Marvin V. Curtis has been named dean of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University South Bend. He will join the staff on Aug. 1.

Curtis is currently the assistant dean of the graduate school at Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C. He served 12 years at Fayetteville. First he was the choral director and then he was the chair of the Department of Performing and Fine Arts in 2002. In 2005, he was named assistant dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

He is originally from Chicago and received his doctorate in music education from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. He said he was introduced to the piano when he was 3 years old. “We lived in Chicago and my mom felt it was a way to keep us out of trouble as well as teach us discipline and fine arts,” he said.

He began to play for assemblies and later for the school chorus. He began taking organ lessons at age 11 and was a church organist by the age of 12.

Curtis has published 35 choral compositions. He started to compose in high school and his first choral work was performed when he was a sophomore at North Park College, Chicago.

His commissioned choral work "City on the Hill" was performed by the chorus from Philander Smith College of Little Rock for President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. He also has conducted operas such as "The Magic Flute" and "H.M.S. Pinafore."

This summer he will conduct "The Marriage of Figaro."

"I still compose and perform," he said. He has written works for flute, voice and piano as well as a woodwind quintet. "I also have written a hymn that is in the African American Episcopal hymnal, 'Lift Every Voice and Sing II,'" he said.

The Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend was interesting to him because it was a school that combined all of the arts under one roof. "I see an opportunity to develop a comprehensive art program at a major institution," he said.