UO Faculty and a Grammy-Award winning flutist, Molly Barth, performs "Mollitude" from the Beta Collide album 'Psst!Psst!.'

The flute piece was composed in 2006 by Frederic Rzewski. Filmed and produced by Bluedot Productions at the Oregon Coast Heceta Head light and innkeepers house, Spring 2011. A special thanks to the Oregon Council for the Arts, University of Oregon School of Music & Dance and State of Oregon Parks Department.

(Molly Alicia Barth has received a Career Opportunity Grant award from the Oregon Arts Commission.)

Dr. Steve Larson, professor of music at the University of Oregon, lost his battle with brain cancer on June 7. He was surrounded by family and friends at his home and supported via thoughts and messages by the greater community of friends, current and former students, and colleagues.

Larson held the endowed Robert M. Trotter Chair at the School of Music and Dance, where he taught undergraduate courses in basic musicianship and graduate seminars on a variety of topics. He led THEME, a group of faculty and graduate students interested in music research, and was also a member of the UO Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences. 

Larson earned two degrees from the University of Oregon: a B.A. in music from the Honors College, and an M.A. in music theory. He also had a Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Michigan, where his dissertation, “Schenkerian Analysis of Modern Jazz,” was supported by a Rackham Fellowship and was nominated for an Outstanding Dissertation Award. He also taught at the University of Washington (1994–96) and Temple University (1987–92).

Larson’s publications, presentations, performances, and recordings reflected his interests in music theory, performance and analysis, cognitive science, and jazz. His articles appeared in leading journals of music theory and in other journals, and he contributed material to a number of books, including The New Grove Dictionary of American Music and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.

A sought-after speaker, Larson made dozens of presentations to universities throughout the United States and to scholarly conferences in Europe and North America. His recordings include a jazz compact disc titled “Portfolio,”to which he contributed compositions, arrangements, and piano improvisations. As a countertenor, he performed with various early-music ensembles, including Ars Musica. As a jazz pianist, Larson performed as a soloist and as a member of a number of groups, including the Jazz Piano Collective and The Steve Larson Trio.

Grad student accepts position at Indiana University
Musicology student Alison Altstatt, who will receive her Ph.D. in June 2011, has accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She will be joining a very distinguished musicology faculty there.

Kruckenberg presents paper at conference
Associate Professor of Musicology Lori Kruckenberg presented a paper, “Singing as Reading, Song as Text: The Narrative Role of Musical Detail in the Casus sancti galli”at a conference titled Voice, Gesture, Memory and Performance in Medieval Culture at the University of South in Sewanee, Tennessee last month.

Current student finalist for Seattle competition
Esther Fredrickson, (M.M. Flute Performance) has been named a finalist for the Ladies’ Musical Club Competition in Seattle. She will compete with 14 other musicians on June 4. Winners will be awarded $3,000 and a concert tour.  Congratulations, Esther!

Barth featured guest at Northwestern University
A concert featuring Grammy Award-winning UO Assistant Professor of Flute Molly Barth will take place Thursday, June 2, at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. The program will include Bartok’s Rumanian Folk Dances for string orchestra, Gordon Chin’s The Lonely Rage and Josef Suk’s Serenade in E-flat Major. Elliott Carter’s Asko Concerto, Jonathan Newman’s Concertino for Flute and Winds, and Michael Torke’s Overnight Mail also will be performed.

Composition Professor featured on NPR
National Public Radio correspondent John Burnett has been following Conspirare’s recent collaboration with Professor Robert Kyr, which culminated in January with several Kyr premieres during the “Renaissance and Response” festival. On Sunday, May 22, Burnett’s series concluded with the story “Choral Marathon: Robert Kyr and His Singers Cross the Finish Line.”

Department of Dance performs Laundromatinee
Site-specific dance pioneer Heidi Duckler recently directed and choreographed UO Dance students to perform a section of her critically-acclaimed performance piece, Laundromatinee. Duckler is a 1976 alumna of the UO Department of Dance. Laundromatinee recently received the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpiece Award. This piece celebrates the local coin-op (Emerald Laundromat) as a community gathering place, a once-common neighborhood fixture that in recent years has been falling prey to urban gentrification. Click here to see more photos of “Laundromatinee” from the Oregon Daily Emerald.

McLucas visits Ohio State University
Professor Anne Dhu McLucas appeared on the panel Music, Mind, and Body at the symposium Crossing Boundariesin Honor of Magarita Mazo at Ohio State University.  McLucas’ paper was called “The Musical Ear: Memory, the Brain, and Oral Tradition in Music.”

Creative Musician Workstations installed in Knight Library
The Music Services Department of UO Libraries is pleased to announce the installation of three Creative Musicians Workstations, located in the Douglass Listening Room in Knight Library. These workstations provide students with the tools they need to create, edit and publish their original musical compositions, and with Finale and Sibelius, and with a large-format printer, students can produce professional quality written scores. Students may perform digital audio tasks and create multimedia projects using the programs Max, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Peak, and plug-ins such as Ozone (for mastering) and Native Instruments' Komplete (a suite of seven distinctive samplers and synthesizers, including Reaktor) which give the user an impressive sound library. Each station features an iMac computer with a 27" monitor, and an M-audio Oxygen 49 keyboard controller, set on custom-designed desks that provide each user with a generous work area.  

The Creative Musicians Stations were funded through the generosity of UO alumni and friends.

Associate Professor of Musicology visits Europe
In April and May 2011 Dr. Marc Vanscheeuwijck taught masterclasses in baroque cello and chamber music, combined with lectures and workshops on various aspects of historical performance practice as a visiting resident scholar/performer at the:
- Muzicka Akademija in Zagreb upon invitation of the Croatian Musicological Society, Croatia (3/28-4/1)
- Universidade de Évora and the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, Portugal (4/12-4/15)
- Royal Conservatory of Brussels , Belgium (4/26-4/29)
- Janácek Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno, Czech Republic (5/3-5/6)
- Tynska Skola in Prague, Czech Republic (5/8-5/9)
- Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, France (5/12-5/13)

He has performed 3 times as first cellist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Dresdner Vokalkonzert in Dresden, Germany (4/8-4/11)
He will be reading a paper on "The Neapolitan Conservatori and their Impact on Music Education in the “Western” World" at International Conference “Naples Crucible of the World: a ‘Foreign’ Perspective” in Naples in early June.

Composition faculty work to be recorded
University of Houston Percussion Ensemble will record Dr. David Crumb's piece, Kinetikus, this month for release on the Albany Records label.

Annual Celebration to honor one of India's greatest musicians
The Ali Akbar Khan Birthday Celebration honors one of India's greatest musicians who passed away in 2009.  The second annual celebration took place May 15 at the Unitarian Church.  The performance featured sarode player David Trasoff, a senior disciple of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan.  David tours internationally and holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology.  He has performed and recorded with some of India's greatest musicians and is an acknowledged authority in his field.  He was accompanied on the tabla by Doug Scheuerell, tabla instructor at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. Kusum Kanwar assisted on the tanpura.

Chamber Music on Campus Tuesday, May 17
Student chamber ensembles will give a free "Chamber Music on Campus" concert at 7pm in the Living-Learning Center.  Selections include "Partita" for wind quintet by Irving Fine; Mozart's "Fantasy" arranged for wind quintet; "Andy Warhol Sez" for bassoon and piano by Paul Moravec; and Bach's "Sonata in E" for flute and continuo. We hope to see you there!

Oregon Ballroom Dance Club presents Spring Formal 
On Sunday, May 22nd the Oregon Ballroom Dance Club will host an exciting spring formal dance at the Vet's Club from 7pm-11pm.  This masquerade ball will include a lesson, food, performances, and contests.  For more information, please visit: ballroom.uoregon.edu.

First annual UO Undergraduate Symposium 
Marissa Oschner gave a wonderful presentation on Milton Babbitt's relationship to popular music at the first annual UO Undergraduate Symposium Thursday, May 12. Her talk was entitled, "All The Things It Was: Milton Babbitt and American Popular Culture," and it drew from her Clark Honors College thesis.  Marissa will present her research again at her official thesis defense Thursday, May 19 in 103 Collier House beginning at 4:30pm.

UO Graduate Flute Student publishes an article in the renowned Flute Talk Magazine
Celine Thackston, DMA student in flute performance, writes about her journey into improvisation. She also shares some tips on teaching improvisation and effective group exercises.  Celine writes "improvisation is a tool that helps musicians find greater nuance in our playing."  Congratulations, Celine!

Master's student selected as an alternate finalist for the Ladies Musical Club competition
Esther Fredrickson (MM Performance), was recently selected as an alternate finalist for the Seattle competition. The Ladies Musical Club of Seattle, founded in 1891, is the city's original arts organization.

Alumnus qualifies as an Alexander Technique teacher
UO School of Music and Dance graduate Paige McKinney (BA Dance, 1999) recently completed a three-year, 1600-hour training program to qualify as an Alexander Technique teacher.  Ms. McKinney was introduced to the Alexander Technique through her work in dance and theatre in Portland, Oregon.  The Alexander Technique teaches how to overcome harmful neuromuscular habits and is taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Juilliard, and other arts institutions.  Benefits for musicians and other performers include preventing repetitive stress injury, overcoming anxiety and surmounting performance plateaus.

Opera is Blooming in Portland
The UO Opera Program, under the direction of Nicholas Isherwood, recently took its production of madrigal comedies on the road for a special performance in Portland.Click Here for a wonderful review by Brett Campbell. Campbell writes, "The quality and verve Isherwood elicited from student performers was astonishing..."

Visiting guest Andreas Hölz master class on Friday, May 6  
Principal Oboe of the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg will be giving a master class this Friday, May 6 at 12 pm in Room 211. Mr. Hölz was born in Hermeskeil, Germany. He studied with Professor E. Bolz at the Conservatories of Saarbrücken, Professor Christian Schneider in Cologne and completed his studies with renowned oboist, Heinz Holliger in Freiburg. Since1984 he has serve as principal oboist of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as he has been called upon to serve as principal oboe of the Zürich Opera House, Stuttgart Opera and the National Theater in Mannheim and other diverse orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout Germany. Andreas and his wife Hyun Sook Noh are the parents of Max Hölz, who has been a wonderfully, inspiring addition to the University of Oregon Oboe studio this past year.

Grad student wins an orchestral position
UO graduate student Jared Carlson recently won a position with the Spokane Symphony. He will be starting in the 2011–12 season as a section cellist.
The Spokane Symphony continues a long tradition as the largest and most active  professional performing arts organization in the Inland Pacific Northwest. The 70-piece professional orchestra performs for more than 150,000 listeners each season and provides a wide variety of exceptional educational experiences. The orchestra is led by Eckart Preu and assisted by Resident Conductor Morihiko Nakahara. Congratulations Jared!!

Robert Kyr to premiere work in New Mexico
Santa Fe Desert Chorale will premiere a new work by UO composition professor Robert Kyr this summer. Dr. Kyr is the Composer in Residence for the SFDC and his new composition, Tides of Peace, is based on Walt Whitman's poem. Santa Fe Desert Chorale is one of the premier professional chamber choirs in the United States. The Desert Chorale mainly performs a cappella (without accompaniment) and is renowned for its rich sound, seamless blend, and wide-ranging programming. It has performed more than 2,000 compositions by some 500 composers, spanning nine centuries of music.

Classical music critic interviews UO trumpet professor
Tom Manoff, classical music critic for the New York Times and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, interviews Brian McWhorter on his blog, tommanoff.com. “I’m primarily concerned with finding my own voice in a given piece. That often leads to a physical way of performing and an overt emotional way of being” – Brian McWhorter
Click here for the full interview.

Dance faculty award winner in the annual IADMS competition
UO Dance faculty, Steven Chatfield, was the winner of the "Contribution to Dance Medicine and Science" award in the Annual IADMS Poster Competition for his research into neuro-cognitive dance skills. A poster presentation of original data was held at the 20th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science in Birmingham, England.

UO Chamber Choir awarded top honors
The University of Oregon Chamber Choir, under the direction of Dr. Sharon Paul, has returned from an International Competition in Tallinn, Estonia. We are proud to announce the UO Choir placed first in two categories: Chamber Choirs, and Renaissance and Baroque music. Click here to see the official results.

Participating members included:
Aric Avina, Laura Beaudry, Aaron Cain, Richard Carrick, Tom Dasso, Ryan Dixon, Victoria Helppie, Joshua Heying, Jared Homsley, Mimi Kater, Josh Koller, Kate Longo, Webb Parker, Katie Reuter, Katelyn Schreiner, Greg Sojka, Brooklyn Snow, Molly Steele, Kate Taylor, Katrina Turman, Julie Urban, Scott Wagnon, Jason Williams and Quinlyn Wright.  Congratulations!

UO Music Alumnus wins the 2011 Chicago Brass Festival Solo Competition
Louis Olenick (BM 2007, Trombone) claimed first place and a $1000 cash prize at the recent Chicago Brass Festival Solo Competition.

UO flute professor Molly Barth featured in film documentary
Sound installation artist Stephen Vitiello produced a 27-minute documentary about his work as a sound artist, focusing on his travels in the Australian Outback. Molly Barth and the contemporary group eighth blackbird are prominently featured throughout the film. Click here to watch the documentary.

UO faculty selected to judge OSAA State Solo Competition
We are proud to announce the following faculty members will judge the Oregon statewide solo competition on April 30: Steve Vacchi, Brian McWhorter, Henry Henniger, Michael Grose, and Sean Wagoner.

Alumnus makes his debut with the New York City Opera
Andrew Sauvageau (BM 2006, voice) made his singing debut with New York City Opera this month in Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are. Click here for the full article in the New York Times (Andrew is wearing the blue pants in the picture).

Grammy Award-winning singer Imogen Heap features Robert Ponto and his daughter Anna in her new album
This spring, Imogen Heap officially started working on a new "concept" album as fans sent in nearly 900 “sound seeds,” or samples of everyday sounds such as a dishwasher door, a bicycle, or a burning match. Heap’s first song, initially titled #heapsong1 and later Lifeline, premiered worldwide on March 28, 2011. UO Director of Bands Robert Ponto inspired the piano sound which begins Lifeline and Anna’s sound clip is featured in the song. Last Month, Heap flew Ponto and his daughter to England for the launch party. Click here to watch the video where Heap chats with people who contributed sounds, images, and videos to Lifeline (their clip starts right around at 11:45).

Composition by UO faculty featured in Alaska
Music by our trumpet professor Brian McWhorter was performed in Anchorage, AK, by the Alaska Dance Theatre this month. The multimedia dance piece, Tyranny of the Senses, was performed and recorded by McWhorter as well as UO music colleagues Tyler Abbott and alumnus Jason Palmer (BM 2006). Click Here to read the full article.

Reno Jazz Festival winners announced
Members of the Oregon Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Lab Band II, and four combos participated in the Reno Jazz Festival, April 7–9. Congratulations to the following:

Ensemble Awards:
1st Place – Oregon Jazz Ensemble in the College Big Band Category
3rd Place – UO Jazz Lab Band II in the College Big Band Category
1st Place – UO Combo I in the College Combo Category

Individual Awards:
Outstanding College Trumpet Player – Paul Krueger
Outstanding College Saxophonist – Sean Flannery
Outstanding College Rhythm Section Performer – Paul Owen (drumset)

Participating students included:
Corey Adkins, Nathan Alef, Seth Arnold, Eddie Bond, Peter Brewer, Adam Carlson, Grant Caswell, Eli Copeland, Zach Darf, Sean Flannery, Kate Haller, Ben Hampton, Brian Heater, Sam Howden, Sam Hunt, Eric Johnson, Nate Johnson, Trevor Jones, Paul Krueger, Ryan Lewis, Jeff Lovell, Daniel McIntire, Dan Meinhardt, Devin McDonald, Torrey Newhart, Jojoe Nujoy, Kyle Nystrom, Paul Owen, Andy Page, Bif Reiser, Susan Richardson, Casey Riley, Jacob Rosevear, Morani Sanders, Evan Stewart, Solomon Thelin, Eric Valentine, Lauren Wagner, Tomas Webster, Justin Williamson, and Josh Wilson.

Kajikawa awarded Innovations in Diversity and Academic Excellence grant
In collaboration with Dean Brad Foley, Dr. Loren Kajikawa (assistant professor of ethnomusicology and musicology) successfully applied for an Innovations in Diversity and Academic Excellence grant from the University of Oregon’s Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity. The grant proposal, titled “Music and Politics: Race, Identity, and Cultural Production,” will fund a series of guest speakers and musicians who will visit the University of Oregon for lectures and performances beginning next academic year. Questions to be addressed include: How do people use music in political struggles? How does music generate and shape political identities? And how does music reflect and reveal political tensions and conflicts? Please stay tuned for more information about upcoming events.

Henniger travels to University of Missouri
On April 18 Henry Henniger, assistant professor of trombone, will present a master class and recital at the University of Missouri.  He will perform works of Crespo, Bernstein, and Telemann.

Dossin publishes recent recording projects
Two recent recording projects of Dr. Alexandre Dossin, associate professor of piano performance and piano literature, were published by Hal Leonard as part of the Schirmer Performance Editions, for which Dr. Dossin is the editor and recording artist: Liszt’s Consolations and Liebestäume, Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives.

UO piano student wins award
Twenty-year old pianist Noriko Amanuma won the top prize in the Monday Morning Music Club Competition held recently in Portland. Noriko is a student of Dr. Claire Wachter.