One is a pianist extraordinaire who has performed and/or recorded with Chicago, The Steve Miller Band, Count Basie Orchestra, Stevie Wonder, and many other well-known musicians. The other is a business guru who has taught some of the top movers and shakers in this country how to strut their stuff. Both are redefining the student-scholar experience in their fields, and both are traveling nationwide this semester to share their visions for the future.

The UMAA National Alumni Tour this spring features Shelton “Shelly” G. Berg, new dean of the Frost School of Music, and Barbara E. Kahn, new dean of the School of Business Administration. From January through May they are visiting alumni and friends in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities.

“The Frost School is going to reinvent the University music curriculum as a model for the nation,” says Berg. “Our new ‘Experimental Music’ curriculum will be much more hands-on than typical programs around the nation and will highlight the integration of technology and entrepreneurship.”

Berg knows a lot about being hands-on. His last CD, Blackbird (Concord Records), reached No. 1 on JazzWeek’s Jazz Radio Report, and he has composed and orchestrated for major television networks and motion pictures. A Great American Jazz Piano Competition finalist, Berg will showcase his agility on the keys on the alumni tour.

Kahn’s multipronged plan to take the School of Business Administration to the top-ten level involves strengthening its global reputation, its distinctiveness, its resources, and its caliber of students. A marketing expert who has focused her research on why consumers make the choices they do, Kahn also wants to open the doors for more research opportunities at the school.

“Creating new knowledge and building a model to make use of all the data—that’s what makes a school famous,” she says. “Mixing that with the business community keeps it relevant.”