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Department of Humanities and Fine Arts

Music

Music

Music College of Arts and Sciences | Department of Humanities and Fine Arts | Major

The Music Program plays a vital role in the life of the University and the community. The training environment it provides continues to produce musicians of distinction for careers in a variety of professional fields including performance and music education. The faculty is comprised of dedicated professional musicians who are active in both performance and teaching.

Concentrations:

Voice (BA)

Instruments (BA)

Music Staff Directory

  • Dr. Stephen Bunaman

    Department Chair of Humanities & Fine Arts Professor of Music and University Organist

    Stephen Burnaman, pianist, has performed throughout the United States and abroad in such major musical centers as Boston, New York, Chicago, Rome, Warsaw, Taipei and Hong Kong. Highlights include performances at the Hong Kong City Theatre, the Rome Festival in Italy, and a solo recital at the Chicago Cultural Center, which was broadcast live over the WFMT fine arts radio and television network. He has also presented lectures and papers on various aspects of piano playing, including a paper presented at the conference on the music of Amy Beach at New York’s Mannes College of Music. He is past faculty member of the Concord Community Music School in Concord, New Hampshire, and is former Lecturer in Piano Accompanying at the University of Texas at Austin.

    He is currently Professor of Piano and University Organist at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, where he also chairs the Department of Humanities and Fine Arts, and led the music program in a fund raising campaign to become an All-Steinway School. He is former president of the Austin District Music Teachers Association, which named him Teacher of the Year and twice awarded him Collegiate Teacher of the Year. In addition to serving churches in Massachusetts and Texas as pianist and organist, he also performed for five years as pianist for the Austin Singers, a professional choral ensemble.

    Previously serving at Hillcrest Baptist and Redeemer Presbyterian, he is currently organist at Hyde Park Baptist Church of Austin. Burnaman completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin where he was awarded the A. David Renner Endowed Presidential Scholarship in piano and where he completed his doctoral dissertation on the piano music of American composers Edward MacDowell and Amy Beach. He holds a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Stephen F. Austin State University.

    While at SFA, he received the Mamie Middlebrook Award as the outstanding pianist, the President’s Award as the outstanding recitalist, the Zelma Childers Award as the outstanding graduate in the School of Fine Arts, and was inducted as a member of Pi Kappa Lambda national music honor fraternity. The SFA School of Music named him “Outstanding Music Alumnus” in 2009, and he returned to perform in a fund-raising concert in 2024. His university and conservatory teachers include Dr. Andrew Parr, Victor Rosenbaum, and Gregory Allen.

  • Dr. William Oliver

    Director of University Bands/Assistant Professor of Music

    Dr. William P. Oliver is the Director of University Bands and Assistant Professor of Music Education at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. A native of Hollywood,
    Florida, Dr. Oliver leads the university’s music education teacher preparation program and serves as faculty advisor to both the HT Theatre Guild and the Delta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

    Dr. Oliver earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Florida A&M University, a Master’s degree from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in Music Education with a minor in Higher Education Administration from The Pennsylvania State University. His doctoral dissertation examined institutional isomorphism in HBCU music programs and how these curricula align—or conflict—with their institutions’ broader cultural missions. His current research focuses on the development and expansion of graduate-level fine arts programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

    Prior to entering higher education, Dr. Oliver spent a decade teaching high school music in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned a reputation for excellence in teaching and leadership. He is a seven-time recipient of the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence, recognizing his outstanding contributions to music education and his ensembles’ distinguished performance history. In 2023, he was named one of Yamaha’s “40 Under 40” for his vision, innovation, and the transformational growth of Huston-Tillotson’s music program. Under his leadership, the HT music program has secured a series of competitive grants and strategic partnerships with organizations such as Pandora/SiriusXM, UNCF, the Tejemos Foundation, and other national arts funders— significantly expanding student access, scholarship support, and both domestic and international performancebased learning experiences.

    Dr. Oliver serves on the board of the Austin Theatre Alliance (Paramount and State Theatres) and is a member of the Program Committee for Austin Soundwaves, a nonprofit that expands access to high-quality music education across Central Texas. He remains active as a band clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States. His professional affiliations include the Texas Music Educators Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, Inc., and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
    Outside of his professional work, Dr. Oliver finds his greatest inspiration at home in Austin with his wife, Alexandra, and their two children, Maverick and Indigo.

Music

Staff Directory