Summer 2012

Renowned String Quartet Brings Summer Program to UConn

The internationally renowned ensemble, the Colorado String Quartet, will be holding its Soundfest Chamber Music Festival-Institute on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs for the first time in its 22-year history. Previously held at Falmouth Academy on Cape Cod beginning in 1991, the intensive two-week long program brings students aged 13 through young professionals from around the globe to work together in groups under the tutelage of the Colorado Quartet. Members of the Quartet are: Julie Rosenfeld, Professor of Violin at the University of Connecticut, D. Lydia Redding, head of the Richards Chamber Music Program at the Community School of the Arts, Marka Gustavsson, Professor of Viola at Bard College, and Katie Schlaikjer, Adjunct Lecturer of Cello at UConn.The Colorado Quartet will appear in concert at von der Mehden Recital Hall on Saturday, July 21 at 7:30 pm in a program including quartets by Mozart, Alberto Ginastera and Beethoven’s “Razumofsky” Quartet in F Major, Opus 59 #1. Tickets will available at the door; $20 for adults, $10 for students. Student ensembles will be presented on Saturday, July 21 (3 pm) and Friday, July 27 (3 and 7 pm), also at von der Mehden Hall. Tickets for the student concerts will be $5.Several young musicians from the area will be among the participants, including Sam and Dora DeCaprio, from Lebanon; Daniel Melody, of Mansfield Center; Anysia Lee, from Storrs; and Eva Ribchinsky, of Ivoryton.

More information about the Soundfest program can be obtained from the website: www.soundfest.org Concert information and ticket reservations can be made by calling (201) 694-5611.

Faculty Spotlight

Summer is a time when our faculty members accomplish much in the areas of performance and scholarship. We asked our faculty members to share about their summer plans and activities. This week we are pleased give details of reports from professors Rice, Hanzlik, MacDonald and Fuchs.

Eric Rice

This June, Eric Rice conducts two concerts as part of the Connecticut Early Music Festival, for which he serves as Artistic Director. Ensemble Origo will perform “Nova Hispania – Music from the Cathedrals of Bogotá, Lima, and Quito” at Christ the King Church in Old Lyme, CT, on June 9 and the Connecticut Early Music Ensemble performs Mozart’s comic masterpiece Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) at Evans Hall, Connecticut College, New London, on June 23. Rice also offers pre-concert talks before both of these performances. Several UConn students and colleagues are performing at these concerts: Lisa Lynch (DMA candidate) sings soprano in Ensemble Origo, and Dr. Louis Hanzlik (faculty) and David Wharton (DMA candidate) are playing valveless trumpets with the Connecticut Early Music Ensemble. For more about the festival, see www.ctearlymusic.org.

In July and August, Rice continues a research project on music heard at the coronation of Emperor Charles V in Bologna in 1530 inpreparation for a set of concerts given by Ensemble Origo in October.

Louis Hanzlik

In May, Louis Hanzlik travels to Japan, performing Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony and other works with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Tokyo, Osaka, Kitakami, Sendai, and Fujisawa. While in Japan, Hanzlik serves as guest artist with the Kansai Trumpet Players’ Association, Osaka, and presents master classes, brass chamber music coachings, and a public recital, performing works by Kennan, de Falla, and Nishimura.

In July, Hanzlik is in residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Caramoor International Music Festival, Katonah, NY. During the 5-week festival, Hanzlik performs concerts that include Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, Rossini’s opera Ciro in Babilonia, and Bellini’s opera, I Capuleti ed I Montecchi.

In August, Hanzlik is in residence at MIT (Cambridge, MA) for the Atlantic Brass Quintet’s International Brass Quintet Seminar. Performing multiple concerts with the Quintet, Hanzlik also works closely with 50 brass students from around the country in brass chamber music technique and repertoire.

When not performing this summer, Hanzlik is at home, either enjoying time with his wife and children, or wading through the trout streams of “Quiet Corner” Connecticut.

Earl MacDonald

MacDonald is writing a substantial amount of music this summer in preparation for a recording with his 10-piece band, “the New Directions Ensemble”. The group performs in Hartford on August 13th, as part of the Monday Night Jazz in Bushnell Park series, and at Mansfield’s Festival on the Green in September. Other commissioned writing projects include a series of big band arrangements for Canadian jazz drummer, Tyler Hornby.

During May and June, MacDonald has undertaken a blogging challenge where he is chronicling his piano practicing as he goes about learning some of John Coltrane's most challenging tunes. You can read his posts at http://everupandonward.blogspot.com/.

In July, MacDonald unveils his new trio on July 22nd at the Brenton Evans Piano Showroom in New Haven. He also sharpens his skills on the drum set by taking lessons with jazz drummer, Ben Bilello. In August, MacDonald is artist-in-residence at the Kincardine Summer Music Festival Kincardine Summer Music Festival in Canada.

MacDonald’s upcoming performances are posted on his new web site, www.earlmacdonald.com.

When not writing, practicing and performing music, MacDonald can be found in skateboard parks throughout Connecticut, practicing “ollies” and other dangerous tricks with his son. Don’t worry --- he wears wrist guards and a helmet.

Ken Fuchs

Summer is a time when our faculty members accomplish much in the areas of performances, composition and scholarship. We asked our faculty members to share about their summer plans and activities. This week we are pleased to share a report from professor Kenneth Fuchs.

Click here to read how other faculty are spending their summer months.

Kenneth Fuchs traveled all over the country for performances in May:

with Aaron Burgess, director (R) and Anthony Pandolfe, assistant (L), and
the Edwin O. Smith High School Band (Storrs, CT), preparing for their
performance of Discover the Wild [E.B. Marks], May 3, 2012

with hornist Gail Williams and conductor Victor Yampolsky following a performance of Canticle to the Sun (Concerto for Horn and Orchestra) [E.B. Marks]with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, May 11, 2012.

with the Delray String Quartet following a performance of String Quartet No. 5 ("American") at the Mainly Mozart Festival, Coral Gables Museum, Florida, May 20, 2012. (Mei Mei Luo and Tomas Cotik, violins; Richard Fleischman, viola; Claudio Jaffe, cello)

with the Sylvan Winds, who performed Autumn Rhythm (Idyll for Woodwind Quintet After a Painting by Jackson Pollock) on May 23rd at the Jack Tilton Gallery in New York City. (Svjetlana Kabalin, flute; Kathy Halvorson, oboe; Pavel Vinnitsky, clarinet; Adrian Morejon, bassoon; Eric Davis, horn)

Dean of the School of Fine Arts Appointed

Brid Grant has been named the next dean of the University of Connecticut’s School of Fine Arts. Grant, a pianist by training with a long career in higher education in Ireland, is the current Dean and Director of the Dublin Institute of Technology’s (DIT) College of Arts and Tourism. She was the Dean and Director of the school’s Faculty of Applied Arts from 2007 to 2010 and headed its Conservatory of Music and Drama from 2003 to 2007, where she began as a Senior Lecturer in Piano and Academic Studies in 1980. read more

Welcome Maestro Felder and Maestro Spillane

The Department of Music is delighted to announce that Harvey Felder has accepted UConn's offer of appointment as Associate Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. A conductor with impressive professional experience, Mr. Felder currently is in a three-year process of resigning as Music Director of the Tacoma Symphony, remaining to permit that orchestra to conduct a national search for his replacement. Previously, he was Associate Professor at the University of West Virginia.

For a more comprehensive listing of his accomplishments, visit http://www.conductorscooperative.com/bio-harvey_felder.html.

The Department of Music is pleased to announced that Dr. Jamie Spillane will be joining us as our new Associate Professor and Director of Choral Studies. Dr. Spillane earned his Master of Music in Education at UConn and taught both here and at Central Connecticut State University as a visiting lecturer. Since earning his DMA in Choral Conducting (Minor in Music Education) at the University of Arizona, he has held positions at the associate-professor level at Iowa Wesleyan and Roberts Wesleyan Colleges, where he has taught voice, conducting, and diction classes and conducted choirs of various sizes as well as opera.

Professor Hanzlik Featured On American Public Media

Professor Louis Hanzlik's recent Carnegie Hall solo performance with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble can be heard on American Public Media's Performance Today web site. His performance of Michael Tippett's Divertimento on "Sellinger's Round" was broadcast on May 22d and will be available through until May 28th.