Points of Pride lists faculty, student and alumni achievements. It is accumulated and produced three times a year, generally in January, March, and October.
Grants and Awards
Shannon Cameron (M.F.A. Theatre) won the Stage Director's and Choreographer's Society Directing Scene Audition Fellowship at the Regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) in January.
Patrick O'Halloran (M.M.) and Thomas Gunther (M.M. 2008) were two of the three first place winners in the Nebraska District Met Auditions in January. They each received $1,250 and competed in the Regional Auditions in Minneapolis on Feb. 6. Jeni Houser (M.M.) received a Friends of Opera Award for $600, and Beth Deutmeyer (D.M.A.) received an Opera Omaha Award for $600.
The following students received Hixson-Lied Presentation of Scholarly and Creative Activity Grants in November:
- Lindsay Carr, School of Music, $700, for participation in the Regional Competition of the Music Teachers National Association in January.
- Brian Kluge, Department of Art and Art History, $1,700, for his presentation at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference in Philadelphia in March and up to $1,000 to present his work at Redline in Denver.
The following student received a Hixson-Lied Study Abroad Support Grant in November:
- Corinne Wardian, Department of Art and Art History, $3,000, to study at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.
The following student received Hixson-Lied Graduate Student Creative Research Grants in January:
- Shaun Kiel, Department of Art and Art History, $2,000, to purchase equipment and materials for his large-scale digital video installation project.
- Charles Mitchell, Department of Art and Art History, $1,000, for his large-scale printmaking project.
- Yinghua Zhu, Department of Art and Art History, $4,000, to support the purchase of materials for her project.
Faculty
John Bailey, Larson Professor of Flute, performed Jolivet's Second Concerto for flute and percussion, in November with the UNL Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Professor Anthony Falcone. Bailey also gave a lecture and guest recital at Arizona State University (Tempe) in January.
Diane Barger, Professor of Clarinet, performed a recital of music and dance at Millersville University (Pa.) in September, hosted by alumnus Christy (Kucera) Banks (B.M. 1996 and D.M.A. 2005). Mark Clinton, Associate Professor of Piano, and Assistant Professor of Dance Susan Levine collaborated on this recital that featured clarinet and piano music choreographed with dancers. Barger and Clinton gave master classes on their individual instruments to the MU students, as well as participated in a student convocation presentation on Collaboration and Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century. Levine gave several master classes and set her original choreography onto a group of dancers from a local dance company in Pennsylvania for this concert. Barger also participated in a three-day recording session for Carl Fischer Music in January as a member of the Trade Winds ensemble, and performed in concert with the prestigious group at Strawberry Crest High School near Tampa, Fla.
Dale Bazan, Assistant Professor of Practice in Music Education was featured in an ABC News broadcast in November for a story on the disappearance of high school marching bands.
Anthony Bushard, Assistant Professor of Music History, had two publications in 2009. His review of Lalo Schifrin's "Mission Impossible: My Life in Music" published in Notes (Vol. 66, No. 2) in December 2009. He also had a publication entitled "From On the Waterfront to West Side Story, Or There's Nowhere Like Somewhere" published in Musical Theatre (Vol. 3, No. 1) in August. He presented "The Curious Case of Paseo Hall: Newspaper Coverage of the Kansas City Jazz Scene During the 1930s" at the Mediating Jazz Conference at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, in November. He also presented "Duke Ellington's Far East Suite: An 'Historical' Concert" at the International Meeting of the College Music Society in Croatia last summer and at "Echoes of Ellington: A Conference on the Life and Music of Duke Ellington" at the University of Texas at Austin last April.
The Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello) performed at the PS321 Neighborhood Concerts Series in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Just Strings Concert Series at Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church in New York City, and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., as part of their Blodgett Artists-in-Residence Concert and at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., in early February. They will be in Asheville, N.C., and Philadelphia in March.
The Moran Quintet (John Bailey, Professor of Flute; William McMullen, Professor of Oboe; Diane Barger, Professor of Clarinet; Alan Mattingly, Associate Professor of Horn; and Dr. Jeff McCray, Assistant Professor of Bassoon enjoyed a tour to high school music programs and universities in the Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colo. area in the early month of November for their annual tour. They performed at Liberty High School, Palmer Ridge High School, Lewis-Palmer High School, Colorado High School, Rampart High School and Air Academy High School, performed for the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, and performed and gave master classes at Colorado State University and Colorado College.
Glenn Nierman, Associate Director of the School of Music and Steinhart Professor of Music Education, was presented the Nebraska Music Educators Association's Distinguished Service Award at the Association's Annual Conference Banquet in November 2009 for 30 years of scholarly articles written and conference sessions presented. In January 2009, he was invited to present a session on advocacy at Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids. MENC: The National Association for Music Education's President Barbara Geer, appointed Glenn as chair of planning for the MENC 2010 Biennial Conference in Anaheim in March 2010.
Sandy Veneziano, Assistant Professor of Film, was the Production Designer for the film "Blood Done Sign My Name," which opened in theatres in February.
Robert Woody, Associate Professor of Music Education, has a chapter in the new Handbook of "Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications" (edited by Patrick Juslin and John Sloboda, published by Oxford University Press). The chapter, co-authored with Gary McPherson, is entitled "Emotion and Motivation in the Lives of Performers."
Students
Students from Associate Professor of Art Sandra Williams' visual arts class were featured in a Lincoln Journal-Star article on Dec. 28 for their work to help redesign a room at Cedars TLC House, which provides emergency shelters and other services for teens. The objective of the project, titled "Shelter from the Storm," was to use design skills and artistic principles to get rid of the institutional feel of the room and find ways to declutter and better use the space.
Elisa DiFeo (M.F.A. Art), Emily Newman (M.F.A. Art) and Ying Zhu (M.F.A. Art) had an exhibition entitled "Yee Yee Yee" at the Tugboat Gallery in Lincoln in February.
Aisha Harrison (M.F.A. Art) and Ryan LaBar (M.F.A. Art) had their work accepted into the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) juried student show.
Brian Kluge (M.F.A. Art) had his essay selected by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) as the winner of the Green Student Writing Contest. His essay on sustainability will be published in the March 2010 Ceramics Monthly.
Kimberly Minor (M.F.A. Art) will present her paper "Deconstructing the L-Word: Contemporary Lesbian Erotic Art" at the Global Issues, Local Voices: No Limits 2010 Conference, sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Department at UNL. She will also attend the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference in Tucson (Az.) in May to present her paper, "With these Hands: Tribal Dresses of the Blackfeet."
April Sun (B.M. freshman) won the South Dakota State Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) piano competition in November. She competed in the West Central Division competition in Columbia, Mo., in January.
Alumni
Todd Beaty (B.A. Art 2007) is working for Bullseye Glass Company in Portland, Ore., Oregon's largest art glass company. His job involves producing a wide variety of colored glass sheets for artists to use largely for fusing in various processes and applications.
Jim Cantrell (B.F.A.Ed. art 1958) had his work on display in November and December at The Bardstown Art Gallery and Cantrell Studio in Bardstown, Ky., as part of their 38th anniversary celebration. On exhibition were his oils, watercolors and drawings, encompassing his works from the past to the present. (Painting above)
Firth MacMillan (M.F.A. Art 2006) had her work in the exhibition "The Language of Flowers" at the CRG Gallery Jan. 9-Feb. 13 in New York City.
Joseph Pintz (M.F.A. Art 2006) was awarded the Ceramic Innovation Award for his mixing bowl set accepted into the Strictly Functional Pottery National in 2009. Hixson-Lied Professor of Art Pete Pinnell was the juror for this national competition.
Justin Shaw (M.F.A. Art 2008) had his work prominently displayed in the 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. His life-size portrait in cast rubber was completed while he was a graduate student at UNL in 2007. He was one of 49 juried works accepted out of 3,300 entries.
The City of Chicago declared Jan. 10, 2010, "Dieter Kober Day" when the Chicago Chamber Orchestra celebrated the 90th Birthday of its founder and musical director, Dieter Kober (B.M. 1947) with a special birthday concert at the Chicago Cultural Center.