Wide World
of Music
International Students
Set the Tone
The University of Memphis is bursting with international students from around the globe and many of them credit their time at The Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music as a pivotal point in their career trajectories.
Not only is Memphis home to some of the most popular and influential music in history, but it is also set against the backdrop of a community that cares about nurturing relationships and pushing the envelope of professional relevance.
Kieber Jose
Ultrera Gimenez
Junior Kieber Jose Ultrera Gimenez, originally from Caracas, Venezuela, is majoring in violin music performance and plans to graduate in May 2025.
“Majoring in music at the UofM has been a very rewarding and renewing experience for me,” he said. “I just want to thank the University of Memphis and the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, especially Dr. Marcin Arendt, for accepting me, and for allowing me to continue to progress, improve and live this stage of musical learning that has taught me to be a better musician, but also a better person as well.”
Second year performance percussion student Daniel Emilio Padron Hoepp, also from Venezuela and graduating in 2025, has plans to pursue working with an orchestra or professional group.
“From the music education to being in a country with a language different from mine, it has been a wonderful and unparalleled experience,” he said.
Daniel Emilio Padron Hoepp
The Rudi E. Sheidt School of Music provides a distinctive educational experience that brings together personalized music instruction and the advantages of being part of a world-class University. Not to mention a comprehensive curriculum led by renowned faculty, state-of-the-art facilities and cutting-edge technology to foster an environment where students can excel in their chosen musical field.
Offering a full complement of both undergraduate and graduate programs, the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music has attracted an international student body and faculty whose extraordinary impact on the cultural life of the University of Memphis, the greater Memphis community and the Mid-South is unmistakable.
Idil Belgin Kucukdogan
Second year Doctor of Musical Arts Student, Idil Belgin Kucukdogan, originally from Turkey, loves the faculty at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music.
“They are great teachers who are very positive, friendly and fun to work with,” she says. “I feel like I am supported and heard.”
Kucukdogan plans to search for college teaching positions upon graduating and will keep performing as well.
“I am planning to focus more on Baroque violin and Alexander Technique while I keep teaching violin in my private studio,” she added.
Kucukdogan’s journey is unique because she took a 12-year break between her studies and had a full-time job as a violinist with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. She credits coming to Memphis in January of 2022 as one of the best decisions in her life.
Yasrah Haseeb
2025 graduate Yasrah Haseeb was nervous and scared when she started the bachelor program at Memphis. A Lahore, Pakistan native, she didn’t know the culture, but she had a dream to make music in America.
“I am just a regular girl who had a big dream to come to America and study music and I am so blessed and grateful for the fact that my dream came true,” she said.
Today, she is a member of the UofM commercial music band and treble choir and has performed in venues across Tennessee.
“I didn't even know how to sight-read music or write music before I came here but now, I can do both so effortlessly,” she added.
Yasrah is one of a selected number of students whose original work was performed with the University of Memphis’ wind ensemble. This all is just a glimpse of what I get to experience every day, more is yet to come!”
In the future, Yasrah hopes to attend graduate school, intern at a record label, work on her own album and keep performing live.
Yiming Zhang,
“We have a great program and fantastic facility here where faculty care about the students and what kind of experience we can receive in school,”
Yiming plans on teaching college level courses when he returns to China after college.
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