KU School of Music to welcome new dean

LAWRENCE - KU's School of Music recently named Robert Walzel, director of the School of Music at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, as its new dean of music. Walzel will succeed Interim Dean Alicia Clair, who has served since July 1, 2009.

Walzel has been director at Utah since 2001 and previously held a similar position at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He was a faculty member for 11 years at Texas Tech University and served as principal clarinetist of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician with the Ensemble of Santa Fe, Dallas String Quartet, Texas Clarinet Consort, Intermezzo, Clear Lake Chamber Music Society and the Society for the Performing Arts in Houston. He also has performed as a soloist in Europe, Asia, Africa and Central America. With pianist Steven Glaser, Walzel has toured as an artistic ambassador for the United States Information Agency.

"I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the traditions of great music-making and music-learning that have been such an integral component of your outstanding institution for so many years," Walzel said. "Since attending the Midwest Music and Art Camp back in the early 1970s as a junior high student, I have enjoyed a fondness for everything about KU."

The KU School of Music was established in 2009 after the fine arts departments were reorganized.