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Alumni Engagement

The Alumni Engagement team is here to support your journey at the UHart and throughout your life. They are here to help you get the most out of your UHart network!

Quick Links: Alumni News | Hartt Alumni Award 

Our dynamic and accomplished alumni are making an impact all over the world. They are accomplished musicians, dancers, choreographers, actors, singers, educators, technicians, and arts administrators who have earned awards and acclaim in their respective fields.

 

Alumni News

Hartt Alums

Brandee Younger '06 Awarded the 2025 Hartt Alumni Award 

Hartt alumna Brandee Younger ’06 is the recipient of the 2025 Hartt Alumni Award. Since 1959, this prestigious award has recognized outstanding Hartt alumni who have made significant accomplishments in the performing arts as artists, scholars, educators, managers, and technicians.

Among the most celebrated jazz artists to emerge in the 21st century, Brandee Younger is a harpist, composer, and bandleader whose music connects spiritual jazz and classical training to the rhythmic soulfulness of R&B and hip-hop. She has performed and recorded with cultural icons including Ravi Coltrane, Common, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Christian McBride, The Roots, Pharoah Sanders, and Stevie Wonder.

Ms. Younger’s first LP for the storied Impulse! Records label — a.k.a. The House That Trane Built — was 2021’s Somewhere Different. A track from that album, “Beautiful Is Black,” earned her a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Composition category, making her the first Black female solo artist to achieve this. Two years later, on Brand New Life, Ms. Younger revitalized newly discovered Ashby compositions, and that LP won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. Released in 2025, Gadabout Season is a more reflective and personal work focusing on Ms. Younger’s inimitable original music.  Ms. Younger’s ability to seamlessly inject the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked is a testament to her deep love for, and exemplary command of, the instrument.

Ms. Younger earned her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance and Music Management at The Hartt  School and her Master of Music at New York University (NYU) Steinhardt. In addition to her continuous performance and recording schedules, Ms. Younger is a dedicated educator who teaches on the faculties of New York University and the New School. Past residencies and masterclasses include The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), University of Birmingham (UK), Howard University, Drexel University, Princeton University, Tulane University, Trinity College, The Hartt School, University of Michigan, DePaul University, and Berklee College of Music.

She holds leadership positions as a board member of the Coltrane Home and New Music USA. As a concert curator, Ms. Younger has presented performances for venues including “Divine Ella,” part of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival.

Mikaela Papasodero

BFA, Dance Performance, 2019

Mikaela's senior piece, Spectrum,  has since been performed at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, and the Versatility Dance Festival. She was also recently asked to perform the work for a show at RIOULT Dance Center, where she was able to present alongside artists such as Jenn Freeman, Maleek Washington, Jon Lehrer, Pascal Rioult, and Hannah Cullen.

Mikaela currently works for two professional dance companies in NYC: Amirov Dance Theater and Rioult Repertory Project. She also enjoys traveling all over the United States to perform and guest teach. Learn more about Mikaela's Hartt experience.

I was extremely close with my class, and still talk to all of them everyday. They’re my family, and they always will be.

I firmly believe that my time at The Hartt School laid the musical foundation that I rely on every time I step on stage to perform, and it's because of this remarkable foundation that I am able to stand so tall today.

Ryan Speedo Green '08, World Renowned Bass Baritone

Nicole Arruda

BA in Performing Arts Management, 2019

After landing an internship at the artist management company, Triple 8 Management, Nicole secured her current full time position with AGD Entertainment in the Zero to Sixty artist development program– a curriculum based day-to-day management program that provides education, mentorship, and support services for developing artists. Learn more about Nicole's Hartt experience.

Lean on a small, tight-knit family like the PAM program and it's professors and maximize every connection it gives you. Trust me, that [program] ended up making me stand out...because it gave me a deeper, more personal, and different look at the industry.

The Hartt Alumni Award

Since 1959, The Hartt School has recognized an outstanding alumnus/alumna with the Hartt Alumni Award.

 

2024 – Christopher R. Selby '92

2023 – Steve Davis '89

2022 – Javier Colon '00

2021 – Gregory J. Banaszak ’88

2020 – Gwyneth Walker M.M. '70, D.M.A. '77

2019 – David Lazaar Katz ’77, AD’84, M’89; Orin Wolf '01

2018 – Shane Shanahan '98 

2017 – Martha Summa-Chadwick '83

2016 – Jimmy Greene '97

2015 – Phillip Boykin '95

2014 – Ed Alton '81