Dr. Terry Rhodes, Professor of Music, is Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.
As Senior Associate Dean, she oversees all departments, programs and centers in the division of fine arts and humanities and assists in the development and retention of faculty across the College. The areas she oversees include: American Studies and Folklore, Art, The Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Classics, Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, Dramatic Art and PlayMakers Repertory Company, English and Comparative Literature, Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Program in Humanities and Human Values, the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Romance Languages and Women’s Studies.
She received her doctor of musical arts and master of music from the Eastman School of Music, and her bachelor of music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Especially known for her work in contemporary music, she has served on the music faculty for the past 25 years as UNC Opera Director and a member of the voice faculty, and as departmental chair from 2009 to 2012.
Rhodes has performed in more than 20 countries throughout Europe, Central and South America, and across the U.S. The soprano has earned a fine reputation as a performer of new works, having presented a number of premieres at home and abroad in the last two decades.
Rhodes and mezzo soprano Ellen Williams recorded the warmly received disc “To Sun, To Feast, and To Converse” (Albany Records) of newly recorded duets from the 20th century American song and operatic repertoire, as well as a CD of vocal music by Libby Larsen, which also was released on the Albany label. They have toured as a duo team throughout Europe and the U.S.
Receiving a Fulbright Award as artist-in-residence/lecturer at the Conservatory of Music in Skopje, Macedonia, Rhodes taught and performed throughout the Balkan and Eastern European region (including Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland), with a number of those presentations under the auspices of the U.S. Information Agency.
As a Chapman Fellow at the UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Rhodes created the one-woman musical/dramatic show “Women’s Voices of the Old American West,” which she has presented nationally. She has received grants from the Lilly Foundation and the John T. Lupton Fund for undergraduate teaching and has served as faculty liaison/enrichment lecturer for a number of UNC General Alumni Association-sponsored tours to Europe.
Rhodes has evaluated opera training programs throughout the U.S. for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has performed and taught for the last 10 summers in Italy.
As UNC Opera Director, Rhodes has championed new works by American composers, in addition to producing standard works, often with orchestra. She has published in the National Opera Association Journal and in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Journal with an article on the “Fort Juniper Songs,” which she premiered at Carnegie Recital Hall. She is a member of the National Opera Association and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Rhodes also serves as co-chair of the University’s steering committee for a two-year academic theme focused on water.
- Telephone: 919.962.1165