LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 27, 2011) — Irina Voro, associate professor of piano in the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts School of Music, has been elected as faculty representative to the UK Board of Trustees. Voro was elected to a three-year term, which will expire June 30, 2014.
Voro received 443 of the 858 votes that were cast, followed by Charles Carson (Arts and Sciences) with 132, Dan Wermeling (Pharmacy) with 115, Phil Kraemer (Arts and Sciences) with 110, and Everett McCorvey (Fine Arts) with 58. Because Voro received a majority of votes cast, the election was decided without a run-off round.
Voro joins Joe Peek, Gatton Endowed Chair in International Banking and Financial Economics professor of finance in the UK Gatton College of Business and Economics, as one of two elected faculty representatives on the Board of Trustees. Voro will fill the seat of Lexington Opera Society Endowed Chair in Opera Studies Everett McCorvey of the UK College of Fine Arts, whose term ends June 30, 2011.
"The nearly 2,500-member UK faculty is the most knowledgeable institutional body in Kentucky,” said Voro. “They spend all their working hours and professional energy at UK, and they clearly know what the university needs to fulfill its mission.
“For the second year in a row, they have voted by a landslide to elect trustees who advocate for increasing accountability in the university’s administration. I am very honored to be elected to represent faculty views on the distinguished Board," she added.
UK Board of Trustees Chair Britt Brockman said, “I look forward to working with Professor Voro on the Board of Trustees. I am confident she will bring her unique viewpoints to bear in our efforts to make this university and the Commonwealth a better place to teach, learn and live.”
A recipient of university, state and national teaching awards, Voro is an internationally renowned teacher of the arts and creativity. She gives masterclasses and concerts around the world and is repeatedly invited to share her teaching philosophy at the most prestigious national and international conferences. Winner of an international music performance prize, she has also performed solo concerti with philharmonic orchestras on four continents and given solo piano recitals in 15 states and 11 countries.
Her teaching awards include the U.S. Presidential Administration’s Distinguished Teacher Award, the Kentucky Music Teachers’ Association Teacher of the Year, the UK Provost Award for Outstanding Teaching and a Teacher Who Made a Difference.
She is the first UK piano professor to present in the highly selective and prestigious national and international conferences of the International College Music Society, the European Piano Teachers Association, the Music Teachers National Association and the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy.
In addition to her artistic and teaching duties, Voro is the coordinator of the UK Keyboard Area, and she initiated and conducted successful fundraising for the Vernon Cooper Piano Recital Series at the UK School of Music.
She has been active in many university self-governance bodies, including the Senate Advisory Faculty Code Committee (2007-09), the College of Fine Arts Advisory Committee (current), and six School of Music committees (serving as chair of two of them).
With her husband of 22 years, Voro is the co-owner of Fallibility Management Group, an anti-corruption and change management firm.
