New Faculty for 2023-24

Daniel Cook is delighted to be joining the Ithaca College community as Director of Bands. He comes to IC from the University of North Texas faculty, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, teaches courses in wind band literature, graduate and undergraduate conducting, and serves as Director of Athletic Bands. In this capacity, he is proud to lead the 435-member Green Brigade Marching Band. Cook earned Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Conducting from Northwestern University, where he studied with Mallory Thompson. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from the University of Georgia.

Cook’s ensemble performances have received acclaim, most recently by such composers as Bryant, Daugherty, Del Tredici, Gotkovsky, Higdon, and Schwantner. Ensembles under his direction have performed at the Florida and Texas state music conferences, as well as at the Music for All National Concert Band Festival. The UNT Wind Ensemble has won first-place recognition for the collegiate American Prize in Wind Ensemble Performance. In addition to his work at UNT, Cook is honored to have held educational positions with the Dallas Brass Band and Santa Clara Vanguard and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series.

Ryan received his B.S. from Ithaca College in Theatre Arts Management and a certificate program through Harvard Business School online. Ryan brings both commercial and not-for-profit perspectives to his teaching and mentorship. He has worked in marketing at Roundabout Theatre Company, as a Project Coordinator at The Pekoe Group, a boutique theatrical advertising agency whose clients include Six and Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, and has an extensive tenure at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts working in guest relations.

Described by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC) as an “impressive conductor…outstanding in his attention to detail and his command of the big picture”, Hong Kong-born conductor Ho-Yin Kwok is a three-time winner of The American Prize, 2021, winner of 2017-2018 Vincent C. LaGuardia, Jr. Conducting Competition and 2021 International Conductors Workshop and Competition. As Director of Orchestral Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, Kwok also serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Valley Orchestra in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

As a rising conductor, Kwok has established a professional reputation in the state of Minnesota. He has served as Assistant Conductor of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and cover conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Kwok previously served as Assistant Conductor of Collegium Musicum Hong Kong and performed in esteemed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Musikverein in Vienna. His engagements in the 2022-2023 season include a guest conducting appearance with the New World Symphony at the Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall at Miami Beach, Florida.

An avid music educator, Kwok has served as Director of the Duluth Superior Youth Symphony and Visiting Director of Orchestra at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His other educational guest conducting engagements include the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Southeastern Minnesota Youth Orchestras, Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, and Foster Music Camp. He has served as adjudicator for concerto competitions such as those of Minnesota Orchestra Young People's Symphony Concert Association and University of Louisville.

Kwok is a first prize winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. He had served as Music Director of the Opera Theatre at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. He enjoys conducting operas of a wide range of periods and styles, from Mozart's Idomeneo to Puccini's La Bohéme, Britten's Albert Herring, and Menotti’s The Consul. He has collaborated professionally with Arbeit Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of the North. In the 2021-22 season, Kwok gave one of the first performances of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera, Hometown to the World.

Known for his passion in diversifying the orchestral concert repertoire, Kwok has been involved in multiple initiatives and special projects. With the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, he created the annual Foreground Composers Series, a year-round celebration and in-depth research on an underrepresented composer. This ongoing project has featured composers such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Ruth Gipps, along with many other neglected composers. Kwok is also a panel member of …And we were heard, a national initiative to promote contemporary music and composers of underrepresented backgrounds. Kwok has appeared as conductor for the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. 

Kwok studied conducting at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and the University of Iowa. His principal teachers are Mark Russell Smith and William LaRue Jones. He has also studied with Gerard Schwarz, Kevin Noe, Cristian Măcelaru, Giancarlo Guerrero, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Grant Cooper, José-Luis Novo and Eric Garcia.

Khyle B. Wooten (he/him) leads a unique life in music, maintaining professional activities as a conductor, educator, clinician, researcher, and composer. Prior to his appointment to the music performance faculty at Ithaca College, Wooten served as Assistant Director of Choral Activities at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and priorly held middle and high school teaching positions with charter schools in the cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, Georgia.

At present, Wooten leads ongoing research on the life and music of Lena McLin and extended choral works of Black women composers, presenting regularly at regional and national conferences. He is an inaugural fellow of the Future of Music Faculty Fellowship with the Cleveland Institute of Music. Additionally, Wooten completed commissions for the Cincinnati Song Initiative, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra MINA String Quartet, and Kairos Opera. Excerpted movements from Wooten’s baritone song cycle, A Journey in Love, are published in the digital anthology, Modern Music for New Singers. His choral recent works include Life and Death (TTBB) and The Dream Keeper (SA). Wooten is the co-founder and conductor of the Sankofa Vocal Collective in Atlanta, Georgia.

Wooten holds degrees in music education and choral conducting from Lincoln University of PA (BS), Georgia State University (MM), and Florida State University (PhD).