WELCOME BACK!

Dear KU Music Students:

Welcome to a new semester at the University of Kansas School of Music! Whether you are a returning student or new to our program, the faculty and I are thrilled to have you here. We have a great year planned with many exciting opportunities ahead.

Your best source of information is the School of Music website http://music.ku.edu. Certainly, our faculty and professional staff are here to help serve you as you pursue your dreams for a lifetime filled with music. Have a wonderful semester, practice slowly, and Rock Chalk!

Robert Walzel
Dean, KU School of Music

New Faces

We have new faculty and staff members joining us at the KU School of Music this year, as well as some part time lecturers. Below we’ve profiled the three new faculty members and one of our new staff members. We will introduce you to additional new faces in a later post. Please help welcome these new faces to Murphy Hall!

Sharon Toulouse joins us as the new Assistant Director of Bands. Toulouse holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from KU, and was the Assistant Director of Bands at Lawrence Free State High School. She has also been an officer/conductor in The United States Army and is a member of the Washington D.C. National Guard Band, where she holds the position of Executive Officer/Associate Conductor.

Ryan Dohoney joins us as Assistant Professor of Musicology. Professor Dohoney taught at Colby College where he was Faculty Fellow in music and director of the Collegium Musicum. His research and teaching center on twentieth and twenty-first century musical modernism, experimentalism, ethnomusicology, jazz, US popular music, and research methods.

Mariana Farah is the new Associate Choral Director and will teach graduate choral literature, direct two of KU’s choral ensembles, and help oversee the choral program. Born in Brazil, Dr. Farah appeared several times as guest conductor of the University Orchestra and of the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de Campinas. She also worked for the Universidade de São Paulo as the conductor of Grupo Lauda and Canto do Campus. Farah is founder and conductor of the Conservatory Women’s Chorus, Bella Voce, at UMKC.

Leslie O’Neil is a new staff member this year, joining the School of Music Band Office as the new Administrative Assistant. O’Neil completed her teaching degree at the University of Nebraska and moved to the Lawrence area to teach. She then earned a degree in library science and information management at Emporia State University and since 2005 she has collaborated on various projects with the National Park Service, the Brown Foundation, the Lawrence Public Library and the KU Confucius Institute. O’Neil replaces Cindy Koester, who is retiring from KU this year.

Upcoming Events

There are numerous groundbreaking events happening at the KU School of Music this year!

This summer our students participated in another exciting music exchange with Lawrence’s sister city, Eutin, Germany. The students return this month from their journey, and we cannot wait to hear all about their performance experiences.

Our 13^th Annual College Concert takes place on Friday, September 21 at the Lied Center. This event officially kicks off our concert season, and it’s always an exciting showcase to present to the public.  The concert begins at 7:30pm, followed by a (ticketed) fundraising reception. All proceeds benefit the KU School of Music Student Opportunity Fund.

We are excited to announce our Wind Ensemble will be performing the world premiere of a work commissioned especially for the ensemble by composer Mohammed Fairouz. “In the Shadow of No Towers” will be premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 26, 2013, and a repeat performance will be held at the Lied Center on April 2. This event is sponsored by Reach Out Kansas, Inc., and the Law Offices of Smithyman & Zakoura.

Reach Out Kansas, Inc., and the Law Offices of Smithyman & Zakoura will also be sponsoring a variety of additional large events this year, including a Scholarship Concert and Bernstein Festival at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts on November 13, a KU Piano Concert in March of 2013 at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City, the spring KU Jazz Festival, and more.

Highlights from our 2012-13 events are included below. Please visit our web calendar at http://music.ku.edu for the most updated list of KU School of Music events. And stay tuned to our blog and website for more on what’s happening this year with the KU School of Music! WELCOME!

  

Sep. 21^st

13^th Annual Collage Concert, featuring KU students and faculty

7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Sep. 25^th

KU Symphony Orchestra

7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Sep. 26^th

KU Jazz Ensembles I, II, III

7:30 PM Lawrence Arts Center

Admission Free

Oct. 2^nd

Wind Ensemble

7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Oct. 17^th

Symphonic Band & Chamber Winds

7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Oct. 23^rd

KU Choirs: Collegium, Oread Consort, University Singers

7:30 PM Swarthout Recital Hall

Admission Free

Oct. 24^th

Jazz Combos I-VI

7:00 PM Lawrence Arts Center

Admission Free

Oct. 26^th

KU Symphony Orchestra Halloween Concert + Costume Contest

7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Oct. 30^th

KU Choirs: Men’s Glee, Women’s Chorale

7:30 PM Swarthout Recital Hall

Admission Free

Nov. 1^st

KU Jazz Ensemble I & Composer, George Stone

7:30 PM Lawrence Arts Center

Admission Free

Nov. 2^nd

Wind Ensemble

7:30 PM Carlsen Center for the Performing Arts

Johnson County Community College/Yardley Hall

Call 913-469-4445 for ticket information

Nov. 6^th

KU Choirs: Chamber Choir & Concert Choir

7:30 PM Swarthout Recital Hall

Admission Free

Nov. 13^th

KU Symphony Orchestra & Choirs

Bernstein Festival & Scholarship Concert

7:00 PM Kauffman Center for the Arts

Admission Free but tickets are required

Call (816) 994-7200 for information

Nov. 16-19^th

KU Opera: Trouble in Tahiti & Arias & Barcarolles

7:30 PM  Baustian Theatre (2:30pm on 11/18)

Ticket Price TBA

Nov. 19^th

KU Jazz Singers & Jazz Combo I

7:30 PM Lawrence Arts Center

Admission Free

Nov. 27^th

Symphonic Band & University Band

7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Dec. 2^nd

Vespers

2:30 & 7:30 PM Lied Center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

Dec. 6^th

Jazz Vespers

7:30 PM Lied center

Call 785-864-2787 or go to lied.ku.edu for tickets

March 1-2

KU Jazz Festival Concerts

7:30pm Free State High School (Lawrence, KS)

Tickets TBD. Call 785-864-3436 for information

March 7

KU Piano Concert

7:00 PM – Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Free but tickets required for seats. Call (816) 994-7200

March 26

KU Wind Ensemble performs “In the Shadow of No Towers”

World Premiere, by M. Fairouz

8:00 PM -- Carnegie Hall/Isaac Stern Auditorium, New York, NY

April 2

KU Wind Ensemble encore of “In the Shadow of No Towers”

7:30 PM—Lied Center of Kansas

Free but tickets required for seats. Call (785) 864-2787 for information

Welcome to the new University of Kansas School of Music blog! We are thrilled to introduce this to the community. We hope you will become a regular visitor and get a glimpse into the lives of our students, faculty and alumni!


There are so many exciting things going on right now with the KU School of Music. For example, just over the past year we can boast two winners of Fulbright awards: a student and faculty member!  Additionally, KU music students swept the 2012 Naftzger Young Artist Auditions, taking home all top prizes; two of our students took home top awards from the coveted 2012 DownBeat magazine's annual Student Music Awards; one of our students is currently performing in the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in China, and much more! We are also enjoying another wonderful summer of music exchange with Lawrence's sister city, Eutin, Germany. Thirty-three of our students--instrumentalists and vocalists-- traveled to Eutin this summer and are performing three operas, two orchestral concerts and two chamber concerts. Joining the students is one of our distinguished graduates, Hugo Vera. Vera is currently performing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and he'll join the group in performances of Nabucco.


Speaking of Eutin, we wanted to bring as much of the Eutin experience to the public as possible (because it is that wonderful and exciting!), so we've asked two of our touring students to contribute to this first blog. Below we've included entries from Katina Bilberry, a student pursuing her Master of Music degree, and John Meyer, an undergraduate studying for his degree in voice. Enjoy and Rock Chalk KU Music! (Photo credit: Kerstin E. Ahrens)

KU orchestra students in Eutin, 2012. From front row to back, left to right:
Katina Bilberry, Evan Flynn
Doug Perry, Patrick Timmis, Mai Tadokoro
Matt Straus, Ethan Bartley, Stephen Meiller

Pete Walker, Grant Bingham, Jessica Findley

Katina Bilberry: Eutin or bust!

Well, to start off, our commute from the U.S. to Germany was full of a series of unfortunate events.  Our one day journey took four days.  First, our flight was delayed from Denver which made us miss our flight to Copenhagen. We finally made it to Germany and on the way to Eutin, a tree fell on the railroad tracks and we had to take a bus to Eutin.  Was it difficult?  YES! Was it memorable?  YES!  Did it feel like it would never end?  YES!  However, if you know the saying, "No pain, no gain,” you would know that through that ordeal we definitely gained something.  We were able to bond together as a group and keep each other going, and that speaks volumes to the integrity of my fellow classmates.  

Since arriving in Eutin, we have been able to support each other and learn to lean on one another through a heavy rehearsal schedule and even develop house rules (quiet hours) for the Bethesdahaus.  I'm impressed.  Already I can tell that this summer is going to be one of the best summers thus far in Eutin, Germany.  

Last year it rained just about every day, but this year, not so much.  The festival's organizers have been wonderful and have welcomed us with open arms.  If you were to ask me if the commute was worth the experience, I would reply with a resounding “Yes!” because so far it has been worth it.  

The orchestra this year is so amazing.  Last year we were all students.  This year the KU students are mixed with professional players from various parts of Europe.  They are some of the most amazing musicians in the world.  We are learning so much.  I've been able to count seven to eight languages so far.  We have (of course) German, and next is Russian, Armenian, English, Italian, French, and Spanish.  Wow!  Talk about an international experience!!!  I love this place.  Being able to perform with musicians of such high caliber is great! -- Katina Bilberry, MM student 

John Meyer's take on Eutin: "...we felt right at home."

Eutin is absolutely beautiful and the people here are so nice to all of the Americans. It was a very long journey to get here. We missed our original flight from Chicago to Copenhagen because our flight from Kansas City was delayed, and we had to travel an extra three days with two extra flights and many train rides. But we finally arrived safe and sound. We were welcomed by some of the interns working in Eutin as well as the person in charge of the sister city relationship between Lawrence and Eutin. We received a free meal and free drinks upon our arrival, and we felt right at home.

           

The following morning the singers went straight to staging Nabucco at 10 am. We were all pretty nervous about what it was going to be like on our first day, but it all turned out alright and all the residents that were in the opera were very friendly to us. Our director is very nice and she finishes a lot in a short amount of time. I think that we had the whole opera staged in only three days, and it was definitely an experience. The music that we are singing is great and the voices we are singing with are very good. This is a great experience for us because most of us have not been in the professional world of opera yet.

We are trying to work in some travel time on our days off, so my friends and I just traveled to Lubeck for two days and it was an amazing place to see. We hope to visit Hamburg and Berlin before we come back to America. Everything is running smoothly with Nabucco! -- John Meyer, BM voice student