Monthly Archives: February 2011

Faculty member, Thomas Rosenkranz to perform with Signal Ensemble in New York City

Assistant Professor of Piano, Thomas Rosenkranz will join ensemble Signal in performances and a recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at the The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, New York and at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on March 12th and 13th.

In the Fall of 2008, Signal gave two sold-out performances of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and You Are (Variations) at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. The New York Times hailed the group for its “vibrant, euphoric performances that seemed to electrify the remarkably youthful audience.” Rosenkranz and Signal will be recording the work for New Amsterdam Records in celebration of Steve Reich’s 75th birthday.

For more information please visit:

EMPAC
http://empac.rpi.edu/events/2011/spring/reich/

Le Poisson Rouge
http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/view/2118

(Submitted by Thomas Rosenkranz)

Mary Natvig to be Keynote Speaker at Musicology and Pedagogy Conference

Mary Natvig will be the keynote speaker for the American Musicological Society’s Southeast Chapter and the Music History Pedagogy Study Group’s Teaching Music History Day Joint Conference at the University of North-Carolina Charlotte, March 18-19, 2011. Teaching Music History Day is an annual event, first held and organized by faculty at Michigan State University in 2003. It was inspired by Natvig’s edited volume, Teaching Music History (Ashgate, 2002), the first book length publication on the pedagogy of music history. Other Teaching Music History Days have been held at the University of Michigan, BGSU, DePauw University, Baldwin Wallace College, and Edinboro University.

(Submitted by Mary Natvig)

Results 5th Annual BGSU Chamber Music Competition

Below please find the results of the final round of the 5th Annual
Chamber Music Competition held Sunday, Feb. 20 at 3:00 PM in Bryan
Hall.

Congratulations to all those who participated, their studio teachers
and coaches!!!

UNDERGRADUATE DIVISION

First Place: FOUR CORNERS QUARTET (Noa Even, coach)
Xiao Han, soprano saxophone
Ryan Hurd, alto saxophone
Corey Whitt, tenor saxophone
Anthony Nicolia, baritone saxophone

Second Place: FLOW LIKE WATER (Roger Schupp, coach)
Alvin Dawson, percussion
Jacob Bori, percussion
Elizabeth Hall, percussion

GRADUATE DIVISION

First Place: YING QUARTET (John Sampen, coach)
John Cummins, soprano saxophone
Drew Sevel, alto saxophone
Pin-hua Chen, tenor saxophone
Elissa Kana, baritone saxophone

Second Place: COLOR FIELD ENSEMBLE (Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers, coach)
Amanda DeBoer, soprano
Karl Larson, piano
Spencer Prewitt, clarinet

(Submitted by Douglas Wayland)

Dr. Joyce Eastlund Gromko Reappointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research in Music Education

Dr. Joyce Eastlund Gromko, Professor Emeritus of Music Education, has been reappointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research in Music Education through 2012. Dr. Gromko’s invited article,”Teaching with FORM: Applications of Research in Early Childhood Music,” appears in the February 2011 issue of India’s NAVTIKA: Journal of Early Childhood Care and Education, New Delhi: 2(1), 23-29.

(Submitted by Joyce Eastlund Gromko)

BGSU Festival Series presents ‘The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’

The Gershwin's Porgy and BessThe Bowling Green State University Festival Series celebrates Black History Month with selections from “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” by George Gerswhin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin. The performance begins at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

The performance will include the Bowling Green Philharmonia, directed by Emily Freeman Brown, with guest soloists soprano Kisma Jordan in the role of Bess, baritone Daniel Washington as Porgy and baritone Alvin B. Waddles III as Crown, a tough stevedore, and Jasbo Brown, the jazz pianist. The production also features a combined choir comprising members of the BGSU Gospel Choir, College of Musical Arts music students, and additional choral guests.

First performed in 1935, “Porgy and Bess” is considered an American folk-opera.  With music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward and lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin, it depicts the life of African-Americans living in the fictitious 1920s Catfish Row, based on the real-life Cabbage Row in Charleston, S.C. The opera tells the story of a crippled beggar who attempts to rescue Bess from Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and from the allure of Sportin’ Life, the local drug dealer.

Washington’s recent performances include concert versions of “Porgy and Bess” with the Berlin Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, Detroit Symphony and others. He has also portrayed Balthazar in Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” directed by the composer. Washington is associate dean for faculty and multicultural affairs and a professor of voice at the University of Michigan.

A BGSU alumna, Jordan has appeared with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and others. She received an invitation from renowned mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne to participate in “The Song Continues” master class and recital festival, presented by the Marilyn Horne Foundation at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. In fall 2006, Jordan made her recital debut in Philadelphia as artist-in-residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts.

Waddles is the featured piano soloist in the annual productions of “Too Hot to Handel” in Detroit and Chicago and can frequently be heard performing his own Fats Waller Revue.

BGSU student soloists include Greg Ashe, a tenor and graduate student in voice from Dayton, Ohio, as Sportin’ Life, the dope peddler; soprano Rebecca Eaddy, a graduate student in voice performance from Milan, Mich.; baritone Franklin Brewer, a graduate student in voice performance from Dayton; soprano Monique Young, a graduate student in voice performance from Detroit; tenor Preston Wilson, a graduate student in music education from Durham, N.C.; mezzo-soprano Kristen Crokett, a sophomore in voice performance from Ann Arbor; tenor Christopher Jackson, a junior in voice performance from Cincinnati; baritone Ryan Jones, a senior in voice performance from Columbus, and Karrie Lester, a sophomore in voice performance from Lima, Ohio.

For ticket information, call the Moore box office weekdays from noon-6 p.m. at 1-800-589-2224 or 419-372-8171 or e-mail musictickets@bgsu.edu

(Submitted by Susan Knapp)