THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF MUSIC October 2017
Faculty NEWS The KU West African Drum Ensemble, directed by Dylan Bassett, percussion lecturer, was selected as the winner of the Percussive Arts Society’s World Percussion Ensemble Competition. The ensemble will perform at the society’s international convention in November in Indianapolis. The Percussive Arts Society selects just one high school or college world percussion ensemble to showcase a year, making it a national honor to be chosen. Bassett was also named among the top five Teachers in Higher Education in the 2017 Best of Lawrence magazine. Joyce Castle, University Distinguished Professor of Voice, performed the role of Mme. Armfeldt (pictured left) in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music this summer at the Des Moines Metro Opera.
In May, New Morse Code, composed of Hannah Collins, assistant professor of cello, and Michael Compitello, assistant professor of percussion, premiered Alex Weiser’s And All the Days Were Purple, a song cycle for singer Eliza Bagg and small ensemble, at Brooklyn’s Roulette. In June, the duo performed music of Robert Honstein and Christopher Stark at the Geneva (NY) Music Festival. The duo worked as co-directors for Avaloch Farm Music Institute, a residency for professional chamber ensembles and composer/performer collaborations in Boscawen, New Hampshire, and in the summer served as resident directors. In August, Michael Davidson, associate professor of trombone, taught at the 2017 Jeonju Trombone Camp in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. Br andon Dr aper, a lecturer in jazz percussion, travelled throughout Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Colorado
this summer with his company Drum Safari. The tour engaged with more than 7,000 children and adults at libraries, community centers and festivals. The company’s performance in Vail and Minturn, Colorado was featured in an article by the Vail Daily. Drum Safari is a children’s interactive music edu-tainment company that Draper and his wife Teryn started more than 10 years ago. Pictured above is a photo of Draper at a library show. The KU Women’s Chorale, conducted by Mariana Far ah, associate director of choral activities, was selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Southwest Division Conference in March in Oklahoma City. The choir is composed of 24 to 30 women who specialize in music for treble voices.
Cover Photo: The KU West African Drum Ensemble, pictured above at the 18th Annual Collage Concert on Sept. 15, was selected as the winner of the Percussive Arts Society’s World Percussion Ensemble Competition. The ensemble will perform at the society’s international convention in November.
QuickNotes - October 2017 - music.ku.edu
Jeff Harshbarger, lecturer in bass in jazz studies, returned to the Kansas City Bass Workshop in June, performing with Mark Dresser, Francois Rabbath and Brian Roessler. In July, he celebrated the release of I Am The Librarian, a 10-year retrospective with the improvisational collective Snuff Jazz. August saw the premiere of An Evening with George Gershwin, a new collection of arrangements by Brad Cox for The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City at Musical Theater Heritage, as well as a performance with Tivon Pennicott and Sullivan Fortner at the Fourth Annual Charlie Parker Celebration. James Higdon, Dane and Polly Bales Professor of Organ, released a recording of the complete works of Jehan Alain in the Bales Organ Recital Hall. The recording was based on Albert Alain’s personal copy of the first edition of the Organ Works of Jehan Alain edited by Albert Alain and published by LeDuc in 1942. Albert Alain’s copy includes note and registration changes many of which were incorporated in the recording released in September. Higdon was also jury member for the Moscow round of the 2017 Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition and then traveled to Kaliningrad as a jury member for the finals of the competition. Also in September, he gave a lecture at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland, Ohio about Jehan Alain and played an All-Alain recital there. Michael Kirkendoll, associate professor of piano, received one the New Music USA Project Grants supporting his current recording project Acting Like a Pianist. The recording, which is being produced by GrammyAward winner Andreas Meyer, will be released on the Meyer Media label later in 2017, and features two 35-minute works for theatrical speaking pianist by renowned composer Frederic Rzewski. Paul Laird, professor of musicology, published the chapter “Musicals in the Mirror: Enchanted, Self-Reflexivity, and Disney’s Sudden Boldness” in the book The Disney Musical on Stage and Screen: Critical Approaches from ‘Snow White’ to ‘Frozen’, edited by George Rodosthenous and published in June by Bloomsbury. Laird also participated in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education national meeting in Las Vegas from August 2 to 6, where he took part as a senior scholar and mentor at the Music Theatre/Dance Preconference, advising graduate students and young academic professionals in a number of panel discussions on such matters as publishing and academic careers. Laird also presented the paper “Orchestrating Broadway Spectacle” Three Song Studies."
Steve Leisring, professor of trumpet, was a member of the Jury for the Third Jingbao International Music Festival and First Trumpet Competition in Baodi, Tianjin, China from Aug. 8 to 12. As one of four international guests, Leisring joined famed trumpet artists Allen Vizzutti, Ronald Romm (Canadian Brass) and Jose Chafer (Spain) as performer, clinician and adjudicator for the event, which included more than 200 competitors in different categories and more than 50 trumpet professors from various institutions in China. Leisring, pictured left, was a featured soloist during the opening and closing ceremonies with the Trumpet Ensemble from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing as well as joint performances with the guest artists. Assistant Professor of Musicology Martin Nedbal’s essay “Prague’s Estates Theater, Mozart, and Bohemian Patriotism” was published by the Mozart Society of America. Nedbal gave the keynote address at the international conference Opera’s Canonic Entanglements in Český Krumlov, Czech Republic. He presented a paper about the censorship of Mozart’s operas in 18th century Vienna at a conference on political correctness and censorship at the University of Graz in Austria and a paper on 19th century performances of Don Giovanni in Prague at the Second Transnational Opera Studies Conference in Bern, Switzerland. He was also awarded a research travel grant for the 2017-2018 academic year from the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies. In July, Véronique Mathieu, assistant professor of violin, released her first solo CD, Argot, featuring the works of Pierre Boulez, Franco Donatoni and Witold Lutoslawski. Parma Records released the CD. In May, Margaret Marco, professor of oboe, taught at the 2017 Oboe Taller in Puerto Rico. In June, she served as the chair of the International Double Reed Society Fernand GilletHugo Fox Oboe Competition at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Other performances included the Buzzards Bay Music Fest in Marion, Massachusetts in July, where she was featured on Sonata No. V in C Major by Jan Dismas Zelenka.
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Matt Otto, assistant director of jazz studies, was a guest conductor and clinician at the South Dakota All State Jazz Band camp at Northern State University in May. In June he did a tour with bassist Bob Bowman. In July he flew to New York City for a gig at Halyards in Brooklyn with John McNeil, Mark Ferber, Brad Shepik and Gary Wang. And, in August, he traveled to Los Angeles to perform with his trio “Joe-less Shoe” at the Baked Potato. Forrest Pierce, associate professor of music composition, was composerin-residence at the Wyoming Festival — New Music in the Mountains in Grand Teton National Park during early August.
Colin Roust, assistant professor of musicology, spent two-and-a-half weeks in France on a research trip funded by a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society. Highlights included collaborative work with the archivists of the Villa Noailles in Hyères and studying manuscripts of Georges Auric’s works with the composer’s widow in Monaco. Ingrid Stölzel, assistant professor of music composition, was a featured guest composer at the 13th Thailand International Composition Festival in August where her music was performed and she gave a master class and lecture. She was also on the composition faculty of the 2017 UMKC Composition Workshop in June. Her new piano solo Unus Mundus was premiered by Eunmi Ko at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington D.C. in May and subsequently performed this summer at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida and the San Francisco International Piano Festival. In August, Stölzel’s trio There Are Things to Be Said for flute, oboe and piano was performed at the SummerKeys Festival in Lubec, Maine and With Eyes Open for alto saxophone, and piano was performed in Brasilia, Brazil. Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Ketty Wong’s article “El boom de la tecnocumbia en Ecuador” (Tecnocumbia Boom in Ecuador) was published in the Journal Ecuador Debate, Vol. 100 in the summer of 2017.
Staff NEWS Vincent Mryk alo, registered piano technician, was among more than 700 attendees at the Piano Technicians Guild Annual Convention and Technical Institute held in July in St. Louis. Mrykalo presented two classes on the use of hot hide glue, which were well received and attended. He also assisted in the presentation of the piano voicing class.
Student NEWS In September, organ students Tyler Boehmer, Jacob Hofeling, Andrew Morris and Shayla Van Hal traveled to Kaliningrad, Russia to compete in the second round of the 10th Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition. The group qualified to go on to the second round during first round competitions in May held at Bales Organ Recital Hall. At the September competition, Boehmer received the Diploma award and the Special Prize For Best Interpretation of Mikael Tariverdiev’s Music. KU graduate students Crystal Buck, doctoral student
in voice and Ph.D. candidate in musicology; Margaret Lambie, doctoral student in flute; and Ben Justis, doctoral student in composition; attended the 2017 Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy. The students collaborated with young performers and composers from around the world in the presentation of world premiere performances while working with a faculty of contemporary music specialists. KU faculty members Michael Kirkendoll, associate professor of piano and director of the Cortona Sessions for New Music, Michael Compitello, assistant professor of percussion, and Forrest Pierce, associate professor of music composition, served on the faculty for the Sessions. Pictured, left to right, are Compitello, Pierce, Lambie, Justis, Buck and Kirkendoll. Doctoral conducting student R affaele Cipriano’s article “Interactive Concert Programs for Live Performance – A presentation software integrating slideshow and hypertext concepts” was accepted at the Association of Computing Machinery’s Hypertext Conference held in Prague in July.
QuickNotes - October 2017 - music.ku.edu
Daniel Gerona, graduate student in trumpet performance , was a third prize winner in the professional division of the Third Jingbao International Music Festival and First Trumpet Competition in Baodi, Tianjin, China from Aug. 8 to 12. After three rounds which narrowed candidates down from 40 in the division, Gerona was one of eight finalists blindly selected by a 15-member panel of Chinese and international artists. The final round consisted of Andre Jolivet’s Concertino, one of the most difficult works in the trumpet solo repertoire. As a third prize winner, Gerona was awarded a new professional trumpet along with a cash prize. Gerona (pictured center) is standing right of Steve Leisring, trumpet professor. Jennifer Potter, a doctoral candidate in music education, completed Orff Schulwerk Level II Certification at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Potter had previously completed Orff Schulwerk Level I at Arizona State University prior to starting her Ph.D. at KU.
Petersburg Opera, Florida; Christian Elser, executive director of Greenville Light Opera Works in Greenville, South Carolina; Andrew Fuchs, Pegasus Early Music Group, Rochester, New York; Christin-Marie Hill, Theater Bonn, Germany; Holly Janz, Union Avenue Opera, St. Louis; Lane Johnson, chorus in Metropolitan Opera, New York, New York; Kristen Larsen, SongFest, Los Angeles; Mary McNulty, New Harmony Theatre, Evansville, Indiana; Lindsay Ohse, Hubbard Hall Opera, Cambridge, New York and New York City Opera; Danielle Perr ault, International Opera Performance Experience, Mercatello sul Metauro, Italy; Gretchen Pile and Calvet Young, Chautauqua Institution’s Voice Program, Chautauqua, New York; Ashley Puenner, Florentine Opera Studio Artist Program, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Anthony Rohr, ABLE, Inc., a music project for disabled individuals in North Dakota; Tyler Simpson, Festival Lyrique International de Belle Ile en Mer, France and Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy; Brian Sussman, Nahant Music Festival, Massachusetts; Br ad Walker, Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera; Julia Taylor, Trentino Academy International Foundation, Trentino, Italy; Emily Weaver, Pittsburgh Opera Theater Young Artist; and Tobias Wright, Opera North, Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Upcoming Events OCTOBER
OCT. 12 KU WIND ENSEMBLE & SYMPHONIC BAND* 7:30 p.m. | Lied Center OCT. 18 FRENCH FIREWORKS: GREAT FRENCH ORGANISTS - AN IMPROVISED MASS IN ALTERNATIM * 8 p.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall
Lake City Opera.
This summer, current and former KU Voice and Opera students performed all around the world. Among them was Etta Fung, pictured above, who is the creator of Opera Sull’Aria (aerial opera). In July she premiered her first full-length opera in Hong Kong. Natalie Easter (pictured left) performed the role of Julie Jordan in Carousel at Murray Arts in the Park, Salt
Performing in the Lawrence Opera Theater’s 2017 season Faces of Love were Brianne Stewart, Anna Patterson, Whitney Wells, Alan Martin, Neal Long and Kristen Larsen. Lawrence Opera Theater is directed by alumnus Hugo Ver a. Long, Lauryn Reid and Shannon Seals performed at Opera Workshop in the Flint Hills. Other performances included: Jeff Beruan, Caramoor Summer Music Festival, Katonah, New York; Michael Colman, Utah Festival Opera; Tar a Curtis, St.
OCT. 19 FRENCH FIREWORKS: GREAT FRENCH ORGANISTS - Shin-Young Lee* 4 p.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall OCT. 19 FRENCH FIREWORKS: GREAT FRENCH ORGANISTS - Olivier Latry* 8 p.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall OCT. 20 FRENCH FIREWORKS: GREAT FRENCH ORGANISTS - Michel Bouvard* 4:30 p.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall OCT. 20 VISITING ARTIST SERIES: Douglas Humphreys 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall OCT. 20 FRENCH FIREWORKS: GREAT FRENCH ORGANIST - Philippe Lefebvre* 8 p.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall OCT. 21 FRENCH FIREWORKS: GREAT FRENCH ORGANISTS - Vincent Dubois* 11 a.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall OCT. 21
HEART OF AMERICA MARCHING FESTIVAL 1:30 p.m. | Memorial Stadium
QuickNotes - October 2017 - music.ku.edu
OCT. 22
KU CHOIRS 5 p.m. | Corpus Christi Catholic Church
OCT. 24
VIOLIN STUDIO RECITAL 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
OCT. 25
KU JAZZ COMBOS 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
OCT. 26
SUNFLOWER BAROQUE 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
OCT. 28 INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN IN MUSIC with KANSAS VIRTUOSI 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall OCT. 29
VISITING ARITSIT SERIES: Alex Klein, oboe, George Sakakeeny, bassoon & Ellen Sommer, piano 5:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
OCT. 30
KANSAS TREBLE CHOIR FESTIVAL* 7:30 p.m. | Lied Center
NOV. 1
NOV. 18
FACULTY RECITAL SERIES: Steven Spooner, piano and David Dubal, curator 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
NOV. 19
FACULTY RECITAL SERIES: Steven Spooner, piano and David Dubal, curator 4 p.m. | Spencer Museum of Art
NOV. 19
NEW MORSE CODE with TRIPLEPOINT TRIO 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
NOV. 20
KU HORN & TROMBONE CHOIRS 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
NOV. 27 KU UNIVERSITY BAND & SYMPHONIC BAND* 7:30 p.m. | Lied Center NOV. 29
CLARINET STUDIO RECITAL 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
CELLO STUDIO RECITAL 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
DEC. 1
VESPERS ON THE ROAD 7:30 p.m. | Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center Johnson County Community College Call 913-469-4445 for free tickets
NOV. 3
NEW MUSIC GUILD 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
DEC. 2
SAXOPHONE STUDIO RECITAL 1:30 & 6:30 pm. | Bales Organ Recital Hall
NOV. 5
KU WEST AFRICAN DRUM ENSEMBLE 2:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
DEC. 2
INTERGENERATIONAL CHOIR 2:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
DEC. 3
PRE-VESPERS 1:30 & 6:30 pm. | Bales Organ Recital Hall
DEC. 3
93RD ANNUAL HOLIDAY VESPERS* 2:30 & 7:30 p.m. | Lied Center
DEC. 4
TUBA/EUPHONIUM CONSORT CONCERT 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
DEC. 5
ROCK CHALK SINGERS CONCERT 6 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hal
DEC. 6
KU PERCUSSION GROUP 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hal
DEC. 7
COLLEGIUM MUSICUM 7:30 p.m. | Bales Organ Recital Hall
NOV. 6 KU SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 7 p.m. | Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Free tickets at kauffmancenter.org or 816-994-7222 NOV. 8 LIED CENTER PRESENTS: KU Wind Ensemble with Jim Walker, flute* 7:30 p.m. | Lied Center NOV. 9
VISITING ARTIST SERIES: Dan Goble, saxophone, Patty Goble, soprano & Russell Hirshfield, piano 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
Nov. 11
KU DAY OF JAZZ IMPROVISATION All Day | Murphy Hall
Nov. 11
FLUTE STUDIO RECITAL 2:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
NOV. 13
FALL UNDERGRADUATE HONOR RECITAL 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
NOV. 15 HELIANTHUS CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall NOV. 15 KU JAZZ ENSEMBLES I, II, III 7:30 p.m. | Lawrence Arts Center Tickets available at lawrenceartscenter.com or 786-843-2787 NOV. 16
All events subject to change. Please visit music.ku.edu for the latest event information. Admission is free unless otherwise noted. * Tickets available at the Lied Center Ticket Office. Concert will be live streamed. Live stream updates available here.
KU SAXOPHONE QUARTETS 7:30 p.m. | Swarthout Recital Hall
QuickNotes - October 2017 - music.ku.edu