Dr. Michael Davidson, assistant professor of trombone, was the featured guest artist and clinician at Wright State University's Trombone Studio Night (16 April 2008) and gave a master class at WSU the following day.
Steven Spooner, assistant professor of piano, has been selected as a visiting professor at the Liszt Academy in Hungary and will lecture to the doctoral students on a variety of piano topics, as well as give a masterclass, interviews and participate in recruiting. Each year the Academy invites guests to visit and last semester's guest was the distinguished Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff.
David Fedele, assistant professor of flute, has recently performed a Trio Fedele concert at the Ruel Joyce Recital Series at Johnson County Community College, a concert with the Manhattan Sinfonietta at Miller Theater in New York, a chamber music concert at the Kosciusko Foundation in NYC, and a chamber music concert at Vassar College at the Skinner Hall of Music.
Scott Murphy, associate professor of music theory, was chosen by the Torch Chapter of the Mortar Board National Honor Society as one of five KU faculty recipients of the 2007 Outstanding Educator awards. Murphy will be honored at the November 28, 2007 KU basketball game.
Scott Watson, professor of tuba-euphonium, and Michael Davidson, assistant professor of trombone, are members of the Kansas City-based Fountain City Brass Band. The band recently won the 2007 United States Open Brass Band Championship, an event that took place in Chicago on November 10, 2007. The competition featured bands from across the United States as well as from the United Kingdom. Professors Watson and Davidson were also joined by KU graduate student Travis Hendra, a DMA candidate in tuba performance, and a member of the Foundation City Brass Band.
Stephanie Zelnick, assistant professor of clarinet, was recently selected to present master classes and to perform at three of the top universities in Brazil: the University of Brasilia, the University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of Campinas. The concerts and master classes will take place from November 18 through November 25, 2007. Additionally, Zelnick was asked to perform a solo recital at the Southern Clarinet Sympoisum in Mississippi on November 16-18.
Vince Gnojek, KU professor of saxophone, was chosen as one of eight winners of the 12th annual Phoenix Awards, a project of the Lawrence Arts Commission. The Phoenix Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the arts and recipients will be honored at a ceremony and reception on November 4, 2007, at the Lawrence Arts Center. Gnojek was chosen as a winner in the Performing Arts category. For more information, you can contact the KU School of Music at 785-864-3436.
Joyce Castle, KU professor of voice, is featured on new release Flesh & Stone: Songs of Jake Heggie, a recording of Heggie’s works that includes Statuesque, the song cycle commissioned by the University of Kansas for Castle in 2005. Flesh & Stone can be purchased online by visiting the Classical Action section of the web-store on the Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS web site www.broadwaycares.org or by contacting Americus Records www.americuscd.com. Proceeds from the sale of this CD will wholly benefit Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, a fundraising program of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.
Joyce Castle will perform in Massenet’s Cinderella (Cendrillon), which opens October 27 , 2007 and will be dedicated to the late Beverly Sills. Castle was chosen to moderate the memorial reception that follows the opening night performance.
An arts program by a KU Department of Design lecturer Linda Kemnitzer was recently acknowledged by the Missouri Arts Council to receive funding to develop an arts program for adults at the Homeless Services Center at reStart, a homeless shelter in Kansas City. This funding will be supplied for the next two years. The Homeless Services Center provides counseling and referrals, as well as basic necessities, such as laundry, showers, phones, mailboxes and shelter to chronically homeless adults during the day.
