Celebrate with us
Join us for the CFA Assembly, a powerful show highlighting the creative works and research of our students and faculty, and celebrating our three Distinguished Alumni.
SAVE THE DATE: September 23, 2026
10:45 AM to 12:15 PM
Kingsbury Hall
Free. All Welcome. No tickets required.
2026 Distinguished Alumni
Legacy Award: Steven L. Ricks (Music) | This award honors an alum whose seasoned and successful career has brought deserved acclaim not just to them but to the program(s) from which they attended here at the University of Utah as well
Steven L. Ricks is described in “BBC Music Magazine” as a composer “unafraid to tackle big themes.” He creates work that is bold, innovative, ambitious, and diverse, often including strong narrative and theatrical influences. He has received commissions and awards from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Barlow Endowment, SCI, and the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, among others. His music has been featured at multiple national and international venues, conferences, festivals, and symposia, and appears on Bridge Records, New Focus Recordings, Neuma Records, Albany Records, pfMENTUM, Vox Novus, TryTone, and Comprovise Records.
For the past 15+ years Ricks has also been active as a performer on trombone and laptop (live electronics), most notably with colleague Christian Asplund through the RICKSPLUND free-improvisation duo. RICKSPLUND has performed and recorded with several artists and has performed at several international conferences and creative music venues.
Ricks received degrees in music composition from Brigham Young University (BM), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (MM), the University of Utah (PhD ‘01), and a Certificate in Advanced Musical Studies (CAMS) from King's College London. He is currently a Professor of Music Composition and Theory in the BYU School of Music. More information is available at his website: stevericks.com.
Horizon Award: Cheryl Nichols (Theatre) | This award honors an accomplished mid-career alum on the rise
Cheryl Nichols was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She grew up in Little Elm, Texas, and hobbled her way to Los Angeles after college in the University of Utah Department of Theatre’s Actor Training Program (BFA ‘25). In 2015, she produced and starred in the independent feature film “My Good Man’s Gone,” which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. She made her feature directorial debut with “Cortez” at the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival, then continued a successful festival run, collecting honors for cinematography at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, Best New Mexican Feature at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, and the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival. Nichols’ second feature, “Doula,” produced by Barry Linen Motion Pictures was released by Universal Pictures in June of 2022. She is the Executive Producer of “Keep This Between Us” a four-part Docuseries with The Front and VOX Entertainment which also premiered in 2022 on Freeform and Hulu. Nichols is one of the founding Members of Four Corners Films along with Troian Bellisario, Ari Basile and Anabella Casanova. Four Corners is dedicated to crafting character driven, cinematic experiences that are meant to be seen on the big screen. You can find her on Instagram at @cherylpickles or learn more on her website cherylanichols.com.
Arts Educator Award: Tom Welsh (Dance) | This award honors an alum who has made significant contributions in arts education
Tom Welsh is on the Dance faculty at Florida State University where he teaches conditioning, kinesiology, science of dance training, reformer training, coaching, and research methods for dancers. He also teaches classes and workshops for summer dance intensives, frequently at the University of Utah. Welsh wrote “Conditioning for Dancers” to introduce dancers to the movement sciences, and he led the creation of a 23-author “Research Methods in the Dance Sciences” text to encourage research by dancers with dancers. Welsh and his dancer-researcher students conduct and publish empirical research on healthy approaches to training dancers in national and internation journals. He is a member of the editorial board for the “Journal of Dance Medicine & Science (JDMS),” he served 10 years as founding chair of the IADMS Research Committee (International Association for Dance Medicine & Science), and he served eight years as IADMS Board member, Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President. He received his most intensive dance training as a Modern Dance student at the University of Utah and his most intensive research training as a Behavioral Studies doctoral student at the University of Kansas.