2015-2016 Student Achievements

Students in the College of Musical Arts had many notable accomplishments in the 2015-2016 academic year. Here are some of the many achievements. Congratulations!

• Students of trumpet professor Charles Saenz made an extraordinary showing at the International Trumpet Guild Competition. In 2015, Marcus Flores won First Place in the solo competition, Tom Darlington took Third Place in the orchestral excerpts competition, and Enrico Solito was the scholarship competition winner in the collegiate division. So far this year, Jon Britt is a finalist in the solo competition (final round May 2016 in Anaheim, CA), Jon Britt was an alternate in the orchestral excerpts competition, and Enrico Solito was again the scholarship competition winner of the collegiate division.
• Graduate student Daniel Milan, piano, took First Place in the Akron Scholarship Competition, receiving a $1,500 award. Daniel will be performing in a winners concert this May.
  
• Music Education graduate student Helen West was awarded the Winifred Collins Scholarship in the Tuesday Musical Association Scholarship Competition. Helen has also had a solo paper accepted for presentation at the 32nd World Conference of the International Society for Music Education in Glasgow, Scotland this summer.
• Brianna Moore, Library Assistant for the University Bands, has been nominated for the “Outstanding Student Employee Working for BGSU” award. Brianna has served in this capacity since January of 2014 and will be graduating this May. If Brianna is selected as the winner in this category, she will receive a $500 award.
• Seniors Lydia Dempsey and Sophia Schmitz produced an original children's ballet for their senior honors project. The ballet, titled The Wishing Well, was composed by Lydia, choreographed by Sophia and featured musicians from the College of Musical Arts. Sophia was also a "Hatchling" this year, pitching an idea for a "Play to Play" music board game to investors as part of the Dallas-Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.
• Piano students Xiaohui Ma and Qincheng Zeng have been selected to perform in master classes at the 2016 Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, MI. Both students have received Gilmore Fellowships — $500 awards to cover their expenses related to participating. Qincheng will play for Kirill Gerstein and Xiaohui will play for Ingrid Fliter.
• Several viola students of Associate Professor Matthew McBride-Daline have had success in the last year. DMA Candidate 2017, Kalindi Bellach, auditioned and is on the substitute viola list for the Toledo Symphony. Kalindi is also Principal Viola of the Lima Symphony. 2016 BM, Caleb Georges, received an ‘honorable mention’ at the 2016 Ohio Viola Society Competition held at Kent State. 2016 BM, Adam Solsburg, will perform in the American Viola Society conference held at Oberlin this June to represent the Ohio Viola Society as the 1st Prize winner of the 2014 Ohio Viola Society Competition, Oberlin, Ohio. 2015 Certificate graduate, Yi Wang, won the third prize in the 2015 Hong Kong International Viola Competition.
• This past fall, MM music theory graduate, Rebecca Kaz, won BGSU's university-wide Distinguished Thesis award.