News from the College of Musical Arts

Charles Saenz, Professor of Trumpet, will perform on January 5th at the NMMEA all-state conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Saenz will be a soloist with the Deming High School Concert Band, which was selected as the 2011-2012 Honor Band for the state of New Mexico. The concert will take place in Popejoy Hall on the campus of the University of New Mexico. For more information visit http://www.nmmea.com/

Prof. of Cello, Alan Smith, recently toured South Korea (Oct. 27-Nov. 9, 2011). While in Korea, he performed several solo recitals in Seoul, MoPok, Yeongju, Gwangju, and appeared as concerto soloist with the Gwangju Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, he presented several master classes at various schools and universities.

The recording “40 Acres and a Burro” by Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra — featuring BGSU professor David Bixler, arranger, and Heather Martin Bixler, violin — has been nominated for the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

Andrew Pelletier, Associate Professor of Horn, has been appointed the Ohio Representative for the International Horn Society by the Society’s Advisory Council and President. The duties of the position will be to increase communication amongst horn players within Ohio and to develop and promote events featuring the horn in Ohio and the surrounding region.

The Sentinal-Tribune’s provided readers with an inside look at the Wolfe Center prior to its upcoming opening, scheduled for Friday, December 9th. Click to read the article.

Art will be the focus at Bowling Green State University on Dec. 9 with the gala opening of the Wolfe Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. and the annual Arts X extravaganza from 6-10 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center.

During Arts X, the community can stroll the halls shopping and viewing faculty and student glasswork, jewelry, ceramics, prints, cartoons and more while enjoying art-making demonstrations, music and readings from Prairie Margins and Mid-American Review literary journals. The sounds of happy feet from the Tap Dance Troupe will resound in a first-floor hallway, while on the second floor, contemporary dance and more music and theatre performances will be going on.

Kids are invited to make their own art projects in rooms 130 and 132, led by the Student Art Education Association. Visitors can commemorate the evening with photos of themselves at two locations.

The annual Faculty Art Exhibition is on display in the Dorothy Uber Bryan and Willard Wankelman galleries, and Akiko Jones will demonstrate a Japanese tea ceremony in the Hiroko Nakamoto gallery.

The art continues outside the building, with student film works projected on an exterior wall and the debut of the latest TARTA buses covered in wraps designed by BGSU students.

After viewing a virtual Wolfe Center for the Arts in the Fine Arts Center main lobby, visitors may walk over at 8 p.m. to tour the real thing. Highlights include the open lobby with its grand staircase, the 400-seat Donnell Theatre and the newly restored third-century Antioch mosaics (formerly located in McFall Center) in the lobby outside the new Eva Marie Saint Theatre.

Dr. Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu, assistant professor of piano, premiered Gregory Mertl’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Symphony on November 22 with the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, conducted by Craig Kirchhoff. This concerto was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at
Brigham Young University and was written for Solungga Liu and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble. A subsequent CD of the Concerto will be released by INNOVA in 2012.