Points of Pride lists faculty, student and alumni achievements. It is accumulated and produced three times a year, generally in January, March, and October.
Grants and Awards
The UNL Dance Division received a second National College Choreography Initiative award of $7,500 from the National Endowment for the Arts. The award will support the restaging of work from three different musicals by Bob Fosse. During the residency, master classes in the Fosse style, lecture/demonstrations in public schools, retirement communities, and rehabilitations facilities, exchanges with two community arts theatres, and informal public presentations will take place. Bill Hastings, an actor and dancer on Broadway and a featured dancer in "Fosse," was the guest artist-in-residence with the Dance Division in late September and early October. He will return in November and February. UNL is one of only four schools who received a second award. The Dance Division, directed by Professor Lisa Fusillo, won an NCCI award two years ago for their Charles Weidman project.
Arts Are Basic was one of 10 recipients for funding from the Cooper Foundation during the recent grant cycle. The $15,000 grant request for operating expenses and capacity building was awarded in full in October. In addition, the Heartland Arts Fund, a joint venture of Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance supported by the Nebraska Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, awarded $1,125 fee support for Arts Are Basic for Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater company, who performed for more than 3,500 students from Lincoln and rural Nebraska on October 17 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
Jeffery Elwell, Professor and Chair of Theatre Arts, received an additional grant of $91,340 from the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission to produce the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event in the summer of 2004.
Faculty
Diane Barger, Associate Professor of Clarinet, served as coordinator of the High School Solo Competition for the International Clarinet Association's annual ClarinetFest held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in July. In addition, Barger was an invited panelist in the session entitled "Careers in Chamber Music for Clarinetists."
Paul Barnes, Associate Professor of Piano, recorded Theodore Blumer's "Sextet for Piano and Woodwinds" in May with the Moran Woodwind Quintet. His latest CD entitled "Orphee Suite for Piano," which includes 11 of Barnes' piano transcriptions from Philip Glass operas, was released internationally on June 6. He performed the CD repertoire live during his faculty recital on September 4.
Ron Bartels, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, had his corporate identity work for M-Logic Software published in The Book of Color in Design by Hdi Harper Design International. The work selected is for a software company specializing in education software. It is featured in a section on "durable" color in communication design, which gives the viewer a sense of durability when interacting with the work.
Karen Becker, Associate Professor of Cello, gave a successful performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto on October 3 with the UNL Symphony Orchestra and will perform the concerto again in November with the Huntington Symphony. In June, she was faculty artist with the Red Lodge Music Festival, a nine-day festival located in Red Lodge, Mt., where she performed chamber works by Adlophe, Schumann and Shostakovich. Later in the summer, Becker served as faculty artist with the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague. While in Prague, she performed in a series of concerts in various venues throughout the city, such as the prestigious Suk Hall at the Rudolfinum, Martinu Hall at the Academy of Music, and the Hall of Mirrors at the Klementinum. Becker received funding from the Hixson-Lied Endowment for this trip.
Peter Bouffard, Lecturer in the School of Music, will be the featured soloist with the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra in Lincoln on December 9.
Ariel Bybee, Associate Professor and Artist in Residence, sang a program called "Love and Death at the Opera" on the ship The Radisson Seven Seas Navigator. In collaboration with her husband, Associate Professor of English James Ford, she also performed "What Cather Saw" at the International Cather Conference in Breadloaf, Vt. Bybee, Ford and UNL opera students performed "To Die For: The Music of Bel Canto" on October 15 at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden as part of One BookâOne Lincoln and presented by the Friends of Opera.
Santiago Cal, Assistant Professor of Sculpture, has an installation of his recent sculptures entitled "disseminations" on view through October 24 at the Marxhausen Gallery of Art at Concordia University in Seward.
Ann Chang-Barnes, Senior Lecturer of Piano and Founder and Artistic Director of the Meadowlark Music Festival, presented the third season of this chamber music festival during July. Concerts were held at Lincoln Southwest High School, James Arthur Vineyards, Walton, and Kimball Recital Hall.
Mark Clinton, Associate Professor of Piano, and Nicole Narboni, Senior Lecturer of Piano, spent two weeks this summer in residence at the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague. They performed in a series of concerts throughout the city at such prestigious venues as Martinu Hall at the Academy of Music, Suk Hall at the Rudolfinum, the Hall of Mirrors at the Klementinum, as well as the chapel of the 16th-century Renaissance castle in the nearby town of Brandys nad Labem. Their repertoire included works for piano duo, as well as chamber music performed in collaboration with other internationally acclaimed artist faculty. Four School of Music students traveled with Clinton and Narboni to the festival, where they had the opportunity to coach and perform chamber music under the guidance of the international faculty. All of these students were selected to perform in recitals at the Prague Municipal Music School, the Museum of Czech Music, and the historic Church of Saints Simon and Jude. Clinton and Narboni, as well as two of their students, received Hixson-Lied funding.
Michael Cotton, Coach/Accompanist in the School of Music, was one of ten professional accompanists worldwide selected as a performing participant in Songfest, an international festival of vocal chamber music held in June at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
Peter Eklund, Assistant Professor and Director of Choral Activities has been invited to speak at the MENC National Convention in Minneapolis this spring. The Varsity Men's Chorus has also been invited to perform at this prestigious meeting, as well as at the Regional Conference of the American Choral Directors Association this fall in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Jeffery Elwell, Professor and Chair of Theatre Arts, has been elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the National Association of Schools of Theatre. He presented two papers in August at the annual Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in New York. The two papers were "Is There a Blueprint? Models of New Play Development" and "Demystifying Leadership in Theatre Programs." Elwell's play, "The Confirmation" (featuring Harris Smith, Katherine LeRoy and Adam Jefferis) was selected for the finals of the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival. His play, "The Art of Dating" (which won the French Festival in 1995) was produced as part of an evening of plays called "Pickup Bras and Short Term Relationships" at the Toronto Fringe Festival in July by a theatre company named Beyond Chutleigh.
Quentin Faulkner, Larson Professor of Organ, together with his wife, Mary Murrell Faulkner (DMA 2000) , performed an organ recital on an instrument built in 1747 in the St. Marienkirche in Belzig, Germany, in June. The organist at this church is Philipp Goebel (UNL guest student, spring 2000). Faulkner also pursued research on J.S. Bach's organ registration practice in Munich, Germany, both in the Bavarian State Library and in consultation with Professor Jürgen Eppelsheim of the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. This project was funded, in part, by the Hixson-Lied Endowment.
Gretchen Foley, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, presented a paper entitled "Isographic Complexes in Perle's Piano Music" at the College Music Society's International Conference in Costa Rica in June. Foley also presented a paper entitled "Arrays and K-Nets: Transformational Relationships Within Perle's Twelve-Tone Tonality" at the Music Theory Midwest meeting at Indiana University in May. Foley's travel was funded, in part, by the Hixson-Lied Endowment.
Lisa Fusillo, Professor of Dance, has been invited to represent the United States within the International Dance Council (Conseil International de la Danse or CID) as a full member. The CID is the dance branch of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
William Grange, Professor of Theatre Arts, had an article titled "Promise Me Nothing on Heroes' Square: Marianne Hoppe's Twentieth Century" accepted for publication to appear in New England Theatre Journal in November. Another article, "Bernd Wilms and the Crisis in Berlin's Theatre," will be published in Western European Stages in December. He had seven essays accepted for publication in Encyclopedia of German-American Affairs, to be published in 2004. Grange was named Outstanding Teacher in Department of Theatre Arts for 2002 in August of this year.
Gail Kendall, Professor of Ceramics, was mentioned in the February 28 Daily Oklahoman for an upcoming pottery exhibition.
Jenny Kenyon, Lecturer in Theatre Arts, did sets and costumes for "The Little Prince" this summer at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre.
William Kenyon, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, serves as Lighting Designer for the American Indian Dance Theatre, which has begun its fall U.S. tour through the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. AIDT is in its 16th year, and Kenyon has been Lighting Director for the past eight years.
Joseph Kraus, Professor of Music Theory, was elected President of Music Theory Midwest for 2003-2005 and assumed this office at the annual meeting held at the Indiana University School of Music last May. He also served as a grader for the College Board Advanced Placement Exam in Music Theory at the College of New Jersey in June.
Karen Kunc, Professor of Printmaking, won a Second Place prize out of 500 artists from 100 countries with 2,500 works in an exhibition in Chamalieres, France, earlier this month. Fifteen UNL students, both graduate and undergraduate, presented their works in this international exhibition.
Albie Micklich, Assistant Professor of Bassoon, presented a lecture-recital entitled "Audience Pedagogy: Increasing Chamber Music's Relevancy and Accessibility to Audiences" at the International Double Reed Society Conference at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in June. He was assisted by graduate students Jefferson Campbell and Rebecca Stillman, who received funding, in part, from the Hixson-Lied Endowment for their travel. In August, Michlich taught at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lakes, Mich.
The Moran Quintet (Diane Cawein Barger, clarinet; John Bailey, flute; William McMullen, oboe; Albie Micklich, bassoon; and Allen French, horn) completed the recording of their next CD from Crystal Records of "Music of Theodore Blumer," which is planned for release this fall. Mo Neal, Associate Professor of Sculpture, was awarded Second Place for a sculpture entitled "Focused Attention," 2003, in an exhibition entitled "Local Perspectives" at the Sioux City Art Center, which included works by 47 artists. The exhibition was curated by Kathryn Hixson, critic and former editor of New Art Examiner. The exhibition continues through January 11, 2004. Neal will give a public lecture on December 6 at noon at the Sioux City Art Center.
Glenn Nierman, Steinhart Professor and Chair of Music Education and Interim School of Music Associate Director, will present a session on assessment practices at the 2004 National MENC Conference in Minneapolis. As President of the Nebraska Music Educators Association (NMEA), he is in charge of the program for the 2003 NMEA Inservice Conference Clinic hosted by the School of Music in November.
Giacomo Oliva, Professor of Music and Dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, chaired a panel presentation at the annual meeting of the College Music Society in Miami entitled "Fifty Years of an International Perspective Through the International Society for Music Education." He also made a presentation at the biennial meeting of the International Music Council in Montevideo, Uruguay. This past summer, Oliva served as an external program reviewer for the departments of music and theatre studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, this past August, and has been selected to serve on the planning committee for an International Music Education Policy Symposium, to be held in conjunction with the MENC Biennial National Conference in Minneapolis in April.
John Richmond, Professor and Director of the School of Music, participated in a live broadcast of the Nebraska Public Radio Network series "Classics by Requests" in September. He selected music for the hour based on some of his favorite classical pieces. In October, Richmond represented the University of Nebraska at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Music Executives in State Universities outside San Francisco, Calif.
William Shomos, Associate Professor of Voice and Opera, served as stage director for the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program last summer. He has performed in a variety of venues this fall. Shomos, a baritone, and mezzo-soprano Lucinda Sloan teamed up to present a concert of songs by Hugo Wolf with internationally acclaimed accompanist John Wustman at the piano. The program was presented at UNL, Midland Lutheran College, Dana College, and was featured on the Omaha Organ Vespers Series. The program will be broadcast on radio in late October. This fall, Shomos has also appeared as a guest soloist with the Omaha Municipal Orchestra and the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra.
Pamela Starr, Professor of Music History, recently participated as a member of a six-member committee to re-design the Major Field Test in Music at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton.
Sharon Teo, Assistant Professor of Film and New Media, had her film, "Breeders," selected to screen as a work in progress in the Emerging Narrative section of the 25th Annual IFP Market in New York City in September. Her film was one of 20 out of approximately 150 entries to be selected for screening.
An appearance by Darryl White, Associate Professor of Trumpet, was previewed in the June 13 Kansas City Star.
Associate Professor and Director of Orchestral Activities Tyler White's piece Elegy "for the orphans of terror," premiered by Larson Professor of Flute John Bailey and the UNL Symphony in 2002, has been recorded in September by the Philharmonia Bulgaria, conducted by Robert Ian Winstin, on Vol. 1 of the new 12-CD series Masterworks of the New Era from ERMMedia. The recording will be commercially released in December.
Robert Woody, Assistant Professor of Music Education, had an article entitled "Explaining Expressive Performance: Component Cognitive Skills in an Aural Modeling Task" published in the Journal of Research in Music Education in June. He also shared this research in a presentation entitled "Distinguishing the Component Cognitive Skills of Expressive Performance" at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Brenda Wristen, Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy, presented a faculty piano recital on October 9. The program included pieces by Haydn, Debussy, Prokofiev, Chopin, and a set of contemporary pieces by Judith Lang Zaimont, composer-in-residence at the University of Minnesota.
Students
Several School of Music students won recognition at the 2003 state student auditions of the National Association of the Teachers of Singing (NATS):
- Freshman Women's Division: Finalists Antonella delli Carpini, Bekah Freeman, Erin Shea and Jennifer Weiman.
- Freshman Men's Division: 1st place Tom Hurd and finalist Sam Anderson.
- Sophomore Women's Division: 2nd place Tertia Hock; 3rd place Kristin Mayle; finalists Stephanie Spady and Amanda Standler.
- Sophomore Men's Division: finalists James Gade, Blake Gilmore and Jesse Wells.
- Junior Women's Division: 1st place Christi McClain.
- Junior Men's Division: 2nd place Zach Bjornsen.
- Senior Women's Division: 3rd place Jodi Vaccaro.
- Senior Men's Division: 1st place Christopher Deaton; 2nd place Ryan Powell; finalist Jon Gathje.
- Advanced Graduate Division: 1st place Amy Janky; 2nd place KristÉ Belt; 3rd place Jennifer Booth; and finalists Briana Donley, Jennifer Thompson and Sarah Thrasher.
- Nontraditional Student Division: 2nd place Kim Schroeder and 3rd place Dennis Klimes.
- Post-Graduate Divison: 1st place Adrienne Dickson and 2nd place Jeff Keele.
Several Film and New Media students won awards in the first annual Hot Shops Film Festival held in September in Omaha. The competition was open to entries from all around the country and specifically targeted high school, college and non-professional short films. FNM winners included:
- Collegiate Narrative Feature Category: 2nd place "Hot Dog!" directed by Zach Clawson (Film Production II 2003)
- Non-Academic Narrative Feature Category: 1st place "The Dance of the Dead" by Brett Simmonds, who was the first FNM graduate and this was his senior film; 3rd place "The Rose in the Vase" directed by Matt Bross and Fernando Vallejo (Film Production II 2003)
- Collegiate Music Video Category: 1st place "Replaced" by Josh Brokering and Michael Sukraw. This was the final project by these two students for Film Production I last spring.
Timothy Dickmeyer (MM, BME 1999) has been named Coordinator of Touring and Educational Programs with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. He is also the bass trombonist of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra.
Kate Bingaman's (MFA in Graphic Design) "Obsessive Consumption" project had a show in Kansas City at the Leedy-Voulkos Gallery in September. Six of her photos were used for the cover image for the October issue of the Review Magazine, which is the Kansas City Arts Newspaper. The Orion Society magazine featured Obsessive Consumption in the September/October issue. Juicy, an arts magazine based out of Boston, had an article about Obsessive Consumption as well. Finally, Marmalade, a fashion/culture/arts magazine from London, had a feature on the buttons that Bingaman makes on her website. The project and articles can be found at www.obsessiveconsumption.com.
Carrie Conklin (MM), who studies with Professor Paul Barnes, won the MTNA Collegiate Artists Competition. She will go on to compete at the division level in Colorado in January. Christian Bohnenstengel (MM), who studies with Professor Mark Clinton, was an alternate. Alex Wright (BM), who also studies with Barnes, won the Nebraska Collegiate Competition.
Jon Gathje (BME) was one of 20 UNL students selected as homecoming royalty finalists. The homecoming king and queen were voted on by the student body and crowned October 18 at halftime of the NebraskaTexas A&M football game.
Jessica Lindsey (MM) successfully auditioned for the Air Force Band in Dayton, Ohio (Wright Patton Air Force Base). She will begin her four-year stint with the Air Force Band next fall.
Adam Mendelson (MFA in Theatre Arts) won a national scholarship competition by ETC (one of the world's premiere suppliers of theatrical lighting equipment) for an all-expenses-paid trip to the Lighting Dimensions International Convention and Trade Show in Orlando this fall, which is one of the biggest tradeshow/conventions each year for theatre. He will be able to spend time talking with some of the top names in the field.
Vincent Quevedo (MFA in Art and Senior Lecturer in Textiles, Clothing and Design) received third place in the "Professional" category (past winners from previous years) of this year's international design competition sponsored by the American Quilters Society. He was also selected as one of this year's Bernina International Designers, and his design will be touring the United States, Europe and Far East. The tour began in October at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.
Alumni
Nancy Beal Meyer (BFA Ed.) had her work on display in July at Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha's Botanical Center. Her exhibition, "Essence of Color" highlighted 49 works in oil, watercolor and pencil.
Misti Bradford (MFA in Theatre Arts 2003) has accepted a year-long paid internship at PCPA TheatreFest in Santa Maria, Calif. In addition to assisting the resident and guest designers, she will also design costumes for three shows.
Sarah Detweiler (BFA in Art 2000) completed her MFA last spring at the University of Florida at Gainesville with an emphasis in photography. She has been hired as an assistant professor of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay beginning this fall, teaching all levels of photography and video.
Stephanie Dodd (BA in Theatre Arts 2001) received positive reviews for her performance as "Hero" in "Much Ado About Nothing" at Shakespeare and Co. in Lenox, Mass., this summer.
Rob Dutiel (MFA in Theatre Arts 2003) has accepted a position as a tenure-track assistant professor at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.
Micah Fusselman (BM 2003) moved to Chicago, where he is pursuing a Master of Music degree at Roosevelt University. In the spring of 2003, Fusselman auditioned for and won a cello position to play in the Chicago Civic Orchestra, one of the foremost training orchestras in the world.
Sarah Hammar-Herzer (MM 2001) and Thomas Herzer (UNL guest student, 1999-2000) are now employed as the organists of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. They will also teach in the seminary connected with the Castle Church.
Jeremy Kolwinska (MM 1999) is the new Low Brass Professor at the University of Tennesee-Martin.
Nathan LeFeber (BME 2003) is the new Director of Bands at Lincoln Christian High School.
Jason C. Meyer (BFA in Art 2000) had a review of his sculpture in the September issue of Sculpture Magazine, a publication of the International Sculpture Center. Meyer's work was exhibited at Chicago's Cultural Center. The reviewer was Larry M. Taylor (BA Art History 1999).
Stephen Mohring (BME 2003) is the new Assistant Director of Instrumental and Choral Music at Lincoln Southwest High School.
Vicki Rankin (BA Art History 2002), is the host, writer and one-woman driving force behind the television series, "Picturing Life in Lincoln," which airs on Time Warner Cable in Lincoln on Channel 13 on Wednesdays at 9am, Thursdays at 10:30pm and Sundays at 8pm.
Bryant Scott (BA in Music 2003) is pursuing his Master of Music degree in jazz studies at DePaul University.
Andy Strain (BA in Music 2001) is the new principal trombone in the Monterrey Symphony Orchestra in Mexico.
Travis Walker (MFA in Theatre Arts 2003) has accepted a position as Lighting Director for the Kennedy Center touring production of "Tom Sawyer," which opens in December.
Affiliates
Artist Diversity Residency Program: Two faculty from the UNL Department of Sociology, who had both participated in the Artist Diversity Residency Program, had approached Director Ron Bowlin about doing a research project on the benefits of using artists in their classes to address issues of diversity. The outcome of that research was published in the sociological journal Teaching Sociology in October. The title of the article is "Teaching Diversity and Learning Outcomes: Bringing Lived Experience into the Classroom."
Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center: The Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center recently launched its new website, www.theross.org. The new website represents one of the final phases in the recent overhaul of the center, which includes state-of-theart digital equipment, an updated brand image and, most noticeably, a new facility. The new facility was dedicated on September 5 featuring Mary Riepma Ross, current New School President and former U.S. Senator and Nebraska Governor Bob Kerrey, Chancellor Harvey Perlman, University of Nebraska Foundation President Terry Fairfield, and Dean Giacomo Oliva.