UNF’s Gerson Yessin Distinguished Professorship awarded to Dr. James Hall

The University of North Florida’s School of Music announces the recipient of the Gerson Yessin Distinguished Professorship in Classical Studies for 2020-21 is Dr. James Hall, associate professor of voice. This award is an annual recognition of an outstanding music faculty member.

Hall is recognized for the award based on last year’s annual evaluations, particularly regarding his accomplishments in research and creative activity. The award comes with approximately $3,600 of funding to support his scholarship.

Hall joined the UNF voice faculty in 2011. He enjoys an active and varied performing career that includes opera, oratorio, chamber music and solo recital. A specialist in high tenor repertoire, Hall is frequently called upon as tenor soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana. He has performed to rave reviews in some of the nation’s most prominent concert halls.

Consistently praised for his soaring upper register and vocal beauty, Hall has appeared in concert halls throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently, he was a featured guest artist at the Gwyl Beaumaris Festival in Beaumaris, Wales, United Kingdom.

Well-regarded as an accomplished vocal pedagogue, Hall has presented numerous lectures and guest master classes at universities and music conferences throughout the world. In 2015, Hall joined the summer faculty at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Students under his tutelage have been accepted to the nation’s leading conservatories, including The Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Peabody Conservatory, and the Shepherd School of Music, to name a few. Hall is a graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the Maryland Opera Studio.

The Gerson Yessin Distinguished Professorship in Classical Studies scholarship is presented annually in honor of the late Professor Emeritus Gerson Yessin, the first chair of the UNF Department of Fine Arts.