Samantha A. Keehn

Continuing Lecturer and Assistant Professor, Low Brass

• Phone: 309-794-7237
• Email: SamanthaKeehn@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff 30

Samantha Keehn is currently the Low Brass Instructor at Augustana College. Dr. Keehn teaches trombone, euphonium, and tuba students as well as in the General Education and Music Education programs.  In addition to teaching, she is an active freelancer in the area.

A native of Victoria, TX, she has studied with Don Lucas and Brent Phillips at Texas Tech and Baylor, respectively. She has also studied with Dr. William Stanley while earning her D.M.A. in Trombone Performance and Pedagogy. 

Dr. Keehn has a newly published etude book by Mountain Peak Music called Beyond the Notes and Rhythms: A Practical Approach to Teaching Musical Expression.  She has presented her research and method exhibited in this etude book at the International Women’s Brass Conference (2010), The Big XII Trombone Workshop (2010), Illinois Wesleyan (2011), and the Tubonium Conference (2011). 

She has also won numerous awards and grants, including the Bronze Medal of the Senior Wind Division at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, winner of ETW Jazz Bones Competition, the Best Should Teach Silver Award at the University of Colorado, and winner of the ITA Emory Remmington Trombone Choir Award.

An active performer, has performed with the Wyoming Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Colorado Light Opera, Victoria Symphony, Roswell Symphony, and the Waco Symphony.  Dr. Keehn also participated in the Hot Springs Orchestra for two summers, the Rafael Mendez Institute, and the Masterworks Festival Orchestra. She has also performed at ETW, ITA, TMEA, the Big XII Trombone Workshop, ITEC, Tubonium, and IWBC.

Sonja Hurty

Adjunct Instructor, Voice, Manager of Choral Performance and Outreach

• Phone: 309-794-7804
• Email: SonjaHurty@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Studio

Sonja Hurty teaches applied voice and is the manager of choral performance and outreach. She previously directed the Augustana Concert Chorale, as well as many other school and church choirs.

She directed the Chapel Choir at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., as well as many other school and church choirs. She provides workshops and clinics for high school and church choirs and adjudicates for music festivals and contests.

Hurty previously taught voice at Concordia University in Irvine, and at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., and has maintained a vibrant private voice studio for many years.

She has performed as soloist with many academic, community and church choral organizations in Orange County, Los Angeles, Champaign/Urbana , and in the Quad Cities.

Hurty completed a master's degree in voice performance at California State University in Northridge, where she studied with Dr. Linda Stones. She completed a B.A. in music education at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, where she studied with Dr. Elmer Copley. She also has studied with William Miller, professor emeritus from the University of Illinois and Gretchen Stein at the Dusseldorf Opera in Dusseldorf, Germany.

She lives in Moline, Ill., with her husband Jon.

Specializations: Musical theatre, Singing, Opera

Jon Hurty

Henry Veld Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities, Augustana Choir, Conducting

• Phone: 309-794-7505
• Email: JonHurty@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Rehearsal Hall

Jon Hurty is Director of Choral Activities and Henry Veld Professor in Music at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He directs the Augustana Choir, the Augustana Chamber Singers, serves as the conductor of the Handel Oratorio Society and teaches conducting. He is also Co-director of Music for Augustana Campus Ministries and is the Conductor and Artistic Director of Augustana Choral Artists. Before coming to Rock Island he was Director of Choral Activities at Concordia University in Irvine, California. 

Active as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and abroad, he has served in this capacity in All State, State and Regional festivals of the American Choral Directors Association, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, National Association for Music Education, and many colleges and high schools. Other professional activities have included conducting the Tian Kong Choir and serving as Guest Professor at Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan, China as well as guest conducting on the Quad City Symphony Orchestra subscription series. He has conducted his choirs in concerts throughout the United States as well as Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.

He completed his undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, where he graduated summa cum laude, his master’s degree in Choral Conducting from California State University, Northridge, and his doctorate in Choral Conducting and Literature from the University of Illinois. He has studied conducting with John Alexander, Don Moses, Chet Alwes and Ann Howard Jones. Throughout his career, Hurty has had an interest in developing and refining his skills as a conductor and has studied conducting in workshops with Paul Christiansen, Robert Shaw and Helmut Rilling as well as singing under many conductors including Christopher Hogwood, Sir Charles Groves, and Roger Wagner.

Specializations: Choral music, Campus Ministries

Maureen K. Holmes

Adjunct Instructor, Voice

• Phone: 309-794-7159
• Email: maureenholmes@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Studio

Maureen Holmes holds a Master of Music from Westminster Choir College, graduating with distinction, in addition to a Bachelor of Music from Drake University. Maureen’s degree work has been both in the areas of performance and vocal pedagogy.

Operatic credits include Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, First and Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Don Ettore in Haydn’s La Canterina, Nerone in selections from Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Mélisande in scenes from Pelléas et Mélisande, as well as selections as the roles of Mercèdes from Bizet’s Carmen, Clorinda from La Cenerentola, Suzuki from Madama Butterfly, Cherubino from Le nozze di Figaro and Baba the Turk from Rake’s Progress. Additionally, she has been a soloist for works including Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Paukenmesse, and Vivaldi’s Gloria.

Along with operatic performances and classical training, Maureen maintains an active schedule as choral singer and musical theater enthusiast, a featured soloist and ensemble member in Nova Singers and Quad City Choral Arts and regularly performing volunteering at Quad City Music Guild. Maureen maintains a private voice studio and serves as music coordinator/chancel choir director at First Congregational Church in Moline

John W. Hildreth

Gassman Family Professor of Music, Musicology, Ethnomusicology

• Phone: 309-794-7427
• Email: JohnHildreth@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Studio

Dr. John W. Hildreth is a native of Evansville, Indiana. He began his musical studies there with Eva Crawford Brooks with whom he studied piano. He later entered the Preparatory School of Music at the University of Evansville while a student at Lincoln High School. There he studied piano with Margaret Shepherd and organ with Gerald Clark. In 1959 he won the Arion Music Award at Lincoln High School.

After graduating from high school, he continued his education at Concordia College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While there he was a member of the college chorus, the brass choir, and was choir tour accompanist and chapel organist. He continued his studies at Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he chose music as an academic concentration and served as chapel organist. He received the B.A. Degree from Concordia in 1965.

In 1967 he began studies with Professor Robert Reuter at Chicago Musical College, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois in organ and church music and also studied piano with Felix Ganz. He was on the Dean's List and was the recipient of numerous music scholarships. He received a B.M. Degree in organ and church music in 1969 and an M.M. Degree in organ and church music with Highest Honors in 1970 at Roosevelt.

He began his doctoral work at the Northwestern University School of Music in Evanston, Illinois and completed the Ph.D. in Musicology and Ethnomusicology in 1978 under the direction of William Porter, Theodore Karp, Aarond Pasrons and Klaus Wachsmann. He also studied piano with Francis Larimer and harpsichord with Dorothy Lane while at Northwestern.

Dr. Hildreth has served as organist and choirmaster at various places, including Augustana College where he served as chapel organist for a number of years. At present he serves as organist and choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Rock Island, Illinois. He is on the faculty of the Music Department at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois where he has completed 30 years of service and now holds the rank of full professor. He has taught courses in the History and Literature of Western Music, Music Theory, Music in General Studies, History of American Music, African-American Music, Women in Music, the Art of Listening and Ethnomusicology, and has published his own materials for teaching in these areas.

Randall B. Hall

Professor, Saxophone

• Phone: 309-794-7639
• Email: RandallHall@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Studio

Saxophonist Randall Hall joined the Augustana music faculty in 2005. Dr. Hall holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (DMA), the New England Conservatory (MM), the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, France (Premier prix) and Warner Pacific College (BS).

He studied saxophone with Claude Delangle, Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Jean-Michel Goury, Kenneth Radnofsky, and Ramon Ricker.

Internationally active as a performer and clinician, Hall has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia, including concerts at the Karnatic Lab (Amsterdam), Logos Foundation (Belgium), Werstatt für improvisierte Musik (Zürich), Zeitgeist Gallery (Boston), Center for New Music (Iowa City), Electronic Music Midwest (Chicago), Outside the Box Festival (Carbondale), and the Electro Acoustic Juke Joint (Mississippi).

He has given lectures and master-classes at institutions around the world, including Harvard University, Cornell University, the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Bowling Green State University, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, the Luxembourg Conservatory, Concervatorio Superior de Música de las Islas Baleares (Spain), and the World Saxophone Congress.

Randall Hall is the recipient of numerous honors including a Fulbright Grant, Frank Huntington Beebe Grant, Presser Music Award, Encore grant and the Premier prix in the Concour Région Ile-de-France.

Dr. Hall’s students have continued their studies at major music schools in the United States and Europe, including the New England Conservatory, Northwestern University, Eastman and the National Conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt, France. They have also won prestigious awards including the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant, the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship and the Joseph P. O’Hern Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship. 

Hall has recorded on the Innova label and Medusa Critical Publications and his compositions are published on Reed Music. In addition to saxophone Dr. Hall also teaches improvisation, music theory, electronic music, and co-directs Augustana’s summer session in Paris, France. 

Specializations: Saxophone

Erin P. Freund

Part-Time Assistant Professor; Harp

• Phone: 309-794-8298
• Email: ErinFreund@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff 65

Erin Freund is a part-time assistant professor of music at Augustana College where she teaches harp and music appreciation. 

Teaching is at the core of her musical life as a musician, and loves the opportunities at Augustana to teach both private lessons as well as in a formal classroom setting. 

She strives to open the minds of her students to new kinds of music, and to open their ears to listen thoughtfully and critically.   She aims to equip her harp students with the technical and musical tools necessary to pursue a diverse life of music in the 21st century. 

Dr. Freund is a registered Suzuki harp teacher, and has served on the faculty of Indiana University South Bend’s Raclin School of the Arts, as well as the Music Institute of Chicago.

Dr. Freund is a versatile and creative harpist, equally at home performing solo music, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire. 

Dr. Freund is a frequent recitalist and embraces the challenge of performing virtuosic solo repertoire, spanning ancient and modern works that displays the full capabilities of the harp. 

She loves the challenge of transcribing unusual works for the harp, and her projects have included: Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for 2 harps, and Wagner’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, among many preludes and fugues by Bach and piano rags by Scott Joplin.  Dr. Freund views each transcription as an opportunity to present beloved pieces of music in a new light, expand the harp’s repertoire, and bust a few stereotypes along the way.

Dr. Freund holds Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees as well as a Performance Certificate from Northwestern University.  She completed her undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.  Dr. Freund’s primary teachers included Yolanda Kondonassis, Alice Chalifoux, and Elizabeth Cifani.

As a supporter of new music, Dr. Freund has premiered orchestral works by Alan George S. Clinton, Greg D’Allesio, Jason Eckardt, and Laurence Rosenthal, among others.  She premiered the harp concerto “The Parting Glass” by Alan Terricciano with Northwestern University in 2011.  She was honored to premiered German-native Ulf Anneken’s harp solo “Liebesabenteur In Persien,” which bears a dedication to Ms. Freund.  She was a performer on world premiere recordings featured on Lewis Nielson’s album The Twittering Machine.  Her solo playing is featured on New York filmmaker Sean Gill’s works Crescendo and Thursday Night.  She frequently collaborates with composers, and has led workshops at the Henry Mancini Institute and Northwestern University.

Dr. Freund is an active composer of crossover solo and chamber works that seek to blend classical, folk, and modal elements in a minimalist style.  Her composition Merah for 5 harps was premiered in 2005 by the Oberlin Harp Ensemble.  She has composed a number of programmatic pedagogical pieces that seek to engage young harpists through technically progressive miniatures with optional accompaniment.

Specializations: Harp history, Harp pedagogy, Harp performance, Suzuki harp instruction

Margaret Ellis

Professional Faculty-Assistant Professor and Administrative Assistant, Musicianship, Trumpet

• Phone: 309-794-7333
• Email: MargaretEllis@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Studio

Margaret Ellis teaches music theory, music appreciation, applied trumpet, ballet, and supervises the computer music lab.

She also acts as coordinator of recruiting and auditions for the music department. 

Ellis received a bachelor of music degree in trumpet performance from Augustana in 1993 and a master's of music in Music Theory from Northwestern University in 1994.

She is a member of the Augustana Faculty Brass Quintet and advises the Augustana Dance Company.

Robert P. Elfline

Professor and Acting Co-Chair (Spring) of Music, Piano

• Phone: 309-794-7523
• Email: RobertElfline@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff 13

Robert Elfline grew up near the Quad Cities in Morrison, Ill., and graduated from Morrison High School in 1993. He began his studying the piano at age 6 and by age 12 was accepted into the studio of renowned pianist Donald Walker, with whom he studied for six years.

After high school, he earned a B.A. in piano performance from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., where he graduated magna cum laude in 1997. After college, Dr.  Elfline enrolled in the graduate program at Rice University in Houston, Texas, taking performance honors and earning an M.A. in music.

He graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music  in  2007. 

He maintains an active private studio having taught private lessons, group piano classes and music theory classes to pre-college students in Davenport, Iowa, and Mason, Ohio. As a performer, he takes a particular interest both in the sonatas of Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, and the recent music of American composers. Additionally, he enjoys presenting works of lesser-known composers, particularly those active around the turn of the nineteenth century. This interest has led to the study of works for piano and narrator, a long-neglected segment of the piano repertoire that has formed the basis for his dissertation.

Specializations: Piano, Piano pedagogy, Music theory, Music history, American music, Popular music, Chamber music, Collaborative piano