College of Musical Arts

News from the CMA

Archived News includes Faculty Accomplishments, Current Student News, Alumni News and issues of a tempo, our college’s semi-annual newsletter.

Wolf center to be space where arts can meet, flourish (full story)

The arts have the power to take the breath away—to stop people in their tracks and cause them to rethink their assumptions.

The new Wolfe Center for the Arts will provide a space on campus where the arts can flourish and robust collaborations between them can take root. Like Hemingway’s “clean, well-lighted space,” the building itself will offer an environment conducive to creativity and synergistic partnerships.

In addition to being a place for students and faculty to learn and work on theatrical, dance, musical, film and digital arts productions, the center will offer the community an exceptional venue in which to see a wide range of performances.

Designed by the international architectural firm Snøhetta, based in Oslo, Norway, the Wolfe Center will feature an abundance of natural light and open, welcoming public areas and functional work areas. A number of green initiatives have been included in the building design to reduce energy costs and make use of environmentally friendly paints and finishes.

Rebuilding education in the “Big Easy” (full story)

There’s more to the reconstruction of New Orleans than pounding nails.

As important as rebuilding homes in the still devastated city is, 13 from Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan traveled to New Orleans with another goal—to help rebuild the educational system. The venture was the first project of the newly formed chapter of Arts Enterprise on campus.

The Arts Enterprise links those studying to go into business with those studying to be musicians, dancers and artists, and both those sides of that equation came into play during the New Orleans trip.

The team, undergraduate and graduate students and BGSU bassoon teacher Dr. Nathaniel Zeisler, worked with New Orleans Outreach, a project that provides enrichment programs to the charter schools that replaced the public school system in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Arts Enterprise’s task was to study those programs and report on what works and what can be improved.

Beluska honored with Ellis Island medal for bridging continents, lives (full story)

Vasile Beluska’s first impressions of America were straight out of a John Wayne movie: Levis, cowboy boots, cowboy hats. And that was before he even got off the plane. Then it was big cars with fins on the back and cattle with long horns—a typical day in Amarillo, Texas, his first home in the United States.

For the violinist and political refugee from Romania, life in the U.S. was a whole new world.

Now Beluska, music performance studies, is being honored for helping other musicians from Eastern Europe come to the U.S. and develop their own careers. Both in the U.S. and Europe, countless students and others have benefited from his generosity, service and talents.

With his family at his side, Beluska received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor on May 10, on that small outcropping in New York Harbor that symbolizes the journey and the arrival of so many seeking freedom and a chance to make something of their lives.

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 | Contact the CMA | Disclaimer