ARIZONA WOMAN TO BE
NEW FINE ARTS DEAN AT KU
LAWRENCE - Toni-Marie Montgomery,
an internationally known pianist who currently oversees Arizona
State University's highly rated School of Music, has been named
the new dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of
Kansas, Provost David E. Shulenburger announced today.
Montgomery will succeed
Peter G. Thompson, who was dean for 13 years before stepping
down this summer, on April 3, 2000. Associate dean Carole Ross
will continue to serve as interima dean until that time. "Toni-Marie
Montgomery will bring to KU her extraordinary talents as an
artist, a skilled administrator, a collaborator and visionary
leader,"
Shulenburger said. "She
is an outstanding individual and we are excited to welcome her
to Mount Oread."
Since 1996, Montgomery has
been director of ASU's 750-student School of Music, which has
97 full- and part-time faculty. KU's 108-year-old School of
Fine Arts offers more than 40 undergraduate and graduate major
programs within three academic departments - art, design, and
music and dance. It has 125 faculty members and more than 1,300
students. The school also offers curricula for teachers of music
and art in the elementary and secondary public schools and in
institutions of higher education and offers special curricula
for the training of music therapists. In addition, the school
also operates the Lied Center of Kansas performance center.
"I look forward to working
with the faculty, staff and students to further define the School
of Fine Arts' identity on campus and secure the future of the
school in the state," Montgomery said. "I can think of no opportunity
more significant than beginning the year 2000 as the dean of
the School of Fine Arts at KU."
A Philadelphia native, Montgomery
has doctor of musical arts and master of music degrees in piano
chamber music and accompanying from the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor
of music degree in piano performance from the Philadelphia College
of Performing Arts. In addition, she has studied at the American
Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France; the Summer Institute
for Women in Higher Education at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr,
Pa., and the Harvard Management Development Program at Harvard
University.
Montgomery joined ASU as
associate dean and faculty member in the College of Fine Arts
in 1990. She assumed the directorship of the School of Music
in 1996. She previously was the assistant dean for academic
programs of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut
at Storrs, and the artistic director and assistant director
of the School of Music at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo.
While there, she coordinated the Michigan Youth Arts Festival.
She has performed throughout
the U.S. and in Austria and Brazil. Montgomery also was a founding
member in 1988 of the Black Music Repertory Ensemble of Columbia
College, Chicago. This 15-member ensemble specializes in performing
works by black composers and promotes appreciation for the black
musical heritage. The ensemble has performed at New York City's
Lincoln Center and Chicago's Orchestra Hall, and on NBC-TV's
"Today Show," Cable News Network, National Public Radio's "Performance
Today" series and Public Radio International's "African American
Music Tree" series.
Since 1995, Montgomery has
presented workshops at the National Association of Schools of
Music and International Council of Fine Arts Dean's annual conferences
and served on a panel at the International Association of Jazz
Educators conference. She is a member of both organizations.
She was president of the Faculty Women's Association at ASU
and is a member of the Phoenix Symphony board of directors.
Her numerous awards include
the Outstanding Young Women in America Award; the 1998 Arizona
Black Women's Task Force Arts Award; Who's Who Among Black Americans;
and she is listed in the 1988 publication of American Keyboard
Artists. ______________________________________________________________________
Todd Cohen Assistant Director,
News and Public Issues
Office of University Relations
University of Kansas
