2007-03-15 SCL [recital program]

              Southeastern Composer’s League
56th Annual
Composer’s Forum
March 15-17, 2007
Recital Hall, School of Music
Concert I
Thursday, March 15, 2007
7:30 pm
Recital Hall
Sonare Preludium Joe Alexander
The Excelsior Quartet
Malik Barrows, euphonium
Josh Jones, euphonium
Michael Robinson, tuba
Doug Sutton, tuba
Think…know…after Kadisha Onalbayeva
Grace Anderson, cello
Freedom Lost Bruce Mahin
Ināra Zandmane, piano
…and sundry movements of the heart… Jonathan McNair
1. Prelude
2. Song
3. Thank you, Dmitri and Claude
4. Standing Stones
Dennis AsKew, tuba
Ināra Zandmane, piano
Intermission
Meandering Bruce Hurley Johnston
Shawn Copeland, clarinet
Ināra Zandmane, piano
Three Dances for Lily James Geiger
1. Teeter-Totter
2. Dream
3. Crawling/Walking
James Geiger, marimba
Nightmares David Pegel
David Fox, timpani
Sisannah Steele, piano
Radiance Scott Robbins
Ensemble Radieuse
Christopher Vaneman, flute
Kelly McElrath Vaneman, oboe
Melanie Foster Taylor, piano
Program Notes:
Joe Alexander, Sonare Praeludium
Duration: 7:00
Joe L. Alexander’s Sonare Praeludium (for tuba quartet) was composed in the summer of 1999
for the Alabama Tuba Quarter. It is a large, one movement work based on three themes. The
piece is technically challenging for the players but the overall effect for the audience is intended to
be light hearted, playful and enjoyable listening experience. It was premiered by the group on
February 25, 2000 at the College Music Society’s Southern Chapter meeting in Lafayette,
Louisiana.
Kadisha Onalbayeva, Think…know…after
6 minutes
Think…Know…After was composed in only three hours and is built around mixture of
contemporary string techniques, Kazakh folk melodies, and the sound of the dombra kobiz, an
important folk instrument of Kazakhstan. This work is an effort to create a unique and personal
voice through this blend of ideas and techniques.
Think…Know…After was the co-winning composition for First Place in the 2005 Philips Slates
Composition Contest for graduate students. Kadisha has been a composition student of Dr. Jerry
Sieg at The University of New Orleans in New Orleans, Lousiana.
Bruce Mahin, Freedom Lost
Duration: 6:00
Freedom Lost expresses the feeling of horror and sense of loss felt by the composer as events
unfolded on September 11, 2001. The piece uses musical gestures to convey a mixture of intense
emotion, patriotic fervor, and sense of hope. The pianist uses standard pianistic techniques but
also reaches inside the piano to strum and mute the strings. In addition, a small piece of paper is
inserted between the strings in the higher register to create sounds not normally associated with
the piano. Overall, the work attempts to capture the surreal feeling that often accompanies any
event of this suddenness and magnitude.
Jonathan McNair, …and sundry movements of the heart…
Duration: 15:00
…and sundry movements of the heart… for Tuba and Piano was composed for Dr. Kenyon
Wilson, friend, fine tubist, and fellow teacher. The four movements of this work explore very
diverse (“sundry”) musical territories: abstract, songlike, humorous, pensive and transcendent.
Many of the musical ideas were generated in spontaneous improvising sessions or by singing—
hence, “movements of the heart” more than of the intellect.
“Prelude” is anchored in its structure by a bold, serious gesture that is heard at the
beginning, middle and end of the movement, developed a little differently each time. The melodic
contour of the tuba in the intervening episodes is mostly an ascent from its lower register. The
piano accompanies this upward climbing with higher register, glittering chords.
“Song,” the second movement, is a lyrical melody. It expresses warm, positive human
emotion in a simple manner. The third movement, “Thank you, Dmitri and Claude,” has a touch of
vaudeville about it, and is light-hearted and witty. The names in the title are of two composers
(Dmitri Shostakovich and Claude Debussy) who came to mind while writing it. (Imagine a variety
show with these two venerated composers dancing, singing, and doing slapstick comedy.)
“Standing Stones” is titled after the numerous sites in the British Isles where ancient people
erected huge stones— in circles, singly, or even lining broad “avenues.” The incredible effort
required to do so is mind-boggling, given the tools available to the people. And that they were
able to make near-perfect circles, with stones aligned by the positions of sun and moon and
seasons is further evidence of their intelligence and dedication to ideas and deep feelings far
beyond the daily tasks of survival. The music begins very quietly, in deep tones, enigmatic
harmonies, and introspective melodies, as if the stones are engulfed in early morning mist.
Gradually, the mist lifts, the sun is revealed, and the moist stones glisten with reflected light. In
similar fashion, the music gradually moves upward, and takes on a brighter sound until it reaches
an ecstatic climax in D-flat major.
Bruce Hurley Johnston, Meandering
Duration: 6:00
Meandering is a homogenous work in three movements written for the clarinet with piano
accompaniment. It is a highly chromatic work drawing from Bruce’s broad background of Jazz,
Blues, and New Music composition. The idea of the piece is to take the listener on a journey
spanning an immense spectrum of moods and emotions without ever committing to any particular
state of mind. Blessed with the gift to see music through colors and shapes (synaesthesia),
Bruce describes the piece as a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes driven by a vacillating rhythmic
flow.
James Geiger, Three Dances for Lily
Duration: 7:00
Written during the fall of 2006, this “suite of baby dances” is dedicated to my daughter Lily on the
occasion of her first birthday. As I watched her from birth, I noticed that she had a keen sense of
rhythm. The first movement “Teeter-Totter” has a childlike quality of simplicity to it. The second
movement “Dream” came about from watching her move in her sleep. The last movement
“Crawling/Walking” has a distinct “three against two” rhythmic pulse since her arms move a
slightly faster pace than her legs. As Lily continues to grow up, I know she will continue to be a
source of inspiration for me.
David Pegel, Nightmares
Duration: 4 minutes
Nightmares, for keyboardist and percussionist, was originally intended to be a solo prepared
piano piece with choreography, the addition of timpani, was suggested by the choreographer to
more easily facilitate a dance rhythm. The unexpected result was a timpani showpiece.
'Nightmares' focuses on an irregular percussion rhythm and incomplete chord structures to create
a sense of mystery and fear. This piece, which can be described as a giant crescendo with a
breakdown of rhythm until the final moment, tells the story of a girl being visited by her darkest
fears in a dream, fears which slowly overwhelm her until she wakes up in a fit of hysteria.
Scott Robbins, Radiance
Duration: 15 minutes
Composed over Christmas break, 2006, for Ensemble Radieuse, Radiance serves a three-fold
purpose: (1) It allowed me the opportunity to compose a challenging, many-mooded work for
three great musicians to whom I have devoted much of my compositional energy in recent years.
(True, I wrote Sweet Dreams for Spooky for them three years ago, but that was a less-weighty
composition, even with such a serious title.) (2) Its title is the first to capitalize on the group’s
name (Ensemble Radieuse = radiant ensemble). (3) It allowed the chance to prove to myself
that, even though inundated with administrative duties, I can still compose good music.
Radiance is a rather free, quasi impressionistic work, although it does contain elements of styles I
like such as minimalism and variation forms. I don’t want to write too much about this piece; let it
suffice to say that a) much of what happens in the work is influenced by the spacious, spare
piano introduction—a series of repeated sonorities that build in density—that opens the work; and
b) the flute and oboe will enter eventually. Enjoy.
Concert II
Friday, March 16, 2007
10:30 am
Recital Hall
Hallucination William Pruett
Brian Davis, piano
Two Scenes for Solo Guitar Leonard Ball
Ryan Smith, guitar
Music for Piano V Mark Prince Lee
Mark Prince Lee, piano
Partita VI for Solo Bassoon John Corina
1. Grazioso
2. Expressivo
3. Capriccio
4. Allegretto
5. Pastorale
6. Dolce
7. Cantabile
William Davis, bassoon
Piano Sonata Richard Montalto
1. Adagio - Lively
2. Rubato
Brian Davis, piano
Program Notes:
William Pruett, Hallucination
Duration: 5:00
Hallucination is a nocturnal-fantasy piece in a free through-composed form of five sections. The
pitch material is based primarily on the first two sonorities of the work. While there is no specific
programmatic basis for the piece, it does make references to works of folk music and opera. The
performer is given a wide range of flexibility in interpretation, especially regarding rhythm and
tempo.
Chic Ball, Two Scenes for Solo Guitar
Duration: 12:00
Two Scenes for Solo Guitar started as a three-movement project in 2004, but has settled down to
two movements due to interruptions from other works. There is, however, still a third movement
out there somewhere. I know this because I have caught glimpses of it on several occasions.
Meanwhile, the two existing movements seem well suited to each other and will continue to seek
exposure wherever and whenever possible!
Mark Prince Lee, MUSIC for PIANO V
Duration: 5:00
MUSIC for PIANO is a large-scale compositional cycle consisting of twelve discrete sections,
each beginning with one of twelve accompanying ‘FRAMES’. Like all of Mr. Lee’s music, the pitch
material utilizes ‘fixed pitch frequency’, a unifying organizational technique employed whereby
once a note is used it remains at that frequency or location on the piano for the entire work. Each
piece exists as a compositional unity on both the micro and macro structural levels, the entire
cycle being divided into two halves of six works each. In Part I of MUSIC for PIANO, each piece is
roughly identical in formal design, the duration of each piece within each half is roughly the same,
all the pitch material for the entire cycle of 12 pieces is derived from one twelve note harmonic
structure divided into groups of six, three, and two, each one affixed to register, dynamic, and
tempo, and each piece is preceded by an accompanying ‘FRAME, whose pitch material is a
variant of the work it precedes.
MUSIC for PIANO Part I, no’s I – VI received its world premiere performance by Mr. Lee in
Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, in June 2005 at the site of the first music conservatory established
in the Western Hemisphere. Today’s performance of MUSIC for PIANO # V with FRAME,
features the premiere of the piece with the addition of PITCH-STRAND groups, which reappear in
varied form in no’s IX and XII.
John Corina, Partita VI
Duration: 10:00
Partita VI is a multi-movement composition for solo bassoon. This recently completed work
(2007) is a series of variations on several tone rows, and is dedicated to William Davis.
Richard Montalto, Piano Sonata No. 1
Duration: 10:00
Piano Sonata No.1 reflects diverse influences on the composer’s stylistic development. The slow
introduction that opens the work is followed by the development of two themes, the first of which
is reflective of the Baroque keyboard music, and the second recalls French Neoclassicism. The
second movement (Rubato) is in ABA form and it brings to mind at various moments jazz
improvisation, Expressionism and a familiar carol. This performance is the world premiere of the
first two movements.
Concert III
Friday, March 16, 2007
1:30 pm
Recital Hall
Scherzo Greg Carroll
John Fadial, violin
Joseph Di Piazza, piano
Phoebe’s Odyssey Hollis Roberts
Deborah Egekvist, flute
Spinning, Hanging, Falling Brian Willkie
Multi-channel digital playback
Elegy and Dance William Davis
William Davis, bassoon
Trio Terry Vosbein
Jonathan Salter, clarinet
Anne Berry, cello
Radha Mundkur, piano
A La Feminisca Berio Remix 2 Mitch Turner
Studio realization
Energy Drink III Mark Engebretson
Scott Rawls, viola
Program Notes:
Greg Carroll, Scherzo
Duration: 4:00
Scherzo is the last movement of a three-movement sonata for violin and piano. Its character is
similar to the 19th century concept of a scherzo: it is serious rather than jocular, its predominant
meter is triple, and its tempo is very fast—each measure is felt as a single beat. Octatonic
scales—scales created by alternating half- and whole-step patterns—provide the pitch material
for the entire movement. An ascending three-note motive (identical to the first three notes of the
minor scale) generates most of the melodic material of the piece, and the prevailing rhythmic
motives give the movement a distinct sense of urgency.
Hollis Roberts, Phoebe’s Odyssey
Duration: 6:00
This solo flute piece is based on a day in the life of my cat, Phoebe. It begins with a Midnight
Escapade, in which she slinks through the house (her house, of course, not mine). I attempted to
depict her various activities including sudden pounces, leaps, and curiosity-inspired per
lustrations. In the second part, Morning Twilight Catnap, Phoebe is exhausted from her nocturnal
escapades and tries to take a nap, but suffers interruptions from her humans as they move about
in the morning. She purrs as she circles, trying to settle into a comfortable position for her nap.
The third part, The Moth Chase, describes her frantic efforts to follow a moth, leaping up and
down and swatting as she goes.
Phoebe’s Odyssey won First Prize in the 2005 Arnold Salop Composition Contest for
undergraduates. She was a composition student of Dr. Scott Robbins at Converse College in
Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Brian Willkie, Spinning, Hanging, Falling
Duration: 5:00
Spinning, Hanging, Falling takes as its sound source a spinning quarter. Using the Kyma system
these sources are deconstructed, scrutinized, and pieced back together while exploring motion,
space, and time.
Bill Davis, Elegy and Dance
Duration: 11:00
Elegy and Dance for solo bassoon was composed for a summer bassoon workshop organized by
Atlanta bassoonist Shelly Unger. She calls the event "Summer Bassoon Extravaganza." The
Elegy was composed for the 2005 SBE, and the Dance, for the 2006 SBE. Both movements
incorporate special effects, including multiphonics, quarter tones, and timbre variations on a
single pitch. The two movements were formally premiered by the composer at the 2006
International Double Reed Society Conference in Muncie, Indiana.
Terry Vosbein, Trio
Duration: 8:00
I spent the summer of 2004 in Paris. Paris is my favorite city. I have spent several summers
there, composing and drinking in her essence. It is the perfect city for a lover of life. I had an
unusually productive summer there. I transcribed my piano sonata for a quintet. I composed and
arranged eight jazz octets for a concert that fall. I wrote a Rhapsody for cello and piano. I spent
two weeks training around Europe. And I wrote this trio.
Originally I was to compose a cello and piano work for a 2005 New York concert. I finished my
other projects and was awaiting finalization of the commission. I decided to begin anyway, to at
least get it started before I left Paris. In two weeks it was done, a Rhapsody for cello and piano.
Just as it was completed I received word that the concert was happening and the commission
was set. The only change was that I was to write a trio instead of a duet!
Once again, as with the Rhapsody, I began the trio hoping to at least get started before I returned
to Virginia in the fall. I began by imagining brothers Ricardo and Jesús Morales, the clarinetist
and cellist for the premiere, laughing and playing together as young children. So the composition
begins with the brothers playing, tossing a triplet melody back and forth. Once I began, the piece
flowed from my mechanical pencil (a Twist-Erase from Pentel, .09mm lead) as fast as I could
write. I wrote in my studio on the Seine. I wrote sitting in a green metal chair in Place des Vosges.
I wrote sipping café crème at the Cafe Sorbonne. And before I knew it the composition was
completed.
The trio is a happy playful piece. The clarinet and cello are frequently paired, frolicking as only
brothers can. The piano holds them together, interjecting his own thoughts as well as introducing
the lyrical middle section. There are a few main ideas that get tossed around and developed
before the composition ends as it began, with the brothers tossing the triplet melody back and
forth. The primary inspiration for this piece came from the remarkable virtuosity and musicianship
of the performers for whom I was writing. Ricardo and Jesús Morales, as well as pianist David
Riley, are some of the best musicians I know. Writing for such fine musicians for a New York City
premiere is all a composer could ask for.
This trio was commissioned for Ricardo Morales, Jesús Morales and David Riley by the
University of Oregon School of Music for a 2005 performance at Merkin Concert Hall in New York.
Scores, parts and audio can be downloaded at www.vosbein.com.
Mitch Turner, A La Feminisca Berio Remix 2
Duration: 5:00
A La Feminisca (2006) is a remix of the Sicilian song from Berio’s Folk Songs. The sounds were
taken from the 1968 recording featuring Cathy Berberian. The stark edges of each sample call
attention to its collage nature, emphasizing the remix quality.
Mark Engebretson, Energy Drink III
Duration: 5:00
With the completion of Energy Drink III, I can finally speak of the Energy Drink pieces as a series,
which it has been my intention to create for a number of years. These pieces are intense,
energetic and demanding works, demanding a virtuoso performance from both the player and
composer.
Energy Drink III, to be heard for the first time today, was commissioned by my colleague and
friend, violist Scott Rawls. This piece is, in essence, a blues, with a chord structure derived from
this form stretched out one time over the entirety of the short work, thus forming the harmonic
plan for the whole. I wanted to work with (varied) repeatability in this piece, so material you hear
once, you may hear again. There are a myriad of localized harmonic schemes and motivic
variations overlaid onto the basic harmonic scheme, considerable amount of work with sound,
timbre, rhythm and meter. My conception of harmony may seem somewhat distant from the
inspiration, but ultimately, it is all derived from the blues.
Concert IV
Friday, March 16, 2007
3:30 pm
Recital Hall
Veiled Places Ken Davies
1. Empyrean Escarpments
2. Anasazi Appartitions
3. Land of Cragged Spires
Neapolitan Wind Quintet
Caroline Rohm, flute
Kandace Stephenson, oboe
Ryan Daniels, clarinet
Amanda Harman, bassoon
Philip Kassel, horn
Michael Burns, conductor
What Do We Have? Betty Wishart
Beauty Surrounds Us
Nancy Jo Ezzell and Rebekah Murray, soprano 1
Brittany Akers and Megan Truelove, soprano 2
Jessica Noa and Megan Rowe, alto 1
David John Hailey and Brittany Kefauver, alto 2
Five Duets Mark Francis
Laura Pritchett, alto flute
Caroline Rohm, bass flute
Topsy Speaks Rodney Waschka
Sean Devlin, trombone
Electro-acoustic accompaniment
Snow Angels Dosia McKay
1. Winter’s Eve
2. The First Snow
3. Snow Angels
Neapolitan Wind Quintet
Caroline Rohm, flute
Kandace Stephenson, oboe
Ryan Daniels, clarinet
Amanda Harman, bassoon
Philip Kassel, horn
Michael Burns, conductor
Program Notes:
Ken Davies, Veiled Places
Duration: 11:00
There are places in the North American southwest that inspire the imagination and exude a sense
of geological, historical mystery. One feels as though one is looking through an atmospheric veil
at how life might have been in an ancient era. I attempted to capture a feel of three of those
places in this work.
In northern Arizona's Monument Valley, the desert floor is sparsely decorated with towering rock
outcroppings, striking from a distance. Yet, close up, they are huge sculptures, their empyrean
escarpments touching the sky. Through the high altitude thin air, the sun distinctly marks the
shadows and abstract angular lines of the cliff's' rough edges. One faintly sees large ancient
hands, casting shadows, carving the details.
The ancient cliff-dwelling civilization at Colorado's Mesa Verde left little history except the remains
of what was once a long and broad avenue of early American "hi-rise apartment complexes." One
can tour the many remains of social gathering places and examine, close-up, a few examples of
multi-room homes built in stone under shady rock ledges. For a brief moment, during my visit, I
saw apparitions of one of these ancient Anasazi families going about their daily lives.
South Utah's Bryce Canyon is a land of cragged spires and huge densely-clustered giant
hoodoos, rising from the canyon floor like a colossal army of ancient warriors standing guard in
the valley. To the early Paiute Native Americans, these were the "Legendary People" whom
Coyote turned into stone for their misdeeds, coating them in shades of red, frosty pink and
orange, golden yellow and tan. At the right time of the right day as a breeze ripples the sunlight,
you might see the sparkling colors come to life in silent speech.
Betty Wishart, What Do We Have? Beauty Surrounds Us
Duration: 5:00
What Do We Have?
What do we have?
All we have is today.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Will there be killing?
Oh, why can’t we have peace throughout our land?
For all we really have, all we have is today.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Will there be war, killing and death? Dying?
Or will there be peace throughout our land?
Beauty Surrounds Us
Beauty surrounds us, surrounds us all.
Beauty surrounds us with dark rain-filled clouds;
Clouds filled with rain, thunder and lightning, rainbows after storms.
Beauty surrounds us with nature’s walls:
seasons changing from summer to fall.
Bright green leaves that turn to gold
as climates change from hot to cold.
Blades of grass that once were green
soon take on an icy sheen.
Leaves unraked, fallen on the ground,
will lay unseen after snowflakes fall down.
Weeping willows wear icy, icy tears
that will bring cries of joy when summer appears.
Beauty surrounds us, surrounds us all.
Mark Francis, 5 Duets
Duration: 9:00
5 Duets exists in 2 versions: this one and one for violin and viola. This is the first performance of
this version. Each movement is based around the motive A-D-C. The motive is extended, broken
down, rebuilt and transformed through various tempos, textures, forms and rhythmic figures.
Rodney Waschka, Topsy Speaks
Duration: 10:00
Topsy Speaks was commissioned by the Music Technology Program at the North Carolina
School of the Arts for trombonist James Miller of the NC School of the Arts and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic. Mr. Miller gave the premiere performance in Crawford Hall in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina on May 4, 2002.
Topsy, a ten-foot tall, 19-foot long elephant, was brought to the United States in 1875. She
worked in various parts of the country, but around the turn of the century she was employed as a
worker on the Coney Island amusement park. According to some, she grew bad tempered and
began to attack her trainers. One, who offered her a lit cigarette as food, was dashed to the
ground and killed. Others had also been killed. It was decided to execute Topsy, but the question
was: how? Initially some people suggested strangling her. Then, Thomas Edison got involved.
He sent a team to electrocute Topsy. He also sent a film crew to record the event for his movie
studio. On January 4, 1903, Topsy was fitted with a hawser around her neck, fed carrots laced
with a massive amount of cyanide, and then electrocuted by Edison's crew. Within weeks
Edison's film of the killing of Topsy was in his movie catalog available for rental to movie houses
across the country.
Dosia McKay, Snow Angels
Duration: 8:00
The woodwind quintet, Snow Angels, was inspired by a breeze of fresh air at the end of a long
and humid summer in East Tennessee. As the mornings and evenings became cooler, and the
change of seasons was at hand, the composer was overcome by the memories of snowy winters
in her native Poland. She remembered being pulled in a sled by her parents, the taste and smell
of snow, and the simplicity of a child’s joy and wonderment. She dedicates this piece to all of her
Northern Friends who have been transplanted to the South and who miss true winter.
Concert V
Friday, March 16, 2007
7:30 pm
Recital Hall
Elegy Greg Wanamaker
UNCG Chamber String Orchestra
Greg Carroll, guest conductor
“I Will Wait for You There!” David Caudill
Robert Wells, baritone
Scott Rawls, viola
James Douglass, piano
Night Songs Roger Vogel
Malgorzata Staszewska, violin
Anatoly Sheludyakov, piano
Intermission
Three Movements in Motion David Mitchell
1. Dancing (Contra-Rondo)
2. Tolling (Tolling Bells
3. Marching (The Relentless March of the Half Steps)
Rylan Smith, guitar
Matt Anderson, guitar
Approaching Northern Darkness Ken Jacobs
Sheila Browne, viola
David Brunell, piano
Springfield Trio 2005 Tayloe Harding
Joren Cain, soprano saxophone
David Springfield, trombone
Maila Gutierrez Springfield, piano
Program Notes:
Greg Wanamaker, Elegy
Duration: 5:00
Elegy is an arrangement for string orchestra of the slow movement (also titled Elegy) of my Duo
Sonata for clarinet and alto saxophone. Elegy in its original version was written in memory of
those who died in the tragedy on September 11, 2001. The work is a strictly white-note work
based on very simple motives. Elegy received its world premiere at the 12th Festival
Internacional Bach by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Trujillo in Trujillo, Peru.
Violin I
Allison Willet, concertmaster
Megan Morris
Will Selle
Haein Song
Elizabeth Cansler
Meg Harrison
LaTannia Ellerbe
Violin II
Jared Matthews, principal
Annalisa Chang
Veronica Allen
Young Cho
Brittany Ellis
Chrissy Fuchs
Viola
Lauren Andersen, principal
Laurie Rominger
Caitie Leming
Alex Beard
Cello
Gina Pezzoli, principal
Michelle Kwon
Jesse McAdoo
Sarah Dorsey
Bass
Mike Di Trolio
Kit Polen
Steven Jackson
David Caudill, “I Wait for You There” (The Last Letter of Sullivan Ballou to His Wife Sarah.)
Duration: 22:00
…”I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.” So reads the gravestone of
Sullivan Ballou, March 28, 1829 to June 21, 1861, Major in the Union Army. The inscription is
taken from the last line of his last letter to his wife, Sarah, written one week before he was killed
by a cannonball, along with twenty-seven of his close comrades, in the Battle of Bull Run at
Manassas, Virginia.
He wrote: “I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two
thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of
death-and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with
God, my country, and thee.”
Having risen from an orphanage to a promising career as a lawyer, he volunteered in the
spring of 1861. He was deeply concerned for his wife and two young sons, Willie and Edgar. His
motive for fighting was a pure love for his country and its principals and he was willing “…to lay
down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government…”
Still the blissful moments of his life with her, he goes on, “come creeping over me, and I feel
most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long.” He promises her, “If the dead
can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near
you…”
I Wait for You There was the 2003 MMTA/MTNA Commissioned Composition.
Roger Vogel, Night Songs
Duration: 9:00
Night Songs was written in 2003 for Tom O'Donnell, a prominent violinist in the Atlanta, Georgia
area. Many different types of music are associated with the night; from lyrical serenades and
lullabies to boisterous drinking songs and dark hymns there are dramatic differences. Night
Songs is a work of strong contrasts in which a slow lyrical section is followed by a vigorous fast
concluding section with a strong rhythmic momentum.
David Mitchell, Three Movements in Motion
Duration: 11:00
Three Movements in Motion is a composition for guitar duet. All three movements employ a wide
variety of special effects on the guitar from percussive and strum techniques to harmonics and
alternate tunings.
The first movement, “Contra-Rondo,” is a fast dance that shifts from 4/4 to 5/4. Its title comes
from the fact that it is in rondo form and the accompaniment in the second guitar part is in
contrary motion. “Contra-Rondo” introduces and employs an interesting golpe (percussion)
technique that returns in the third movement in a climactic finale. In the middle of the piece, the
second guitarist must retune the 6th string from E to Eb in just four counts. Listen for the
harmonics, glissandos, and Bartok pizzicato at the end of the movement.
The second movement, “Tolling Bells,” is a slow movement with an unusual alternate tuning in the
second guitar part. The 6th string is tuned from E to Eb. The 4th string is tuned D to C#. This
gives the guitarist a tri-tone between the 5th and 6th strings and wonderfully dissonant chords,
just like a cacophony of tolling church bells in the dark. Listen for the string bends and the
ghostly midnight dance in the second guitar part. The first guitar part suggests shadowy figures
scurrying about. The movement finishes with tolling bells fading into the dark misty night.
The third movement, “The Relentless March of The Half Steps,” is based on a commonly used
intervallic technique exercise. This exercise is a four-note figure in descending half steps. In this
movement, the exercise is used as an ostinatos accompaniment part to the syncopated melodic
part. This ostinatos figure provides a relentless march throughout the piece. The first guitar part
introduces a syncopated melody that shifts from naturale to ponticello tone colors. The two
guitars switch accompaniment and melodic parts in the middle of the piece, and the movement
comes to a dramatic finish using a golpe technique that was introduced in the first movement.
Kenneth Jacobs, Approaching Northern Darkness
Duration: 13 minutes
This is the second movement of a 47-minute concerto for viola and orchestra, and each of the
movements can be played individually. In the second movement (“Simply, Heartfelt”), three
gentle yet passionate themes are presented in succession. The poignancy of the opening
themes gives way to the more animated feel of an intense, dramatic tango. The slow pulse still is
prevalent, but it is heavily subdivided. Eventually, the two opening themes are recapped, slightly
ornamented, and presented in reverse order. Consequently, the movement ends with the same
starkly simple and romantic material with which it began. The work was commissioned by Sheila
Browne, who has just returned from recording the entire concerto with the Kiev Philharmonic for
ERM. The CD will be released later this year, and the viola / piano version (with David Brunell)
will also be released as part of a two-disc set of viola works commissioned by Ms. Browne from
this composer.
The score is preceded by the following quote from Aldous Huxley: “…looking up into the
darkness. Up there…just above me, floats the great secret, the beauty and the mystery. To look
into the depths of that mystery, to fix the eyes of the spirit on that bright and enigmatic beauty, to
pore over the secret until its symbols cease to be opaque and the light filters through from
beyond—there is nothing else in life that matters; there is no rest or possibility of satisfaction in
doing anything else.”
ALDOUS HUXLEY: “THOSE BARREN LEAVES” (1925)
Tayloe Harding, The Springfield Trio (2005)
Duration: 12 minutes
The Springfield Trio (2005) is a three movement work for piano, trombone, and soprano
saxophone. Commissioned by pianist Maila Springfield in 2004, the composition features
distinctly different content and form among its movements. The second is an adaptation of a
song, originally conceived for a musical theatre production. It is the only one of the movements
that is through-composed, suggested by a non-strophic text at its genesis. Motivically-inspired
formal structures similar to much of the chamber work of the composer, predominate in
movements 2 and 3 though the nature and mood of the material contrasts from section to section
in both. The three performances of The Springfield Trio (2005) presented by the commissioning
musicians on March 16, 17, and 18, 2007 constitute its world premiere.
Concert VI
Saturday, March 17, 2007
11:00 am
Recital Hall
Three Poems of Pierre Reverdy Thomas Royal
Timothy Cook, baritone
Grace Anderson, cello
Thomas Royal, piano
Clarinet Sonata David Lothamer
Annie Hutson, clarinet
Gregory Carroll, piano
Woodwind Quartet, Op. 7 Jess Hendricks
1. Elegy
2. Instance 1
3. Interlude 1
4. Instance 2
5. Interlude 2
6. Finality
Laura Pollard, flute
Jay Welborn, clarinet
Angel Garren, bassoon
Shannon Kucirka, horn
Program Notes:
Thomas Royal, Three Poems of Pierre Reverdy
Duration: 8:00
These pieces are settings of the French cubist poet, Pierre Reverdy (1889-1960.) The aesthetic
approach used in this composition is analogous to the aesthetic approach seen in these poems.
Reverdy achieves remarkable directness and strength through careful choice of and extremely
judicial placement of very few words. In the setting of the poems, every attempt is made to portray
a stark and desolate simplicity through the use of a linear approach which subsumes all musical
elements to melodic considerations. The piece is not necessarily tuneful, as melodic material
often appears in a fragmentary manner. Nonetheless, the melodic material is presented as simply
as possible so that nuances of line are brought into severe focus. In addition, there is a kind of
romanticism in the piece, though certainly not a trifling, comfortable romanticism. A very extended
tonality sometimes presents itself in this piece, but its rules are very often violated for the sake of
melodic considerations.
Son de Cloche
Tout s’est éteint
Le vent passé en chantant
Et les arbres frissonnent
Les animaux sont morts
Il n’y a plus personne
Regarde
Les étoiles ont cessé de briller
La terre ne tourne plus
Une tête s’est inclinée
Les cheveux blayant la nuit
Le Dernier clocher resté debout
Sonne minuit
Sur le Talus
Le soir couchant ferme une porte
Nous sommes au bord du chemin
Dans l’ombre
près du ruisseau où tout se tient
Si c’est encore une lumière
La ligne part à l’infini
L’eau monte comme une poussière
La silence ferme la nuit
Souffle
Il neige sur mon toit et sur les arbres. Le
mur et le jardin sont blancs, le sentier noir
et la maison s’est écroulée sans bruit. Il
neige
Sound of a Bell
All the lights are out
The wind passes singing
And the trees shiver
The animals are dead
There is no one left
Look
The stars are not shining now
Or the earth turning
A head has bowed
Hair sweeps the night
The last bell tower upright
Strikes midnight
trans. Patricia Terry
On the bank
Evening as it sets closes a door
We are on the edge of the road
In the shadow
close to the brook where everything holds still
If this is still a light
It’s heading for infinity.
The water rises like a kind of dust
Silence closes the night
trans. Patricia Terry
Breath
It is snowing on my roof and on the trees.
The wall and the garden are white, the path
Black, and the house has given way without a
sound. It is snowing
trans. Mary Ann Caws and Patricia Terry
David Lothamer, Clarinet Sonata
Duration: 5:00
This is a one-movement sonata written during the first part of 2006. It was influenced by two
other clarinet pieces: Poulenc's Clarinet Sonata and Robert Muczynski's Time Pieces. The goal
of this work was to combine the freedom and vitality of Poulenc's music with Muczynski's highly
chromatic (but not atonal) sonorities and jagged rhythms.
Jess Hendricks, Woodwind Quartet, Op. 7
Duration: 24:00
Quartet for Woodwinds, op. 7 is a seven movement work for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn in
F that was originally composed for the Western Arts Quartet as a one movement piece called
“Elegy”. In 2004, Jess Hendricks decided to revisit the piece and add additional movements. The
next five movements were based on ideas contained in the first movement, plus many additional
themes were added. The piece attempts to explore all of the different sounds this unique
ensemble can create and explores several different moods. The movements were given
purposely vague titles so that the listener can create whatever picture or feel whatever emotion
they want without having to be influenced by a title.
Quartet for Woodwinds was the co-winner of First Prize in the 2005 Philip Slates Composition
Contest for graduate students. Jess Hendricks has been a student of Dr. Ken Jacobs at The
University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Composer Biographies
Joe L. Alexander’s music has been performed throughout the United States, South America and
Europe. Performances include recitals/presentations at regional conferences of the Birmingham
Art Music Alliance, the Louisiana Composers’ Consortium, the Society of Composers, Inc., the
College Music Society, and Southeastern Composers League Forum. His music has been
featured at Bowling Green State University’s annual New Music & Art Festival, and New Music for
Young Ensemble Composers' Competition. In 2002, the Monroe (Louisiana) Symphony
Orchestra selected him to compose Louisiana Blue (baritone voice, flute, piano with orchestra
accompaniment). His Two Bryant Songs (soprano, Bb clarinet and piano) are on the CD Winds
and Voices, by Living Artist Recordings. Alexander teaches low brass, serves as the Head of
Theory/Composition and is Director of the Music Technology Labs at Louisiana Tech University.
In addition, he is the Secretary-Treasurer for the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society
and Secretary for the Southeastern Composers League. In 2005, he hosted the Southeastern
Composers League’s Annual Forum at Louisiana Tech University. Alexander holds a Doctor of
Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas and studied composition with Newel Kay
Brown, Douglas Knehans, Martin Mailman, Cindy McTee, and James Riley.
Leonard V. Ball, Jr. has been a member of the composition and theory area of the University of
Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music since 1987. His principal instructional responsibilities
include courses in undergraduate and graduate acoustic and electronic composition, music
technology, computer assisted instruction, and music theory. He has also served, with minimum
interruption, as chair of the School’s Technology Committee since 1995. He is currently director of
the Roger and Phyllis Dancz Center for New Music. His compositions have been performed
across the United States, in Europe, South America, and Japan. His electronic work has focused
on interactivity combining dancers (movement) and sound.
Born in Richmond, VA and brought up in eastern North Carolina, Ball’s musically formative years
were spent as a vocalist/guitarist in a number of folk and light rock bands, culminating in
professional work as an arranger/performer for several bluegrass and folk groups. After an eight-year
hiatus with the United States Army, he earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music
degrees in composition from Kansas State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition
from the University of Memphis. His principal teachers were T. Hanley Jackson, John Baur, and
Donald Freund.
Gregory D. Carroll is an associate professor of composition and theory at UNCG, where he also
teaches courses in music history and literature. He earned a BA from St. John’s University (MN)
and an MM and Ph.D. in composition/theory from the University of Iowa. Dr. Carroll taught at the
University of Iowa and Indiana State University before coming to UNC Greensboro in 1981. His
compositions have been performed at state, regional, national, and international conferences--
from the continental United States and Alaska, to Canada, Europe and Australia. In the recent
past, his Studies in American Folk Idiom was given its world premiere by the Anchorage
Symphony Orchestra, and an arrangement for tuba solo and Wind Ensemble was premiered at
the International Tuba-Euphonium Conference in Budapest.
Dr. Carroll has also been active as a pianist, conductor and guest lecturer, and has served as
judge for numerous state, regional and national composition contests. He currently serves as
Vice President of the Southeastern Composers League.
David Caudill is Emeritus Professor of Music at the Delta State University.
His musical compositions have received numerous performances in recitals in concerts. His list
of works includes six songs cycles, three major works for chorus, two major works for chorus and
wind ensemble, works for various instrumental ensembles and for various solo instruments.
Commissions include those by the Mississippi Music Teachers Association/Music Teachers
National Association, the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia/Theta Upsilon Chapter and the American Choral
Directors Association/Mississippi Music Teachers Association Joint Conference.
His Romanza for Flute and Piano is included on the CD, Mississippi Classic, and was used in the
music for a documentary made for public television. His Thy Light for Chorus was published by
Boosey and Hawkes. His two act opera, The Shepherds’ Story, was premiered as part of the
Delta State University’s 75th Anniversary Celebration.
He is the recipient of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Music Award, the Phi Mu Alpha
Sinfonia Orpheus Award, and an Academic Excellence Award from the Mississippi State
Legislature. He currently resides in western North Carolina, and is working on his second opera.
John Corina (b. 1928), composer, oboist, organist and conductor, received the B.S. degree in
music education and M. A. in music history from Western Reserve University, and the D.Mus.
degree in composition from Florida State University.
He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music where for
25 years he taught oboe, composition and theory, and performed with the Georgia Woodwind
Quintet. From 1983 through 1989 he served as conductor of the University Orchestra and from
1968 through 1989 he administered the programs in theory/composition. He was appointed to
the graduate faculty in 1970 and promoted to the rank of full professor in 1978. In 1985 he was
awarded the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship, a three year appointment. Prior to
the position at the University of Georgia, he taught at Miami Dade Junior College in Florida and in
secondary schools in Dade County, Florida and Lakewood, Ohio. In 1998 he was inducted into
the Collingwood High School (Cleveland, Ohio) Alumni Hall of Fame for achievement in music.
His doctoral studies in composition were with John Boda and he has composed over 120
compositions consisting mainly of works for chorus and for vocal and instrumental chamber
music. He has received fourteen awards in composition in addition to yearly ASCAP standard
awards.
An oboe student of Philip Kirchner, he has performed with the Cleveland Philharmonic, the Miami
Beach Symphony, the Greater Miami Philharmonic and the Augusta Symphony and has
performed ten times for the International Double Reed Society. His conducting studies were with
F. Karl Grossman and Richard Burgin.
Dr. Corina has been a church organist/choirmaster for over 50 years and in 1998 he retired as
organist/choirmaster emeritus at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens Georgia, a position he
held for 24 years. He has also served as the conductor of the Athens Choral Society. Presently
he continues his musical activities as composer, oboist, choral singer and organist. He returned
to teaching composition part time at the University of Georgia for the 2000-2001 and 2003-2004
school years.
Memberships include Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Kappa Lambda, MENC/GMEA, NEA, Southeaster
Composers League, International Double Reed Society, American Music Center, SCI, NACWPI,
AGO and ASCAP.
His latest works include Antiphon for men, women and mixed chorus, and Magnificat for mixed
chorus.
William Davis has been a faculty member in the University of Georgia School of Music since
1981 and has served as Associate Director for Administration since 2003. He earned Bachelor of
Music and Master of Music degrees at the University of Kansas, and the Doctor of Musical Arts
degree at the Eastman School of Music. His main composition teachers have been John Pozdro,
Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson, and he has studied bassoon with David Van Hoesen and
Austin Ledwith. His published compositions include works for soloists, chamber ensembles,
chorus, and symphonic band. His works for orchestra have been performed by the San Antonio
Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Macon Symphony, and other orchestras. Prior to 1981 he
was an Army Band Officer (1972-74), a bassoonist in the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra
(1974-75), and a faculty member at West Texas State University (1975-81). He has served as
President of the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, as President of
the Southeastern Composers League, and in several officer positions in the International Double
Reed Society.
A Wisconsin native, Ken Davies holds an M.A. in trombone from Middle Tennessee State
University at Murfreesboro and an M.M. in composition from the University of Colorado at Boulder
where he was an Effinger Fellowship composition student. During the 1970s, he was trombonist
for ten years with Gabriel’s Brass, a 12-piece jazz/rock show band based in Orlando, Florida,
regularly appearing at Walt Disney World. He has worked as a commercial arranger and session
producer for nationally broadcast record and television projects. Since 2002, he has resided in
south Mississippi where he teaches brass privately, composes and runs his publishing company,
Kenvad Music. His works include choral, acoustic and electronic pieces that have been
performed nationally at Society of Composers National and Regional conferences, Southeastern
Composers League, the International Trombone Festival, and at several concerts. Mp3s of his
works may be heard via his website www.kendavies.net. He was recently awarded the 2006-2007
Artist Fellowship Grant in composition by the Mississippi Arts Commission.
Mark Engebretson, Assistant Professor of Composition and Electronic Music, has recently
undertaken composing a series of high-powered solo works entitled “Energy Drink” and writing
music for large ensembles. He was previously a freelance composer and performer in Stockholm
and Vienna, earning numerous commissions from official funding organizations. His music has
been presented at many festivals, such as Wien Modern (Vienna), Gaida Festival (Vilnius,
Lithuania), Ny Musikk (Bergen, Norway), Indiana State University New Music Festival (Terre
Haute, Indiana), the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival and ISCM Festivals (Tirana, Albania
and Baku, Azerbaijan). Recent performances include presentations by the Wroclaw Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony. His work “She Sings, She Screams” for saxophone
and digital media has been performed countless times worldwide and has been released on three
compact disc recordings. As a performer, he has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician
worldwide, and he is a former member of the Vienna Saxophone Quartet. Dr. Engebretson has
taught at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Florida and at the State University of
New York, College at Fredonia. He holds the DMA degree from Northwestern University, and also
studied at the University of Minnesota and the Conservatoire de Bordeaux. His teachers include
Michel Fuste-Lambezat, Ruben Haugen, Frederick L. Hemke, Jean-Marie Londeix, M. William
Karlins, Pauline Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim.
Mark Francis (b. 1958) is Director of Education and Community Outreach for The Florida
Orchestra in Tampa. He previously served as Director of Education and Librarian for the
Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and has taught at Mississippi State University, Louisiana School
for Math, Science and the Arts, Centenary College, Northwestern State University and Power
Academic and Performing Arts Complex. He holds a D.M.A. in composition from the University of
Kentucky. A recipient of 10 ASCAP Standard Awards and an ASCAP Plus Award for his
compositions which include chamber, orchestral, choral and electronic works as well as over 75
art songs. His compositions are frequently performed at prestigious festivals such as the Society
Of Composers, Inc. National Meeting, Resolution 2000 New Music Festival, The Corcoran Gallery
Contemporary Music Series in Washington, DC and the North American Saxophone Association.
His compositions and arrangements are published by Conners Publications, Carillon Music from
Albany Little Piper Publications, Gold Branch Music and Imagine Music. He is a past Board
Member for Composition of College Music Society, South Chapter and past President of the
Southeastern Composers League and a frequent contributor to 21st Century Music.
James Geiger (b.1977), a native of Palatka, Florida, is currently the band director and
percussion coordinator at West Laurens Middle School, located in Dublin, Georgia. He received
his undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University (BM, music ed. and music comp.,
2000) and his graduate degree from The University of Tennessee (MM, music comp., 2005). His
compositions have been performed by such groups as the Third Chair Chamber Players (Lincoln,
NE), Clinton String Quartet (Clinton, NY), and the Cathedral Brass (Hastings, NE). When he is not
teaching, Mr. Geiger arranges music for chorus and band, collects all kinds of compact discs, and
teaches at Georgia College and State University’s Summer Music Camps.
Tayloe Harding became Dean of the School of Music at University of South Carolina on July 1,
2005. He also served, from 2003-5 as Composer-in-Residence for the Valdosta (GA) Symphony
Orchestra. He was most recently the Head of the Department of Music, Professor of Music, and
Chief Advancement Officer for the Arts at Valdosta State University (VSU) as well as serving as
Executive Director of the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. He has previously served in faculty and
administrative capacities at North Dakota State University, Virginia Commonwealth University,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Georgia State University. Dr. Harding's works have
received performances throughout the United States, Canada and on six continents. He has
received grants for new works and premiers from Meet the Composer, the National Endowment
for the Arts, Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Foundation, Philip Morris, Inc., and a variety of state
and local agencies in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, and
North Dakota. Commissions for his new works have been received from Thamyris, the Atlanta
Winds, the African-American Philharmonic Orchestra, the Atlanta Community Orchestra, the
Fernbank Museum of Natural History, the Chicago Saxophone Quartet, the Gainesville (FL) Civic
Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet, and from numerous individuals and Universities. His has been a
fellow of the Ragdale and UCROSS Foundations, as well as of the Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts, the Hambidge Center for the Arts, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. A member of
ASCAP, his works are published by Mareba Music, and Collected Editions, Ltd. He is currently
serving as Immediate-Past President of the College Music Society, the nation’s only
comprehensive professional and scholarly membership organization in music in higher education
has been active in many national and international organizations most recently the Society of
Composers, Inc. and the National Associations of Schools of Music.
Jess Hendricks (b. 1972) is a composer and arranger living in the Knoxville, Tennessee area.
While studying composition with Dr. Charles W. Smith at Western Kentucky University, he
composed three award winning works: Piano Sonata No. 1, String Quartet No. 1, and Phase II for
Unaccompanied Clarinet. All three pieces won the Kentucky Music Teachers National Association
Composition Competition in 1992, 1993, and 1994.
In 2006 the Celebration and Chorale for Percussion Ensemble, op. 24, String Quartet No 2, op.
15, Sat Gamaya for Winds, Percussion, and Strings, op. 32, and Lunar Reflections on the Sea,
op. 33 were all premiered at various locations. On April 24, 1998 the Bassoon Concerto No. 1, op
9, was premiered by Jefferson Campbell (who also commissioned it) and members of the North
Carolina School of the Arts Student Orchestra. Currently Jess Hendricks is working towards his
Master’s Degree in Composition at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee and
studying under Dr. Kenneth Jacobs.
Kenneth Jacobs is Professor of Music Composition. A native of Indiana, he was awarded the
Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. His music has been played
across North and South America and Europe, and he has received an International New Music
Composers Award, Bergen Festival Award, City College of New York Electro-Acoustic Prize, the
Brown University Choral Prize, Tennessee Orchestral Prize, prizes from the Texas and
Tennessee Music Educators Associations, and a Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Artist Award.
Composer of music for solo, chamber, orchestral, vocal, choral, and electronic media, he has
toured extensively with a dozen multimedia works featuring his artwork and photography coupled
with synthesized music, and these works soon will be available on DVD. Currently, fifteen solo
compact discs of his music have been released on the Zyode, Impact, and Opus One labels.
American Record Guide has described his music as “a deceptive kind—seemingly simple and
accessible, but created with consummate skill.” He directs the composition program at the
University of Tennessee and is published by Boosey and Hawkes, Seesaw Music, and North /
South Editions.
Bruce Hurley Johnston is an award winning composer and a Summa Cum Laude graduate of
Berklee College of Music holding a Bachelor of Music Composition degree. He grew up in
Arkansas and was playing blues on Memphis’ famous Beale Street by the age of 21. At the age
of 25, he received a “Talent Scholarship” from Berklee based on his instrumental performance as
well as his compositions. While in Boston, Bruce studied with composers John Bavicchi, Thomas
J. McGah, and Arthur Welwood. Currently, he studies composition with Dr. Kenneth Jacobs at the
University of Tennessee where he holds a graduate theory teaching assistantship. Bruce can be
heard performing in the Southeast United States with various bands including “The Tennessee
River Dogs” bluegrass group, “Cheating Spoon”, The Mount Olive Baptist Church “Voices of
Praise”, and his fusion group “Tease Louise” of which he is guitarist, bassist, vocalist, and
musical director.
Mark Prince Lee received his BM in composition from Florida State University, where he studied
with Harold Schiffman, and an MM in composition from Memphis State University. Mr. Lee also
holds an MA and PhD ABD in German Studies from Vanderbilt University. He is currently the
chair of the Music Department at Columbia Sate College in Tennessee (near Nashville), a
position he has held since 1993. Mr. Lee did post-graduate study in composition for two summers
at the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt, Germany where he studied with Brian Ferneyhough and John
Cage. Most recently, Mr. Lee studied compositional analysis with Karlheinz Stockhausen during
the summers of 2002, 2003, and 2004, in Kuerten, Germany (near Koeln). Mr. Lee’s works for a
wide variety of acoustic and electronic media have been performed throughout the eastern half of
the US including performances in Miami, New Orleans, Washington D.C., New York City, and
Toronto. In Europe his works have been performed in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Vienna, and
throughout Germany.
David Lothamer is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in music composition. He began
taking piano lessons at the age of 10, shortly after moving from Reston, Virginia to Nashville,
Tennessee. During high school he became involved with various choirs and other performing
groups. Formerly a piano performance major at Saint Louis University, David has since
transferred to the University of Tennessee. In Fall of 2005, he began his study of composition
with Dr. Jacobs. His interests include all kinds of music ranging from classical to popular and
especially film scores. David's music has been influenced by several composers, particularly
Poulenc, Debussy, Messiaen, and Stravinsky. He is currently a member of the UT Singers jazz
choir.
Bruce P. Mahin is a Professor of Music, and Director of the Radford University Center for Music
Technology. He received the B.Mus from West Virginia University, M.Mus from Northwestern
University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns
Hopkins University. Mahin is a former president of the Southeastern Composers League, a
former co-chair of Society of Composers Region 3, a former research fellow at the University of
Glasgow (Scotland), and the recipient of awards from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, Meet
the Composer, Annapolis Fine Arts Foundation, Res Musica, Southeastern Composers League
and others. His works are available on compact disc through Capstone Recordings (CPS-8747,
CPS-8624 and CPS-8611) and published in score by Pioneer Percussion, Ltd. and in the Society
of Composers Journal of Musical Scores.
Dosia McKay was born and raised in Poland. At the age of nine she began her studies at the
local Elementary School of Music in Wejherowo, with classical guitar as her major instrument, but
soon chose to pursue flute and piano instead. She continued her education at the State School of
Music and General Education in Gdansk. As a member of the symphony orchestra and women’s
chorale she traveled to Hungary, Switzerland, and Germany. She graduated with honors,
majoring in flute performance under Ewa Pinno and Katarzyna Wittschenbach.
In 1991 Dosia came to California to join the Celebrant Singers, with whom she traveled
extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, France, Italy, Malta, Greece,
and Albania. Since 1994 she has made Tennessee her home. She is currently studying music
composition with Dr. Kenneth A. Jacobs at the University of Tennessee School of Music.
Jonathan B. McNair is active in the creation and performance of new music, teaching,
community outreach, and church music. His music has been performed across the U.S.A., and in
Puerto Rico, Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland, released on the Capstone label, and published
by Pilgrim Press. Performers have included members of the Cleveland Orchestra, Myriad
Ensemble, Epicycle Ensemble, the Wichita New Music Ensemble, neoPhonia, the Smoky
Mountain Chorale, Chattanooga Symphony core players, and soloists and ensembles at
universities, colleges, festivals, and churches. McNair has received awards, residencies, and
commissions from the American Composers Forum, Choral Arts of Chattanooga, Allied Arts of
Chattanooga, Ballet Tennessee, the Chattanooga Symphony chamber players, and the
Chattanooga Clarinet Choir. He studied composition at The Cleveland Institute of Music, Southern
Methodist University, and Appalachian State University. He is currently U.C. Foundation
Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at The University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga, and artistic director of the Contemporary Music Symposium at UTC.
David Mitchell studied classical guitar performance under John Sutherland at the University of
Georgia, and has participated in master classes with virtuoso guitarists Christopher Parkening
and David Russell. David is also a past winner of Georgia Music Teachers Association and
National Music Educators Association competitions, and is a former member of the Georgia
Council for the Arts Touring Artists Roster. Currently, he is the instructor of guitar at Truett-
McConnell College and the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. David is the
former instructor of guitar at Piedmont College. Over the last ten years, his students have won
numerous state guitar competitions. David has served as the Guitar Division Chairperson for the
Georgia Music Teachers Association student competitions. He was a competitor in the 2002
Guitar Foundation of America international competition in Miami. In addition to concerts and
competitions, David has performed at many weddings, receptions, and arts events during his
twenty-eight years of playing classical guitar. Currently, David is studying composition at the
University of Georgia School of Music under Dr. Leonard Ball. He also received 2005 teacher of
the year at South Gwinnett Community Schools for outstanding contributions to the students and
community.
Richard Montalto holds degrees in composition from the University of New Orleans, Tulane
University and the University of North Texas. He studied composition with Russell Smith, John
Baur and Larry Austin. He is the recipient of a number of awards, including an ASCAP Grants to
Young Composers Award for his Symphony for Wind Ensemble, a Mississippi Artist Fellowship
for his Symphony #2 and 25 ASCAP Standard Awards. His works have been performed at the
Montreaux International Jazz Festival, Symphony Space in New York, the New Orleans
Contemporary Arts Center, the International Computer Music Conference, Carnegie Hall, and
numerous academic conferences. He has served as President of the Southern Chapter of the
College Music Society and the Southeastern Composers’ League. Prior to joining the Mississippi
University for Women faculty he served as director of the University of New Orleans Jazz Band.
He is currently a Professor of Music at MUW.
Kadisha Onalbayeva was born in Kazakhstan and began her musical training at the age of 5
years. She attended Jubanov Special School for Talented Children in Almaty, Kazakhstan for 12
years. While at Jubanov she studied piano and composition, gave piano recitals and was
involved in piano and composition festivals and competitions. Awards include first prize in the
Soviet Union’s “New Talent” competition, national piano competitions and Central Asia piano
competitions. Kadisha also participated in international music festivals in Yalta, Germany,
Turkey, Russia and Uzbekistan. In addition Kadisha performed Bach’s C Minor harpsichord
concerto, Haydn’s D Major concerto, Grieg’s A minor concerto, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1
and Khatchaturian’s concerto.
After graduation from the Jubanov school, Kadisha entered the Kurmangazy National
Conservatory of Music. While at the conservatory she studied piano, composition,
accompanying, chamber music and pedagogy. Kadisha was awarded the “President’s Award for
Young Artists” and Chevron’s “Award for Talented Students” in piano and composition. She
continued her career with solo recitals, concerto performances, chamber recitals, composition
performances and teaching. Kadisha also participated in performance seminars, workshops and
master classes. Piano concertos performed by Kadisha while at the conservatory include
Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.
1 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Kadisha’s most important piano teachers were
Ludmila Lapan , Asuly Dosaeva, Tatiana Sulemenova,Guljamila Kadirbekova, Klara Gospadar,
Vladimir Sevidov and Vladimir Krienev.
Kadisha continued her activities as performer, composer and teacher following her graduation
from the conservatory. During this time she received a Soros prize for her work in development
of international cultural exchanges. This award paid for her first visit to America in January, 2000.
This first visit brought Kadisha to New Orleans in January, 2000 to participate in the International
Jazz Conference. In August, 2003. to study with Dr. Jerry Sieg and earned her M.M. in
Composition from the University of New Orleans in May, 2005. She then completed her M.M. in
Piano Performance at U.N.O. in 2006 with Professor Mary Ann Bulla, and is currently working on
her Doctorate in Piano Performance Louisiana State University with Professor Michael Gurt and
Professor Gregory Sioles.
Throughout her career, Kadisha has been a strong supporter of new music. She has continued
her performances of her music, and participated in international new music festivals as composer,
performer and organizer throughout Central Asia, Austria, England, Kazakhstan, Russian,
Uzbekistan, Tatarstan. While in America she has participated in new music activities in New
Orleans, Slidell, Ruston, Baton Rouge, Spartanburg South Carolina and Pensacola, Florida. She
has been particularly interested in introducing the music of Kazakhstan to America. She is a
member of Kazakhstan Composers’ Union. Kadisha recently won the Southeastern Composers’
League (USA) graduate composition for her solo cello “Think…Know ..After..”.
David Pegel, a Tennessee native, began his study of music at the age of nine. In addition to
composing, he has become reasonably accomplished on multiple brass instruments, as well as
flute, piano, and Baroque recorders. David has been studying with Dr. Kenneth Jacobs since the
fall of 2004, and has since had many of his works premiered by his friends and colleagues on
campus. His music has been described as "a fresh mix of old and new harmonies, expressing
bold statements in a semi-traditional style that can identify with many audiences". In addition to
study under Dr. Jacobs, David has also studied euphonium performance under the direction of
Mr. Sande Macmorran, also of UT, and plays an active role in UT's Band and Choir programs.
William Pruett teaches composition, theory and electronic music at Campbell University in Buies
Creek, North Carolina. He maintains a piano teaching studio and has served as adjudicator for
many piano and composition competitions, including NCMTA (North Carolina Music Teachers
Association) and the Raleigh Piano Teachers Association.
Hollis Elisabeth Roberts, of Sautee, Georgia, graduated summa cum laude with honors in violin
performance from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Ms. Roberts was the
recipient of the 2006 Pi Kappa Lambda Award, which is earned by the senior with the highest
academic record in the Petrie School of Music. An accomplished student and performer, Ms.
Roberts was concertmaster of the Converse Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Araya
Quartet with which she toured Europe three times during the annual Converse Festival Tours.
She also participated in the Sessione Senese per la Musica e l’Arte, in Italy in 2004. Ms. Roberts
was a member of the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra. She participated in master classes
with Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, Emerson String Quartet, Juilliard
String Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio, among others. She was the Petrie School’s 2005 Presser
Scholar, an honor given to an outstanding student majoring in music at the end of her junior year.
In 2005, she was selected to perform with the National Festival Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. Ms.
Roberts also taught violin in the Lawson Pre-College program at Converse.
She is continuing her education at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
Maryland where she is studying for her master’s degree in violin performance with an emphasis in
pedagogy.
Scott Robbins’ compositions are widely performed and professionally recognized, having
received over 50 awards, including the International Sergei Prokofiev Award, Yale University’s
Norfolk National Composition Prize, NACUSA Young Composers Award, ASCAP Foundation
Grant to Young Composers, American Music Center Composer Assistance Award, Florida
Individual Artist Fellowship, and multiple awards from ASCAP and commissions from the SC
Music Teachers Association. His most recent award is the 2006 Grand Prize in the Composers
Guild Composition Contest for his sextet, Elastic Frequencies. Among those who have performed
and/or commissioned and/or commercially recorded Scott’s works are the Czech Radio
Symphony, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Moyzes Quartet, Ensemble Radieuse, the Gregg
Smith Singers, and the Dale Warland Singers. The Clearing, a film for which Scott composed the
soundtrack, received the CINE-Eagle award and has been broadcast on Bravo and HBO.
In his past life, Scott was guitarist for the Right Profile, a band that released an EP produced by
REM-producer Mitch Easter and was signed to a contract with Arista records. Ultimately, sanity
prevailed, and Scott went to college and received degrees from Wake Forest, Duke, and Florida
State universities.
Since 1998, he has been a member of the faculty of the Petrie School of Music, where he now
serves as Interim Dean and Associate Professor of Musicology and Composition.
Thomas Royal (born 1979) is currently studying composition in the M.M. program at the
University of North Carolina Greensboro. His present concerns are in attempting to find newer
conceptions of melody and counterpoint that not only expand upon current conceptions of those
ideas, but also enhance communicability with the audience. Currently he serves as a teaching
assistant in the Composition/History/Theory Division in the School of Music at UNCG.
Mitchell Turner (b. 1966) is an active music theorist and composer. He holds a Ph.D. (1999) and
an M.M (1993) from the University of Georgia, where he studied music theory and composition,
as well as a B.S. in Communications from Georgia Southern University (1988). He studied
composition with Dr. Lewis Nielson (Oberlin Conservatory), Dr. Leonard V. “Chic” Ball (the
University of Georgia), Dr. William Davis (the University of Georgia) and Dr. David W. Mathew
(Georgia Southern University). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at LaGrange
College and taught previously at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, the University of
Georgia, and Piedmont College.
His music has been performed at conferences of SEAMUS, the College Music Society and
Southeastern Composers League. His music is published by Wehr’s Music House and Conners
Publications. His music software HostX, TseqAM, and TseqX have been published multiple times
by the British Magazine Computer Music. HostX is also distributed by Behringer, GmbH, with
their digital audio hardware. His article "Interval-Class Exchanges in a Two-Dimensional Pitch-
Class Space" was published in the Eastman School of Music Journal Integral in Vol. 16/17
(2005).
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Roger Vogel studied music theory and composition at the Ohio
State University and earned the Ph. D. in 1975. His major professors were Marshall Barnes, Jay
Huff, Norman Phelps, and Wolf Rosenberg.
A productive composer, Dr. Vogel has over 100 compositions and several journal articles to his
credit. Since he joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1976, Dr. Vogel has written over
95 original works which have been published by eleven different publishing firms. Notable among
his awards are prizes from the Roger Wagner Choral Composition Competition, the National
Saxophone Workshop Composition Contest, the National Flute Association, and the Delius
Composition Competition. He has received commissions from the Georgia Music Teachers
Association, the University of Georgia, Sigma Alpha Iota Professional Women's Music Fraternity,
Phi Mu Alpha Professional Men's Music Fraternity, the Helios Duo, The Fellowship of Reason®,
the Athens Master Chorale, the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia 'Cello Society,and the Bass
Club of Georgia. His works have been performed in recitals and at conventions and festivals
throughout the United States, South America, and Europe.
New Orleans born composer, Terry Vosbein has received numerous commissions to write new
works from such organizations as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He
has composed works for orchestra, wind ensemble, various chamber ensembles and choir. And
his compositions have been performed all over the world.
Vosbein has been awarded five summer residencies at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In
the fall of 2001 he was awarded a fellowship at University College in Oxford, where he composed
Masque for Cello and Orchestra. And his composition A Prayer for Peace, a reaction to the
events of September 11th, has received performances worldwide. A more recent work, Village
Scenes for Alto Saxophone and Piano, was premiered by James Bunte and David Riley at
Carnegie Hall in early 2006.
When not spending his summers composing in exotic corners of the world, Vosbein teaches
music composition at Washington and Lee University in beautiful Lexington, Virginia. He received
his Masters in Composition from James Madison University under the tutelage of John Hilliard,
and his Doctorate in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was a student
of Donald Erb.
For more information, or to download scores and audio of his compositions, go to
www.vosbein.com
Gregory Wanamaker’s music explores and extends unique timbral qualities of instruments and
voices while maintaining lyric and dramatic characteristics commonly associated with works of
earlier eras and contemporary popular music. The winner of numerous awards, Wanamaker’s
music has been commissioned and performed throughout the United States, Canada, South
America, and Europe by performers including the Trujillo Symphony Orchestra, PRISM
Saxophone Quartet, The Gregg Smith Singers, The West Point Saxophone Quartet, Timothy
McAllister, Deborah Bish, Ensemble Radieuse, and the Society for New Music.
Recent world premieres include Deborah Bish’s acclaimed performance of Clarikinetics at the
Festival de Inverno de Vale Veneto, Brazil in July 2004 and speed metal organum blues by the
PRISM Saxophone Quartet at Symphony Space in New York City on November 19, 2004. His
Motet for orchestra and ¡Yo no tengo soledad! for mezzo soprano, saxophone and string
orchestra were premiered in August 2006 by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Trujillo at the 13th
Festival Internacional Bach where Wanamaker served as composer in residence for the past two
years.
Wanamaker's music is featured on Timothy McAllister’s release In Transit on the Innova label and
his music for clarinet was recorded by Deborah Bish’s recent release Clarikinetics on Mark
Custom Records. His work Triaria appears on Ensemble Radieuse’s independent debut album,
Inbox. Wanamaker is currently Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at the Crane
School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.
Rodney Waschka II is a composer/performer working with algorithmic composition, intermedia
pieces, and music for traditional ensembles. His pieces have been performed throughout Europe
and North America, in South America, Africa, in Japan and China. Musical Opinion (London)
cited his music as "fluent and entertaining". Computer Music Journal has called his work,
"profound … for the adventurous." Tim Perkis has praised his music as "cooler than cool", while
Fanfare noted that "It succeeds because Waschka understands the need to come up with
something new." Recordings of Waschka's music are available on the Capstone, IRIDA,
Centaur, Ama Romanta, Plancton, and PeP labels. Commissions, recordings, and performances
of his works have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer,
the North Carolina Arts Council, the Fundación Valparaíso, and many others. A former officer of
the International Computer Music Association, Waschka is a faculty member at North Carolina
State University.
Brian Willkie is seeking his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (recently ABD) where he
works with Dr. Stephen Beck in the Electro-acoustic Studio and the Laboratory for Creative Arts
and Technologies (LCAT). His works have been performed in Japan, Argentina, the U.K. and
regionally in the Southeastern U.S. and are published by Dorn Publishing. Brian received his
Masters and Bachelors degrees in composition from the University of Georgia at Athens under
Dr. Leonard Ball and studied in Paris at the Center for the Composition of Music Iannis Xenakis
(formerly Les Ateliers UPIC). Current projects include ICAST, sonification, and spatialization.
Betty Wishart received degrees from Queens University and the University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill and pursued additional study in New York City. Roger Hannay and Donald Waxman
were her major composition teachers; however, she has also done summer studies with Judith
Weir, Robert Kyr, Deidre Gibbon. Her music has been performed throughout the United States,
and also in England, France, Italy, South Korea, and Japan. Her music has been published by
Warner Bros. and Conners Publications.
She has been recognized in numerous publications including Who’s Who in Music, World Who’s
Who of Women, Foremost Women of the Twentieth Century, International Leaders in
Achievement, Who’s Who of Professional and Business Women, Personalities of the South, and
Community Leaders of the World. She has also won Composers Guild awards in several
categories, has received awards from Delta Omicron, American Pen Women, American College
of Musicians, and ASCAP standard awards for the past ten years. Wishart teaches at Campbell
University, is President of the Southeastern Composers League, and Theory/Composition Chair
of the North Carolina Music Teachers Association. In addition to teaching at Campbell University,
adjudicates piano and composition competitions. Wishart previously taught piano at UNC-Chapel
Hill and in Coral Springs, Florida where she served as district president of the Florida State Music
Teachers Association, president and director of the Broward County Music Teachers Association,
and co-founded the Pompano Piano Competition. She is currently President of the Southeastern
Composers League and Theory/Composition Chair for the North Carolina Music Teachers
Association.
The Performers
Grace Anderson, née Lin, cellist, captured top prizes at Artists International Auditions and the
National Federation of Music Clubs Competition. She has performed as a soloist and chamber
musician in leading concert venues in North America and Europe. She made her New York debut
recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and was hailed by The New York Concert Review as
possessing “rapier definition and boundless energy.”
An avid chamber musician, Grace Anderson has performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts, Bargemusic, The Kennedy Center, and in music festivals at Caramoor, Aspen, and abroad
in Canada, Holland, Germany, France and Croatia. Grace Anderson has collaborated with
musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In addition, she founded the
Tedesca Chamber Players, an all-strings ensemble whose performance of the Schubert String
Quintet at the historical Trinity Church in New York City was broadcast by BBC television
worldwide.
A graduate of Harvard University and The Julliard School, Grace Anderson is currently pursuing a
Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree at UNCG. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Triad
Chamber Music Society in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Born in San Jose, California, Matthew Anderson moved to north Georgia at an early age where
he took up guitar studies with renowned pedagogue John Sutherland. Matthew began serious
studies as a Presidential Scholar with Mr. Sutherland at Georgia State University, where he
graduated Summa Cum Laude with Distinction from the School of Music. He then continued
studies with John Sutherland at the University of Georgia under the prestigious University-Wide
Teaching Assistantship in the areas of guitar and music theory. In addition to studies with Mr.
Sutherland, Matthew has performed in masterclasses with Paul O'Dette, Matteo Mela, and
Christopher Parkening. He has also studied music theory with Dr. Ronald Squibbs as well as
electronic music with composer Dr. Leonard V. Ball, Jr. Matthew has distinguished himself as a
guitarist in a number of ways, including a select performance for Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin;
guest performer at the UGA Study Abroad 2001 Art Exhibit in Cortona, Italy; a performance in the
final recital of the 2003 Christopher Parkening Masterclass; First Prize and Convention Recitalist
in the 2003 GMTA Spring Competition; featured guitarist on the 2005 documentary film, “Alvar
Sunol: His Vision and His Art”; and he has given the Georgia premier of several works, including
Chiel Meijering's “Autobahnkrieg”. Recently, Matthew passed his Master of Music Examinations
with Distinction and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia. He is currently
working on his DMA in performance at the same institution while minoring in music theory. In the
spring of 2005, Matthew was chosen by John Sutherland to be a founding member of the Athens
Guitar Trio. Adding to the trio as well as setting himself apart as a soloist, Matthew often performs
on a rare 11-string guitar built for him by Kenny Hill. His musical interests range from rock to
classical, which show in his transcriptions for guitar solo and guitar trio.
Dennis AsKew has performed solo recitals throughout the United States and in Italy, Finland,
Hungary, Australia, and The Netherlands. President of the International Tuba/Euphonium
Association, he came to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro as the tuba and
euphonium professor in 1992 and became a member of the Market Street Brass. AsKew,
originally from Georgia, holds the DMA degree from the University of Michigan, the master's
degree from Penn State University, and baccalaureate degree from the University of Georgia. His
UNCG TubaBand has performed at festivals around the world. AsKew was the host of the 2002
International Tuba/Euphonium Conference held at UNC Greensboro. AsKew also is a national
Associate Regent for Pi Kappa Lambda, the national honor society for musicians. Dr. AsKew can
be heard on Market Street Brass' two recordings Christmas and Jive for Five, and his solo cd,
Carolina Morning.
Anne Berry is a native of Greensboro and began studying the cello at the age of six. She
completed high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts and received her Bachelor’s
degree in music from Duquesne University where she studied with Anne Martindale-Williams. In
2003, Anne won the Duquesne University Women’s Advisory Board Competition for her
performance of J.S Bach’s fifth Cello Suite in C minor. In January of 2006, Anne graduated with
her Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Jean-
Michel Fonteneau. Anne has taught at Vibo Music Center and for San Francisco Conservatory of
Music’s Conservatory in the Schools program providing assistance to public middle school
orchestra teachers across the city. She has recently performed with San Francisco’s Pocket
Opera, Berkeley Symphony, and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute. She has also
done commercial work for Nissan Corporation. Anne is currently working on her doctorate at
UNCG with Dr. Brooks Whitehouse.
A dynamic and versatile artist, violist Sheila Browne has concertized in many of the world's
major halls as a soloist, chamber musician, and as principal of several orchestras. A finalist at
Carnegie Hall in the Pro Musicis International Solo Awards, she has also been a prizewinner as a
member of the Arianna and Gotham string quartets. Ms. Browne has collaborated with such
artists as James Buswell, Nicholas Chumachenko, Miriam Fried, Paul Katz, Gilbert Kalish, David
Krakauer, Ruth Laredo, Richard Stoltzman and the Vermeer Quartet. She has been soloist and
principal of the Juilliard, Mainz, Freiburg, German-French, and Madrid's Queen Sofia chamber
orchestras. Also an active recitalist, she has given concerts and outreach performances in North
America and Europe. A proponent of new music, she has premiered many new works, including
the recent world premiere of Kenneth Jacobs' “Approaching Northern Darkness,” a concerto
written for her. Her latest CD, of viola-cello duos, is due to be released in 2006. As principal of the
New World Symphony, she was featured by Michael Tilson-Thomas in the PBS documentary
"Beethoven Alive!" Working closely with Krystof Penderecki on his solo music at the Banff
Festival, she was broadcast on CBC radio throughout Canada, and has been heard on radio
stations in South America, Europe, and the United States as well. Other festivals Ms. Browne has
played include the Donaueschingen, Evian, Great Lakes, Jeunesses Musicales, Music Academy
of the West, Sun Valley, Tanglewood, and the Texas music festivals. Ms. Browne was Karen
Tuttle's teaching assistant at The Juilliard School for four years, where she received her B.M.
degree and a Naumburg scholarship, among others. She was awarded a German Academic
Exchange Grant (DAAD) for studies with soloist Kim Kashkashian at the Freiburger Hochschule,
where she received an Aufbau degree, and also received an M.M. at Rice University's Shepherd
School, where she was Karen Ritscher's teaching assistant while she was in Paul Katz's Quartet
Residency Program. She has been an artist/teacher-in-residence at the University of Missouri
with the Arianna Quartet, as well as assistant professor of viola at The University of Tennessee.
She has taught at the Green Mountain, Killington, Knoxville and American Festival of the Arts
summer festivals. She will be teaching at California Summer Music Festival in Pebble Beach the
summer of 2007.
David Brunell, Associate Professor of Music, has concertized widely in the United States, Latin
America and Europe. With numerous concerto performances with orchestras and solo recitals to
his credit, his performances have also been broadcast on many radio and television stations in
many countries including New York City’s WQXR. He has also made several recordings for
Enharmonic Records in concerto, solo, and collaborative performances with such artists as
violinist Andres Cardenes. The many awards Dr. Brunell has received include first prizes in the
Music Teachers National Association National Piano Competition, the Beethoven Sonata
competition, and the prize for the best performance of the required work in the New Orleans
International Competition. He also won top prizes in the Young Keyboard Artists, New Orleans,
and Louise D. McMahon International Competitions, and was selected to the Artistic Ambassador
Program of the United States Information Agency. As an Artistic Ambassador, Dr. Brunell
premiered "Abandoned Bells" by distinguished American composer William Mayer. Dr. Brunell is
also an active church pianist. He has recorded a CD of hymn arrangements by Mark Hayes, and
has been heard performing sacred music on national television several times on Dr. D. James
Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Hour. As a teacher, Dr. Brunell’s students have achieved distinctions
including winning the MTNA Southern Division collegiate piano competition. Dr. Brunell’s teaching
awards include the Tennessee Music Teachers Association Teacher of the Year Award and the
Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts Outstanding Teacher Award. Dr. Brunell’s studies were
at Indiana University, where he received the University’s highest musical and academic awards,
the Joseph Battista Memorial Award, the Performer’s Certificate, and the John H. Edwards
Fellowship. Prior to coming to Tennessee, Dr. Brunell taught at Saint Olaf College and at Indiana
University. Dr. Brunell has also been a guest teacher at the Carson Newman College Summer
Music Camp.
Joren Cain, saxophone, is from Lemont, Illinois. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Northern Illinois University, where he studied saxophone with Steve Duke. He is currently
pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas, where he also
received a Master of Music degree and studied with Jim Riggs. Mr. Cain was a graduate
saxophone teaching fellow at North Texas for several semesters and held the Assistant Professor
of Saxophone position at Northern Illinois University in 2001. He was the recipient of several
scholarships and awards, including being named Outstanding Woodwind Student at UNT during
the 1999-2000 school year. Mr. Cain has performed recitals across the United States and abroad,
including performances in Germany and the Czech Republic. His article discussing the
saxophone sonatas of Edison Denisov can be found in the 2000 Saxophone Symposium. Mr.
Cain recently concluded his tenure as saxophonist with The United States Army Field Band,
which he joined in 2002. He performed several times as a featured soloist, acted as staff
arranger, and was the leader of the TUSAFB Saxophone Quartet, in which he played soprano
saxophone. He can be heard on recordings by The United States Army Field Band, as well as
UNT's Two O'Clock Lab Band and Wind Symphony. Mr. Cain joined the faculty of Valdosta State
University this fall, where he teaches saxophone and directs the New Jazz Ensemble.
Brian Davis holds a Masters degree in piano performance from UNCG and has lived in the
Greensboro area for 17 years. He works as a freelance accompanist and teacher, and serves as
Director of Music Ministries at Flat rock UMC in Stokesdale, NC.
Sean Devlin holds a Masters of Music in Trombone Performance from the North Carolina School
of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. He graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina,
Greensboro, in May 2004 with a Bachelor of Music in Trombone Performance. His teachers have
included James T. Miller and Randy Kohlenberg.
While at UNCG, Mr. Devlin occupied the position of principal trombone in the symphony orchestra
as well as having played with the wind ensemble. He played bass trombone in the brass
ensemble and jazz ensemble as well. At NSCA he was the bass trombonist with the symphony
orchestra, trombone choir, graduate brass quintet, and graduate trombone quartet.
In the summer of 2002, Mr. Devlin auditioned for the annual National Wind Ensemble and won
the position of principal trombone and subsequently performed with the ensemble in New York's
Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 2004, he won the spot of principal trombone in the Catania
Festival Orchestra, based in Catania, Sicily. With this ensemble, Mr. Devlin participated in a one
month tour, performing concerts throughout Sicily and the Calabria region of Italy. During the
academic year of 2003/04, Mr. Devlin auditioned for and won the university concerto competition
at UNCG and performed Joseph Turrin's "Fandango" for trumpet and trombone with the
symphony orchestra. In 2006, he was a finalist in the Lewis van Haney orchestral excerpt
competition held in Birmingham, England, by the International Trombone Association.
Mr. Devlin is a substitute with the Greensboro Symphony and the Winston-Salem Symphony
orchestras and has held the position of Principal Trombone in the Greensboro Philharmonia and
the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra. He is currently a freelance trombonist and private
instructor in the Greensboro - Winston-Salem - High Point triad area and is currently the bass
trombonist with the Triad Brass quintet.
Joseph Di Piazza earned the BM from De Paul University, and the MM and DMA degrees from
the University of Wisconsin, where he also received a prestigious NDEA Fellowship. He has
performed throughout the United States and Europe as recitalist, chamber player, and soloist with
symphony orchestras and has participated in festivals at Interlochen, Eastern Music Festival,
Chicago Spring Arts Festival, the University of Illinois, Methodist College, Woodstock Guild
Series, and the Beethoven Festival in New York. In addition to numerous University Guest Artist
Series, Di Piazza has performed on series at the Chicago Art Institute, Orchestra Hall, Cincinnati
Art Museum, and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Performing and Cultural Arts. He was
also invited to give a recital on the Horowitz Steinway, which was touring the United States.
James Douglass, assistant professor of collaborative piano and vocal coach, has been involved
in diverse genres including chamber music, vocal arts, opera, choral arts, symphonic repertoire,
jazz, cabaret and musical theater. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in keyboard
collaborative arts at the University of Southern California (USC), as a student of Dr. Alan L. Smith.
His Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in piano performance were obtained from the
University of Alabama as a student of Amanda Penick. At USC, he was awarded a Koldofsky
Fellowship and the Outstanding Keyboard Collaborative Arts recognition in 2004. Douglass has
served on the faculties of Mississippi College, Occidental College (LA), USC and Middle
Tennessee State University. In 2003, he began teaching in the summer study program AIMS
(American Institute of Musical Studies) in Graz, Austria as instructor of collaborative piano and a
vocal coach in the Lieder Studio. Performances as a chamber musician and vocal accompanist
include broadcasts (TV and/or radio) in Wales, California, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi;
in master classes given by vocal artists Dawn Upshaw, Carol Vaness and Vladimir Chernov,
choral directors Norman Luboff and Paul Salamunovich, and pianists Leon Bates, Natalie
Hinderas, Anne Epperson and Martin Katz.
Deborah Egekvist earned the BM from Lawrence University, the MM at the Eastman School of
Music, and the DM at Florida State University. She has taught at Marshall University in
Huntington, West Virginia, and at the University of Oklahoma at Norman. Active as a soloist and
chamber musician, Egekvist has performed throughout the United States, Germany, Canada, and
the Asian South Pacific. She has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Green
Bay Symphony, the West Virginia Symphonette, the Aurora Symphony, and the Huntington
Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed as principal flute of the Huntington Chamber
Orchestra, the Greensboro Symphony, and the EastWind Quintet at UNCG. In June 1989,
Egekvist made her New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall.
The Excelsior Quartet, (Josh Jones, euphonium, Malik Barrows, euphonium, Doug Sutton, tuba
and Michael Robinson, tuba), is comprised of undergraduate tuba and euphonium majors from
UNCG. The performers bring a variety of musical experiences and backgrounds to the ensemble,
allowing for a wide range of performance styles. The quartet was chosen via audition to perform
at the Southeastern Tuba Euphonium Conference later this month.
John Fadial, associate professor of violin, is familiar to Greensboro audiences as concertmaster
of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Having
performed on four continents as a United States Information Service Artistic Ambassador, Fadial
maintains a vigorous schedule as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. He has
appeared at the Smithsonian Institution, the Phillips Collection, and the Kennedy Center, with
numerous engagements at summer festivals in Aspen, Banff, Brevard, Eastern, Heidelberg
(Germany), Mirecourt (France), Costa Rica, and Brazil. He has shared the stage in chamber
music collaborations with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, harpsichordist Anthony Newman, cellist Paul
Katz, violist John Graham and bandoneon virtuoso David Alsina of the New York Tango Trio. He
has performed widely throughout the U.S. and Europe since 1997 as the violinist of the
Chesapeake Piano Trio. Recent seasons have featured concerts throughout the U.S., France and
Brazil, including the French premiere, with cellist Beth Vanderborgh, of William Bolcom’s Suite for
Violin and Cello as well as chamber music performances with Bernard Greenhouse, Dmitry
Sitkovetsky, Lynn Harrell, Bella Davidovich, and the Stanislas Sextette. Fadial’s recent recording
of the chamber music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on the Centaur label, with members of UNCG’s
Artist Faculty Chamber Players, was a Featured New Release at TowerRecords.com for Spring of
2005, and deemed “not to be missed” by American Record Guide. In October of 2005, he gave
the world premiere of Arthur Gottschalk’s Concerto for Violin and Symphonic Wind Ensemble, as
part of the Society of Composers International Conference. Fadial hold degrees from the North
Carolina School of the Arts (BM), the Eastman School of Music (MM) and the University of
Maryland (DMA). His teachers and mentors include Charles Castleman, Elaine Richey, Alexander
Schneider, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, and Zoltan Szekely.
Angel Garren (Quartet 138), bassoon, is a sophomore Music Education Major from Asheboro,
N.C. Angel plays in the UNCG Symphony Orchestra, the Farkas Quintet and the UNCG
Chamber Winds.
Shannon Kucirka (Quartet 138), horn, is a sophomore Music Education major with a
concentration in Horn Performance. She is currently a member of the UNCG Wind Ensemble, the
University Symphony Orchestra, University Band, and Horn Ensemble. She is the horn player in
the "Simply Brass" Brass Quintet and the Farkas Wind Quintet. Shannon serves as the Events
Coordinator for the UNCG chapter of CMENC as well as the service chair for Sigma Alpha Iota.
She also works as the University Band Librarian. She recently completed a tour with the UNCG
Wind Ensemble.
German pianist Radha Mundkur earned her degrees as a student of Matthias Kirschnereit’s from
the Rostock College of Music and Theater- Diploma in Piano Pedagogy in 2000, Diploma in Piano
Performance in 2003, and Diploma Artistic Baccalaureat in Piano Chamber Music in 2005.
Several scholarships allowed her to additionally work in masterclasses with pianists such as
Renate Kretschmar-Fischer, Stephan Imorde, Andrzej Jasinski, and Hamish Milne. During the
academic year of 2000/01 the Rotary Foundation chose her to spend one year as an
“Ambassador of Good Will” at Indiana University. Radha performs as a chamber musician and
soloist in Germany and Europe, such as at the festival for contemporary music Tage Neuer Musik
Rostock and at the Festspiele Mecklenburg- Vorpommern. She toured with the Students’
Ensemble of the Jeunesses Musicales Bremen in Denmark and Moscow, Russia, as well as with
the orchestras Junge Sinfoniker Bielefeld, and Junge Marburger Philharmonie in Germany. Most
recently she gave a piano solo recital with sonatas by Mozart, Prokofiev and Schubert in
Rieux/Minervois, France in fall 2006. After a short interlude as a piano instructor at the Rostock
College of Music and Theater, and at the Music Schools at Bad Doberan, and Braunschweig,
Radha is currently a doctorate student with Andrew Harley in the program for collaborative piano
at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Laura Pollard (Quartet 138), flute, is a sophomore Music Education major at UNC-Greensboro.
She is an alumni member of the Asheboro Flute Choir and a current member of the UNCG Flute
Choir and the Farkas Quintet. She is a North Carolina Teaching Fellow, and hopes to teach
middle school band upon graduation in May 2009.
Scott Rawls has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada,
Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Chamber music endeavors include performances with the Diaz Trio,
Kandinsky Trio and Ciompi Quartet as well as with members of the Cleveland, Audubon and
Cassatt String Quartets. His most recent CD recording, released on the Centaur label, features
the chamber music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and was released summer 2004. His recording of
chamber works for viola and clarinet was released spring 2003 on the same label. The ensemble,
Middle Voices, will record another disc for Centaur featuring the chamber music of American
composer, Eddie Bass. Additional chamber music recordings can be heard on the CRI,
Nonesuch, Capstone, and Philips labels. Also a champion of new music, Rawls has toured
extensively as a member of Steve Reich and Musicians since 1991. As the violist in this
ensemble, he has performed the numerous premieres of The Cave and Three Tales, multimedia
operas by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, videographer. And under the auspices of presenting
organizations such as the Wiener Festwochen, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Holland Festival,
Berlin Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, he has performed in major
music centers around the world including London, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Prague,
Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. He is a founding member of the
Locrian Chamber Players, a New York City based group dedicated to performing new music. Dr.
Rawls currently serves as Associate Professor of Viola and Chair of the Instrumental Division in
the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Under the baton of
maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky, he plays principal viola in the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. He
is very active as guest clinician, adjudicator, and master class teacher at universities and festivals
in America and Europe. During the summers, Rawls plays principal viola in the festival orchestra
at Brevard Music Center where he also coordinates the viola program. He holds a BM degree
from Indiana University and a MM and DMA from State University of New York at Stony Brook.
His major mentors include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, and John Graham.
Jonathan Salter grew up in Oberlin, Ohio, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Williams
College where he majored in music (with highest honors) and mathematics. He received his
Master of Music degree from Indiana University. Jonathan was the associate principal clarinetist
for the Berkshire Symphony from 1998 to 2002, and was selected to perform Debussy’s Premiere
Rhapsodie with the orchestra for the concerto competition in 2001. He was the recipient of the
Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship from Williams College and also received the Leopold
Schepp Foundation Fellowship. Jonathan’s teachers include Michèle Gingras, Susan Martula,
Alan Kay, Howard Klug, Eli Eban, and he is currently working on his Doctor of Musical Arts
degree at UNCG with Dr. Kelly Burke.
David Springfield, Trombone Instructor of Jazz Studies at Valdosta State University, teaches
jazz piano, improvisation, arranging, combos, jazz history and applied trombone. He is also a
member of the Faculty Jazz Combo. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Trombone
Performance and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies, both from the Eastman School of Music. His
principal teachers were Rayburn Wright, Bill Dobbins and Fred Sturm (jazz) and John Marcellus
(trombone). He has previously been a faculty member at Eastman, Aarhus University (Denmark),
Georgia Southern University and Armstrong Atlantic State University. Mr. Springfield is an active
performer both as a pianist and trombonist. He has performed with jazz artists Randy Brecker,
Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Jerry Bergonzi and Gary Bartz. He has appeared with the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra and the Savannah, Charleston and Jacksonville Symphony Orchestras.
His international performing experience includes three tours of Japan with the Eastman Wind
Ensemble and a production West Side Story in Europe. He was a member of Klüvers Big Band in
Aarhus, Denmark and performs with the Savannah Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Composer's Octet.
Mr. Springfield is a member of IAJE and has appeared with the Georgia Jazz Educators Big Band
at the annual GMEA conferences. Mr. Springfield has had his compositions and arrangements
performed by such artists as Branford Marsalis, John Abercrombie, Phil Woods, Allen Vizzuti and
Joe Alessi. He received a Downbeat magazine award for arranging and was a finalist in the 1996
International Thad Jones Competition, sponsored by the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. He is the
principal arranger for Klüvers Big Band and his works appear on seven recordings by the band. In
addition to his work as a jazz arranger, Mr. Springfield has written for concert band, symphony
orchestra, brass quintet and trombone choir. His music has been performed throughout the
United States and Europe and is published by Kendor Music and UNC Jazz Press.
Maila Gutierrez Springfield, piano, is staff accompanist/instructor at Valdosta State University.
Maila graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Syracuse University
and received her Master’s degree in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman
School of Music. In 1993 and 1994 she received the Eastman’s Excellence in Accompanying
Award. She has also served as staff accompanist for ACDA, MTNA, NATS and at the Interlochen
Arts Camp. She was the accompanist at Georgia Southern University from 1997-2002. Maila has
been a faculty member at the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program from 1994-97 to 2000
present.
A champion of contemporary music, Dr. Melanie Foster Taylor’s performance activities include
a lecture-recital series titled “Twentieth-Century Piano Scores,” covering the entire pantheon of
20th-Century music in 20-year segments. In 2006, she will present a recital of piano music
published from 2000-2005. She is also the pianist for Ensemble Radieuse, a flute, oboe, and
piano trio based at Converse College who recently produced a CD, “Inbox,” featuring
contemporary works for this ensemble. Dr. Taylor has been a featured soloist with the Converse
Wind Ensemble and the Brass Quintet, and is in demand as a collaborative pianist by vocalists
and instrumentalists.
Dr. Taylor's students have distinguished themselves in statewide, divisional, and Young artist
competitions. She has promoted performance opportunities for young pianists by establishing
numerous composer festivals, concerto competitions, and piano camps. As the faculty advisor for
Converse’s student chapter of the South Carolina Music Teachers Association, the “Petrie
Pedagoddesses” activities include administration of the annual PianOlympics event for the Alia
Lawson Pre-College piano students, performance of a benefit recital for the Tsunami victims, and
active participation in the SCMTA annual conference.
Dr. Taylor is an active clinician for the Music Teachers National Association, holds national
Certification by that organization, and appeared as Clinician for the Vermont Music Teachers
Association state conference in 2004. She has lectured for the College Music Society and the
Society for Music Theory and has had articles published in the American Music Teacher,
Keyboard Companion, The Piano Quarterly, and Journal Seamus. Dr. Taylor has been the
Intermediate-Advanced Keyboard Editor for Alfred Publishing Company, working closely with
Maurice Hinson on numerous publications. Dr. Taylor has enjoyed coaching the Converse Piano
Team, created a Piano Pedagogy Resource Laboratory, and instituted the Music=Link program to
provide piano lessons for community students who are gifted but in need.
Melanie Foster Taylor holds degrees in Piano Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music and Marshall University, and the Doctor of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Literature from
Indiana University. Her teachers include John Perry, Alfonso Montecino, Kenneth Marchant, and
Michel Béroff. Her recital was broadcast on the National Public Radio “Music from Oberlin” series.
She was the youngest winner in both the Amateur and Professional divisions of the Young Artist
Competition of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Christopher Vaneman recently completed his studies at Yale University, where he studied with
Ransom Wilson and from which he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Chris holds MM
and MMA degrees from Yale as well as an Honors BM from the Eastman School; he has also
attended the Salzburg Mozarteum and Belgium’s Conservatoire Royal, where he studied under a
grant from the Belgian American Educational Foundation. He studied at Eastman with Bonita
Boyd, in Brussels with Jean-Michel Tanguy, and in Salzburg with Andras Adorjan. He has also
studied contemporary flute techniques with Robert Dick in New York and Baroque performance
practice and ornamentation with Barthold Kuijken in Belgium.
He is flutist of the Converse-based chamber group Ensemble Radieuse, (whose first CD, Inbox,
features three newly-commissioned works) and the New York-based Echo, and teaches during
the summer at Pennsylvania’s Performing Arts Institute. Chris has performed as a soloist with
orchestras in Germany and Denmark as well as in the United States and served as principal
flutist of the Reigate Festival Orchestra in England, among other ensembles. 2004-2005
performances took him to England, Panama, and Texas, as well as other less exotic locales.
Chris is also an engaging writer on musical subjects, and has supplied program notes for a
number of compact discs and innumerable concerts; the Tokyo Quartet used his notes for its
cycle of Beethoven performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
Oboist Kelly McElrath Vaneman is the Chair of Musicology and Composition and Assistant
Professor of Oboe and Musicology. She holds D.M.A., M.M.A., and M.M. degrees from the Yale
University School of Music, where she was a teaching assistant to Ronald Roseman. A native
Texan, she received her B.Mus. summa cum laude from Baylor University, where she studied
with Doris DeLoach. In addition, she holds a certificate in performance from the Koninklijk
Konservatorium Brussel, where she studied modern and Baroque oboe with Paul Dombrecht
under a grant from the Belgian American Educational Foundation. Other teachers include Denise
Lamb and Sharon Towndrow.
An active performer, Dr. Vaneman has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Guatemala,
Texas, and South Carolina. She has also played with the Central Texas, Waco, Asheville, and
New Haven Symphony Orchestras, the Greater Spartanburg (SC) Philharmonic, the National
Orchestral Institute, the American Wind Symphony, the Montreat Bach Festival, and the Reigate
Festival Orchestra of Surrey, England. Dr. Vaneman is, above all, committed to chamber music
and the expansion of its repertoire. She has been an Artist-Fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music
Festival and the Bach Aria Festival and was founder and director of Chamber Music in the Chapel
in New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral. Along with her husband, flutist Christopher Vaneman,
she has been invited to perform two premieres at the International Double Reed Conference in
Madison, Wisconsin. As oboist of Ensemble Radieuse, she has been involved in the
commissioning of several new works for flute, oboe, and piano.
A musician of wide-ranging interests, Dr. Vaneman has performed Baroque music on period
instruments and performs regularly with the Converse Early Music Ensemble. She has also
performed and recorded as a member of the New York-based rock bands Rome 56 and the
Ashley Wilkes Band. She was the past president of the Rho chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda and a
member of Alpha Chi and has written for The Double Reed, the journal of the International Double
Reed Society. In addition to her duties at the Petrie School, she serves as Oboe Instructor of the
South Carolina Governor's School of the Arts and Humanities and spends her summers in
residence at the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Jay Welborn (Quartet 138), clarinet, is a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro majoring in clarinet performance. Prior to beginning his education at UNCG, Jay
studied privately with Eileen Young before completing his high school education at the North
Carolina School of the Arts where he studied under Igor Begelman. In addition to playing with the
138 quartet, he also serves as the clarinetist for the Farkas Quintet. Jay currently serves as the
principal clarinetist in the UNCG Symphonic band. He is a member of the Mu Phi Epsilon music
service fraternity, and a Peer Academic Leader in the Grogan College living and learning
community. He has been recognized in solo competitions including the Piedmont Wind Symphony
and the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Robert Wells is currently Assistant Professor of Voice and teaches studio voice and vocal
pedagogy. He also serves on the faculty of the Schlern International Music Festival in Voels am
Schlern, Italy. He holds the BM in Voice from the State University of New York College at
Fredonia, and holds MM and DMA degrees in Voice from the University of Cincinnati College-
Conservatory of Music. A frequent recitalist and collaborative artist, Wells has also enjoyed an
active performance career in both oratorio and opera in New York State and the Midwest, and his
performances have taken him to Great Britain and Europe. He has sung leading roles in Le
Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Albert Herring and has appeared as baritone soloist in such
works as Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and the St. John Passion of J.
S. Bach. An active choral conductor, Wells served as Director of the Fredonia College Choir and
was recognized for his work with numerous professional and community choral organizations in
Western New York. Wells formerly served on the faculty at the State University of New York
College at Fredonia, where he was Co-Chair of the Voice Faculty and was a sought-after clinician
and adjudicator.
Inara Zandmane, born in the capital of Latvia, Rîga, started to play the piano at the age of six.
Zandmane holds a BM and MM from Latvian Academy of Music, MM in piano performance from
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and DMA in piano performance from the University of
Missouri at Kansas City. She has been the staff accompanist at the UNCG since 2003. She also
served as the official accompanist for the MTNA Southern Division competition and the North
American Saxophone Alliance conference in 2004. Zandmane has performed in recitals in St.
Paul, Kansas City, Cleveland, St. Louis, and New York, as well as in many Republics of the
former Soviet Union. In April 2000, she was invited to perform at the Glenn Gould Studio in
Toronto. Inara Zandmane has appeared as a soloist with the Latvian National Orchestra, Liepaja
Symphony, Latvian Academy of Music Student Orchestra, SIU Symphony, and UMKC
Conservatory Symphony and Chamber orchestras. She has performed with various chamber
ensembles at the International Chamber Music Festivals in Rega, Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki
(Finland), and Norrtelje (Sweden). For a few last years, Zandmane has worked together with the
Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. She has given Latvian premieres of his two latest piano pieces,
Landscapes of the Burnt-out Earth and The Spring Music, and recorded the first of them on the
Conifer Classics label.
The UNCG School of Music has been recognized for years as one of the elite
music institutions in the United States. Fully accredited by the National
Association of Schools of Music since 1938, the School offers the only
comprehensive music program from undergraduate through doctoral study in
both performance and music education in North Carolina. From a total
population of approximately 16,000 university students, the UNCG School of
Music serves over 600 music majors with a full-time faculty and staff of more than
sixty. As such, the UNCG School of Music ranks among the largest Schools of
Music in the South.
The UNCG School of Music now occupies a new 26-million-dollar music building,
which is among the finest music facilities in the nation. In fact, the new music
building is the second-largest academic building on the UNCG Campus. A large
music library with state-of-the-art playback, study and research facilities houses
all music reference materials. Greatly expanded classroom, studio, practice
room, and rehearsal hall spaces are key components of the new structure. Two
new recital halls, a large computer lab, a psychoacoustics lab, electronic music
labs, and recording studio space are additional features of the new facility. In
addition, an enclosed multi-level parking deck is adjacent to the new music
building to serve students, faculty and concert patrons.
Living in the artistically thriving Greensboro—Winston-Salem—High Point “Triad”
area, students enjoy regular opportunities to attend and perform in concerts
sponsored by such organizations as the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the
Greensboro Opera Company, and the Eastern Music Festival. In addition,
UNCG students interact first-hand with some of the world’s major artists who
frequently schedule informal discussions, open rehearsals, and master classes at
UNCG.
Costs of attending public universities in North Carolina, both for in-state and out-of-
state students, represent a truly exceptional value in higher education.
For information regarding music as a major or minor field of study, please write:
Dr. John J. Deal, Dean
UNCG School of Music
P.O. Box 26170
Greensboro, North Carolina 27402-6170
(336) 334-5789
On the Web: www.uncg.edu/mus/