Music Faculty

Image of Joe Alpar

Joseph Alpar's research focuses on the anthropology of music in Turkey and the Middle East, and the relationships between music, spirituality, modernity, marginalization, social expression, and identity.

email josephalpar@bennington.edu
Image of Thomas Bogdan
Faculty Emeritus

Thomas Bogdan’s vocal performance, in genres ranging from old music to new, avant-garde multimedia performance and cabaret, has received wonderful reviews from critics around the world.

email tbogdan@bennington.edu
Image of Kitty Brazelton
Faculty Emerita

Digital-chamber-punk bands, nine-piece rockestras, 21st century medieval quartets: Kitty Brazelton’s ability to create new genres as a composer, performer, singer, and instrumentalist is rooted in a study of even the most traditional forms of music.

email kbrazelton@bennington.edu
Image of Nicholas Brooke

Nicholas Brooke creates music across disciplines, from collages of recordings with live theater, to home-built instrumentariums inspired by gamelan. He has received Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and New Music USA fellowships and premieres at the Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto, and MASS MOCA.

email nbrooke@bennington.edu
Image of Virginia Kelsey

Virginia Warnken Kelsey, mezzo-soprano, is internationally celebrated for her heartfelt and dynamic interpretations of Baroque opera, oratorio, and contemporary chamber music. She maintains an active career in an adventurous assortment of musical and artistic settings.

email virginakelsey@bennington.edu
Image of John Kirk

John Kirk teaches classes in the history of American and Celtic traditional music in addition to mandolin, fiddle, banjo, ukulele, mountain and hammered dulcimers, and traditional music ensemble.

email jkirk@bennington.edu
Image of Senem Pirler

Senem Pirler is an intermedia-sound artist whose interdisciplinary work crosses over into sound engineering, sound art, video art, performance, and installation. Pirler’s recent work has been exhibited at EMPAC, Roulette, BAC, Montalvo Arts Center, Mount Tremper Arts, and Collar Works. 

email senempirler@bennington.edu
Image of Kerry Ryer-Parke

Kerry Ryer-Parke '90 performs in a range of musical styles, from oratorio, opera, and early music to folk, jazz, and rock, in addition to directing the Bennington Children’s Chorus and Bennington Voice Workshop.

email kryer-parke@bennington.edu
Image of Allen Shawn

Allen Shawn’s work as a composer and pianist comprises a large catalogue of orchestral and chamber music, chamber operas, songs, piano music, and music for ballet, theatre, and film; he is also celebrated for his writings on Arnold Schoenberg and Leonard Bernstein, as well as his compelling memoirs.

email ashawn@bennington.edu
Image of Bruce Williamson
Faculty Emeritus

Bruce Williamson is a jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist/recording artist who has collaborated and performed with such luminaries as Bobby McFerron, Fred Hersch, Julie Taymor, and Mark Rylance in a variety of genres, and whose work has been featured in Academy Award-winning film scores.

email bwilliamson@bennington.edu
Image of Michael Wimberly

A drummer and percussionist, Michael Wimberly is also a composer of note and has written for prestigious New York dance companies. 

 

email mwimberly@bennington.edu

Visiting Faculty

Image of Jen Allen
Visiting Faculty

Jen Allen is a pianist, composer and author. She frequently performs in New York, the Northeast US and in venues throughout the world, as the leader of her own groups or as a member of other creative music ensembles.

Image of Kathy Bullock
Visiting Faculty

Kathy Bullock specializes in African American music and culture. A Professor Emerita of Berea College, she brings a wealth of experience, teaching and performing throughout the US, the UK and West Africa, particularly in the areas of sacred, folk and classical traditions.

email kathybullock@bennington.edu
Image of Kyoko Kitamura
Visiting Faculty

Kyoko Kitamura uses her unique career trajectory – musician, former journalist, former executive director of an arts organization – to study musical creativity and how it connects to the world at large.

email kyokokitamura@bennington.edu
Image of Jen Kutler
Visiting Faculty

Jen Kutler is a multidisciplinary artist and performer. She modifies found objects that are cultural signifiers of power, gender, queerness and intimacy to create atypical instruments and sculptures.

email jenkutler@bennington.edu
Image of Elliott Sharp
Visiting Faculty

Elliott Sharp is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, author, and visual artist. His work draws on fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetics, as well as radical sonics and improvisation.

email elliottsharp@bennington.edu

Instrumentalist

Image of Benjamin April
Piano instructor

Benjamin April is an accompanist, choir director, composer, and music educator.

email benjaminapril@bennington.edu
Image of Michael Bisio
Bass instructor

Michael Bisio returned to New York in 2006 after spending 30 years on the West Coast and quickly became an integral part of the New York City creative music community. Since 2009, he has been bass instructor at Bennington College and a member of the Matthew Shipp Trio.

email mbisio@bennington.edu
Image of Joana Genova
Violin/Viola Instructor

Violinist Joana Genova is active as a chamber musician, teacher, orchestral player and a soloist. She is Co-Artistic Director of Taconic Music in Manchester, VT and the second violinist of The Indianapolis Quartet. 

email joanagenovarudiakov@bennington.edu
Image of Christopher Lewis
Piano instructor

Pianist who has taught and performed through the United States and Italy, and prizewinner of the American National Chopin Competition and the New York Leschetizky Society.

email cjlewis@bennington.edu
Image of Nathaniel Parke
Cello instructor

Nathaniel Parke is a regional freelance cellist and is also on the faculty of Williams College.

email nparke@bennington.edu
Image of Chris Rose
Piano instructor/Composition Fellow

Chris Rose is a teaching artist exploring embodiment in music education. A passionate improviser, Rose plays trumpet, piano, and organ, bending and blending genres whenever possible.

email chrisrose@bennington.edu
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Piano instructor
email ysato@bennington.edu

Instructor/Technician

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Technical Instructor in Sound & Music

Curtis Wells turned a degree in engineering into an expertise for fixing electronics and optimizing audio gear—skills he puts to good use in his support of faculty and student work in music.

email curtwells@bennington.edu