Wallace DePue: BGSU Professor Emeritus in Profile

December 21, 2015composition, faculty news, voicespergal

” From physical brawls with his elementary school peers to battling poverty, heartbreak and other composers in worldwide music competitions, DePue has faced it all in his 83 years.

More often than not, he triumphs.

“I’ve had this philosophy since I was young that I caught from my mother. You always have to keep moving, get ahead and think about what you can accomplish next,” he said.

The Bowling Green State University professor emeritus has an impressive list of accomplishments, most recently winning an honorable mention for his opera, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,” from The American Prize.

Last year, he won the Gold Medal award from the Boston Metro Opera for his barbershop opera “Something Special,” beating out 625 works submitted by composers from six continents.

“I almost fell off my chair when I saw the results,” DePue said.

But DePue might never have become the composer he is today if not for his scrappy childhood tendencies.

“I was smaller than most of the boys I fought with, but I could fight. That’s not surprising, given my father was a fight trainer and I was an amateur boxer as a teenager,” he said. “I was a fast gun. I usually had a black eye or a cut somewhere and never looked quite healthy. But I stood up to those who tried to take away my pride.”

Read full article here.

BGSU makes strong presence at the 2016 New Music Gathering

December 10, 2015all, alumni, composition, dma, events, faculty news, musicology-ethnomusicology, musicology-ethnomusicology-alumni, New Music, promusica, student news, theory-musicology-ethnomusicology, Uncategorizedgabrig

Bowling Green State University will be well represented at the 2016 New Music Gathering held at the Peabody Conservatory. The following list includes those from BGSU performing and lecturing during this highly acclaimed new music conference:

Alumnus Ryan Muncy, part of panels: “Commissioning New Music”, and “New Music and Community Building”
Faculty member Ryan Ebright, part of panel: “New Music(ology) Gathering: Scholarly Perspectives on American New Music Since 1960”
Current DMA student Aaron Hynds: performance, 60 minute lecture/demo/question workshop
Current DMA student Hillary LaBonte: panel, “The Church of New Music: Places of Worship and the New Music Community”
Alumnae Viola Yip and Ellery Trafford: performance, “Instrumentalists Using the Voice”

BGSU students, faculty, and alumnae will participate in this interdisciplinary event taking place January 6-9, 2016.

From the mission statement of New Music Gathering:

“Even in a culture that thrives on connectivity, the ancient idea of simply being in the same place at the same time to exchange ideas continues to be the most effective, and New Music Gathering fills that need.

Following the conference model, the event will be three days of performances, presentations, and discussions, but as it is to be run not by an organization but by four working musicians – Lainie Fefferman, Daniel Felsenfeld, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Matt Marks – it should be a way to “skip the middleman” and focus on the needs and desires of the community directly.

As it is to be based in a different city annually, aside from bringing together those who write, perform and promote “contemporary classical” music to meet, talk, and develop collaborative relationships, the Gathering will also focus on the dedicated population in that specific region.”

Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard selects Mikel Kuehn for 2015 Composer Commissions

December 1, 2015all, alumni, composition, composition-alumni, dma, education, events, faculty news, music-education-alumni, musicology-ethnomusicology, musicology-ethnomusicology-alumni, New Music, promusica, theory-musicology-ethnomusicology, Uncategorizedgabrig

The Board of Directors of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University is pleased to announce the names of fourteen composers selected to receive 2015 Fromm commissions. These commissions represent one of the principal ways that the Fromm Music Foundation seeks to strengthen composition and to bring contemporary concert music closer to the public. In addition to the commissioning fee, a subsidy is available for the ensemble performing the premiere of the commissioned work.

Among the fourteen recipients is local composer Mikel Kuehn, a resident of Sylvania, Ohio, and faculty at Bowling Green State University.

Founded by the patron of contemporary music, the late Paul Fromm, the Fromm Foundation is now in its sixtieth year, having been located at Harvard University for the past forty. Since the 1950s, it has commissioned well over 300 new compositions and their performances, and has sponsored hundreds of new music concerts and concert series.

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

November 17, 2015faculty news, theory-musicology-ethnomusicologyspergal

“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

November 13, 2015string-newsspergal

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

November 4, 2015Uncategorizedspergal

Doctoral 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.”

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