March 2022 College News

1 Ames Asbell and the the viola section of the Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra 2 Michael Ippolito, Assistant Professor of Composition 3 Dr. Lynn Ledbetter working via Zoom with Southwest High School string students. 12 | March | College News MUSIC Music, Music Studies, Per formance, & Sound Recording Technolog y FACULTY ACCOLADES In February, Ames Asbell was featured as a violist in the Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra - an all-star assemblage of musicians from the country's fnest orchestras, performing fve full orchestral concerts in Scottsdale, AZ. [1] Asbell, who is regularly Principal Violist of the Austin Opera and a member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, performed in the viola section alongside members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Bufalo Philharmonic. Te ensemble is led by Music Director Robert Moody of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Over the winter break, Jonathan Babcock traveled to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London and Queen's College, Cambridge as guest clinician for their Chapel Choirs. He also attended an international meeting of the Rodolfus Foundation Board of which Babcock is a trustee. In January, Matthew Holzner served as guest conductor and clinician of the ATSSB Region 7 High School Honor Band. Te two-day festival was held on the campus of Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX. Te Honor Band included the 74 highest ranking students selected by audition for the Region 7 All- Region Band. In February, baritone Will Liverman and pianist Myra Huang gave the world premiere of Te Long Year , a new song cycle by Michael Ippolito , [2] commissioned by Vocal Arts DC. Te concert was at the Kennedy Center Terrace Teater and included music by Lowe, Strauss, Ravel, Rachmaninof, and Sneed. A review of the concert can be found here . Edo de Waart will lead the Pacifc Symphony in performances of Michael Ippolito's "Nocturne" on March 10, 11, and 12. Find out more concert details here. Dimitar Ninov won First Prize for composition in the Dance category for wind orchestra, at the International Festival of Wind Orchestras “Diko Iliev,” city of Montana, Bulgaria (2021). Te title is “Orhaniysky Buchemish,” a dance in 15/8 time. Eleven composers participated in the competition, with the winners being awarded a cash prize, a statuette, and a certifcate. Both Ninov and Dimitar Slabakov, winner of the March category, will present performances of their works at the grand opening of the International Festival in 2022. A jury chaired by George Bonev – composer, pedagogue, chairman of the Control Board of the Union of Bulgarian Composers – evaluated the works of the composers. Other jurors included Stanislav Pochekanski – President of the Union of Bulgarian Music and Dance, member of the International Trombone Association and the Historical Brass Society in New York – and Stefan Iliev – composer, member of the Board of the Union of Bulgarian Composers. Nico Schüler taught an international workshop on "Computational Analysis of Recorded Music in Europe." He was an invited guest lecturer for the international DHLunch@GS [Digital Humanities Lecture Series] on “Analyzing Expressiveness in Music Performances of Bach and Blues” and presented papers at six international conferences: “Networks of Black Artists in Minstrel and Jubilee Ensembles in the US in the Late 19th Century” at the International Virtual Conference Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music Cultures; “Improving the Accuracy of Note Onset Detection” at the International (Virtual) Conference on Zeitgestaltung; “Rubato as Normativity: A Case Study on Performances of a Bach Invention” at the International Conference by the German Society for Music Research; “Rubato Performed and Perceived: An Analytical Case Study” at the European Music Analysis Conference in Moscow / Russia; “Microtonality in Central and Eastern Europe” at the International Music Conference in Banja Luka / Serbia; and “Te Degree of Rubato in Performances of Bach’s Invention #FACULTYSPOTLIGHT Dr. Lynn F. Ledbetter , Professor of Violin, conducted a master class for 40 string students from Southwest High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin on December 17, 2021. Topics discussed included Zoom-related teaching, string careers, and orchestral repertoire. [3] Te class will be repeated this semester. College of Fine Arts and Communication | 13