The Conservatory is pleased to note that an article by Conservatory alumnus and former musicology faculty member Jonathan Borja (MM flute performance 2005; MM musicology 2010; DMA flute performance 2010), titled “Cultural Syncretism: The Sounds and Rhythms in the Flute Music of Samuel Zyman”, is the cover article in the Summer 2017 edition of The Flutist Quarterly, the official magazine of the National Flute Association.
Currently Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Dr. Borja discussed his extensive research for this article with UMKC Conservatory faculty and students at a First Friday Forum, April 2017, during a weekend visit in which he also gave a master class and performed a recital of works for flute and piano by U.S. and Mexican composers, including Zyman, who teaches at Juilliard.
Dr. Borja’s undergraduate degree is from Principia College; prior to that, he studied at the National Conservatory of Music in his native Mexico City. His teachers and mentors include Mary Posses, William Everett, Andrew Granade, Marie Jureit-Beamish, and Maria Esther Garcia.