The halls of the Westbrook Music Building are once again busy and our faculty, staff, students and alumni are all doing amazing things! Read about them here:
Richard Fountain
After graduating with his DMA in 2008, alum Richard Fountain was hired as Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, TX. Essentially, his job combines features of a traditional applied-piano professor position (teach lessons and piano-related classes, perform regularly, develop recruiting connections and function as the administrative head of piano) with those of a staff accompanist (accompany choral ensembles, opera workshops, vocal and instrumental students, and travel on tour and to competitions with those ensembles/students).
One of the major projects he's completed since leaving UNL is recording a solo piano CD. The album, “American Ivory,” was released in 2012 and features an all-American lineup of piano music, including quite a few new pieces by a colleague of his at Wayland, composer Gary D. Belshaw.
He's also enjoyed performing with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra as the principal keyboardist for both ensembles.
For more information visit, www.richardfountainpianist.com.
Kurt Knecht
Faculty Kurt Knecht wrote on his blog about a funky, latin jazz cello sonata and included video from a recent performance.
Here is the link: http://kurtknecht.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-funky-latin-jazz-cello-sonata.html
He also just found out that his arrangement of Go Tell it on the Mountain was featured on With Heart and Voice. His second composition on a nationally syndicated NPR show this year.
Nels Daily
Here is a piece by faculty Nels Daily, a work commissioned by Justin Lepard as an opener for his concert in February 2015. It is an aggressive, motoric, and incessant piece.
Here is a link to the piece: https://soundcloud.com/nels-daily/freight-train?fb_action_ids=1542183059392948&fb_action_types=og.shares
Paul Barnes
Paul Barnes recently presented a master class for University of Oregon piano students and the general public and also performed (“Liszt and the Cross: Music as Sacrament in the B Minor Sonata” is a provocative recital that explores the intimate relationship between religion and art in the life and music of Franz Liszt. His B Minor Sonata serves as an icon for the ears, communicating the essence of the religious symbolism through music) at Beall Concert Hall.
Here is a link to the article: http://calendar.uoregon.edu/event/master_class_paul_barnes_piano#.VNTrQLDF8-A
Sam Loeck
Alum Sam Loeck performs the Koussevitzky Double Bass Concerto with the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music University Orchestra, led by David Neely. January 28, 2015.
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g9wDTUcFu4&feature=youtu.be
Paul Marchese
Alum Paul Marchese was recently announced as a 2015 Sycamore High School Music Hall of Fame inductee.
He has taught at all levels of music education, from kindergarten to college. He has been active as a director of liturgical music for different churches throughout his career. He also has developed numerous music programs, created men’s and women’s chorales, and has been an adjudicator for numerous solo and ensemble contests and organizational contests.
Here is the full article: http://www.midweeknews.com/articles/2015/01/30/636423c0ff8545e19261018ffe24fc4e/index.xml?page=1
David von Kampen
Alum David von Kampen is one of the recipients of the 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. Established by The ASCAP Foundation in 2002 to encourage gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30, the program carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Foundation’s multi-year financial commitment to support this unique program. The recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 16 to 30, and are selected through a juried national competition.
Here is the full story: http://www.ascap.com/press/2015/0204-herb-alpert-young-jazz-composer-award-recipients.aspx
David von Kampen (b. 1986) is a composer living in Lincoln, Nebraska. David’s creative work spans a wide variety of genres and styles, including jazz, choral music, hymnody and liturgy, solo voice, chamber music, and musical theater. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Nebraska. David is a four-time Downbeat Award winner in graduate-level jazz writing categories, winner of the 2014 San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices Project, winner of the National Band Association’s Young Jazz Composers Competition, and received Honorable Mention in the 2014 New York Youth Symphony First MusicCommissions. He has over 40 choral and instrumental compositions and arrangements published with G. Schirmer, Concordia Publishing House, UNC Jazz Press, and others. David is active as a pianist and musical director in jazz and theater settings, and as a clinician for both vocal and instrumental ensembles. He is currently an adjunct professor of composition at Concordia University, Neb., and directs the Chamber Singers and Women’s Chorus at Christ Lutheran Church in Lincoln. David is a member of ASCAP and the American Choral Directors Association. He lives with his wife Mollie and daughter Gretta.
Pamela Starr
Pamela Starr took part in a pre-concert panel before Lincoln Symphony Orchestra's performance of Tchaikovsky's 4th, preceded by the amazing presentation of "Beyond the Score", with community actors, a remarkable video, and LSO (standing in for Chicago Symphony Orchestra) playing excerpts. Starr said it was a remarkable experience, as the audience testified during intermission, before LSO played the entire work -- brilliantly. Starr served as "scholar-advisor" and advised and assisted the LSO in applying for and ultimately receiving a grant from the Nebraska Humanities Council, which helped pay for the program, orginally created for the Chicago Symphony. As part of the grant request, Starr agreed to serve on the panel with LSO's Ed Polochick and moderator Genevieve Randall of NET.
Nels Daily
The composition “Brass Quintet" by Nels Drew Daily will be performed by the River Falls Brass on October 26, 2014.
Daily’s composition is one of only ten pieces chosen as Finalists out of seventy-seven (77) submissions from composers from eight (8) countries for the Van Galen Composition Prize.
The Van Galen Composition Prize is unique as the audience members will vote for the winning composition after all ten pieces are performed in a public concert at Abbott Hall in River Falls. This is uncommon as usually a panel of composers vote for composition prizes.
Daily, a Lecturer of Music at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, has had his compositions performed around the world and has won many composition awards, but never before one chosen by audience vote.
Nels' compositions vary in style and technique, utilizing methods ranging from conservative aspects of tonality to serial and 12-tone methods. Characteristics of his music include attention to counterpoint, percussive and aggressive driving rhythms, irregular meter, classical and poetic forms.
Daily will be present at the University of Wisconsin River Falls Composition Workshop, October 24-26, attending presentations, rehearsals and the final concert on October 26.
The Van Galen Composition Prize is a cash award of $500 plus a professional recording session for the composer and presentation on youtube.
Paul Barnes
Pianist Paul Barnes is known worldwide for his commitment to the commissioning and performing of new works for piano. He has commissioned some of the leading composers working today, including Philip Glass, Ivan Moody, Victoria Bond, Joan Tower and N. Lincoln Hanks. He will perform on October 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Biola University in California.
http://now.biola.edu/events/2014/Oct/09/paul-barnes-piano-guest-artist/