Kira Dixon, President
Kira Dixon teaches at her alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School in San José, CA, where she is continuing her career as a public school music educator. She earned her M.A. in Music from Kansas State University and holds a B.A. in Music Education with a vocal emphasis from San José State University.
In addition to teaching, Miss Dixon serves on the Board of Directors for Peninsula Cantare, a semi-professional chorus based in Palo Alto. She is also president of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, which supports members of the international professional music fraternity. Kira is a Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit California Summer Performing Arts Academy (CSPAA), which provides music education opportunities to South County youth—most notably through a dynamic, weeklong 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 U.S. Scholar Award (Portugal, 2025-2026) and Fulbright U.S. Student Program Research Grant (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 dedicated music educator and fine arts advocate, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Music with an emphasis in vocal performance from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Her journey with Mu Phi Epsilon began in 2008 when she joined the Delta Omega Chapter at Our Lady of the Lake University. In 2012, she co-founded the Zeta Nu Chapter at St. Mary’s University.
Following graduation, Isabel became a District Director, supporting collegiate chapters in South Central Texas Districts 1, 2, and 3 for the past 14 years. She proudly serves as Vice President of the San Antonio Alumni Chapter and is honored to hold the position of Vice President of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation—a role that enables her to further promote musicianship, scholarship, and service through music.
Professionally, Ms. De La Cerda is the lead elementary music teacher at Collier Elementary in Harlandale ISD, where she teaches general music, theater, and choir. Outside of the classroom, Isabel is an accomplished actress in the San Antonio theater community. She has had the pleasure of performing in several Texas premieres, including American Mariachi by José Cruz González and Somewhere Over the Border by Brian Quijada. When not on stage, she serves as a musical director and vocal coach for a variety of schools and theater companies throughout the San Antonio area.
With a deep-rooted passion for her cultural heritage, Isabel studied Mariachi music at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has performed with UTSA Mariachi Los Paisanos and was a featured vocalist in the prestigious competition hosted annually by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán.
Isabel remains committed to advancing music education and inspiring the next generation of musicians through a lifelong dedication to service and the arts.
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. 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, editor, or coeditor of eleven 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. In 2018, he presented performances and master classes in the United Arab Emirates and 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. In 2025, he was named editor in chief of the NATS Journal of Singing.
Treasurer
treasurer@mpefoundation.org
Donna Chrzanowski, Philanthropies Coordinator
Donna Chrzanowski, Phi Kappa, has been a member of Mu Phi Epsilon since her initiation in 1984, from Wayne State University, where she received her Bachelors of Music Education. She also holds a Masters in Music Education from Eastern Michigan University and an Ed Specialist Degree in School Administration from Oakland University.
She has held offices in many different capacities of our Fraternity, such as President of Phi Kappa, Secretary and President of the Detroit Alumni Chapter, and District Director of Great Lakes 1 and 3. Donna taught music for 34 years from pre-school through high school, but spent most of her career in Elementary Music where she taught online classes and helped develop a curriculum that is still being used today. Donna performs alto saxophone with the Macomb Community Concert Band. She retired from teaching in 2022 and currently works part time at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
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 a versatile flutist and pedagogue equally comfortable performing music written 400 years or 40 minutes ago. The 2021 Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition Winner and 2012 Irene Burchard Prizewinner, her performance work ranges from intimate solo performances in the recording studio to sold-out orchestra festival concerts. She holds principal flute positions in the Topeka Symphony Orchestra (Topeka, KS) and Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra (Boulder, CO) and teaches a vibrant studio of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA).
As an orchestral player, chamber musician, and soloist, Dr. Occeña has worked to bring to life hundreds of new works. She gave the world premiere performances of flute concertos by Arturo Rodríguez and Joseph Kern, and the European premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s “The Light That We Can Hear.” She has privately commissioned several works, including the prizewinning work the whirring dusk by Lisa Bost-Sandberg (2018), and was a co-commissioner for Confluence by Zhou Long (2015), Giantess by Carter Pann (2018), Amazonia by Valerie Coleman (2020), Intuition by Samuel Zyman (2022), and Pathways of Desire by Reena Esmail (2024).
Committed to reaching audiences around the world, Dr. Occeña is an active recording artist whose performances can be heard on major music streaming services. She specializes in recording recently published works as well as student-accessible works outside the standard canon, often in collaboration with her duo partner, pianist Emely Phelps. In addition to traditional venues and recorded performances, Dr. Occeña performs outreach concerts in schools, non-traditional venues such as nature preserves and state parks, and at events specifically designed for neurodiverse audience members. Some of her favorite concert experiences have been performances in association with Autism Speaks and at special education schools.
Dr. Occeña is a frequent presenter at regional and national conventions, and her articles have been published in North American, British, and Dutch flute journals. She contributed to new editions of the Sonata in B minor by Amanda Maier and the Sonata op. 94 by Sergei Prokofiev, and she has researched and performed unpublished works by Undine Smith Moore and Gertrude Rivers Robinson from the composers’ manuscripts.
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 distance running and spending time outdoors with her family. Dr. Occeña 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, 2022 and 2025 national conferences in Portland, Oregon, St. Augustine, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia. 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, pianist Michiko Otaki, 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.