Press "Enter" to skip to content

Humans of the Hilltop: Kyle Dzapo

Music professor Kyle Dzapo has traveled around the world playing the flute.
photo by Cenn Hall

The world of music is complex. It is one of intricacies and emotion, tangible prowess and abstract connection to something greater than the whole of us. Musicians are like mediums; they can connect with something that seems all but imperceptible to the rest of us, who can only sit back and be moved.

Enter Kyle Dzapo. To complement her status as scholar and musician, she currently serves as a Caterpillar Professor of Music, as well as Director of the University’s Honors Program. She is also the President of the Board of the National Flute Association. Dzapo has performed and been recognized on a global level, having played in London, Denmark, Vienna, France and Austria, to name a few. She brought this global mindset to Bradley with the Honors Study Abroad in Vienna.

Dzapo said her love for the flute started at an early age and had the fortune of being guided by ambitious aspiring musicians along the way. This ultimately culminated into her acceptance into University of Michigan, a moment she said she remembers as one of the happiest of her life.

“Music isn’t the easiest career choice but it’s an invigorating one,” Dzapo said via email. “I always remember the opening of the movie ‘Prince of Tides:’ the narrator describes the little town in which the drama unfolds as the kind of place ‘where some people live their entire lives without anything ever happening to them.’ I never wanted that kind of life.”

Since Dzapo joined the Bradley community in 1993, she has received honors such as the Caterpillar Inc. New Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the Samuel Rothberg Professional Excellence Award. She said she has benefitted several aspects of Bradley with her responsibilities in Residential Life, orientation, Study Abroad, and –  unsurprisingly – the Department of Music.

“I fully embrace the value of a faculty member’s commitment to teaching, scholarship and service, and I enjoy the variety of activities,” Dzapo said. “As I was sitting in flute master class on Monday afternoon, listening to freshmen and sophomores perform the pieces they’ve been studying, I was wishing I had recorded the session, so that I could play it back to students at the time of their senior recitals. It’s amazing how much their skills and artistry improve through four years of musical study.”

In addition to her Bradley career, Dzapo also currently serves as series editor for Oxford University Press, collaborating with authors on the “Notes for Performers” series that she developed, and where her new book, “Notes for Flutists: A Guide to the Repertoire” is published. As Guest Curator of Music for the Peoria Riverfront Museum, she is currently helping in the development of “Music at the Museum,” a series of performances with commentary to complement their exhibitions.

“I devote a lot of time to research and creative production, including performing and am looking forward to presenting pre-concert lectures,” Dzapo said.

Those pre-concert lectures will be for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra April 19 through 21 and at a solo recital in Seoul, South Korea in June.

Copyright © 2023, The Scout, Bradley University. All rights reserved.
The Scout is published by members of the student body of Bradley University. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the University.