Per F. Broman, Associate Professor of Music Theory, will present his paper “Bergman’s Sublime Failure: Music, Madness and The Hour of the Wolf” at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society, Pittsburgh PA, on November 8.
Category Archives: faculty news
‘New Music from Bowling Green’ ready for international spotlight
By Rachel Gast
After what host Brad Cresswell described as “a long, harrowing process,” the “New Music from Bowling Green” radio show was ready to launch BGSU musicians into the international spotlight on Oct. 6.
Putting together the show is an “organic process” but is also “a lot of work, time and investment-which is why not a lot of people do it,” Cresswell explained. “The fact that we’ve been able to band together and make it happen is something spectacular.
“Bowling Green State University is the only university I know capable to do a radio show at this level.”
He and Dr. Jeffrey Showell, dean of the BGSU College of Musical Arts, agree the stress is worth it. “It’s a thrill to know that the two years of work we’ve put into this series will be heard and appreciated by listeners all over,” Showell said.
Cresswell and Showell met in September 2011, both interested in bringing living classical composers to the radio.
Cresswell remembers Showell “wanted to raise the profile of the University using media and new media, and also taking people on the road. . . . So it struck me-why couldn’t we do a radio show with Bowling Green?”
The College of Musical Arts has the talent and capability to star in the nationally syndicated 13-episode radio series, he reasoned. The New Music Festival and MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, which will provide most of the show’s music, each have 30-year histories behind them.
Cresswell lauded BGSU’s ability to consistently attract international attention and is eagerly awaiting more international stations to pick up “New Music from Bowling Green.”
“Our first international market is Dubai, and we hope to move into other English-speaking foreign countries in 2014,” he said.
Listeners from Atlanta to St. Louis will hear music produced by current BGSU students, professors and alumni.
Jennifer Higdon
“It’s about a 50-50 split between the recordings of the Bowling Green Philharmonia and Wind Symphony and the archives of the New Music Festival,” said Cresswell. Three episodes contain the music of Jennifer Higdon, one of BGSU’s most successful alumni.
Higdon has won a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Awards, given a convocation address for the BGSU College of Musical Arts and been honored as one of the most successful BGSU alumni during the University’s 100th anniversary celebrations.
Coming back to BGSU gives Higdon a chance to eat some Myles pizza and hear the “really interesting stuff” coming out of the college, the composer said.
“What BGSU has that most schools don’t is the New Music Festival,” she noted. “You get to hear a good selection of what’s going on around the world.”
All the pieces featured in her three-episode series “have some sort of connection, even if it was remote, to Bowling Green.”
Listeners will hear Higdon’s love of melody in her compositions along with the “two primary hallmarks of my music: rhythm and a clear pulse.”
“Everyone tells me my music sounds very American-I’m not sure what that means, though. I know I would be in trouble having lived in America all my life and I sounded Russian or French,” she joked.
Higdon, Cresswell and the College of Musical Arts faculty are excited to hear the program air.
“We are the direct conduit between the composers and listeners,” Cresswell explained. “Radio engages your ears, and there’s where all this music lives, in the ears of the listener.
“We’re doing something different and worthwhile. That’s really where the value of presenting new music comes in. … You’re taking the genre into the 21st century and beyond.”
Listen to “New Music from Bowling Green” every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WGTE 91.3 FM.
Profs. Scholl and Bylsma to perform in Texas
Faculty members Christopher Scholl (tenor) and Kevin Bylsma (piano) will perform Schubert’s entire Schöne Müllerin cycle Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. at the Song Collaborators’ Consortia, Fibonacci Bldg., Amarillo, Texas.
Thomas Rosenkranz to premiere new work by Paul Lansky
Associate Professor of Piano, Thomas Rosenkranz along with his contemporary piano and percussion ensemble, Hammer/Klavier will premierea new eight-movement work by composer Paul Lansky. The ensemble will give
the world premiere of the work at BGSU on Thursday, October 3rd in Bryan Recital Hall and will follow with performances at the Oberlin Conservatory and Princeton University. The group will later record the work for Bridge Records.
Prof. Schempf to perform in Michigan, New York, and Ohio
Professor Kevin Schempf, Associate Professor of Clarinet, will be performing recitals and conducting masterclasses in September and October. On September 23, he will be at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, September 26, at the State University of New York at Fredonia, and October 1 at Central Michigan University.
Prof. Nelson to tour Texas and Louisiana
Dr. Susan Nelson, Assistant Professor of Bassoon, will tour Texas and Louisiana with the Silver Keys Trio from September 29-October 5. The trio includes Nelson, Dr. Christina Guenther, flute, and Dr. Geneva Fung, piano. Both Guenther and Fung are faculty members at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. The trio will teach master classes and present a recital of works by American composers in the Cole Performing Art Series at Stephen F. Austin State University as well as at Baylor, University of Texas-Arlington, and Northwestern State University in Louisiana.
Among the pieces to be performed are “Kalamus” by award-winning composer Dana Wilson, Air for Bassoon and Piano by Alec Wilder, Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano by Chick Corea, “All the Words to All the Songs” by Dan Welcher and “Retrofugue” by cellist and composer Jeremy Crosmer.