Boston University Music Education

NEWS: Join CFA in congratulating Boston University Professor Lynne Allen for her appointment as interim dean of the College! 👏 As Dean Harvey Young prepares to conclude his service on June 30, internationally recognized artist and scholar Lynne Allen steps back into the role effective July 1.

Allen, professor of art, printmaking, chair of print media and photography; former director of BU School of Visual Arts; and a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, also served as CFA interim dean in 2015–2017, when she was Young’s immediate predecessor.

“Serving as interim dean nearly 10 years ago was a responsibility I took very seriously, and I approach this opportunity with the same commitment,” Allen says. “I’m humbled and honored by the confidence placed in me and by the opportunity to work alongside the many talented people at CFA. I really believe in the faculty and the staff at the College of Fine Arts." ❤️

As interim dean, Allen plans to maintain and grow Dean Young's programs, while paving the way for the next dean. At the same time, Allen will continue to teach in the Print Media & Photography program, a firm believer that "you can’t really be a good leader if you don’t know what the students are thinking.”

Read more about Allen's appointment in BU Today ➡️ http://spr.ly/6186B8Hwbj

NEWS: Disney producer, master storyteller, Academy Award winner, and now CFA Convocation speaker 🎞️🏆🎓 CFA is thrilled to welcome Boston University alum Roy Conli (CFA'87)—Oscar-winning producer and fearless creative champion—as the 2026 CFA Convocation speaker! 👏

Long-time producer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Conli is behind some of Disney's most adventurous and heartfelt movies including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Treasure Planet, Tangled, Big Hero 6, and Disney’s upcoming Hexed, with Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones among the cast. 🎬

In 2015, Conli joined the Disneynature team, sharing his talents to help support the brand’s narrative style. Since 2022, Conli has produced the yearly Disneynature releases of Polar Bear, Tiger, The Sealions of Galapagos, and Orangutan. 🍃

A California native, Conli is a graduate of Boston University CFA School of Theatre, where he earned his MFA degree. 🎭

On Saturday, May 16, Conli returns to Terrier Town to address the Class of 2026 graduates at the 2026 CFA Convocation ceremony. To our graduates, families, and friends joining us that day, get ready for an afternoon of inspiring stories from Conli and what it takes to create magic. ✨

More in CFA News ➡️ http://spr.ly/6184BBMaHs

BU Assistant Professor of Music Education recently published "Entangled Voicings: Rethinking Voice, Reflexivity, and Discomfort in Qualitative Inquiry" in the journal Qualitative Inquiry. Congratulations Dr. Bylica!

Qualitative inquiry often positions voice as something that can be clarified or protected through reflexive practice. Feminist and post-structural critiques have challenged these assumptions, yet methodological discourse frequently returns to reflexivity as ethical reassurance. This article offers an alternative by conceptualizing voice as relational, structurally conditioned, and unsettled. Drawing on arts-based and educational research encounters, I introduce entangled voicings as a feminist methodological orientation that frames expression and silence as co-produced through shifting positionalities, institutional authority, and affective conditions beyond researcher control. The article offers methodological provocations that position discomfort, silence, and vulnerability as necessary epistemic conditions.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10778004261440857

IMPACT: “I experienced firsthand what it’s like to grow up in a rural area with little access to music education and the arts, and how that can really impact someone. Going forward, I just want to be able to give back.” Those are the words of pianist, Boston University School of Music BM piano performance major, and most recently Kahn Award winner, Carlo Balmoria (CFA'26). 👏 🎹 🎶

Carlo will use the $20,000 he received last week as the winner of the 2026 CFA Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award to change the lives of young musicians in rural Willard, Ohio, a town with a population of 6,100, and where his mother grew up. Carlo plans to open a teaching studio and start a series of lectures and recitals.

The Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award Fund was established in 1985 with an endowed contribution of $1 million from Esther Kahn (Wheelock’55, Hon.’86). Finalists are chosen based on proposals they submit detailing how they would use the award to launch their careers and make an impact. 🚀 Carlo was the grand prize winner, and the five finalists, who each received $2,500, were Aija Reke (CFA’15,’26), Sydney Jackson (CFA’26), Nichole Man (CFA’26), Tyler Best (CFA’26), and Kal Lee (CFA’26).

“These are six really interesting individual stories, six people with goals that I know I didn’t have as well-formed as they do, when I was 21 or 22,” said Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, who was one of the three award judges, at the event. "These are amazing plans, which does my heart good. They have to do with putting good things back into the world, and not just your own personal accomplishment. We need more people like you.” ❤️

Read more about the 2026 Kahn Award recipients ➡️ http://spr.ly/6185BB1Bq7

Music Educators! Would you like to take an intensive week long summer course at Boston University? Online and in-person options available.
https://www.bu.edu/summer/courses/music/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=257236971&gbraid=0AAAAAD9VUtFfw9IBUkOnhar7DXYkwE5FV&gclid=CjwKCAjw7vzOBhBxEiwAc7WNrwxHrW68D6g1tib7tn6vkaW_k8qAcQo5EQUzPPQ4eXuu2MtrDDR3QhoCcSoQAvD_BwE

Carnegie Hall Shines a Spotlight on BU School of Music Students

Carnegie Hall is to classical music what LaScala and the Metropolitan Opera are to opera singers and what Radio City Music Hall is to the Rockettes. Since its opening in 1891, such luminaries as Pablo Casals, Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Marian Anderson, and Duke Ellington have graced its stages.

And now nine College of Fine Arts School of Music students can add their names to that storied roster. On March 24, the BU singers and musicians performed on the stage of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as this year’s Boston University Spotlight featured artists. The annual showcase drew a crowd of students, faculty, alumni, and local concert goers.

The musicians—violinist Jisoo Kim (CFA’30), tubaist Grayson Hinrichs (CFA’27), violist Freya Downey (CFA’26), tenor ShuangXiang Shan (CFA’26), pianist Yifang Xu (CFA’29), flutist Ying Jin (CFA’27), violinist Andy OuYang (CFA’29), tenor Heming Cao (CFA’27), and pianist Ethan McGrath (CFA’29)—performed an exciting program of works by contemporary composers, including Joan Tower, Claire Sievers, and Young Jo Lee. (Franz Liszt was the one 19th-century composer included). Each of this year’s selected performers had participated in a multistage competition run by the School of Music. Finalists selected from each department (voice, keyboards, strings, and woodwinds/brass/percussion) then competed before a panel of outside judges, all renowned musicians. Michelle LaCourse, a CFA associate professor of music and chair of strings, served as Spotlight Concert artistic director.

Photographer Tom Tranfaglia was on hand to capture the students’ virtuosic performances. Take a look here:

Carnegie Hall Shines a Spotlight on BU School of Music Students Photos capture a dazzling evening of solos performed by competition winners

Are you near Boston or in town the weekend of April 13?

Experience a night of musical brilliance at Symphony Hall as 's ensembles unite for a powerful celebration of artistry, tradition, and innovation. ✨ 🎶

presents the Boston University Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Chorus, and Symphony Orchestra for a special evening concert on Monday, April 13, at 7:30pm at Boston’s Symphony Hall, one of the world’s most renowned concert venues.

From the vibrant rhythms of Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances to the spiritual grandeur of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, this program honors both the past and the pulse of contemporary creativity.

The evening culminates with Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9, bringing together the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Chorus, and soloists in the timeless “Ode to Joy.”

📅 Monday, April 13
🕐 7:30pm
📍 Symphony Hall, Boston 301 Massachusetts Ave
🎟️ Tickets on sale now here:

Boston University ensembles unite for a one-night concert at Symphony Hall | College of Fine Arts Boston University ensembles unite for a one-night concert at Symphony HallThe special evening at Boston's historic Symphony Hall, on Monday, April 13, features Boston University Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Chorus, and Symphony Orchestra CFA Students Boston University ensembles unite for a one-night con...

How I Made This is a series from BU Today that explores how Boston University students create their works of art—be it a musical composition, a fiber sculpture, a short story, a painting, and beyond. Are you part of BU’s creative community? Tell us about your work here:

Campus Artists—Tell Us About Your Work We’re looking for student-artists to feature in How I Made This, a series that celebrates BU’s creative community

Congratulations to BU Music Education recent alum, Jonathan Dillon, who has won the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Action Research Best Dissertation Award for 2026. This award will be presented to Dillon at this year’s AERA conference in Los Angeles. We are told that there was a very competitive pool of nominees and It is lovely and deserving for Dillon’s work to be honored within the larger field of educational research.

Dillon’s dissertation is "ON THE PURPOSE(S) OF ELEMENTARY GENERAL MUSIC EDUCATION: AN EXPLORATION OF SUBJECT-NESS AMONG CHILDREN ENGAGED IN A WORLD-CENTERED CURRICULUM PROJECT."

Read it here: https://open.bu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/688cbb7d-b6d3-4b42-aaf8-b4d8a03d336b/content

Could this summer be the start of your next chapter? If you're a music educator looking for a 100% online master's program, then it just might be - at Boston University.

BU's Online MM in Music Education program is 100% asynchronous and can be completed in just 18 months. This comprehensive and collaborative online Master’s program prepares students for working effectively within contemporary music and education landscapes- without uprooting their lives.

Make this summer one to remember with Boston University!

Online MM Music Education | College of Fine Arts The online Master of Music (MM) in Music Education at BU School of Music is built on theory-to-practice learning. Boston University’s graduate programs in music education have been created for the continuing growth of forward-thinking leaders and educators who serve as advocates for the importance...