|
Notes from the Director
Dr. Linda A. Monson
|
|
Dear Mason School of Music Family,
Happy Spring! We have so much to celebrate this month with our outstanding faculty and students! Today Julianna Nickel, adjunct professor of flute, will receive the University Adjunct Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. This is a tremendous honor and we are very proud of this stellar faculty member. Last week we celebrated Dr. Glenn Smith (40 years of service) and Professor Anthony Maiello (30 years of service) at the University Day Service Awards Ceremony for their
devoted and exceptional service to our School of Music.
Our faculty will host a farewell reception for
Dr. Brian Wuttke, Director of Music Education, who is moving to Florida at the end of the spring semester. We wish to celebrate and thank Dr. Wuttke for his service with us at Mason and wish him well in his new adventures ahead.
We have so many incredible concerts and special events coming up in the next few weeks, as you will see in this newsletter.
We hope you will join us for two School of Music fundraisers this upcoming weekend: Jazz Brews & BBQ this Friday night and Cafe George: Broadway Royalty on Saturday night. We are thrilled to present a fantastic Gilbert and Sullivan all-day Forum on Saturday, April 29. Our Mason Opera is presenting Gilbert and Sullivan's
Iolanthe April 28-30.
Please join us in our numerous outstanding concerts and activities celebrating Music at Mason in these upcoming weeks: opera, jazz, orchestral, percussion, winds, choral, piano, and composition! We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming School of Music events featuring our amazing students and faculty.
Warmest regards,
Dr. Linda A. Monson
Director, School of Music
Distinguished Service Professor
|
|
|
Mason Music Goes to Costa Rica!
|
|
|
Left to right: Megan Stallings, oboe; Vanessa Nates, flute; Krista Pack, flute; Morgan Sutherland, percussion; and Sammantha Charriez, oboe. Not pictured: Lisa Eckstein. Photo: Dr. Stan Engebretson.
|
|
|
The Mason School of Music is taking Potomac Arts Academy's
Instruments in the Attic (IIA) program to Costa Rica! Our International Teaching Scholars, pictured above, were selected for this prestigious honor to repair and distribute instruments in Costa Rica through the IIA program. They will be featured in performance at the National Conservatory in San Jose, visit multiple community arts schools (SINEM) for special performances, visit the Conservatory de Castella, and tour the Civic Center for Peace in La Paz, Guanacaste. The Mason Music Scholars will also perform with the National Band of San Jose (the top concert band in Costa Rica), conducted by Prof. Mark Camphouse and Prof. John Kilkenny. They have been meeting regularly to learn more about Costa Rica, community arts education, fundraising, SINEM, and more.
This initiative is made possible thanks to JP Phaup, a grant from the CRUSA foundation,
Day Violins (who repaired the 55 donated instruments). The international program is led by faculty team Dr. Linda Monson, Dr. Tom Owens, Prof. John Kilkenny, Prof. Mark Camphouse, and Potomac Arts Academy Executive Director Libby Curtis and Claire Allen, Potomac Violin instructor.
--
|
|
Costa Rica Preview Recital
April 30 at 8:00 PM
de Laski Performing Arts Building 3001
Featuring performances by Mason's International Teaching Scholars: Vanessa Nates, flute; Krista Pack, flute; Samantha Charriez, oboe; Megan Stallings, oboe; Lisa Eckstein, bassoon; and Morgan Sutherland, percussion.
Also featuring Mason faculty: Prof. John Kilkenny, percussion, and Dr. Linda Apple Monson, piano.
Pre-Concert Poster Research Presentation at 7 pm in de Laski Lobby featuring Centreville Elementary School 5th graders with demonstrations of their musical instruments made from recycled materials. This is in conjunction with 5th graders from Costa Rican Elementary Schools (as part of their Global Classroom project).
|
|
|
Follow their journey on Facebook!
|
|
Percussion Festival
Monday, April 17 at 8:00 PM
Center for the Arts
Ragtime to Rock and Roll!
Presented by George Mason University Percussion Ensemble
Jonathan Bisesi, Director
Guest Ensemble: Vienna Jammers
Percussion Ensemble
David Reynolds Jr., Director
Featuring music by George Hamilton Green, George Gershwin, Henry Fillmore, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, The Beatles, The Black Eyed Peas, and more!
|
|
|
Jazz Combos & Traditional Jazz Ensemble Concert
Wednesday, April 19 at 8:00 PM
de Laski Performing Arts Building Room 3001
FREE
Two Jazz Combos (directed by Wade Beach) and the Mason Traditional Jazz Ensemble (directed by Dave Robinson) perform. Selections will be announced from stage.
|
|
|
Jazz Workshop
Wednesday, April 26 at 8:00 PM
de Laski Performing Arts Building Room 3001
FREE
|
|
|
Mason Opera:
Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe
Friday, April 28 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 29 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, April 30 at 3:00 PM
|
|
Gilbert and Sullivan Forum
April 29, 2017
Mason's Fairfax Campus
You're invited to step inside the world of Gilbert and Sullivan at this full-day experience including noted scholars, a guided tour of the Gilbert and Sullivan exhibition in the Fenwick Library galleries, and lunch. Part of Mason's year-long celebration of these musical theater masters, the forum will be followed by a performance of
Iolanthe
by the School of Music.
Get full schedule and details.
|
|
|
International Jazz Day Concert
Sunday, April 30 at 2:00 PM
Center for the Arts
|
|
|
Mason Jazz Vocal Night
Tuesday, May 2 at 8:00 PM
Center for the Arts
|
|
|
Mason Composers at WVU Snapshot Concert
|
|
|
The works of three Mason composers were performed at a multi-state new music event at West Virginia University, April 7-8, 2017. Lisa Robinson’s solo piano work
The Numerology Sonata, Ben Ryer’s work for solo marimba
Golden Mallets, Ed Knoeckel’s work for saxophone quartet
Mr. Toad’s Redemption all had very passionate and exciting performances and represented Mason as an institution striving for musical excellence. Many thanks to Dr. Guessford who forwarded WVU’s invitation for participation to Mason's Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) chapter.
|
|
|
University Day Service Awards 2017
|
|
|
Dr. Glenn Smith:
40 years of service
|
|
|
Prof. Anthony Maiello:
30 years of service
|
|
Alumni
Ann Messerschmidt Lee, MM Piano Performance '10, was recently chosen to present “Bach and Bernini: The Baroque Aesthetic” at Towson University for the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Conference of the College Music Society.
Abstract:
Despite differences in media, geographical, cultural and temporal contexts, and the philological and historic ambiguity of the term “Baroque,” both the Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052 by J.S. Bach and The Ecstasy of St. Teresa by G.L. Bernini are iconic representations of the mature Baroque with substantive stylistic and thematic overlap.
The Baroque aesthetic often synthesizes opposing or dissimilar qualities: it is at once Catholic and Protestant; sacred and secular or physical; retrospective and progressive; formal and stylized. The integration of these disparate pieces in part creates the tension that so distinctly defines the arts in the Baroque Period.
In addition to diversity of creative contexts, ambiguous labeling and the multifarious, dichotomous nature of Baroque arts, the Concerto and the Ecstasy are completely different artistic media. The categorization nevertheless persists as a result of common concept, form and technique across disciplines.
Two pairs of Baroque “synthesized opposites” unite to create the period aesthetic in the Concerto and in the Ecstasy: Spiritual/Physical; and Display/Motion. Both works fully engage each of these opposing qualities to create effects which cannot be interpreted as anything other than Baroque.
|
Graduate Lecturer
Michael Wu, Doctoral Candidate, participated in a poster presentation at the National Conference for Organization of American Kodaly Educators on March 25 in Philadelphia. The poster is his progress to date on his dissertation: SYNTHESIZING KODÁLY PEDAGOGY AND EL SISTEMA PHILOSOPHY IN A CHORAL SETTTING: A Practical Guide to Connecting Children’s Choruses with Inner-City Youth.
|
|
|
Jazz Brews & BBQ
Friday, April 21
6:30 - 9:00 PM
Country Club of Fairfax Ballroom
5110 Ox Rd
Fairfax, VA 22030
The George Mason University School of Music's Jazz Studies Department invites you to the recently remodeled Country Club of Fairfax (non members welcome) for a fun evening of BBQ and brews, followed by an energetic performance by Mason's talented jazz students. Net proceeds will benefit scholarships for jazz artists of tomorrow.
|
|
|
Cafe George: Broadway Royalty
Saturday, April 22 at 8:00 PM
Center for the Arts
Join the University Chorale on stage for an evening of Broadway songs and dessert. This is an annual fundraiser for the University Chorale and features music from The King and I, Carole King’s Beautiful, and many solos and small group numbers.
|
|
Scholarship Benefit Concert:
Concerto Soloists with the
Mason Symphony Orchestra
Sunday, May 7 at 7:00 PM
Center for the Arts
Students auditioned earlier this semester and were selected by a faculty panel to perform with the Mason Symphony Orchestra.
|
|
|
We want to hear about your recent professional or musical accomplishments so that we may share them with our Mason Music family!
|
|
|
|
Support music scholarships by making a tax-deductible gift to the School of Music.
|
|
|
|
See what's happening on our social sites:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
