ART | DESIGN | MUSIC AND DANCE
Charles R. Rogers, Artistic Director of the Carlsen Center at JCCC in Overland Park, KS, was awarded the 6th annual NAPAMA Award for Excellence in Presenting the Performing Arts. The award presentation took place on January 14, 2008, at the Arts Presenters' Conference Membership meeting. This award is given each year to a distinguished presenter in recognition of the awardee's dedication to the future of presenting the performing arts, professionalism, respect for colleagues and high ethical standards. The award includes a citation for excellence and the recipient's organization receives $1,000 toward its endowment for presenting. Rogers holds a bachelor's degree in music from KU.
Alex Kvares, BFA in printmaking, recently opened an exhibition in Atlanta at the Romo Gallery.
Kiel Johnson and Kristin Miller, art graduates, were both featured in the publication New American Painting, No. 67, Pacific Coast.
Kristi Arnold, BFA in painting in 2001, recently completed a Fulbright in Poland (2006 J. William Fulbright Research Grant, Akademia Sztuk Pieknych, Krakow, Poland).
Mark Hosford, BFA in printmaking in 1998, co-chaired a panel at the SECAC (Southeastern College Art Conference) in Nashville. Hosford is currently assistant professor at Vanderbilt University.
Andrew Hadle, a KU School of Fine Arts sculpture graduate, has been awarded the prestigious International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award for 2006.
Anthony J. Pontius, who received his MFA in art last year, will take part in a show entitled "Leave New York" on Saturday, April 15, 2006, at Sweet Home Gallery in New York. Pontius is currently an artist in residence at the Des Moines Art Center.
Lawrence artist and Kansas University graduate Michael Brenner has been awarded $500 as a first-quarter winner of the internationally acclaimed L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest for new and aspiring illustrators of science fiction and fantasy.
Brenner will attend the award celebration in Hollywood later this year and participate in the Writers and Illustrators of the Future creative workshop. He also will illustrate one of the winning stories to be published in the "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXI" anthology.
Brenner has an undergraduate degree in design and illustration from KU.
David Reisman, (BFA painting, 1980), has had a book published. Entitled Foreign Objects, the book is a compilation of pen-and-ink drawings, executed in 1995 and 1996, from artist/writer David Reisman's dream journals. Surreal, funny, and at times unsettling, Reisman's drawings feature friends and family, acquaintances, a variety of character types, and celebrities including Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Jackson Pollock, and David Letterman. While Foreign Objects is a kind of unconscious autobiography, the book may be seen as an effort, as his brother Carl Reisman notes in his foreword, to "help us to build bridges, however rickety, between our secret selves and consciousness, and between our isolated selves and humanity."
John Hendrix, design BFA in 1999, won the silver medal in the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles national competition in November. Hendrix was also chosen to participate in the American Illustration 25 international competition.
According to a representative of the Kohler Company, noted interior designer Karen Mills of Interiors by Design, Inc, a graduate of the University of Kansas, is the first designer from Kansas City to be invited to the "Kohler Experience." Mills has agreed to consider designing a kitchen or bath area for the Kohler Design Center and plans to bring back video of the Design Center and internationally known Kohler Waters Spa to share with local Kansas City homeowners.
Every year the Kohler Company invites a few designers from around the country to participate in the "Kohler Experience." The "Kohler Experience" is an exclusive opportunity for designers and other participants to tour the incredible facilities at the Village of Kohler in Wisconsin and get a sneak peek at the latest in Kohler products while touring the factory and design center.
Matt Spurlin, a May 2006 industrial design graduate, is currently an industrial designer for Ridley Motorcycle Company in Oklahoma City where he has worked on a large variety of projects including design, color and trim, graphic standards manuals, exploded views for parts ordering and communication, and service instructions
Max Cripe of Garden City, Kansas, a 1984 graduate of the Department of Music and Dance (BM in french horn), was promoted to Master Gunnery Seargeant with the United States Marine Band.
Daniel Gilliam (MM 2003) was recently named announcer/producer for 90.5 FM WUOL in Louisville, KY. At WUOL he hosts and produces "Brave New World," a program devoted to contemporary music. As a composer, Daniel received premieres in Paris of a recent organ commission. In 2007 "Then Sing," a commission from the Louisville Youth Choir, will be premiered as part of their 40th anniversary season.
http://www.societyofcomposers.org/user/danielgilliam.html
http://www.wuol.org/bravenewworld.htm
Holly Wrensch, a May DMA graduate in vocal performance, received third place and a $2,500 cash prize at the competition this summer sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Beau Hancock, 2005 B.A. in Dance and American Studies, just returned from dancing on scholarship at the Bates Summer Dance Festival. He received many accolades and was urged by several faculty members to return to New York City to perform. Beau will be working with Ben Munisteri (the artistic director of the Ben Munisteri Dance Project in New York City in whose company Beau performed last year, including at the Joyce Theatre) on a motion capture project at Indiana University in Bloomington for the month of September. Then he plans to move back to NYC in October to audition for other companies.
Stephen Ross Allen, who earned a MM in 1992, took a new position as Director of Sales for Dennis Bamber, Incorporated. The companies under this parent company are The Woodwind/Brasswind and Music123. This is the largest and oldest continuous privately owned retail catalog and internet shopping company in the world.
Amy Ludwig (BM '98 in piano) has been named a Maestro Producer by Kindermusik International, the world's leading publisher of music and movement programs. Ludwig is an early childhood specialist and teaches Kindermusik and private piano lessons at Vaccaro's Piano & Organ in Lenexa, Kansas.
Shannon O'Toole Mason (BME in 2001) guest-conducted with the Air Force Academy Band in a performance on Wednesday, October 12, 2005, at White Concert Hall in Topeka, Kansas. Mason, assistant director of bands at Seaman High School, led the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based band of 50 full-time enlisted professional musicians. Mason is the daughter of the late Col. Michael J. O'Toole, who commanded the Kansas Air National Guard's 190 th Air Refueling Group.
Dr. Donald Sanders, professor of music at Samford University in Birmingham, AL, recently won the 2005 John H. Buchanan Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching. Sanders is a pianist who teaches music history and literature at Samford University. He holds a bachelor's in piano performance from the University of South Carolina, a master's in piano performance from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Kansas.
KU alumna Angela Rowland (who graduated with an MM in flute performance in 1995 as Angela McComas), has just renewed her contract for two years with the Macau Orchestra, playing second flute and piccolo.
Trumpeter Dr. David Reynolds, a University of Kansas music education graduate ('85), assumed his new role of Music Department Head at South Dakota State University on July 1, 2005. Reynolds grew up in Joplin, Missouri. After graduating from KU, he received a master of music degree in trumpet performance from Florida State University in 1986 and a doctor of musical arts degree in pedagogy, performance and literature from the University of Maryland in 1994.
Reynolds worked at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont., for 13 years before moving to South Dakota State University. He has been a member of the U.S. Army Band and a member of the Army Herald Trumpets, a group that played fanfares at several official ceremonies, including from the balcony of the White House.
Dr. David Pickering received a dual MM in Organ and Musicology from KU in 2000. He completed his DMA in 2001 and is now Assistant Professor of Organ and Music Theory at Graceland University in Lamoni, IA. Graceland University will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of its Casavant organ in the Shaw Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, September 23, 2005 at 7:30 PM. Dr. Pickering will be performing a ten-year anniversary recital featuring music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Louis Vierne, Alice Jordan, Robert M. Speed, and Daniel Gawthrop. Graceland University has commissioned an organ work from Mr. Gawthrop that entitled O Jerusalem: A Symphony for Organ which will receive its premiere performance. This work is in four movements, each inspired by a scripture from Isaiah. At the conclusion of the recital, Dr. Pickering's second CD recording entitled The Organ Music of Alice Jordan, will be released.
John Wojcik, (DMA in Conducting, '93), was recently appointed as Director of Bands at Delta State. Wojcik was formerly director of bands at Texas A & M University.
Leah Hamilton, a KU Music and Dance graduate, was recently awarded a $25,000 Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland, where she will pursue a postgraduate degree in vocal performance. Hamilton was nominated for this scholarship by the Rotary Club of Springfield, Missouri.
Hamilton graduated from Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri, in 2000. She went on to receive her bachelor of music degree from the University of Kansas in 2004, where she studied with voice professors Pamela Hinchman and Dr. Genaro Mendez.
In addition to her vocal performances, Hamilton has also been playing piano since she was 11 years old and she composes music. She won various regional and state competitions for her music compositions and today she writes choral pieces.
Hamilton now performs with the professional choral ensemble, Octarium, of Kansas City, Missouri. Hamilton also stays busy performing with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City chorus and at the New Theater Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas.
"My biggest professional goal is to be a music professor," says Hamilton. "I love history, vocal pedagogy and theory, and hope to teach them all at a collegiate level. I hope also to keep singing on the stage because I love performing so much." Hamilton adds, "I am excited that by going to graduate school, I am on the road to having my greatest dream come true."
Emily Stewart, a May 2005 Music and Dance graduate in violin performance from Kansas City, Missouri, was named a Fulbright scholar and will study at the Geneva Conservatory in September.
Sharon Leopold, May 2005 graduate with a Master's in Conducting, recently accepted an appointment with the U.S. Army Band. She will act as conductor and will move between the Major Command Bands and the Special Bands (Pershing's Own, West Pointe, and the Army Field Band). After a year of officer training, Leopold will graduate to 2nd Lieutenant and will be slated as an Executive Officer at the Army Elements School of Music. She will be stationed in Norfolk, VA, for the first couple of years after her officer training.
"I am very thankful for the opportunities and education I have received here at the University of Kansas," says Leopold. "Without the faculty and staff here, I would not have gotten where I am. No matter where I am stationed, I will forever be a Jayhawk!"
James Andrew Baker (Jamie Baker), a Department of Music & Dance graduate ('88 BME), recently received 1st place honors as the Secondary Instrumental Educator at the Orange County Arts Educators and Administrators Reception held on Tuesday, May 10, 2005.
Baker attended Chaparral High Anthony High School in Anthony, Kansas, and was an active tuba player. He was the first recipient of the Stephen Paul Wunsch Foundation for Young Musicians and attended KU to pursue his music education. While at KU, Baker was an active member of the KU Band and also acted as band president. Since graduating, Baker has been a music educator, most recently teaching music at La Quinta High School in Westminster, California.
David Holloway, BM in vocal performance from KU ('64), was recently named as the new Director of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Singer Program at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. His new appointment begins in the summer of 2005. Click here for complete story
You can contact the school via fineartsalumni@ku.edu to provide news about yourself for the newsletter or to communicate interests with others.
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University of Kansas
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E-mail: finearts@ku.edu
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