MonticelloLive

Rayburn Ezell, Jr. has been named the 2008 recipient of the Janice A. Taylor Music Award, presented annually to the outstanding student musician at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

            Ezell was selected by a vote of the faculty of the UAM Division of Music. Ezell is the son of Rayburn and Betty Jo Ezell of Redfield. He is a 2001 graduate of White Hall High School and a 2008 UAM graduate with a bachelor of arts in music degree.
            At UAM, Ezell was a member of the concert choir, chamber choir, and the Music Theater Workshop. He performed roles in musical productions, including “Cosi fan tutte,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Barber of Seville,” “A Hand of Bridge,” “The Fantasticks,” “Trial by Jury,” “Globolinks,” and “Man of La Mancha.” Ezell was a soloist for performances of Handel’s “Messiah” with the Arkansas Choral Society in Little Rock.
            Ezell received the Arthur Harris Vocal Endowed Scholarship, was a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, and was selected to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.
            The Janice A. Taylor Music Award was established in 2000 by the UAM Division of Music to honor Taylor for her long-term patronage of the arts. Taylor served three terms on the Arkansas Arts Council, was a member of the SEARK Concert Association’s board of directors for 25 years, and was recently appointed by Governor Beebe to the Arkansas Arts Council as the member-at-large representing the state of Arkansas. Taylor currently resides in Little Rock where she is a docent at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center.