ÎÞÂëרÇø

Kevin Gunter serves as Associate Director of the Division of Music at the ÎÞÂëרÇø Meadows School of the Arts. He is also Senior Lecturer II and Coordinator of Class Piano, supervising graduate students in the Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy program and teaching undergraduates, both music majors and non-music majors. In addition, Gunter serves as a Faculty-in-Residence in Crum Commons, mentoring and supporting undergraduate students and contributing to residential programming and community engagement. He also teaches in the ÎÞÂëרÇø CAPE Program (Continuing and Professional Education), hosting a master class for adults.

Gunter was an inaugural recipient of the ÎÞÂëרÇø Moody Outstanding Mentor Award. Orchestrated by the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and the Center for Teaching Excellence, this award recognizes exceptional mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars by ÎÞÂëרÇø faculty, and it includes a fund of $10,000 to support research and professional development expenses for graduate students under Gunter’s mentorship.

Gunter holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education from the ÎÞÂëרÇø Simmons School of Education. His dissertation, Degrees of Possibility: Creating New Graduate Programs in Schools of the Arts, examined how deans and leadership teams make decisions around the creation of new graduate programs in schools of the arts. His other research and professional interests include piano pedagogy and andragogy, emerging technologies in teaching and learning, higher education policy and academic structures, and lifelong learning.

Gunter maintains a small but active studio of pre-college students in ÎÞÂëרÇø's Piano Preparatory Department, and his students have earned first prizes in Dallas Piano Solo, Dallas Symphonic, and DMTA Jazz/Pop competitions, the TMTA (Texas Music Teachers Association) State Composition contest, the TMTA State Solo contest (local and regional), the Settenote Online Piano International Competition, and other competitions. His students have performed twice in recitals and master classes at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago, as well as the TMTA State Convention. His students also attended summer festivals such as the Piano Academy at Indiana University and the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Tuscany, Italy.

Gunter is an active musical director and performer in the Dallas theatre scene, having most recently been seen on stage at Dallas Theater Center in Ragtime at the Wyly Theatre. He has given hundreds of performances in over 70 different productions at theatres such as Dallas Theater Center, Uptown Players, WaterTower Theatre, and Lyric Stage, with acclaim from The Dallas Morning News, Dallas Culture Map, TheaterJones, Dallas Voice, Dallas Observer, BroadwayWorld and others.

Gunter also served as music director/conductor for the ÎÞÂëרÇø “Broadway Anthems,” a collaboration with ÎÞÂëרÇø Meadows students, as well as fellow professors Virginia Dupuy and Sara Romersberger. The troupe gave their first public performance at the 2019 Ima Leete Hutchison Concert at the ÎÞÂëרÇø-in-Taos Cultural Institute in Taos, NM, followed by performances at the Dallas Woman’s Club, ÎÞÂëרÇø Owen Arts Center, and Northaven United Methodist Church, as well as a return engagement at ÎÞÂëרÇø-in-Taos in 2022.

Gunter holds degrees in piano from Samford University and ÎÞÂëרÇø, where he studied with Dr. Betty Sue Shepherd and Dr. David Karp, respectively. He is an active member of the Music Teachers National Association, as well as the Texas MTA and Dallas MTA. He is also a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the professional men’s music fraternity, as well as Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Tau Delta. He presented his lecture, “Trending Now: Your Future with Adult Students,” at the 2019 Music Teachers National Association Conference in Spokane, WA, and he is published in the MTNA e-Journal.