Faculty & Staff
Office Manager: Alice Sluss
Email asluss@nmc.edu
Phone: (231) 995-1325
Office: F 124
Contact Information
Jeffrey Cobb
Director Of Music Programs, Choral Director
Jeffrey Cobb is the Director of Music Programs and Choirs at Northwestern Michigan College, Artistic Director of the NMC Children’s Choirs, and Director of Music at Traverse City Central United Methodist Church. He holds a M.M. in Choral Conducting from Oakland University and a B.A. in Music Education from Western Michigan University. Jeffrey has held positions at Traverse City Central High School, Judson ISD in San Antonio, Texas; Parchment Schools in Parchment, Michigan; and the Leysin American School in Leysin, Switzerland. Choirs under his direction have toured throughout Michigan, Texas, Chicago, New York, Salzburg and Vienna and have been invited to perform at State and National Conferences including the Michigan Music Conference, the Michigan Youth Arts Festival, the ACDA Michigan Conference, and the ACDA National Convention. Jeffrey is a frequent clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor, working with school groups, Honor Choirs, and All-State Choirs. In addition to his work as a conductor, Jeffrey is also a regularly commissioned composer. His pieces have won several awards including honors from the Leonardo Da Vinci Choral Composition Content (Florence), the Phoenix Boys Choir New Works Rising Composition Contest, the Ithaca Choir Composition Contest, the New York Virtuoso Singers Choral Composition Contest, the Measure for Measure Choral Competition Contest, the Vanguard Premieres Choral Composition Contest, the Summit Chorale’s Composition Contest, the Outside the Bachs International Choral Music Competition, the C7Prize, and the Composition Competition of the Chiayi City (Taiwan) International Band Festival. Jeffrey’s arrangements and original compositions are regularly performed by college ensembles, community groups and high school ensembles throughout North and South America, Europe, and Oceania. His choral works are published through his own publishing company Mysterium Music, as well as G. Schirmer, Santa Barbara Music, Walton Music, Colla Voce, and Roger Dean Publishing. Jeffrey is also a sought after composer and arranger in other genres. His music can be heard on several television series, radio spots, and in television advertisements.
Alice Sluss
Office Manager
Greetings from the NMC Music Department! I am proud to serve as the Office Manager for the Humanities Academic Area, which includes the Music and Audio Technology programs. Our Music Department offers students a unique opportunity to learn in a creative and supportive environment. Here, our students receive individualized instruction from our dynamic faculty in coursework designed for students' success. I am here to help our students and faculty — please feel free to stop by and introduce yourself. Thank you for your support of our Music Department students!
Sam Boase-Miller
Audio Tech, Applied Music
Sam Boase-Miller started his professional career after graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy. This included teaching, performing, and studying at Ithaca College, DePaul University, and Western Michigan University. As the former Associate-Principal Cellist of the Manhattan Symphonie, Sam toured China twice and performed regularly in the great venues of New York City, including Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, and Carnegie Hall. While in New York, Sam founded Marsfall LLC with his three best friends Erik Saras, Dan Lovley, and Brian Goodheart. Sam resides in beautiful northern Michigan where he teaches at Northwestern Michigan College. He writes, produces, composes, and records music and voice over for his current projects, and the award-winning sci-fi podcast Marsfall.
Pat Brumbaugh
Concert Band Director
Patricia Brumbaugh received her BA degree in Music Education from Olivet College in 1976, and a MM from the University of Michigan in Music Education in 1986. She is A.B.D. (All But Dissertation) in a Doctoral Program in Horn Performance at the University of Memphis. Pat currently conducts the Northwestern Michigan College Concert Band. After retiring from public school teaching in 2013, Pat returned in 2017–18 to again serve as Director of Bands at Traverse City West Senior High School until a new conductor could be found. Prior to teaching at Traverse City West, Pat served as Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Memphis, conducted the Germantown Symphony, served as assistant conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony and created and conducted the Memphis Area Youth Wind Ensemble. Ms. Brumbaugh also served for four years as Director of Bands at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and taught for 12 years at Ann Arbor Huron High School, Northwest High School (Jackson), and Central Montcalm Public Schools in Stanton, Michigan. In 1984, Pat was voted “Outstanding Young Band Conductor” in the nation by the American School Band Directors Association and in 2006, she was voted “Outstanding Band Teacher of the Year” in Michigan. In 1913 Pat was awarded the Outstanding Person in Education Award by the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District. Her bands & orchestra’s have performed at several State & National conventions. Pat is a member of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (Emeritus), the National Band Association and the prestigious, American Bandmasters Association. She has conducted All-State Bands in Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Indiana and continues to serve as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor.
David Chown
Audio Tech, JAzz Appreciation, History of rock and roll, Applied Jazz Piano
David has been playing piano professionally in the Traverse City Michigan area for over 25 years, and has been an Audio Tech instructor at NMC for 9 years. David also owns and operates “Lookout Music Productions” studio in Traverse City, where he records and teaches piano lessons. He is also co-owner of MusicHub.Live, which specializes in live streaming concerts and video recording. He also owns his own record label, Schmooze Music, which has released 9 CDs as David Chown at the Piano, Pico & Chown, and his latest CD with Pico, Chown & Sears, “Live at St. Andrews”. He performs concerts, weddings, and club gigs with popular Traverse City singer/songwriter Miriam Picó, The Lookout Cats, Doc Probes, and East Bay Drive. David received a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Western Michigan University, and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Technology from Michigan State University. In between his college stints, David toured Europe for a year, playing concerts and clubs. He performed for three years at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island Michigan. David resides in Acme with his wife Janet, who are now “empty nesters”, as their daughter Kaysen is a graduate of Performance Arts Technology at University of Michigan, and Their son Dawson is a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps in aviation. Their cat Millie keeps them company.
Diane Clark
Applied Voice
Diane Clark is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and holds the rank of Associate Professor Emerita of Music at Rhodes College in Memphis, where she taught for thirty-two years. Before that she taught for three years at Texas Tech University. She holds the Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Rhodes College, the Master of Music degree in voice pedagogy from Indiana University, and the Doctor of Arts degree in voice pedagogy from the University of Mississippi. Clark has been a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing for over fifty years. She served as founding president of the Memphis Chapter of NATS and served two terms as Tennessee Governor of the organization. As a vocal performer, Clark has been heard in recital, opera, oratorio and sacred music, music theatre, jazz, and barbershop venues. She served as Artist-in-Residence for the city of Germantown, Tennessee. She served as guest faculty for the Taos Opera Institute (New Mexico) and the Up North Vocal Institute (Michigan). Clark moved to Traverse City in 2006 to become director of the Grand Traverse Show Chorus of Sweet Adelines International. She held this position for five years. A barbershopper since 1992, Clark is currently Coordinator for the Arranger Certification Program in Border Lakes Region 2 of Sweet Adelines. She is in demand regionally as a teacher and coach for barbershop choruses and quartets. In the summer of 2017 she and co-author Bill Biffle completed a book entitled So You Want to Sing Barbershop, which is part of a major book series published by NATS and Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. She currently maintains a small private voice studio in her home. Currently, Clark and NMC colleague Melanie Stoll perform in the northern Michigan area as a jazz duo called Vive le Jazz!
Peter Deneen
Applied Saxophone
(Bio coming)
Kyle Ferrill
Applied VOICE
Baritone Dr. Kyle Ferrill teaches voice at Northwestern Michigan College. Prior appointments have included the University of Memphis, the University of Idaho, Indiana University, Boston University, Butler University, DePauw University, Interlochen Arts Camp, and Mercer University. Ferrill studied at Florida State University and Butler University. He has appeared with some of the nation's finest orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and New York's Orchestra of St. Luke's. Conductors include Stefan Asbury, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Keith Lockhart, Gil Rose, Robert Spano, Kirk Trevor, and John Williams. For more information, please visit www.kyleferrill.com.
David Husser
Class Piano, Applied Piano, Accompanist
David Husser is a pianist and teacher living in Traverse City, Michigan, where he maintains a large independent studio. He collaborates as a pianist with numerous area soloists and ensembles, including the choirs of Traverse City West Senior High School and the Northwestern Michigan College Children's Choirs and Canticum Novum. He also teaches group and applied piano at both NMC and Interlochen Arts Camp. Mr. Husser's compositions have been performed by pianists and choral ensembles in multiple states. His articles have been published by American Music Teacher, and he has served as a presenter and panelist at a variety of national conferences. He holds a Master of Music Education degree from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois.
Michael Kudirka
Class Guitar Applied Guitar, Applied Bass, Audio Tech
Hailed by Classical Guitar Magazine as “a leading proponent of new directions in classical guitar music”, Michael Kudirka specializes in both contemporary works and in the field of microtonality with his interchangeable fretboard system, developed by the company he co-founded, MicroTone Guitars. Michael Kudirka performs around the globe as a recitalist and chamber musician, and has appeared at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (China), Darmstadt Ferienkurse Für Neue Musik (Germany), Le Chappelle Historique du Bon Pasteur (Montreal), Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Conservatorio de Las Rosas (Mexico), Ono Guitar School (Japan), Palace of Fine Arts (San Francisco), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Zipper Recital Hall (Los Angeles), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Flatfile Galleries (Chicago), Lincoln Recital Hall (Portland), and many others. He has performed at numerous festivals and guitar societies including the 2011 Guitar Foundation of America Convention, Portland Guitar Festival, American Guitar Society, Jacaranda – Music at the Edge, Pacific Standard Time’s Stravinsky Retrospective, New Mexico Guitar Festival, Grand Canyon Guitar Society, Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Sunday’s Live”, American Composers Forum, EUROMicroFest, Seattle Classical Guitar Society, Northwest Guitar Society, Other Minds 8, and Music of Changes. He has taught at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, California Institute of the Arts, University of Southern California, Interlochen Arts Academy, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is currently a faculty member at Northwestern Michigan College.
Brad Novak
Applied Percussion
Brad Novak is a performer/educator based in Traverse City, MI. His performance/recording credits include: The Accidentals, Joe Welsh, Sommerson, The Amanda Waggener Band, Kristine Seeley, and Dominic Fortuna, Brian Whitscell, Tuesday Radio, Miriam Pico, and David Chown among others. Brad is also the owner/operator of The Beat Lab, an educational facility that educates over 200 students each week in the area of drums and percussion, guitar, bass, ukulele, etc. He is the percussion instructor for the beginning band at the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools and is an instructor of drums and percussion for Northwestern Michigan College. Brad has been playing drums and percussion for over 30 years. In that time he has studied with Larry Finn at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Dave Zerbe and Robert Hohner at Central Michigan University, Chester Thompson, and Russ Miller via Drum and Percussion University. Brad is on the Vic Firth Education team, a Soultone cymbal artist, and a member of the Hudson Music Education Team.
Philip Parker
AUDIO TECH
(Bio coming)
Robert Pavelek
Applied Horn
Robert Pavelek (Bob) is a native of Detroit, Michigan. He studied horn with Marvin Howe and was mentored by Karl Hill. Bob was principal horn in the Traverse Symphony Orchestra for 28 years. Bob is currently an adjunct professor at Northwest Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan. He moved to Traverse City in 1973 and performed throughout Northern Michigan and Canada. His experiences include performing with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, Midland Symphony, Traverse Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, Baroque on Beaver Music Festival, WestSide Winds, Encore Winds and Sault Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. Bob has also performed in a variety of musicals at The Old Town Playhouse in Traverse City Michigan. Also, playing alongside such notables as Johnny Mathis, Doc Severinsen, Matt Guitar Murphy and did a run of the musical Miss Saigon at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. One of the highlights of his career was traveling to Santiago, Cuba to teach and perform with a ten-piece brass ensemble. Bob enjoyed his years as a member of his own group Largemouth Brass and band Newt and the Salamanders. Presently Bob is a member of the NMC Big Jazz Band and the NMC concert Band. He continues to offer his expertise to horn students in private lessons. Bob is proud to play exclusively on Kortesmaki horns.
Jonah Powell
Audio Tech
(Bio coming)
Jeanmarie Riccobono
Applied Clarinet
Jeanmarie Riccobono is Principal Clarinetist with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. She has performed with numerous orchestras including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Savannah Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Riccobono is the 1996 Grand Prize Winner of the Boosey and Hawkes/Buffet North American Clarinet Competition. In April of 1998 she performed a solo recital at the Paris Conservatory as a guest artist at the Musicora Festival. She has participated in the Chautauqua, Aspen, Bay View and Sarasota Music Festivals and has performed in the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds Orchestra in Spoleto, Italy and the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra in Charleston, South Carolina. Ms. Riccobono is a sought - after clinician, teacher, active recitalist and chamber musician performs summer chamber music concerts with the Bay View Wind Quintet and mentors collegiate clarinet students as an Artist - In - Residence in the Bay View Music Festival since 2015.
Tara Schwab
Applied Flute
A versatile soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and orchestral player, Tara Schwab’s flute playing is described as “haunting” and “transcendent” (Sequenza 21), “excellent” and “commanding” (Fanfare Magazine). As a chamber and orchestral musician, Tara has performed in concert series and venues throughout the country, including REDCAT, Capitol Records, Paramount Studios, the Hult Center in Eugene, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the Cranbrook Music Guild. She has played with ensembles such as the Eugene Symphony, Corvallis Symphony, MidAtlantic Symphony, and Traverse Symphony, and has been a featured guest artist at CalArts, Chapman Conservatory, University of Southern California, Loyola University Chicago, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, UNC School of the Arts, and Baldwin Wallace Conservatory.
Dr. Schwab is currently on faculty at Northwestern Michigan College and has previously held professorships at Arkansas State University and the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. She has also taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Oregon where she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow.
Tara received her Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill with Brooks de Wetter-Smith, and completed her Master of Fine Arts in Multi-Focus Flute Performance at the California Institute of the Arts. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Oregon where she studied with Molly Barth, and where her doctoral research earned her the 2014 Fritz Thelen Recognition Award from the International Society for the Investigation and Promotion of Wind Music (IGEB).
Paul Sonner
Applied Violin
(Bio coming)
Scott Sorenson
Theory, Sight Singing And Ear Training
Scott Sorenson holds Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Arts degrees in music education from the University of Minnesota and Luther College. Currently, Dr. Sorenson teaches music theory and sight singing/ear training at Northwestern Michigan College. He has also served on the music faculties of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Hong Kong International School, University of Minnesota, Burnsville Public Schools (MN), and Traverse City Public Schools. Dr. Sorenson is the author of over one hundred and fifty published articles, reviews, conference synopses, and orchestral program notes. He has held the positions of associate editor, assistant editor, and recording/music reviews’ editor for the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild. Dr. Sorenson’s music editions are published by Shawnee Press, Southern Music, International Music Company, Concordia Publishing House, and Denver Brass. Additionally, he holds the position of second trumpet with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and is past principal trumpet of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Sorenson is also the program annotator for the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and is past chair of the orchestra’s players’ committee. During the summers, Sorenson pursues his interest in long distance wilderness canoeing. In 2017, he completed his 9,000th lifetime mile on a thirty-day solo trip of Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters.
Kim Teachout
Class Piano
(Bio coming)
Maria Ulrich
Audio Tech
Maria F. Ulrich is an audio engineer from Traverse City, MI. She is an alum of the Audio Arts and Acoustics program at Columbia College Chicago, specializing in Live Sound Reinforcement. Having rocked a pantsuit in the corporate AV world, crisscrossed the country as a touring engineer with The Accidentals, envisioned and executed a summer concert series in at Fountain Point Resort and freelanced for everything in between, she has currently landed as an instructor for the Audio Technology Program at Northwestern Michigan College and in-house Technician for the Milliken Auditorium at the Dennos Museum (among other things, of course). Maria runs her own company by the name of Leelanau Sound and provides sound reinforcement services for theaters, schools, bands, venues, festivals, weddings, funerals, and anything in between.
Dorothy Vogel
Theory, Sight Singing And Ear Training, Accompanist
A faculty member at Northwestern Michigan College since 1996, Dorothy Vogel teaches music theory and sight singing and ear training. Vogel also teaches on the summer piano faculty at Interlochen Center for the Arts. She holds a B.M. in piano performance from Oberlin Conservatory, an M.M. in piano performance from Western Michigan University, and a D.M.A. in Music Education from Boston University. Her research articles have been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education and the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. Previously, Vogel served on the faculties of Hope College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and as staff accompanist at Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is currently pianist for the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, the NMC Chamber Singers, the Grand Traverse Chorale, and the Baroque on Beaver Festival Orchestra.
Josh Wagner
Director of jazz bands, Music appreciation, Applied Trumpet
Joshua Wagner holds a AA (Music) and AS (Engineering Technology) from Southwestern Michigan College, a BME (Instrumental Music) from Central Michigan University, and a MM (Jazz Studies & Trumpet Performance) from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he was the recipient of the Jamey & Sara Aebersold Jazz Studies Fellowship. He has toured and performed nationally with Broadway productions as a member of the orchestra and is an active musician throughout the Midwest from jazz to classical. Locally he is a member of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, Traverse Symphony Jazz Orchestra, and has performed with the Interlochen Brass Faculty in addition to remote studio work and freelance performing. Equally at home as a teacher, Mr. Wagner serves as trumpet instructor for the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools, as an adjudicator/clinician for the Michigan School Band & Orchestra Association (MSBOA), adjudicator for the Central Michigan University/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Weekend, and maintains a private studio teaching trumpet lessons to middle school, high school, and adult students throughout Northwest Michigan. He previously held positions on both the Brass Faculty and Jazz Faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, trumpet Artist In Residence for Mancelona Public Schools, Instructor of Trumpet at Southwestern Michigan College, and as Assistant Director of The Culver Naval School Band. Through what was started as a hobby Mr. Wagner is considered the foremost expert on vintage brass instrument mute restorations with clients including members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, US Army Blues, Broadway (NY and touring) musicians, and many more all over the world. With his knowledge of these vintage mutes, he is called upon regularly by current manufacturers as a consultant on both new mute designs and recreations of vintage specimens. Mr. Wagner is a Vincent Bach Endorsed Performing Artist.
RYAN YOUNCE
AUDIO TECH
(Bio coming)
Jerry Young
Applied Tuba
Jerry A. Young is Professor Emeritus of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, having served on the music faculty from 1983–2016. Young served on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp from 1983 to 1993 where he founded the Interlochen Tubafest and performed regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. His former students enjoy successful careers as music educators, in music industry, and in leading orchestras and military bands in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He is a former President of the International Tuba/Euphonium Association, the worldwide association for professional, recreational, and student low brass musicians. He also twice served as editor-in-chief of the ITEA Journal and in 2010 he was a recipient of the initial ITEA Clifford Bevan Award for Meritorious Work in Low Brass Scholarship for life-long accomplishment in scholarly research. He is a long-time member of the Board of Trustees for the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival, and was formerly a member of the Advisory Board for WUEC 89.7 FM, the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire’s Wisconsin Public Radio affiliate. In 1996 he published an edition of the complete Arban Method for Tuba which has been the best selling tuba method book around the world since its initial publication. Dr. Young has appeared across the U.S., Europe, and Japan as a soloist, chamber musician, clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator. He was selected as the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Arkansas Department of Music and is a Fellow of the Fulbright Academy of the University of Arkansas. In the spring of 2016 he was given the “Orpheus Award” by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in recognition of “significant and lasting contributions to the cause of music in America.”
