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
Dean Giacomo Oliva with his NEOPA Administrator of the Year plaque
Congratulations!! Giacomo Oliva, Dean and Professor of Music, received the Nebraska Educational Office Professionals Association Administrator of the Year Award on Oct. 13.
Congratulations!! The following School of Music students placed at the Nebraska National Association of the Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2006 Auditions on Oct. 6:
- First Year Women: Catherine Bobst (1st place), Allison Frenzel (2nd place) and Sloane Cornelius (3rd place)
- First Year Men: Adam Fieldson (2nd place), Jay Burken (3rd place), John Gieringer (finalist) and Stuart Richey (finalist)
- Sophomore Women: Jessie Beran (1st place), Havilah Moore (3rd place) and Jessica Rajewich (finalist)
- Junior Women: Natalie Tavlin (2nd place), Emily Chapman (3rd place), Jamie Unger (finalist), Natalia Martinez (finalist) and Sarah Smith (finalist)
- Junior Men: Andy King (1st place) and Drew Neneman (2nd place)
- Senior Women: Rebekah Rawhouser (2nd place), Tertia Hock (3rd place) and Anna Degraff (finalist)
- Senior Men: Zach Bjornsen (1st place) and Thomas Hurd (2nd place)
- Graduate Students: Thomas Gunther (1st place), Demaree Brown (2nd place), Chris Foss (3rd place) and Sara Salas (finalist).
The following faculty received Hixson-Lied Faculty Presentation of Scholarly/Creative Activity Grants in October:
- Carolyn Barber, School of Music, $575, Presentation at the Midwest Clinic, an international band and orchestra conference.
- Ann Chang-Barnes, School of Music, $1,400, Presentation of her recital in St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Liz Ingraham, Department of Art and Art History, $550, Presentation of her work at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference.
- Liz Ingraham, Department of Art and Art History, $650, Exhibitions at the San Luis Obispo Art Center and Cuesta College.
The Chiara String Quartet
- Wenhai Ma, Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, $1,200, Presentation at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore.
- Janice Stauffer, Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, $800, Presentation at the International Textile and Apparel Association meeting.
The Chiara String Quartet (Jonah Sirota, viola; Julie Yoon, violin; Rebecca Fischer, violin; and Gregory Beaver, cello) were awarded the 2006 Guarneri String Quartet Residency Award. The grant was established in 2005 by the Sewell Family Foundation and is given annually to recognize artistic excellence in a young quartet.
Faculty
Scott Anderson
Scott Anderson, Associate Professor of Trombone, completed a nine-year project to perform and research the competition solos for trombone from the Paris Conservatory from 1897-1956. His fall faculty recital featured the remaining six compositions from this set. Anderson will perform as second trombonist with the Des Moines Symphony in November. The University of Nebraska Brass Quintet (Darryl White and K. Craig Bircher, trumpets; Alan Mattingly, horn; Scott Anderson, trombone, and Craig Fuller, tuba) were selected and performed a recital on the Free at Six program at the Lied Center in September.
John Bailey, Larson Professor of Flute, conducted the American Flute Orchestra on tour in May. The group, consisting of 35 professional flutists and teachers from around the U.S., played at conservatories, music schools and churches in St. Petersburg, Russia; Riga, Latvia; and Tallinn, Estonia. Bailey performed a recital of works of Dresden composer Theodor Blumer at the National Flute Association's annual national convention in Pittsburgh in August. He also performed three works on a second recital program, judged the prestigious Young Artist Competition, and conducted a flute choir reading session. In September, Bailey gave a recital, masterclass and lecture on flute history at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Carolyn Barber, Associate Professor and Director of Bands, performed as a guest conductor in July with the Lincoln Municipal Band in their annual "Rails to Trails" concert. On Sept. 10, Barber served as a featured clinician for the American String Teachers Association Central States Workshop. The session was "Enhancing Your Creativity on the Podium," based on her research into the physics and psychology of conducting. On Sept. 29, Barber conducted the UNL Wind Ensemble in the Nebraska premieres of Carter Pann's "Slalom" and David Del Tredici's "In Wartime."
Diane Barger, Associate Professor of Clarinet, presented a clarinet masterclass and performed a solo recital with Associate Professor of Piano Mark Clinton in September at the Community Music School in St. Louis. Barger performed in August in Atlanta for the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest®, where she also served as a judge in the final round of the I.C.A.'s High School Solo Competition. Barger is currently serving her second two-year term as Treasurer of the I.C.A.
The official recording of Philip Glass's Lewis and Clark Piano Concerto featuring Paul Barnes is now available on CD
Paul Barnes, Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Piano, has had his transcriptions from Philip Glass's Orphee, the Orphee Suite for Piano, published this summer by Chester Music of London. Ashley Oakley (BM) helped prepare the music files as part of her UCARE project. Also, the official recording of Philip Glass's Lewis and Clark Piano Concerto, which Barnes premiered with the Omaha Symphony two years ago at the Lied Center, is now available. Barnes' American Piano Concertos has also been recently released on the Albany Records label. This CD includes the world premier recording of both Victoria Bond's "Ancient Keys" based on a Greek Orthodox chant and Jeff Hass's "Concerto for Amplified Piano and Wind Ensemble, as well as Gershwin's popular "Rhapsody in Blue" and the "I Got Rhythm Variations." Barnes served as convention artist for the Washington State Music Teachers Association state convention held in Ocean Shores, Wash., in June. He also served as festival artist for the Lee Piano Festival held at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D. This September he performed "Rhapsody in Blue" and the Philip Glass "Piano Concerto No. 2" with the Omaha Symphony in the Holland Center for Performing Arts in Omaha. In early October, Barnes was also featured at the Great Romantics Festival in Hamilton, Ontario, where he performed Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs.
Stan Brown, Associate Professor of Theatre, is working on an adaptation of "Living Out Loud" with the financial assistance of producer Peter Schneider. He did vocal coaching work on a production of "The Cherry Orchard" and "All's Well That Ends Well" at the National Theatre School in Montreal in early May. Brown is working on a voice book that will include submissions from Cicely Berry, Arthur Lessac, Andrew Wade, Louis Colliani, Richard Armstrong, and others. He was a guest artist for a week at The Harrison School of the Arts in Lakeland, Fla., in August. He also served as the language consultant for a feature film titled "WAZ," which is now in post-production and was produced by Vertigo Films in London.
Richard Endacott, Associate Professor of Film, continues to supervise the post-production and DVD authoring of six DVD projects for his clients at Music Theatre International. The projects include Disney's Mulan, Alice in Wonderland, Aristocrats and Sleeping Beauty, as well as Honk! Junior and Dear Edwina Junior. (These are never-before released theatrical versions of Disney movies adapted to the stage for young performers.) He completed the production phase of three new shows for iTheatrics, the spin-off company created to produce children's theatre packages for MTI. The video was shot at the Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City in late July. The titles represented include Seussical Junior, A Year with Frog and Toad Junior, and Pirates of Penzance Junior. Endacott also began shooting interviews and b-roll footage for use in updating the award-winning Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts DVD. The update is scheduled to be completed in Fall 2007. Finally, Endacott served as a reviewer for a third edition of a textbook that he has used in his Sound for Film course. The author, David Lewis Yewdall, is in the process of finalizing a third edition of "The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound." Endacott read the pre-printer (digital) galleys for factual errors, comments and changes.
William Grange's book, "Historical Dictionary of German Theater"
Professor of Theatre William Grange's most recent book, "Historical Dictionary of German Theatre" was released in August. Grange was awarded a Dorot Fellowship to conduct research at the Harry Ransom Humanities Center at the University of Texas. The Dorot Foundation supports research in Jewish studies, Jewish authors and on relevant cultural topics requiring research in the Center's collections. Grange will conduct research on the newly acquired Stella Adler Archive. Adler was a founding member of the Group Theater and Marlon Brando's principal acting teacher. His review of "The Longing for Myth in Germany" by George Willamson was published in Baylor Journal of Theatre and Dance (Vol. 3, pp. 17-20). He created 15 PowerPoint presentations for Theatre 335 and Theatre 336, along with several podcasts, to prepare three distance courses for the Department of Extended Education and Outreach.
Paul Haar, Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies, was invited to teach this summer as part of the International Association for Jazz Education Teacher Training Institute. Held on the campus of the University of Delaware, this four-day workshop brought together some of the biggest names in jazz performance and education with secondary music educators from across the nation for clinics, workshops and master classes in jazz. In addition to his summer teaching and performing, Haar was asked to be an featured performing artist/clinician for the P. Mauriat Instrument Company (Paris). Haar joins an artist roster that includes such notable figure as James Carter, Roger Greenberg and Wayne Escoffery.
Susan Levine, Assistant Professor of Dance, collaborated with Lecturer Chip Stanley for a gesture drawing exercise for Stanley's Visual Literacy perceptive drawing class using dancers in Levine's modern dance class as models.
Wenhai Ma
Wenhai Ma, Associate Professor of Theatre, designed the set and costumes for the Hunan Han Opera Repertory Theatre's "The Peach Blossom Valley," which opened Aug. 25. He had a solo exhibition, "Wenhai Ma: Recent Landscapes and Watercolors" in July at the KL Art Gallery in West Lafayette, Ind. He was invited as a guest lecturer to Hu-nan Academy of Fine Arts in China.
Tammy Meneghini, Lecture in Theatre, studied at the Barstow Alexander Technique Institute at Doane College in Crete, Neb. While at the Institute, she was invited to conduct a Fitzmaurice Voicework evening class with fellow Fitzmaurice Associate Melinda Murphy. Meneghini attended the annual Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in Chicago. She also attended the annual Voice and Speech Teachers Association conference, also in Chicago. She was the musical director/instructor at the Northern Illinois University Summer Theatre Camp. She also taught at the Actor's Movement Studio in New York as part of the Summer Movement Institute. She served as "Artist Coach" and team taught with Omaha cultural artist Charles Ahovissi at the Kennedy Center Partners in Education Summer Workshop in Schuyler, Neb. Meneghini read a new work with the Angels Theatre Company at the Midwest Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha. She completed with film and new media student Robbie Morrison an edited version of the spring performance at the Lied Center "An Elizabethan Salon."
Giacomo Oliva, Dean and Professor of Music, and John Richmond, Professor and Director of the School of Music, made a presentation at the ISME World Conference in Malaysia this summer. Richmond was also appointed to the Planning Committee on Music in General Education, co-sponsored by the National Association of Schools of Music and the College Music Society in anticipation of the 2007 combined conferences of these two organizations in Salt Lake City.
William Shomos, Associate Professor and Director of Opera, headed up the young artist program of La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy, this past summer. There he staged Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera, "Il Campanello," which was performed in a variety of venues throughout the Marche region. Shomos also appeared as a vocalist on concerts in Novafeltria and Rimini. Earlier in the summer, he sang the title role of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" with TADA productions in Lincoln. He also staged Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" with Nevada Opera as part of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival series: Midsummer Nights-"Celebrating Genius."
Jonah Sirota, Lecturer in Music, won Third Prize at the Walter W. Naumburg viola competition in New York City. The competition is open to all violists who reside or study in North America who are between the ages of 18-32. Sirota played works by Bach, Hindemith, Brahms and Penderecki in the final round.
Harris Smith, Associate Professor of Theatre, did a national voice-over for a website called notreligion.com last spring. He recorded the voice-over at the facilities that house Back to the Bible, a national radio program, which is an affiliate of notreligion.com. He played Mark Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" at the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival this summer. He will do an industrial training video for Wells Fargo on Oct. 21.
Virginia Smith, Associate Professor of Theatre, served as the Artistic Director of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and directed "Omnium Gatherum." With writer and composer Paul Amandes, she adapted "Local Wonders" by Ted Kooser into a two-person musical play. Together with Manager Julie Hagemeier, she wrote seven grant proposals. Five of them were successful totaling $22,911 in funding. Smith also supervised one UCARE grant for a student researcher in the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. She organized the Rep's involvement in the Great Plains Albee Festival in Omaha last May. Smith wrote six scenarios used in the video "Managing Difficult Situations" which was recently completed and aids in training teaching assistants to handle hot button situations in class. This was a collaborative project between Graduate Studies, N.E.T. and the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. She is currently directing "Judevine," supervising seven graduate students in their thesis production, and will direct "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" for the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and Lied Center's co-production in December. She visited the Schapkin School in Moscow for four weeks to study their process of education and evaluation.
Ed Stauffer, Associate Professor of Theatre, designed the scenery for "Play It Again, Sam" at the Black Hills Playhouse.
Students
Caitlin Applegate
Caitlin Applegate, M.F.A Department of Art and Art History, was the guest speaker at Elliot Elementary School during their Celebrate Elliot event on the first Friday of their school year. This was part of a collaboration with the Lincoln Arts Council's Stories of Home project and Elliot School. She also spoke to a College of Journalism and Mass Communications class at UNL as part of their assignment on the various forms of literacy. She will begin a multiple-week project with an eighth grade class at Park Middle School later this month.
Eriko Fujita, M.F.A. Department of Art and Art History, had one of her prints selected by internationally recognized art critic Eleanor Heartney for inclusion in the Member's Exhibition of the joint conference of the Southeastern College Art Conference and the Mid-America College Art Association. Only about 30 individuals were selected from a pool of 217 artists from throughout the United States. Fujita was the only graduate student west of the Mississippi River to have work selected.
Jamie Reimer, a DMA graduate student in the School of Music, won the Mary Ann Starring Memorial Award, which is accompanied by a $500 cash prize, at the Sigma Alpha Iota Triennial Convention this past summer.
A film crew from the Emeril Live TV show films School of Music graduate student Jacob Thomas and his award-winning cheesecake, along with the UNL Jazz Ensemble
Jacob Thomas, M.M. in the School of Music, won a national chocolate recipe contest through the Emeril Live TV show on the Food Network for his "Jake's Explosive Double Chocolate Chip Turtle Cheesecake" recipe. Thomas will travel to New York City Nov. 6 to meet famed chef Emeril Lagasse and watch him make his now-famous cheesecake recipe. A film crew from the TV show was on campus in October to film Thomas in his kitchen at home and performing on his saxophone with the Jazz Ensemble in Westbrook Music Building. The show will air early next year on the Food Network.
Several students in the Department of Art and Art History volunteered at the Children's Festival Sept. 23 at the Lincoln Children's Museum to set up a Clay Club activity station at the festival. Graduate students Autumn Cipala, Xanthe Isbister, Caitlin Applegate, and Susan Dewsnap; undergraduate student Kestrel Lemen and ceramics student Jana Evans, all participated in the event.
Alumni
Jim Cantrell, "McClean House Steps"
Amber Eve Anderson (B.F.A. Art 2005) had her work on display from Sept. 6 to Oct. 6, 2006, at the Nebraska' Governor's Residence as part of the 2006-2007 Governor's Residence Exhibition Season.
Jim Cantrell (B.F.A. Ed. Art 1958), has an exhibition of oils, watercolors and drawings from the past three decades as part of the 35th Anniversary Exhibition of the Bardstown (Ky.) Art Gallery and the Cantrell Art Studio through Dec. 10.
Ann (Tudor) Gable Allaire (B.F.A. Art 1967) was awarded the Atlantic Papers Award at the National Arts Club Grand Gallery in New York City on Sept. 17 by The Pastel Society of America. Additionally, her painting, "Evening Tide," was selected for the Joseph Salomon Purchase Prize. As a Pastel Society of America Signature Member who has received awards at three different annual exhibitions, she is now designated a Master Pastelist, one of 142 Master Pastelists listed with the Pastel Society of America.
Leslie Harlow Gries (B.M.E. 1981) announced the publication by 3 Jewels Press of her audio novella, "Failure," which is set in the music scene in Lincoln.
Tim Hammer (B.A. Theatre 2002) appeared in an Oct. 10 episode of "Nip/Tuck" on the FX channel.
Jeremy Kolwinska (M.M. 1999) has been named Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Tenneessee-Martin. He also teaches low brass.
Ann Gable Allaire's "Evening Tide".
Catherine Meier (B.F.A. Art 2005) received a Jacob Javits Fellowship valued at $42,000, including tuition and stipend for a maximum of four years. The Jacob Javits Fellowship Program provides graduate-level support for students pursuing the arts, humanities and social sciences. Meier is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Michigan.
Susan P. Puelz (B.F.A. 1980, M.F.A. 1984 Art) had a solo exhibition in July at the Anderson O'Brien Fine Art Gallery in Omaha. She also had her watercolors and pastels featured in a solo exhibition at the Great Plains Art Museum from July-October 2006.
Jonathan Reece (B.A. Music 2005) is currently a student at Southeast Technical University in Red Wing, Minn., where he is enrolled in the band instrument repair program.
Godwin Sadoh (M.M. 2000) will direct the LeMoyne-Owen College Concert Choir in a Festival of Lessons and Carols for Christmas at the Second Congregational Church in Memphis, Tenn., on Nov. 29. Sadoh's "Keresimesi Odun de for sopranos, altos, tenors and bass and piano will be premiered at the event.
Fred Scott (B.A. Music 2005) is a student in the graduate program of the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. He is pursuing a Master of Music degree in music technology.
Nancy Vogt (D.M.A. 2006) is an instructor of low brass at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She teaches trombone and euphonium, as well as brass chamber music. She is also a member of the NWU Faculty Trio.