Stacie Mickens joined the UNT College of Music faculty as an associate professor of horn in August 2018. Prior to her appointment, she was associate professor at the Dana School of Music, Youngstown State University where she taught horn, coached brass chamber ensembles, and performed with the Dana Brass and Dana Woodwind quintets. She completed her doctorate of musical arts at the University of Michigan as a recipient of the Rackham Fellowship Award. There she studied with former Philadelphia Orchestra member and jazz musician Adam Unsworth and with Detroit Symphony member Bryan Kennedy. She holds a master of music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with renowned horn pedagogue Douglas Hill. She received a bachelor of arts degree in music and English from Luther College (Decorah, IA) and studied horn with Patricia Brown and piano with John Strauss.

Mickens served on the faculties of Luther College and Winona State University (Winona, MN) for five years, teaching horn, brass methods, aural skills, and chamber music. Until moving to Texas, Mickens served as principal horn of both the Wheeling and Youngstown symphonies and as fourth horn of the Akron Symphony. She has performed with the Pittsburgh Opera, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Chamber Winds, Blossom Music Festival, Monarch Brass, Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Previously, she was a tenured member of the following symphony orchestras: Lansing, Dearborn, Southwest Michigan, La Crosse, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, and Dubuque.

Representing the University of Michigan, Mickens performed in recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as part of the Millennium Stage’s Conservatory Project. In 2011 and 2012, she was invited to perform at the Thy Chamber Music Festival, and gave several concerts in the northwest region of Denmark. David Morgan composed When Penguins Fly (concerto for horn and wind ensemble) for her in 2018. The piece was premiered at the 2018 Ohio Music Education Association Convention (OMEA) in Columbus, OH by Mickens and the YSU Wind Ensemble. Other concerto performances include the J.S. Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Luther College Symphony at Luther College and at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, MN in 2017; Robert Schumann’s Konzertstück with Akron Symphony in 2014; Pele: The Hawaiian Goddess of Fire by Brian Balmages with the YSU Wind Ensemble at OMEA in 2015; Dana Wilson’s Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble in 2012 with the YSU Wind Ensemble; W. A. Mozart’s Concert Rondo on natural horn with the Erie Young Artists’ Debut Orchestra in 2015; and Richard Strauss’ Concerto No. 1 with the Packard Band in 2013.

Mickens performed and presented at the 50th International Horn Symposium in 2018 and at the International Women’s Brass Conference in 2017. She has been a regional guest artist at the 2018 Mid-South Horn Workshop, the 2015 and 2016 Northeast Horn Workshops, the 2013 Southeast Horn Workshop, and the 2006 Midwest Horn Workshop.