The University of West Florida Dr. Grier Williams School of Music will present Sheila Dunn and Blake Riley in “If I Can Not Fly” a faculty recital celebrating Dunn’s promotion to full professor, on Monday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. The performance will be held in the Rolfs Music Hall at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, on the Pensacola campus.

Dunn and Riley will be joined by special guests, Jerry Shannon, piano and Richard Jernigan, clarinet and will be performing works by Schubert, Poulenc, Barber, Harold Arlen among others.

Dr. Sheila Dunn, soprano, was promoted to full professor in the summer of 2021 when she was also promoted to director of the Dr. Grier Williams School of Music. She teaches applied voice, vocal pedagogy, vocal literature, opera workshop and women in popular music. She received a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and both a Master and Doctor of Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, all in vocal performance.

Blake Riley, assistant professor and director of collaborative piano, teaches class piano, applied piano and foreign language lyric diction. He studied at Mount Allison University and the University of Toronto and received a master's degree in collaborative piano from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCCM), where he participated in masterclasses with Warren Jones, Brian Zeger and Stephanie Blythe. He was also an apprentice coach at CCCM’s summer program in Lucca, Italy. In addition to this concert, Dunn will also present her Rite of Passage lecture by the same name on Friday, April 22, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. in the Argo Athletic Club. The Rite of Passage lecture series event celebrates UWF faculty recently promoted to full professor. This series commemorates the work of top academics in achieving the highest level in higher education teaching -- the coveted full professorship. The lecture series gives the professor the opportunity to share with colleagues, students, friends and community members life lessons outside the classroom.

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Face coverings are not required, however the University, as well as the CDC, highly recommends the use of face coverings indoors. This will allow us to keep our on-campus and off-campus communities safe. For more information or to reserve tickets, please contact the CFPA Box Office at 850.857.6285 or online at uwf.edu/tickets.