UA Music Professor Receives Prestigious Burnum Award

Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Charles G. “Skip” Snead, director of the School of Music and professor of horn in The University of Alabama’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award.

Snead was presented with the award during a ceremony on March 16 in the Recital Hall of the Moody Music Building. Dr. Ronald Rogers, assistant vice president for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school, opened the evening with remarks, and UA President Robert E. Witt presented the award. Snead provided a musical performance, and the evening concluded with a reception.

The Burnum Award is one of the highest honors the Capstone bestows on its faculty. It is presented annually to a professor who is judged by a faculty selection committee to have demonstrated superior scholarly or artistic achievements and profound dedication to the art of teaching.

Snead has served as professor of horn since 1988 in the UA School of Music. He was appointed interim director on April 2004 and named director of the School of Music in January 2005.

“The College of Arts and Sciences is blessed with a top-notch faculty,” said Dr. Robert Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The prominence of our faculty members is our greatest strength. Skip Snead exemplifies this not only in his performance and scholarship but also his superior administrative skills. He will represent the prestigious Burnum Award well.”

“Professor Snead is one of the finest horn professors and performers in the world,” said Dr. Ronald Rogers, assistant vice president for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school, who coordinates the nominations. “He not only teaches a large number of students, but he has guided them to winning many national and international awards. He personifies the ideals of the Burnum Award: superior artistic achievements and a profound dedication to the art of teaching.”

Chief among Snead’s accomplishments as performer is his role as a founding member of the TransAtlantic Horn Quartet. Presently this is the preeminent group of its kind in the world. The quartet has performed at Tanglewood in Massachusetts and Wigmore Hall in London. These venues represent the highest level of performance in the world.

He also serves as principal horn with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra and Macon Symphony of Macon, Georgia.

In addition to his work as a performer, he is internationally recognized as a teacher and clinician. His teaching residencies include at the Royal Academy of Music and The Royal College of Music both in London, The Royal Welsh College in Cardiff Wales, The Royal Northern College in Manchester England, The Gheorge Dima Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and The Tanglewood Music Festival in Lennox, Mass.

He has given master classes and lectures throughout the Unites States, including a recent residency as a Housewright Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair at Florida State University. Snead also serves on the executive board of the American Horn Competition and the Peer Review Board of the Center for International Exchange, Fulbright Senior Specialists Program.

“I am so very pleased and honored to have been selected as the recipient of this year’s Burnum Award,” said Snead. “To be included in the company of the previous Burnum winners is a distinction of which I will try to prove worthy. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work among outstanding colleagues at UA who have supported and motivated me to achieve many of the goals in my career.”

Snead continued, “In addition, this award would not have come without the many hours of hard work and multiple impressive achievements by a long list of talented students. I am grateful to all of these people for their roles in making this possible. I am very proud to be able to take my place among the Burnum Award winners and look forward to serving the University for many years to come.”

This is the 25th year the award had been given. The annual award was established by Dr. and Mrs. John F. Burnum of Tuscaloosa to recognize and promote excellence in research, scholarship and teaching. Burnum Award honoree names are permanently displayed on a bronze plaque in the lobby of UA’s Rose Administration Building.