The CFA Awards Committee has completed their review of candidates for our annual awards.
This year's award winners are:
Charles Vanda Award for Excellence in the Arts
Jason Hortin
CFA Outstanding Full Time Teacher of the Year Award
Stephanie Council
CFA Administrative Faculty of The Year Award
Shahab Zargari
Congratulations all!
Jason Hortin
Jason Hortin began studying dance in Olympia, Washington, with Debbi Waits Halfhill. Hortin continued his studies at university, earning a BFA in dance from UNLV and an MFA in dance from the University of Arizona (UA). While at UNLV, Hortin performed with Moving People Dance Theatre, performing works by Gail Gilbert, Robert Moses, and Ronn Stewart. He also worked with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company on Hawkins' "Black Lake" and Lucia Dlugoszewski's "Radical Ardent."
After graduating from UNLV, Hortin danced for two seasons with River North Dance Chicago from 2005 to 2007. During that time, Hortin performed works by Frank Chavez, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Lauri Stallings, Harrison McEldowny, Daniel Ezralow, Randy Duncan, Kevin Iega Jeff, and Julia Rhoads.
Following River North, Hortin danced with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) for ten years from 2007 to 2017. With HSDC, he toured and performed in over 60 masterworks, including choreography by Lou Conte, Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Kyle Abraham, Mats Ek, Sharon Eyal, Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato, Twyla Tharp, and many others. As a member of HSDC, Hortin had the privilege to be a part of DanceMotion USA, traveling to northern Africa in 2013 as an American emissary sponsored by the State Department.
Hortin has created works for HSDC, Bolles High School, Extensions Dance Company, Snowy Range Dance Festival, UNLV, and the University of Arizona. In addition to teaching and creating dance works, Hortin is a repetiteur for Penny Saunders, Frank Chaves, and Robyn Mineko Williams, setting various works at universities and dance companies throughout the United States.
Stephanie Council
Conductor, educator, and singer. Stephanie Council is an assistant professor of Choral Music at UNLV where she conducts the University Chorale and Chamber Consort and teaches Choral Conducting, Choral Literature, and Choral Methods. Council’s primary areas of study include conducting, choral pedagogy, concert programming, and early music performance practice.
An experienced educator at the middle school through adult community levels, Council is passionate about choral pedagogy related to the development of individual music literacy, collective sound building, and the cultivation of inclusive and affirming learning environments. Council previously led the choral programs at Simpson College and Mount Holyoke College. She is the recipient of multiple awards for her teaching including the Best New Faculty award given by the Mount Holyoke Student Government Association and the Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching award for courses she taught at Texas Tech University.
She is a sought-after lecturer in choral music education and conductor of collegiate, high school, and youth honor choirs around the United States, and she was a graduate finalist in the American Choral Directors Association National Conducting Competition. Her most recent engagements include conducting the 2021 Pride of Iowa Honor Choir, 2019 Vermont Northwest District Honor Choir, and serving as a faculty conducting fellow at the Summer Choral Festival at Westminster Choir College. She has conducted clinics and honor choirs in Oklahoma, Texas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Iowa, and has upcoming engagements in Nevada and Michigan.
A strong proponent of new music, Council is an active commissioner and performer of new works. In the fall of 2022, she will serve as the Chorus Master for the new opera Letters to Lily with the Las Vegas Opera.
Council sings professionally with mirabai and the San Antonio Chamber Choir. In the past, she has been engaged to sing with the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and at the Spoleto Festival USA. She has served on the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the National Board of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO). She has extensive experience conducting church choirs and assisting with worship planning.
Council received a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting and a graduate certificate in early music performance practice from Texas Tech University. She holds a Master of Music with distinction in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College and a bachelor of music degrees in both vocal music education and vocal music performance from Oklahoma State University.
Shahab Zargari
Shahab Zargari is an award-winning filmmaker with a passion for art, photography, music, and creative advertising. He graduated in 2000 from the University of California at Irvine with a degree in Sociology, and a minor in Education. He joined UNLV in November 2016 as a part time communications coordinator for the College of Fine Arts, eventually joining the ranks of the college as a full-time administrative faculty member in 2021.