Kira Dixon, President
Kira Dixon is entering her 18th year of teaching in public schools at her alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School in San José, CA. She earned her M.A. in Music from Kansas State University, and received her B.A. in Music Education with an emphasis in voice from San José State University.
In addition to teaching, Miss Dixon currently serves on the Board of Directors for Peninsula Cantare, a semi-professional chorus based in Palo Alto. She is also the president of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, a foundation which supports members of an international professional music fraternity.
Kira is one of the Founders and Executive Directors of the non-profit organization California Summer Performing Arts Academy (CSPAA) which serves the South County youth in providing music education opportunities, the main of which is a weeklong engaging summer camp.
President
president@mpefoundation.org
Danielle Kuntz, Grants Coordinator
Dr. Danielle M. Kuntz is Associate Professor of Music History and Riemenschneider Bach Institute (RBI) Scholar-in-Residence at Baldwin Wallace University, where she has served as faculty adviser to the Mu Phi chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon since 2017. She is a member of the Cleveland Area Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon, and in 2020, she was a Mu Phi Epsilon ACME honoree.
Her musicological research focuses on the archival study of European music in the eighteenth century, with special expertise on the music of Portugal and the Luso-Hispanic World. This research has received the support of numerous competitive fellowships, including a Fulbright Research Fellowship (Lisbon, Portugal, 2012-2013). She has recent publications in BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute and Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia, and has presented her research nationally and internationally.
She is also an advocate and scholar of undergraduate research programs in music and serves as coordinator of Baldwin Wallace’s RBI Scholars Program, a competitive research program aimed at engaging undergraduate researchers in the resources of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute. Since 2022, she has served as a Fulbright Program Adviser. She holds the Ph.D. (2014) and M.M. (2009) in Historical Musicology from the University of Minnesota.
Grants & Scholarships Coordinator
grants@mpefoundation.org
Isabel De La Cerda, Vice President
Isabel De La Cerda is a music educator and fine arts advocate who holds a B.A. in Music with an emphasis in vocal performance from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.
Interested in learning about her culture and having a passion for music at an early age, Isabel studied mariachi music during her time at the University of Texas at San Antonio. There she performed with Mariachi Los Paisanos and was showcased in the vocal Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán annual statewide competition. Isabel is the music director at St. Luke Catholic School, where she teaches elementary music, theater, and choir.
When Isabel is not teaching in the classroom or on stage, she is a musical director/vocal coach at various schools and theater companies in the San Antonio area. Isabel is dedicated to serving her community by promoting multicultural representation. Isabel is a Teatro Audaz board member, serving in the only Latinx theater company in San Antonio, Texas. She serves as Director of Marketing & PR and Special Events. Isabel joined Mu Phi Epsilon when she was in college and later co-founded the St. Mary’s University Zeta Nu chapter in 2012.
After college she joined the San Antonio Alumni chapter where she currently serves as Vice President. She has been the District Director for South Central 1, 3, & 4 for eleven years, assisting collegiate chapters all over Texas. She is thrilled to be serving as Director of Philanthropies for the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. Isabel aims to share her passion for the advancement of music in the community through the promotion of musicianship, scholarship, and music education with an emphasis on service through music.
Vice President
vicepresident@mpefoundation.org
Wanda Yang Temko, Website Administrator
Dr. Wanda Yang Temko is a respected singer, voice teacher, and arts advocate in the Atlanta area. She holds a doctorate in performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. Other degrees include a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Liberal Studies from Emory University. Acclaimed for performances on the operatic and concert stages, she has collaborated with some of the most renowned Early Music artists of our time, including Andrew Lawrence-King, Paul Hillier, Nigel North, Paul Elliot, and Stanley Ritchie. Wanda’s interest in contemporary music is equally keen, as evinced by her skilled and nuanced performances of the works of Olivier Messiaen. As a professional chorister, she has performed with conductors such as Robert Shaw, Robert Spano, Donald Runnicles, William Fred Scott, JD Burnett, and Alfred Calabrese. Dr. Yang Temko is a founding member of Skylark Ensemble. Sought after as a recitalist and soloist, she also maintains an active private voice studio and has served on the boards of Kinnara Ensemble, Friends of Theater at Emory, ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation, Festival Singers of Atlanta, Atlanta Early Music Alliance, and Atlanta Young Singers.
Board Member
admin@mpefoundation.org
Matthew Hoch, Treasurer
Dr. Matthew Hoch is professor of voice at Auburn University. Prior to coming to Auburn in 2012, he spent six years as assistant professor of voice at Shorter College. His students have gone on to successful careers in both classical and music theater genres and have won awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC), NATS, MTNA, ACTF, the Vann Vocal Institute, and others. He has appeared as a soloist with the Oregon Bach Festival, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Vox Consort, Harmonie Universelle, the Hartford, Rome, and Nashua symphony orchestras, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Chattanooga Bach Choir, Griffin Choral Arts, and the United States Coast Guard Chamber Players.
Hoch is the 2016 winner of the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship, awarded jointly by the Voice Foundation and NATS. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of eight books, and his articles have appeared in over a dozen academic and professional journals, including the Journal of Voice, Journal of Singing, Voice and Speech Review, Opera Journal, Choral Journal, The Chorister, The Hymn, College Music Symposium, Classical Singer, American Music Teacher, Kodály Envoy, Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians. Hoch has presented his research at many national and international conferences, including ICVT, PEVOC, PAVA, NATS, VASTA, MTNA, NOA, CMS, HICAH, SAM, NAfME, AGO, ASA, IHS, the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, the Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia, and the International Symposium on Singing and Song in St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2018, he presented performances and master classes in the United Arab Emirates as was awarded the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to his academic life, Hoch serves as choirmaster and minister of music at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Auburn, Alabama.
He earned his BM from Ithaca College with a triple major in vocal performance, music education, and music theory; his MM from the Hartt School with a double major in vocal performance and music history; his DMA from the New England Conservatory; and a certificate in vocology from the National Center for Voice and Speech. Hoch was initiated into the Lambda chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon at Ithaca College in 1995, and his fraternity awards include the 1999 Sterling Achievement Award, 2013 ACME recognition, and the 2021 Award of Merit. He is proud to continue serving on the board of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation.
Treasurer
treasurer@mpefoundation.org
Donna Chrzanowski, Philanthropies Coordinator
Donna Chrzanowski, Phi Kappa, can boldly state that she taught every aspect of K-12 music in her career of 34 years. From Middle and High School Band and Choir, to Elementary and preschool music, she was the teacher. She taught online classes and helped to develop a curriculum that is still being used today. She retired from teaching in 2022 and now serves the Fraternity as a District Director and member of the Detroit Alumni Chapter.
Philanthropies Coordinator
philanthropies@mpefoundation.org
Hannah Porter Occeña, Secretary
Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “rich tone and deft technique,” Hannah Porter Occeña is Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Northern Iowa and Principal Flutist of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra (Topeka, KS) and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra (Boulder, CO). The 2021 Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition Winner, Dr. Occeña has performed as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and clinician throughout the US and abroad.
Dr. Occeña strives to make classical works accessible and engaging to diverse audiences. Between her performance schedule and collegiate teaching responsibilities, Dr. Occeña participates in outreach concerts and programs at schools and community centers. Some of her most meaningful musical experiences have taken place during performances at special needs schools and concerts in association with Autism Speaks. She is an avid chamber musician, frequently appearing in a duo with pianist Emely Phelps, with her university and orchestra colleagues, and with Cedar Valley Chamber Music.
Committed to the rich heritage and new horizons of the repertoire, Dr. Occeña has worked to bring works by living composers to life. She is a commissioning member of the Flute New Music Consortium and has co-premiered works by Zhou Long (Confluence, 2015) Carter Pann (Giantess, 2018), Valerie Coleman (Amazonia, 2020), and Samuel Zyman (Intuition, 2022). She has also privately commissioned or premiered several new works, notably giving the European premiere of The Light That We Can Hear by Jennifer Higdon at the 2024 Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy.
A dedicated scholar, Dr. Occeña has been a presenter at the National Flute Association conventions in Orlando, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and Phoenix, the Rochester Flute Fair, the Iowa Bandmasters Association, and the Iowa Music Educators Association. She has researched manuscript works by Undine Smith Moore and Gertrude Rivers Robinson and has collaborated on new printed editions of the Sonata in B minor by Amanda Maier and the Sonata op. 94 by Sergei Prokofiev.
Dr. Occeña is a 2018 DMA graduate of Stony Brook University, where she studied with Carol Wincenc; she holds a Master of Music Dip.RAM from the Royal Academy of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. When not performing, Dr. Occeña enjoys spending time outdoors with her family. She can be heard on the albums Confluence and Discovering Her Voice, which are available on major streaming platforms. She is a Miyazawa Artist and plays on a Miyazawa Elite.
Secretary
secretary@mpefoundation.org
Kurt-Alexander Zeller, ΜΦΕ President
Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller began performing in opera, musical theatre, and oratorio in his native Pacific Northwest at age eight. Since then, he has performed throughout the United States, Spain, and Austria, and has appeared on German television, winning acclaim for his memorable characterizations as a singing actor in music drama from Baroque opera to the musicals of Sondheim. His other performance activities have included a tour of Austria in a revue of the music of Kurt Weill, performing weekly “operatic soap operas” on the streets of Portland, Oregon, under a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and two seasons in the company of the Tony® Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As a stage director, Dr. Zeller has staged numerous operas for professional companies in Oregon and Georgia and has directed over two dozen academic productions of music drama. He staged programs of sacred opera scenes for the Sacred in Opera Initiative of the National Opera Association at its 2013 and 2022 national conferences in Portland, Oregon, and St. Augustine, Florida, and his 2009 production of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde at Clayton State University, in partnership with schools in the Clayton County Public Schools, was profiled by Opera America as an example of excellence in opera education and community outreach. Dr. Zeller has just been named Artistic Director of Peach State Opera, Georgia’s premier touring opera company.
Dr. Zeller is Director of Opera and Vocal Studies and Coordinator of the Division of Music at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, and is active throughout the country as a vocal adjudicator and clinician. He has given presentations and workshops for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the International Congress of Voice Teachers, the National Opera Association, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and Early Music America. Dr. Zeller is a Licensed Body Mapping Educator, and his book What Every Singer Needs to Know about the Body, written with Dr. Melissa Malde and MaryJean Allen, is now available in its fourth edition from Plural Publishing.
With his recital partner, Dr. Michiko Otaki, Director of Keyboard Studies at Clayton State University, he has appeared in concerts across North America, including appearances as guest artists with the Degas String Quartet for a series of performances of On Wenlock Edge by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and many recitals in Atlanta’s renowned Spivey Hall. WABE-FM also broadcast their program of British song by composers active in the 1920s and 1930s: “Everyone Sang: British Song between the Wars.”
Ever since his initiation into the Mu Chi chapter at Southern Methodist University, Dr. Zeller has been an active member of Mu Phi Epsilon international music fraternity, serving as president of the Alpha Alpha and Portland Alumni chapters, as District Director of Pacific Northwest 3, as parliamentarian and bylaws chair, and on the International Executive Board as International 3rd Vice President (2003-2008) and International 5th Vice President (2011-2015). In July of 2021, he became the first man ever elected to the office of International President of Mu Phi Epsilon.