Stephen David Beck, the University’s Haymon professor of composition and computer music, will be the School of Music’s director starting this July after Interim Director Willis Delony steps down.
“I am honored to have been given this opportunity and humbled by the support of my colleagues,” Beck said Wednesday in a news release. “It has been a privilege to be a member of a faculty with such outstanding musicians, composers, theorists, musicologists and educators. I have every confidence that we will maintain our high level of achievement while growing our program to include new and emerging areas of study.”
University administrators praised Beck’s appointment in the news release.
“Stephen Beck’s experience in advancing technology at LSU will transfer well into the new challenges that performing artists face and the opportunities they will encounter,” Chancellor Michael Martin said.
Laurence Kaptain, dean of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts, highlighted Beck’s contributions to the University’s digital media AVATAR initiative.
“He has cultivated a cadre of outstanding graduate students who are on track to become international leaders in the creative and emerging technologies,” Kaptain said in the release.
Though the School of Music has lost scholarship funding because of budget cuts, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jack Hamilton predicts Beck will lead the school to new heights.
“I have known him for years and admire him,” Hamilton said in the release. “He is a proven campus leader and can now employ those qualities in taking the School of Music to new levels of success and achievement.”
 
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