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.

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.

Alumni return for 50th band music clinic (full story)

A dozen BGSU music alumni will return to campus Jan. 24–26 to join high school musicians and band directors at the College of Musical Arts’ 50th annual Band Music Reading and Directors Clinic.

The event at the Moore Musical Arts Center will include performances by BGSU’s Wind Symphony and Concert Band and conclude with a concert by the clinic’s two high school honor bands. All three performances are open to the public in Kobacker Hall.

“The clinic has a long and illustrious history, attracting hundreds of students and public school teachers to campus each January,” noted Dr. Bruce Moss, director of band activities at BGSU. “This year, to honor the 50th anniversary, we have invited four distinguished BGSU graduates (all now college band directors) back to campus to conduct our high school honor bands.”

Directing the honor bands in the 4 p.m. concert on Jan. 26 will be Dr. Vincent Polce, a 1966 graduate now at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne; Dr. James Saker, a University of Nebraska-Omaha faculty member who received his bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green in 1967; Dr. Donald Ryder, a 1985 graduate now at the University of Tennessee, and Dr. Frederick Speck of the University of Louisville, who earned his bachelor’s degree in 1978 and added a master’s degree in music from BGSU in 1982.

Music competition winners announced (full story)

Student winners of the 41st annual Competitions in Music Performance have been announced.

Octavio Más-Arocas, a doctoral student from Spain, won the composition division. His piece, A Santa Compaña: Holy Company, The Procession of the Dead, will be performed at the University’s New Music & Art Festival next fall. Más-Arocas composed the work while studying with Marilyn Shrude, Distinguished Artist Professor.

Undergraduate winners in the competition were trombonist Li Kuang, a freshman, and pianist Simeng Wu, a sophomore, both from China. Kuang studies with William Mathis, an associate professor of trombone, and Wu studies with Laura Melton, an associate professor of piano.

Graduate student winners include pianist Artem Anuchin, from Russia, and marimbist Yu-Tzu Huang, a doctoral student from Taiwan. Anuchin’s teacher is Winston Choi, an instructor of piano, and Huang studies with Roger Schupp, an associate professor of percussion.

The Virginia Marks Collaborative Pianist Award went to Nikita Abrosimov, from Russia, who collaborated with Kuang. Abrosimov studies with Virginia Marks, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus.

Professor wins Governor's Award for the Arts (full story)

Dr. Burton Beerman, an award-winning composer and professor in the college, has been chosen to receive a 2008 Governor’s Award for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council has announced.

He and the other winners of this year’s awards will be honored at a luncheon in Columbus on April 16, 2008, hosted by the council and Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation.

Beerman, who founded the University’s New Music & Arts Festival and formerly directed the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, is one of two individuals chosen for recognition in the individual artist category. Singer/songwriter Steve Free of McDermott also will be honored.

Policy, price changes go into effect Jan. 1 at the music center

The Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts is changing concert ticket prices and box office policies effective Jan. 1, 2008.

After New Year’s Day, tickets purchased on the day of College of Musical Arts performances at the Moore Musical Arts Center will cost $3 more than tickets purchased further in advance. General admission tickets to college-sponsored performances in Kobacker Hall will be $7 for students and senior citizens and $10 for other adults in advance, and $10 and $13, respectively, on the day of the performance. Advance tickets for opera productions will cost $9 for students and senior citizens and $12 for other adults. The price of tickets purchased on the day of performances will be $12 and $15, respectively. Single tickets for Festival Series concerts also will increase by $3 on the day of performances.

In addition, credit and debit cards will only be accepted for ticket purchases more than one hour prior to music events. Payment by cash, check or the BG1 Card will be the only tender accepted in the final hour before curtain time.

Officials said the changes are being made to offset the higher cost of music and supporting materials, as well as to encourage patrons to buy tickets further in advance so concerts can begin promptly as scheduled.

Falcon Marching Band appars in Indianapolis (full story)

The Bowling Green State University Falcon Marching Band has been invited to make a guest appearance at the Bands of America Regional Championship, Nov. 3–4, at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Ind.

Under the direction of Carol Hayward, this will be the Falcon Marching Band’s first appearance at a Bands of America regional event. “One college band is selected to perform in exhibition at each regional championship,” according to Hayward, an assistant professor of music education.

Thirty-five high school bands from nine states—Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia—also are scheduled to compete at the regional event.

Cavalli’s La virtù is a delight at BGSU (full story in the Toledo Blade)

Caprice, the god of surprise and delight, was in the house when the Bowling Green State University Opera Theater and the Eastman School of Music Collegium Musicum launched their second collaborative production: The Power of Love’s Arrows, Thursday night in Kobacker Hall.

A revival of Francesco Cavalli’s 1642 opera La Virtu de’ strali d’Amore, the lavish and spirited production was not only the North American premiere of the piece but also a triumph of intra- and intercollegiate cooperation, diligent scholarship, exceptional musicianship, and savvy performance practice.

BGSU stages opera for the ages (full story in the Sentinel-Tribune)

The production of the 1642 opera La virtu de’ strali d’Amore now on stage at the university exudes class. No detail has been neglected. No sense neglected.

The Viennese [sic] showpiece, getting a rare staging, appeals to the ear with strong singing backed by an authenic instrumental consort, and appeals to the eye with a set that shimmers. Scenery painted on cloth that evokes both a past time in theater and the mythical realm within which the complex love story unfolds.

Ohio’s first lady presides at “Kindergarten Congress” (full story)

When Adam Landry, a BGSU senior majoring in music education, agreed to narrate a performance by roughly 180 kindergarteners for an audience including Ohio First Lady Frances Strickland, “I thought it would be a good teaching experience,” he said.

It was certainly a memorable one for the Sylvania resident, who, hobbled by a sprained ankle, found himself hopping on one leg during a folk dance presented by the children for Strickland and other dignitaries during a “Kindergarten Congress” Oct. 25 at Bowling Green’s Kenwood Elementary School.

A celebration of music, literacy and partnerships in teacher education, the event was organized by Dr. Joyce Eastlund Gromko, music education. Gromko corresponded with the first lady’s office early this year about her Kindergarten Project and talked to Strickland in Columbus in May, paving the way for her visit.

Cavalli opera reprised for Ohio, N.Y. audiences (full story)
(full story in the Monitor)

Bowling Green State University and the Eastman School of Music’s Collegium Musicum are presenting what may be the first full staging in North America of Francesco Cavalli’s La virtù de’ strali d’Amore.

The opera will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, and Saturday, Nov. 3, in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center on the Bowling Green campus. The opera will then travel to Rochester, N.Y. for a performance on Friday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall at Eastman.

The production is an artistic collaboration engaging the talents of faculty and students from Bowling Green’s College of Musical Arts and Department of Theatre and Film, together with faculty and students from the Eastman’s Collegium Musicum. This is the second time the two universities have collaborated on a Cavalli project; the first was the 2005 North American premiere of Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne.

Jazzman Terence Blanchard in residence at BGSU (full story)

The 2007 Hansen Musical Arts Series at the University’s College of Musical Arts will feature a residency by famed trumpeter, composer and band leader Terence Blanchard Sept. 5–7.

A Blue Note recording artist, Blanchard is one of the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for motion pictures. Born and raised in New Orleans, where he studied with the Marsalis brothers at the famed New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, he won a scholarship to Rutgers University and immediately began performing in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra.

Music Discovery Day for high school students (full story)

More than 250 high school students are expected to take part in the annual Music Discovery Day on Monday, Oct. 15, at the University’s College of Musical Arts.

The daylong event, which starts at 9 a.m., introduces prospective students to the University’s musical arts program.

Participants will tour the Moore Musical Arts Center; visit Batchelder Residence Hall and the Arts Village, popular housing options for music students; see typical college classes; learn about careers in music; meet music faculty and attend clinics on audition preparation and on music theory.

Last Updated: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | Contact the CMA | Disclaimer