News Archive

SOMD welcomes two new faculty members

ASTA

The University of Oregon School of Music and Dance is pleased to announce the hire of two new tenure-track faculty members.

Starting with Fall term 2013, Dr. Rodney Dorsey and Juan Eduardo "Ed" Wolf will join the SOMD faculty. Dorsey will be director of bands, conductor of the UO Wind Ensemble, and a member of the conducting faculty. Wolf will enter as an assistant professor of ethnomusicology.

Dr. Dorsey is currently the associate director of bands at the University of Michigan, and conductor of the Michigan Youth Band and the Concert Band. Previously, Dorsey was on the faculty at DePaul University and Northwestern University. He attended Florida State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Music Education, and Northwestern University, where he earned his master's and doctor of music degrees in conducting.

Wolf is currently completing his PhD in folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, where he also earned his master of arts. Over the past two years Wolf has taught introductory courses in ethnomusicology, folklore, and Latino history, as well as an upper-level class on the history of U.S. immigration offered through the Latino Studies Program.

April 3, 2013: UO choir seeks gold on the Emerald Isle

 

EUGENE, Ore.—(April 3, 2013)—Oregon fans disillusioned by the Ducks being knocked out of the NCAA Tournament after making it to the Sweet Sixteen may want to dust off their garb of green and gold. There's another UO team that needs their support.

On May 4, the award-winning University of Oregon Chamber Choir, the most select ensemble in the university's eight-choir choral arts program, will compete in the annual Fleischmann International Trophy Competition at the Cork International Choral Festival in Cork, Ireland.

The UO Chamber Choir is one of only eleven ensembles competing, from a field of thirty choirs (hailing from seventeen countries) that auditioned, and is the sole representative of the United States. Leading up to the competition, the Chamber Choir will present concerts in Dublin, Kells, and Loughrea.

Happily for hometown fans of choral music, the Chamber Choir will present their tour program in a public concert on April 25 at 8 p.m. in historic Beall Concert Hall on the UO campus. The one-hour performance features sacred and secular repertoire spanning 400 years, sung in seven languages, with styles as varied as Italian madrigals to bluegrass-influenced gospel, from composers including Monteverdi, Schütz, Debussy, Sydney Guilaume, and Eric William Barnum.

Tickets for the April 25 concert in Eugene are $7 general, $5 for students and seniors, available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office in the Erb Memorial Union, 1222 E. 13th Avenue, 541-346-4363 or tickets.uoregon.edu.

The Ireland trip will be the Chamber Choir's second international tour. In April of 2011 the ensemble toured Estonia and Finland, competing in the Tallinn International Choral Competition, where they took top honors in the Renaissance-Baroque and Chamber Choir categories.

"After the wonderful experience the Chamber Choir had singing in Estonia in 2011, I wanted a similar kind of opportunity for them to hear lots of good choirs from all over the world," said UO Chamber Choir conductor, Professor Sharon Paul.

"The singers really bring their 'A game' when they know that they have auditioned into a competition, and that they will be getting feedback from an international panel of judges who are well respected choral musicians," Paul continued.

"This is what I am most looking forward to—watching our students evolve through this process."

Feb. 1, 2013: Frank Diaz's Research Gaining National Attention

SOMD Assistant Professor Frank M. Diaz is gaining national attention from science and psychology research media outlets for his research exploring how mindfulness meditation may enhance both music engagement and performance. The study drawing so much attention appeared recently on the the journal Psychology of Music’s website, and will appear in print in their forthcoming issue.

 

In his study, Diaz had 132 participants listen to a 10-minute excerpt of Giacomo Puccini’s opera "La Boheme" after listening to a 15-minute recording of a segment produced by the Duke University Center for Mindfulness Research.

Overall, 97 percent of the participants had either one or several moments of flow or aesthetic response. Of the 69 subjects who engaged in mindfulness, 64 percent thought the technique had enhanced their listening experience.

More information on Diaz’s research and methods can be found on Around the O, Science Daily, PsychCentral, and Compelling Wellbeing.

Jan. 11, 2013: Winners of the 2013 UO Concerto Competition

Sean Fredenburg
Concertino da Camera pour Alto Saxophone by Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) Fredenberg played saxophone and was accompanied by Svetlana Kotova.

Clarissa Osborn
Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Osborn played clarinet and was also accompanied by Svetlana Kotova.

Kelly Quesada
Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op.104 by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) Quesada played cello and was accompanied by Ednaldo Borba.

Nattapol Tantikarn
Piano Concerto No.1 in Eb Major by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Tantikarn played piano and was accompanied by Julia Lin.

Jan. 4, 2013: SOMD Announces its 2013 Distinguished Alumni

Dance

Karen Kohn Bradley ’77 (left) is Associate Professor of Dance and Director of Graduate Studies in Dance at the University of Maryland.  She is a Certified Movement Analyst in Laban Move

ment Analysis and is on the Board of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City.

Music

Since 1991, Dr. Margaret Quackenbush ’76 (right) has been the president and executive director of the Hochstein School of Music and Dance in Rochester, NY. Hochstein is a private community art school founded in 1882. It offers dance and music classes to community members from 5 to adult.

Dec. 6, 2012: UO Professor Wins Musicology Prize

Download photos: http://bit.ly/Rp1S43

EUGENE, Ore.—(Dec. 6, 2012)—Lori Kruckenberg, an associate professor of musicology at the University of Oregon, has been awarded the prestigious Noah Greenberg award by the American Musicological Society.

Kruckenberg and her co-recipient, Michael Alan Anderson of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, accepted the award on Nov. 3 at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in New Orleans.

The award, which was established in 1978 by the American Musicological Society and is accompanied by a $2,000 monetary prize, is intended “to stimulate active cooperation between scholars and performers by recognizing and fostering outstanding contributions to historical performing practices,” according to the AMS website.

The award-winning project, entitled “Sounding the Neumatized Sequence,” is a collaborative effort of Kruckenberg, Anderson, and the Schola Antiqua, a Chicago-based professional vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of music before the year 1600.

As part of the project, the Schola Antiqua will record and archive a set of special liturgical sequences that feature melodies both entirely without text or long wordless passages, a practice called “neumatizing” from the Latin neumatizare. The scholarly impetus behind the project is Kruckenberg’s 2006 article “Neumatizing the Sequence: Special Performances of Sequences in the Central Middle Ages,” which appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society.

In the award presentation, the Greenberg Committee Chair, Professor Tom Beghin of McGill University, wrote:

“The committee found the project's fusion of performance and scholarship tremendously exciting and the expertise and musicianship of the collaborators of the highest level. We endorse them with utmost enthusiasm.”

“Receiving the Noah Greenberg Award is a wonderful honor, and I am thrilled to share the award with Michael Alan Anderson,” said Kruckenberg. “Professor Anderson and the Schola Antiqua of Chicago are ideal collaborators,” she continued, “and I look forward to working with them as they bring to life sonically some of the findings of my research on this medieval tradition of singing.”

Kruckenberg has been a member of the University of Oregon music faculty since 2001. She teaches the undergraduate and graduate music history surveys of the medieval and Renaissance periods, as well as specialty courses in the history of music theory and early music notations. She has published articles in several international journals, conference proceedings, and lexicons.

Kruckenberg received her B.A. from Bethany College in 1985, and her M.A. in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Iowa. In 2008-09 Dr. Kruckenberg was a senior Fulbright scholar at the Bruno-Stäblein-Archiv at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg, Germany. Other recent awards include an Oregon Humanities Grant and the Oregon Community Credit Union Research Fellowship.

More information on Kruckenberg is available at http://music.uoregon.edu/people. More information on the Noah Greenberg Award is available at http://www.ams-net.org/awards/greenberg.php.

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About the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO School of Music and Dance presents approximately 300 concerts and events during the academic year featuring scholars, guest artists, faculty artists, and student ensembles. The incredible wealth of concert material ranges from contemporary dance to African dance, early and classical music to contemporary music, world music, and jazz. http://music.uoregon.edu

Media contact for reporters:  Aaron Ragan-Fore, 541-346-1163, aprf@uoregon.edu

Public number for general inquiries: 541-346-5678

Sept. 24, 2012: Dance alumna appears in new UO TV ad

Michelle Friend, '12, has now appeared in two commercials for the UO. The 2010 commercial "Be Bold" and now the 2012 commerical, "You Will" (left), which premiered during the first Duck Football game on Sept.1. For more on the students who appeared in "You Will", watch the behind the scenes video here.

Sept. 19, 2012: UO Horn Student Performs in Chicago Festivals

UO Horn student Margarite Waddell performed at Ravinia with the Fresh Inc Festival this past summer. Waddell is a third year performance major, studying under Lydia Van Dreel. Her orchestral experience includes University of Oregon ensembles, Redlands Symphony Orchestra, and Brevard Music Festival ensembles. Waddell also coaches horn students at several middle and high schools in the Eugene area. 
Fresh Inc is a chamber music festival where aspiring composers and instrumentalists spend two weeks creating performance experiences, covering repertoire both canonic and new. Participantsthen perform with Fifth House Ensemble members at venues in Kenosha, Milwaukee and Chicago.
The Ravinia Festival is a large, multi-venue performance park located in Chicago that dates back to 1904.

UPDATE: Sept. 13, 2012: Anne Dhu McLucas, 1941-2012

The  School of Music and Dance is deeply saddened and shocked by the recent, tragic loss of former Dean and Professor of  Music Emerita Anne Dhu McLucas. 
As previously announced in late August, plans are moving forward to present a two-part symposium on the "Oral Traditions Old and New in Music" this fall. The events will honor, remember and celebrate the work and life of McLucas with presentations scheduled for Sept. 29, Oct. 19 and Oct. 20. Musicians and schlars from across the U.S. and abroad will come together to present their work in Anne's memory. The theme of the symposium was chosen to honor Anne's 2010 monograph, the "Musical Ear: Oral Tradition in the USA."
A memorial service has been added to the schedule of events for Saturday, Oct. 20, at 4 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall at the MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building on campus. The service is open to the public.
McLucas was a professor of music, specializing in ethnomusicology and musicology. She also served as dean of the UO School of Music and Dance from 1992–2002.
While her performance career led in the direction of Baroque and Classic period chamber music, her musicological studies began to focus on the traditional folk music of Britain, Ireland, and America. After completing a master’s thesis on Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, she wrote her doctoral thesis on “The Concept of the Tune Family in British American Folk Song,” a topic she has returned to in an article for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and other publications.
She was finishing her teaching appointment at the University of Oregon, where she taught seminars in oral tradition, American folk music, music and gender, as well as single-topic seminars on such topics as "The Magic Flute" and Stravinsky's "Les Noces".
The official university press release can be found here in its entireity. 
More information regarding the circumstances of her passing can be found here on the Register Guard's website.

May 7, 2012: Exine Bailey, 1922-2012

It is with sadness that we report the passing of Exine Bailey, professor emerita of voice and voice pedagogy (1951-1986). Born in January 1922, she passed last Thursday at her home in Eugene. In addition to her teaching and performing, Bailey was elected to the UO Senate in the 1960s and also served on the university advisory council. She gave generously to the school with scholarships. The Exine and Arthur Bailey Lounge in the Frohnmayer Music Building was named in her honor and her husband's memory in 2009. A memorial will be held in Beall Hall on July 16. May 7, 2012: Exine Bailey, 1922-2012

April 19, 2012: Cheung on UO Today

Pius Cheung, chair of the percussion area, was a recent guest on UO Today. The program is a production of the Oregon Humanities Center. Cheung speaks about his performance career on marimba, and about his recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variatons.

April 12, 2012: Viola Player Signing

Christina Tatman, a viola player at West Salem High School, celebrated her decision to become a part of the SOMD's string program in a unique way: she did a public signing, football-style! UO Professor of Viola Leslie Straka was on hand to welcome her new student. The full news story is on the Statesman-Journal's website.  

April 3, 2012: Diaz at Biennial Music Educators Conference

Music education faculty member Frank M. Diaz was invited to present research and preside over a session at the 2012 Biennial Music Educators National Conference in St. Louis,  one of the world’s largest arts education associations. 
Dr. Diaz presented findings from a recent study on the effects of attention on emotional responses during music listening, and along with co-author Jennifer Mendoza, presented findings from an ongoing study that uses cutting edge technology to examine differences between physiological and psychological responses to vocal and instrumental music. Mendoza is a doctoral student in psychology and studies horn at the UO School of Music and Dance.

April 2, 2012: Jazz Appreciation Month

This April, the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance marks the 11th annual Jazz Appreciation Month with a roster of concerts celebrating jazz as a living and vibrant American art form. Highlights include solo piano music by Toby Koenigsberg on April 6 in Eugene, and duo piano music by Dean Kramer and Claire Wachter on April 19 in Bend. Some UO Jazz Appreciation Month concerts are free of charge. Tickets for paid events are available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office, 541-346-4363.

March 30, 2012: Van Dreel Trading Card

Our friends at Oregon Voice magazine published this very cool trading card of Assistant Professor of Horn Lydia Van Dreel! The approach may have been a bit tongue in cheek, but Professor Van Dreel is every bit as famous as any sports star, to our ears. 

February 22, 2012: Tuba Success!

Students in the UO’s Tuba Studio continue to enjoy great success. Based on their audition recordings, Joe Ready and Justin Stowe were advanced to the semi-final rounds of the Air Force Heritage Band audition and the semi-final round of the U.S. Air Force Band, respectively.
Charles Nickles was the first U.S. Army musician to receive three C1 awards in one training cycle at the Advanced Individual Training school in summer 2011. He was also very recently honored with the Finley R. Hamilton Outstanding Military Musician Award. Charles was one of only 39 musicians given this prestigious citation out of the entire U.S. armed forces.
Sean Turner performed a successful "sub list" audition for the Rogue Valley Symphony, and will be called upon to step in for their regular principal tubist.

February 6, 2012: Super Bowl Advertisement

The SOMD is well represented in Chrysler's uplifting Super Bowl ad, which features Clint Eastwood. The background music was performed by UO Professor of Horn Lydia Van Dreel, and was produced and engineered by SOMD alumnus Collin Hegna. Hegna, a classical bass player and guitarist, is founder of the Portland-based Revolver Studios.

February 3, 2012: Diaz on UO Today

UO Today #502: Frank Diaz
Music education faculty member Frank Diaz appeared on the UO's talk show UO Today, a production of the Oregon Humanities Center. Diaz speaks about the emotional resonance of music, our transcendent moments of cognition, and what the implications are for performers.

January 31, 2012: Vacchi at Double Reed Day

In January, Professor of Bassoon Steve Vacchi was a featured guest artist at the University of New Hampshire's annual Double Reed Day. In its 19th year, the UNH event attracts an average of 100 double reed players from the region. In addition to a recital and master class with 60 bassoonists at UNH, Vacchi also presented a guest recital and master class at Dartmouth College (NH) and the Northampton Community Music School (MA). More than 80 bassoonists at all levels participated in the three classes Vacchi presented during the week. Among other pieces, Vacchi performed two works by recent graduates of UO's Future Music Oregon program: Celestial Dialogues (2007) by Brett Wartchow, and Jiu Ge ("Nine Songs", 2011) by Mei-Ling Lee.

January 29, 2012: Dossin at Santa Catarina International Music Festival

This month, Professor of Piano Alexandre Dossin was hosted by the Santa Catarina International Music Festival (FEMUSC) in Brazil. Dossin performed four times: a solo recital, two chamber performances and a concerto with orchestra (Beethoven no. 1). The audience for Dossin’s performance with the orchestra was so enthusiastic that he gave four encores, and Dossin was immediately reengaged for 2013. He also gave an amazing nine 3-hour master classes for pianists from Brazil and South America. 

January 22, 2012: Baird at Australian Organ Festival

Barbara Baird, UO instructor of organ and harpsichord, has just returned from her fourth engagement playing at the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields organ festival in Victoria, Australia. Led by Music Director Sergio de Pieri and now in its 17th year, the ten-day festival had over 23 recitals in Ballarat and the region, featuring heritage church organs and musicians from Europe, Australia, and the United States.
The temperatures for Baird’s first concert, which she performed on a century-old organ, were the coldest on record for January in Ballarat, and Baird played her first concert wearing a fleece jacket! Baird’s second concert, performed on a manual English style mechanical action organ built in the 1860's by an unknown builder, proved so popular that she and her fellow musicians performed the program twice to accommodate all comers.

January 17, 2012: Concerto-Aria Competition Winners

Congratulations to the 2012 UO Concerto-Aria Competition winners! These students will perform in Beall Concert Hall on April 29 with the UO Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Vincent Centeno.
Julianna Han - Ibert Flute Concerto
Matt Keown - Keiko Abe Prism Rhapsody
Christopher Scherer - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
Michael Seregow - Brahms Piano Concerto No.2

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