BENTON HARBOR – Lake Michigan College’s Performing Arts Department welcomes two new faculty members who are bringing their expertise to the classroom and the wider southwest Michigan arts community.

KRISTOPHER ZOOK

Kristopher Zook is LMC’s new music director. Zook came to southwest Michigan after serving as a church musician and music educator at the historic Elberon Memorial Church, and the Red Bank Regional High School Academy of Visual and Performing Arts in Little Silver, New Jersey. He also taught at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey.

Zook holds a master of music degree in vocal performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and two bachelor’s degrees from Westminster College in Pennsylvania.

He was twice named Best Actor in Pennsylvania’s longest running Shakespeare Festival, and has appeared as a back-up singer for such personalities as Rosemary Clooney and Maya Angelou.

As a chorister he has performed and recorded with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the NJ Symphony, the Philadelphia Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic Orchestras. He has performed as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has also appeared on National Public Radio and PBS Live from Lincoln Center.

Conducting credits include the NJ All-State Opera Chorus, the 2002 and 2013 NJ All-Shore Choruses, as well as numerous competitions, national and international performance tours and cameo performances with the rock band, Foreigner, Ben E. King, Joe Piscopo, Deana Martin and Max Weinberg.

DR. ROBERT LUNN

Dr. Robert Lunn joins the Lake Michigan College Performing Arts Department as a full-time professor after teaching part-time at LMC for more than 20 years.

Lunn has also taught music at Grand Valley State University, Hope College, and Ohio State University, where he earned a Graduate Teaching Award in Music Theory.

Lunn holds a doctorate of musical arts in music composition from Ohio State University, a masters in music yheory and composition from The Pennsylvania State University, and a bachelor of arts from Hope College, where he was three-time recipient of the Donald and Marilyn Harris Scholarship.

He studied guitar with Larry Malfroid at Hope College and participated in a master class with Christopher Parkening and Paul O’Dette. He holds the 2008 Ruth Friscoe Award for his Sonata for Guitar.

Zook and Lunn join Paul Mow in LMC’s Performing Arts team. Mow joined LMC in 2016 as the producer and director of LMC’s theatre productions and has been a driving force for the theatre arts in Southwest Michigan.

This fall they will present a number of theater and musical performances including Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, Or Change” in November, and four public concerts and student recitals from October through December. 

Find the full schedule and event details and learn more about studying music at Lake Michigan College at lakemichigancollege.edu/arts.