Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Halpner has played piano since he was a child. He learned about UNT's renowned College of Music during high school while attending a college music fair. After visiting the Denton campus, "I knew it was the place I wanted to be," he says.

As a freshman, he joined the Green Brigade Marching Band playing synthesizer and percussion. The following year, he had a hand in helping to reimagine the band's longstanding pregame show -- refreshing some of its music and marching traditions while holding onto others.

"That, on a smaller scale, is what I imagine is likely happening at the university now under Dr. Keller's leadership -- moving things in a new direction while still remaining distinctly UNT," says Halpner, who continues working with the Green Brigade these days writing and arranging some of its music. 

While at UNT, Halpner also was a member of several other bands and ensembles, including the Avenue C Vocal Jazz Ensemble, the 8 O'Clock Lab Band, the UNT Concert Band and the 8 O'Clock Steel Band, with which he performed at the Denton Arts & Jazz Fest.

"A lot of my closest friends are friends that I not only made at UNT but specifically through the large ensembles and Green Brigade," he says. "That community draws people together at the university and that's really what 'Corridor Fanfare' is about -- a celebration not only of President Keller and the new era for the university, but also the university as a whole."

While at UNT, Halpner began writing and arranging music for high school marching bands and other performance groups. He went on to establish his own marching arts music company, called Beyond the Box Music, which writes and arranges music and provides sound design services for bands at about a dozen high schools throughout the nation.

Halpner credits the College of Music's division of composition studies for "making sure students in the program are not only exposed to, but getting opportunities to write music in lots of different styles. That's something I feel really helped me," he says. "Not only does it push you outside your box, but it helps you discover new things and discover your voice as a composer."

In October, Halpner was approached by College of Music assistant professor of composition Sungji Hong -- with whom he studied during his junior and senior years and has since collaborated on a few music projects -- about composing a commissioned piece for the investiture ceremony.

After agreeing to take on the project and receiving specifications for the piece, he got to work writing "Corridor Fanfare" exactly as he does any other composition: by sitting at his piano, opening the Voice Memo app on his phone and letting his creativity flow.

The investiture ceremony "marks a transition into a new era for UNT that's hopefully going to be a broad era, something that exists for quite a while as the university continues to develop and grow," he says. "I tried to show that with how the piece turned out."

"Corridor Fanfare" boasts a "majestic" quality. "It sort of has this regal feel to it. Even though a lot of the rhythms are kind of fast and close together, the tempo that it moves at allows it to be kind of broad and open."

Due to work commitments -- as part of his master's degree, Halpner is student teaching at Avon High School near Indianapolis -- he was unable to attend the investiture ceremony at UNT to hear "Corridor Fanfare" debut live for an audience.

"I'm honored that a piece of music that I wrote was played by these incredible musicians," he says. "I was super excited to write it and super excited that it was performed at such a monumental moment for the university."