Department of Music Welcomes Three New Vocal Faculty

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Counterclockwise from top right: Lauren Clare, Lenora Green and Jonathan Stinson.

The Department of Music in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is proud to welcome three new vocal faculty to the University of Arkansas. These individuals bring a range of experience and research to the Department of Music in the areas of opera, jazz studies, music theatre, along with various special projects. 

"We are very excited to welcome Lauren Claire, Lenora Green and Jonathan Stinson," said Ronda Mains, chair of the Department of Music.

Jeffrey Murdock, vocal area coordinator, added, "These new faculty additions will be game-changing for our vocal and choral area, and for the department as a whole. Our students are quite fortunate to be able to work with these scholar-educators."

Mains said the professional accomplishments these new faculty member have are inspiring and the passion each has for education and creating student success will help prepare the U of A's music students well for their futures.

Lauren Clare joins the department's faculty as instructor of music after serving one year as an adjunct professor in the department. A native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Clare began her professional career as a vocalist in 2001 when she gave a solo recital for the Carol Brice Series at age 17. After pursuing a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance at Oral Roberts University, Lauren returned home to sing as a chorus member for the Cimarron Opera Company's summer production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe. That fall, Clare began studies as a coloratura soprano at the esteemed Wanda L. Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University where she graduated with high honors in the masters of music degree program for vocal performance. 

In 2009, Clare moved to the Fayetteville area and began working as a local singer/songwriter under the pseudonym Ren. In 2011, she formed what is now known as The Allie Lauren Project. The Allie Lauren Project is an avant-garde collective of classical, alternative and jazz musicians and has performed for the Oklahoma Film & Music Office SXSW Film Panel Event, Tourism Roadshows, Norman Music Festival, 35 Denton, Backwoods Music Festival, Sunday Twilight Concert Series, Wheeler Summer Music Series, Oklahoma City's New Year's Opening Night Celebrations as well as other numerous performances for the Oklahoma City Arts Council.

Clare has also performed works from this project in Chicago, St. Louis, New York City and London. In 2018, The Allie Lauren Project was nominated for a regional Emmy award by the Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for their work with Outsiders Productions and The Grand Casino Hotel & Resort's Play It Loud Season II. In addition to her work for The Allie Lauren Project, Clare has spent time teaching private voice and piano lessons, writing and producing works for hip-hop artist Jabee & performing jazz standards for Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra events. She also collaborated with her tribe, the Chickasaw Nation, in production for her composition which was featured as the theme song for the nation's 2019 annual meeting. 

Lenora Green-Turner joins the department's faculty as teaching assistant professor of music. An American Soprano, Green-Turner, a native of Macon, Georgia has been hailed by Opera News as an impressive vocalist and the New York Times as a most expressive singer.

She has sung such roles as Mimi (La Boheme); Mary (Highway 1, U. S. A.); Countess Susanna (Il Segreto di Susanna); First Lady (The Magic Flute), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), title role Suor Angelica, Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), High Priestess (Aida), Antonia (Les Contes d'Hoffmann). Green-Turner also holds many awards, namely the Jane Willson Emerging Artist award, Leo Rogers Scholarship/Sarasota Opera Guild; MONC Encouragement Award, regional NATS, William Knight Competition, MTNA Young Artist Program, Former Artist-In-Residence for Stax Music Academy, LeMoyne-Owen College, and Opera Memphis (2013-2017). Green-Turner earned her D.M.A. and M.M. from University of Michigan and her Performance Diploma from Indiana University.

Green-Turner is a member of Exigence under the baton of Eugene Rogers partnering with Sphinx Organization, a non-profit building diversity in classical music. She is also the founder and CEO of Green Room Studios LLC; a private vocal studio that helps singers find their authentic creativity. She is excited to be joining the distinguished music faculty at the University of Arkansas and giving the students a new perspective on finding their place in the music industry. She and her husband, Anthony J. Turner, Jr. are excited to embark on this new adventure.

Jonathan Stinson joins the faculty as teaching assistant professor of music. A baritone, Stinson has appeared in leading and supporting roles with opera companies throughout North American and Europe, including Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Kentucky Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Memphis, Dayton Opera, Cleveland Opera, Central City Opera, Ohio Light Opera, Opera New Jersey, as well as abroad in Italy, England, and Bulgaria. He made his international debut in Cortona, Italy in 2010, singing the title role of Don Giovanni.

In the 2019-2020 season, he sang Lescaut in Manon Lescaut at The Cleveland Opera and appeared as a soloist with Connecticut Choral Artists in Handel's Messiah. Stinson has appeared as soloist with the Kentucky Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Orchestra of Northern New York, Lafayette Symphony, Liberty Symphony, and Battle Creek Symphony. Recent solo work includes the Requiem of Fauré, Duruflé, and Brahms, Bach's complete Weinachts-Oratorium, Mendelssohn's Von Himmel hoch, Handel's Messiah, Israel in Egypt, and Alexander's Feast, Britten's Cantata Misericordium, Vaughan-Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem, and John Adams' The Wound Dresser.

Also a prolific composer, Stinson has written seven song cycles, two one-act operas for young audiences, two operatic vignettes, and several choral works. His song cycles have been performed throughout the United States and Germany, and his children's operas have been produced by Atlanta Opera, Opera Memphis, and Seagle Music Colony, among many others. In 2015, his anthem "Beloved" won the Grand Prize of the Ninth Annual International Anthem Competition sponsored by First Baptist Church in Worcester, Massachusetts.

From 2013-2018, Stinson served as an assistant professor of voice at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. In 2018, he moved to the U.K. to accept the position of Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre, where his research centered on the vocal health and efficiency of all styles of singing, particularly musical theatre belting. Stinson was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received the "Bel Canto Award" at the Orpheus National Voice Competition. He holds degrees in Voice Performance from Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.), Indiana University (M.M.), and University of Cincinnati-College-Conservatory of Music (D.M.A.). He serves on the voice and musical theatre faculty of the Varna International Music Academy in Bulgaria each June.