THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF MUSIC December 2017
Faculty NEWS In September, Hannah Collins, assistant professor of cello, was invited to participate in the Transforming 19th Century Historically Informed Performance chamber music course at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. The course was part of a multifaceted TCHIP project which aims to bring world-leading scholars and performers together to provide professional players with new insights into historically evidenced expression and a deeper understanding of the aesthetic context of the period. Collins explored canonic and lesser known piano trio repertoire with her ensemble, Trio Chanterelle, using period string and keyboard instruments from Oxford’s Bate Musical Instrument Collection. In September, Michael Compitello, assistant professor of percussion, performed with Cornell University’s Ensemble X on a concert highlighting Luciano Berio’s solo
and chamber music, in addition to presenting a master class at Ithaca College. In November, he performed three times at the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention in Indianapolis: as a soloist in a keyboard showcase concert featuring the works of the Living Room Music composer collective, with New Morse Code during PASIC’s “Focus Day,” and with the KU West African Drumming Ensemble as part of their World Percussion Ensemble Showcase Concert.
New Morse Code, the duo of Collins and Compitello, released its debut album Simplicity Itself on New Focus Recordings with a release concert at New York’s Dimenna Center and the Cider Gallery in Lawrence. In addition to being Q2’s album of the week, new music website I Care if You Listen called Simplicity Itself “an ebullient passage through pieces that each showcase
the duo’s clarity of artistic vision and their near-perfect synchronicity.” WQXR called the album “a flag of genuineness raised.” Abbey Dvor ak, assistant professor of music education and music therapy, along with Eugenia Hernandez-Ruiz, Sekyung Jang, Borin Kim, Megan Joseph and Kori Wells published the paper, “An Emerging Theoretical Model of Music Therapy Student Development” in the Summer 2017 Journal of Music Therapy. Dvorak, Hernandez-Ruiz, Jang, Amy Smith and Kara Caine presented “Course-based Research Experiences: Implications for Music Therapy Education and Training” in November at the American Music Therapy Association National Conference in St. Louis. As part of a course-based research experience, Dvorak and KU students Kendall Joplin, Julia Sims, R ayna Goldsmith, Maggie Nickl and Melissa Gillespie published a book review of Music Therapy in Mental Health for Illness Management and Recovery in the Fall 2017 Journal of Music Therapy. Chris Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy, presented
Cover Photo: A multicultural celebration of the season, the 93rd Annual Vespers concerts, featuring KU Choirs and Symphony Orchestra, were held on Dec. 3 at the Lied Center of Kansas. A highlight was the performance of Randol Alan Bass’ The Night Before Christmas, narrated by KU Provost Neeli Bendapudi.
QuickNotes - December 2017 - music.ku.edu
the paper “The Effectiveness of Teacher Professional Development in Critical Thinking Instruction Throughout the Arts Curriculum,” at the World Alliance for Arts Education World Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. He also presented the paper “Using Technologies to Improve Equity and Access in Music for Students with Severe Disabilities,” at the 2017 National Association for Music Education National In-Service Conference in Dallas.
Dan Gailey, director of jazz studies and professor of music, was one of five KU professors to be recognized with a Chancellors Club Teaching Professorship in 2018. Honored by KU Endowment for their excellence in education, the five educators will receive an annual $10,000 honorarium for each of the next five years. Pictured above: Gailey performed at the Chancellors Club Celebration in November (photo credit: Mark McDonald/KU Endowment). Paul Laird, professor of musicology, is co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Musical with William A. Everett, Curator’s professor of musicology at the Conservatory of Music of the University of MissouriKansas City. The book just appeared in its third edition from Cambridge University Press; no other Cambridge Companion on a topic related to music has even appeared in a second edition. Laird is the author of two chapters in the collection and co-author of a third chapter. Everett holds his PhD in Musicology from the University of Kansas and is the author of one chapter in the collection and co-author of another. Bill Matney, assistant professor music therapy, published the article “Understanding literature reviews: Implications for music therapy,” in the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy. The article is published online and will be available in hardcopy in the future.
In November, Scott Murphy, professor of music theory, gave an hour-long talk “The Wisdom of Music” on The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music
Lecture Series at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. In the well-received presentation, Murphy enlisted innovative ideas from neoclassical economics, finance, Greek tragedy and political science to criticize a recent popular view of tonal structure and propose an alternative model. Martin Nedbal, assistant professor of musicology, published an article on Così fan tutte in the Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America. He also presented a paper on the reception of Mozart in 19th century Prague at the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society in Rochester, New York and a paper on Mahler and Mozart at a conference in London, Ontario. Venturing away from his focus on Mozart, Nedbal presented a paper on Smetana’s first opera The Brandenburgers in Bohemia at the conference of the Mid-America Medieval Association. Br ad Osborn, assistant professor of music theory, was a colloquium speaker at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His talk “Who Grooves to What: Differences in Guitarists’ and Drummers’ Metric Entrainment” was an empirical investigation into how various metronome settings can affect musical performance. Colin Roust, assistant professor of musicology, published the article “Auric, Georges (1899–1983): Présentation synthétique des écrits” in the new online encyclopedia Dictionnaire des Ecrits de Compositeurs.
Over the summer, Steven Spooner, professor of piano, enjoyed traveling the world performing. His performances began with an appearance at the American Liszt Society at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and eventually brought him to Russia, Republic of Georgia, Germany, Italy, as well as New York and Los Angeles. Performances of note included a gala concert for the 100th Anniversary of the Tbilisi Conservatory, an invitation to the Juilliard School for its Liszt celebration, solo recitals in Italy as well as faculty appointments at the Colburn School and the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival. His recordings were twice featured on New York’s WWFM, The Piano Matters.
QuickNotes - December 2017 - music.ku.edu
In November, the KU Horn Ensemble, directed by Paul Stevens, associate professor of horn, performed at the St Luke AME Church in Lawrence. The ensemble played four different works during the service, which also featured the church’s choir and instrumentalists. Assistant Professor of Music Composition Ingrid Stölzel’s music was featured at the West Fork New Music Festival in September, at the 38th Annual New Music Festival at Bowling Green State University in October and in the Fresh Squeezed Opera Company 2017 Showcase in New York City in November. She was a winner of the Foundation for Modern Music 2017 Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers for her composition The Gorgeous Nothings which was performed in Houston in October as part of the award ceremony. In October, her newly orchestrated song cycle Soul Journey – Three Whitman Songs was premiered by the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs in Colorado Springs. Her new choral work Light the World was premiered by Te Deum in Kansas City in November. In addition, Stölzel’s new solo piano composition Unus Mundus was performed at the Seoul Arts Center in South Korea and Auditorio Fundadores in Medellín, Colombia. Ketty Wong, associate professor of ethnomusicology, presented the conference paper “Chinese Damas’ Square Dancing: Gendering the Public Domain in China” in October at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Denver.
The University of Kansas was well represented at the Society of Music Theory’s 40th annual meeting, held in Arlington, Virginia from Nov. 1 to 5. Matthew Ferr andino, doctoral student in music theory, gave the talk “MultiCentric Complexes in Rock” that opened the session “Tonality in Rock.” Br ad Osborn, assistant professor of music theory, chaired a session entitled “Interpreting Metal Music.” On Sunday morning, Scott Murphy, professor of music theory, delivered the paper “James Horner, Aaron Copland, and Three Fields of Inquiry” on a session he
organized entitled “Screening the Sounds of Copland.” The group is pictured (left to right) Murphy, Ferrandino and Osborn.
In October, KU was the host of the first Kansas Treble Choir Festival which showcased 250 singers from Frontier Trail Middle School, Lawrence High School, Free State High School, Kansas State and the University of Kansas. The event also featured nationally acclaimed conductors from across the state including Andrea Ramsey, Julie Yu, Janeal Krehbiel, Mariana Far ah, associate director of choral activities and Melissa Gr ady, assistant professor of music education.
The University of Kansas was host to the International Alliance for Women in Music annual concert in October. The concert showcased original compositions by nine women composers and featured the Kansas Virtuosi. At the concert, IAWM received the Champion of New Music Award from the American Composers Forum. Pictured with the award are performers and composers (left to right): Hannah Collins, Ellen Harrison, Margaret Lambie, Anne Guzzo, Ellen Sommer, Jessica Rudman, Christina Rusnak, Carrie Leigh Page, Beth Denish, Victoria Malawey, Jennifer Jolley, Tawnie Olson, Ingrid Stölzel, Jennifer Bellor, Stephanie Zelnick, Seunghee Lee and Amelia Kaplan. Performers not pictured were Michael Compitello, Michael Kirkendoll, Margaret Marco and Véronique Mathieu.
Student NEWS Mi Ou Lee, a master’s student in piano performance, performed works by Schumann at the prize winners concert of Yakov Flier International Piano Competition in New York in July. She was also invited for a solo recital and master class in Bangkok. Lee is a student of Steven Spooner. Yu Kureyama, a piano performance student, and Taeri Lee, a master’s piano performance student, performed in the young artist series of concerts sponsored by the Amalfi Coast
QuickNotes - December 2017 - music.ku.edu
Music and Arts Festival. There, they were also featured in master classes given by distinguished faculty from Juilliard, Yale and other leading music schools. Kureyama and Lee are students of Steven Spooner. The KU School of Music had several top place finishers at the Kansas Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Competitions held on Nov. 5 at Emporia State University. The winners will advance to the West Central Division Competitions held in January at the University of Iowa. Malcolm Liu, a junior piano performance student of Scott McBride Smith, was named the winner of the Kansas MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition.
In September, Jennifer Potter, doctoral candidate in music education, was a primary presenter at the 2017 Symposium on Music Teacher Education, presented by the Society for Music Teacher Education, in Minneapolis. She presented the research study, “A Case Study of Preservice Music Teachers’ Attitudes of Classroom Management in Urban Music Classrooms” that examined the attitudes of preservice music teachers concerning preparation for classroom management in music classrooms in the urban setting.
ALUMNI NEWS Trio Soave — which include (left to right) Zhaolin Wang, a viola performance doctoral student of Boris Vayner; Shulin Guo, a piano performance doctoral student also of Smith; and Hilary Lowery, a clarinet performance master’s student of Stephanie Zelnick — is the Kansas state representative for the MTNA Chamber Music-Strings Competition. Anne Schneller, a violin performance student of Véronique Mathieu, was the state winner of the MTNA Young Artist String Competition.
Ming Tian Zhao Yang, BM ’14 in piano, was appointed to the faculty of the Adam Gyorgy Castle Academy in Budapest, Hungary. There he gave master classes and lectures to students from all over the world. Zhao Yang is a former student of Steven Spooner and earned his master’s degree from Rice University and is currently a doctoral student at Northwestern University. KU MUSIC ALUMNI - SEND US YOUR NEWS Land a new job or finish that Ph.D? We want to hear about the great work our alumni are doing in the world of music. Send your music related news to musicnews@ku.edu. The School of Music Ambassador’s Club is taking orders for polo shirts and quarter-zip fleeces. Each shirt is available in red or blue and has the option of the School of Music vertical signature in white or the full color Conducting Jayhawk embroidered on the left front pocket area. Polo shirt: $30 Quarter-zip fleece: $50 Orders due no later than Thursday, Dec. 14 in 460 MUR. Cash or checks payable to SMAC.
As winners of the Percussive Arts Society’s World Percussion Ensemble Competition, the KU West African Drum Ensemble, directed by Dylan Bassett, performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis this November. QuickNotes - December 2017 - music.ku.edu