2012

Rod Ackmann, Professor of Bassoon, presented the World Premiere and European Premiere of Awatovi for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, by Daniel Baldwin, last summer at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain and the Assisi, Italy Music Festival, respectively. The piece was also recently performed at the Midwest Double Reed Society's (MDRS)  Eleventh Annual Double Reed Festival at the University of Kansas.

Sophomore Bassoonist Kevin Jones, recently won First Place in the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association (OMTA) Collegiate Woodwind Solo Competition at Oklahoma State University. As winner, he will be featured in a solo performance next June at the OMTA Conference, hosted by the OU School of Music, as well as receive a financial award.

Undergraduate composition student Dexter Ford's work "Wall" was selected for performance at the 2013 Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference at McNally Smith College of Music. The conference will be held April 18-20, 2013, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Student David Ikard's composition Memoir of a Daydream has been selected for performance on the National Conference of the Society of Composers, Inc. held at The Ohio State University School of Music on February 13-16, 2013.

Percussion Professor Lance Drege released a percussion CD in August entitled "This is the World."

The CD was the culmination of a project began several years ago with the commissioning of a new work from noted composer David Maslanka for two pianos and two percussion. The commission was undertaken by Lance Drege and the CanAm Piano Duo, whose members include Dr. Karen Beres (University of North Carolina School of the Arts) and Dr. Christopher Hahn (University of Montana) - both OU alums in the DMA Piano Performance and Pedagogy program. The forty-six minute, five movement composition "This is the World we know, the world of air and breathing and sun and beating hearts" was premiered here at the University of Oklahoma in February 2010, and through support of the University of Oklahoma Research Council, was recorded here at the University of Oklahoma School of Music, Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall in June 2011, with the composer present and serving as producer. Other works on the disc include Libby Larsen's Gavel Patter and Witold Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations for Two Pianos and Percussion with percussion parts added by Marta Ptaszynska. The recording is distributed and available through Albany Records.

Faculy member Jennifer Saltzstein has had her article "Cleric-trouvères and the Jeux-partis of Medieval Arras" published in the peer-reviewed journal Viator.

Music Student Collin Findlay won the Brass Division of the MTNA Young Artist Competition held Nov. 3rd in Stillwater, OK.  He will move on to compete in the Regional Division of the MTNA Competition.

Vocal department and OU Opera Theater alumnus Julie Davis made her international debut this past season with Staatstheater Darmstadt in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. She is currently featured singing the tour de force of all four female roles in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann in Darmstadt's new production of the opera. Ms. Davis is also accumulating many other performances and attracting attention in other German opera centers, notably Mannheim.

DMA Composition student Joseph Hasper has been awarded the 2012-2013 Beatrice Carr and W. Ray Wallace Scholarship.

DMA student Chris Westover has been selected as one of twelve finalists for the Junior Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. The position includes work with the renowned Halle Orchestra, which is based in Manchester.

Music professor Dr. Ken Stephenson's third book "Guido's Rhythmic Rules: Medieval Fundamentals of Music Theory in Verse Form" has been published by the Medieval Institute of Music

Graduate Piano Student Jessica Nilles has been named the winner of the Graduate Division of the Oklahoma Music Teachers State Piano Competition.

Five students of Tuba/Euphonium professor Brian Dobbins were selected as first or second chair in the CODA, SWOBDA, NBDA regional honor bands across Oklahoma.

Freshman Violinist Dominique Hammons, freshman performance major, performed with the Houston Symphony October 13, 2012 as the winner of the Houston Symphony Young Artist Competition on their Lunada concert.

OETA provided a showcase for the OU Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band during the 2011 "Bedlam Week." Viewers were able to see what goes into the preparation and design of marching band shows, how the bands get in "game mode" before they take to the performance field, and special small HD cameras will gave viewers the visual perspective of being IN the band.

The  nomination is in the “Sports Special” category for the Heartland region of the Emmy Awards. The winner will be announced the evening of Saturday, July 21, 2012.

Congratulations to OU music student Dex Ford. His composition, Wall, was accepted for the performance in Ljubljana! This is a rare case of an undergraduate student's composition being selected for performance in the International Computer Music Conference, the most prestigious event worldwide.

OU music technology and composition student Kyle Vanderburg's composition, Creatures from the Black Bassoon, has been selected for performance by the 2012 International Computer Music Conference. The ICMC is the largest and most prestigious electroacoustic music event in the world.

OU music composition student Dex Ford's composition, Barbershop, has been chosen as the winning work in the 2012 The University of Louisville Young Composer Competition for New Electro-acoustic Music.

Trumpet student Christi Wans has won a scholarship to participate in the highly competitive international "Domain Forget" Festival in Quebec this summer.  Christi will study with international soloist Eric Aubier from the Paris Conservatory, and with Ray Mase, chair of brasses at the Juilliard School and founding member of the famed American Brass Quintet.

DMA Composition Student Joseph Hasper has been named the winner of the Anton Stadler Composition Competition for his basset clarinet piece, "Variations on O Worship The King." The piece will be performed in London on May 6, by basset clarinet specialist Marc Naylor.

MM Organ student Chris Ganza has won the prestigious Rodland Competition.  Established to honor the late John Rodland, the competition is open to organists of any age.  First prize includes a featured performance at the annual John Rodland Hymn Festival in Ridgewood, NJ.

Composition student Kyle Vanderburg won first place in the 2012 Student Composition with his piece titled Foi dans l'aleatoire. The Belvedere Chamber Music Festival Composition Contest is sponsored by Luna Nova Music.

Undergrade student, Dedra LaShaun Garmon, has been selected as a recipient of a Global Access Initiative (GAIN) Scholarship for Summer - 2012 Summer Contemporary Music Creation & Critique program at the CIEE Study Center in Paris, France. GAIN Scholars are clearly dedicated to internationalizing their education and we’re excited that Dedra has chosen to study abroad with CIEE!

For 65 years CIEE has been the leading international education and exchange organization. To demonstrate our commitment to studying abroad, CIEE created the GAIN Scholarship to help provide opportunities for students who are interested in studying in another country.

Congratulations to Elyse Emerich who recently won the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Research for her presentation at the Undergraduate Research Day.

International OU Music Student Delphine Piguet has been awarded the Paul and Rose Sharp Outstanding International Student Scholarship. With an applicant pool of over 2500 students, this scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic excellence and service to the university community.

Ethnomusicology faculty member Zoe Sherinian received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council in the amount of $9,000 to support travel and research in India for her film project on the Sakthi Folk Arts Center in Tamil Nadu.

Horn professor Eldon Matlick has been invited to be a guest performer at the 2012 International Horn Symposium that will be held at the University of North Texas May 14-19.

In addition, the OU Hornsemble has received an invitation to perform a 30 minute featured program on Saturday afternoon on May 19. OU is one of twelve collegiate horn ensembles picked for a performance slot.

Composition student David Ikard has published two of his compositions, Fledgling for flute and Timor et Tremor for voice, with Media Press. David is a student of Dr. Marvin Lamb

Martin Saunders (OU grad, MM and DMA) is playing lead trumpet on the Landau Eugene Murphy Jr.tour.

Singer Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. was named the champ on the sixth-season finale of NBC's reality show, narrowly beating out dance troupe the Silhouettes for the viewer-voted title.

A scholarship honoring Stan Kann, the organist who played the Mighty Wurlitzer at the Fox Theatre, has been awarded to Adam Pajan, a DMA degree candidate at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Kann was a popular TV talk-show personality as well as a theater organist. A St. Louis native who majored in the classical organ during his student days at Washington University, he played at the Fox for 35 years. He died in 2008.

Pajan, is the second recipient of the scholarship, presented by the Stan Kann Scholarship Fund, a St. Louis organization, in conjunction with the American Theater Organ Society. The fund was established to provide grants to outstanding students who want to learn the distinctive theater organ style. The American Theater Organ Society is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the theater pipe organ.

At the International Trumpet Symposium, Marc Sutton won 1st place in the orchestral excerpt competition, and won 2nd place in the concerto competition, with Jonathan Mosesman receiving honorable mention.  Lacey Hays played principal trumpet in the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

Alex Purdy, freshman tubist, has won the International Tuba/Euphonium Association concerto competition.

Several School of Music students and recent graduates participated in the 2011 International Haydn Festival Orchestra in Eisenstadt, Austria and performed with professionals from the USA, Asia, Mexico, and Europe. Those students were Jennifer Peck and Angela Heck (flute), Evan Chancellor and Logan Fish (horn), Joseph Mueller (cello), Evan Pettit (bass), and Brian Teed (percussion).

Faculty member Jennifer Saltzstein has been elected to serve a three year term on the Council of American Musicology Society.

Jennifer Saltzstein presents her paper "Vernacular Hermeneutics and the Thirteenth-Century Motet: The Case of Ceste quadruble/Vos n’i dormires/Biaus cuers/Fiat" at the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society and The Gothic Revolution: Music in Western Europe, 1100-1300.

Musicology faculty member Jennifer Saltzstein has been awarded a Residential Research Fellowship from the Huntington Library Foundation for June and July 2011, supporting research on her current book project.