Matthew Brady – Assistant Professor/Director of Choral Studies
Brady, who became an assistant professor in the Choral Studies program in the spring of 2024, also served as Interim Director of Choral Studies during the 2024-25 academic year, after former director Amanda Quist left for a position at Western Michigan University. This fall, Brady moves fully into the position of Director of Choral Studies. During his short time at the Frost School, Brady has endeared himself to students and faculty, chosen by his peers for a Kudo Award last February, and leading choral students in an enthusiastically received tour of Italy in May that one student called “the trip of a lifetime.”
Brady has extensive experience as a conductor, clinician, professional singer, and educator at the collegiate, middle, and high school levels. He was previously Director of Choral Studies at the New Mexico Military Institute and Cal State San Bernardino, and has sung with the Philadelphia Symphonic Chorus, the New York Philharmonic, and the Dallas Choral Festival. He has been a guest conductor of the New Mexico All-State Choir and the Broward County Honor Choir.
Edward J. Carroll – Visiting Assistant Professor (trumpet) in Instrumental Performance
Carroll, a trumpet player and artist who has a distinguished teaching and performing career, will teach during the fall semester while Professor Craig Morris is on sabbatical. A Chicago native and Juilliard graduate, Carroll has been a lecturer at Dartmouth College since 2005, and is also on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts. He has been International Chair of Brass Studies at London’s Royal Academy of Music and a professor at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Carroll has taught masterclasses at the Juilliard, Eastman, and Manhattan Schools of Music, the Curtis Institute, Interlochen Arts Academy, the Tanglewood Institute, and music schools across Europe. He has been principal trumpet with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony, and performed as a soloist with many North American and European orchestras. Multiple composers, including Paul Moravec and Larry Polansky, have written music for him, and he has done solo recordings for Sony, Vox, MHS, and Newport Classic.
Tal Cohen – Lecturer in Studio Music and Jazz
Jazz pianist Tal Cohen has a rich history with the Frost School’s jazz division. He was a Henry Mancini Institute (HMI) Fellow who received his master’s from the Frost School in 2015, where he was mentored by Professor Martin Bejerano. Cohen played on jazz studies chair John Daversa’s multi-GRAMMY-winning 2018 album “American Dreamers,” and the two subsequently joined up for the album and performing partnership “The Art of Duo.” Cohen won the Detroit Jazz Festival’s 2014 Barry Harris Jazz Piano Competition, and in 2015, he received a prestigious Freedman Jazz Fellowship, performing at the Sydney Opera House. Raised in Israel and Australia, Cohen has toured with saxophonist Joe Lovano and famed composer and bandleader Terrence Blanchard, artistic director of the HMI from 2011 to 2015, who called Cohen “one of the brightest stars playing the piano to come along in a long time… at the top of the curve changing our minds about music.” Cohen also has a trio with legendary Cuban percussionist Ignacio Berroa. His own albums include 2011’s “Yellow Sticker” and 2017’s “Gentle Giants,” which received a four-star review from Downbeat Magazine.
Michael Hancock – Associate Professor/Director of Bands
Hancock, who holds a 2004 master’s and a 2014 doctorate in wind conducting from the Frost School, steps into the band leadership position previously held by beloved Frost School professor Dr. Robert Carnochan, who passed away unexpectedly last September. Hancock will conduct the Frost Wind Ensemble; teach graduate conducting classes, lessons, and seminars; and oversee undergraduate conducting classes and the athletic band program. Hancock was previously Director of Bands at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), where he was also an associate professor and wind ensemble conductor; and before that was Associate Director and Interim Director of Concert Bands at the University of Oklahoma. He has been immersed in the wind and marching band worlds since high school, and has been a band director at public high schools in Arkansas and Texas. Hancock earned a bachelor’s in music education in 2000 from Arkansas Tech University, and has studied orchestral conducting and repertoire at the Conservatorium Maastricht in the Netherlands. He takes a collaborative approach to music, commissioning new work from contemporary composers and working with visual artists and actors. At the Frost School, he will conduct the Frost Wind Ensemble; teach graduate conducting classes, lessons, and seminars; and oversee undergraduate conducting classes and the athletic band program.
Ian Holljes – Lecturer in Modern Artist Development and Entrepreneurship (M.A.D.E.)
The newest faculty member of the Frost School’s innovative contemporary music program is literally a rock star. Holljes is a member of Delta Rae, an Americana-rock-soul band which he co-founded in 2009 with his brother, sister, and three close friends. Delta Rae became a major popular and critical success, appearing on major late-night TV shows and music festivals, lauded by the likes of Pharrell Williams, Melissa Etheridge, and David Byrne, and becoming the most funded independent band in Kickstarter history after raising $450,000 on the platform in 2019 for a double album project. Holljes and Delta Rae are working on “The Ninth Woman,” an immersive Southern Gothic musical that imagines what would happen if a Puritan witch hunt caught a real witch. The show, which was workshopped at the renowned Williamstown Theater Festival this summer, is being developed for Broadway by P3 Productions, the innovative company behind acclaimed musicals such as “A Strange Loop” and “Just For Us.” Holljes previously taught songwriting and voice as an adjunct professor in the M.A.D.E. program.
Ana Ivanchenko – Lecturer in Keyboard Performance
This accomplished pianist comes to her new position with significant experience at the Frost School. Ivanchenko earned her doctorate in piano performance and pedagogy here in 2016, studying on a full scholarship. She began teaching in the Frost Prep program in 2014, moving to the program’s Advanced Piano division in 2019, and became an adjunct lecturer in the Musicology program in 2016; positions she leaves behind as she starts her new job. Ivanchenko replaced professor Santiago Rodriguez, the acclaimed chair of the Keyboard Department, while he was on sabbatical during the 2022-23 academic year, and will substitute this fall for piano professor Kevin Kenner while he is on sabbatical. Born and raised in Moldova, Ivanchenko has won top prizes in numerous national and international competitions in the United States and Europe, and has performed with major ensembles in Moldova as well as with the Frost Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music from Rowan University in New Jersey, where she was also on a full scholarship. Ivanchenko is married to fellow keyboard department lecturer Oleksii Ivanchenko.
Reid Masters – Assistant Professor/Assistant Director of Choral Studies
Acclaimed for his “infectious passion,” Masters brings extensive experience as a conductor, educator, and countertenor to his new position with the choral program. He has served as Minister of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Kennesaw State University, and Artistic Director of the New Jersey Chamber Singers—leading their internationally released Mozart’s Requiem recording on the Naxos label. He is also co-founder of the professional chamber choir Kinnara Ensemble and has performed with ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic under conductors Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Alan Gilbert, Nicholas McGegan, and Jaap van Zweden. Internationally sought after as a clinician, Dr. Masters has led workshops and masterclasses for ensembles from Taiwan to the Bahamas, in addition to his extensive work with honor choirs and festival ensembles across the United States. A Rider Scholar, Masters graduated summa cum laude from Westminster Choir College and earned his D.M.A. from Rutgers University, where he taught conducting and directed the Rutgers University Choir.
Maria Alejandra Quintanilla – Jazz Vocal Lecturer in Studio Music and Jazz
A distinctive vocalist and interdisciplinary artist whose musical work encompasses painting, film, poetry, improvisation, and extended vocal techniques, Quintanilla joins the jazz vocal program after earning her doctorate here this spring. She was a Henry Mancini Institute Fellow, and graduate teaching assistant to jazz vocal program director Kate Reid, leading the Jazz Vocal II Ensemble. In her new position, Quintanilla will lead VoxCentric, a new, collaborative a cappella ensemble exploring extended vocal techniques through original works, which is open to all students, as well as teaching applied voice lessons and leading the Jazz Vocal I ensemble. In 2025, Quintanilla received a $25,000 P.E.O. Scholar Award, an honor given to just 100 women doctoral students in the U.S. and Canada. It was the latest in a series of awards for Quintanilla, who was the first artist to receive the Ella Fitzgerald Scholarship for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She has released two albums as a co-leader; her 2024 debut solo project, “Irrefragible Laws”, explores a wide range of vocal techniques, sounds, and visual media. She also sings on “Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores,” the album of music by jazz icon Kenny Wheeler recorded by jazz program leaders and students from the Frost School and London’s Royal Academy of Music at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. Quintanilla has performed at New York’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club and Jazz at Lincoln Center with the Purchase Jazz Orchestra, as well as at New York’s Summerstage and in festivals in Montreal, Portugal, and Africa.
Jenny Snyder – Lecturer in Vocal Performance/Musical Director Frost Opera Theater
A talented accompanist, composer, arranger, director, and coach, Snyder has worked with the Frost School since 2017. This fall she becomes the Musical Director of the Frost Opera Theater, involved in all musical aspects of preparing for opera productions, and will also work as a coach and pianist for classical singers. Born on the island of Guam, Snyder made her concerto debut at age 11, her solo recital debut at 12, and became the harpsichordist for the Black Hills Chamber Music Society the same year. She received her bachelor's in piano (summa cum laude) from the Eastman School of Music, receiving Eastman's Excellence in Accompanying Award in both 2001 and 2002 for her performances with students and faculty. Snyder has worked extensively throughout the United States as a pianist, music director, and composer in both classical music and musical theater; she has accompanied a wide variety of musicians, from professional whistler Jason Serinus (the voice of Woodstock in the Peanuts movies) to renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.
