Student News
Jay Afrisando (PhD, composition, student of Alex Lubet) presented his artistic work, “Gendhing Cosmic” (5th order ambisonics installation), at the Linux Audio Conference, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University, March 23-26, 2019. “Gendhing Cosmic” was exhibited at the CCRMA’s 56.8 system (56 loudspeakers and 8 subwoofers). Afrisando was featured in the Minnesota Public Radio article “How about a little office music? Composer Jay Afrisando is all work and play.”
Momcilo Aleksandric (DMA, guitar, student of Maja Radovanlija) was invited to give a lecture and performance at 2018 Hong Kong Altamira International Guitar Symposium. Aleksandric presented his research on Cuban contemporary composer Leo Brouwer entitled “El Decameron Negro: Semantic Intersection of Multiple Spatial Levels and the Concept of Return.” Aleksandric gave a lecture and performance at the Guitar Forum hosted by the Hong Kong Altamira International Guitar Symposium and the Guitar Research Center of the University of Surrey (UK). The lecture-recital took place in July 2018 in the Concert Hall of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Aleksandric also won first prize at the Altamira Hong Kong International Guitar Competition (July 10-14), taking home a cash prize and a Hanson concert guitar. Aleksandric played a solo concert and gave a lecture titled “Llobet’s Homage to Sor: Interconnections, Innovations, Implications for Performance” at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica in Heredia. He also received a diploma for extraordinary contribution to the Universidad Nacional’s guitar program. Aleksandric’s article “Miguel Llobet’s Variaciones sobre un Tema de Sor” was published in the latest edition of the Guitar Foundation of America’s Soundboard Journal.
Momcilo Aleksandric (DMA, guitar, student of Maja Radovanlija) and Filip Zivanovic (DMA, guitar, student of Maja Radovanlija), the Belgrade Guitar Duo, won first prize at the Southern Guitar Festival Ensemble Competition in Columbia, SC (June 2018). Zivanovic won second prize in the Festival’s Guitar Solo Competition. The Belgrade Guitar Duo also competed at the Guitar Foundation of America Ensemble Competition in June 2018.
Jared Anderson (music education) and François Harewood (BM, music education/piano, student of Paul Shaw) presented a remote roundtable discussion with European University Cyprus doctoral students Antogoni Kiriakidou, Anna Archontopoulou, Katerina Adamopoulou, as well as Professors Yiannis Miralis (European University Cyprus) and Akosua Obuo Addo (U of M, music education) at the 8th Conference of the Greek Society for Music Education with international participation held in Thessaloniki, Greece on November 24, 2018.
Ahmed Anzaldua (DMA, choral conducting, student of Kathy Saltzman Romey and Matthew Mehaffey) worked in classrooms around Minnesota as a Classical Minnesota Public Radio Class Notes artist with Border CrosSing. He was interviewed by Classical Minnesota Public Radio host Julie Amacher about his work.
Amanda Chan (PSEO, piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) won 1st Prize in the Contemporary Composers Advanced category and 2nd Prize in the Duet Advanced category with Skyler Chan in the 2018 Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition for Young Artists in Carmel, Indiana (June 27–July 1). Chan won 1st prize with Skyler Chan in the 2018 Ohio International Piano Duet & Duo Competition (November 17, 2018). Chan also won 1st prize in the 6th North West International Piano Ensemble Competition in Vancouver, Canada.
Tong Cheng (DMA, collaborative piano and coaching, student of Timothy Lovelace) has been invited to La Musica Lirica in Italy, where he performed with artists from around the world, including the musicians from the Rossini Opera Festival in June and July 2018. Tong collaborated with the opera scenes from Idomeneo, Suor Angelica, and L’elisir d’amore at Teatro Sociale di Novafeltria. Cheng participated in the Source Song Festival in August 2018 and worked with piano coach Arlene Shrut. He performed a Chinese traditional music recital to a sold-out crowd in Sundin Music Hall at Hamline University with Chinese Erhu Master Yuming Zhang.
Lars Christensen’s (PhD, musicology/ ethnomusicology, advisee of Gabriela Currie) essay “Imag(in)ing Musical Instruments: Prescriptive and Descriptive Iconography in the Northern Song Dynasty” was published in Volume 43 of Music in Art.
Michael Chu (violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) and Joyce Zhao (violin, Bravo! alumna, student of Sally O’Reilly) placed first in the State level of their categories at the Music Teachers National Association’s Young Artist Performance Competitions. Chu is a winner of the college audition, and Zhao is a winner of the high school audition. The competition was held at St. Olaf College on November 9, 2018. Chu won first place in the Music Teachers National Association’s (MTNA) Young Artist Performance Competitions (String Division), and competed as a national finalist in Spokane, Washington in March 2019.
Callie Cooper (BM, voice, student of Jean del Santo) won First Place in the Glenn Miller Birthplace Scholarship Competition. She was presented with the Eberle Vocal Scholarship, the top monetary prize, in Clarinda, IA on June 8, 2018. Cooper was selected to perform in the final round of the Music at Mosaic Competition in Merrifield, VA in July 2018. Cooper performed in Opera Susquehanna’s Winners Recital on October 28, 2018, in Gettysburg, PA. She performed a selection of opera arias and I hate music!: A Song Cycle of Five Kid Songs for Soprano by Leonard Bernstein. Cooper and Cole McIlquham (BM, voice, student of Adriana Zabala) presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 25, 2019 at Northrop Atrium. Their project was titled “Classical Singing and Musical Theater,” and they performed two duets that exemplified the meeting of the two performance styles. Cooper also joined Berkshire Choral International as a Choral Scholar in July 2019.
Matthew Harikian (MA, music theory; MM 2018, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) performed solo piano works of Mendelssohn and Scriabin for the Thursday Musical Artist Series at Antonello Hall (MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, MN) on October 25, 2018.
Emily Heuschele (PhD, music education) shared her research “Tradition and Innovation in the School Orchestra: An Analysis of Journal Articles on Eclectic String Playing and Teaching” at the Big Ten Academic Alliance Music Education Conference at the University of Michigan in October 2018.
Kathryn Huether’s (MA, musicology, advisee of Karen Painter) article titled “Did You Notice the Butterflies?: Behind the Headphones, Muted Memorializing and Curated Soundscapes at Treblinka” was accepted for the 2018 issue of Reflections, the Auschwitz Jewish Center’s Annual Alumni Journal. Huether was accepted to an all-expenses-paid International Program and Workshop: Jewish Music – Practice as Research, at the European Center for Jewish Music in Hildesheim, Germany. Huether has been awarded an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (University of Minnesota Graduate School Fellowship) for the 2019-20 academic year. The title of her project is “Critically Suggesting or Emphatically Telling?: Questioning Audio Guides and their Accompanying Sonic Nuances at Holocaust Memorial Sites.” Huether received the Jerome L. Joss Graduate Student Research Fellowship through the University of Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies ($1,700). The Fellowship will cover her expenses for her participation in the Special Lessons and Legacies Conference (LLC) on the Holocaust—“The Holocaust and Europe: Research Trends, Pedagogical Approaches, and Political Challenges,” which will take place November 4-7, in Munich, Germany. Huether’s proposal, “Guiding or Obscuring?: Questioning Treblinka’s Audio Guide and its Sonic Infrastructure,” was selected from a pool of 700 applicants.
Mary Alice Hutton (MM, violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) was selected to participate in the 2018 New York String Orchestra Seminar (NYSOS). Celebrating its 50th year, NYSOS 2018 brought 45 string players and 18 wind and brass players from North America to New York City (December 19–28, 2018). The seminar culminated with two NYSOS performances at Carnegie Hall on December 24 and 28, 2018. Hutton was invited to participate in the 50th Anniversary celebration of New York String Orchestra Seminar. They performed two concerts featuring Joshua Bell and Yefim Bronfman.
Jiyeon Hwang (DMA, voice, student of Jean del Santo) won the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra’s 21st Annual Masters Concerto and Aria Competition in the Emerging Artist category. She performed “Quel guardo Il Cavaliere” from Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Don Pasquale on March 23 at the Church of St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis.
Seongkyeong Kim (DMA, piano, student of Paul Shaw) and Xin Lin (DMA, piano, student of Paul Shaw) were winners in the Emerging Professional Category of the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra’s 21st Annual Masters Concerto and Aria Competition. They were both featured as soloists with the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Music Director Yuri Ivan in the Winners’ Showcase on March 23, 2019, at the Church of St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis. Kim was selected to participate in the Art of the Piano festival at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music from May 25–June 15. Kim will join an elite group of 25 “future master pianists” in masterclasses, discussions, and performances conducted by a veritable who’s who among the world’s celebrated faculty instructors. Inspired by the legendary master classes of Franz Liszt, Art of the Piano is an intensive, tuition-and-housing-free festival, founded and led by artistic director, distinguished pianist and educator, Awadagin Pratt. A native of South Korea, Kim is also recipient of the Judges’ Special Recognition Award at the 48th Annual William C. Byrd International Young Artist Competition held in Flint, Michigan on March 2. She performed in the Twin Cities with the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Music Director Yuri Ivan (DMA 2008, conducting) on March 23 as a winner in the Emerging Professional Category of the Orchestra’s 21st Annual Masters Concerto and Aria Competition.
Elena Kolbrek (BM, violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) and Morganne McIntyre (BM, violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) attended the Montecito International Music Festival in Riverside, CA (July 8-27, 2018) on merit scholarships.
Ho Yin Kwok (DMA, orchestral conducting, student of Mark Russell Smith) directed the Mississippi Valley Orchestra with guests John Miller (bassoon) and William LaRue Jones (director of orchestral studies at the University of Iowa, GTCYS founder) in a performance of Dietter’s Concerto for Two Bassoons and Orchestra. The concert took place on October 14, 2018, at Simley Theater of Performing Arts in Inver Grove Heights, MN. Kwok was invited as a member of the Voce String Quartet to be a guest artist of the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program in November 2018. The Voce String Quartet gave masterclasses, coaching sessions, and outreach concerts.
Ross Larson (piano, student of Paul Shaw and Carlson School of Management, BSB finance) completed his award of a Summer 2018 internship at Steinway & Sons in New York City. Under the direction of Steinway’s Vice President of Finance for the Americas John Seliga, Larson served in the company’s department of finance and accounting where he participated in managing and overseeing the Boston/Essex rental program, new retail sales, application of retail/wholesale/institutional payments, vendor payables, visual mapping of Steinway processes, and more.
Soojin Lee (PhD, music education) was featured in the Classical Minnesota Public Radio article “Minnesota’s Soojin Lee celebrates traditional Korean music” by Terry Blain.
Sofia Mycyk (DMA, piano, student of Timothy Lovelace) was the orchestral pianist for the Lakes Area Music Festival, performing in two concerts in August. The program included Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring for 13 instruments. Mycyk returned to the Lakes Area Music Festival to play in concerts in August 2018. In July 2018, Mycyk released her first album Hutzulian Watercolours, a celebration of solo piano music by Ukrainian composers.
Joe Nelson (PhD, musicology) presented his paper “Mad Tom, The Wild Man, and the Visual Embodiment of Bethlem Asylum’s Sonic Identity,” at the 18th International Conference of Association Répertoire International d’Iconographic Musical (RIdIM) held in Canterbury, England in July 2018. Later in July, he presented a paper, “The History of Mad Tom o’ Bedlam,” at the North American British Music Studies Association biannual conference held in Logan, UT. Nelson presented at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in November, and the Early Modern Songscapes conference at the University of Toronto in Feb. 2019. Nelson presented a paper titled “‘Still Jove with Ganymed lyes playinge’: King James, Sexuality, and Sovereign Order in the Stuart Court” at the American Musicological Society annual meeting in November 2018. He was accepted to present a paper titled “Polluted Minds, Polluted Bodies: The Case of Bethlem and Disordered Sound, at the conference Early Modern Songscapes, hosted by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto in Feb. 2019. Nelson will also present papers at two conferences: att the Newberry Library’s Graduate Interdisciplinary Conference in Chicago in Jan., he will present “’Still Jove with Ganymed lyes playinge’: King James, Sexuality, and Sovereign Order in the Stuart Court;” and at the Early Modern Songscapes conference at the University of Toronto in Feb., he will present “Polluted Minds, Polluted Bodies: The Case of Bethlem and Disordered Sound.”
Aisling O’Sullivan (MM, horn, student of Ellen Dinwiddie Smith) was named an Orchestra Fellow for the 2019 Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival Orchestral Institute (TMF) held at the University of Houston (Texas). This prestigious fellowship award includes full tuition, room and board, lessons, and master classes.
Kyung Jun (Joseph) Park (DMA, piano, student of Kyung Kim) won first prize in the Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition (solo piano category) and first place in the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition, both competitions were held in New York, NY. He performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in April 2019.
Rodrigo Pires de Lima (DMA, saxophone, student of Preston Duncan) performed in a program titled Electroville Jukebox on March 8 at Cascais Young Auditorium (Rua João da Silva, Carcavelos) in Portugal. This event was sponsored by the Humanitarian Association of Carcavelos Voluntary Fire Fighters and S. Domingos de Rana. Pires De Lima received international press coverage in PortugaliNews for his research that allows blind musicians to play live music without the use of Braille. This research integrates existing technology and combines it with echolocation.
Garret Ross (DMA, piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) performed as a member of the Artu Duo on the Fortuna Concert Series at the Fortuna Monday Club in Fortuna, CA on March 9, 2019. The Artu Duo also gave a master class and concert at Humboldt State University, CA on March 10, 2019. Ross performed Martinů’s Sonata for 2 Violins and Piano, H. 213 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on March 15, 2019 in a program titled Fragments, Dreams at Music Hall in Cincinnati, OH.
Hocheol Shin (DMA, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) was a winner of the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra’s 21st Annual Masters Concerto and Aria Competition in Emerging Artist category. He performed Schumann’s Cello Concerto Op.129, mvmt. 1 in March 2019.
Audrey Slote’s (MA, music theory; MM, 2015, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) article “Deconstruction as Political Discourse in Janelle Monáe’s ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’” appeared in the Spring/ Summer 2018 edition of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s (SEM) Student News journal. Slote, Dana DeVlieger (PhD, music theory, advisee of Sumanth Gopinath), and Mikkel Vad (PhD, cultural studies with music minor, advisee of Sumanth Gopinath) presented at the annual Society for American Music Conference in New Orleans, LA in March 2019.
Amelia Smith (DMA, clarinet, student of Timothy Zavadil) completed a temporary teaching assignment at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS. She filled in for Dr. Michael Rowlett for 6 weeks during the beginning of the fall 2018 term. While there, Smith taught 12 clarinet students, clarinet studio, and a single reeds methods course.
Russell Sweet (BM, saxophone, student of Preston Duncan) won second prize in the Minnesota State Fair Talent Show. He won $2,500. He performed his prize-winning piece at the Collage Concert in October 2018 at Ted Mann Concert Hall. Sweet won first prize in the College Level of the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 3 Conference Competition.
Joan Wallace (DMA, piano, student of Paul Shaw) was selected to present a research poster session at the biennial National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy held in Chicago in July 2019. Wallace presented on the psychology of boredom and achievement in music students, identifying boredom coping strategies, and creating pedagogically effective solutions to help with student achievement. She also presented this research at the Minnesota Music Teachers Association Convention in June 2019.
Nygel Witherspoon (PSEO, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) won first prize in the Junior Division of the 2019 22nd Annual Sphinx Competition in Detroit, MI. Witherspoon received $10,000, plus a number of performance opportunities – including a nationally broadcast radio appearance on From the Top. Witherspoon is featured in the Star Tribune article, “At 17, this award-winning Minneapolis musician is soaring on the cello.” Also featured in the article are David France (MM 2003, violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) and Nygel’s siblings Imala Witherspoon (BM, violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) and Alastair Witherspoon (BM, violin, student of Sally O’Reilly).
Filip Zivanovic and Momcilo Aleksandric (DMA, guitar, students of Maja Radovanlija), playing as the Belgrade Guitar Duo, won the third prize at the Guitar Foundation of America Ensemble Competition that took place in Louisville, KY in June 2018.
Group Student News
Callie Cooper (BM, voice, student of Jean Del Santo) and Cole McIlquham (BM, voice, student of Adriana Zabala) and Meghan Rhoades (BM, piano, student of Kyung Kim) performed at the College of Liberal Arts Bright Lights event on May 1, 2019 on the Carlson Family Stage at Northrop. They presented a selection from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story as part of the highlights from undergraduate research within the CLA.
Members of Preston Duncan’s saxophone studio performed at the Minneapolis Teachers Retirement Luncheon at the American Legion (Minneapolis) in Feb. 2019. Performers included Adam Shew (BM, music education), Christopher Dickhaus (DMA, saxophone), Russell Sweet (BM, saxophone), Emily Brewer (MM, saxophone), and Casey Rafn, pianist.
The University of Minnesota Saxophone Club and Preston Duncan (saxophone) partnered with MacPhail Center for Music, the Schubert Club, Twin Cities Saxophone Day, and the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division Red Bull Band to present the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 3 Conference at the University of Minnesota from March 15 to March 19, 2019. Two hundred saxophonists from the five-state region attended a weekend of concerts and presentations with special guests Alex Terrier (France), Jacky Leung (Hong Kong), Sofia Zumbado (Costa Rica), Kenneth Tse (University of Iowa), and Alastair Wright (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire).
The U of M Trombone Choir presented two outreach concerts this April 2019. On April 6, the Trombone Choir performed at the second annual Schmitt Music Trombone Day in Brooklyn Center, MN. Mr. Henry Charles Smith III was the guest conductor. Mr. Smith and U of M Professor Tom Ashworth (trombone) spoke on the topic of “Developing Versatile Musicianship in a Trombone Choir.” On April 8, Smith and the Trombone Choir presented a performance at Johanna Shores Senior Living in Arden Hills, MN.
U of M Music Therapy students and faculty Michael Silverman and Todd Schwartzberg shared their research on March 16, 2019 at the Great Lakes Region of the American Music Therapy Association Conference’s poster session.
The University of Minnesota was well- represented at the 2018 joint meeting of the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory, held in San Antonio, TX from November 1-4, 2018. Six students from the musicology and theory programs were selected to present their work during this conference: Lars Christensen (PhD, musicology, student of Gabriela Curie), Joseph Nelson (PhD, musicology, student of Kelly Harness), Amy Onstot (PhD, musicology, student of Kelly Harness), Solveig Mebust (PhD, musicology, student of Kelly Harness), Jeremy Smith (PhD, music theory, student of Sumanth Gopinath), and Dana DeVlieger (PhD, music theory, student of Sumanth Gopinath).
Tutti. (Italian) all. every musician to take part.
Tutti is the annual magazine of the University of Minnesota School of Music.
Would you like your news to appear in the next volume of Tutti? Share your news.
