speer
Associate Professor of Music
B.A., California State University, Fresno; M.A., University of Iowa, D.M.A. College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati
(e-mail)
Randall Speer’s 2012 Carnegie Hall debut conducting Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, K.339 with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, a distinguished chorus, and world class soloists was hailed as “stunning, memorable, and sensitively led” (MidAmerica Productions, 2012). He has led choral and orchestral performances in the United States and Europe with a variety of ensembles including the Mississippi Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, the Vidin Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), and the Varna Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria). An alumnus of the internationally acclaimed Dale Warland Singers, he served in Minnesota as founder/director of the critically acclaimed vocal chamber ensemble Voce Magna, and the Voce Magna Symphonic Chorus. He also founded a women’s prison chorus there – a truly unique and powerful experience in the communal benefits of choral singing. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at Randolph College, and as Music Director at Court Street United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
At Randolph, he directs choral and instrumental ensembles, teaches courses in vocal performance and conducting, and serves as Music Director to music theatre and Greek Play productions. In 2010, Speer was honored as a recipient of Randolph College’s Katherine Graves Davidson Award for bringing distinction to the college. He has earned degrees in music education and choral conducting from California State University, Fresno, the University of Iowa, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Speer has performed as tenor soloist in local and regional oratorio, opera and musical theater productions including the Fresno Lyric Opera (Fiddler on the Roof), Magnum Chorum (Bach Christmas Oratorio), the Mississippi Valley Chamber Orchestra (Carmina Burana), the Lynchburg Community Concert Series (Amahl and the Night Visitors and Missa Luba), and the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven Symphony No. 9).
Speer’s compositions have earned distinction in competition (Riverside Masters Chorale, 1989), and are published with Fred Bock Music. His compositions recorded by the National Lutheran Choir, were reviewed as “a significant contribution to the choral repertoire” (Choral Journal, December, 1990).
