University Professor Henry Panion III, Ph.D., has been appointed by Alabama Governor Robert Bentley to serve on the State Council on the Arts.
Panion teaches multimedia production, orchestration and arranging, and is director of the Music Technology program in the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music. Panion’s term will begin Jan. 1, 2016, and expire on Dec. 31, 2021.
“Appointing you to this position comes with great responsibility because you will be making important decisions that affect the citizens of Alabama,” Bentley wrote to Panion in the letter of appointment. “Honesty and integrity are two virtues that I prioritize for my administration to exemplify, and I know that you will do the same while in service to our great state. I encourage you to be a good steward of the taxpayers’ money, and work to maintain the trust that I, and the people of Alabama have in you. You are a servant of the people of Alabama and I trust that you will fulfill your duties and set a standard for others to follow.”
The council is a body of 15 members appointed by the governor for six-year terms to help promote the arts statewide. A primary responsibility of the council is to make decisions on grants awarded to support art programs and arts education throughout the state.
| A primary responsibility of the council is to make decisions on grants awarded to support art programs and arts education throughout the state. |
Panion holds degrees in music education and music theory from Alabama A&M University and The Ohio State University, respectively. He is best known for his work as conductor and arranger for superstar Stevie Wonder, for whose performances and recordings Panion has led many of the world’s most notable orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, the Orchestra of Paris, the Melbourne Symphony, the Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic and the Boston Pops Orchestra. The two-CD set “Natural Wonder” features Panion conducting his arrangements of many of Wonder’s award-winning, chart-topping songs with Wonder and the Tokyo Philharmonic.
Panion has led a number of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Pops, Atlanta Symphony and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.
Panion was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1995. Most recently, the Blind Boys of Alabama were featured with Panion and orchestra in BET’s Centric Salute to Selma for a crowd of an estimated 100,000 people, in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma.