In an email last week, Dr. Honora Chapman, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, announced that Dr. Matthew Darling will serve as the Acting Associate Dean for the 2024-25 academic year.
“Dr. Darling has done a remarkable job as Chair of Music over the past eight years, and during Spring 2024, Dr. Darling also served as a special assistant in the Dean’s office when Associate Dean La Porta became Acting Dean of the Kremen School in January,” Chapman said.
The bio below outlines Dr. Darlings’s 33 years of contributions and dedication to Fresno State and his accolades as a professional musician.
Matthew Darling, DMA
As a faculty member in the Fresno State Department of Music since 1991, Dr. Matthew Darling has demonstrated a consistent pattern of exemplary service to Fresno State and our community for over 33 years. He chaired the Department of Music from Spring 2005 through Spring 2006 and again for two consecutive four-year terms from 2016 through July 2024. During the latter eight years, Dr. Darling chaired from seed to fruition the Department’s addition of its Bachelor of Music degree, which was successfully implemented in Fall 2022. He also oversaw the Department’s recent accreditation renewal with the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and the implementation of a new Music Technology minor in Fall 2023. Under Dr. Darling’s leadership, the Department is ready to propose the conversion of its Master of Arts program into a new Master of Music degree. At the university level, Dr. Darling has served on the Academic Senate and for six years as a member of the Academic Senate Personnel Committee. At the college level, Dr. Darling has served on the Personnel Committee and Executive Committee, chairing the latter in the early 2000s, helping to lay the groundwork for the College’s Honors Program. Besides serving as a Department Chair, Dr. Darling has held numerous other leadership positions in the Department. He has chaired several faculty and staff searches and chair of the Department’s Personnel Committee for several years.
Dr. Darling is a strong advocate for student success, and in 1998, co-founded the Department’s Advising Committee, of which he has been a continual member and periodic chair through Spring 2024. In recognition of this work, he received a Fresno State Outstanding Advisor Award in 2012. Under Dr. Darling’s guidance, graduates of the Fresno State Percussion Studio include university and college professors, dozens of local and regional band directors, orchestral, jazz, and rock/pop musicians, and drum-corps/marching percussion specialists. Whether navigating the tenure process or various levels of lecturers, Dr. Darling has served as a mentor to and has advocated strongly for many faculty in the Department of Music.
In the community, Dr. Darling has served on the board of several professional organizations. In 2009, he was elected President of the California Chapter of Percussive Arts Society (PAS), and over five 3-year terms hosted, co-hosted or overseen over 50 events that were attended by thousands of K-12, college, amateur and professional drummers and percussionists, from around the state and region. Under his leadership, the Chapter was named Outstanding PAS Chapter of 2011. He served as the percussion manager for both the annual All-State (CASMEC) Band and Orchestra program and the Annual Fresno Madera California Music Educators Association Honor Band and Orchestra program for several years and was awarded the Don Schmeer Friend of Music Award from the CA Band Directors Association (CBDA) in 2019. He also serves on the Keyboard Concert Series board, the Music in the Mountains Orchestra Committee and has presented dozens of lectures and classes locally for Osher and various Central Valley Rotary Club chapters.
In addition to his position at Fresno State and various music organizations, Dr. Darling has maintained his career as a professional musician, which he began in 1986. He has appeared as a soloist, performer, adjudicator, clinician, conductor, and/or presenter throughout the United States at festivals, universities, state and international music conventions, including the Percussive Arts Society (PASIC), California Music Educators Association, and California Band Directors Association. As a performer, Dr. Darling is the principal timpanist/percussionist with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra (Nevada City, CA) and principal timpanist with the Sacramento Choral Society Orchestra. He also actively performs with the Fresno Philharmonic, Sacramento Philharmonic and Modesto Symphony Orchestra. For years, he performed regularly with the Arizona MusicFest Orchestra and the former Sacramento Symphony, and he has also performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony and California Symphony. Dr. Darling has appeared professionally as a soloist with numerous organizations, including the Music in the Mountains Orchestra, the Merced Symphony, Orpheus and the Percussion Ensembles at the University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, University of South Dakota, Southern Oregon University and Sacramento State University. In addition, Dr. Darling has performed as a percussionist for the Fresno stops of national Broadway tours of Wicked, The Producers and Beautiful, the Carole King Musical, as well as pop/classical artists such as Johnny Mathis and Andrea Bocelli. Dr. Darling received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona, a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Music from Sacramento State. While he loves his work as a professor and percussionist, he is most proud of his role as husband and father of two sons and two daughters.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 