Monthly Archives: November 2015

Dr. Papanikolaou to give lecture on Degas and music at the Toledo Museum of Art

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 “What Did the Ballerina Hear? The Unheard Music of Degas’s Paintings”Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 2 p.m.

Little Theater, Toledo Museum of Art

Artist Edgar Degas’s dance canvases ooze with “unheard” sounds that transcend the nuanced gestures and uncompromising poses of his ballerinas. By exploring the convergence of music, movement and opera in 19th-century Paris, Dr. Papanikolaou, Associate Professor of Musicology at Bowling Green State University, suggests possible soundtracks that help fill the aural space of Degas’s dance works.

String Department Students named to top seats in Northwest Ohio Regional Orchestra

Private students of Dr. Penny Thompson Kruse, Professor of Violin, and Matthew Daline, Associate Professor of Viola, have won top seats in Northwest Ohio’s Regional Orchestra. Sophie Wohl, student of Kruse, is concertmaster. She is a student at Findlay High School. Lang Liang, a student of Daline’s is principal viola of Northwest Regional Orchestra and a student at Maumee Valley Country Day School. The Regional Orchestra concert will take place this Sunday, November 15 at 3 p.m. at Perrysburg High School. The concert is free and includes Smetana’s The Moldau and the last movement of Sibelius’ Second Symphony.. Top ranking students in each of the string students will perform with the Ohio All State Orchestra in Cincinnati on Friday, January  29.

Doctoral Student Nick Zoulek Performs with Contemporary Dance Company

WildSpace_saxDoctoral student Nick Zoulek appeared with Wild Space Dance Company at the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory Annex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 22-24, 2015. His saxophone duo provided music for Luminous, part of Wild Space’s Neighborhood Sites initiative.  Mr. Zoulek is a student of Distinguished Artist Professor John Sampen.

Reviews of the performances highlighted the musical contribution to the dance piece:

Milwaukee magazine writes— “At times, the musicians take center stage, and they are extraordinary players. They use overblowing to create symphonic textures from only two instruments, and they used the vast volume of the space to create unearthly echos. Nick Zoulek’s alto saxophone solo in the middle of the dance was a tour de force, and the pair’s use of odd instruments like found-object percussion and horns made of long tubes (was that an elephant, or a speeding Maserati in full Doppler Shift) took you to other worlds.”

The Shepherd Express adds— “In moments of silence, you heard the rain. Otherwise, you heard the lush saxophone playing of Duo d’Entre-Deux (Tommy Davis and Nick Zoulek)—saw them, too, since they played live, interacting with the dancers and drawing ambient sound from the room itself. A playful episode in which they improvised in sound and movement with dancer Dan Schuchart was a delight; overall, their contribution to Luminous was profound. Beautiful harmonies sang in contrast to mysterious knockings and hums, and finally to ungodly, soul-shattering blasts.”

BGSU Alumnus & Composer David Conte Reminisces on 60 Years in Music

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San Francisco Classical Voice—

“David Conte doesn’t look like a sexagenarian, even though his seventh decade will begin on Dec. 20 and he’ll be publicly celebrating it with a Birthday Concert on Nov. 1 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he chairs the Composition Department.

Young at heart as he manifestly remains, Conte has credentialed connections to the past. He spent several years as one of the last students of the legendary Nadia Boulanger and then spent scholarly and personal time with Aaron Copland, who’d been a pupil of Boulanger a half-century earlier. Conte secured academic degrees from Bowling Green State University and Cornell University, before joining SFCM in 1985. He’s composed extensively for chorus, as well as for solo voice, opera, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and solo instruments. SFCV shared a lunch with him near his Corona Heights home before he took a sentimental journey to his original hometown of Cleveland.”

Read more.