Scenic and Lighting Director and Associate Professor of Theatre, Scenic and Lighting Design, William Pierson, M.F.A., served as the scenic designer for the midwest premiere of “Hand to God” at Short North Stage in Columbus, Ohio. The show opened Feb. 2 and has been extended into March.
Associate Professor of Music History and Literature Laurie McManus, Ph.D., presented “Why Would You Do Musicology?” to music students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., as part of the university’s recital series in January 2017.
Director of Performing Arts Leadership and Management Program and Associate Professor of Performing Arts Leadership and Management David Edelman, M.F.A., will participate in a panel presentation at the Association of Arts Administration Educators international conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in May 2017. The presentation, “Cultural Leadership in an Age of Anxiety,” examines classroom teaching methodologies for discussing the role of the artist and the arts leader in the current politico-social environment. He will be joined in the presentation by British cultural analyst Dr. Jonathan Price and Dr. Sanja Petricic of the Faculty for Media and Communication at Singidunum University in Belgrade, Serbia.
Following the conference, Edelman will travel to Athens, Greece, to lead the first-ever Summer Arts Leadership Institute. Participating Shenandoah Conservatory students include Nikkita Briones ’18, Megan Doran ’18, Allison Noah ’18, Andrew Burrill ’18, Krista Humphries ’18, Jessica James ’17, Heather Pollak ’17 and Halle Schulman ’17. Additionally, Performing Arts Leadership and Management (PALM) alumni Harrison Schoneburger ’16 and James Smith ’16 will also participate, as well as Assistant Dean of Administration, Director of Shenandoah Conservatory Arts Academy, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Performing Arts Leadership and Management Jennifer Green-Flint ’16, D.Prof., and Assistant Managing Director and Communications Coordinator Alisa Daum ’14, M.S.
Assistant Professor of Dance Tiffanie Carson, M.F.A., presented her 2016 work, “nexUS,” (featured photo above) this month at the 34th annual Clarice Smith Choreographers’ Showcase at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, Maryland. Taryn Packheiser Brown from Dance Metro DC described the choreography “visually stunning.” The seven male dancers who performed the piece also received strong praise: “…the men toggled between unison power and cannon ripples of gestures. Isolations and jazzy accents were set to a sound score reminiscent of a ninja movie scene, which made the dance exciting and fun to watch.” Read the full review here.
Called “a rite of passage in the DC-area dance community” by The Washington Post, the Choreographers’ Showcase is one of the longest-running showcases of new and established choreographers in the country. Presented in partnership with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the showcase has been inspiring dance audiences and building the regional dance community since 1983.
On Feb. 18, “nexUS” was also presented at the 2017 Pushing Progress Showcase Series at the Salvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance Capezio Center in New York City. The event offers opportunities for emerging artists to share their works onstage alongside more established choreographers. All seven male dancers had the opportunity to showcase the work and represent Shenandoah Conservatory at this second regionally recognized venue. Dancers included Deontay Gray ’16, Nikolaos Hartnett ’18, Dominic Mills-Patrick ’20, Michael Ross ’17, Ezé Sanabria ’20, Christopher Saunders ’17 and Aaron Tonaki ’20. All seven students are currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at Shenandoah Conservatory.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Guitar, Candice Mowbray, D.M.A. ’03, ’12, has released a solo CD of 20th-century contemporary French music that includes works by Laurent Boutros, Arnaud Dumond, Ida Presti, Alexandre Lagoya, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, Edith Piaf and Claude Nougaro. Response to the CD has been very positive and it has already received airplay on radio programs such as “The Intimate Guitar” in Dayton, Ohio and “A Classic Monday” in Boulder, Colorado (the later of which was co-hosted by former Shenandoah Conservatory faculty member, Michael DeLalla). The album is available for purchase on cdbaby.com.
Costume Designer and Associate Professor Theatre of Cheryl Yancey, M.F.A., is serving as the costume designer for “King Lear” at The George Washington University, running March 30 through April 2. This production is a special event celebrating the retirement of longtime professor (and a former professor of Yancey), Alan Wade, who will play the role of Lear, and coincides with the university’s alumni reunion on April 1.
A recording of Neapolitan pianist/composer Bruno Bavota made by Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Production and Recording Technology Daniel Shores ’99, B.M., of Sono Luminus in Boyce, Virginia, was featured in a video created by Apple to launch its book, “Designed by Apple in California.” The track was from Bavota’s album, “Out of the Blue,” which is available for purchase here. The photo book featured in the video chronicles twenty years of design at Apple and is dedicated in memory of Steve Jobs. Watch the full video here.
Professor of Choral Conducting and Choral Music Karen Keating, D.M.A. ’02 served as the interim director of the Arts Chorale of Winchester during the fall 2016 semester. The Arts Chorale presented two concerts in November featuring Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols” and Bach’s “Singet dem Herrn.” Dr. Keating also traveled with Cantus Singers to Salzburg, Austria in December. The group sang with the Salzburger Domchor and will also gave a concert in the Wiener Saal of the Mozarteum. Other activities include collaborating with the Salzburg International Christian Church on a Christmas program and participating in a masterclass.
Graduate Programs Librarian and Adjunct Professor for Conservatory Academics Rosemary Green, Ph.D., presented a paper titled “‘I Wish I’d Known What I Know Now’: Graduate Students’ Experiences with Academic Reading,” at the 2016 Symposium on Scholarship and Teaching held Nov. 10 to Nov. 12 in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Green’s paper focused on her research with Shenandoah Conservatory graduate students to understand better how masters and doctoral students react to and manage reading in multiple academic genres.
Professor of Saxophone Timothy Roberts, D.M.A., toured Spain during November 2016. Highlights of the tour included performances in Zaragoza at the Auditorio Eduardo del Pueyo of the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón (CSMA) and in Barcelona at Aula d’Orquestra of Escola Superior De Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
The Philharmonic Orchestra of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (CYSO) performed the world premiere of “Meridian” by Director of Composition and Coordinator of New Music Jonathan Newman, M.M. at University of Chicago’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts on Nov. 6. The premiere was presented as part of Newman’s residency with CYSO. Newman was commissioned by CYSO in 2011 to write the piece “Blow It Up, Start Again.” Learn more about the residency here and concert here.
Fall 2016 saw the release of the original cast recording of “Dog Days,” the breakout opera by Distinguished Guest Composer and Senior Lecturer in New Music David T. Little, Ph.D. Recorded live during the work’s 2015 run at LA Opera, “Dog Days” was chosen as album of the week by Q2 Music in New York upon its release, and was named by National Public Radio (NPR) as one of the Best 50 Albums of 2016. This fall and winter also saw the commercial release of Little’s work “Hellhound”—recorded by Maya Beiser, Glenn Kotche and Gyan Riley—and “dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet,” recorded by The Crossing and International Contemporary Ensemble. Both releases are on Innova Recordings.
Coordinator of Music Theory and Associate Professor of Music Keith Salley, Ph.D., organized a panel session at the bi-annual joint meeting of the Society for Music Theory and the American Musicological Society in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Nov. 4. The panel dealt with issues related to obtaining copyright reprint permissions and claiming fair use in music scholarship. It involved scholars, administrators, and editors from both societies, including Nicole Biamonte (editor in chief, Music Theory Online), Walt Everett (author, “The Beatles as Musicians”), and Robert Judd (President, American Musicological Society). Salley’s presentation, “Navigating Copyright Permissions/Evaluating Fair Use,” discussed the landscape of music licensing in the twenty-first century, highlighting common pitfalls caused by vestigial policies from a pre-digital era. Salley also published “Phrase Rhythm in Standard Jazz Repertoire: A Taxonomy and Corpus Study” in the Journal of Jazz Studies (JJS). This article presents research that Salley largely completed with co-author Daniel T. Shanahan (Louisiana State University) during his sabbatical during the spring 2015 semester, and it deals primarily with issues of large-scale rhythm created by the interaction of harmonic and metric groupings. The article was Salley’s third publication in 2016. This issue of JJS is a Festschrift dedicated to the memory of Dr. Steven Strunk (Catholic University of America)—a friend of Salley and a highly respected jazz scholar. Salley is a guest editor in the issue. In addition, he guest-edited an issue of Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, that deals with integrating concepts of jazz composition and improvisation into core music theory lessons and curricula.
Assistant Professor of Piano Ieva Jokubaviciute, M.M., and Director of Instrumental Chamber Music and Professor of Viola and Chamber Music Doris Lederer, Diploma, Curtis Institute of Music, have been selected to serve on the faculty of Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival for summer 2017. Jokubaviciute and Lederer join the ranks of master teachers from the Juilliard School; Curtis Institute of Music; Oberlin Conservatory of Music; Cleveland Institute of Music; University of Illinois; McGill University; University of Maryland, College Park; State University of New York at Purchase; Mannes School of Music; and Bard College. Established in 1902, Kneisel Hall is a premier chamber music festival in Blue Hill, Maine, that connects aspiring student musicians with renowned faculty from major conservatories and universities throughout the United States. Lederer has also been invited to play in the Capital City Concerts in Vermont in May 2017, where she will join Juilliard and Kneisel Hall faculty colleagues to perform Schoenberg’s “Verklarte Nacht” and the Brahms G Major Sextet, and will repeat the program at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival.
Associate Professor of Bassoon and Music Theory Ryan Romine, D.M.A., was accepted into the Winter Musician in Residence program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff (Alberta, Canada) as part of his upcoming sabbatical. He spent five weeks (Jan. 9 through Feb. 10) at the centre creating and recording a set of extended technique etudes for high school and undergraduate-level bassoonists.
Distinguished Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Production and Recording Technology Paul DiFranco, a veteran filmmaker, has been hired to perform music licensing duty for BET’s latest episodic television show, “The Quad.” The show, produced in Atlanta, Georgia, airs on BET. Through football, marching bands and cheer teams, “The Quad” presents the lives and times of students at a HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) school. DiFranco was also recently hired by Universal Studios to music supervise the latest “Bring It On” film – “Bring It On All-Stars” – for release in August 2017.
Professor of Percussion Earl Yowell, M.M., was elected to the University Pedagogy Committee of the Percussive Arts Society for the 2016 to 2019 term. The committee explores the latest in ideas and developments in university percussion pedagogy and presents both teaching labs and panel discussions/presentations. Yowell served as a guest artist and adjudicator at the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, in November. He was a judge for the mock timpani audition where five finalists competed not only to win the audition, but also for prizes donated by sponsors. He also participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Percussive Arts Society Symphonic Committee discussing the various responsibilities, (both normal and unexpected,) of the symphonic timpani/percussionist.
Associate Professor of Theatre Carolyn Coulson, M.F.A., spent two months in Europe for her fall 2016 sabbatical. She attended three international conferences: the Société Internationale pour l’étude du théâtre médiéval in Durham, England, the World Shakespeare Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, and the Music Theatre Educators Alliance in Oslo, where she taught a physical acting class for Norwegian musical theatre students. In addition to seeing a lot of theatre, new and old, she spent time traveling and researching for the play she is writing based on her family’s history. Coulson also has an article forthcoming in 2017 in a collection titled, “The Ballad of the Lone Medievalist” from Punctum Books and is collaborating on another volume about performing medieval drama with a modern practitioner’s expertise.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Production and Recording Technology Mike Sokol, A.A., had parts of his twelve-part “Semi-Silent-Stage” series published by ProSoundWeb.com and Live Sound International Magazine. Sokol’s series explores reducing sound levels on loud stages, which makes mixing a band at lower volume levels possible and ultimately helps reduce hearing loss for musicians and listeners. Read his work here.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Dance Dorcas Román Rodríguez, M.F.A., participated in an artistic residency at the Akropodity Dance Center in Syros, Greece over fall break. Together with fellow Puerto Rican artist, Marielys Burgos, Román Rodríguez began collaborating on “Islanders,” a new work which explores the concepts of migration, mobility and cultural expression. During the residency, the artists had the opportunity to explore the island, teach classes and work with local students culminating with an informal presentation of their work. Román Rodríguez has an open invitation from Akropodity Dance Center Artistic Director Angeliki Sigourou to teach at and collaborate with the center in near future.
Professor Emeritus of Conducting James Laster, Ph.D., attended his 60th college reunion in October (Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee) where he was asked to conduct the combined alumni/college choir program, which included a piece he composed along with other works. Dr. Laster also took part in three different Reader’s Theatre evenings sponsored by Winchester Little Theatre; filmed a real estate commercial for an agency in Harrisonburg, Virginia; and began playing standardized patient roles for students in training at Shenandoah University’s Physician Assistant Studies program under the guidance of Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theatre Sally Anderson, B.A., B.Ed. He also set the text of the Collect for Christmas Eve for Choir and Organ for the choir of Christ Episcopal Church, Winchester, Virginia, where Dr. James Kriewald is organist/choirmaster.
Featured photo of “NexUS” at the 2016 Fall Dance Concert by by N Link Photography