THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Faculty NEWS James Barnes, professor emeritus and BM ’74 and MM ’75, was awarded Honorary Life Membership in the Japanese Bandmasters Association in March. Michael Compitello, assistant professor of percussion, and incoming professor of cello Hannah Collins performed at the University of Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge series on March 5. The performance, at the Andy Warhol Museum, featured new music for cello and percussion about rhythm and pattern. Jacob Dakon, assistant professor of music education, was recently appointed editor of the Kansas American String Teachers Association newsletter. On March 3 he gave the clinic presentation “Pre-Bowing Exercises: Navigating the Awkward
February & March 2016
Steps between Pizzicato and Détaché” at the 2016 American String Teachers National Conference in Tampa, FL. Michael Davidson, associate professor of trombone, along with Tim Howe (University of Missouri) and J. Mark Thompson (Northwestern State University of Louisiana) comprise the Drei Bones trombone trio. The group just recorded a CD for the Emeritus label. The offering includes original works for trombone trio by Tom Davis and Sy Brandon, as well as works from composers Raymond Premru, Michael Davis, Frigyes Hidas, Vladislav Blazhevich, Henry Wolking, Eric Ewazen and Allan Blank. The recording was done in the summer of 2015 and is now available from Emeritus, iTunes, and CD Baby. Abbey Dvor ak, assistant professor of music education and music therapy, received a Service Learning Mini Grant Award through the KU Center for Civic and Social
Responsibility. The award promotes a new service learning collaboration between KU faculty and students, KU-AUMI InterArts, and community partners Independence, Inc. and Sound+Vision Studio at the Lawrence Public Library. The project brings together people of all abilities in order to build community through music improvisation using the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI), a software interface that turns movement into sound. The project began in October and occurs monthly. KU Women’s Chorale, conducted by Mariana Far ah, associate director of choral activities, and the KU Men’s Glee Club, conducted by Christopher Smith, DMA student of choral conducting, performed at the Kansas Music Educators Association annual convention in Wichita on Feb. 25 and 26, respectively. Farah and Smith also collaborated on an interest session at the Southwest American Choral Directors Association regional conference in Kansas City on March 10. They presented “The Powerful Potential in Men’s and Women’s Choirs:
Cover Photo: The KU Men’s Basketball Band received kudos across the country when they pulled double duty during the opening round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa this March. In one day, they played for the Jayhawks’ opening game against Austin Peay State Univeristy and then for Drake University’s women’s team, which was playing in the WNIT.
QuickNotes - February & March 2016 - music.ku.edu
Successful Approaches to Developing a Healthy Program.” At the same conference, Farah presented the paper “VillaLobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras: The Universality of Bach and the Sounds of Brazil.” Debr a Hedden, professor and director of music education, presented a research study at the National Association for Music Education Research Conference in Atlanta in mid-March. The study focused on how teacher-conductors who teach children to sing select repertoire for their singers. Asta Rauduvaite, chair of the music department at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, co-authored the study, which was completed in Vilnius, Lithuania. David Neely, director of orchestral activities, was the pianist for three performances of Schubert’s Winterreise with baritone David Adam Moore at the Des Moines Arts Center, sponsored by Des Moines Metro Opera. He also recently conducted a concert of opera arias and excerpts featuring the Roosevelt University Orchestra and the Chicago College of Performing Arts’ Graduate Opera Diploma Artists at Studebaker Hall in Chicago. On Feb. 12, Scott Murphy, professor of music theory, gave the talk “A Rogue Note in von Trier’s Melancholia” at Oklahoma City University as part of a scholar exchange with Erik Heine, professor of music theory at OCU. Heine visited KU later that month. The KU Wind Ensemble, conducted by Paul W. Popiel, director of bands, performed with guest artists Delfeayo Marsalis and Jon Lewis on Feb. 6 and with Jeff Nelsen on Feb. 23. The Feb. 23 concert was shared with the wind ensemble from Washburn Rural High School and their conductor, Luke Chaffee. Popiel also did a clinic with the Atholton High School bands in Baltimore and attended the American Bandmasters Association convention in San Luis Obispo, California in March. Roberta Freund Schwartz, associate professor of musicology, presented the paper “How Blue Can You Get? It’s Tight Like That and the Birth of the Hokum Blues” at the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association in Seattle on March 23.
Eric Stomberg, professor of bassoon, was a guest artist at the Louisiana State University Double Reed Day on March 12. Stomberg gave three master classes and performed on the faculty recital with oboist Nancy King (University of Michigan). More than 70 students attended. The choral composition Into Being by Ingrid Stölzel, assistant professor of music composition, was performed at the 2016 USF New Music Festival on March 5 in Tampa, FL. Volti, San Francisco’s professional concert choir, also performed Into Being on March 11 and 12. Stölzel’s composition Panta Rhei for wind ensemble was performed as part of the College Band Directors National Association, Eastern Division Conference by the University of Delaware Wind Ensemble in New London, CT on March 10. Her duo Two-Letter Words for Bass Clarinet and Marimba/Vibraphone was performed at the 2016 SCI Region XI Conference in Wichita; the University of Nebraska, Omaha; and the South Central College Music Society Chapter Conference in Wichita Falls, TX by Duo Rodinia. Dean Robert Walzel, Véronique Mathieu, assistant professor of violin, and a group of students took a nine-day trip to Asia, including Huazhong (Central China) Normal University, where they performed with faculty, held master classes with students and strengthened relationships with the school. At Mahidol University’s College of Music, Thailand, the group performed a concert.
Staff NEWS
Administrative Associate Laura McCorkill, BME ‘84 and MME ‘10, received a grant from the Jeanette Johnson Staff Development Fund to travel to Kansas City, MO and spend four days attending the Southwest American Choral Directors Association (SWACDA) Convention at the Downtown Marriott and Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on March 7 through 10. While there, Laura attended presentations featuring Paul Tucker, Mariana Farah, and Christopher Smith, all of the KU Choral Division, and heard many fine choral performances.
QuickNotes - February & March 2016 - music.ku.edu
Student NEWS Graduate students Jong Ho Kim, trumpet; Louisa Slosar, bassoon; Matt Butterfield, oboe; Becca Lunstrum, horn; and Gun Yong Lee, trombone; traveled to Milan, Italy in February to play a concert of modern orchestral music with the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music orchestra. The program included music of Villa Lobos and Stravinsky, as well as recent compositions by Italian composers. Melissa Cummins, PhD candidate in musicology, presented the paper, “Ripping Off Offenbach: Parody in Germaine Tailleferre’s M. Petitpois achèter un château” at the Michigan Music Research Conference Honoring Professor Emeritus Glenn E. Watkins, held at the University of Michigan School of Music on March 19 and 20. Her paper was part of a three-paper panel on Humor, Parody, and Quotation and was one of only 15 papers selected for the conference. Benjamin Dominguez, a freshman piano major, won the Kansas City Symphony’s Woman’s Club Charitable Foundation Young Artist Competition. Dominguez played the first movement of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, which he will play again when he performs with the KC Symphony on May 25 and 26 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. “Six Qabbani Love Songs” by Nathan Jones, DMA student in composition, was selected as a finalist for the National Association of Teachers of Singing 2016 Art Song Composition Award. The KU Wind Ensemble premiered the first movement of his dissertation piece, Metropolis Triptych, on Feb. 23.
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Jackson Thomas, MM student in choral conducting, participated in the University of Central Missouri Conductor’s Symposium on Feb. 5 and 6 in Warrensburg, MO, where he participated in master classes with Alan Zabriskie (UCM) and Alan Hightower (Luther College). Ten conductors from Kansas and Missouri were in attendance. Christy Miller, PhD candidate in musicology, has been awarded a summer Graduate Research Fellowship from the Hall Center for the Humanities.
KU Men’s Glee, directed by Christopher Smith, DMA student in choral conducting, performed the national anthem and the alma mater for the Feb. 15 KU vs. Oklahoma State men’s basketball game. Andy Newbegin, DMA student in bass trombone, recently performed with Amy Grant and the Kansas City Symphony on their Valentine’s Day weekend pops concert in Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Alumni NEWS Mike Gersten, MM ’12, has been appointed woodwinds instructor at South Texas College.
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QuickNotes - February & March 2016 - music.ku.edu
Amelia A. Rollings, PhD ’15, recently joined the faculty at Western Kentucky University as assistant professor of musical theatre voice. During her first semester of teaching, she was nominated for a 2016 Faculty Award for Excellence in Research/ Creative Activity. The past October, she presented her study, “Of Charlatans, Humbugs, and Pocketbooks: Advocacy of Standards, Education, and Certification for Voice Teachers in the NATS publication, The Bulletin, 1944-1954,” at the first Pan-American Vocology Symposium in Greensboro, NC. Larkin Sanders, BM ‘09, published the book The Creation of the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra: The Performer’s Field Guide to Music Festival Foundation. Rebecca L. Tast, PhD ’15, recently joined the faculty at Texas State University as assistant professor of music specializing in string music education.
APR. 22
TUBA/EUPHONIUM CONSORT
APR. 24
COLLEGIUM MUSICUM
7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall 7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall
APR. 24*
NYC REPRISE: JAZZ ENSEMBLE I WITH DEBORAH BROWN 7:30 p.m. Lied Center Free
APR. 26
JAZZ ENSEMBLES II & III
7:30 p.m. Lied Center Tickets available at lied.ku.edu or 785-864-2787
APR. 30
KU OPERA GALA
7:00 p.m. Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Tickets available at kauffmancenter.org or 816-994-7222 Sponsored by Reach Out Kansas, Inc.
MAY
MAY 3 SYMPHONIC BAND 7:30 p.m. Lied Center
Tickets available at lied.ku.edu or 785-864-2787
MAY 4 PIANO LITERATURE CLASS RECITAL 7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall KU MUSIC ALUMNI - SEND US YOUR NEWS!
KU Music alumni, we would love to hear about the great work you’re doing in the world of music. Please send your music-related news - jobs, awards, photos, etc. - to musicnews@ku.edu.
Upcoming Events APRIL APR. 14
SAXOPHONE QUARTETS
APR. 15, 16
LITTLE WOMEN
7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall
7:30 p.m. Crafton-Preyer 2:30 p.m. Crafton-Preyer Tickets at ticketweb.lss.ku.edu/kutheatre or 785-864-3982
APR. 17
APR. 17*
KANSAS VIRTUOSI
APR. 18*
KU WIND ENSEMBLE
APR. 19
KU PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
APR. 20
JAZZ COMBOS
MAY 5 KU YOUTH CHORUS 5:15 p.m. 328 Murphy Hall MAY 5
JAZZ ENSEMBLE I WITH ALAN FERBER
MAY 14
SCHOOL OF MUSIC CONVOCATION
7:30 p.m. Lawrence Arts Center $10 adults/ $5 students & seniors Tickets available at lawrenceartscenter.com or 785-843-2787
10:30 a.m. Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall
All events subject to change. Please visit music.ku.edu for the latest event information. Admission is free unless otherwise noted. *Concert will be live streamed. Live stream updates available here.
7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall 7:30 p.m. Lied Center Tickets available at lied.ku.edu or 785-864-2787 7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall 7:30 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall
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QuickNotes - February & March 2016 - music.ku.edu