UAPB Department of Music

We're excited for our students and the great opportunity that this tour represents. If you're able, please contribute and share the love.

Help the Vesper Choir go global...AGAIN! 🌍🎶

During the Share the Love Campaign, your gift helps make our international tour possible.

Give today! ❤️
https://uapb.tfaforms.net/31

Still a fair bit of work to do, but initial installation of curtains and stage lighting is done.
Lots of exciting things to come in 2026. We’ll keep you posted.

Fine Arts Auditorium update: the new stage floor has been completed and installation of seating has begun.

Renovation of the Fine Arts Building Auditorium is well underway. The scaffolding is down and the new stage floor is being installed. Once that’s completed, new seating will be next to be installed.

That’s UAPB alum, Akilah Watts on the cover Pan Pipes. Congratulations!

Catching up on a few items. Congratulations to Bryan Wade who represented UAPB as a member of the 369th Experience.

https://www.369experience.org

It's been a challenging start to the new year. Early last week we lost two from the music department. On Monday, Mr. Charles Law, longtime percussion instructor passed away. On Tuesday, we learned that Mr. Adrain Anderson, a senior SRT major who was set to graduate this semester was taken from us. Please keep their families and loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

Congratulations to UAPB alum, Dr. Rodney Chism.

Chism wins inaugural National Jazz Composition Competition Dr. Rodney D. Chism Sr., director of bands for the Kentucky State University Mighty Marching Thorobred Band, won the inaugural National Jazz Composition Competition for the submission of his original

Lots of catching up to do. Let's start with some congratulations for the following students who performed their senior recitals this last semester. They are Meosha Spraggins, Lauren Rayford, Bryan Wade, Christopher Ivory, Orlando Long, Jadan Moore, Tamiia Liggins, and Adrain Anderson.

The Department of music mourns the passing of Dr. Josephine C. Bell. Dr. Bell served the department as Director of the Choral Society, as Professor of Music, as Department Chair, as a Professor Emerita, and was a driving force for arts advocacy in the Pine Bluff community.

The Arkansas Music Educators Association named Dr. Bell to the ArkMEA Hall of Fame for 2008. This award is presented annually to music educators who have made a significant positive contribution to the improvement of music education in Arkansas.

There will be a memorial service on at 11:00 AM on Tuesday June 11th at St. Luke United Methodist Church, 32 School Street, Pine Bluff, AR.

In lieu of or in addition to flowers, the family asks that you support the Dr. James R. and Dr. Josephine C. Bell Scholarship fund at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Donations can be made here: https://www.uapb.edu/giving/office_of_development.aspx

You are invited to attend the Vesper Choir's Spring Concert at the Arts and Science Center in Downtown Pine Bluff.