Category Archives: keyboard-alumni

Scott Lavender to perform with Johnny Mathis and the LA Philharmonic

events, faculty news, jazz, keyboard

SCOTTLAVENDER

BGSU adjunct music professor Scott Lavender, will be performing with Johnny Mathis and the LA Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on April 4, 2015.  Lavender will be conducting the orchestra and playing piano.

As Music Director for Glenn Yarbrough, Toni Tennille, and, for the last twenty-four years, Johnny Mathis, Scott Lavender has performed with and conducted orchestras throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain including the National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Scott holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance degree from Bowling Green State University (Ohio), pursued graduate studies in jazz at North Texas State, and earned a Masters Degree in Instrumental Conducting from California State University, Northridge. A published composer of works for symphony and school orchestra as well as college jazz band, his big band CD, Prime Time, features many of LA’s most accomplished studio musicians. With New York City-based cellist Roger Shell, his most recent recording is the CD, ‘Round Midnight, featuring songs from jazz and the American songbook. Scott is in his third year as an adjunct asst. professor at BGSU and lives in Findlay.

For information on the event, visit http://www.laphil.com/tickets/johnny-mathis/2015-04-04

 

Thomas Rosenkranz starts new festival in Italy

faculty news, keyboard

Associate Professor of Piano, Thomas Rosenkranz recently co-founded the Maccagno Piano Days Festival and Competition in Italy. This festival’s inaugural season will take place from July 17th-24th and features recitals, masterclasses, career workshops, and a competition. This year’s honored guests include Jerome Lowenthal from the Juilliard School and Vivian Li from the Xinghai Conservatory in China among others.

For more information visit: http://www.pianodaysfestival.org

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.

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.

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.