Michelle Kiec
Michelle Kiec enjoys an active career as both a pedagogue and a performer. She has performed with the Harrisburg Symphony, Harrisburg Opera, West Virginia Symphony, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Nittany Valley Symphony, Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra, Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and Breckenridge Music Festival. As a soloist, she has appeared with the University of Mary Wind Ensemble, Bismarck-Mandan Wind Ensemble, Northern Plains Clarinet Symposium, Montana-Idaho Clarinet Festival, Midwest ClariFest, International Clarinet Association, University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, Fargo-Moorhead Clarinet Extravaganza, Penn State Single Reed Summit, and Millersville Single Reed Symposium.
Dr. Kiec is a frequent conference presenter in the areas of distance education, instructional technology, curriculum development, student recruitment, assessment, and yoga for performing artists. Recent presentations include conferences of the College Music Society, Association for Technology in Music Instruction, National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, North Dakota Music Educators, Minnesota Music Educators, South Dakota Music Educators, International Clarinet Association, and North American Saxophone Alliance.
She is a founding member of Trio Apollo, a Bismarck-based woodwind trio that specializes in reaching a wide spectrum of audiences through novel and innovative programming. The ensemble has received numerous grants for their outreach work in schools and under-served communities, and performs annually for the state finals of Poetry Out Loud.
Dr. Kiec holds bachelor's degrees in saxophone performance and German from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees in clarinet performance at Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University. Her dissertation, The 'Licht' Super-formula: Compositional Manipulations in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstücke XII-XVI is cited by commentators on Stockahausen's masterpiece Licht: Die Sieben Tage der Woche.
Currently, Dr. Kiec serves as the Associate Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts at Kutztown University. Previously, she was the School of Arts and Sciences assessment and accreditation coordinator, and an associate professor of music at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, where she taught woodwind lessons, chamber music, woodwind pedagogy, music theory, aural skills, and an online foundational course in music.