Undergraduate students, Devin Garza and Micheal Barnes, returned last week with successful performances at the 2014 Percussive Arts Society International Conference in Indianapolis IN (Nov. 19-22). Senior BME student Devin Garza performed an original snare solo and won the 2014 PASIC Individual Snare Drum Competition. Junior BM student Micheal Barnes was selected through a national call for tapes as one of four students to perform on the Leigh Howard Stevens Bach Masterclass. Micheal performed a movement of the Bach Cello Suite in C Major. Micheal was also invited to participate in an accessory masterclass.
Katie Acone won the state level of the national MTNA competition this past Saturday and will be representing the state of Oklahoma (and OU!) at the regional contest in January. Our School of Music was also beautifully represented at the competition by Weijia Zhou, who received an honorable mention.
OU Bassoonists, Alexandra Robinson and Mackie Thomas were recently awarded First Place in their respective divisions of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association (OMTA) Solo Competition at East Central University in Ada. In addition to receiving a cash prize, both students will be featured in a "Winners Recital" next May at the OMTA Annual Conference. Alexandra and Mackie are students of OU Bassoon Professor, Rod Ackmann.
Congratulations to Violin Professor Hal Grossman and his former student Jason Yu who has recently won the violin position in the New York Philharmonic.
Former OU Student Collin Findlay (BM 2013) was accepted into the MM program at Indiana University where he is receiving a full tuition award. He will study with Jeff Nelsen and Dale Clevenger. After his initial audition, he was awarded the 4th horn position with the IU Philharmonic Orchestra, the premier ensemble at the IU School of Music! Collin Findlay was a student of OU Horn professor Eldon Matlick.
OU Master's violin students Philip Oja and Jeffrey Weaver were winners in the Amarillo Symphony violin auditions. Oja won a permanent First Violin section position and Weaver won a one year position in the First Violin section. Both are students of violin professor Hal Grossman.
Congratulations to OU student Delphine Piguet on the acceptance of her proposal on Jewish Liturgy to the American Musicological Society-SW Chapter. She will present her paper September 5-6.
OU trumpet student Ryan Chastain won the $1,000 David Bilger ArtistWorks Classical Scholarship Competition! The graduate trumpeter received news of the award while performing in Bellingham, Washington, on full scholarship as a Fellow of the Marrowstone Music Festival, July 27-Aug. 10.
Graduate Music Education professor Charles Ciorba has been appointed to the editorial board of Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, a peer-reviewed online-only journal that brings research in music teaching and learning close to everyday practice to help teachers apply research in their music classrooms and rehearsal halls.
The Crouse String Quartet has been selected as the 2014 fellowship quartet at the Faulkner Chamber Music Festival. The Festival runs from July 28- August 9. The Crouse String Quartet members all hold graduate assistantships at OU.
Composition graduate, Joe Hasper, is writing arrangements for upcoming Pops Concert given by the Coachella Valley Symphony, featuring lyric soprano Lisa Lindley. The music includes selections from La Boheme and Phantom of the Opera as well as pop and jazz standards from the Great American Songbook.
Congratulations to vocalist Jack Swanson on placing first in the 2014 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition. The Hal Leonard Vocal Competition is the only event of its kind for qualifying undergraduate singers up to age 23 for all of the U.S. and Canada.
Jennifer Saltzstein, Associate Professor of Musicology, was selected for a 2014 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipends Award.
Congratulations to students Jake Johnson (MA in musicology from OU, 2009) and Kacie Morgan (BMA in viola, Spring 2014) on their admission to the PhD program in musicology at UCLA. The musicology program at UCLA was recently ranked the no.1 program in the country in the National Research Council Survey of PhD programs.
Davis Dorrough, MM Piano Performance/Pedagogy graduate received the 2014 Studio StAR Studio Teacher Fellowship Award, from MTNA at Music Teachers National Association Convention in Chicago.
Bassoon student Matt Matheny won first place in the Woodwind/Brass Division of the Ladies Music Club (LMC) of OKC Music Scholarship Competition. Matt and his accompanist, Anna Ho, delivered a first rate performance of the Devienne G minor Sonata (II) and the Pierne: Solo de Concert. This achievement marks the second solo competition that Matt has won in the past two weeks.
Sophomore BME Student DJ Handy won first place in the Percussion Division of the Ladies Music Club (LMC) of OKC Music Scholarship Competition. 1st Alternate went to Jake McClendon, OU Junior BMA student and 2nd Alternate went to Devin Garza, OU Junior BME student.
Freshman Bassoonist, Matthew Matheny was awarded First Prize in the Collegiate Division of the Midwest Double Reed Society's (MDRS) Young Artist Competition. MDRS encompasses a six state region and is the oldest of the regional double reed societies. The University of Oklahoma proudly hosted this year's competition.
Percussionist Brandon Wong who was named as one of two over-all winners of the 2014 Young Artist Competition for the Oklahoma Community Orchestra! Brandon will perform the Gillingham Marimba Concerto on April 15 with the Oklahoma Community Orchestra and then will perform the Concerto on the OU Concerto Showcase concert on April 26th.
Katie Acone won the Young Artist Competition of the Oklahoma Community Orchestra and will perform her Rachmaninov Concerto on April 15th with the Oklahoma Community Orchestra!
The Benton-Schmidt Competition was early February in the Reynold's Performing Arts Center. Darren Drone, Arkansas Tech, won 1st place. Olivia Vadnais, Carnegie-Melon, took 2nd, and 3rd was shared by Isaiah Feken, University of Tulsa, and Andrew Wannigman, New England Conservatory. Congratulations to all our winners!
Jack Swanson, undergraduate tenor, won 2nd place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions in Kansas City. Jack is one of the youngest students from OU to ever achieve this distinction.
Voice student Nicole Robertson DMA, won the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions and would be going forward to the Regional Auditions
Adam Pajan, student of Organ Professor Jeremy Wance, is featured on the nationally-syndicated “Pipedreams” from Minnesota Public Radio.
Saxophone profesor Dr. Jonathan Nichol's song Sparkle, a work recorded with Billband, made the NPR Music's top 100 songs of 2013.
Graduate student Cassie Keogh has been selected to participate at ClarinetFest 2014 this coming July.
Graduate Drew Mangus won the 2nd horn position
with the West Point Military Band.
Adam Pajan placed first by a unanimous jury decision at the prestigious Ruth & Clarence Mader National Organ Competition. Adam was one of three selected finalists, the other two hailing from Korea and China.
Dr. Dan Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Oboe, performed a recital at the International Double Reed Society, held this year at the University of Redlands, California. Additionaly, his piece "Sonata for Oboe" was published and distributed through one of the largest purveyors of double reed music in the country.
Justin Swift, a Junior Music Ed major, auditioned and won principal oboe of the National Intercollegiate Honor Band, held this year in Massachusetts.
Beth Mattingly of Norman, who is working toward a doctoral degree in music education with an emphasis in Kodály at the University of Oklahoma, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to conduct research at the Kodály Institute in Hungary.
Kyle Vandenbur's electroacoustic piece, Blueprints of Eternity, has been accepted to the International Computer Music Conference 2013
