The Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts welcomes the following new faculty this fall:
• Bryce Allen, Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. He will join the faculty as technical director/production manager. Allen comes to us from Weber State University where he has been technical director/production manager since 2014. He also served as associate professor at Saint Louis University from 2010-2014. He has taught a wide range of courses, including stage craft, drafting, stage management, theatre management and sound design.
Allen has worked as technical director, carpenter or designer at Utah Festival Opera, Insight Theatre, Stages St. Louis and The Black Rep, among others. He received his M.F.A. in theatre from Southern Illinois University/Carbondale, with an emphasis in technical direction and a second emphasis in sound design. Allen received a B.F.A. in theatre arts from Utah State University with emphases in stage management and theatre technology. Receiving his ETCP Theatre Rigging Certification in 2017, Allen has hosted numerous Theatrical Rigging Seminars and has served as head rigger for Upstage Crew Services, Inc., since 2016.
• Suna Gunther, Assistant Professor of Music in Voice in the Glenn Korff School of Music. Gunther previously served as assistant professor and coordinator of voice at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York.
Gunther received her Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University as a double major in voice and opera performance and instrumental music education with an emphasis in alto saxophone. She received her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in vocal performance, with minors in music history and literature. In her doctoral research, she explored the ways in which composer Kurt Weill targeted specific audiences for propaganda pieces during World War II by conscientiously drawing from his past compositional styles.
Gunther began her applied voice teaching career at Berea College in Kentucky while simultaneously serving as coach and pianist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. She led 100 performances of children’s opera across the state of Kentucky as pianist, narrator, and assistant music director through UK’s outreach program, worked for the UK-affiliated Academy for Creative Excellence teaching K-12 Musical Theatre lessons and classes, and taught at the nonprofit Central Music Academy. Gunther then moved to the University of North Dakota as their instructor of musical theatre-voice. In that position, she worked with BFA students in the private studio, music directed all productions, and created specialized core curriculum classes catering to contemporary styles.
Gunther is a strong advocate for inclusive music pedagogy that spans a breadth of backgrounds, representation and genres. She is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is certified in the first level of Somatic Voicework training for contemporary vocal technique.
Gunther has spent the past decade as a “cultural ambassador” of the U.S. State Department. On the behalf of embassies and consulates, she has performed concerts representing the past century of American music and given workshops to local musicians. She is also a 15-year member of Chicago’s Grant Park Chorus and an active recitalist of solo and chamber music.
• Paula Clare Harper, Assistant Professor of Musicology in the Glenn Korff School of Music. Harper was formerly a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. She will teach courses in music history, ethnomusicology and popular music, as well as special topics courses.
Harper completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and music from the University of Chicago in 2010, followed by a Master of Arts in music history from the University of Washington. In 2019, she completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University.
The title of her dissertation: “Unmute This: Circulation, Sociality, and Sound in Viral Media,” focused on her primary research regarding the relationships between music, sound and the internet. Her current book project, Viral Musicking and the Rise of Noisy Platforms, documents the early 21st-century rise of ubiquitous social media platforms through an understanding of them as mechanisms for facilitating virality.
Harper has produced scholarship on pop stars Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, the video platform TikTok and various internet musical genres. Her work and expertise have been consulted for publications in Vice, Flare, and The Washington Post’s The Lily, and she has appeared on the podcasts Field Notes and Sound Expertise.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harper worked with fellow musicologist Will Robin to found and run the Music Scholarship at a Distance virtual colloquium series, and with Christa Bentley and Kate Galloway she is organizing the 2021 virtual Taylor Swift Study Day.
• Jen Lukas-Landis, Assistant Professor of Practice in Graphic Design in the School of Art, Art History & Design. Originally from Omaha, Lukas-Landis is the creative director/owner of Pincurl Girls (https://pincurlgirls.com), a company whose mission is to inspire girls to believe in and love themselves.
She most recently was Vice President/Executive Creative Director of KidGlov, a branding, advertising and marketing agency in Lincoln and Omaha. She has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising and recently was awarded the Silver Medal from the Lincoln American Advertising Federation.
Landis received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design and her Master of Fine Arts in digital art and new media from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.