Full-Time Music Faculty

Dr. Remi Chiu, Associate Professor

Music Program Director, Renaissance Music History, Musicology, Core Music Courses
rchiu@loyola.edu

Professor Remi Chiu is the Coordinator of the Music Program. He is a musicologist specializing in Renaissance music and the history of medicine. He is the author of Plague and Music in the Renaissance (Cambridge University Press), which examines the role of music and music-making in the medical, spiritual, and civic strategies for combating pestilence. His research into the music of past epidemics has yielded some unexpected insights into music-making under COVID-19, some of which have been featured in the press (The Guardian, NPR, among others). Dr. Chiu’s latest research focuses on the role of music in popular (quasi-) scientific entertainments at the turn of the twentieth century, such as the medicine show and the freakshow. Learn more about Dr. Chiu's research activity.

Dr. Clay Price, Director of Choral Studies

Loyola Singers, Repertory Choir, Core Music Courses
cprice1@loyola.edu

Dr. Clay Price holds graduate degrees in choral conducting from the University of South Carolina and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a Bachelor of Music in music education from Belmont University. Prior to coming to Loyola, he served as Director of Choral Activities at the State University of New York at Oswego and the Director of Choral Studies at the University of Rio Grande, in Rio Grande, Ohio. He has studied conducting with William Carroll, Richard Cox, Deen Entsminger, Andrew Gowan, Robert Gregg, Sherry Hill Kelly, Larry Wyatt, and Welborn Young, and has conducted in master classes led by Hilary Apfelstadt, Rodney Eichenberger, and Weston Noble. His article on the sacred choral music of Cyril Rootham was published in the September 2013 Choral Journal. He is a member of the American Choral Directors’ Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Mr. Mark St. Pierre

Director of Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo
mastpierre@loyola.edu

Mark St. Pierre has been a music educator and a professional musician for over 30 years. His degrees include a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Music Education from Towson University. Outside of being the instructor of the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo at Loyola University, Mark is also a music educator at Loch Raven Technical Academy where he directs the 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade concert bands, steel pan/percussion ensembles, and jazz ensemble. Mark has been a presenter and curriculum writer for Baltimore County Public Schools Music Program, a workshop director at Peabody Institute, a clinician on hand drum and drum set techniques at Gordon Miller Music, Mid Atlantic Drum, and Mars Music and a freelance musician to local bands and ensembles, covering styles that include jazz, Latin, funk, rock, pop, symphonic, folk, and African.

Mr. David LaVorgna

Director of Chamber Ensemble
dlavorgna@loyola.edu

David LaVorgna has been teaching in the Baltimore area for 30 years and has been at Loyola University since 1991. He teaches both applied lessons in flute and Chamber Ensemble I and II at Loyola. He has studied with some of the finest musicians and has degrees from Peabody and San Francisco Conservatories. He has performed with the Baltimore Symphony, Boston Pops Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Baltimore Opera Company, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and Annapolis Symphony. His many performance credits include working with such varied artists as Leon Fleisher, Samuel Sanders, Judy Collins, Bobby McFerrin, Linda Ronstadt, Sarah McLachlan, Dudley Moore, and Liza Minnelli. He has also collaborated with many contemporary composers throughout the development, revision, and premieres of many works, and has performed in a multitude of concert settings to promote music and the understanding of music. David was a solo performer with cellist Yo Yo Ma on the CBS Sunday Morning Show highlighting composer Bright Sheng. He is the principal piccolo / utility flute with the National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dr. Anthony D. Villa, Professor Emeritus

Currently: Recording Studio
Formerly: Jazz Performance, Jazz Ensemble, Composition/Arranging, Theory, Electronic Music Studio, Songwriting
avilla@loyola.edu

Dr. Anthony D. Villa Dr. Anthony D. Villa teaches courses in the Recording Studio (MU350/MU351 Recording Studio I and II and MU355 Synths, Samplers, and Sequencing). He is an active jazz musician performing regularly with his trio, (the Anthony Villa Trio) and as the pianist with the Melting Pot Big Band, the Blue Big Band, and the Cold Spring Jazz Quartet. The Washington Post has praised his work as "the rare piece that sounds fresh while hinting at the near past" and as deserv[ing] a lasing place in the musical firmament. To learn more about Dr. Villa, go to arditomusic.com.

Prof. Ronald Pearl, Professor Emeritus

Guitar Studies, Music History, Music Theory
rpearl@loyola.edu

Applied Instructors

• Bass: Shawn Simon
• Cello: Ismar Gomez
• Flute: David LaVorgna
• Guitar: Joe DeCara (jazz)
• Percussion: Barry Dove
• Piano: Grace Eun Hae Kim (website), Kathryn Locke, Anthony Villa (jazz piano)
• Saxophone: Lionel Lyles
• Trumpet: David Smith
• Trombone: Nick Mazziott
• Voice: Julie Kurzava
• Violin/Viola: Cathleen Jeffcoat