Dr. Joan Luce

Dr. Joan Luce joined the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Music Department faculty in September 1969. In addition to teaching a variety of classes in music appreciation, music history and literature, and applied viola, she was also the Associate Dean of Fine & Performing Arts in the College of Letters and Science. Prior to her retirement in 1998, Joan served as Chair of the Department of Music for three years.

Joan received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati as a violist. Joan taught at Arkansas State University in Russellville for two years, after which she attended graduate school at the University of Michigan and earned a Ph.D. in musicology.

Joan performed with chamber groups throughout Europe, the Midwest, and made appearances on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television. She was principal violist with the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra; the Haydn Festival Orchestra in Eisenstadt, Austria; the International Chamber Orchestra at Roehampton Music Festival in England; and the Green Lake Festival Orchestra in Green Lake, Wisconsin. Grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Aston Magna Academy, as well as UW Oshkosh faculty development grants, enabled her to study in Sweden, England, and Germany. Joan was an avid traveler as well as an amateur photographer.

After Joan’s passing in 2011, the Joan Luce Scholarship for Orchestral Strings and the Joan Luce Music Award were established through her estate.