News from the CMA

News from the CMA

Archived News includes Faculty Accomplishments, Current Student News, Alumni News and issues of a tempo, our college’s semi-annual newsletter.

Oboist Leclair wakes up music world in Alarm Will Sound(full story)

Talking with oboist Jackie Leclair is like the proverbial breath of fresh air. The energy and enthusiasm she expresses about her work auger good things for contemporary classical music.

Leclair is in the enviable position of playing challenging and cutting-edge music, on the instrument she loves, with a group of like-minded musicians who are not only at the peak of their creativity but are also receiving great critical and audience recognition.

She is just back from New York City, where her chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound was one of three groups chosen to perform at the gala reopening of Alice Tully Hall on March 3. The famed concert hall in Lincoln Center had been closed three years for renovations. Alarm Will Sound was the youngest of the three groups to play; the others were composer Steve Reich’s ensemble and the Bang on a Can All-Stars.

For the reopening, Alarm Will Sound commissioned a piece by group member Caleb Burhans, a composer, singer and multi-instrument performer—“a Renaissance guy,” according to Leclair. Burhans typifies the new wave of classical musicians, whose interests and backgrounds also span rock, metal and electronica and who have no problem engaging in all instead of choosing just one area.

Soprano Danielle de Niese to perform on BGSU’s Festival Series

The CMA will feature internationally acclaimed soprano Danielle de Niese on the 2008-09 Festival Series. Niese will perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009, in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

The Australian-born American was originally trained in dance, piano and music at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where she participated in the Tanglewood, Aspen and Marlboro summer programs before going to New York in 1997. At the age of 18, Niese became the youngest artist ever to enter the Metropolitan Opera studio, while still a freshman at the Mannes School of Music.

Niese’s career has had an impressive start with early operatic debuts at the Netherlands Opera, the Saito Kinen Festival and the Paris Opera. She earned international acclaim for her portrayal of Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare the David McVicar production, at the renowned Glyndebourne Festival, in 2005 and 2006. Prior to her European performances, Niese made appearances at the Chicago Opera Theater as Monteverdi’s Poppea, and Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Her program will include works done by Samuel Barber, Georges Bizet, Edvard Grieg, Frances Poulenc, Hugo Wolf and pieces from G. F. Handel’s Semele. Niese will be accompanied by pianist Ken Noda, musical assistant to James Livine on the artistic administration staff of the Metropolitan Opera. He studied with Daniel Barenboim and performed as a soloist with the Berlin, Vienna, New York and Israel orchestras. He has also performed with the London, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco symphonies.

Tickets are $30, $25 and $18 in advance and $33, $28 and $21 the day of the performance. For more information call the box 1-800-589-BACH (2224) or (419) 372-8171. Center box office hours are weekdays from noon to 6 p.m.

Watch a short video on Danielle de Niese and her art.

Maestro Benjamin Zander to conduct exploration of possibility (full story)

What does classical music have to offer us today? And how can it relate to business and leadership? In the hands of Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the power and spirit of the music translate into much more than a listening experience—one that inspires people to look inward and approach life with new gusto.

Zander will give a special presentation called “Experiencing the Art of Possibility” at 8 p.m. Jan. 20 in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. Admission is free, but a ticket is required. To request one, call the box office at (419) 372-8171.

Based on his best-selling book, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, co-written with his wife, psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander, the talk has been given to corporate executives around the world to rave reviews. The energetic presentation involves audience participation, musical demonstrations and singing.

Zander’s visit is part of BGSU’s Dorothy and DuWayne Hansen Musical Arts Series and is jointly sponsored by the College of Musical Arts and the College of Business Administration.

Doctoral student ends year on high note (full story)

This has been quite the year for BGSU’s doctoral program in music, and for one of its students in particular. Katherine "Kiki" Kilburn of San Jose, Calif., a first-year student in the DMA program, has won the prestigious Thelma A. Robinson Scholarship Award from the Conductors Guild.

It is the second time in a row that a BGSU student has taken home the biennial award. Kilburn will receive a $1,000 prize, which will be presented Jan. 11, 2009, at the Annual Conference for Conductors in New York City.

In 2006 her fiancé, Octavio Más-Arocas, also a student in the University’s DMA program, won the Robinson award. Both he and Kilburn study with Dr. Emily Freeman Brown, director of orchestra activities.

The two will be married Dec. 27 near San Jose, where the globetrotting Kilburn’s family lives. “It’s where I think of when I think of home,” she said. The couple will be joined by members of Más-Arocas’s family from Spain.

ArtsX to celebrate BGSU excellence in the arts (full story)

With the arts having been designated a “center of excellence” at BGSU, the fifth annual arts extravaganza—renamed ArtsX last year—will be, fittingly, a celebration of excellence in the arts.

The University’s arts programs will be on display from 6 to 10 p.m. Dec. 5, 2008, in the Fine Arts Center, which will be the scene of numerous performances, demonstrations, exhibits and sales.

The annual Faculty/Staff Exhibition will open that evening with a reception in the Dorothy Uber Bryan Art Gallery. Providing accompaniment in the gallery foyer will be six quartets and ensembles from the College of Musical Arts.

Arts and Sciences Forum explores impact of Bach oratorio (full story)

The next Arts and Sciences Forum will look at an important moment in classical music history, when a nearly lost masterpiece of Bach’s was performed for the first time in almost 100 years.

Dr. Celia Applegate, a Visiting Fellow at the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University and professor of European and German history at the University of Rochester, will speak on “Sacred Music in Secular Society: The Rediscovery of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829” at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 5 in 201 Bowen-Thompson Student Union. The lecture is free.

Felix Mendelssohn’s performance of St. Matthew Passion in the spring of 1829, before an overflow audience of Berlin artists and intellectuals, Prussian royalty and high state officials and other members of the city's economic, cultural and political elite, brought this musical masterpiece back from the near total oblivion in which it had sunk since Bach’s death in 1750—and indeed since its few performances under Bach’s own direction in the 1720s and 30s. Applegate’s talk will explore the cultural resonance of this first “modern” performance of the oratorio, with specific attention to the role of the sacred music in a secularizing yet still deeply religious society.

Festival Series to feature Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (full story)

The College of Musical Arts will present the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2008–09 Festival Series on Nov. 15. The orchestra will perform on the Lois M. Nitschke Memorial Concert at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

Led by music director and principal conductor Leon Botstein, the orchestra has been dedicated to performing masterpieces from the baroque to the contemporary, often presenting the Israeli premieres of these works.

Founded in the 1940s as the national radio orchestra and originally known as the “Kol Israel Orchestra,” the group became the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Authority, during the 1970s. During a European tour in 1996, the orchestra gained considerable international acclaim and recognition, and was invited to participate in three additional tours of South America, Europe and the United States.

The Nov. 15 performance will include Big Ben Variations by Ernst Toch; Violin Concerto, Op. 24 by Miklos Rozsa, featuring violinist Robert McDuffie, and Symphony No. 3 by Aaron Copland.

New Music Festival brings eclectic mix to campus

The 29th annual New Music (formerly New Music and Art) Festival will showcase the work of more than 20 guest composers and performers Thursday–Saturday (Oct. 23–25).

The three-day festival, which will include concerts, lectures and workshops, is organized by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music and the College of Musical Arts.

This year’s festival will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison, guest ensembles Flexible Music and the Eastman Triana, pianist Stephen Drury and percussionist Stuart Gerber. Highlights will include the world premieres of several new works, the North American premiere of Luciano Berio’s Récit (Chemins VII) for alto saxophone and orchestra, a concert celebrating the late composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, an evening of electroacoustic and multimedia works and a special component celebrating Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday.

Begun in 1980, the New Music Festival has hosted John Adams, Samuel Adler, Milton Babbitt, William Bolcom, John Cage, Chen Yi, John Corigliano, Mario Davidovsky, Philip Glass, Karel Husa, Joan La Barbara, Paul Lansky, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Christopher Rouse, Frederic Rzewski, Gunther Schuller, Bright Sheng, Joan Tower, Vladimir Ussachevsky and more than 300 other guest composers and musicians.

Most festival events are free and open to the public. For ticket information, contact the Moore Musical Arts Center box office at 2-8171. For a complete schedule of festival events, see the Monitor calendar, visit festival.bgsu.edu or contact the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at (419) 372-2685.

Mathis, Hudson-Nowak honored with Community Fellowship Award

William Mathis and Mel Hudson-Nowak, co-chairs of the Strategic Planning Group appointed by former President Ribeau in February, have been named the recipients of the 2008 University Community Fellowship Award by the Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA). The award was presented during the department’s 14th annual convocation, held Sept. 5.

The University Community Fellowship Award is presented each year in recognition of extraordinary contributions by faculty, staff and students to building collegial working relationships at BGSU. As co-chairs, Mathis and Hudson-Nowak are charged with providing leadership to a group of 21 individuals representing a variety of departments and offices from across the University.

Mathis is also chair of music performance studies; Hudson-Nowak is director of internal auditing and advising services.

Nominations for the award are solicited each summer, and the University Community Fellowship Award committee, comprised of faculty and students in the HESA department, selects the recipient(s).

Previous recipients include Ribeau; Jill Carr, dean of students; Dr. Milton Hakel, Ohio Eminent Scholar in psychology; Dr. Linda Dobb, former executive vice president, and the Chapman Community.

Wolf center to be space where arts can meet, flourish (full story)

The arts have the power to take the breath away—to stop people in their tracks and cause them to rethink their assumptions.

The new Wolfe Center for the Arts will provide a space on campus where the arts can flourish and robust collaborations between them can take root. Like Hemingway’s “clean, well-lighted space,” the building itself will offer an environment conducive to creativity and synergistic partnerships.

In addition to being a place for students and faculty to learn and work on theatrical, dance, musical, film and digital arts productions, the center will offer the community an exceptional venue in which to see a wide range of performances.

Designed by the international architectural firm Snøhetta, based in Oslo, Norway, the Wolfe Center will feature an abundance of natural light and open, welcoming public areas and functional work areas. A number of green initiatives have been included in the building design to reduce energy costs and make use of environmentally friendly paints and finishes.

Rebuilding education in the “Big Easy” (full story)

There’s more to the reconstruction of New Orleans than pounding nails.

As important as rebuilding homes in the still devastated city is, 13 from Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan traveled to New Orleans with another goal—to help rebuild the educational system. The venture was the first project of the newly formed chapter of Arts Enterprise on campus.

The Arts Enterprise links those studying to go into business with those studying to be musicians, dancers and artists, and both those sides of that equation came into play during the New Orleans trip.

The team, undergraduate and graduate students and BGSU bassoon teacher Dr. Nathaniel Zeisler, worked with New Orleans Outreach, a project that provides enrichment programs to the charter schools that replaced the public school system in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Arts Enterprise’s task was to study those programs and report on what works and what can be improved.

Beluska honored with Ellis Island medal for bridging continents, lives (full story)

Vasile Beluska’s first impressions of America were straight out of a John Wayne movie: Levis, cowboy boots, cowboy hats. And that was before he even got off the plane. Then it was big cars with fins on the back and cattle with long horns—a typical day in Amarillo, Texas, his first home in the United States.

For the violinist and political refugee from Romania, life in the U.S. was a whole new world.

Now Beluska, music performance studies, is being honored for helping other musicians from Eastern Europe come to the U.S. and develop their own careers. Both in the U.S. and Europe, countless students and others have benefited from his generosity, service and talents.

With his family at his side, Beluska received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor on May 10, on that small outcropping in New York Harbor that symbolizes the journey and the arrival of so many seeking freedom and a chance to make something of their lives.

Arts named center of excellence, facility approved (full story)

Bowling Green State University has named the arts as the first of its “centers of excellence,” a move approved by the Board of Trustees Wednesday (June 25).

The choice was self-evident, officials said, based on the University’s having strong, collaborative programs in visual arts, creative writing, music, dance, theatre and film that prepare students for careers. The arts also have an impact beyond BGSU: A 2007 study by the Center for Regional Development showed that the arts and arts-led industries contribute more than $2 billion per year to northwest Ohio.

The state’s 10-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education calls for universities to identify areas of excellence, saying these areas “should serve as an organizing system for the best or unique programs on one campus, whenever possible be multidisciplinary and demonstrate contribution to the economy of the region and state.”

The plan also says any areas identified as excellent should be of sufficient quality to attract students and faculty. Ohio's four-year public universities must submit their recommendations for their centers of excellence by December 2009.

A leader in many areas of the arts, BGSU is known equally for traditional and cutting-edge programs, as well as for its arts outreach to the community, both from main campus and BGSU Firelands. The University formally recognized the importance of the arts to a well-rounded education when it made “embracing the arts” a component of the Academic Plan in 2003 and embedded it in the BG Perspective curriculum.

The state strategic plan also calls for any proposed centers of excellence to be well supported by evidence.