Thrasher appointed performing arts director

Dr. Michael Thrasher

He said he wants to elevate the University’s status to “regional leader, in other words, the school of choice.”

He replaces Dr. James Hatfield, who resigned last year as director of what was formerly known as the School of Performing and Visual Arts and Sciences.

Low enrollment forced University officials to discontinue the theater program in 2005, which included canceling all theater productions and closing its performance hall.

The theater program was then placed under the supervision of the English department.

It is now back under the supervision of the School of Performing Arts.

Students interested in theater classes can take cinema history and/or late 19th-century plays. Online-theater courses could also be possible in the future, Thrasher said.

The Department of Art and Art History is moving into its new facility now under construction. It is expected to open in December.

“In the last two to three years, the art department has really flourished,” Thrasher said.

Growing student enrollment requires a larger facility to accommodate its needs, he said.

“Our primary focus of the department is music. In the next three to five years, we hope to increase enrollment and majors offered. This will increase the quality of our program,” he said.

Thrasher is also serving as an associate professor of music, teaching junior-level music history and applied clarinet classes.

He was director of recruitment and admissions for the music department at North Dakota State University, where he served as associate professor of music and instructor of courses in applied clarinet and graduate-level musicology.

His past positions include serving at North Central Texas College, Dallas Baptist University and Bridgeport Independent School District in Bridgeport.

He is a member of National Association of Schools of Music and International Clarinet Association, not only functioning as its state chair, but also for National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors.

Thrasher travels all over the central and western United States, performing as a recitalist and chamber musician, he said.

“I perform two or three recitals a year. I’m primarily a clarinetist. My degree is in that.

But I have played the saxophone and the bassoon in the past,” he said.

Chamber music usually is performed by fewer than 10 people, each playing only one part.

Whereas in an orchestra, there may be several people playing the same part, he said.

His all-time favorite music genre is 19th-century music and Brahms is his favorite musician with Mahler as his second favorite, he said.

“If it were possible to see any famous musician, dead or alive, in concert, I would have to pick Mozart, not just for his genius, but for his reported improvisational skills,” Thrasher said.