ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Elisa Koehler has been selected as the new chair of the Department of Music in Winthrop University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Koehler, who will begin the role on August 1, will assume the position from Don
Rogers, who is retiring after 23 years as a department chair. Rogers has been a member
of the music faculty at Winthrop since 1975 and helped elevate the Department of Music
to one of the best programs in the Southeast.
Currently, Koehler is a professor of music and director of the Center for Dance, Music, and Theatre at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to six years in leadership positions at Goucher, she also served as music director and conductor of the Frederick Symphony Orchestra for 17 years.
“Dr. Koehler brings with her over two decades as both a music educator and arts administrator,” said Jeff Bellantoni, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “We look forward to working with Dr. Koehler on continuing our proud history of educating musicians and music teachers, but also developing new and exciting programs at Winthrop.”
Koehler earned a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, a master’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of Tennessee, and bachelor’s degrees in both music education and trumpet performance from Peabody. In 2009, the University of Tennessee honored her as a Distinguished Alumna and in 2014, she received Goucher College’s highest faculty honor, the Caroline Doebler Bruckerl ’25 Award, which honors an exemplary faculty member in the areas of teaching, scholarly activity and service. She is also a board member of the International Trumpet Guild and the author of “Fanfares and Finesse: A Performer's Guide to Trumpet History and Literature” (Indiana University Press).
Winthrop’s College of Visual and Performing Arts is the academic home to over 600 undergraduate students majoring in dance, design, studio arts, music, and theatre, and 40 graduate students in six graduate programs and one post-baccalaureate certificate program. The college currently employs over 50 full-time faculty as well as part-time lecturers, all practicing professionals from the surrounding metropolitan area. Winthrop is one of only 17 universities in the United States and the only public or private institution in South Carolina with all five of its undergraduate and graduate arts programs nationally accredited (NASAD, NAST, NASD, NASM and CIDA). In addition, Winthrop’s arts education programs in art, music, theatre and dance are accredited through the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).
For more information, contact Whitney Hough, director of communications and community engagement for the College of Visual and Performing Arts, at 803/323-2399 or houghw@winthrop.edu.
