Kristine Hurst Wajszczuk, DMAKristine Hurst-Wajszczuk, DMA, associate professor of voice and director of opera in the College of Arts and Sciences, will be the new associate dean of the UAB Honors College, effective Aug. 12.
In the role, Hurst-Wajszczuk will help lead the college’s teaching and engagement mission and facilitate the recruitment and academic success of a diverse student body while teaching and engaging in scholarly activity in the Department of Music.
“I am delighted that Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk is joining our leadership team as the first associate dean for the UAB Honors College,” said Shannon Blanton, Ph.D., dean of the UAB Honors College, after announcing the results of a universitywide search.
Her interdisciplinary research and teaching, as well as her compassion, thoughtfulness and organizational skills, will be a true asset for the Honors College. |
“She has already made important contributions to honors education as both a professor of honors courses and as an Honors Faculty Fellow. Her interdisciplinary research and teaching, as well as her compassion, thoughtfulness and organizational skills, will be a true asset for the Honors College as we continue to support a rapidly growing number of outstanding students in their journey to achieve their academic and leadership goals,” Blanton said.
“My teaching in the Honors College, its University Honors Program and as an Honors Faculty Fellow has been deeply gratifying and has informed my work in the Department of Music,” Hurst-Wajszczuk said. “I’m looking forward to working with Dean Blanton and my colleagues in the Honors College, and I am excited to join such a creative team. Both my department chair Patrick Evans and Honors colleagues have been very supportive, and for that I am very grateful.”
Patrick Evans, D.M., chair of the Department of Music, says Hurst-Wajszczuk "brings a great deal of artistic, pedagogical and administrative experience to the role, as well as those qualities of heart and mind that make her such a student-centered professor. We are grateful she will still be teaching some voice students in the Department of Music during her tenure as associate dean and look forward to supporting her in this new and exciting role in every way we can."
Hurst-Wajszczuk is a specialist in the lute songs of John Dowland, and her solo CD “Lute Songs and Ayres” was released in 2008. In 2018, she gave European and Canadian premieres of Lori Laitman’s “The Secret Exit,” composed for her and colleague Denise Gainey, DMA, associate professor of clarinet and coordinator of graduate studies in music. (Click to listen.) |
A soprano, Hurst-Wajszczuk is a specialist in the lute songs of John Dowland, and her solo CD “Lute Songs and Ayres” was released in 2008. In 2018, she gave European and Canadian premieres of Lori Laitman’s “The Secret Exit,” composed for her and colleague Denise Gainey, DMA, associate professor of clarinet and coordinator of graduate studies in music. (Click to listen.)
In demand as a clinician throughout the United States and Europe, she has been featured at national and international conferences and presents regularly at many universities and colleges. She teaches applied voice to music majors, minors and musical theater majors, and she has served as stage director and musical director for UAB Opera, which has won three awards through the National Opera Association under her direction.
Hurst-Wajszczuk received both bachelor and master’s degrees in voice performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in 1991 and 1994, respectively. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance and pedagogy at the University of Colorado at Boulder.