Faculty
Dr. Kimberly Lansinger Ankney
Ankney is associate professor and director of music education at Christopher Newport University. Her work focuses on creative teaching approaches in music education, responsive pedagogy, preservice teacher development and string education. She is the co-author of Music Discovery: Improvisation for the Large Ensemble and Music Classroom published by Oxford University Press. She has research studies in Advances in Music Education Research and Visions of Research in Music Education, and has written chapters and books for major publishers. Prior to teaching in higher education, Ankney taught instrumental music in Montgomery County, Maryland and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She enjoys working with music students and educators to broaden their musical thinking and to encourage creativity in the ensemble and music classroom.
Michael Byerly
Byerly is principal clarinetist of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and adjunct professor of clarinet at Christopher Newport University. Originally from Oregon, he studied clarinet with William McColl and Yehuda Gilad, completing degrees at the University of Washington and the University of Southern California and earning an artist diploma at the Colburn School. As a soloist, he won First Prize at the International Clarinet Association Young Artist Competition and the Pasadena Showcase House Competition. Before moving to Virginia, he spent three years in Nishinomiya, Japan, as a member of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, and he served for two seasons as principal clarinetist of the Tucson Symphony.
Rebecca Gilmore
Gilmore, a classically trained professional musician, is assistant principal cellist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, where she has been a featured soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and in chamber music with JoAnn Falletta, an NPR Broadcast of Schubert’s Guitar Quartet. With the Virginia Arts Festival, her string quartet, Ambrosia Quartet, was featured in concert with internationally acclaimed pianist, Olga Kern. As soloist, Gilmore has most recently performed the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Old Dominion University Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Eastern Shore. Having performance degrees from Indiana and Rice Universities, Gilmore continues to seek the highest quality in performing and recording as a Spotify artist, to grow as a performing artist (expanding the palette into electric cello performance, solo cello classi-crossover) and to create connections. As a mentor to college-age students and to younger students she draws from both traditional and completed SAA Suzuki training. With her students, she shares her entrepreneurial spirit and the art of cello performance. Yoga with cello grew out combining two passions, yoga & cello. A Yoga Alliance member and trained RYT 200, Gilmore has begun a community outreach of live music in the yoga studio, further expanding her circle, leading to outdoor winter performances on her box cello from the back of her lit-up van.
Dr. Chelsey Hamm
Hamm earned her PhD in music theory from Indiana University, where she completed her dissertation titled "Charles Ives and Democracy: Association, Borrowing, and Treatment of Dissonance in His Music" in 2016. Dr. Hamm also holds a MM in music theory and composition from Florida State University and BMs in music education, horn performance and music theory from Ithaca College. Her research, much of which intersects both music theory and musicology, focuses on theories of musical meaning and criticism, text and musical relationships, and 20th-century music, especially that of Charles Ives. She also has several additional areas of scholarly expertise, including the history of music theory, especially with regards to medieval music theory documents, music theory pedagogy, and theoretical investigations that examine questions of listener experiences, whether they are expressive, hermeneutic, or phenomenological. Hamm has essays published in the Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, Indiana Theory Review, The Horn Call, Revista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale, and Histories and Narratives of Music Analysis. Hamm is also the author of the Fundamentals chapters in Open Music Theory.
Dr. Nathan Harter
A lifelong Hoosier, Harter graduated from Butler University and the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University. He practiced as an attorney for five years in a small town, before joining the faculty of Purdue University in the Department of Organizational Leadership. After 22 years, he arrived at Christopher Newport University in 2011 as a full professor in leadership studies. To date, he has published four books on leadership, with two more under contract with Cambridge University Press and Routledge. For six years, he served as director of interdisciplinary studies. His three adult children serve as a prosecuting attorney back in Indiana, a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army recently deployed to Afghanistan and a marketing specialist for a nonprofit in Arlington. His two grandchildren were born during the pandemic, with another due this year.
Allegra Havens
Havens is a graduate of Boston University (BFA) and Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts (MM). She has been a member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Virginia Opera for over 30 years and is a founding member of the Harbor String Quartet, a professionally active chamber ensemble. She performs regularly with Virginia Musical Theater well as Broadway on Tour productions. Currently she serves as the electric violinist with Windborne's Music of Led Zeppelin throughout the U.S. and Canada. Allegra is on the faculty at Virginia Wesleyan University as well as the Governor's School for the Arts. In fall 2021, she served as a visiting professor at Christopher Newport University. When not performing or teaching, Havens enjoys volunteering with the Golden Retriever Rescue and cheering for the Boston Red Sox. She lives in Virginia Beach with her husband and various rescued golden retrievers.
Dr. Rachel J. Holland
Holland is an accomplished teacher, experienced clinician and sought-after soprano soloist. Her students have gone on to prestigious graduate programs and grace the stages around the nation. Holland has presented numerous workshops and masterclasses and has acted as executive director of the Torggler Vocal Institute, which brings students from around the world to participate in an immersive experience featuring leading professionals in opera and music theater. In addition, Holland is an active presenter, focusing on aspects of classical voice pedagogy and technique, and vocal literature. Most recently, Holland has focused on research which explores the intersection of voice and brass pedagogy, most recently presenting at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in December 2021. Other conference presentations include papers presented on national schools of singing and stylistic literature, the vocal literature of Puerto Rico, and a published article on the Estonian choral tradition. As a soprano soloist, Holland is frequently featured at both regional and national performing organizations around the country. Her operatic credits include two of Mozart’s most stoic heroines, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, as well as such 20th century heroines as the title role in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, and Puccini’s most beloved heroines: Madama Butterfly and Tosca. Holland’s concert credits also span a wide range of styles, including Verdi’s Requiem, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Richard Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder, Mendolssohn’s Elijah and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. She has performed nationally with such companies as the Virginia Opera Association, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Indianapolis Opera, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Cedar Rapids Symphony and the Sioux City Symphony, among others. International credits include appearance in venues, including Oxford University; the Mannheimer Schlosskirche in Mannheim, Germany; the Rialto Theater in Limassol, Cyprus; and Latvijas Universitat in Riga, Latvia; and the Eesti Kontserdimajad in Tallinn, Estonia, among others. Holland earned her DM in vocal performance and literature from Indiana University, studying with Costanza Cuccaro. She currently serves as the director of vocal studies and associate professor of voice at Christopher Newport University.
Dr. Seung-Hye Kim
Kim, lecturer of composition and keyboard at Christopher Newport, is a pianist and composer of both acoustic and electroacoustic music. Kim earned a PhD in music composition from the University of Florida, an MA in electroacoustic music composition from the Korean National University of Arts, and a BA in piano performance from Seoul National University. Her works have received awards from competitions staged by the Korean Electro-Acoustic Music Society and the Italy Percussive Arts Society, as well as inclusion on the SEAMUS CD Series (vol. 16). Her work has also been selected for presentation at numerous conferences in the US and abroad including the Society of Composers Conferences, the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, Listening In the Sound Kitchen, Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the US, The 3rd Practice, Women’s Electro-Acoustic Listening Room, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference, Siggraph and Synthèse. One of her collaborations, Global Drift, for real-time audio visual installation/performance, was performed in Brisbane, Australia as part of the international large-scale artistic project Accented Body.
Dr. Mark Reimer
Reimer is distinguished professor of music, the George and Mary Torggler Professor of Music, and director of music at Christopher Newport University. The 2011 recipient of the Alumni Society Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, Reimer conducts the Wind Ensemble and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and wind literature. Reimer earned the bachelor of music education degree from Drake University where he was voted “Most Outstanding Senior” by the music faculty, the master of music degree in wind conducting and literature from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he served as the assistant conductor of the CCM Brass Choir, and the doctor of music degree in wind conducting and literature from Indiana University, the first student to earn this degree. Reimer founded the International Symposia for Emerging Conductors, co-founded the Journal of Performing Arts Leadership in Higher Education, and has published articles in the leading international wind band magazines and journals. He is president of the national music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda, past president of the College Division of the Virginia Music Educators Association, past province governor of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and an accreditation visitation team chair for the National Association of Schools of Music.
Dr. Amy Vocu
After undergraduate studies in communication disorders at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, Vocu earned her doctor of audiology at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona. Board certified with a certificate of clinical competence in audiology, since 2011. Motivated by a desire to work with individuals with hearing loss in a medical setting, Vocu enjoys the combination of patient care and technology offered by her role as an audiologist. She specializes in testing for central auditory processing disorder, working with pediatrics and adults including patients with concussions/traumatic brain injuries. With a hearing loss of her own, Vocu has personal experience with wearing hearing aids. Recognizing the emotional, social and physical effect of hearing loss and other ear disorders, her medical philosophy is based on treating the patient as a whole person. Having a father in the U.S. Air Force meant that Vocu frequently moved around throughout her childhood until high school, when her family moved to Virginia, a place she now considers home.