2007-08 Alumni News
Sam Hodges (BM 1953 piano) went to Phoenix in November 2008 and while there performed three piano recitals with singer Marilyn Kredel. Recently Sam talked with School of Music alum Richard Thompson (BM 1951, BME 1956) who lives in New Jersey. Dick is a composer and pianist and his choral work, Lady Liberty, premiered in New York City performed by the Gregg Smith Singers.
John King (organ performance) has been living in Scarsdale, NY for 19 years. He is very active as a choral director, now Director of Music at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church, and founder and director of the New Choral Society, now in it's fifteenth season. This group is very active making CD's and commissioning new choral works. He is involved in the Organ Internship Program run by Paul Jacobs, head of the organ department at the Juilliard School of Music. Each year a young Juilliard organist serves as an assistant to John at his church.
New York Premiere
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I'm delighted to tell you about the New York premiere of my Three Lyric Pieces for bass and orchestra at Lincoln Center's Merlin Hall on January 21. The soloist is the extraordinary artist-virtuoso, Jerome Butler, who will also perform his own transcription of the Bottesini Grand Duo with the orchestra's artistic director, violinist Nina Beilina. As you know, a premiere for doublebass and orchestra is no ordinary event. New Yorkers will now have a rare opportunity to hear an amazing artist perform with a major ensemble.
With warm New Year wishes, Paul Ramsier
Tunnell 2008 Alumni Fellow
U of L Trumpet Professor, Michael Tunnell , was awarded the 2008 University of Louisville School of Music Alumni Fellow in a ceremony on October 16 at the University of Louisville School of Music Comstock Hall. This award is given to alumni who are leaders in their professional fields. Nominations are from the academic colleges and schools, which are approved by the Alumni Association Executive Board of Directors and then by the University Board of Trustees. Alumni Fellows accept an invitation by the president to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators. The award is a crystal medallion mounted on a black onyx base engraved with the name and year of presentation. Tunnell received a Master of Music degree from the University of Louisville School of Music in 1978.
Obituaries
Friends - Sadly I must report that Ed Ballenger, long time friend and superb musician, passed away today, Saturday, October 4 in the early evening. Details at this point are incomplete, however I do know he is to be cremated and there will be a memorial service for him in the next few days. I will send more information as it becomes available.
http://www.legacy.com/louisville/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=118476995Quentin Sharpenstein
Rascals Of Ragtyme
Derby City Brass Band
Gary Stonecipher,
School of Music alum, class of 1957, member of the Derby City Brass,
passed away on Friday, September 26 after a 6-month illness. All three
Stonecipher brothers, Gary, Keith and Donald, were graduated from the
School of Music in the 1950s. All are now deceased. Keith fell ill and
passed away shortly after the Gardencourt Alumni Concert in November
2007. This is the only family known of that 3 children were Music
School graduates. You may know others. In case you would like to
contact the family, his wife's name is Pat and their address is 2809
Milburn Ave, Louisville, KY 40220-1215. Phone number is (502) 459-5945.
There will be a memorial concert by Derby City Brass on Sunday, October
12 from 6-7:30 PM at Highland St. Paul United Methodist Church. The
family is planning another memorial at the University Club on October
19.
BRAGGING RIGHTS
School of Music Graduate Students
Vadim recently helped to coordinate the first international jazz camp, supported by the US Embassy and taught by School of Music jazz faculty. The camp brought together both the privileged and under- privileged and involved students from all walks of life in Brasilia and the surrounding areas. The group was highly diverse in age, race, and skill level and included adult professional performers and educators. More than 20 different countries were represented in the student body. This was quite an accomplishment for Vadim knowing the political, economic, and educational climate in Brasilia.
Aleksander Nowak (MM in Composition, 2008) has had many recent successes as a composer. This year he has had two pieces published: Sonata "June-December " for violin and piano by PWM Edition (Polish Music Publishing Company, the most important publishing company in Poland) and Things Passed by EUTERPE Edition.
He was commissioned by the "Warsaw Autumn Friends Society", with support of the Ernst Von Siemens Foundation in Munich, for an orchestral piece, Fiddler's Green and White Savannas Never More which was premiered on a Velvet Curtain Festival in Lwow, Ukraine in October 2006. He also has been commissioned by the Silesian Guitar Autumn Festival for a solo guitar piece, Things Passed, which will be the obligatory work on the second stage of the guitar competition of the Silesian Guitar Autumn Festival in September 2008.
His piece, Fiddler's Green and White Savannas Never More, was performed on the UNESCO International Rostrum for Composers in Paris, France in June 2007. (One or two pieces from every country in the world are chosen by National Radio Stations.)
He was presented with the President of Gliwice City Award for Artistic Achievements in 2006 and won the Silesian Marshall Award and Stipend for writing songs to Polish and American poems, Songs of Caress. Recent premieres include a string orchestra piece, Last Days of Wanda B. on the Summer Music Festival in Rycerka, Poland (July 2007), Frisk for symphony orchestra and Bird of Amber for tenor solo and piano on University of Louisville New Music Festival (November 2008), premiere and several performances of Three Short Songs for tenor solo and piano given by Daniel Weeks and Naomi Oliphant in Poland and Czech Republic (January 2008), and Songs of Caress for soprano solo and piano trio at the Bytom Opera House, Poland (January 2008).
Last Days of Wanda B. was nominated for an OPUS Award given by the Polish Public Media, the largest monetary prize for artists in Poland. Alek’s work has been chosen as a finalist, and he has been invited to participate in the official gala on June 2008, broadcast by TV and Radio, where the final winner will be announced. Due to this nomination, the work will also be performed on Warsaw Autumn Festival in September 2008, the most important music festival in Poland…quite an honor for a young composer.
Zhiyi Wang was appointed Composer-in-Residence at the Shanghai Opera House immediately following his graduation with a MM in Music Theory in 2006. Perhaps most exciting was his appointment in 2007 as assistant composer to the music director for the opening ceremony of 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is the co-orchestrator (the other orchestrator is the music director, Qigang Chen) for the theme song of Beijing Olympics, which is supposed to be the most anticipated part of the Olympics Opening Ceremony.
His orchestration of nine folk songs was performed by singers and the orchestra of Shanghai Opera House in the 2007 Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. He also orchestrated sixteen folk songs which were recorded by the Shanghai Opera House as a CD album and released to public in 2007. His score for a TV series, which featured first-rate actors in China, was shown nationally in 2007. He has also arranged songs for different recording companies, including Universal Records.
Commissioned by the Contemporary Dance Group of Shanghai Opera House to write a piece in 2007, he has postponed this composition until September 2008 when his Olympic commitments end. He has also received a commission from the Children and Female’s Choir of the China National Symphony Orchestra to write a choral piece in 2008. He will also score a TV series in September 2008.
April 8, 2008
LEGENDARY MUSICIAN EARNS VERMONT’S HIGHEST ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
Manchester Center, VT.... Legendary percussionist and environmental activist Donald Knaack
is awarded the State of Vermont Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence & Pollution Prevention.
Knaack, a Manchester, VT resident, will receive the award from Governor Jim Douglas and George R. Crombie, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources in the House Chamber of the State House in Montpelier, VT on April 21, 2008 at 3pm. The award recognizes Knaack for his HOP (Help Our Planet) program which successfully educates students about the environment and increases student activism. As the HOP program was piloted at Burr & Burton Academy in Manchester, VT during the 2006-07 school year, Burr & Burton Academy will share the award with Knaack.
Said Knaack, "Over fifteen years ago, I was giving music residencies in the schools, teaching the basics of music and rhythm using recycled materials and pieces of junk to reinforce that music can be played on anything. At the time, there was no organized effort to teach the basics of environmental stewardship to students so I began to integrate basic environmental awareness and the ability for students to actively become involved in doing something about saving water, reducing energy usage, littering, buying local, refusing to buy products containing toxins such as Styrofoam, etc... Eventually this developed into the Help Our Planet program."
Knaack, "the legendary percussion virtuoso" (Village Voice) is the creator of Junk Music, which is music exclusively composed-for and performed-on junk and recycled materials. Knaack's Junk Music has successfully transcended many musical genres and is evident in the wide range of audiences including: The Van's Warped Tour, World Environment Day at the United Nations, The Great Went and Lemonwheel with Phish, The Kennedy Center, Kansas City International Jazz Festival, Discover Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, Sundance Film Festival, two critically acclaimed works for choreographer Twyla Tharp, television commercials for The NBA, ESPN and Electronic Arts, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, NPR and BBC. He is also the composer of Odin, the opera, which recently premiered in New York City and has an environmental music-theatre work in development. According to Knaack, "the next goals of HOP are to take the program nationwide and to expand the awareness of how our collective neglect of the environment has had devastating affect upon the health, freedom and justice of many persons throughout the world -- especially the poor." The official website is www.junkmusic.org
ROBERT B. GRIFFITH EDUCATION AWARD
Robert B. Griffith at UofL, 1968
The University Of Louisville School Of Music Alumni Council is in the process of creating an award for a graduate of UofL in Music Education. Named for the late Robert B. Griffith, this award will recognize someone who has excelled as a music teacher in kindergarten through high school. It is the intent of the Council to make this an annual award for a teacher who has demonstrated consistent leadership in music education.
The award recipient, selected on an annual basis, shall be decided by a committee consisting of two members of the advisory council, the head of the School of Music Education Department and the Dean of the School of Music.
Who was Robert B. Griffith? Robert B. Griffith was the band and orchestra director at Manual High School from 1945 to 1961. In 1961, he was named head of UofL’s music education division and professor at the university until 1978. He was a composer of over 75 published marches, including “The Courier Journal March” written in 1972. Each year his ballad arrangement of “My Old Kentucky Home,” written in 1962, is played prior to the running of the Kentucky Derby. That same year, Griffith wrote “Fight UofL,” the official school song at all U of L sporting events.
Want to help make it happen? The School of Music Alumni Council welcomes your financial contribution to help carry on the name and dedicated, leadership traditions of Mr. Griffith. If you are interested in making a contribution, please mail it to: Tedi Vaughn, Director of Development, UofL School of Music Louisville, KY 40292. Questions? Call Tedi Vaughan at 502-852-0516
Written by: Quentin K. Sharpenstein, President. UofL School of Music Alumni Council
- Krista Greene (piano GTA in the early 2000’s) recently gave birth to triplets. The newest Greene's arrived safely at 12:45 pm on July 24. Mom is doing fine as well and is quite pleased to be relieved of the nearly 15 pound burden. Headlining the Greene Triplets are Kristian Porter at 4lbs 10oz., Micah Johnathan at 5lbs 4oz. and Anika Sylvia at 4lbs 5oz. All three happily reside in the NICU at Overland Park Regional Medical Center in Kansas City. The Greenes feel blessed and honored to have these additions and grateful to the Lord for such a good (and 35-week long) pregnancy; of course, easier said than done.
- Paul Ramsier (Distinguished Alumnus and Alumni Fellow) has had some recent success with his work Eusebius Revisited. The International Society of Bassists WEBSITE, January 2007 posted: January 21, 2007 the North Port Symphony (Florida) conducted by Sasha Von Dassow, programmed Paul Ramsier’s Eusebius Revisited, with bass soloist Jerome Butler; on January 11, WGHB (Boston) aired Dan Styffe’s recording of Eusebius Revisited, the second commercial recording of this work; during 2006, Ramsier’s Divertimento Concertante on a Theme of Couperin for double bass and orchestra (Gary Karr with the Louisville Orchestra) had six public radio broadcasts in New York (WNYC), Chicago (WMFT), and Pittsburg (WQED) in prime time; his Sahara Rainforest, Mark Morton’s Eusebius recordings of Bicycle and The Grand Bass Gavotte were aired as well.
- In May 2007, trumpeter Reese Land (M.M. 2002) accepted a full-time position as Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, KY. In addition to maintaining the trumpet studio at Campbellsville, he will be teaching brass methods, elementary theory, and music appreciation classes. Previously, he served on the faculties of the University of Louisville and the University of Southern Mississippi. Reese recently completed his doctoral project and will graduate with his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in October of 2007.
In other news, Reese Land married Paola Manrique
(B.A. 2001; M.M. 2003) on June 16, 2007 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Paola is a Violin Instructor for the University of Louisville Preparatory Department in Oldham County and serves as a Conductor for the Louisville Youth Orchestra. Currently living in Louisville, both Paola and Reese keep an active freelancing schedule with many types of ensembles in Louisville and beyond.
Robert Cannon, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, is an active professional trumpet player in the Austin, Texas area. He currently is Principal Trumpet in the Austin Symphony as well as the Austin Lyric Opera Orchestra, performs with the Pinnacle Brass, the University of Texas Faculty Brass, the Austin Chamber Music Center, the Texas Consort Choral Orchestra, Chorus Austin Orchestra, and performs a great deal of freelance work. He has also performed with the San Antonio Symphony and the Louisville Orchestra among others. His playing can be heard on the feature films “Spy Kids 2”, “The Alamo” and the IMAX film “Ride Around the World.” Bob holds music degrees from the University of Louisville where he studied with Leon Rapier, the University of Southern Mississippi studying with Michael Tunnell, and the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a DMA in trumpet studying with Raymond Crisara of the NBC Symphony. He has also studied trumpet privately with Richard Giangiulio of the Dallas Symphony, James Wilt of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Craig Morris of the Chicago Symphony. Delbert Hoon of Louisville, gave him his start with trumpet lessons in high school.
This year’s alumni fellow is Steven Plank.
On October 25, he will meet with members of the School of Music faculty and staff to receive the award; and on the 26 th he will be presenting a trumpet masterclass.
Steven Plank is Professor and Chair of the Department of Musicology in the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, where he has taught since 1980. In 1989, he became Director of the Collegium Musicum Oberliniense, a vocal ensemble specializing in the performance of liturgical polyphony of the sixteenth century. The Collegium Musicum performs regularly to standing-room only crowds in Oberlin and frequently performs in tour concerts, as well, in Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cleveland.
Plank’s career is distinctively diverse. As a scholar he has focused on the relationship of musical style and liturgical context, the history of brass instruments, and the study of performance practice. He is the author of two books, The Way to Heavens Doore: An Introduction to Liturgical Style and Musical Process (1994) and Choral Performance: A Guide to Historical Practice (2004) and has published a number of studies in leading journals, such as Music and Letters, The Musical Times, and Early Music, as well as contributing to the music encyclopedia, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
As a performer, he is active as a choral conductor, organist and trumpeter. He was a member of the Louisville Orchestra from 1970-76, during which time he also regularly performed with the Louisville Bach Society and began to develop an interest in early repertories and their associated performance practices, an interest that has been fundamental to his career as both a scholar and a performer.
- Distinguished Alumnus, George Marriner Maull recently wrote to UL Emeritus Professor Richard Spalding (BMUS ’48, MMUSED ’64) about attending the concerts by the U of L Orchestra and Wind Symphony at Carnegie Hall: “…the performances just blew me away – all puns intended. On the drive home [to Newark, N.J.] I could not help but marvel at how the School of Music has evolved and grown since my student days there in the late sixties and early seventies.”
About his own group, formerly known as the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, George added: “Evolution and growth…are the operative words for (my) organization …The Discovery Orchestra. …we are convinced that using every performance…as a vehicle for educating listeners in not only what we do best, but also what we must do.”
Included with the letter was material about George’s career; CDs of his conducting the New Jersey orchestra and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra; and his 2004 Emmy-nominated television show, BACH TO THE FUTURE An Interactive Music Experience, featuring the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, 3 rd Mvt. This show played on American Public Television over a three-year period. The Classical New Jersey Magazine reviewer wrote: “one of the finest conductors-teachers, George Marriner Maull cannot be topped!”
Jazz News:
Dave Brubeck, Jazz Fest and more......
We in the Jazz Area are very excited about the 07-08 year. There will be a number of exciting events and opportunities. Taking a moment to look back over the summer, the School of Music once again hosted the annual Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops; 850+ students and 75+ faculty member from throughout the world will participate. Jazz and jazz education is indeed alive and well. We are most fortunate and proud to host these outstanding workshops.
Now to the 2007-08 school year; after a good deal of consideration, we have decided to both condense while expanding. You might ask how one can expand while condensing. Well, we do strive to be creative.
Jazz Week has been our flagship event for fourteen years. The true essence of Jazz Week has been to offer visiting students from throughout the region and our jazz studies students the opportunity to interact with jazz masters and leading jazz educators in concerts, clinics, workshops and adjudication. It has been an exciting event which we hope to make even more vital by condensing to a three to four day festival called Jazz Fest. The weekend format will remain: Friday and Saturday - daylong educational event with local and regional visiting ensembles performing for adjudication with clinics and workshops concluding with internationally known jazz artists performing with Jazz Ensemble I (John La Barbera, director) and the University of Louisville faculty jazz trio each evening. Thursday will feature an evening concert by Jazz Ensemble II (Jerry Tolson, director) featuring visiting jazz educators/adjudicators. Concerts will be held on Wednesday evening featuring an international jazz group when available. This change will allow the faculty to focus on more in depth educational activities and offerings.
Now to the expansion; the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program will begin presenting leading jazz artists in concert during the fall and a Latin jazz artist in the spring. One could not ask for a more significant figure to begin our expanded program than Dave Brubeck. The Dave Brubeck Quartet will appear on November 10, 2007 at Memorial Auditorium at 8PM. Mr. Brubeck last appeared in Louisville during Jazz Week 2003 to two sold out houses. We are expecting another night to remember from Dave. You don’t want to miss seeing and hearing this living legend of American music. Please visit jazz.louisville.edu or call 502 852 6907 for ticket information.
Our annual Saxophone Weekend will become more prominent within our concert schedule. Alto saxophonist Antonio Hart will be our featured artist on the Saturday, January 26 concert at 8PM. Antonio is an outstanding performer and the evening will be exciting and varied.
The April 4, 2008 Latin concert will feature percussionist Sammy Figueroa and his sextet in their first ever appearance in Louisville. This will be an electrifying evening in Comstock Concert Hall and one not to be missed.
International activities will continue to play a major role in our program. In October, a student quintet will join program director Mike Tracy in a trip to Argentina. Both the quintet and Professor Tracy will be featured at the La Plata Jazz Festival. La Plata is a Sister City of Louisville and interested parties in both cities are looking to music, specifically jazz, to help expand contact between our two communities. Professor Tracy will also present a week-long clinic for festival participants from throughout South America.
Interacting with Argentine musicians will continue in February when a group from La Plata will visit Louisville, performing at Jazz Fest and in area schools. They will join another group of Russian musicians sponsored by the Open World Leadership program. This will be the fifth group from Russia and looks to be another opportunity for UofL to bring together musicians from diverse cultures through the love of jazz. Contact with jazz administrators at the Leeds College of Music in Leeds, England (another Sister City) is in the beginning stages. Discussions are also in place for musicians from Milan, Italy to visit our campus in the spring. As if that was not enough, negotiations are currently in place regarding jazz faculty traveling to La Plata and Brasilia, Brazil during the spring semester. Jazz faculty would present week-long workshops, targeting musicians of all ages and backgrounds. A number of UofL jazz studies alumni live in Brasilia and will help augment our faculty.
To top all of this, I can safely say that the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program has just completed our most successful and diverse recruiting effort ever; truly a top ten recruiting class of jazz students. The faculty is excited about these excellent students joining our program, some for two years and many for four to five.
Please visit jazz.louisville.edu for updates and breaking news. Hope to see you at the Dave Brubeck concert and at other jazz events during the year. It will be an exciting one!
Michael A. Tracy
Director, Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program
Professor of Music
- Virginia Schneider and the Louisville Suzuki String Association
Louisville has lost a great champion of classical music and the Suzuki approach to music education. Virginia Kershner Schneider, a long time member of the School of Music faculty, died on November 5, 2007. Robert Whitney, then Dean of the School of Music, sent Mrs. Schneider to Japan in 1963 to train with Dr. Suzuki so that she could bring the Suzuki method of early childhood music education to Louisville. She taught Suzuki violin and viola in the Preparatory Department of the School of Music for over four decades. The Suzuki approach aims to instill in children from an early age a love for music that will last a lifetime. Thousands of Louisville area children have learned to play a stringed instrument using the Suzuki approach and gone on to become future audiences and patrons of the arts, music teachers, chamber musicians and soloists.
An outstanding musician, Mrs. Schneider played viola with the Louisville Orchestra for 54 years. She organized the first Suzuki Institute for Strings in 1964 at the School of Music, one of the first in the country. The Louisville Suzuki String Association (LSSA), a coalition of teachers, parents, educators and others who are focused on making Suzuki music education available to children, was formed to provide support for Mrs. Schneider’s Suzuki activities. Formed in 1966, LSSA now runs the Louisville Suzuki Institute for Strings at the School of Music, the only Suzuki Institute in Kentucky, and brings outstanding Suzuki teachers from around the world to teach violin, viola, and cello. 2008 marks the 44th year of continuous operation of the six-day Suzuki Institute. Mrs. Schneider’s fine musicianship, teaching, and leadership leave an outstanding legacy of classical music education in the Louisville area.
The Louisville Suzuki String Association continues Mrs. Schneider’s legacy by supporting Suzuki activities throughout the Louisville region. LSSA offers financial need scholarships that enable students from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods to learn to play a stringed instrument. Further, LSSA is working with Dean Christopher Doane to create a college-level Suzuki String Pedagogy program at the School of Music. An endowment is being raised to bring a Suzuki Teacher Trainer to Louisville to implement this program to train string teachers and meet the regional and national demand for Suzuki teachers. The School of Music has over forty years of Suzuki experience and, as one of only six music schools in the U.S. with its own Suzuki Institute, is well positioned to provide a Center for Excellence in Suzuki String Pedagogy.
Virginia Schneider's family has graciously suggested that donations be made to the Louisville Suzuki String Association in her honor. LSSA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Donations, made out to LSSA, may be sent to: LSSA, School of Music, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292.
For further information, please contact Heidi Saunders, President of the Louisville Suzuki String Association at LSSA@bellsouth.net or 502-852-0537.
- University of Louisville Wind Ensemble Thrills International Audience
On July 9, 2007, the University of Louisville Wind Ensemble performed a concert at the Irish National Events Center in Killarney, Ireland, thrilling the audience, receiving critical acclaim by reviewers from the Argentina, Switzerland and the United States, and clearly setting the tone for the 13th Biennial Conference of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.
Of the thirteen ensembles from around the world invited to perform in this important international venue, only the University of Louisville Wind Ensemble and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Chamber Players were selected to represent the United States. Invitations were based on auditions of recordings of unedited versions of complete concerts. Other ensembles from Europe to Japan were in residence as well, representing the finest from the ranks of not only university/conservatory ensembles, but also, professional, community and military bands as well. Individual reviews in Spanish, German and English cited the concert as “Un tour de force enorme” (Miguel Etchegoncelay, Argentina), “ein Konzert der Superlative” (Peter Bucher, Switzerland) and as “assertive musicality and powerful precision” by Chris Woodruff, USA).
A strong part of the musical profile of the concert came from the unmistakable Louisville identity reflected in its programming. In addition to representing the Grawemeyer award-winning composers, Takemitsu, Penderecki, Husa, and Tower, the ensemble performed works by University of Louisville composers, Steve Rouse and Frederick Speck, and featured faculty artists, Edith Davis Tidwell (BM ’71 and MM ‘72, University of Louisville), Paul York and Greg Byrne as soloists. Reviewers commented on these performances as “sung with great passion and command” in recognition of Edith Davis Tidwell’s singing of the Tommasini work, and also, noted fine performances by Greg Byrne, marimba and Paul York, cello on Speck’s work Night Moves: “excellent timing among the marimba, harp, bass…contributed a wonderful Latin feel to the composition. The cello provided a beautiful soaring lyric to contrast with the rhythmic energy.” Also consistent with the mission of the School of Music as ambassadors of new music, two of the works presented, Three Spanish Songs by Matthew Tommasini and Cheetah by Karel Husa were European premieres.
Beyond presenting a stunning concert performance, there was a strong University of Louisville presence at the conference in other ways, too. Prior to the concert itself, Frederick Speck gave a pre-concert lecture focusing on the commissioning of Cheetah by Karel Husa and the Three Spanish Songs by Matthew Tommasini. On another occasion, two of University of Louisville clarinetists, Chris Phillips and Michelle Linder assisted as performers with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Chamber Players for a lecture-demonstration on the music of Joseph Fiala. In addition, bassist, Alice Markiewicz, came to the rescue when a hand injury removed the bassist of the Gothenburg Home Guard Band of Sweden from their roster. On the day before departure, Dr. Speck received an urgent plea for help from the personnel manager of the Gothenburg Band as they were desperately hoping to find a capable sub. Their band faxed the bass parts and Alice was gracious enough to prepare them. She did a great job, and was very appreciated, as was clear from the large number of Swedish musicians who later attended the Louisville concert. Louisville was also represented at the conference by, trumpet player, Melissa McDaniel (MM, ’07) who performed as a member of the International Youth Wind Orchestra, in a concert that featured Evelyn Glennie as percussion soloist.
To read complete reviews of the WASBE performance visit http://louisville.edu/music/ensembles/ and click on Bands! In addition, you can also listen to the University of Louisville Wind Ensemble performing Cheetah by Karel Husa while visiting our site.
- Dr. Brenda Kee recently retired from UofL at the end of the 2008 academic year after 21 years of service.
- Congratulations to Greg Byrne, Associate Director of Bands, who was recently selected as the first recipient of the Johnnie B. Vinson Award in recognition of his outstanding support for Women in Music. The award is presented to a College Band Director who is widely acknowledged for being active in recognizing and supporting opportunities for Women in Music. Dr. Byrne received the award during July 2007 at the Kappa Kappa Psi / Tau Beta Sigma National Convention in Orlando, Florida.
- Music Therapy News
Three individuals who have completed the UofL music therapy program in the last few months have passed their Board Certification examination. They are: Paula (Dowdy) Roberts, MT-BC; Linda Thieneman, MM, MT-BC; and Cindy Williams, MT-BC, bringing to 13 the number of UofL students who have passed this exam. To this point, all students who have been eligible to take the exam have passed it on the first attempt. This exam tests aspects of music as well as music therapy, so we can all be proud of this record.
