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 UNL Opera production of "Most Happy Fella" won six awards at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera in Ireland in September, including the International Trophy Winner (1st place). Other awards included Best Sets, Best Female Singer (Anna DeGraff, B.M. senior), Best Male Singer (Associate Professor of Music and Director of Opera William Shomos), Best Musical Direction (Associate Professor of Music and Director of Orchestra Tyler White), and Best Chorus for "Abbondanza" (featuring Adam Fieldson, B.M. sophomore; Jake Bartlett, M.M.; and Thom Gunther, M.M.). The trip to Ireland was made possible by a gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation by Jim and Rhonda Seacrest of Lincoln.

Congratulations! The following School of Music students placed at the Nebraska National Association of the Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2007 Auditions on Oct. 8:

  • First Year Women: Cami Philgreen (1st place), Adria Caffaro (3rd place) and Shani Daws (finalist).
  • First Year Men: Donovan Fahrens (1st place), Brett Guster (2nd place) and Andrew Miner (3rd place).
  • Sophomore Women: Paige Whitaker (1st place) and Allison Frenzel (2nd place).
  • Sophomore Men: Jay Burken (2nd place), Adam Fieldson (3rd place) and Bryan McKnight (finalist).
  • Junior Women: Jessie Beran (1st place) and Havilah Moore (2nd place).
  • Junior Men: Dan Beard (3rd place)
  • Senior Women: Emily Chapman (1st place), Sarah Smith (2nd place), Anna DeGraff (3rd place), Katie Erikson (finalist), Natalie Tavlin (finalist) and Jamie Unger (finalist).
  • Senior Men: Andy King (1st place), Thomas Hurd (2nd place) and Drew Neneman (3rd place).
  • Graduate Men and Women: Beth Neuerburg (1st place), Antonella Delli Carpini (2nd place), Jake Bartlett (3rd place), Lisa Loewen Kroeker (finalist), Stephanie Meyer (finalist) and Sara Salas (finalist).

The Department of Art and Art History received a $10,000 grant from Woods Charitable Fund, Inc., in June for its "Cultural Enhancement Community Arts" project.

The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film received a $3,070 grant from the Nebraska Arts Council, in June for the Nebraska Repertory Theatre's "The Page, The Stage and Silver Screen: A Celebration of Gone with the Wind."

The Department of Art and Art History's ceramics program received a top-five ranking for graduate schools nationally in U.S. News and World Report.

John Carrasco (M.F.A. Art) has been selected as a fellow of the 2007-08 Hispanic Scholarship Fund/McNamara Family Creative Arts Project Grant. He will receive $14,226 to complete his project.

The following faculty received Hixson-Lied Faculty Presentation Grants in October:

  • John Bailey, School of Music, $800, for a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the College Music Society in Salt Lake City.
  • Paul Barnes, School of Music, $800, for a presentation at the College Music Society Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City.
  • Anthony Bushard, School of Music, $800, for a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the College Music Society in Salt Lake City.
  • Kate Butler, School of Music, $850, for a presentation of a lecture-recital and two pre-performance lectures at Oklahoma State University.
  • Kate Butler, School of Music, $680, for presentations and performances at the University of California and at the Church of St. Michael's and All Angels in Riverside, Calif.
  • Gretchen Foley and Susan Levine, School of Music, $4,800 for a presentation at the Society for Music Theory Conference in Baltimore and the College Music Society Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City.
  • Kevin Hanrahan, School of Music, $800, for a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the College Music Society in Salt Lake City.
  • Michael Hoff, Art and Art History, $715, for a presentation of his research at the Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting in Chicago.
  • Wendy Katz, Art and Art History, $1,000, for a presentation of a paper at the College Art Association's 96th Annual Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.
  • Gail Kendall, Art and Art History, $2,000, to support a presentation at the Moroccan/American Potter's Exchange: The Marrakesh Project in Marrakesh, Morocco.
  • David Neely, School of Music, $840, to support a presentation at the American String Teachers Annual Conference in Albuquerque, N.M.

The following students received Hixson-Lied Undergraduate Creative Research Grants in October:

  • Kelly Koerber, Art and Art History, $2,000.
  • Austin Martin, Art and Art History, $1,825.
  • Matt Miller, Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, $1,250.
  • Marde Monahan, Art and Art History, $700.
  • Chad Olsen, Art and Art History, $794.
  • Lindsey Petersen, Art and Art History, $1,300.
  • Rebecca Reineke, Art and Art History, $1,840.


Faculty

Diane Barger, Professor of Clarinet, was invited to join a prestigious group of clarinetists, as she was named an Artist/Clinician for Buffet Crampon, U.S.A., this fall.

Paul Barnes, Associate Professor of Piano, performed and taught at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.Y. in April. On April 23, Barnes gave the world premier performance of his own transcription of Philip Glass' "Piano Concerto No. 2" on the Cutting Edge Concert Series held at Symphony Space in New York City. In May, he adjudicated MusicFest Northwest, a prestigious piano festival in Spokane, Wash. For the month of June, Barnes and six other students (Nicholas Reynolds, junior; Sophie Becker, freshman; Joseph Swanson, freshman; Mark Stevens, graduate student; David Brewster, former graduate student and now M.M. at Washington State University); and Anne Case, a freshman at Oberlin College) traveled to Vienna, Salzburg, and Budapest for the Bösendorfer International Piano Academy, where Barnes has been teaching for the last eight years. In September, he gave his ninth performance of the Philip Glass Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Lima Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Crafton Beck. The Lima News praised Barnes for his "impressive command of the score..." and his "rhythmic precision and vigor."

Anthony Bushard, Assistant Professor of Music History, has an article in the forthcoming "Journal of Film Music" entitled "He Could've Been a Contender: Thematic Integration in Leonard Bernstein's Score for 'On the Waterfront' (1954)."

Kate Butler, Assistant Professor of Voice, made her directing debut this summer when she directed a production of the musical "Brigadoon" for the Redlands Summer Bowl, sponsored by the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc. in Calif. She also co-produced the production, overseeing the musical, artistic and technical direction and coordination. The musical ran from July 24-29 with a total estimated audience of more than 20,000 people.

The Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello) represented UNL as a featured performer and presenter on a music Careers Forum sponsored by Rice University's Shepherd School of Music Oct. 12-14. The Forum, "Convening Student Perspectives and Creating New Models for the 21st Century" brought together conservatory students, faculty and staff to discuss the future of music careers. Sixteen conservatories and music schools were represented, including Juilliard, Eastman and Northwestern University. The Chiara String Quartet recently finished recording two string quartets by award-winning composer Jefferson Friedman. They performed both works on a Sept. 18 faculty recital at Kimball Hall. The group made the recording with Grammy award-winning producer Judy Sherman and with the input of the composer himself. Sept. 19-22, The Chiara String Quartet kicked off a year of Arts Across Nebraska performances and educational outreach visits, sponsored by the Lied Center for Performing Arts, with a two-day residency in Scottsbluff. They also performed on several major series over the summer, including the Cooperstown (N.Y.) Chamber Music Festival, Chappaquiddick (Mass.) Chamber Music Society and Music Mountain in Falls Village, Ct ., in a series of two concerts broadcast in their entirety on WAMC Northeast Public Radio. The Quartet also traveled on the UNL Chancellor's Tour of Nebraska April 30-May 4, along with School of Music Director John W. Richmond, and Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Dean Giacomo Oliva, performing in six different communities over five days. Film and new media students Josie Azzam and John Albrecht also came on the tour to shoot video of the tour. The Chiara String Quartet is one of several groups featured in an article in the November 2007 issue of "Strings" magazine on faculty chamber ensembles. School of Music Director John W. Richmond is also quoted in the article.

Mark Clinton, Associate Professor of Piano, appeared with the Illinois Symphony Piano Quintet in a series of performances in Bloomington, Springfield, and Champaign, Illinois in March. The featured work on all three programs was the F minor Piano Quintet of Johannes Brahms. In April, Clinton performed George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the UNL Symphonic Band in a special performance of music by Masonic composers at the Scottish Rite Temple of Lincoln. During the last weekend of April, Clinton gave two masterclasses and a recital in Seattle. The residency was sponsored by Sherman Clay Music and the Chopin Academy. Clinton was a featured performer at the 2007 Illinois Chamber Music Festival in June, performing works by Chausson, Brahms, Dvorak, and Arensky. He joined UNL clarinet professor Diane Barger and UNL dance professor Susan Levine for a performance at the 2007 International Clarinet Association annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in early July. At the 2007 Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival in Prague (held from July 22 to August 11), Clinton collaborated with other international guest artists in performances at the historic church of Sts. Simon and Judah and Suk Hall at the Rudolfinum. 

Stanley Kleppinger, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, was invited to give a presentation to the Musicology, Music Theory and Ethnomusicology Colloquium at the University of Iowa. His Oct. 19 lecture was titled "Elucidating Tonal Structure in Pitch-Centric Music by Copland."

Tom Larson, Lecturer of Music, wrote the musical score to "Most Honorable Son," a documentary shown on the PBS network in September. UNL School of Music faculty who performed on the score were Paul Haar, and Scott Anderson. Larson also recorded, mixed and edited the new Paul Barnes CD release for Orange Mountain Music. He also wrote arrangements for and played piano on the new Paul Haar jazz CD.

Peter Lefferts, Professor of Music, had two important studies published in Europe in the Fall of 2007. His chapter on "Some Aspects of Musical Notation in Fourteenth-Century England" appears in "Progetto Notazion: Notazioni della polifonia vocale secc. IX-XVII" (published by the University of Pavia), a two-volume international project on the notation of music in Medieval and Renaissance Europe that is intended as the successor to Willi Apel's classic "The Notation of Polyphonic Music." His article "A riddle and a song: playing with signs in a 14th-century ballade," appears in the newest Early Music History, the Cambridge University Press journal which is the premiere international journal devoted exclusively to music before 1750. Lefferts was the invited speaker of Omaha's Trans-Mississippi Exposition Historical Association in March for a talk entitled "Music at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, 1898: Some Aspects of Planning and Execution." In July he was the featured speaker at the events surrounding the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Manual Training Building at the United States Indian Industrial School in Genoa, Neb., with a multi-media presentation on "Nels Samuel Nelson and the Genoa School Band." A DVD of his talk on "Music at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, 1898: The Career of Willard Kimball and the UNL Alumni Organ" has been deposited in the public libraries of Lincoln and Omaha by the Preservation Association of Lincoln.

William McMullen, Professor of Oboe, was a featured artist at the 35th Annual National Flute Association Convention in August in Albuquerque, N.M., performing with flutist Claudia Anderson several duets for flute and oboe. McMullen and Anderson were featured on two programs titled "Sound-Byte Concert No. 2" and "Spotlight Concert No.4: Transcriptions." This summer, McMullen performed numerous chamber works as a part of the "Music in the Mountains Concert Series" sponsored by Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colo.

The Moran Woodwind Quintet (John Bailey, flute; William McMullen, oboe; Diane Barger, clarinet; Jeffrey McCray, bassoon; and Alan Mattingly, horn) traveled to Missouri on Oct. 17-18 and gave clinic-concerts for Missouri-area instrumentalists and performed at Lee's Summit High School and Lee's Summit West High School.

David Neely, Associate Professor of Violin, and Clark Potter, Associate Professor of Viola, were featured soloists on a recent concert of the Hastings Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 21. The two professors teamed up on Mozart's "Sinfonia Concertante," a concerto for solo violin, solo viola and orchestra on the first half of the concert. After intermission, Potter performed Vaughan Williams' "Suite for Viola and Orchestra."

John W. Richmond, Professor and Director of the School of Music, presented to the World Conference of the College Music Society in Bangkok, Thailand, this summer. The title of his presentation was "Composition Education: Creating Curriculum for Teacher Educators."

William Shomos, Associate Professor and Director of Opera, staged Puccini's one-act operas, "Suor Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi" with La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy. This fall he sang the role of Tony Esposito with UNL Opera's "The Most Happy Fella," which toured to Waterford, Ireland, to participate in the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera (see above), where Shomos won the award for Best Male Singer.

Virginia Smith, Associate Professor of Theatre, served as Artistic Director of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre (NRT), the professional arm of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, overseeing productions of "The Last Five Years," "Moonlight & Magnolias" and "Metamorphoses." She also directed "Metamorphoses," a staged reading of Monica Bauer's new play "My Occasion of Sin" for the NRT's Destination Series, and a scene from "Still Life" by Emily Mann for the Great Plains Theatre Festival in Omaha. Smith also received a Layman Grant to distribute "Local Wonders," the play with music based on former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser's work, which premiered at the NRT in 2006. She also wrote the script for a training video, "Responsible Conduct of Research," a collaboration between UNL Graduate Studies, Research Compliance, the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and Nebraska Educational Television.

Pamela Starr, Professor of Music History, was elected secretary of the American Musicological Society. Her term begins on Nov. 4.

Darryl White, Associate Professor of Trumpet, released a new classical CD entitled "Resonance" in collaboration with ECM Recording artist/composer Art Lande and New York composer Bruce Williamson. White has also been appointed interim Associate Principal Trumpet with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra.



Students

Jen-Kuang Chang (D.M.A.) had his composition "Bodhisattva" named the first prize winner in the "Orchestral Ensemble" category for the 5th edition of the Yorgos Foudoulis Composition Competition. Additionally, his eight-minute long electro-acoustic composition was named the second prize winner in the "Music Technology" category. Additionally, one of his electro-acoustic compositions premiered at the Kentucky New Music Festival in John Jacob Niles Gallery on Oct. 9 as part of Voxnovus 60x60 Midwest Minutes 2007 Mix.

Elizabeth Parker (Choral Music Education Adjunct and Ph.D. student) had an article published in the August 2007 Choral Journal entitled "Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Growth in the School Chorus." Choral Journal is the preeminent journal of its kind in the choral profession.



Alumni

Caitlin Applegate (M.F.A. 2007) was accepted into the 2007 Marge Brown Kalodner Graduate Student Exhibition at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia in June. She took second prize and a cash award of $500. She was also in a group exhibition in June about the figure at Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City. Applegate chaired the committee that put together Haydon Art Center's Open Studio Tour in September. More than 50 artists' studios were open to the public. In October, Applegate begins a three-month residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha.

Jim Cantrell (B.F.A.Ed. art 1958) will have a solo exhibition of paintings titled "Jim Cantrell: A Painter's Odyssey" at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Mo., from Nov. 16, 2007, to Jan. 13, 2008. In 2007, he received a Professional Development Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council and was the juror for the Professional Fine Art Division of the Indiana State Fair. On Sept. 29, an oil portrait of John H. Schroeder by Cantrell will be unveiled and will hang in the new Schroeder Family School of Business Administration Building at the University of Evansville in Indiana.

James "Ken" Goodwin (B.M.E. 1983) is entertainment manager at Sing Sing dueling-piano club in Denver and has been appointed Executive Producer of Performance Now Theatre Company, which presents four musicals each year.

Nathan Knutson (B.M. 2002), a pianist and adjunct professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato, won first place in the National Federation of Music (NFMC) Clubs Biennial Young Artist Competition in June. He was sponsored by the South Dakota Federation of Music Clubs, the Aberdeen Area Music Teachers and the Minnesota Federation of Music Clubs.

Maura Kenny Parrott (B.A. Art History 1986) was appointed to the Las Vegas Arts Commission in May 2006. She has previously served on the Cultural Arts Commission for Rockville, Md.

Nicholas Phillips (B.M. 2000) recently graduated from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance. While pursuing his degree, he taught applied and class piano as a graduate teaching assistant at UMKC and was awarded the 2006 Muriel McBrien Kauffman Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant. He also served as an adjunct instructor at the Kansas City Kansas Community College, where he taught piano and music appreciation classes. Phillips recently accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, teaching applied and class piano. He received his M.M. in 2003 from Indiana University.

John Roberts (B.A. Art History 2005), a Peace Corps volunteer, was killed in October on the island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific when a tree limb fell on him and another worker as they helped the villagers. Roberts joined the Peace Corps two years ago.

Diana Sanchez (B.F.A. Art 2006) is a senior graphic designer for The Map Network (a map company) in Washington, D.C.

Melinda Yale (M.F.A. 2006), was awarded a year's studio residency at the Lower East Side Printshop in New York City for 2006-2007. She was also selected for a 2008 NEA Hands-on-Art book arts grant and residency at the Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, N.Y. This grant will sponsor the publishing of an editioned artist's book, as well as Yale's solo exhibition at the Women's Studio Workshop Gallery in April 2008.

 

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