Robert Belser, Professor of Music, is the Director of Bands at the University of Wyoming and conductor of the UW Wind Symphony and Community Concert Band.
A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Bob began his musical training on trumpet then on euphonium. He earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) and taught public school instrumental and choral music in central Missouri. Belser served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Illinois where he studied with Harry Begian, Gary Smith, and Dan Perantoni, and earned the Master of Science in Music Education degree. He was Assistant Director of Bands at Eastern Kentucky University and served as Director of Bands at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, directing the concert band, athletic bands, and teaching music education and music appreciation courses. Bob was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from The University of Iowa where he was a student of Myron Welch. His conducting and teaching has also been greatly influenced through conducting symposia with Craig Kirchhoff, John Paynter, and Mallory Thompson.
Belser is in demand as a clinician and conductor throughout the country, Canada, and Western Europe. Under his baton, the UW Wind Symphony brings masterworks and innovative repertory to campus audiences, tours in outreach performances in the Rocky Mountain region, has performed for the prestigious Western/Northwestern Division conference of College Band Directors National Association in 2000, and again in 2012. He and the UW Wind Symphony are advocates for new music for winds and have been praised for the “fearless enthusiasm the group seems to put into its modern music repertoire.” Belser is also the conductor of the popular Wyoming Ambassadors of Music Concert Band, and Tour Director for their bi-annual tours of Europe. He is a contributing author for chapters for the “Teaching Musicianship Through Performance in Band” series of texts. His research on original band literature associated with The Goldman Band of New York City has been used in band history courses at several universities, and The Goldman Band also used Belser’s research for their 75th Anniversary season of performances. In his leadership of the UW Bands, the program has grown to include three concert bands, annual chamber concert series of a faculty-student wind ensemble, the 180-strong Western Thunder Marching Band, and two UW Pep Bands, as well as maintaining and growing a loyal donor base for the band program. Belser serves nationally as the President of the Northwest Division of College Band Directors National Conference. He is the Director of the Laramie Municipal Band presenting a summer concert-in-the-park series of 7 concerts each year, served for 8 years as a Trustee on the Albany County District 1 School Board, and continues to serve as music minister at his church.
In addition to conducting, Bob also teaches the music education courses of Instrumentation and Arranging, Introduction to Musical Life, Brass Methods, Form and Analysis, plus graduate conducting and literature courses. Belser serves on numerous department and college committees. He was awarded the prestigious John P. “Jack” Ellbogen Award for Meritorious Classroom teaching in 2000, and has served multiple times as a teaching excellence panelist for the UW Center for Teaching and Learning. He was honored with the 2001 “Warming the Chill” Award for promoting and maintaining positive classroom teaching in an atmosphere of respect for diversity. His colleagues in Wyoming honored Dr. Belser by naming him the 2004 Bandmaster of the Year, awarded by Phi Beta Mu, and he was named to the Lee’s Summit High School Hall of Fame for 2004. In 2008, Belser was named “Top Prof” at the University of Wyoming, and twice named a Top 10 Teacher in the College of Arts and Sciences. He was also awarded the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus, nominated by the Department of Music, at his alma mater, the University of Central Missouri.
Dr. David Brinkman received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in Music Education. His background includes extensive teaching experience as a public school band director. Dr. Brinkman served as the Coordinator of Music Education, Graduate Coordinator and Department Head as well as teaching music education and related courses for the University of Wyoming. His research interests include musical creativity, teacher education, and folk music and he has published articles in the Journal of Music Teacher Education, Canadian Music Educator, Journal of Creative Behavior, and Devil's Box. Dr. Brinkman was editor for the Music In Its Time series from Greenwood Press.
Dr. Brinkman is a published composer and arranger, and received the Wyoming Arts Council 2002 Composition Fellowship. Compositions include Dreams and Dances for the Premieres of the Millennium series for the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and Wyoming Is Calling Me for the UW Singing Statesmen.
Dr. Brinkman was a member of a regional touring ensemble Turtle Creek Bluegrass and the local band Big Hollow in which he played banjo and fiddle. In retirement, Dr. Brinkman continues to compose and to perform in various folk ensembles.
Rodney Garnett, professor emeritus in the Department of Music at the University of Wyoming, studied flute with Karen Yonovitz, Larry Jordan, Geoffrey Gilbert, and Thomas Nyfenger. He has worked extensively as a free-lance musician in orchestras, jazz and chamber music ensembles, folk music ensembles, and recording studios. Garnett continues to be an active performer and teacher, utilizing many styles and forms of flutes that include early nineteenth century European instruments and Moldovan nai. He has performed extensively at the University and around the state of Wyoming, regionally with classical guitarist Alex Komodore, nationally with the Irish Folk Ensemble Colcannon, and as a soloist at the Boxwood Festival in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. His Laramie-based quartet “Lights Along the Shore” with clarinetist Blake McGee, pianist Lisa Rickard, and percussionist Steve Barnhart, performs original compositions and arrangements of folk and classical melodies from around the world, and released its second CD in 2015.
Garnett is a recipient of the 2003 Wyoming Governor's Arts Award, the 2008 University of Wyoming Internationalization Award, and was the 2007 University of Wyoming Presidential Speaker. He completed the PhD in Anthropology in 2014 and is continuing to collaborate with colleagues around the world to learn more about human cultural creativity and the embodiment of aesthetic responses in daily life. His dissertation work focused on the highly relational aspects of aural musical learning in the Republic of Moldova. Garnett’s ethnographic study in Moldova was supported by the Seibold Professorship grant from the University of Wyoming, College of Arts and Sciences, and a research grant from the United States Fulbright Program.
A native Iowan, Dr. Hensel began his musical education at the Interlochen Arts Academy; he then received his B.A. in Music from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hensel furthered his academic career by earning the D.M.A. and the M.M. in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he also earned the prestigious Performer's Certificate.
A dedicated recitalist, Dr. Hensel was invited to sing on NYU's Samuel Barber Centennial Celebration Concert, with Dr. Grant Wenaus, piano. He performed with acclaimed artistic collaborator Martin Katz at UW and took part in a complete, staged performance of Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch at the Songfest Festival in Los Angeles where he also coached with Martin Katz.
Possessing a flair for comedy, he made his European opera debut in a comprimrio role in a rare performance of Shostakovich's opera The Nose, at the Spoleto Festival, Spoleto, Italy. Dr. Hensel returned to Spoleto to sing another comprimrio role in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street, directed by the composer, which was subsequently recorded live on the British Chandos label.
He has appeared regionally with Opera Ft. Collins in their productions of Sondheim's A Little Night Music (Fredrik) and Bernstein's Candide (Maximillian). And at UW he has sung and directed UWSO's staged concert versions of Verdi's La Traviata (Dottore Grenvil), Mozart's Cos fan tutte (Don Alfonso) and Donizetti's Don Pasquale (Dr. Malatesta). Hensel has also performed roles with Nashville Opera and Tennessee Opera Theatre.
Dr. Hensel is a member of NATS, and a former President and Web Master for the Colorado/Wyoming NATS Chapter. He is also a member of the National Opera Association, the College Music Society, and is a teaching member of Alexander Technique International. Opera in a Gym is now a member of Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, a subsidiary of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young Audiences.
James Przygocki is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Wyoming, having retired from his tenured faculty position in December 2022 after a long and productive career. He continues to be active as a teacher, performer, clinician and adjudicator.
While on the UW faculty, Professor Przygocki taught viola and violin at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Along with his studio teaching, Prof. Przygocki also taught courses in music education, string education and violin and viola pedagogy and conducted the UW Chamber Orchestra.
Throughout his career, Prof. Przygocki also has taught pre-college students from the youngest beginners to advanced students preparing for a career in the profession. With his wife Sherry Sinift, he helped to establish the String Academy of Wyoming, a Suzuki-style program for students from age 4 through high school. In 2000 they received a grant from the American String Teachers Association to establish the University of Wyoming String Project, a teacher-training and pre-college program that flourished at UW for more than 20 years. This program, recognized by ASTA with an award for excellence, grew to an enrollment of over 130 students and more than 100 UW students received training and experience through their work with this program.
In addition to his work at UW, Prof. Przygocki has taught at String Academy of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the Indiana University Summer String Academy and the IU Retreat for Professional Violinists and various summer music camps and festivals.
As a conductor, Prof. Przygocki has directed the Lake Michigan Youth Orchestra in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony and directed orchestras at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and the String Academy of Wisconsin. He continues to be a frequent guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator, directing orchestras and working with students at every level.
Throughout his career, Prof. Przygocki has maintained a busy performing life as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. His experience includes performances in Europe, China, Brazil, Canada and around the U.S. and at numerous festivals. Solo appearances have included performances with the Goias (Brazil) Philharmonic, the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra and the University of Wyoming Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. He has served as principal viola for the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra for three decades.
His recordings include a CD of music by Louise Talma on the CRI label, and his recording of Camargo Guarnieri's Viola Sonata is on a CD that accompanies Guarnieri's biography, published by Indiana University Press. His recording with the Summit Chamber Players of the music of Felix Draeseke and Arnold Krug entitled Homage to Stelzner is on the AK/Coburg label.
Much of Prof. Przygocki's work is inspired by his interest in string pedagogy. This has resulted in numerous articles, publications, residencies, workshops and masterclasses. For many years, Prof. Przygocki has taught at the Indiana University Retreat for Professional Violinists and Violists. Other highlights have included an 8-week online artist residency for the American Viola Society and masterclasses at the national ASTA conference, Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University, the Shanghai Conservatory, the University of Brasilia, and at schools and programs around the U.S. and internationally.
Prof. Przygocki has presented at numerous conferences, including several American String Teachers Association (ASTA) national conferences. His articles have been published in American String Teacher, and he has served as editor of the Violin Forum for that publication. He has contributed to the book Teaching Music through Performance and several of his viola transcriptions have been published by One World Strings.
An enthusiastic advocate for the viola and for string education, Jim Przygocki has held leadership positions in numerous professional organizations. He is a founding member, long-time board member and past president of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the American Viola Society and a founding board member and past president of the National String Project Consortium. He has held leadership positions with the American String Teachers Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Music Teachers National Association and the Wyoming Music Educators Association and the Wyoming chapter of ASTA.
Prof. Przygocki’s education includes a Bachelor of Music degree in music education and violin from Western Michigan University and a Master of Music degree in viola performance from Indiana University. He has studied viola with Mimi Zweig and Jerry Horner, violin with Gerald Fischbach, chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky and pedagogy with Mimi Zweig. He has also studied chamber music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with the Fine Arts Quaret and at the Banff Center for the Arts.
Dr. Katrina Zook is a passionate and dedicated voice builder. Her students have trained in pre-professional programs and sung with companies in the US and abroad including Oberlin in Italy, Opera NEO (San Diego), Boston Opera, Boulder Opera, Buxton Opera (England), Regina Opera (New York), Apollo Opera Theatre of Syros (Greece), Ópera Teatro Sãn Pedro (Brazil), Festival Amazones de Ópera (Brazil), Opera Iowa, Des Moines Metro Opera, Pensacola Opera, and Opera San José. Others have sung lead roles in Broadway national touring productions and have earned first place awards including the Bidu Sayão International Voice Competition in Brazil.
Dr. Zook was awarded the prestigious UW Seibold Professorship, a year-long sabbatical which afforded opportunity to pursue concentrated studies in vocal anatomy and physiology, vocal acoustics, and Vocology. Her interest in voice science was further supported through a competitive College of Arts and Sciences Interdisciplinary Seed Grant which led to founding the UW Vocology Laboratory, now housed in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts. Along with colleagues Dr. Holly Dalrymple (Choral Music Education) and Dr. David L. Jones (Communication Disorders and Interim Dean of the College of Health Sciences), Dr. Zook conducts voice assessments and research studies on myriad issues related to the science of the singing voice.
As a lyric mezzo-soprano, her operatic performance credits include leading roles in Hansel and Gretel, Così fan Tutte, Carmen, Albert Herring, Falstaff, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Old Maid and the Thief, Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. She performed three seasons with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and was a featured soloist with the Singing Men of Ohio during tour appearances in Virginia, Indiana, and Washington, D.C. Having a keen interest in contemporary music, she has premiered works for the Prisms New Music Ensemble, the Los Angeles Composer's Forum, the International Computer Music Society, and New Frontiers: Laramie Contemporary Music Project. Dr. Zook has given guest artist recitals in Ohio, Virginia, New York, Colorado, South Dakota, south-central Brazil, and The Netherlands. Recent performances include collaborations with the UW Symphony Orchestra, UW Chamber Orchestra, UW Wind Symphony, Wyoming Jazz Ensemble, Cheyenne Symphony, Wyoming Symphony, Cheyenne Chamber Singers, Voices West, and the Larimer Chorale.
Dr. Zook earned the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she was also awarded the Performer's Certificate in Voice. She holds the Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, and the Master of Arts degree in Vocal Performance from the University of California-Santa Barbara. Zook also advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in historical musicology at UCSB where her primary research interest was 16th century Dutch Mennonite hymnody. At UW, Dr. Zook teaches Studio Voice, Vocal Pedagogy, Freshman Voice Studio, Historical Perspectives II, and Music in the Classical Period. UW teaching recognition includes the Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award, Top Prof Award, Extraordinary Merit in Teaching Award, and two PIE Awards (Promoting Intellectual Engagement in the Classroom). She is the faculty advisor for SNATS (Student Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing). Dr. Zook is currently Associate Chair for the Department of Music and serves as Graduate Studies Coordinator.
