Music Faculty

Chair
Tony Perman
Associate Professor

Director of Zimbabwean Mbira Ensemble

Tony Perman (ethnomusicology) is a specialist in the music of Zimbabwe and the semiotics of music and emotion. He has received degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (PhD), the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (MMus), and Kenyon College (BA). Before coming to...
Applied Music Associate

Guitar

Claudia Anderson
Applied Music Associate Lecturer

Flute and Director of the Grinnell College Fresh Flutes Ensemble

Claudia Anderson is known for her originality and brilliance as a solo and chamber music performer across the U.S. She is a founding member of the innovative flute duo ZAWA! and of New Prairie Camerata, a chamber initiative based in Grinnell that showcased the community's historical and...
Jennifer Brown
Associate Professor

Director of Collegium Musicum

Jennifer Williams Brown (musicology) is a specialist in the history and performance of Baroque music, particularly 17th-century Italian opera. Her research focuses on decoding clues in 17th-century manuscript and printed sources, then making the results accessible to modern performers, students, and...
Fred Buck
Applied Music Associate

Banjo

Fred Buck is currently a AMA of Music at Grinnell College, where he currently teaches banjo, resphonic guitar (Dobro) and mandolin. He played piano and accordion in his youth and became interested in old time and bluegrass music and has become proficient in most of the old time time instruments...
Jee-Weon Cha
Associate Professor
Jee-Weon Cha is a music theorist with interests in analysis and interpretation of 19th- and 20th-century music, music perception and cognition, music aesthetics and semiotics, and the history of music theory. He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in Music History and Theory)...
Applied Music Associate

Bass

Rob Clower
Applied Music Associate

Bagpipe

Rob Clower has been teaching Highland bagpipes for more than 40 years. His students play in pipe bands throughout that U.S. and abroad, many also competing successfully as soloists. In 2007, Rob founded Turlach Ur, now the largest band in Iowa. Under his direction, Turlach Ur enjoyed a highly...
Applied Music Associate

Organ

Applied Music Associate

Harp

Gabriel Espinosa
Lecturer

Applied Music Associate: Jazz Voice and Director of Latin American Jazz Ensemble

Gabriel Espinosa was born in Merida, Mexico. His love of music began at a very young age. With the help of his mother he began playing the guitar at the age of six. By the age of fourteen, along with his brothers Victor and Patricio, Gabriel performed with their group “Los Deltons”, where he played...
Applied Music Associate Lecturer

Violin

Eugene Gaub
Professor Senior Faculty
Pianist Eugene Gaub is Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he teaches courses in music theory as well as piano. He has recently given lecture-recitals for the International Festival of Spanish Keyboard Music, held in Mojácar, Spain, and at the Université Laval in Québec City, with another...
Andrew Gentzsch
Applied Music Associate

Violin

Andrew Gentzsch, a native of Iowa City, is the violin instructor at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa and Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Mr. Gentzsch has led the University of Delaware Chamber Orchestra and the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Mr. Gentzsch received music...
Marlys Grimm
Lecturer
Marlys Grimm attended Sheldon High School and Central College, where she studied piano with Donald Gren. She has collaborated at Dordt, Northwestern, Grinnell and Central colleges in student and faculty recitals. Grimm has accompanied high school, college, community and professional singers...
Headshot of Alan Henson playing cello
Applied Music Associate

Cello

Alan Henson is the cello instructor at Grinnell College and has an active private studio in Ames. He is Principal Cellist of the Central Iowa Symphony, and plays double bass for touring Broadway shows at Des Moines Civic Center. He is former Principal Bassist of the Des Moines, Dubuque, and Waterloo...
Putu Hiranmayena
Assistant Professor
Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena is an Indonesian artist-scholar serving as Assistant Professor of Music (Performance and Creativity), where he directs the Balinese Sound Ensemble and teaches courses on Heavy Metal Music, Electronic Music, and Noise and Activism. He also is a founding member of Balinese...
Barry Jones
Lecturer

Director of the Young, Gifted, and Black Gospel Choir

Barry Jones has been the full-time director for the Young, Gifted, and Black (YGB) Gospel Choir since the fall of 2006. He served the roles of guest director and interim director during the three years prior to his full-time appointment. Barry is also known in the Des Moines, Iowa, community and...
HJJ
Applied Music Associate

Collaborative Pianist

Dr. Hyejin Joo won the gold medal at the Seattle International Piano Competition and top awards from the Wideman, Chautauqua, Indiana University Concerto Competition, Seoul National University Concerto Competition, and the Kumho Art Foundation Audition. She is a member of the Civic Orchestra of...
Mark Laver
Associate Professor

Director of Jazz Ensemble

Saxophonist and ethnomusicologist Mark Laver is an Associate Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he directs the jazz band and teaches classes on jazz and popular music. As a performer, Professor Laver has shared the stage with such leading jazz and improvising artists as Lee Konitz...
Hsin-Hui Liu
Applied Music Associate
Hsin-Hui Liu is a passionate performer who enjoys various musical career as a soloist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, and educator. She has presented solo and collaborative recitals in Austria, Canada, China, Taiwan, and the United States. Liu holds a D.M.A in Piano Performance and...
Taylor Mayne
Applied Music Associate

Voice

Taylor Mayne, an Iowa native, holds a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from the University of Iowa and an Master of Music in voice performance from Ohio University. He is currently on faculty at Grinnell College as an applied music associate in voice, and Drake University as a teaching artist...
Eric McIntyre
Professor

Director of Grinnell Symphony Orchestra

Eric McIntyre maintains careers as a conductor, composer, instrumental performer, and educator. At Grinnell College he teaches music composition courses and directs the Grinnell Symphony Orchestra. He also contributes to Grinnell's Liberal Arts in Prison Program, for which he has presented lectures...
Kara Metzger
Applied Music Associate

Symphonic Band

Kara Metzger is originally from Waukesha, WI. She earned a bachelor’s in music education and a certificate in adaptive music from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and has also earned a master’s degree in music education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. While at UMD, she was a teaching...
Charles Miranda
Applied Music Associate

Viola/Violin

Applied Music Associate

Low Brass

Stacey Ramirez
Applied Music Associate Lecturer

Percussion

Stacey Bostwick-Ramirez is currently a faculty member at Grinnell College and Des Moines Area Community College. She has presented clinics for the Percussive Arts Society and the Illinois Summer Youth Music Festival. Stacey maintains a private teaching studio at Rieman Music and her students have...
John Rommereim
Professor

Blanche Johnson Professor of Music

John Rommereim is Blanche Johnson Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he conducts the Grinnell Singers and the Grinnell Oratorio Society, and teaches composition. His choral works have been performed by distinguished ensembles across the U.S., including Magnum Chorum, the Princeton Singers...
Applied Music Associate

Woodwinds

Pat Smith
Applied Music Associate

Guitar

Pat Smith started playing guitar in 1969 and began teaching in 1974. Growing up in the Chicago area he has always been deeply into Blues and R&B music. Attended two years at Coe College playing in the jazz band and show choir. Graduated from Cornell College in 1987. Many years of professional...
Greg Sojka
Applied Music Associate

Voice

Greg Sojka is delighted to join the Grinnell College music faculty! A native Iowan, Greg spent most of his professional career in the Pacific Northwest, where he was active as a performer, university/private voice instructor, conductor, clinician, writer and administrator. Greg has sung...
Applied Music Associate

Horn

Roger Vetter
Professor Emeritus
Javanese gamelan music is Vetter's primary research area. He has carried out research on this subject in the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta during several visits between 1973 and 2017. These research visits have resulted in published articles on Javanese musical traditions in journals such as...
Cameron Welke holding a lute
Applied Music Associate

Lute

Cameron Welke spends most of his time explaining to well-meaning strangers that the lute is, in fact, quite a different instrument from the flute. He brings a passionate curiosity and a deep creative drive to all manner of historical plucked instruments, which he plays with “expert technical...
Westphalen, Melinda.jpg
Applied Music Associate Lecturer

Piano

Dr. Melinda Westphalen received her Bachelor or Music degree from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she studied with Professor Robert Lawrence. She went on to receive both her Master of Arts and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa, where she...
Applied Music Associate

Voice

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