Category Archives: student news

University Choral Society seeks members

The College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University is holding open auditions for the 2010-11 season of the University Choral Society.

The ensemble will perform Handel’s “Messiah” with soloists and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 4 and 5 as part of the symphony’s regular season at the Toledo Museum of Art. On Feb. 4 and 5 the University Choral Society, along with the Collegiate Chorale and A Cappella Choir, will join the Toledo Symphony in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. To close the season, the ensemble will perform Beethoven’s “Mass in C Major” with the Bowling Green Philharmonic on April 20 in Kobacker Hall.

BGSU director of choral activities Mark Munson directs the chorus. Now in his 21st year on the BGSU faculty, he has led the Collegiate Chorale, A Cappella Choir and University Women’s Chorus. Founder and director of the local vocal ensemble OPUS 18, he is also director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra Chorus. During the 2005-06 school year, Munson lived in Sweden where he conducted and taught choral music. He is a past president of the Ohio Choral Directors Association.

The chorus rehearses on Tuesday evenings from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at the College of Musical Arts. For more information, and/or to schedule an audition, call the college at 419-372-2186.

BGSU music education student wins national award

A Bowling Green State University senior music education major took home first place in the brass category at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) national Young Artist Competition. The ceremony on March 22 was part of the MTNA annual conference in Albuquerque, N.M.

John Gruber, a Bowling Green native and trombone student, received a $3,000 cash prize and performed in the Winner’s Concert on March 23. Gruber is a student of Dr. William Mathis, associate professor of trombone and chair of music performance. Gruber has also worked with Garth Simmons, adjunct associate professor of trombone, for the past year.

Gruber, accompanied on piano by Sara Young, a graduate student from Clinton Twp., Mich., performed a 40-minute recital that included various styles from the baroque, classical and contemporary periods

“This is a well-known organization,” said Mathis. “To have a student get to that level is a great way to promote the school and our program. We can tell potential students that we have students performing at a national level.

“The same thing goes for the entire college—to have students leave campus and go out and be measured against a national standard is important for our students and us to make an assessment on how we’re doing and the students we’re recruiting.”

MTNA performance competitions are designed to provide education experiences for students and teachers and to recognize exceptionally talented young artists and their teachers in their pursuit of musical excellence.

Gruber has been a member of BGSU’s Wind Symphony, the Falcon Marching Band, Jazz Lab Band I, University Men’s Chorus and the Athletic Band.

Annual Peatee art song competition coming up at BGSU

Forty duos will participate in the 11th annual Marjorie Conrad Peatee Art Song Competition at Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts on March 27.

The first round of the competition will begin at noon and end around 5 p.m. in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. Finalists will be announced at 6 p.m., and the final round, in the form of a formal evening concert, will begin at 8 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall.

The Dr. Marjorie Conrad Peatee Art Song Fund provides monetary prizes for the singers and their collaborative pianists in two divisions, undergraduate and graduate.

The students will compete for two first prizes of $1,500, two second prizes of $1,000 and two third prizes of $750. The first-prize winning duos will present a recital on the “Music from Bowling Green at the Manor House” series, an outreach program of the college, on March 30 at Toledo’s Wildwood Metropark.

The goal of the competition is to encourage students enrolled at BGSU to approach the art song in a serious and intense manner and enhance their learning experience.

All rounds of the competition are free and open to the public.

Gilmore Award-winning pianist Kirill Gerstein to give BGSU master class

Four piano students in Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts will have an opportunity to perform in a master class with leading pianist Kirill Gerstein when he comes to campus March 19.

Gerstein will be in the area to perform with the Toledo Symphony March 20. At Bowling Green, he will give the master class from 2:30-4:30 p.m. that Friday in Bryan Recital Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

In the world of music, his is an unusual story. He is the sixth winner of the Gilmore Artists Award—a $300,000 surprise grant given every four years to an artist to use to enhance their careers or their professional development. Equated to the MacArthur “genius” awards, the funds come with few strings attached.

The award is given to “a superb pianist and profound musician,” according to the Gilmore Foundation. It is administered by the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Mich. In fact, one of the places the award judges observed Gerstein’s playing was in a previous Toledo Symphony performance.

Born in Russia, Gerstein began playing piano while very young. He studied jazz at Boston’s Berklee School of Music as a teenager before taking up classical piano at the Manhattan School of Music.

Now he plays around the world but, somewhat unusually for a performer of his stature, also has a teaching position at the conservatory in Stuttgart, Germany.

BGSU piano students had another rewarding master class recently with award-winning Irish pianist Barry Douglas, who was in Bowling Green to perform in the University’s Festival Series.

“He was vey impressed with the preparation of the students,” said Susan Knapp, director of public events in the music college. “He said he was also impressed with the creative safety the students demonstrated. I think that’s a great testament to what our faculty are  building here.”

Renowned pianist to offer free master class

Pianist Margo Garrett returns to Bowling Green State University for a residency at the College of Musical Arts Feb. 1 and 2 as one of this year’s Helen McMaster Endowed Professors in Vocal and Choral Studies.

During her stay at the University, Garrett will coach student singers and pianists, as well as present a public master class at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 in Bryan Recital Hall that is free and open to the public.

Garrett has established a number of long-standing performing relationships with artists such as sopranos Kathleen Battle, Barbara Bonney, Dawn Upshaw and Benita Valente. Active in the world of contemporary music, Garrett has performed the premiers of more than 30 works.

She is a member of the Julliard School Collaborative Piano Faculty and was the first holder of the Ethel Alice Hitchcock Chair in Accompanying and Coaching at the University of Minnesota’s School of Music—the first privately endowed collaborative chair in the U.S.

Garrett is sharing this year’s McMaster professorship with renowned Swedish vocal conductor Erik Westberg, who completed his residency last October.

Helen McMaster and her late husband, Harold, established this endowed professorship in spring 2000. Helen McMaster, a longtime Perrysburg resident, has supported the arts at BGSU for many years. The McMasters previously donated to BGSU programs in music, business, science and the Center for Photochemical Sciences.

BGSU to host Viola Day for student musicians

Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts will host its second annual Bratsche Bash (Viola Day) on Feb. 13 in the Moore Musical Arts Center.

Geared toward middle school, high school and college-aged violists, Bratsche Bash will include master classes with prominent violists from throughout the Midwest and classes on orchestral repertoire, improvisation and technique, as well as a brown bag discussion about “Making a Career as a Musician.”

Dr. Megan Fergusson, assistant professor of viola, will host the daylong program. Guest clinicians include pianist Marcantonio Barone, a faculty member at Swarthmore College; violist Caroline Coade of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; violist Louise Zeitlin, a faculty member at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, and Chris Buzzelli, a professor and director of jazz activities at BGSU.

Parents, teachers and nonparticipants are welcome to observe at no cost. The registration fee for participants is $15, which includes lunch.

Make checks payable to College of Musial Arts. Completed forms must be mailed by Feb. 10 to Megan Fergusson, College of Musical Arts, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403.

For more information, contact Fergusson at 419-372-2428 or email Fergusm@bgsu.edu.