Hutton receives 2024 SCICU Excellence In Teaching Award

Christopher Hutton, professor of music, is the 2024 South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (SCICU) Excellence In Teaching Award recipient for Furman University. The honorees from each of the 21 SCICU member institutions are selected annually based on university criteria. They were recognized at an awards dinner April 9 in Columbia.

Hutton teaches applied cello, string chamber music and courses in music history and literature. As co-director of study-away programs, he has traveled with students to Belgium, England, France and Italy, and this May will mark the second time he’ll lead a program which takes students to multiple performances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

In addition to his work in the Department of Music, Hutton has been involved in Furman’s system of shared governance, chairing the May Experience Oversight Committee for four years and serving as faculty chair and faculty council chair for three years.

Outside the Furman classroom, Hutton, who performs on a c.1795 cello made by renowned English luthier John Betts, is the cellist for Greenville-based Poinsett Piano Trio. He performs regularly for South Carolina Bach and in the Greenville Symphony. His ongoing project “Reflecting Bach” has included dozens of recitals juxtaposing J.S. Bach’s “Suites for Unaccompanied Cello” with solo music by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Hutton, who joined Furman’s faculty in 2003, earned a doctorate and a master’s degree in musical arts from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance from Boston University. His cello mentors were Leslie Parnas, Paul Katz and Steven Doane. Prior to joining the Furman faculty, Hutton taught at the University of Rochester, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Delaware and the Eastern Music Festival.