To meet the needs of a growing Southwest Florida artistic community, Florida Gulf Coast University will offer Bachelor of Arts degrees in music for fall 2006.

Nancy Cobb-Lippens | Michael Baron | Rod Chesnutt | Jeanie Darnell | Debra Hess

Nancy Cobb-Lippens, D.M.A.
Founding Director of Music

Contact Information:

Nancy Cobb-Lippens, D.M.A.
Office: Reed Hall 222
Phone: 239-590-7374
Email: ncobb@fgcu.edu

Michael Baron, D.M.A.
Associate Professor of Music, Piano

Contact Information:

Michael Baron, D.M.A.
Office: Arts Complex 116
Phone: 239-590-7209
Email: mbaron@fgcu.edu

Michael Baron, Associate Professor of Music, heads the piano area of the university music program while teaching courses in applied and class piano. An award-winning concert pianist, Baron performs more than forty concerts each year, including annual tours of Europe and engagements throughout the United States . Equally at home as a recitalist, a soloist with orchestra, and a chamber musician, Baron commands a diverse repertoire, ranging from Baroque compositions to world premieres of contemporary works. His virtuosity and musicianship regularly garner the highest critical acclaim. Il Tempo ( Rome ) praised his “spellbinding recital. Baron kept the audience enthralled with a combination of touching poetry and superhuman virtuosity.” Baron holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from The Ohio State University where he studied with legendary American pianist Earl Wild. He also worked extensively in Italy with renowned pianist Orazio Frugoni.

A distinguished educator, Dr. Baron was formerly Artist-in-Residence, Head of Keyboard Studies, and a tenured Associate Professor of Music at Mesa State College in Grand Junction , Colorado . He has also taught at the State University of New York, Beloit College , and The Ohio State University. Among others, Baron has presented masterclasses for Music Teachers National Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the Crested Butte Chamber Music Festival. He has served as a jurist for numerous competitions including the Jefferson Symphony National Music Competition, Competition Internationalé, Rocky Mountain Competition, Pikes Peak MTNA Competition, American Piano Guild Competition, Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra Competition and Capella Musicale.

Rod Chesnutt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Music, Band/Instrumental Music

Contact Information:

Rod Chesnutt, Ph.D
Office: Reed Hall 242
Phone: 239-590-7188
Email: rchesnut@fgcu.edu

Rod M. Chesnutt is associate professor of instrumental music at Florida Gulf Coast University where he is responsible for those components of the university music program while teaching courses in music education, wind literature and conducting. He holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Tennessee Technological University , a master's degree in trombone performance from Arkansas State University , and a Ph.D. in music education with an emphasis in wind conducting from Florida State University . Previously, he served as chair of the Division of Ensembles and Conducting and director of Symphonic and marching bands at the University of Northern Iowa . He was also the director of bands at Mississippi State University and the State University of West Georgia. Additionally, he served as Music Director/Conductor of the Starkville/MSU Symphony Orchestra and served as the assistant director of bands and the director of the Cornhusker Marching Band at the University of Nebraska . While at the University of Nebraska , the Cornhusker Marching Band received the Sudler Trophy for outstanding contributions among the nation's university bands. Prior to teaching at the university level, Dr. Chesnutt built superior-rated bands in the public schools of Trumann and Blytheville , Arkansas . He was recognized as an Outstanding Young Man of America in 1988, Who's Who in American Education 2006, Who's Who in America 2006 and received the National Music Clubs' Award of Merit in 1991.

As a clinician and adjudicator, Dr. Chesnutt has appeared throughout the United States . He is also an arranger of note having studied with Robert Jager and Jared Spears and his arrangements have been performed by such accomplished ensembles as the New Columbia Wind Band, the U.S. Army Band [Pershing's Own], Florida State University Symphonic Band, Syracuse University Wind Ensemble and the University of Nebraska Wind Ensemble. He has been actively involved in commissioning and premiering new music for winds including works by Michael Colgrass, Eric Ewazen, David Maslanka, Paul Richards, Robert W. Smith, Philip Sparke, and Jack Stamp.

Jeanie Darnell, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Music, Voice

Contact Information:

Jeanie Darnell, D.M.A.
Office: Arts Complex 117
Phone: 239-590-7548
Email: jdarnell@fgcu.edu

Jeanie Darnell, Assistant Professor of Music, heads the voice area while teaching courses in Applied Voice, Diction and Music Literature. As a concert artist Darnell has been hailed by critics throughout the United States and in Europe for her “wonderfully bell-like tones” ( Wertheimer Zeitung ). A regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1998, she recently performed as soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and presented songs by featured composers Richard Hundley and Lori Laitman at the “Songs Across the Americas Festival” in 2006. She sang the title role in Suor Angelica with the Operafestival di Roma in Italy , and is in demand as soprano soloist of major concert and oratorio repertoire. She has appeared as soprano soloist in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Omaha Symphony, Bach's B Minor Mass at the Denver Bach Festival, Mozart's Dominican Vespers with the Arkansas Chamber Orchestra, and Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Lindsborg Messiah Festival in Kansas .

Dr. Darnell completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2002 while already heading the voice area as Assistant Professor of Music at University of Nebraska at Omaha . She has lectured on recital repertoire from Schubert to Berg at College Music Society (CMS) conferences, and she has performed the songs of Robert Boury in CMS recital performances. She also presented her research on “The Songs of Robert Boury” at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Conference in Minneapolis in 2006, and on “Training Male Adolescent Voices in Private Studio” at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Vancouver , British Columbia in August 2005.

In 2004 Darnell was selected to participate in the NATS Intern Program under the master teacher Dr. Robert McIvor, Chair of Vocal Studies at Eastman School of Music. Darnell also has served on faculty at Ouachita Baptist University , the University of Arkansas at Little Rock , the University of Central Arkansas , and Arkansas Technological University , and worked as a Part-time Graduate Instructor of Voice while at the University of Colorado-Boulder . Her voice pupils have placed at district and regional NATS Student Auditions and university sponsored voice competitions, and have been chosen to participate in summer internships and programs such as the Stephen Foster's Story Music Festival, the Memphis Playhouse, and Operafestival di Roma.

Debra Hess, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

Contact Information:

Debra Hess, Ph.D.
Office: Whitaker Hall 223
Phone: 239-590-7233
Email: dhess@fgcu.edu

Debra Hess has been a member of the FGCU faculty since 2000. She currently serves as the Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. She holds both an MFA in Sacred Music and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in the College Teaching of Music History and Literature from the University of Florida where she studied under David Z. Kushner. Her dissertation, The Pedagogical Works of Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner , centered on musical life in the early 1800s in Boston , Massachusetts . Her other research interests include the early development of musical institutions and sacred music in the United States in the nineteenth century. Hess has presented papers on her research at regional and international conferences. She has been invited to present a paper at the International Musicological Society in Zurich , Switzerland in July 2007.

Besides her musicology interests, Hess is also an active organist. She has participated in numerous organ recitals through the years as well as serving as music director and organist for various congregations in Florida , Texas and Missouri .

Her music history teaching philosophy states:

“It is essential that music students are able to connect the rich history of musical compositions to their own solo and ensemble performing experiences. The study of music history is much more than a memorization of dates and names. It is the study of music in its original context and includes an appreciation for the sociological, philosophical and artistic forces that shaped its composition and the performance practices of each era. Music is not a cloistered art. To the extent that we can understand how music reflects and is directly affected by the conditions and issues of its day, we will become better interpreters and therefore ultimately better performers and conductors.”