(COLUMBIA, SC) Dr. Lillian Quackenbush, associate professor of music and chair of the department of music, has received the Columbia College 2005 Faculty Excellence Award.

Quackenbush was cited as being "a creative scholar in her field" and for "her contributions to the artistic, academic, and collegial culture of the College."

A graduate of Florida State University and the University of South Carolina, Quackenbush became a full-time member of the Columbia College faculty in 1993 after serving as an adjunct professor since 1976. She is director of the Coumbia College Choir and the Hi C's show choir and has arranged for and conducted performances by the choirs in Austria, England and Spain. She is also founding director of The Sandlapper Singers, a professional choral ensemble that has performed around the state and region since 1996, including at festivals such as Piccolo Spoleto and the Beaufort Water Festival. In addition, she serves as director of choral music at Shandon Presbyterian Church and is trained as a diaconal minister with the S.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church.

In 2003, she collaborated with Dr. Ute Wachsmann-Linnan of the Columbia College Department of Art to translate from German to English, for the first time anywhere, "The Birth of Christ" by composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg. She conducted the Columbia College Choir and the Shandon Presbyterian Church Choir in a performance of the work in 2003 and again in 2004.