Katelyn Ackland, a senior majoring in music education and clarinet performance in the NIU School of Music is the...
Huskie Spotlight Archives
Huskie Spotlight: Jayla Herring, Recording Arts and Media Technologies
Jayla Herring, a fall 2025 graduate of the School of Music with a degree in recording arts and media technologies is...
Huskie Spotlight Lilliana Benitez, Music Education, Euphonium
Lilliana Benitez, a music education major with an instrumental emphasis in euphonium from McHenry, Illinois is the...
Kaelyn Witt, ’27, Music Education and Flute Performance
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Kaelyn Witt, '27, Music Education and Flute PerformanceWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? Growing up I always wanted to be an artist. I loved creating and painting and expressing myself artistically. I ended up...
Fernando Marroquin Mendoza, ’24, Oboe Performance
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Fernando Marroquin Mendoza, '24, Oboe PerformanceWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? I am not really sure what I wanted to be when I was growing up but, I remember one time when, while watching a symphony orchestra...
Shae McCabe, ’23, Music Education, Horn
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Shae McCabe, '23, Music Education, HornWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? I always knew I wanted to pursue music to some degree. For a while I thought I would go into musical theatre, but I found a bigger love of...
Ranan R.J. Antonini, ’25, Violin Performance
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Ranan R.J. Antonini, '25, Violin PerformanceWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? When I was a young kid, I wanted to become a soccer player but with time I realized that I had more talent for arts in general,...
Andrew Kinsey, ’25, Music Education and Percussion Performance
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Andrew Kinsey, '25, Music Education and Percussion PerformanceWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? From a young age, I didn’t know much about what I wanted to be when I grew older, all I knew was I didn’t want to be...
Gabriel Wade, ’24, Master of Music
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Gabriel Wade, '24, Master of MusicWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? Ever since starting band and piano class in middle school, I've always wanted to make music a major part of my life. That led to me pursuing a...
Stefan Lenthe, ’24, Master of Music
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Stefan Lenthe, '24, Master of MusicWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? I pretty much knew from an early age that I wanted to be a musician. For me it all goes back to very first time I heard The Beatles. I was...
Liam Weber, ’25, Music Performance and Music Education
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Liam Weber, '25, Music Performance and Music EducationWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? By middle school I had already decided on becoming a music major. Originally I just wanted to be a middle school band...
Dartagnan Stephen, ’23, Master of Music
Music Huskie SpotlightHuskie Spotlight: Dartagnan Stephen, '23, Master of MusicWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? I've always wanted to be a performer. As my goals became clearer and my musical techniques became more refined, I found my voice with the...