Category Archives: events

Summer Music Institute at BGSU boosts young musicians’ skills

alumni, brass-percussion, choral, composition, conducting, education, events, jazz, keyboard, string-news, voice, woodwinds

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University’s critically acclaimed Summer Music Institute is open for registration. Presented by the College of Musical Arts, the institute features nine weeklong sessions, ranging from woodwinds to voice, brass and musical theater. Students will work with BGSU music faculty and guest artists who will challenge and inspire in a college setting. Register at BGSU.edu/SMI before April 30 for $40 off the registration fee.

Session one (June 14-19) includes Piano Camp, Double Reed Camp, Recording Camp, String Camp and Musical Theater. During Piano Camp, students receive private lessons, participate in master classes, play piano duos, attend recitals and perform. In Double Reed Camp, students get hands-on experience making reeds, performing in master classes and honing techniques on bassoon and oboe. Students signed up for Recording Camp, for ages 15-18, will experience a professional sound studio from both sides of the glass, performing and coordinating a recording. String students will receive coaching from the BGSU string faculty and special guests. Advanced string students are encouraged to apply for the Honors String Quartet. Members of the Honors String Quartet receive a full scholarship to cover housing, meals and the registration fee. Musical Theater Camp will focus on audition techniques.

Session two (June 21-26) comprises Brass Camp, with ensembles, private lessons, seminars and performances; Super Sax Camp, which explores both classical and improvised jazz music in private lessons, chamber rehearsals, improvisation clinics and concerts; Flute Camp, whose students will receive private lessons, seminars and master classes as well as breathing, sound, articulation and technique lessons; and Vocal Arts Camp, which educates campers in diction, vocal interpretation, audition techniques, stage deportment and other performance skills. Vocal students must be entering grade 10 or higher.

Students may commute to camp or stay on campus during the week. No audition is required. Recording students must be at least 15 years of age, though exceptions can be made.

Check-in times for each camp are the first day of camp on Sunday between 1 and 3 p.m. For more information and to register, visit BGSU.edu/smi or call 419-372-2506.

BGSU College of Musical Arts to host Student National Electroacoustic Music event

composition, composition-alumni, events, New Music
NSEME
BGSUElectroacoustics, in collaboration with the student new music group Praecepta, the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, and the College of Musical Arts Composition Area, will host the 2015 National Student Electroacoustic Music Event (N_SEME) March 6-7, 2015 in the College of Musical Arts.
Over 60 student attendees from across the nation will attend to have performances of their electroacoustic and video works. Concerts are free and open to the public.
Events take place in Bryan Recital Hall and in Room 3002.
Friday 06 March:
Bryan Recital Hall Concerts at 10:30am, 2:30pm, and 8:00pm
Room 3002 concerts at 1:30, 4:00, and 5:00
Saturday 07 March:
Bryan Recital Hall Concerts at 10:30am and 4:30pm
Bryan Recital Hall keynote address and concert by featured guest Joo-Won Park at 1:30pm Room 3002 concerts at 9:30am, 12:00pm, and 3:00pm

16th Annual Conrad Art Song Winners Announced

events, keyboard, voice

conrad-winners-2015

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The 16th Annual Conrad Art Song Competition at BGSU was held on Saturday, February 20, 2015 in the Bryan Recital Hall in the Moore Musical Arts Center.

First Place Winners in the Undergraduate Division were Autum Cochran-Jordan, soprano (Dayton, Ohio) and Qincheng Zeng, piano. (Hubel-Zianning, China). Second Place were Rebekah Wehrly, soprano (Findlay, Ohio) and Peng Zhang, piano. (Shenyang-Liaoning,China) Third Place winners were Daniel Baumgartner, baritone (Findlay, Ohio) and Amy Faber, piano. (Tiffin, Ohio)

First Place winners in the Graduate Division were Desiree Johnson, soprano (Strongsville, Ohio) and Alphonsus Kiu, piano. (Bayan Lepas Penang, Malaysia). Second Place were Jennifer Creswell, soprano (Temperance, Michigan) and Chia-Jung Lin, piano. (New Taipei City, Taiwan) Third Place winners were Elizabeth Hood, soprano (Chelsea, Michigan) and Alphonsus Kiu, piano. (Bayan Lepas Penang, Malaysia)

Winners in the competition from the studio of Myra Merritt included Autum Cochran-Jordan, Rebekah Wehrly, Desiree Johnson, Jennifer Cresswell and Elizabeth Hood.  Daniel Baumgartner is a student of Sean Cooper, Alphonsus Kiu is a student of Robert Satterlee, Amy Faber is a student of Tom Rosenkranz and piano students of Laura Melton who were winners were Peng Zhang, Chia-Jung Lin and Qincheng Zeng.

Judges for the competition included Robert Peavler, baritone, Associate Professor of Voice at Eastern Michigan University, Dr. Mary Beth Armes, voice and piano instructor at the Edinboro University Community Music School, and Laura Silverman, Coordinator of the Accompanying Department of the School of Music at the University of Akron.

A total of six prizes were awarded: two first prizes of $1,500 each, two second prizes of $1,000 each and two third prizes of $750 each. The Dr. Marjorie Conrad Art Song Fund encourages BGSU students to approach the art song in a serious and intense manner and enhance their learning experience by awarding financial prizes for singers and collaborative pianists.

Local physician and patron of the arts Dr. Marjorie Conrad endowed the Dr. Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition. A native of Philadelphia, Conrad practiced medicine in Wilmington, Del., for nearly 20 years before moving to Bowling Green in 1966 to marry local physician Dr. Roger Peatee. She began her medical practice here the same year, becoming the community’s first woman on the boards of MidAm Bank and MidAm Inc., and, from 1987–89, served as the first woman chief of staff at Wood County Hospital. She retired from the active practice of medicine in 1991. Though she studied voice as a young woman, she began studying voice again in 1993.The College of Musical Arts mourns the loss of Dr. Marjorie Conrad who passed away on Wednesday, October 8, 2014.  She was 92.

Top art song duos crowned at BGSU’s Conrad competition

events, student news, voice

Art Song Winners

The Sentinel Tribune writes –

Just as it takes two to tango, it takes two to perform an art song.

The Dr. Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition at Bowling Green State University honors not just the singer out front, but the pianist who provides the instrumental support.

On Saturday College of Music crowned the 16th set of winning musical teams.

The winners in the undergraduate division were soprano Autum Cochran-Jordan and pianist Qincheng Zeng. In the graduate division the winners were soprano Desiree Johnson and pianist Alphonsus Kiu.

Both sopranos study with Myra Merritt, and both said the chance to study with Merritt was what brought them to BGSU.

Zeng studies with Laura Melton and Kiu, who plans to specialize in collaborating with vocalists in his doctoral program, studies with Robert Satterlee.

Both duos had an international flavor Johnson and Cochran-Jordan are both from Ohio and Zeng is from Chion and Kiu from Malaysia.

They were elected in the finals Saturday night. The first round was held earlier in the day with 17 undergraduates duos and nine graduate duos participating.

That field was winnowed to six undergraduate duos and five graduate duos.

Also honored in the undergraduate division were: second place, soprano Rebekah Wehrly and pianist Peng Zhang, and third place, baritone Daniel Baumgartner and pianist Amy Faber.

Other honorees in the graduate division were: soprano Jennifer Cresswell and pianist Chia-Jung Lin, and third place, soprano Elizabeth Hood and pianist Kiu.

The winning duos share the cash prizes: $1,500 for first, $1,000 for second, and $750 for third.

The singers must perform songs from a variety of periods including one by a living composer and at least one each in  English, French, German and Italian.

This was the first competition since the death of its founder last October at the age of 92.

Conrad was remembered with a reserved seat and floral arrangement in the center front row of the Bryan Recital Hall.

Christopher School, the voice faculty member who coordinates the competition, said Conrad would always attend the event.

Until last few years she would come to both the first and final rounds.

The winners of the competition will perform March 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Manor House in the Wildwood Preserve Metropark in Toledo.

a MUSICAL tradition: College of Music ushers in 100th anniversary

alumni, events

The College of Musical Arts will be celebrating its 100th anniversary of music at the University on March 28 at Moore Musical Arts Center. Faculty, students and alumni will gather to experience an afternoon filled with music performances from different genres.Under the guidance of the nearly 60 distinguished full-time faculty, the Musical Arts department has blossomed into prominence.

The college has earned national recognition as one of the country’s outstanding collegiate music programs, particularly in music education and contemporary music. The Musical Arts faculty has developed a rich academic curriculum that pushes students to perfect their craft and train them to be educators, performers or teachers at the highest professional levels. “It’s all about the faculty,” said junior Briahna Gantt, a flautist. “They are so passionate about music. They live and breathe music. They love to talk about it nonstop [and] share their experiences with you whenever they can. I just love the excitement they bring to each class lecture, practice and performance.”

The College of Musical Arts is highly selective when it comes to offering students admission into its program, said Professor Jeffrey Showell, dean of the College of Musical Arts. The program is relatively small, with approximately 550 graduate and undergraduate students, and on average admits between 90 and 100 students each year. “Our incoming freshman class has an ACT score that are 3 points higher on average than the rest of the university,” Showell said. “We really value intellectual achievement as well as musical ability and that creates a special community among the students and really helps build a close, healthy relationship with their professors.”

The actual celebration is expected to have a plethora of festivities available for personal enjoyment. The celebration commences with a meeting of music affinity groups at 3 p.m. in the Moore Musical Arts Center. Alumni and students are encouraged to attend these receptions were they can network and connect with present and former members of their specific music department. At 5:30 p.m., spectators can enjoy a pre-concert lecture from Professor Emeritus Vince Corrigan, followed by a celebratory concert in Kobacker Hall at 6 p.m. At 9:30 p.m., the event concludes with dancing at the Clazel Theatre.

The music department will also be receiving a gift from Corrigan. “I’m really looking forward to Professor Corrigan’s lecture,” Showell said. “He just finished writing a book about the history of the college and he will be revealing it and talking about the highlights of his book. All in all, it’s going to be wonderful celebration of our program’s academic excellence and success over the last century. I’m just honored to be apart of that.”

-By Terrance Davis, BG News

Click here for more information and updates about BRAVO CMA

2015 Dubois Piano Competition Semi-Finalists selected

events, keyboard, keyboard-alumni

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Semi-finalists have been selected in the fifth annual David D. Dubois Piano Competition at the Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts. Contest winners will receive $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place.

Competing in the next round, to be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 14 in BGSU’s Kobacker Hall, will be: Mark Bixel (Bluffton, OH); Yung-­‐Yi Chen(Interlochen, MI); Noah  Chojnacki (Eagan, MN); Gabrielle Hsu(Cherry Hill, NJ) Karissa  Huang (Cleveland, OH); Adrian Liao (San Diego, CA) Eric Lin (Falls Church, VA); Charlie Liu (Princeton, NJ); Logan Maccariella (Maumee, OH); Jonathan Mattson (Rochester, MN); Abhik Mazumber (Columbus, OH); Chaska McGowan (Sioux Falls, SD); Lucas Myers (Rochester Hills, MI); Poom Pipatjarasgit (Sylvania, OH); Luke Ratcliffe (Sterling, VA); Amber Scherer (Winnetka, IL); Kevin Takeda (Indian Wells, CA); Hanqiu Xu (Rocheser, NY); Vivian Xu (East Brunswick, NJ); Junyu Zhang (Rochester, NY); Minyi Zhang (Interlochen, MI); and Lewis Zou, Solon, OH.

Pianists selected from that round will compete in the final round from 9 a.m. to noon on Feb. 15. Judges for the competition include Robert Satterlee from BGSU, Virginia Marks, BGSU Emeritus Faculty,  along with Dubois Piano Festival and BGSU Festival Series guest artist Vadym Kholodenko, 2013 Gold Medalist in the Van Cliburn Competition.  Mr. Kholodenko will also be giving a master class for students at at 2:30 p.m. Feb.13  in Bryan Recital Hall. The master class is free and open to the public.

The piano competition is also part of the Dubois Piano Festival and includes a performance by Vadym Kholodenko, at 8 p.m. Feb. 14 in Kobacker Hall. To purchase tickets online for this performance, visit http://bgsu.edu/arts or call 419-372-8171.