|
|
Hitting The
High Notes
Fall 2022 Edition Vol. 9
|
|
///////////////////////////////////////////////
|
|
From the Chair
///////////////////////////////////////////////
|
|
Greetings from the School of Music
This semester has started with a look and feel that we haven’t experienced in the past few years. The rehearsal halls, classrooms, practice rooms, and atrium are again full and music making dominates! It is a very exciting time and there is renewed optimism regarding what can be accomplished this year.
And, speaking of optimism, I am excited about the work our faculty are currently involved with regarding updating all our undergraduate curriculum. We are looking at some very important and timely potential changes in what we do academically for students!
It is an exciting time for the USF School of Music!
David A Williams
Director, School of Music
|
|
What's New in the
School of Music?
///////////////////////////////////////////////
|
|
Please join our "Keepin' Us HOT" marching band endowment campaign. Your gift will help us in our effort to purchase instruments and uniforms, to travel, to continue to retain high-caliber instructors, and to facilitate the purchase of new music and arrangements, and much more. Whether you were a member of the band or just enjoy(ed) the entertainment and spirit it provides, your gift will help the band grow and thrive. You can make your gift to the USF Herd of Thunder (HOT) Marching Band Endowment (fund #236053) here: Give to the University of South Florida :: Giving to USF
|
|
At the 2022 Florida Music Educators Association Conference we recognized several of our outstanding alumni who are excelling in music classrooms. This is an initiative we intend to continue and would like to solicit your assistance to get a wider pool of music educators from whom to choose. We will recognize alumni in the following categories “Early Career” (first five years) “End of Career” (retirement date has been set) and “Alumni of Note” (open to anybody you believe is excelling) Nominees can and should include retirees or people not teaching in a traditional classroom. Please send a brief letter of nomination to Dr. Williams – davidw@usf.edu. |
|
The USF Community Music Project announces its Fall 2022 enrollment for new classes! All meet for ten one-hour classes: Ukulele Class for all ability levels (ages 7 and higher), Adult Drum Circle (ages 18 and up), in addition to private lessons. Complete our interest form here or see our website for more information.
|
|
|
|
The USF Wind Ensemble will give the premier performance of “All The Bright Precious Things”, on Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 pm. This exciting new work is a concerto for violin and wind ensemble composed by former USF faculty member Matthew Kennedy. Dr. Kennedy now teaches at Heidelberg University in Ohio, but will be present for the performance. The soloist is USF alumni Michelle Kim-Painter, who commissioned the work. Tickets are free and can be acquired here.
|
|
Our very own Amy Fletcher, Office Manager, was recently awarded a university-wide Outstanding Staff Award for 2022! This recognition is one of the highest honors to receive as a USF employee and is based on the talents and dedication she brings to USF and the School of Music every day.
|
|
On July 7, current students, alumni, and faculty gave the first Concert in the Gallery presentation since before the pandemic to a full-capacity crowd at the Contemporary Art Museum. Faculty members Stephanie Sager, Amy Collins, Fernando Traba, and Francesca Arnone joined alumni Emily Febo (BM ’21, flute), Alexandra Torres (BM ’21, voice), Joseph Boyce (BM ’22), Amanda Cardwell (BA. ‘22), with current students Wyatt Hatch, Anna Mussin Philips, and Louis Torres in performances that were poignant and well-received. |
|
Trevor Butts joins the University of South Florida School of Music faculty where his responsibilities include directing USF’s Herd of Thunder Marching Band and Rumble Pep Band, conduction the University’s Concert Band, and teaching Marching Band Techniques. Butts holds both a Mast of Music degree in instrumental conducting and a Bachelor of Science degree in music education from USF and is almost finished earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Band Conducting from Louisiana State University. During his time at USF, Butts marched trumpet and then served as drum major of the HOT Band for three years. Before returning to USF for his master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting, Butts taught high school band and orchestra in the Hillsborough County Public Schools system. Butts has considerable DCI experience including marching with Teal Sound, Boston Crusaders, and the Cadets and serving on staff with the Cavaliers. |
|
Bertie Kibreah joins USF’s School of Music Faculty in 2022 where he will teach courses in Music History and Ethnomusicology. He earned a PhD from the University of Chicago, and recently taught in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. Dr. Kibreah’s work focuses on the music Bengali pluralities across Bangladesh, East India, the Bay of Bengal, and beyond. Recently, his work has expanded to included South Asian musical communities in the United States. Trained on the tabla, the prominent percussion instrument of North Indian classical music, Dr. Kibreah also sings in a variety of languages and performs on a number of instruments – especially from Bengal – including the dotara lute. |
|
|
|
Francesca Arnone, Flute, Amy Collins, Oboe, and Fernando Traba, Bassoon, gave the world premiere of Suite Ancienne by Stella Sung, and the Colorado premiere of Florida Miniatures by Melissa Morris at the International Double Reed Society Convention in Boulder, CO, in July. In addition, Dr. Arnone gave the world premiere of Hilary Tann’s Moon Full, Tide Low for alto flute at a live-streamed performance from the National Flute Association convention in Chicago, IL.
|
|
Jennifer Bugos, Music Education, is leading the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Research Lab on Cognition and Coordination Across the Lifespan in Music. This is one of six awards made this year throughout the country that will offer music instruction, with three different types of music programs, to see how coordination in music learning shapes cognitive development. Dr. Bugos also worked at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, Canada over the summer examining neural pattern separation in musicians and non-musicians funded by a GRAMMY Museum Research Grant. She hopes to better understand how music prepares the mind for learning. This work will help us understand how music training influences long-term memory formation and retention of sounds. Dr. Bugos also received funding to attend the ERP Boot-camp taught by Steve Luck at the University of California- Davis. This neuro-physiology workshop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and helps researchers gain a better understanding of how the brain processes sounds and contemporary analysis techniques relevant to teaching and learning music. |
|
Victor Fung, Music Education, published an article exclusively in Chinese. Thanks to Dr. Jingwei Tu, who translated the article and coordinated the submission of the paper in China. Dr. Tu was a Visiting Scholar at USF School of Music in 2019. The attached photo (Fung and Tu) was taken at the Florida Music Education Association Conference in 2019. The article titled “The synergies of Sino-Western music education and the research” can be found in the May 2022 issue of the journal China Music Education [中国音乐教育], pages 55-61. In addition, Victor Fung was featured in the June 21, 2022 issue of the online publication VoyageTampa .
|
|
Allyssa Jones, Vocal Ensembles, was installed as Chair of the NAfME Council for Innovations. In this role, she will lead efforts to identify and share pandemic-era discoveries that have led to exciting new directions in school music programs. Back home in the School of Music, she is excited for our new Jazz Vocal Ensemble's debut season! |
|
Andrew Karr, Horn, spent the summer in Colorado playing associate principal at the Colorado Music Festival and climbing mountains.
|
|
Sarah Klopfenstein-Wear, Voice, spent time this summer in Germany (Leipzig, Weimar, and Erfurt) and The Netherlands (Amsterdam) visiting friends. In early August she took an audition trip up to Knoxville and made a road trip out of it with her children, Maria (10) and Roger (6). They spent some time seeing the Georgia Aquarium and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
|
|
|
|
Sang-Hie Lee, Music Research, continues to be very busy in her field. She recently went to the 40th International Performing Arts Medicine Symposium in Chicago where she saw old faces, heard many great research presentations, and shared our Healthy Happy Musician Triage. She reports that it was a beautiful experience. In addition, in August she released her most recent recording – Textures in Classics. This recording explores the rich musical possibilities offered by the piano. Dr. Lee performs works from some of the seminal composers in Western music including Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. While contemporary performers often place an outsized emphasis on virtuosic technical skill, Lee’s performances examine the notion of texture in piano music; this ranges from the clean, crisp soundscape of Mozart’s early pianoforte to Beethoven’s exacting technique and lush harmonies. For more information follow this link.
|
|
|
|
Clint Randles, Music Education, published his latest monograph titled Music Teacher as Music Producer with Oxford University Press. The book covers the meanings and practical significance of music teachers serving as music producers in their classrooms. Research, theory, and practice come together in this groundbreaking work. In the book Dr. Randles p roposes that music classes can and should look more like art classes, examines how musical creativities can be approached through technology, and shows how cultivating students' musical capabilities must take precedence over maintaining established customs in teaching.
|
|
The centennial year of a composer’s birth is always important, and in the case of Chinese composer Zhu Jianer (1922-2017) this has prompted two prominent academic publishers to make Dr. John Robison’s work on the symphonies of Zhu Jianer available on a truly worldwide basis. Zhejiang University Press published his bilingual (English-Chinese) book Zhu Jianer and the Symphony in China in January 2022, and in May 2022 Peter Lang Academic Publishers made Dr. Robison’s book The Symphonies of Zhu Jianer: A Western Perspective available on a worldwide basis outside of China.
|
|
Kevin von Kampen, Percussion, completed his DMA in Percussion Performance this summer at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and henceforth with be Dr. Kevin von Kampen.
|
|
Jack Wilkins, Jazz, is spending the Fall Semester on sabbatical, but if you think this will finally force him to slow down a bit, think again. First, this summer the Jack Wilkins Quartet played a concert for the High Country Jazz Society in Blowing Rock, NC. Then, in September he held two CD release concerts for his project - Saxophone Legacy – a group performing original arrangements and compositions celebrating the creative mastery of legendary saxophonists. This group and CD is the result of an international collaboration between Professor Wilkins and saxophonist/professor Dr Jeremy Brown, of the University of Calgary, that began when he was a Fulbright Research Chair at the UC College of Creative and Performing Arts a few years ago. Following its release in July the album immediately shot to the top of the Canadian Jazz charts! He is spending the rest of his sabbatical as an Artist-in-Residence in Acadia National Park. Read more about this once-in-a-lifetime experience here.
|
|
Ernest Boger II is being recognized with a USF Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Boger retired in 2020 as a professor and distinguished chair at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He was USF’s first Black student and first Black graduate. He was also the first Black to earn an MBA in finance at the University of North Texas; the first to receive the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s certified hotel administrator designation; the first Black professor in the University of South Carolina’s College of Hospitality, among other distinctions. Dr. Boger, who also holds a doctorate in management, is a national and international leader in hospitality industry education, a prolific published author, and recognized both for excellence and innovation in hospitality education and for his role in integrating educational and professional institutions across the country. Dr. Boger has fond memories of playing tuba in USF’s Concert Band under Gale Sperry.
|
Mary Catherine Donovan, (MM, 2022) graduated in May after spending two years as the Graduate Assistant for the Vocal Arts Division. She was honored to have received both the School of Music's Opera Area Merit Award and Vocal Ensembles Area Merit Award. Students in her vocal studio have recent won Platinum at the Access Broadway competition and placed first and second in all categories at the Tampa Young Artist Competition. She spent the summer in Graz, Austria, where she continued her opera training at the American Institute for Musical Studies on scholarship. She is looking for performance, teaching, and arts nonprofit opportunities. |
|
Joseph Boyce (BM’ 2022) and current student Briana Vidal won the NFA Collegiate Flute Choir Competition and performed and premiered pieces in an ensemble conducted by Irish flutist Gareth McLearnon. Additionally, Joey and Briana performed at the NFA with the Florida Flute Orchestra’s 23-member ensemble, ranging from piccolo to double subcontrabass flute, along with USF faculty member, Francesca Arnone.
|
John Casanas, (Music Ed, 2013) was selected as the 2022 Music Educator of the Year by Hillsborough County Elementary Music Educators Council (HCEMEC). His wife, Samantha Snow (Music Ed, 2014) was also nominated. |
|
Dr. Wayne Gallops (Ph.D., 2005) was recently appointed chairperson for the Department of Music at Radford University (VA). Wayne was our first Virginia Bridges Fellow to receive the PhD in music education from USF. He has served as Director of Bands and Instrumental Music Education at RU since 2004 and Executive Director of the Virginia Summer Residential Governor’s School for the Visual & Performing Arts and Humanities since 2017. As a conductor and keyboard artist, he has conducted, performed, and recorded worldwide for numerous classical, jazz, commercial ensembles & artists, orchestras, musical theater, opera, ballet companies and has conducted state and regional honor bands throughout the US and Ireland. His writings are published in numerous publications, and he has presented clinics, lectures, and performances at many regional, national and international music conferences. A native of Tampa and proud graduate of Hillsborough High School, The University of Tampa and Florida State University, Wayne resides in Roanoke (VA) with his wife Donna and son Daniel. His daughter Lauren also resides in Roanoke and recently married a former student of Wayne’s, a TROMBONE player no less, imagine the guts that took Tom Brantley!
|
Mitchell Lattimer, (Music Ed, 2020), was named the Jack R Lamb Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Rookie Teacher of the year. This is an esteemed honor given to one outstanding new educator each year. He received this award in recognition of the innovative new music program he started at Richard L Sanders ESE Center in Pinellas Park Florida. He teaches rock, hip hop, and music production to students with emotional behavior disorders who are in the School Based Mental Health system and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support program.
|
Tracy Lisi, (Music Ed, ) has been immersed in music her entire life. During her first decade as an artist, she performed on several stages throughout the country and overseas, singing and playing the piano. During this time, she enrolled in the University of South Florida and studied music education while pursuing her career as a professional musician. Over the next fifteen years, she spent her time teaching in the elementary music classroom and directing elementary choirs and instrument ensembles after school. In 2018, she accepted the role of K-5 Music District Resource Teacher for Hillsborough County Public Schools, and in 2021 was appointed "Hillsborough County Public Schools K-5 Music Supervisor". |
|
Nick Gigante, (Music Ed, 2016), has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of his parents' photography company Gigante Productions, Inc. Gigante Productions was recently selected as a member of USF’s Fast 56 Class of 2022, which recognizes the fastest growing Bull-led businesses. |
Staff Sergeant Chris Gironda, (Music Ed, 2011), enlisted in the United States Marines Corps in June 2013. Currently, he is a Baritone Bugler in "The Commandant's Own", The USMC Drum and Bugle Corps. He has performed ceremonies both domestically and internationally including Battle Color Ceremonies and other events in California, New York, Texas, North and South Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. He recently returned to Tampa to perform at the retirement of General Kenneth McKenzie, USMC, and the Change of Command of United States Central Command from General McKenzie to General Michael Kurilla, United States Army, at Mac Dill Air Force Base. Chris has called this performance "the highlight of his career to date". His unit also performs weekly parades during the summer at Marine Barracks, Washington D.C. and the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Internationally, Chris' unit has performed with the Fort Henry Guard in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and the Avenches Tattoo in Avenches, Switzerland, which featured groups from Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland and Austria. During his career, Chris has entertained Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, and foreign dignitaries from all over the world. Chris married his wife, Jennifer, in June 2020. They have a dog named Lady, 2 cats named Evo and Small Cat, and currently reside in Laurel, MD. |
Ray Matson, (Music Ed, 2014), married Victoria Matson (Pipenberg) six years ago and the couple has a five-year-old daughter named Rebekah. Ray still loves music deeply and follows the Herd of Thunder closely. |
Simon Lasky (MM Jazz Performance '20) is making his debut at The Palladium in St. Pete on Friday, September 9. The concert will be comprised entirely of original compositions and arrangements, and will feature several USF School of Music Faculty. More information can be found here.
|
|
Current Student Spotlight |
|
Robert Carmichael
Q. What are you currently doing musically?
Answer: I am currently in my second year of graduate school studying trumpet under Dr. Jay Coble and Professor James Suggs. At USF I have played in Jazz Ensemble 1, the Jazztet, the Wind Ensemble and the Symphony Orchestra. Outside of school I have been working as a freelance musician, performing jazz, commercial, pop and classical music throughout the Tampa Bay area. I have also been teaching privately and working as a high school clinician, with the goal of gigging and teaching private lessons full time after my graduation in the spring of 2023.
Q. How is it that you choose USF for music study?
Answer: My decision to come do USF was driven by my passion to understand as many different musical styles and genres as possible. USF gave me the opportunity to study both jazz and classical music, and study with musicians fluent in all genres of instrumental music, such as Dr. Jay Coble and Professor Tom Brantley. Living in Tampa also gives me opportunities to perform all these kinds of music in the surrounding areas.
Q. Who or what are you listening to these days?
Answer: My musical interests mainly revolve around trumpet players and consist of classical musicians such as Maurice Andre, Ryan Anthony, Phil Smith, and Ole Edvard Antonsen. Other trumpet players I listen to include Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Art Farmer. Outside of solo trumpet, my favorite artists to listen to include Tigran Hamasyan, the Chicago Philharmonic and Thad Jones.
Q. What’s a fun fact about yourself?
Answer: I learned to ride a unicycle at the age of 9.
|
|
Parnian Rezaei
Q. What are you currently doing musically?
Answer: I'm currently working on a short recital in December in which I'll be playing 4 pieces from Iran, Türkiye, Armenia, and the eastern Mediterranean (the Levant). I'll be collaborating with a violinist, a cellist, and a soprano singer as well. I have had this project in my mind for a long time, and I am so thrilled to be able to finally put it together and do it. I'm also working on my senior recital for next semester and auditions for next year.
Q. How is it that you choose USF for music study?
Answer: Studying with Professor Ivanov was the first and main reason that I chose USF for music study. I have learned so much from him both on piano and more importantly about how I can enjoy the music I'm sharing and not limit myself to a specific repertoire. I have had remarkable experiences in the past year. I had the chance to perform in one of the Steinway series concerts last February along with 3 other graduate students. We also went to the Utrecht Conservatory (The Netherlands) in March as an exchange program to have lessons with several teachers and perform there. I also participated in the Prague piano festival this summer which was an amazing experience as well.
Q. Who or what are you listening to these days?
Answer: Recently, I have been exploring many contemporary composers. I have been listening to Komitas songs (I will also play some of them in my December recital), Reza Vali (orchestral and chamber music works), Fazil Say piano music, etc. Not to mention, Bach and Schubert are my all-time favorites. I can listen to them for hours.
Q. What’s a fun fact about yourself?
Answer: One of my biggest hobbies is watching stand-up comedies, especially comedians of different nationalities. It interests me to learn about other nations' cultures through it, and see how similar/different other cultures and traditions are compared to mine.
|
|
Do you have important life information you would like to share? Advanced degrees, new jobs, exciting performances, awards or recognitions, marriages, births, etc. If so, we want to populate this section with information about you. Please submit your name, USF degree earned/graduation year, and one or two sentences to mccutchen@usf.edu.
|
|
// Follow The Arts at USF // |
|
|
|
|
|
|
