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:
James Dreiling
Clark Potter
I recently taught and performed at the Csehy Summer School of Music at Houghton College in New York.
Caitlin Gilmore
Right now I am in Cortona, Italy, studying with a variety of composers and working with a bunch of performers because of a grant the Glenn Korff School of Muisc gave me! Yesterday, I toured Firenze with all of my new friends here in Italy, and on Monday, I will be taking a wine tour around the Italian countryside. All the while, I'm getting to hear the most incredible new music by my fellow composers, and will have two of my pieces premeired Thursday and Friday!
Ian McCollum
This summer I will be attending two different seminars for percussion performance.
The first is the Chosen Vale seminar in New Hampshire from June 30 until July 12. Chosen Vale has a diverse faculty of nationally known percussionists including the Eastman percussion professor, Michael Burrit, the principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cynthia Yeh, and several other percussionists making their careers as solo and chamber musicians. I will be participating in several evening concerts and masterclasses, performing chamber and solo works, and during the day I will have the opportunity to meet with and take lessons with the diverse faculty.
The second seminar is the So Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University from July 20 to August 3. The So Percussion quartet was recently named as artists in residence at Princeton University, replacing the Brentano String Quartet. They are one of the most important percussion chamber groups in the United States, championing and revitalizing many important standard pieces of the repertoire, like the works of Cage, Reich, and Xenakis. They have also premiered and recorded many new works for percussion, such as Lansky's Threads and Mackey's It Is Time. This year's Summer Institute theme is percussion and electronics with Dan Trueman's Neither Anvil nor Pulley as the central piece for study and performance.
Peter Eklund
Dr. Peter Eklund departs on June 30 with 100 singers and chaperons for Europe to perform large combined choral, brass, and organ works by Palestrina, Saint-Säens, Rachmaninoff, and many others in amazing world-class venues such as Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, on Omaha Beach in France, Normandy's American Cemetery, the Gothic Bordeaux Cathedral, the yet-to-be-completed Gaudi-designed Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona (soon to be the tallest church in the world upon completion of the primary tower), the Prince's Cathedral in Monaco, Dachau Concentration Camp, the Milan Cathedral, the important historical abbey-church of St. Hildegard von Bingen above the Rhine River, plus other important churches in Munich, Rothenburg, and many other great spaces in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Germany. Eklund's long-standing connection with the venues, music-directors, and his European conducting reputation have ensured amazing venues for participants over the years (including Venice's St. Mark's Basilica, the Salzburg Cathedral, the Prague Cathedral, the primary naves of London's Westminster Abbey, Coventry Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, Straford-on-Avon, Warwick, the Chartres Cathedral, Metz Cathedral, the Strasbourg Cathedral and many, many more. This marks the 20th International Honor Choir directed by Eklund, Director of Choral Activities at UNL. Many of these talented performers ultimately enrolled and attended UNL over the years. Many current and past UNL students have filled roles of chaperons, instrumentalists, performers, and mentors on this trip.
Kurt Knecht
Here is what I’m up to:
Premiere of a new clarinet and flute duo entitled, “Three pieces in three styles” at the International Clarinet Society conference July 30-Aug. 3, Baton Rouge.
Performance of “Esa Enai El Heharim” by University of Southern California Chamber Singers, Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor at the World Choir Symposium in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 6-13, and in several concerts in China.
Premiere of “Romance and Tarantella” for organ by Chris Marks at the national convention of the Organ Historical Society in Syracuse, NY Aug 11-14
Premiere of new cello sonata at NMTA State conference at Wayne State College in Nebraska, Oct. 23.
Clark Potter
I will be the featured guest artist/performer for the Chamber Music Week at the Csehy Summer School of Music at Houghton College in Houghton, NY during the week of July 1-5. As part of the festival I will give a solo recital with Dr. Benjamin Harding, piano, of Cairn University and coach chamber groups.
Glenn Nierman
I was one of three featured panelists at a Congressional Briefing today (Thursday). Here is the press release from the day, and there is a complete video on our hour-long briefing: http://www.nafme.org/press-release-nafme-congressional-briefing-explore-the-role-of-music-in-a-21st-century-steam-education/
We spoke to a packed house in the Canon Building across from the Capitol.
Canès Nicolas
I've been invited to teach at a Summer Music Camp in Cange, Haiti from July 13-July 28.
Jennifer Harazin
I'm a music education major (I just finished sophomore year). This summer, I have been working for my school system in Fairfax, Virginia. Currently, I am assisting a Fairfax County School System program called Instruments For All. We collaborate with a local music store to provide affordable rental instruments to students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch. As our school year is finally coming to a close, we are collecting the instruments from the schools and sending them in for repairs. Next week, I will also begin my third year working at the Frost/Robinson Summer Band Camp as a clarinet instructor. Once that camp ends, I will also be assisting at the FCPS Institute For The Arts, a summer program with a variety of music, drama, dance, and visual art classes.