Penka Kouneva (Ph.D. composition, 1997) is lead orchestrator & score producer for Elysium, the TriStar science fiction blockbuster released in August. Kouneva has the distinction of being the first woman to work as a lead orchestrator & score producer on a $100M Hollywood studio film. She will be visiting Duke this fall during DEMAN weekend to conduct a workshop with aspiring film/video/game composers on Nov. 2.
George Lam (Ph.D. composition, 2011) has joined the faculty of York College, City University of New York, this fall as Assistant Professor of Music.
Dan Ruccia (Ph.D. composition, 2013) has taken a position as Advertising, Design, and Production Coordinator in Journals Marketing at Duke University Press.
Jonathan Santore (BA in Music w/ distinction, 1985) has won The American Prize in Composition 2013, in the category for professional composers of choral music. In addition, his composition Front Porch Poems, for mezzo, viola, and piano, is featured on the Chiaroscuro Trio's new CD New People, just released on Albany Records. Jonathan Santore is Chair of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Plymouth State University and Composer in Residence for the New Hampshire Master Chorale.
Jayne Swank (BA in Music, 2008) has accepted the position of Choral Director for the Middle and Upper Schools of Abington Friends School (Abington, PA). She will be starting her tenure at Abington in the Fall of 2013. Following her graduation from Duke, Jayne served for a year as a Duke Lilly Fellow and then moved to Boston, completing her Master of Choral Conducting at Boston University in 2011.
Department of Music