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

Congratulations!! The Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts DVD won two Telly Awards: a Silver Winner in the category of "Low Budget Productions" and a Bronze Finalist in the category of recruitment videos. The Telly Awards honor outstanding local, regional and cable television commercials and programs and the finest video and film productions. The awards annually showcase the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators and corporate video departments in the world.

The UNL Wind Ensemble performed at the College Band Directors National Association North-Central Division Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 19. The band was selected in a highly competitive audition process from a pool including collegiate ensembles from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The Varsity Men's Chorus has received two prestigious invitations. They were invited to perform for the American Choral Directors Association Regional Convention in Sioux Falls, S.D., in March. In April, they will perform at the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) National Convention in Minneapolis.

The following faculty received Faculty Research/Creative Activity Grant funding from the Hixson-Lied Endowment, awarded in February:

  • Santiago Cal, Department of Art and Art History, $3,800, "Transmigration."
  • Karen Kunc, Department of Art and Art History, $3,200, Support for the Preparation of a Solo Exhibition.
  • Peter Pinnell, Department of Art and Art History, $2,000, Digital Camera Equipment.
  • Diane Barger, School of Music, $2,800, "Virtuosic Operatic Fantasies for Clarinet."
  • Karen Becker, School of Music, $2,700, Editing and Preparation of a Recording of Cello Works by American Composers.
  • William McMullen, School of Music, $3,800, Completion of a Flute and Oboe Duet CD.
  • William Grange, Department of Theatre Arts, $3,800, "Comedy Under the Kaisers."

The following faculty received Presentation of Scholarly/Creative Activity Grants from the Hixson-Lied Endowment, awarded in February:

  • Rhonda Fuelberth, School of Music, $700, Presentation of paper at MENC Convention in Minneapolis.
  • Lisa Fusillo, School of Music, $1,500, Presentation of paper at Nordic Forum for Dance Research in Reykjavik, Iceland.
  • William Grange, Department of Theatre Arts, $285, Presentation of paper at Ohio State University.
  • William Grange, Department of Theatre Arts, $375, Presentation of paper at the Thalia Germanica Conference at the University of Looz, Poland.
  • Robert Woody, School of Music, $700, Presentation of paper at the MENC Convention in Minneapolis.
  • Glenn Nierman, School of Music, $700, Presentation of paper at MENC Convention in Minneapolis.
  • William McMullen, Diane Barger and Albie Micklich, School of Music, $6,400, Performance at the International Double Reed Society in Melbourne, Australia.

The following faculty received certificates of recognition for contributions to students from the UNL Teaching Council and the UNL Parents Association in January:

  • Art and Art History: Keith Jacobshagen and Sandra Williams.
  • School of Music: Marilia Alvarez, Scott Anderson, Ariel Bybee, Peter Eklund, Rebecca Gann, Nicole Narboni and Darryl White.
  • Theatre Arts: Bradley Buffum, Richard Endacott, Jenny Kenyon, Shirley Carr Mason and Virginia Smith.

Three Department of Theatre Arts graduate students won awards at the Region V Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival held in January in Denver, Colo. Adam Mendelson, a third-year graduate student working on his MFA in design/technical theatre, won the Region V Barbizon Award for Excellence in Lighting Design for the April 2003 UNL production of "Macbeth." Mendelson won $100 and a trip to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in April to compete in the national competition. Mendelson also received an honorable mention for his scenic design for the October 2003 UNL production of "Romeo and Juliet." Mandy Eilers, a second-year graduate student working on her MFA degree in costume design, received honorable mention for her costume design for the UNL production "Romeo and Juliet." Catherine Wallis, a first-year graduate student, won a Regional Award for Best Stage Management for the UNL production of "Macbeth."

A $5,000 grant from the Lincoln Community Foundation and a $3,050 grant from the Nebraska Arts Council were awarded to Friends of Arts Are Basic to support the Arts Are Basic 2004 Summer Training Workshop June 10-15th. The grant money will be used for workshop training that serves an ethnically diverse population of art specialists, classroom teachers, UNL students, after-school program staff and Teaching Artists.

Colleen McDonald, an administrative technician in the School of Music, received an NGRADitude award from the Office of Graduate Studies in February. The awards were created to acknowledge helpful graduate staff professionals.



Faculty

Scott Anderson, Associate Professor of Trombone, performed on the Nebraska premier of William Bolcom's "Piano Concerto" with the Omaha Symphony. Anderson played tenor tuba with the orchestra. He was invited to perform with the Dallas Brass on their March 25 concert at UNL. Anderson soloed on Arthur Pryor's "Blue Bells of Scotland" and perform with the quintet on the "Sextet for Brass" by Oskar Boehme. Anderson premiered Randall Snyder's "Following Lee Konitz Again" for trombone, narrator and percussion with the New Music Agency. This was the beginning of a series of performances of the trombone music by Randall Snyder that will culminate in a fall recital in 2004. Anderson arranged a master class on January 29 with New York jazz trombonist John Fedchock with funding through Conn-Selmer and Dietze Music.

John Bailey, Larson Professor of Flute, has returned from a faculty development leave in Europe, where he visited conservatories in Prague, Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, DŸsseldorf, London, Manchester, Modena and Milan and gave lectures and recitals of American flute music since 1970. He also learned about European standard literature for flute not generally played in the U.S.

Diane Barger, Associate Professor of Clarinet, was a featured guest artist at the Alabama Clarinet Retreat held at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in January, where she performed as a recital soloist and presented two master classes. She also published an article in the March issue of "The Clarinet," the journal of the International Clarinet Association (ICA). As a member of the ICA, Barger received the nomination to run for the office of Treasurer (to be voted on in July at the ICA ClarinetFest conference, during which Barger will be featured in a recital performance and coordinate the ICA High School Solo Competition).

Paul Barnes, Associate Professor of Piano, taught and gave a recital as part of the Yale Seminar Masterclasses held at the Isador Bandic Music Academy in Novi Sad, Serbia, February 3-11. He was also the festival artist for the Truman State Piano Festival held at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, on February 16-17. He also performed a solo recital and judged the piano. From March 3-6, Barnes attended the American Liszt Society (ALS) Festival held at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Barnes performed a lecture-recital featuring the piano transcriptions of Alexander Siloti and Barnes' own transcriptions from the operas of Philip Glass. UNL will host the 2005 ALS festival from April 14-16.

Ron Bartels, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, recently had his digital print "Twin Towers: We Remember" selected as part of an exhibition for the Hong Kong International Poster Triennial 2004 to be on display in April and May. The poster depicts his photographic and drawn typographic rendering of the NY World Trade Center Towers, and cites a phone call he received on September 13, 2001, from a friend who survived the attacks and worked for a mortgage company at the towers. This triennial exhibition is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and by the Hong Kong Designers Association.

Stan Brown, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, has spent this semester in New York City performing in "Open Heart" at the Cherry Lane Theatre, which opened March 17. His performance has garnered many positive reviews, including those in the New York Times, Newsday, the New York Post, and Broadway.com.

Keith Curington, Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director of Choral Activities, gave a presentation entitled "African-American Spirituals" at the Music Teachers National Association Convention in Kansas City in March.

Michael Cochran, Assistant Professor of Voice, gave a lecture recital on "Rakhmaninov Romances" March 31 with Michael Cotton, piano, at the Music Teachers National Association Conference in Kansas City. The lecture focused on four recurrent themes in his vocal works: religion, dreams, sorrow and nature.

Quentin Faulkner, Larson Professor of Organ, gave two workshops and performed a recital for the Missoula (Montana) Chapter of the American Guild of Organists March 6-7. Organ students and faculty performed their annual playing project on March 1. This year's project featured works by the American composer Ned Rorem, honoring his 80th birthday: Organbooks I, II and III and selected compositions from "A Quaker Reader." A total of 19 organists took part in the project.

Gretchen Foley, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, delivered a paper entitled "Arrays and KNets: Transformational Relationships Within Perle's Twelve-Tone Tonality" at the national conference of the Society for Music Theory in November. She also delivered a paper entitled "Symbols and Musical Instinct: Relating Analysis with Performance" at the 23rd annual meeting of the Great Plains Chapter of the College Music Society, held in March at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

William Grange, Professor of Theatre Arts, had two recent publications: "Promise Me Nothing on Heroes' Square: Marianne Hoppe's Twentieth Century" in the New England Theatre Journal and "Rules, Regulations, and the Reich" in Hellmut Rennert's book Essays on Twentieth-Century German Drama and Theater: An American Reception 1977-1999.

William Kenyon, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, served as the lighting and scenic designer for the Metropolitan Playhouse (New York City) production of "East Village Chronicles" in January. "East Village Chronicles" is a series of 10 new plays written by New York playwrights that cover the history and people of the Lower East Side of Manhattan over the past 200 years. This is Kenyon's 4th collaboration with Artistic Director Alex Roe, having previously designed Roe's productions of "The Seagull," "The Cherry Orchard," and "The Country Wife." Also in January, Kenyon served as part of the Barbizon Response Team for the Region III Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. Kenyon, along with three other professional designers, met with 160 students to give feedback over the four-day festival. In March, Kenyon was promoted to Co-Commissioner for Education with the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. He also chaired a workshop on portfolio design and construction at USITT's Annual Convention and Stage Expo in Long Beach, California.

The Moran Quintet (Associate Professor Diane Barger, clarinet; Associate Professor William McMullen, oboe; Assistant Professor Albie Michlich, bassoon; Larson Professor John Bailey, flute; and Associate Professor Allen French, horn) traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Regional College Band Directors National Association Conference for a performance with the UNL Wind Ensemble. The Moran Quintet's third CD, "Wind Music of Theodor Blumer, Vol. 2" was released in January on the Crystal label. The disk contains two large-scale quintets plus his Kammersinfonie, a sextet with pianist Paul Barnes. The quintet is visiting universities in Kansas and Missouri in April.

Glenn Nierman, Steinhart Professor and Chair of Music Education and School of Music Associate Director, will present a session on assessment practices and his research on changing All-State group formats at the 2004 MENC: The National Association for Music Education Conference in Minneapolis this April. In addition, he was invited to serve as an auditor at the International Music Education Policy Symposium, which will also convene at the Minneapolis Conference. In January, he began his two-year term as President of the Nebraska Music Educators Association (NMEA).

John Richmond, Professor and Director of the School of Music, was the featured speaker/clinician at the Music Education Leadership Institute at Georgia State University in Atlanta in March. His four-part presentation is entitled "Thinking About Policy Without Falling Asleep: Issues, Audience, Resources, Action." Richmond spoke at the Texas Association of Music Schools Annual Conference in Austin on March 27. His presentation was entitled "Arts Education Policy, Legal Issues, and Professional Ethics in Education." He will host the Big XII Music Executives Conference May 16-18 in Kansas City.

Pamela Starr, Professor of Music History, had her article, "Musical Entrepreneurship in Fifteenth Century Europe" published in the February 2004 issue of Early Music.

Alison Stewart, Associate Professor of Art History, co-edited with Jane Carroll "Saints, Sinners, and Sisters: Gender and Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe" (Aldershot, U.K., and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2003). These essays were written for this volume and published here for the first time. In addition to bringing the essays together, editing them and providing the introductions, Stewart wrote one of the essays, "Distaffs and Spindles: Sexual Misbehavior in Sebald Beham's Spinning Bee."

Robert Woody, Assistant Professor of Music Education, had several publications appear in professional journals recently. In January, his article "The Motivations of Exceptional Musicians" was published in the Music Educators Journal, and his review of the book "How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education" appeared in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. In March, the journal General Music Today published his article "Reality-Based Music Listening in the Classroom: Considering Students' Natural Responses to Music."



Students

Andrew Binkard (BA in Music) placed second in the 11th annual John Shildneck Young Artist Competition.

Olga Bojovic (MM) and Jeff Keele (MM) were featured in an Omaha World-Herald article in January on the Nebraska auditions for the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Meredith Brickell (MFA in Art) won the Juror's Choice Award from the exhibition, "Cup: The Intimate Object" at the Charlie Cummings Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in January. The juror was Julia Galloway, a lecturer in ceramics at Rochester Institute of Technology.

LaTasha Coffin (BA in Dance) and Ashley Woodward (BA in Dance) have each been selected to receive the Ruth Diamond Levinson Dance Award.

Jake Gillespie (BFA in Art Sophomore) had a solo exhibition entitled "Marathon" at Doc's Place, 140 N. Eighth St. in Lincoln, in January, which was featured in the Lincoln Journal-Star.

Krista Robbins (BFA in Art Senior) has been selected to deliver a presentation on her research project, "Mixing Metaphors: Exploring Gender and Popular Culture Through Painting" at the 2004 National Conference for Undergraduate Research at Indiana University at Purdue in April. Robbins is a UCARE assistant to Assistant Professor of Art Sandra Wiliams.

Ryan Strunk (BME Junior) was featured in the Lincoln Journal-Star for his performance in "Elixir of Love."

Armando Villarreal (BFA in Art Senior), an Army Sergeant with a National Guard unit currently serving in Iraq, has won the Nebraska Habitat Stamp Art Contest from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission with a painting of whitetail bucks titled "Brothers." It is the fourth time in six years he has won the contest. His winning painting will be reproduced on habitat stamps in 2005.

Krista Robbins, Untitled Michelle Woods (BFA in Art Senior) completed a 10-day residence with high school students in Friend, Nebraska. From their drawings, Woods is creating the final image they are working on to create a 90-square feet mosaic.

Five graphic design students from the Department of Art and Art History have been selected as finalists in the design competition for a poster celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the International Society of Music Educators (ISME): Kyle Behrens, Jane Bohling, Trent Claus, Shauna Goodsman and Mike Vithoulkas. The winning design will be chosen by the ISME Executive Board in April.

The following students will be honored at the College Honors Day on Saturday, April 24 at 5pm in the Johnny Carson Theater:

  • Emily Jahde (BME 2003), Dean's Award for Academic Excellence.
  • Ian Anderson (MFA in Art), Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.
  • Jessica MacKichan (BA in Art), Christopher Werner (DMA) and Patrick Clark (BFA in Film and New Media), F. Pace Woods Scholarships.
  • Nolan Tredway (BFA in Art) and Brian Curling (MFA in Art), Francis William Vreeland Awards.
  • David Bernard-Stevens (BME) and Christy Banks (DMA), Ida M. Vreeland Awards.
  • Natalie Hansen (BA in Art History), Geske Award for Excellence in Art History.
  • Brianne Bassler (BA in Theatre Arts), Jeff Weber (MFA in Theatre Arts) and Emily Peterson (BA in Dance), Anne and William (Laurie) Porter Awards for Creativity in Theatre Arts and Dance.


Alumni

Mike Kula (BFA in Art 1997) produced and directed "A Hysterical Mind," a 33-minute video in the final stages of production. He hopes to screen it this spring and air it on a public access channel in Los Angeles.

Bryant Scott (BA in Music 2003) has been selected to play lead trombone in the Disney All-American College Band in Anaheim, California, for the summer. Scott is only one of 40 selected for the band.

The College's Alumni Board have selected the recipients of the 2004 Alumni Awards. The Award of Merit will be presented to F. Pace Woods, II. The Alumni Achievement Awards will be presented to Lawrence Reger (B.A. 1961) from the Department of Art and Art History; Dr. W. Dieter Kober (B.M.E. 1947) from the School of Music; and James Baffico (B.A. 1967, M.A. 1969) from the Department of Art and Art History. The Student Leadership Award will be presented to Mary A. Anderson from the Department of Art and Art History. The awards will be presented at the College Honors Day Dinner on Saturday, April 24 at 5pm in the Johnny Carson Theater.



Affiliates

The Lentz Center for Asian Culture and Nebraska Repertory Theatre are two of 500 non-profit organizations nationwide working with Johns Hopkins' Center for Civil Society Studies in an ongoing research project to identify the major challenges facing non-profit organizations. The project, called "The Listening Post Project," is the most comprehensive effort to date to document the actual effects of the current financial environment on the nation's charitable organizations and those they serve. Theatre Arts Chairman and Nebraska Rep Director Jeffery Elwell was interviewed for a story on the project that appeared in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on January 22 and for a January 19 New York Times article.

Lentz Center for Asian Culture: The Lentz Center's celebration with the Tibetan monks last year won Event of the Year from the Lincoln Arts Council's Mayor's Arts Awards.

Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center: Dan Ladely, Director of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, is the recipient of the 2004 Sue Tidball Award for Creative Humanity for his work in consistently giving minorities a voice through film. The Sue Tidball Award is annually presented to individuals from the campus community as a way of recognizing significant contributions to the development of a humane, educationally creative and caring community within UNL.

Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden: Daniel A. Siedell (B.A. 1989), Sheldon Curator, contributed an essay titled "After Abstract Expressionism: Mapping the Coordinates of the Critical Discourse, 1950-1980" to the publication "An American Odyssey, 1950-1980: Debating Modernism" (Madrid: Circulo de Bellas Artes, 2004), edited by Stephen C. Foster. His essay "Rosalind Krauss, David Carrier, and Philosophical Art Criticism" will appear in the Journal of Aesthetic Education later this spring. Jessica Kennedy, Marketing Manager, presented programs on arts marketing to classes at Southeast Community College and Lincoln Southwest High School and to the State DECA conference on March 19.

 

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