The Hartt School is excited to welcome four new music and theatre faculty members. All will begin their positions this Fall. The new faculty include: T. André Feagin, Associate Professor of Conducting and Director of Bands and Wind Ensembles; Ryan Walsh, Oboe Faculty; Janelle Robinson, Assistant Professor of Music Theatre; and Korine Fujiwara, Assistant Professor of Viola. They join new dance faculty members Ambre Emory-Maier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance and Interim Division Director of Dance, and Catherine Meredith, Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance.
About T. André Feagin:
Prior to his appointment at The Hartt School, Dr. Feagin served as Associate Professor and Director of Bands at Central Washington University, where he guided the educational and artistic vision of a comprehensive band program. He led the graduate wind band conducting area and conducted both the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, the university’s premier ensemble. Under his direction, the CWU Wind Ensemble earned national and international recognition, including featured performances at the 2022 and 2026 College Band Directors National Association Western/Northwestern Division Conferences and the 20th World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles International Conference in Gwangju, South Korea.
Dr. Feagin has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous all-state and honor bands, as well as professional ensembles throughout the United States, Canada, Central and Southwest Europe, and Southeast Asia. His work as a conductor, educator, and advocate for music education has led to invitations to conduct at distinguished venues including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He has also collaborated with premier military ensembles, including the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America, the United States Military Academy Band, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, and the United States Coast Guard Band.
As a clinician and presenter, Dr. Feagin has been invited to speak on conducting, educational leadership, and broadening participation in music education at institutions and conferences across the United States and internationally. In 2022, he was a featured presenter at the 19th WASBE International Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, and in 2024, he was invited to present and collaborate at a leadership summit for conductors within the United States Air Force Band Program.
Dr. Feagin holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting from the University of Arizona School of Music, where he studied with Gregg I. Hanson. His doctoral research focused on Spanish wind composer Bernardo Adam Ferrero and his work Homenaje a Joaquín Sorolla. He also holds a Master of Music degree in instrumental wind conducting from the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. Dr. Feagin is deeply grateful to the many mentors and teachers who have shaped his passion for conducting and music education. Among them are Gregg I. Hanson, Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Kraig Alan Williams, Thomas Cockrell, Bruce Chamberlain, Pat Morrow, Darry Pilkington, and Sallie Vines White.
More information about T. André Feagin’s accolades can be found here.
About Ryan Walsh:
Ryan Walsh is an accomplished oboist whose career spans orchestral performance, Broadway, opera, film recording, and chamber music. He has performed with renowned ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Utah Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Opera, and The American Pops Orchestra. Previously, he served as Second Oboe/English Horn with the Minnesota Opera and as the Oboe/English Horn player for the Broadway National Tour of Les Misérables. He has also appeared on Broadway in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.
Equally at home in the concert hall, theater pit, and recording studio, Walsh is a versatile studio musician whose artistry can be heard on the soundtracks for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Goldfinch, The Good Liar, West Side Story, Disney’s Noelle, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. His recording credits also include a Grammy Award-winning album. He was prominently featured on the New York Philharmonic’s Live from Lincoln Center New Year’s Eve 2014 PBS broadcast and has frequently been heard on PRI, NPR, and New York’s WQXR-FM.
In addition to his performance career, Walsh is a dedicated educator with experience teaching oboe, chamber music, orchestral repertoire, and reed making. His teaching draws on a wide-ranging professional background in symphonic, operatic, Broadway, and studio settings, helping students develop the technical foundation, musical imagination, and professional versatility needed for today’s evolving musical landscape.
Walsh holds degrees from Mannes College of Music, where he studied with New York Philharmonic members Sherry Sylar and Thomas Stacy.
About Janelle Robinson:
For the past thirty years, Janelle A. Robinson has enjoyed a professional career on the operatic and theater stage as well as in the classroom and, most recently, directing.
In 2014, Robinson received the Connecticut Critic’s Choice award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Bloody Mary in STONC’s production of South Pacific. Other awards include The Richard Tucker Study Grant and the MacAllister Award for her operatic work.
Robinson’s credits include the Broadway production of Cameron Mackintosh and Disney’s Mary Poppins in which she originated the role of Mrs. Corry; Oklahoma, also produced by Cameron Mackintosh, directed by Trevor Nunn; and Hal Prince and Susan Stroman’s revival of Showboat. 1st National tours-Originated the role of Ms. Flannery in Thoroughly Modern Millie and portrayed Queenie in Showboat.
Robinson was just seen in TheaterWorks, Hartford’s world premiere of Circus Fire, portraying over eight roles in the production. Regionally, she has performed with Virginia Opera, Opera Omaha, Connecticut Opera, Hartford Opera Theater, and Opera Company Philadelphia, Papermill Playhouse, North Shore Music Theater, Maine State Music Theater, The Cleveland Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Penobscot Theatre, Summer Theater of New Canaan, and Playhouse on Park, to name a few.
Robinson has directed: She Loves Me, Sister Act, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Little Women at The Hartt School. She also directed Next to Normal at Central Connecticut State University.
Robinson has worked with many illustrious directors and choreographers throughout the years, including Michael Mayer, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Barry Ivan, Vicky Bussert, Dotty Danner, George Osborne, Wayne Cilento, Rob Ashford, Eric Stern, and David Caddick. She has sung with Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, and Galina Vishnevskaya; participated in Barak on Broadway, The Tonys at Radio City Music Hall, as well as The Macy’s Day Parade. She has also shared the stage with her daughter, Alita Moses, in a concert, portraying Marion Anderson with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
Robinson received a Bachelor of Music from The Hartt School, an Advanced Certificate in Voice from The Juilliard School, and a Master of Music from The Curtis Institute. She has also trained at the School for Film and Television in NYC.
Robinson is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA. Presently, she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at The Hartt School and on faculty at Western CT State University in the music theater departments.
About Korine Fujiwara:
Montana native Korine Fujiwara is a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, now celebrating its 20th season, a sought-after chamber musician, teacher, and a gifted composer and arranger. Prior to joining The Hartt School, University of Hartford as Assistant Professor of Viola, she was professor of viola, violin, chamber music, and composition at Pacific Lutheran University (WA). She also served on the faculty of Ohio Wesleyan University and is in high demand for national master classes.
With Carpe Diem, she has appeared on prestigious stages including New York’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art. Their global footprint features Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Beijing’s National Library Concert Hall, Tianjin’s BinHai Performing Arts Center, and a residency at Italy's Accademia Chigiana. They also perform at alternative venues and festivals like Le Poisson Rouge (NY), WNYC’s Greene Space (NY), The 222 (CA), Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (CA), Olympic Music Festival (WA), Concerts in the Barn (WA), and Snake River Music Festival (CO). The ensemble bridges concert halls and community spaces, playing for the Columbus Museum of Art, The Apache Nation, and The Ohio Women’s Reformatory.
Named one of Strings Magazine’s “25 Contemporary Composers to Watch,” Fujiwara has received commissions for opera, chamber ensembles, chorus, concerti, and modern dance. Her works have been performed across the US, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, China, and Japan, blending classical, folk, jazz, and rock influences into a rhythmic, intense language.
Fujiwara received an Opera America Commissioning Grant from the Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, for her award-winning composition The Flood (Stephen Wadsworth, librettist), premiered in full production by Opera Columbus and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in 2019.
A gifted violist and violinist, Fujiwara holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University, studying under Joseph Fuchs and Myron Kartman. Her other mentors include Harvey Shapiro, Robert Mann, and Joel Krosnik. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and began her orchestral career with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and is a former member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.