Alumni updates spring 2026

We are excited to recognize the School of Music recipient of the 2025 Alumni Award, Amy Acklin. This is the highest honor bestowed by Louisville Alumni, and the highlight is well-deserved. Amy and other recipients will receive special awards recognizing their contributions to the university this week during homecoming activities. Amy shared the following with us: 

"I am deeply honored to receive this Alumni Award from the University of Louisville, an institution that has profoundly shaped my personal and professional journey for nearly four decades. The UofL School of Music is a cherished place for me, and I am forever grateful for the world-class education I received and the amazing students, mentors, and colleagues I am privileged to work with every day. Louisville First, Cards Forever - GO CARDS!"

Emily Yocum Black is an alumna of the School of Music and is now a three-time Grammy Nominee. She describes her initial reaction to this nomination as complete joy and that she’s “immensely proud of Craig Hella Johnson and the folks of Conspirare and humbled to have been a part of it.”

The Grammy nomination is for Advena: Liturgies for a Broken World. Emily says that it is a contemporary response to the traditional “mass” and “requiem” choral forms. She shares that the two major works are bookended with "beautiful chant-like settings of texts by Euan Tait for guitar and choir that invite the listener into this vulnerable space.” 

The School of Music shares Emily’s excitement for this accomplishment. She shares that she owes much of who she is as an artist to her time at UofL and her voice teachers. Emily mentions that Emily Albrink Katz, Edith Davis Tidwell, and the UofL Choral Department under Dr. Hatteberg helped to shape her as a singer and artist, and continue to do so. She brings this inspiration into the lessons she now teaches to voice students in her hometown of Paducah.

It is an amazing achievement for Emily’s career, and we are grateful to continue to take part in her journey. 

Listen at: https://listn.fm/advena/ or https://conspirare.org/product/advena-liturgies-for-a-broken-world/

Tyler Taylor is an alum of the School of Music, who graduated with a Bachelor of Music with an emphasis in composition in 2015. We were able to learn more about Tyler through several questions and invite you to read more:

• What are you doing now, and how did you get there? I am a full-time freelancer! This includes a busy life of writing music for a number of commissions, teaching composition and horn at various levels, and occasionally performing. Currently, I am the Daniel R. Lewis Composition Fellow with the Cleveland Symphony. This is a three-year composition residency that includes the performance of existing works, including my dissertation “Permissions” for Large Symphony Orchestra on 10/30-10/2, community work and advocacy, and a large-scale commission. As part of my community work, I will teach a young composer program with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestr,a where students will write pieces under my guidance. These pieces will be workshopped and performed by members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra – an incredible privilege for any young musician! Additionally, as the winner of the 2024 Michael Morgan Prize, I am in the midst of working on a commission for the San Francisco Symphony to be premiered in May of 2026. Ahead of this premiere, the San Francisco Conservatory is hosting a reading of my work in December. It’s a great opportunity to introduce your work to your collaborators and test out some new ideas. On top of all of this, I started as an adjunct instructor of composition, theory and horn at Bellarmine University this fall, and am continuing my work at the Louisville Academy of Music also as an instructor of Composition and Horn. All of this comes in the wake of an extraordinary musical education that started at UofL (BM 2015), continued at the Eastman School of Music (MM 2017), and ended at Indiana University (DM 2020). At these institutions, I was provided the necessary foundation on which to build this kind of career. It was during this time I to identified and grew my most significant musical and artistic interests, received guidance and mentorship from world-class professors, and met friends and colleagues who undoubtedly shaped me and my path through music. At the end of the day, none of this would be possible with the music itself. From 2021-23, the Louisville Orchestra commissioned and performed three pivotal works. These three scores have provided me substantial momentum in the field. It’s remarkable what can happen when the institutions of our city support our communities. 
• What is the most valuable lesson you learned at the School of Music? Steve Rouse - my composition professor at the time - taught me the importance of exploring your own unique artistic vision. I had been working in ways that were pretty derivative, and I took comparisons to well-known and bygone composers as compliments. He was the one who broke this world open, explaining that there isn’t much art to be found in work that copies those who came before us. This set me on a path of self-reflection and discovery, and I’m incredibly grateful for his intervention. 
• What advice would you give current music students? In a broad sense, take advantage of your resources. I was in the music library studying scores almost daily. I’d share my scores with professors who’d take a look. I was a serious and motivated student. UofL is a place where you have access to extraordinary professors and resources – engage with them rigorously! Be supportive, take your work seriously, and make a good impression. And last, though it may sound silly, listen to music! 
• Do you have a favorite memory from your time at UofL? I was fortunate enough to be performing with the orchestra when Brett Dean was back as the featured composer for the New Music Festival. We were performing his Viola Concerto with him as the soloist. I can remember clear as day seeing the music on my stand and thinking “there’s no possible way I’ll ever be able to do this” and getting lost while trying to follow along with the recording. When Brett Dean arrived for rehearsals, there was a collective “aha moment”. He was a tremendous guy too – amazing composer-performer and also incredibly warm and generous. It was a moment that confirmed growth and learning is possible even when you might think it’s impossible. In 2020, I hosted a virtual version of Bowdoin’s composition program, and Brett Dean was one of our guests. To my surprise, he remembered me from his time at UofL – I hope our paths cross again! 
• Why do you think it’s important to support young musicians? Young musicians are experiencing a moment that is a confusing mix of limitless excitement and crushing self-doubt. We have a moment when our limited knowledge is being exploded, in a good way, and are being opened up to so many of the exciting things music has to offer. At the same time, this musical growth requires an acknowledgment of our own shortcomings and how we will improve them – our ears mature, and we must grow with them. Add to the mix transitioning into early adulthood, a growing independence, making life-altering decisions about your future, economic instability for some, and the picture becomes precious. Musicians need avenues to success, and unfortunately, some of these avenues are significantly hindered if not blocked entirely by a lack of access. Support comes from community, mentors, friends, professors, and yes - money. My education would not have been possible without the generous support and scholarship I received while at UofL. That education made it possible for me to attend some of the best schools in the country, if not the world, places I thought I’d only dream of being a part of.