Inaugural Dean

Inaugural Dean
Eileen Strempel
With a wide-ranging career encompassing the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, Dr. Eileen Strempel is the Inaugural Dean of UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music and a Professor in the School of Education and Information Studies. Among her accomplishments is the role of founding a new school driven by a strong commitment to exceptional academic excellence at our nation’s
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Academic Leadership

Professor and Chair of the Department of Music, Director of Choral Studies
James Bass
James K. Bass, three-time GRAMMY®-nominated singer and conductor, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music, and Director of Choral Studies at The Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. He is the Associate Conductor and Director of Education for the Miami-based ensemble Seraphic Fire and is the Artistic Director of the Long Beach Camerata Singers. Bass is an
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Professor of Saxophone, Vice Chair of the Department of Music, and Special Assistant to the Dean for Faculty Mentoring
Jan Berry Baker
Canadian-American saxophonist Jan Berry Baker has performed as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician on many of the world’s great stages.  Recent engagements include performances across the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Scotland, England, Ukraine, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic. She has been featured as a concerto soloist with orchestras in Canada, Ukraine, USA, and most recently
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Chair of Music Industry Program, Professor of Musicology and Humanities (Music Theory, Analysis of Popular Music, Internships and Industry Partnerships)
Robert Fink
Robert Fink is Professor of Musicology and Chair of Music Industry Programs at UCLA, and serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Alpert School of Music. Trained as a music theorist and musicologist, his primary areas of interest include musical analysis, avant-garde and minimal music, popular music studies, timbre and rhythm in music, and the history of electronic
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Professor and Special Assistant to the Inaugural Dean for Curricular Reform
Lily Chen-Hafteck
Lily Chen-Hafteck is currently Professor of Music Education at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Herb Alpert School of Music, USA. She is the Head of Music Education and Special Assistant to the Inaugural Dean for Curricular Reform. She is a Fulbright Scholar who holds Ph.D. in music education from the University of Reading, U.K. and received postdoctoral research fellowship
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Chair of Musicology, Distinguished Professor of Musicology and Humanities, Director of UCLA Center of Musical Humanities (CMH)
Raymond Knapp
Raymond Knapp is Distinguished Professor of Musicology and Humanities, and is currently serving his third term as Chair of the Department. The inaugural Director of the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, he has also served the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as Academic Associate Dean. Knapp has a broad interest in classical and contemporary music, and has authored five
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Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Music
David Lefkowitz
David Lefkowitz, a native of New York City, studied music composition at The Eastman School of Music, Cornell University, and University of Pennsylvania, where his principal teachers were Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, George Crumb, and Karel Husa. As a composer Lefkowitz has won international acclaim, having works performed in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Ukraine, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great
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Director of the UCLA Center for Latino Arts; Professor and Chair of Global Jazz Studies
Steven Loza
Steven Loza is a professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA, where he has been on the faculty for thirty-four years, and also served as professor of music at the University of New Mexico, where he formerly directed the Arts of the Americas Institute. He has served as chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology and is currently chair of the Global Jazz
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Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Professor
Arturo O’Farrill
Pianist, composer, and educator, Arturo O’Farrill was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Arturo’s professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit
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Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology
Roger Savage
Roger Savage’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the connections between hermeneutics, critical theory, music criticism, aesthetics, and politics. He is the author of Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophical Anthropology as Hermeneutics of Liberation: Freedom, Justice, and the Power of Imagination, Music, Time, and Its Other: Aesthetic Reflections on Finitude, Temporality, and Alterity, Hermeneutics and Music Criticism, and Structure and Sorcery: The Aesthetics of
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Administrative leadership

Associate Dean of Finance and Administration
Shannon McGarry
Shannon McGarry’s appointment as the School’s inaugural Assistant Dean began in July 2016. Shannon is a UCLA alumna with over 18 years of service on campus. She began her UCLA career at the Luskin School of Public Affairs and held program management positions at Luskin and the UCLA Graduate School of Education before moving to the Social Science Division of
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Director of Academic Personnel
Sandra T. Flores
Sandra Topete joined the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in the fall of 2018 as Director of Academic Personnel. Sandra is a UCLA alumna with over 27 years of service at UCLA. She began her career at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics working for the Space Science Group, and for the last 14 years she has specialized
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Director of Music Technology and Production, Director of the Recording Studios
Luis Henao
Luis currently serves as the director of the recording studio in the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center as well as the director of music technology and production. In these capacities, Luis supports faculty and students by planning, designing, and overseeing all music technology related activities at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Luis also oversees the School’s Theaters
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Director of Student Affairs
Adam Fox
Adam Fox joins The Herb Alpert School of Music with over five years of professional experience supporting and advising performing artists. Prior to UCLA, Fox worked at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Hollywood, where he served in a variety of student-facing roles to support students in the musical theatre, acting, and dance programs. Fox completed his undergraduate degree
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Executive Director of Development
Liz Vohwinkel
Liz is a seasoned development professional with over a decade of experience. Most recently serving as Senior Director of Development at the UCLA School of Law, she arrived at UCLA in 2018 and led vital giving campaign initiatives while driving individual philanthropy in support of students, faculty, and programs. Liz has previous experience at United Way and the Nevada Community Foundation and is
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Manager, Ethnomusicology & Musicology Departments
John Lee
John Ho-Joon Lee joined the Herb Alpert School of Music as the MSO of the Departments of Ethnomusicology and Musicology on June 18, 2018.  Lee began working at UCLA in 2011 at the Career Center and most recently served as the Operations Manager and Staff Personnel for the College, Office of the Deans.  Before his career at UCLA, he was
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