Former Dean of the Bienen School of Music
Toni-Marie Montgomery is the second recipient of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano chamber music and accompanying from the University of Michigan. She also received the Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan. Montgomery graduated magna cum laude from the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts.
Dr. Montgomery's awards have included: teaching assistantships at the University of Michigan; John Wolaver Memorial Scholarship; International Youth in Achievement Awards, Outstanding Young Women in America Award; Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities; Forcina Scholarship and Helen P. Newmann Scholarship; Distinguished Student in Music award, sponsored by the Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper; prize winner in the Lansdowne Pennsylvania Symphony and Drexel University music awards competitions. She is also listed in the 1988 edition of American Keyboard Artists, Who's Who in American Women (1991), and Who's Who Among Black Americans (1991).
Among her performances are: guest appearances with the University of Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, the John Hopkins Symphony, the Detroit Metropolitan Orchestra in Orchestra Hall and the Lansdowne Pennsylvania Orchestra; several performances on radio station WUOM, Ann Arbor; recital celebrating Black History Month at the Free Library of Philadelphia; benefit recital for St. John's Hospice, the Academy of Music Recital Hall (Philadelphia); appearances on WNYC radio station's Keyboard Artists and Young American Artists series (New York City); several performances at the Austrian Institute, New York City; recitals at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France; recitals in Salzburg, Austria, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Recent performances include concerts in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Montgomery was a member of the Black Music Repertory Ensemble of Columbia College of Chicago. This fifteen-member ensemble specialized in performing works by black composers and promoted appreciation for the black musical heritage. The ensemble performed in major venues throughout the United States, including Lincoln Center (New York) and Orchestra Hall (Chicago), and was broadcast on NBC television's Today Show, Cable News Network, National Public Radio's Performance Today series and Public Radio International's African-American Music Tree series.
Dr. Montgomery served as Dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern from 2003-2023. She continues as Professor of Music in the Bienen School of Music. Previous positions include Professor and Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas Director of the School of Music at Arizona State University; Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University; Assistant Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut; and Assistant Director of the School of Music and Artistic Director of the Music Performance Institute at Western Michigan University.
Montgomery has served as a Chicago Symphony Orchestra Governing Member since 2004 and is currently a trustee of the CSO. She is also Vice Chair of the Gateways Music Festival board and is a board member of the Ravinia Festival.