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Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

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The magazine of the University of Texas Butler School of Music

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Page 1: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music
Page 2: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

The Magazine of The SaRah anD eRneST BuTleR School of MuSic

Collaborative Arts Division in full swing ................................. 4

Æolus Quartet: Student String Quartet in residence .............. 2

Pulitzer Prize Winner-in-residence: William Bolcom .............. 6

SARAH AND ERNEST BUTLERSCHOOL of MUSIC

College of Fine ArtsThe University of Texas

at Austin

DirectorB. Glenn Chandler

Associate DirectorsSteven Bryant

Robert DeSimoneGlenn Richter

Assistant to the DirectorC. Winton Reynolds

Director of Graduate StudiesEugenia Costa-Giomi

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Marianne Wheeldon

Director of AdmissionsSuzanne Pence

Assistant Director of Development

Lauren Zachry-Reynolds

WORDS of NOTEVolume 24:

September 2009–August 2010

Editor/DesignerJohn Wimberley

PublicityNathan Russell

ContributorsB. Glenn ChandlerKathryn HutchisonC. Winton Reynolds

Nathan RussellLauren Zachry-Reynolds

Cover DesignAshley Kjos, AKA Design

Cover PhotographNathan Russell

The University of Texas at Austin

Butler School of Music1 University Station E3100Austin, Texas 78712-0435

www.music.utexas.edu

Announcing the Butler Society .............................................. 16

Student Awards and Honors.................................................. 26

Guests .................................................................................... 24

Butler Society and Endowments ........................................... 32

Alumni ...................................................................................... 7

Faculty ................................................................................... 18

Page 3: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

Dear Alumni and Friends:

I am pleased to present to you the 2010 edition of Words of Note, our year in review for the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Mu-sic. The stories and pictures contained in this publication capture highlights from the 2009-10 academic year regarding our es-teemed faculty, talented students and illustrious alumni. This has been a year packed with exciting activities and accomplishments and I know you will enjoy reading about all of them. Thanks to all who sent us an update on what you are doing these days.

One of the most significant things that took place this past year was the completion of the Butler matching scholarship initiative. Dr. and Mrs. Butler generously offered to match any endowed scholarship given to the Butler School in the amount of $25,000-$50,000 between June and December 2009. We are grateful that ten endowments were given during that period totaling $350,000, which was then matched by the Butlers on January 3, 2010. These new scholarships are now helping us to recruit the next round of exceptional students. One of those scholarships is very special in that it was donated by the faculty of the Butler School and demonstrates their dedication to their students and their appreciation for what the Butlers have done for this school. As director I am gratified for the privilege of working with such excellent faculty, and for the continuing support of the Butlers.

This past year saw a string of outstand-ing guest artists and scholars grace our building, including Chris Potter, David Littrell, Billy Ray Hunter, James Dick, Adam Unsworth, William Bolcom and others. William Bolcom was in residence for two weeks as this year’s recipient of the Eddie Medora King Award in Com-position. He worked with our composi-tion students as well as with those pre-paring the premiere performance of the revised version of his opera, A View from the Bridge, which was commissioned by the Butler Opera Center a few years ago. The revised orchestration is for chamber forces instead of full orches-tra, thereby making it accessible to university programs and small opera companies. The production by the Butler Opera Center was a smashing success with performances in Austin and in San Anto-nio. We are grateful to the Tobin Endowment for its generous sup-port of the commission and the San Antonio performance. We are also very pleased that this production received the Austin Critics Table Award as the best opera in Austin for the year.

Our international endeavors continue to grow as well. This past year we initiated an exchange program with the Sibelius Acad-emy in Helsinki. Three of our opera students spent most of the fall semester there in preparation for a joint production of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s opera, The House of the Sun. After performances in Helsinki, the entire production was brought to Austin, where it was very well received. The exchange program with the Sibelius Academy will continue next year with other faculty and student exchanges.

With the creation of new degree programs in collaborative piano and in chamber music, the chamber program in the Butler School has blossomed and flourished. This year we added a mentoring program for string quartets and recruited the first intact quartet, the Æolus Quartet, to study with the Miró Quartet. You will read much more about the entire chamber music program and how it has enriched our outreach program in the following pages.

We are also proud to have had a Harrington Faculty Fellow and a Harrington Graduate Fellow in the Butler School this past year. The Harrington Fellowship Program at UT is the most prestigious such program on campus and to have a fellow from each catego-ry is highly unusual. Dr. Mark Butler, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Northwestern University, was our Harrington Faculty Fellow and Stephen Parker was our Graduate Fellow. I am pleased to announce that we will have another Harrington Faculty Fellow

for the 2010-11 year, Dr. Holly Watkins, Assistant Professor of Musicology at Eastman School of Music, who is an ex-pert in 19th- and 20th-century music.

As you will read later in this publica-tion, we are pleased to announce that we have established the Butler Society as a way of recognizing and thanking those who have given in support of our school during the past year. Those names will be listed not only in Words of Note but also in certain of our con-cert programs and on our website for the year following each gift. That is just one way that we can thank all of you who have so generously supported our program in the past year. Without such support the program would not be nearly so enriching. As with most other schools across the country, we have had to cut our budget this year and next. While these cuts have been made with the least possible negative

effect on the Butler School, they will inevitably have a bearing on the program. We are most appreciative of the annual giving of our alumni and friends and encourage you to continue, especially at this particular time.

As always, we love to hear from our alumni and friends and espe-cially to see you at our concerts and other events. Please come and join us at every opportunity, and when you cannot, please join us for our webcasts at www.music.utexas.edu.

Sincerely,

B. Glenn Chandler, PhDDirector, Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music and Florence Thelma Hall Centennial Chair in Music

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC2

In 2008, the Butler School of Music papered peer institutions and music festivals around the country with an announcement: Come study with the Miró Quartet! The announcements introduced the new

Young Professional String Quartet in Residence program, a two-year residency designed to attract the best up-and-coming quartets to Aus-tin. Student quartets across the nation answered the call, and applica-tions for the new program came pouring in. 

From an international pool of candidates, the Cleveland-based Æolus Quartet won the inaugural residency in the program and began their studies with the Miró Quartet at the Butler School in fall 2009. Each member of the quartet receives a full tuition waiver and a stipend dur-ing his or her studies, and at the conclusion of the two-year residency, each will graduate with a Master of Music or an Artist Diploma in Cham-ber Music Performance.

On paper the program is impressive, but no amount of fine print could convey the impact the Young Profes-sional String Quartet Residency has had on its students and the Butler School as a whole. In its first year at UT, the resident Æolus Quartet gave over 60 performances, more than any other ensemble or student group at the Butler School of Music. They also completed a record number of out-reach performances, traveled across the country together, and recorded a debut album, which has been re-leased on the school’s Longhorn Mu-sic label.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Nick Ta-vani, first violinist for the quartet. “We have been really busy in the first year, and the amount of support we have received is overwhelming.”

Support for the residency comes in many forms, from tuition waivers to stipends to special grants for cross-country travel. However, the stu-dent quartet is getting more than just financial backing. Butler School faculty are going above and beyond to provide mentorship, too. One particularly meaningful interaction came last fall, when the Æolus Quartet spent time working on Bartók’s fifth string quartet with Pro-fessor of Musicology Elliott Antokoletz, who is regarded as one of the world’s leading Bartók scholars.

“We spent over two hours one afternoon in his studio, working on the Bartók,” Tavani explained. “Of course Professor Antokoletz gave us all this great historical background, which really helped us understand this classic repertoire in a new way. But what some people might not know is that Professor Antokoletz is also a very accomplished violinist. He helped shape the careers of so many of our musical heroes, like Pe-ter Salaff and the Cleveland Quartet, so his input on our performance was in some ways more valuable. Here is this amazing scholar, who also carries a performer’s point of view. That’s incredible.”

Another high point in the quartet’s first year of residency came when they performed the Bartók Quartet no. 5, along with repertoire by Brahms and Haydn, on a series of community outreach performances in southeast Texas. The group first spent two days in Houston visiting high school orchestra programs to talk about chamber music and per-form for students. Then they traveled 75 miles southwest to El Campo, Texas, where they performed for elementary school students and their families, first in a school assembly and later in a free community concert at a local church. The quartet’s performance was the first live classical music experience for many of the school children. (For the record, the kids voted Bartók as their favorite string quartet on the program.) Æo-lus second violinist Rachel Shapiro recalls, “El Campo was one of the coolest places we have ever performed. To feel that much energy in

that small town was amazing.”

Local performances by the quartet have also received a warm response. In a recent review of a UT New Music Ensemble concert, Austin American Statesman critic Jean Claire Van Ryzin described Æolus’ rendition of William Bolcom’s Three Rags for String Quartet as “played with considerable spirit and energy.” And the group’s solo recital in February drew a full house. Faculty later voted it one of the Butler School’s “most outstanding student recitals” in the 2009-2010 school year.

“Our recital in Bates was a real high point for me,” Tavani said. “It was so cool to see how many people came out to support us, and to feel like they were really invested in what we are doing here.”

This communal aspect of the Butler School’s Graduate Quartet Residen-cy, along with the school’s resources, are what set it apart from simi-lar programs at peer institutions. In particular, the Æolus Quartet was drawn to the professional development component of the residency. “When we were looking at programs, we knew immediately that we wanted to come to Austin to study with the Miró Quartet.” Shapiro said. “We felt like the faculty at UT were focused on helping us build a suc-cessful career outside the practice room.”

Æolus has found professional guidance in the mentorship from the Miró Quartet and also in their coursework, such as Professor of Group Piano and Pedagogy Martha Hilley’s graduate seminar, Career Goals and Management. Violinists Shapiro and Tavani both took the class last spring and they said it has helped them integrate social media and other professional practices into the management of their quartet. For example, the group started a blog and a Twitter feed as a course as-signment, which they still use to keep in touch with audiences. (See excerpts from a recent blog post at right.)

Other professional development opportunities have come about in the form of competitions, workshops, and summer festivals off campus.

The Æolus QuartetFirst Young ProfessionalString Quartet-in-Residence

Alan Richardson, Rachel Shapiro, Gregory Luce, Nicholas Tavani

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Last year the Butler School funded Æolus’ travel to Norway, Missouri, and Massachusetts for competitions where the quartet earned inter-national visibility for both themselves and the Butler School in the chamber music community. In order to help the quartet qualify for competitive seminars and summer festivals, the Butler School record-ing studio staff spent over a week last spring helping the quartet record audition materials. The recording turned out so well that the school’s label, Longhorn Music, decided to release the tracks on a new album, entitled The Æolus Quartet plays Brahms and Bartók. The album will be available at iTunes and other national retailers starting in November, bringing even more exposure to the quartet and the Butler School’s residency program. Incidentally, the unedited audition tape gained the quartet acceptance to every single festival to which they applied.

The success of the Young Professional Quartet in Residence program has been somewhat contagious. This year a record number of under-graduate chamber music ensembles are registered for coaching. The Brass, Wind and Percussion Division has formed graduate brass and wind quintets comprised of its Teaching Assistants, and a second grad-uate string quartet, the Skyros, are pursuing Master’s degrees in cham-ber music performance. A graduate saxophone quartet, Bel Cuore, is also performing actively. Following the example set by the Æolus Quartet, each of these chamber groups is undertaking community outreach and performance obligations above and beyond their degree requirements.

“The impact of these four students on our program has been immense. I can’t wait to see what the Æolus Quartet will accomplish in the year ahead,” said B. Glenn Chandler, director of the Butler School of Music.

The coming school year holds a great deal of promise for the Æolus Quartet and the Young Professional Quartet in Residence Program. In the works are performances in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Boston, plus another recording project for Longhorn Music, this one a selection of American works. The group also has several outreach commitments, including performances at area retirement communities, coaching lo-cal high school chamber groups, and developing with the Miró a public school teacher-training workshop. The quartet’s activities will be sup-ported in part by a $25,000 “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tavani credits the success of the quartet to the generosity of the do-nors, faculty, and staff at the Butler School who have come together to help launch the residency program. “Our experience at UT has been amazing,” he said. “We are supported at the Butler School in more ways than would be possible anywhere else.”

Adapted from AeolusQuartet.blogspot.com

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Perlman Music Paradise

We are enjoying our first real quartet break of the summer by seeing old friends, going to the beach, wakeboarding, frantically completing quartet applications, and reminiscing about the incredible experi-ences we’ve had in the past couple months.

Our two weeks on Shelter Island, NY at the Perlman Music Program were the perfect way to wrap up the summer. Imagine your favorite childhood summer camp and add to it an artist faculty of some of the most beloved musicians performing today. And the “campers” are all dedicated chamber musicians in their twenties/thirties.

We were lucky enough to work specifically with Itzhak Perlman and Don Weilerstein during our stay. Mr. P was exacting in what he wanted, and hilarious in the way he explained it to us. Early on he re-counted the story of a cruel teacher who once belittled his student by saying, “Every day you sound worse. So why today do you sound like the day after tomorrow?” From this point forth, Mr. P endeav-ored to assess our progress (or lack thereof) by gleefully announcing “this sounds like next Friday” or, if we were fortunate, “that could have been yesterday.”

The uniquely supportive and inspiring atmosphere led to plenty of recreational late night chamber music reading with new friends and the faculty. It also led to several more surprising collaborative endeavors - like the time Don Weilerstein schooled EVERYONE in basketball at the Perlmans’ house. Which just goes to show that if you’ve mastered your coordination and timing enough to be the first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet, everything after that is cake! :)

Enjoy this picture of everything we’ve been hauling around since June.

Packing credit goes to Alan!

Keep upwith Æoluson their blog, at their website, Aeolusquartet.com or on Twitter@AeolusQuartet.

With Mr. P

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC4

In the fall of 2008, the Butler School of Music inaugurated a new grad-uate degree program in Collaborative Piano along with a complete

Collaborative Piano Area in the Chamber Music and Collaborative Arts Division. Under the leadership of internationally renowned collabora-tive pianist and pedagogue Anne Epperson, the program is now em-barking on its third year, with ten full-time graduate students working in collaborative partnerships throughout the Butler School. We sat down with Professor Epperson to talk about the philosophy and logis-tics behind the success of the new collaborative initiative.

BSOM: What was the landscape of our program like when you arrived and how has it changed?Anne Epperson: The instrumental and vocal faculty had convinced the administration that the need for a functional collaborative support system had reached emergency levels. Thanks to the vision of Direc-tor Chandler and Dean Dempster, the school was able to commit to a complete collaborative overhaul and renovation, both figuratively and literally. The new standards of collaborative partnership, so ably and positively implemented by our outstanding faculty, staff and the stellar collaborative piano majors, have changed the landscape in many ways. From strong support for individual recitals, juries and master classes to enthusiastic participation in the large ensembles (choir, orchestra, wind ensemble and new music groups) we are trying to elevate the quality and quantity of the collaborative art here at UT one project at a time. We are in the trenches on a daily basis and happy to be there.

How did you structure the program so that it interacts with the other divisions that you support?

With a year to plan in advance, I was able to bring several very impor-tant colleagues with me to complete the collaborative team. Dr. Colette Valentine, a top-tier professional collaborative pianist and coach, was willing to leave a successful career in New York City to join me in this new adventure. She is working with the collaborative majors, but also is the principal liaison between our area and the Keyboard Division. The support of Anton Nel and his keyboard family has been a crucial factor in building the program and our collaborative faculty now teaches col-laboratively related coursework for the undergraduate and graduate piano majors, from sight-reading classes to graduate accompanying skills courses. I also recruited Dr. Chuck Dillard, an outstanding former student, to team with Dr. Valentine in teaching these courses as well as coaching the collaborative piano majors. Additionally, with his varied background and experience, Dr. Dillard is uniquely qualified as the liai-son with the choral department, the large ensembles, the brass studios and the Butler Opera Center. Butler School of Music faculty member and VSP (very special pianist) Rick Rowley is our valued connection with the Vocal Arts Division. Two staff pianists, Jeanne Sasaki, who was so helpful in the collaborative transition, in the Vocal Arts Division and Alex Maynegre in the instrumental studios and collaborative services administration round out our line-up.

What are you looking for in a candidate for the Collaborative Piano Program?First, we expect a prospective student to be technically strong and quite well developed in their own musical personality. A collaborative hopeful needs to be an excellent sight-reader and a very quick study. A collaborative piano student learns an enormous amount of repertoire and must be fully prepared at performance level in a very short time. Most importantly, we hope that he or she is genuinely most fulfilled when they are working and playing with others.

Professor Anne Epperson coaches Collaborative Piano majorAram Arakelyan and violinist Rachel Wong.

Teaching two to tango:

Lessons in the Collaborative Arts

All photographs in this story by Nathan Russell

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Is that kind of pianist made or born?That is a great question. I believe that the instincts and the talent are definitely a gift. The responsibility for developing the awareness is suc-cessful at different levels depending on the commitment. Many very fine pianists are simply not as comfortable in a collaborative context. That takes nothing away from their artistry or ability, but a pia-nist for whom collaboration is a preference usually has an extra-sensory perception as part of their skill set. Can it be taught? Absolutely. Are there pianists who are born to do it? Absolutely.

What are the elements that make a particular collaboration successful?Attitude is everything. It is the mutuality of purpose and a ba-sic respect for the music and the partners that make the differ-ence. Our program is set up to facilitate those elements. All of the proj-ects our collaborative piano majors are involved in are jointly coached. The students are being taught by both the collaborative faculty and the vocal or instrumental teacher of the partner. The focus is on the team. A joint commitment to do one’s best will surely result in a successful ex-perience. I must say that the faculty here at the Butler School of Music is rather special in their support of this concept of mutual mentoring and I am very grateful.

How do you teach the nuances of collaborative playing?It is all about listening. In order to help the student develop this kind of listening skill, we record all of the lessons. If you think about it, a collaborative pianist is always physically behind the person they are partnering, so their sense of the blending of sound and texture is not perceived in the same way as the audience in front. By listening to the recording of a lesson, rehearsal or performance, one learns to trust how it feels when it sounds right. Also, I do get very specific about balance between the hands, pedaling, voicing and rhythmic definition. Those elements are the core principles of collaborative pedagogy. Addition-ally, we prepare our students to be comfortable in performance so that they can always be a source of strength and support to their partners. To that end, we make sure they have opportunities to play through an entire piece in lessons and studio classes, so that they can be confident in the pacing and concentration required on stage. Another important

factor in my own philosophy of collaborative teaching is that I expect my students to bring their partners to most of their lessons. If extra les-sons are necessary to work on technical issues or individual concerns, I am happy to accommodate, but I believe that in collaborative teaching it takes at least two to tango. In this way, I am also doing my best to prepare the team to have a successful lesson in the other studio.

Talk about the career opportunities for someone with a graduate de-gree in collaborative piano.This is the most important subject of all. My main motivation for con-tinuing to teach collaborative piano (since 1976) and to develop degree programs in music schools is that the need is there in the larger musical community for pianists trained in this specialization. In this past year, the economic crisis notwithstanding, there were three full-time col-laborative staff positions and one adjunct faculty position open just in the state of Texas. One of those was a newly created position at a state university. Such staff positions usually require at least a Master of Music degree and most faculty level jobs are expecting applicants to have the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, which is the performer’s equivalent of a PhD We are so pleased that the Butler School of Music now can provide

the training and experience for pianists to earn the MM and the DMA in Collaborative Piano. Our students will be set up to be top candidates in the very competi-tive job market.

What’s next for the program?As we enter the third year of our collaborative plan for the Butler School of Music, we will finally have the full complement of stu-dents, faculty and staff that we envisioned. As the collaborative degree program and its service component become truly inte-

grated into the exciting upward trajectory of the school, we continue to strive for equal success in meeting the needs of all of the various divi-sions and departments and the needs of the young pianists who have entrusted their future to our mentoring. Ideally, we hope to strengthen the very core of the Butler School of Music.

Professor Epperson working with one of her students and a student of Professor Brian Lewis in preparation for a recital of works by Fritz Kreisler, a project involving all students in both studios.

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC6

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom made a lasting impact on students and faculty at the Butler School of Music this

spring with two visits to campus, culminating in the premiere of a new orchestration of his opera, A View from the Bridge, and the Butler School’s presentation to him of the Eddie Medora King Award for Musi-cal Composition.

Bolcom, who has also won multiple Grammy Awards, is one of today’s most respected living composers. His work spans a diverse repertoire, including symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and operas. He is also well known as a composer and performer of cabaret songs. He and his wife, acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, have recorded more than two dozen albums as a duo and tour their cabaret performances through-out the world.

The Butler School hosted Bolcom and Morris as part of its Visiting Com-poser Series. The series typically consists of three public events high-lighting the works of the visiting scholar, including performances by the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and New Music Ensemble. Bolcom’s residency also in-cluded a fourth performance by the Butler Opera Center: the premiere of a chamber orchestration of A View from the Bridge. During Bolcolm’s visit to campus in March, the Wind Ensemble performed his First Symphony for Band, and the Symphony Orchestra performed his Spring Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, featuring Associate Professor of Oboe Rebecca Henderson. The New Music Ensemble presented an entire evening of Bolcom’s works, includ-ing a variety of chamber works. On the program, Bolcom and Morris took the stage to present a new cycle of very short cabaret songs, each based upon a single line of text, which they affectionately call “mini-cabs.”

During his residency, Bolcom interacted with a large cross-section of the student body, working one-on-one with composition majors, pre-senting an open composition forum, and working with the ensembles

in rehearsals of his works. He also attended rehearsals for A View from the Bridge, providing valuable feedback to the student performers.

Bolcom returned to Austin in late April for the premiere of his new orchestration of A View from the Bridge, which opened at the Butler School for two performances, then moved to San Antonio’s Charline McCombs Empire Theatre for a one-night engagement. At the pre-

miere, Bolcom was presented with the Eddie Medora King Award for Musical Composi-tion. Granted bi-annually by the Butler School of Music, the King Award is a $25,000 prize given to a living composer for outstanding contributions to contemporary repertoire. Since its establishment in 1995, the Eddie Medora King Award has provided students with unique opportunities to work with great composers. Past winners include John Corigliano, George Crumb, Joan Tower, and John Adams.

The opera, A View from the Bridge, based on a play by Arthur Miller, was premiered in 1999 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and has since been performed by several larger opera companies. Despite wide critical ac-claim, performances have been limited largely due to the original or-chestration’s requirement of a nearly 100-piece orchestra. The costs in-volved have prohibited the opera from more frequent performances.

The Butler School of Mu-sic, through a generous grant from the Tobin En-dowment in San Antonio, commissioned the cham-ber orchestration in order to bring the production to the UT Austin campus. Following its Austin de-but, this reduced chamber version is expected to be performed by smaller op-era companies around the world.

Nathan Russell

William Bolcom visits for residency, premiere, and major award

Bolcom works with the New Music Ensemble and conductor Damon Talley.

The Pulitzer Prize-winner in discussion with student composers.

Director Glenn Chandler presents the King Award for Composition.Bolcom performs with his wife, soprano Joan Morris.

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Dr. Lori Bade (DMA 1994),was recently honored with the receipt of the Nell S. and Boyd H. McMullan Professorship in Music at Louisiana State University, where she has taught since 1993. She also serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the School of Music and regularly assists the Interim Director with administrative duties. Bade recently appeared as mezzo-soprano soloist with the Canterbury Choral Soci-ety and Oklahoma City Philharmonic, performing a work by Stephen Paulus and Mozart’s C Minor Mass. She performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra in July 2009. Dr. Bade was guest professor of voice in Salzburg, Austria, with the University of Miami Salzburg Summer Vocal Program during Summer 2010.

David Bend (BM 1975) teaches percussion and musical theater at Harmony School of Creative Arts in Marble Falls, a community fine arts school founded in 1999 by his wife Barbara Bend (BS 1975). David also works with local middle and high school band percussion sec-tions, teaching master classes throughout the year.

Carolyn Cummings Binford (BM 1982) is a piano accom-panist for movement (Eurythmy), choir, musicals, and for piano and string students at the Marin Waldorf School in San Rafael, California. She also teaches piano.

Mary Dave Blackman (PhD 1989) has been appointed editor of Ten-nessee Musician, the journal of the Tennessee Music Educators Associa-tion. She has taught at the College of Arts & Sciences at East Tennes-see State University since 1997. She was recently appointed e-learning liaison, assisting other faculty in developing online courses.

Eric Blomquist (MM 1985) was recently elected to the National Board of Governors of the Human Rights Campaign. A longtime advocate for LGBT equality, he has been a member of the HRC Greater New York Steering Committee. As Co-chair of the Corporate Committee for the Greater New York Gala, he received the National Corporate Excellence Award for his fundraising efforts. Bloomquist is on the staff of the Graduate Center at City University of New York. His CD Heldentenor is available for download online.

Robert H. Bode (BA 1980, MM 1982) has been named the Raymond Neevel Professor of Choral Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, beginning Fall 2010. Bode is also the Artistic Director of Choral Arts (Seattle), which was awarded the 2010 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence by Chorus America.

Thomas A. (Art) Bumgardner (DMA 1973) moved to South Carolina following his retirement from University of Wisconsin-Superior. He continues to teach voice at the College of Charleston and performs regularly as a baritone soloist. During the past year, he sang the role of Pilate and the bass arias in Bach‘s St. John Passion as part of the Charleston Bach Festival. He appeared as soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Dvorak‘s Te Deum and Haydn‘s Mass in Time of War, and performed as Noah in an Ashley Hall School production of Britten‘s Noye‘s Fludde. During the Spoleto Festival, he was baritone soloist in Brahms‘ Requiem with the Piccolo Spoleto Fes-tival Orchestra and the Grace Episcopal Church Choir.

David Burdick (DMA 1994) is the chair of Music Industry Studies at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, in charge of administering two majors, Commercial Music and Music Business. He also operates his recording studio, Thirdstone Productions, where he does every-thing from recording and developing regional talent to composing and producing music for radio and TV spots, and video and theater productions. He is a guitarist in an “indie” band known as the Illinois Nationals.

Professor Rebecca Burkhardt (PhD 1993) was Associate Director for Graduate Studies in the University of Northern Iowa School of Music from 2005 to 2010, and served as National President of the College Orchestra Directors Association from 2008-2010. Her new musical, A Scotch Verdict, written in collabora-tion with theatre professor Cynthia Goatley, was presented in the 2008 musical festival Stages sponsored by Theatre Building Chicago.

Blythe Sweeney Cates (MM 2002) recently opened a private vocal stu-dio in southwest Austin that has already reached almost full capacity.

Mary Ellen Cavitt (PhD 1998) recently received the Presi-dential Award for Excellence in Teaching for the College of Fine Arts and Communications at Texas State Univer-sity, San Marcos, where she recently earned tenure and

serves as Associate Professor of Music Education.

Andrew Cheetham (BM 1997, MM 2001) has been appointed as As-sistant Professor of Trumpet at Eastern Illinois University beginning in Fall 2010.

Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Cloyd (BM 1998) recently released a second album, I Could Disappear, following the national success of his debut CD, Unhand Me, You Fiend. On his new recording, Cloyd reinterprets material from the first album, which used multi-tracking and electronica, but this time strips the songs to only guitar or piano accompanying his solo vocals.

Rian Charlton Craypo (BM 2004) recently received tenure as Principal Bassoon of the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

T. K. DeWitt (BM 2008) won the national audition for Second Bassoon in the Houston Grand Opera orchestra in November.

Composer Charles Ditto (DMA 1998) had works performed many times during the past season. High Wood was performed at the Col-lege Music Society National Conference in Portland, Oregon, in Octo-ber 2009, featuring Austin Symphony oboist Ian Davidson, who again performed the piece at the National Association of Composers-USA/NYC Conference in Manhattan in April 2010. High Wood was also performed by oboist Deane Calcagni at the College Music Society Northeast Regional Conference in Burlington, Vermont, in March 2010. Ditto’s new duet for oboe and clarinet, Wood on Wood, was performed in February at the Trio 488 concert in San Marcos, then performed again at the Society of Composers, Inc. Conference at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. A new Ditto woodwind quintet, Molly Malone, was recently released on CD by Wild Basin Winds on Summit Kids Records, distributed by Rounder Records.

Sheet music store Dowling Music, co-owned by pianist Richard Dowling (DMA 1990), made its New York debut in May 2010 with a grand opening inside Steinway Hall, diagonally across the street from Carnegie Hall in New York City. Like its main store in Houston, Dowling Music offers a comprehensive collection of sheet music and music-themed gifts and accessories. “There’s nothing quite like the thrill of digging through a collection and being able to see and touch scores for yourself,” said Dowling. An active concert pianist, Dowling recently performed the Shostakovich and Schubert “Trout“ piano quintets

Alumni

Rebecca Burkhardt

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC8

with the Miró String Quartet at the International Chamber Music Festival of San Miguel de Al-lende, Mexico. In October 2010 he will give a ten-concert Piatigorsky Foundation tour of Kentucky and Ohio. Besides classical piano music, Dowling also specializes in ragtime and early jazz and ap-pears at jazz/ragtime festivals across the country. In August his twelfth CD was released, a ragtime/turn-of-the-century recording called Music of Old New York, commissioned for the Museum of the City of New York. He was recently profiled in a double-issue of The American Rag newspaper.

John David Earnest (BM 1964, MM 1967) contin-ues an active composing schedule fulfilling commissions for soloists, orchestras, and choruses. His two-act opera, The Theory of Everything, libretto by Nancy Rhodes, was presented in recent workshop pro-ductions of the Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York City, at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space. Last year, Earnest prepared a reduced orchestration of John Corigliano’s opera, The Ghosts of Ver-sailles, on commission from the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which pre-miered the work in June. Earnest lives in New York City and teaches as a visiting professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Denise (Grover) Eaton (BM 1982) has taught secondary choral music for 28 years, and has been head choral director at Spring (Texas) High School for 16 years. Her choirs have performed for many Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) conventions. Chamber choirs she has directed have won six times at the American Classic Madrigal and Chamber Choir festival in San Antonio. She has conducted over 20 Texas All-Region choirs, and has presented numerous workshops and clinics. She recently published the SMART (Sight Singing Made Ac-cessible Readable and Teachable) sight-reading book. She also serves as adjunct choral professor at Sam Houston State University. She was elected President of TMEA for 2010-2011.

In Spring 2010, pianist Noel Engebretson (BM 1977) completed his third concert tour of China. In 2009 and 2010, Dr. Engebretson per-formed and gave master classes in Serbia, Sicily, California, and Louisi-ana. He is Professor of Music at The University of Alabama.

Helen (Shuler) Fanelli (BM 1983) has been on the voice faculty of the Mozartina Musical Arts Conservatory in Tarrytown, New York, since 2001. She appeared as soloist in a concert entitled With a Song in My Heart in February 2010 with the Professional Women Singers As-sociation in Manhattan. In March 2009 she performed with the New Rochelle Opera Company in a production of The Four Sopranos. In December 2008 Fanelli sang as alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Mamaroneck, New York.

Maryanne Federici (MM 1984) is the music director of a Methodist church in New Jersey and also sings in an auditioned choir.

Mariana Stratta Gariazzo (DMA 2005) has taught flute, world music, and music theory at the Department of Performance Studies at Texas A&M University in College Station since 2007. Dedicated to inspiring and promoting intercultural understanding through music to her stu-dents, Dr. Gariazzo also has an active career as performer and lecturer. Recently, she was a featured clinician at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference in San Antonio and as an artist at the XXV International Flute Festival in Lima, Peru. She lives in College Station with husband Claudio Gariazzo (MSE 2003) and daughter, Gabriela.

Jeff Gershman (DMA 2002) is in his third year at the Indiana Univer-sity Jacobs School of Music, serving as the Associate Director of Bands

and Associate Professor of Music. His responsibilities include conducting the Symphonic Band and teach-ing classes in undergraduate music education and repertoire, and graduate conducting. Prior to his cur-rent position, he served as the Director of Instrumen-tal Activities at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

George K. Halsell (MM 1981, DMA 1989) recently received the Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. The only award winner in the field of music, Dr. Halsell was recognized for his contributions to the musical life of his community, including his Symphony in Five Episodes, premiered in November 2010 by the Magic Valley Symphony under his direction. Dr. Hal-sell is in his seventeenth year on the music faculty at

the College of Southern Idaho.

Kevin Hanlon (DMA 1983) was invited to an 11-week residency at the Banff Centre in early 2010, during which he had the opportunity to compose, collaborate, rehearse and perform large scale projects with other artists-in-residency.

Phyllis A. Clark Harman (BM 1970) has been a private teacher, direc-tor of music, and organist for several churches, and has composed music for piano, voice, choir, and handbell choirs. After retirement, she composed songs and accompaniment for a children‘s musical, Ima and the Ostrich, based on the childhood adventures of Ima Hogg written by Margaret McManis. Harman is presently writing a musical based on the folk history of Pendleton County, West Virginia. She has published two books on genealogy.

Mary Capps Haraden (BM 1958, MM 1960) retired after 25 years of teaching in the Amarillo ISD. She is a volunteer for Friends of Aeolian-Skinner, an Amarillo organization that promotes concerts on the great Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1024 organ at St. Andrew‘s Church in Amarillo. The organ was originally installed in Jes-sen Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin.

Brian Hecht (BM 2007) won the bass trombone position with the Premier United States Navy Band in August 2009. Recent highlights of Hecht’s career include a concert with the Chicago Symphony, performing at the 2009 Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and winning the 2009 Zellmer-Minnesota Orchestra Trombone Competi-tion, the Big 12 Bass Trombone Solo Competition, the 2008 Kenosha Symphony Orchestra bass trombone audition, and the St. Louis Symphony bass trombone sub audition. He was selected as a finalist in several other competitions and auditions. Hecht was an Associate Member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra during the 2008-09 season.

Mark Hester (BM 1984) is the South Regional Manager for Pentair Specialty Solutions Group and resides in Arlington, Texas, with his wife, Connie Hester (BS 1980).

Bonnie Schaffhauser Jacobi (MM 1995) is now Assistant Professor of Music Education at Colorado State University, where she teaches Elementary Music Education and co-directs the Colorado Kodaly Insti-tute. Bonnie lives in Ft. Collins with her husband, alumnus Ken Jacobi (MA 1998).

Erin Jepson (BA 2004) was recently promoted to Booking and Events Manager at Walton Arts Center, Arkansas’ largest center for the

Mariana Stratta Gariazzo

Jeff Gershman

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9WORDS of NOTE

performing arts. During her six years at the center, she has managed the client event, special event, and artist hospitality programs.

James Jeter (BM 1971) was principal bassoon for the 2009 national tour of Star Wars in Concert, performing the compositions of John Wil-liams with an 86-piece orchestra. The tour included a show before an audience of more than 30,000 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Cheryl Kinion, (MM 1982) is the Music Education Specialist at The Shlenker School in Houston, Texas. She was recently recognized as finalist for the Children‘s Museum of Houston 2010 Early Childhood Educator Award. She performs frequently, singing with the Bayou City Performing Arts organization and for special events.

Stephanie Kuester (BA 2007) received her Master of Arts degree in Music Therapy from Texas Woman‘s University in 2010 after complet-ing a music therapy internship with MusicWorx, Inc. in San Diego, California. She works for The Music Therapy Center of Houston, a non-profit agency. She is engaged to Butler School graduate Paul Scheffel (BM 2009), a band director in Alvin, Texas.

Nathan Leaf (MM 2002, DMA 2006) began his second year as Direc-tor of Choral Activities at North Carolina State University in Raleigh in Fall 2009. He is also the chorus master of Opera Company of North Carolina and a member of the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus. His article, “Swedish Soul: The Folk Song Arrangements of Hugo Alfvén” was pub-lished in the August 2009 edition of Choral Journal.

B.Z. Lewis (BA 1992) won his third Emmy Award, this one for “Out-standing Achievement in Promotion-Program-Campaign” category, at the 2009-2010 Northern California Emmy Awards.

The highlight of the year for Tammy Linn (DMA 2006) was building bridges through music between the U. S. and Cuba after receiving an invitation to perform at the World Council of Churches Conference in Matanzas. Dr. Linn performed several times while in Cuba. Among her most memorable performances was an impromptu concert with eight and nine-year-old violinists from a music school in Havana.

David Littrell (MM 1972, DMA 1979), Distinguished Professor of Music and Conductor of the Kansas State University Orchestra, took a sabbatical leave in the spring semester of 2010. In January he gave a Leadership Lecture at the Butler School of Music at UT. In April, he gave seven solo cello recitals in churches and cathedrals throughout

England. Dr. Littrell’s youth string orchestra, the Gold Orchestra of Manhattan, Kansas, has been selected to perform in Chicago at the Midwest Clinic in December 2010.

Music by Monica Lynn (BM 2001) has been performed throughout the world, with premieres in South Korea, China, Serbia, Italy and France. Lynn earned her DMA this year at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has also pursued composition studies at Festival Musi-cAlp, Courchevel Academie Internationale de Musique, the European American Musical Alliance, and Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. Recent honors include awards from ASCAP, the Brevard Institute, and the European American Musical Alliance. Lynn has served as 2008-10 President of the National Association of Composers USA-San Fran-cisco, Administrative Associate of the 2009 UCSC/ISIM Festival and Conference at the University of California, and Director of Fundraising for Interdisciplinary Artists Aggregation, Inc.

Composer Kris Maloy (DMA 2005) won the Meistersingers Choral Composition Competition in May 2010 for his Song of the Moon, which was also selected as Finalist in the New York Virtuoso Singers Choral Composition Competition. The Enhake Quartet selected his Quartet in Four Actions for performance at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in May 2010. An American Composers Forum Encore Grant was awarded in conjunction with the Enhake Quartet, which provided costs for multiple performances of the Maloy composition nationwide between 2010 and 2012. Maloy recently received a residency from the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, which provides retreats for writers, artists, and musicians. The St. Louis School of Music commissioned Visions & Fantasies, a concerto for ocarina and orchestra, as well as a double concerto for two violins and orchestra to be premiered in 2011. Bright-Music commissioned a set of American folk songs scored for large chamber ensemble to be performed May 2011

Miles Maner (BM 2007) was appointed Associate Principal Bassoon of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and Principal Bassoon of the Breckenridge Music Festival in Summer 2010.

M. Gregory Martin (DMA 2002) was recently named Associate Direc-tor of Bands at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

Todd Meehan (BM 1999, DMA 2008) is Assistant Professor of Percus-sion and Director of Percussion Studies at the Baylor University School of Music. He continues to perform with the Meehan/Perkins Duo

James Dick receives Texas Medal of the Arts

James Dick

Eminent UT alumnus James Dick (BM 1963) was awarded the Texas Medal of the Arts at the Long Center in Austin in 2009 for his work in Arts Education as founder and director of the International Festival Institute at Round Top. One of the most distinguished musical education programs in the U.S., the institute offers an international summer music festival as well as year-round programs for young artists developing skills in solo, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire. In 2009 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus by the Texas Exes organization, and in 2010 he was given the Distinguished Alumnus award by the Butler School of Music. “I am reminded—as always— what a fortunate opportunity and life enhancing decision it was that I concentrate and focus on a superb, world-class musical education at the great University of Texas,” said Mr. Dick.

As concert pianist, James Dick was busy last season. In addition to performances with the UT Symphony Orchestra in Austin and Round Top, he made his orchestral debut in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in a performance of the Beethoven Concerti Nos. 4 and 5. The recorded performances are now available at the Festival Institute Concert Hall in Round Top. Mr. Dick made his orchestral debut in Istanbul, Turkey, in March 2010, and next season he will perform with an orchestra in Bucharest, Romania. He will also return to Russia again to perform in Moscow in May 2011.

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC10

appearing in the past year at the Ojai Music Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival, the Round Top Percus-sion Galore Festival, Marimba 2010, and many colleges and universi-ties. The Duo received a Meet the Composer commissioning grant for a new work entitled Straits by Duke faculty composer John Supko. They also recorded two albums to be released in the coming year on Bridge Records and New World Records.

Megan Metheney (MM 2004) finished her second year teaching in the harp program at the Ector County (Texas) ISD, and is a finalist for the position of Professor of Harp at the National Conservatory in Cannes, France.

Sharon Leftwich Miller (BM 1982) has been living in Nacogdoches, Texas, since graduating from UT. She teaches junior high and high school choir and theatre arts at Pineywoods Community Academy in Lufkin. While at UT she wrote a song which has been published in Southern Music’s Art Songs by Contemporary Texas Composers, Vol. 2. She is planning to record a CD soon in collaboration with her oldest son, Nathan.

Brett Mitchell (MM 2003, DMA 2005) is entering his fourth season as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony. He has led the orches-tra in nearly one hundred performances, several of which were broad-cast nationwide. He is the newly appointed Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra and also serves as a regular cover conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra. In recent seasons, Mitchell has led the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and many others. Highlights of his 2010-11 season include debuts with both the National Symphony Orchestra and Da Camera of Houston, and a new production of Puccini’s Trittico at the 2010 Castle-ton Festival.

Charlotte P. Mizener (PhD 1990) was promoted to full professor this year at the Department of Music at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, where she also serves as graduate adviser. She is President of the Board of Directors of the Southeast Texas Youth Symphony.

Guitarist Tony Morris (MM 1993) and flutist Renata Green served as a Cultural Envoys to Paraguay for a performance tour, Ruta Mangoreana, which included concerts, master classes, and media interviews. The tour was sponsored by the U.S. State Department and co-presented by the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay and the Agus-tin Barrios Mangoré Project. The tour honored the music and life of Paraguayan classical gui-tarist-composer/recording artist Agustin Bar-rios, widely known as “Mangoré” (1885-1944), one of the greatest composers of music for clas-sical guitar, and also one of the most important guitarists of the past century.

Cellist Elaine Needham (BM 1956) performs every month at a local music club, playing the works of major composers with area musicians who help each other by offering constructive criticism while striving for excellence in per-formance. Her other interests include drawing cartoons and illustrations.

David Nelson (PhD 1977) has re-turned as Director of the School of Music at The University of Iowa. He had previously directed the School from 1991 to 2000. He founded and served as Director of the Divi-sion of Performing Arts at Iowa from 2000 to 2005. Nelson was Director of the School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madi-son during the 1980s.

Retired Senior Foreign Service Officer Edmund L. Nichols (MM 1957) served consecutively from 1979 as U.S. Agricultural Counselor to Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Spain, and as U.S. Agricultural Minister-Counselor of the U.S. Mission to the European Communities. His professional papers, memorabilia, and related art works will be placed in the W.R. Poage Legislative Li-brary at Baylor University. Nichols and his wife, UT alumna and retired CPA Sandra Heiligman Nichols (BBA 1959) live in Austin.

Sue-Jean Park (DMA 2006) is pleased to announce her CD release of the Franck and Faure violin sonatas, recorded in collaboration with pianist Jung-Won Shin. The project was underwritten by a grant from Murray State University in Kentucky. Park performed Chen Gang and He Zhanhao‘s Butterfly Lovers Concerto with the Paducah Symphony in March 2009, and in May performed Bruch‘s Violin Concerto with the Washington Sinfonietta Orchestra. She has been Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Murray State University and Concertmaster of the Jackson Symphony since 2006.

William L. Pelto (PhD 1993) was named in July 2009 as Dean of the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Dean Pelto came to the Hayes School from the Ithaca College School of Music in New York, where he served since 1991 as a member of the music theory faculty and most recently as Associate Dean.

Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) Bernard Putterman (BM 1970) lives and works with her husband on Cactus Flower Farm in New Mexico, where they raise dairy goats and are building a goat cheese creamery, Geronimo’s Goat, which will begin sales next year.

The Grisham Middle School Band, under the direction of Betty Bier-schenk-Pierce (BM 1979, MM 1980) performed in Chicago at the Six-ty-second Annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. The band was one of three middle school bands selected to perform out of groups from 33 countries. Composer Jan Van der Roost conducted the band

on a premier of his work, Dances of Innocence. The Grisham Band was also selected as the top middle school band in Texas upon selection as the TMEA CC State Honor Band. The band per-formed for the TMEA convention in February at San Antonio. On a program at the convention, Mrs. Pierce featured her two children, Ashleigh Pierce (BA 2008, BBA 2009, MPA 2009) and Austin Pierce, and her cousin, UT graduate Dr. Jerome Bierschenk (BM 1974) along with two of her private teachers.

Bruce Radek (BM 1978, MM 1980) recently completed the inaugural US Courts Federal Judiciary IT Fellowship in Washington, D.C. His plans include pursuing full-time entertainment law and mediation services in Nashville. He Tony Morris

Sue-Jean Park

Sharon Miller

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represents several national jazz and country music artists and bands, and plans to expand his artist list to symphonic performers.

A recent composition by Robert Xavier Rodríguez (BM 1967, MM 1969), Musica, por un tiempo, received its premiere performances in March 2009 by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble in San Antonio, which commissioned the work. Critics called it “a big, strong, passionate piece” and “a powerful masterwork.” The work was also performed by the Juilliard New Music Ensemble at the Museum of Modern Art. Recent recordings of Rodríguez’s music include the two-piano version of Bachanale, performed by Miwako Takeda and Nobuhito Nakai, and Son Risa, commissioned and performed by harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson. Tentado por la samba was released on Urtext, featuring cel-list Carlos Prieto and pianist Doris Stevenson. Albany Records released four Rodríguez chamber works: Meta 4, performed by the Colorado Quartet, Sor(tri)lège: Trio III and Trio II, performed by the Clavier Trio, and Trio I, performed by Voices of Change. In March and April, 2009, the UT Butler Opera Center produced critically acclaimed performanc-es of the one-act comic opera La Curandera on a double bill with Mo-zart’s Bastien und Bastienne. La Curandera was produced and recorded by the Sacramento Opera in 2010. Also in 2010, the Spanish transla-tion of Frida was performed at the Festival de Mayo in Guadalajara, and the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia produced Tango.

Composer Paul Rudy (DMA 1997) has won the 2010 Elliot Carter Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome and will be in residence there from September through July 2011. Rudy has received awards from the Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Wurlitzer Foundations, and his compositions have won prizes from Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, EMS in Sweden, SEAMUS, Meet

the Composer, the American Composer’s Forum, and many others. He is Associate Profes-sor and Coordinator of Com-position at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conserva-tory of Music and Dance.

Jonathan Santore (MM 1987) was named a 2010 In-dividual Artist Fellow by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts for his compositional work. Santore is Professor of Music Theory and Composition and Chair of the Department of Music, The-atre, and Dance at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. He also serves as Composer-in-Residence for the New Hampshire Master Chorale.

Stacey Middleton Schlitz (BM 1990) announces the January 2010 opening of her law firm SchlitzLAW in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is focusing on estates, intellectual property, and controversies. Schlitz also continues to perform music, contributing keyboards and vocals to an album of songs written and performed by her husband, Grammy award-winning songwriter, Don Schlitz.

Deborah Schwartz-Kates (PhD 1997) has authored the book Alberto Ginastera: A Research and Information Guide (New York Routledge, 2010). She recently completed a chapter on Argentina for a Latin American music textbook to be published by W. W. Norton. She was recently awarded tenure at the University of Miami, where she serves as Chair of the Musicology Department.

Ezekiel (Zeke) Castro (BM Viola Pedagogy, 1961) began violin stud-ies in 1948 at the age of nine under UT Professor Emeritus Albert Gillis. That same year, Albert Gillis founded the Junior String Proj-ect, the forerunner of today’s UT String Project. Zeke was chosen to be among the first group of elementary students to participate in the Junior String Project. He remained in the group through-out middle and high school and saw it flourish under Gillis’ brilliant leadership.

In 1957 Zeke Castro enrolled as a music studies major at The University of Texas at Austin, where he continued to study under Professor Gillis, and switched to viola at Gil-lis’ recommendation. The following year, Zeke had the honor of performing at Carn-egie Hall with the UT Viola Ensemble, also founded and directed by Professor Gillis. During his years at UT, Zeke continued his involvement with the Junior String Project, now as one of its instructors.

After graduation, Castro was asked to build a program similar to the UT String Project in Columbus, Georgia, where he then established the still thriving Columbus Youth Symphony. Following graduate studies at The University of Southern California, Gillis recommend-ed Zeke for a teaching opportunity in Sunnyvale, California. During his years of teaching and performing in the bay area, Zeke was in-troduced to mariachi music. Upon returning to Austin, Castro was

asked to establish a Mariachi Program in the Austin Independent School District‘s middle and high schools.

Once again, Zeke took inspiration from his experience in the UT String Project and modeled his Mariachi Program on Albert Gillis’

vision. Castro’s high school group, the Tra-vis High School Mariachi Rebeldes del Sur achieved national recognition with invita-tions to perform in the Washington, D.C., Fourth of July Parade as well as other high profile events, culminating in a feature sto-ry on ABC’s Nightly News.

In 1986, Zeke Castro was the first instru-mental music teacher and the first His-panic to receive the Austin Independent School District’s Teacher of the Year Award. In 2001, Castro received the AISD Hispanic Teacher of the Year Award. In 2006, Castro was presented with the Ruben Fuentes Award for the Mariachi Music Hall of Fame

in Mexico City.

Zeke Castro continues to be active as an enrichment educator, now teaching science at the Juvenile Justice Alternative Educative Pro-gram where he also teaches a beginning guitar class. “Music is my life and the opportunities I had to teach music at UT Austin were priceless. I do not know where I would be if it were not for the gift of being selected to be among the first group of 11 elementary school students to be in the Junior String Project in 1948.”

Ezekiel (Zeke) Robert Castro—a life committed to music and education

Ezekiel (Zeke) Castro

Stacey Middleton Schlitz

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC12

Tom Siders (BM 2007) has been named the new Assistant Principal Trumpet for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Larissa Chace Smith lives in Pennsylvania and performs as a singer and songwriter with sister Brechyn Chace and their band, The Hello Strangers. The band performs original roots rock and americana in the Mid-Atlantic region and recently released their first self-produced EP, Introducing Max Schmidt. Larissa and Brechyn recently performed on a Hank Williams Tribute concert in Baltimore and are also involved in several other musical side projects.

Clinton Smith (BM 2004) has been assistant conductor at the Min-nesota Opera since 2008, serving as cover conductor for every pro-duction, chorus master, and coach for resident artists and principal singers.

Erik Steighner (DMA 2008) is saxophone lecturer at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. In March, he attended the national conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance, premiering Oceanspeak by Greg Simon and performing Austintasia by UT alumus Kyle Kindred (MM 2002, DMA 2004). In May, he premiered The Light Is Filled With Birds by Jeffrey Alan Tecca. In July 2009, Steighner’s com-position Rondo a la Banjo was premiered by the Tipping Point Saxo-phone Trio (UT students Sunil Gadgil (BM 2006, MM 2008), Diamel Mami (DMA 2008), and Michael Hertel (BM 2007, MM 2009) at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok. The piece has been accepted for publication by Dorn Publications along with two of his works for saxophone ensemble, Lucky Numbers and Foibles. Steighner recently performed the Fisher Tull Concerto da Camera with PLU‘s Lyric Brass Quintet, performed with the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, and had a solo performance broadcast by KING-FM (98.1, Seattle).

Justin Stolarik (MM 2005, DMA 2008) is the Assistant Director of Bands and Conductor of the University Band at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, he served as the Assistant Director of Bands at Henderson State University. Recently, his recording of John Cage‘s Dream was featured in two art installations in Scotland, and his recording of Philip Glass‘ Opening was used as the soundtrack for an animation project by a New York firm.

Amanda Swain (BM 2009) was the first place winner of the 2010 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, which offers the largest bassoon prize internationally. She was runner-up for the finals of the Gillet-Fox Com-petition, the top bassoon competition in the world. She won a posi-tion in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in Spring 2010.

Nancy Jonson Teskey (MM 1991) is Professor of Flute at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and also teaches middle school and high school band and orchestra at Oregon Episcopal School. As Service Learning Coordinator at Oregon Episcopal School, she will travel in September to Haiti to formulate a partnership with a local school, to help rebuild the school and provide ongoing support for the school community.

Anthony Tobin (DMA 2002) performed a solo piano tour of seven cities in the Netherlands in Fall 2009 and was invited back for addi-tional performances in July and November 2010. He travelled to Tokyo in June 2010 to work on a personal narrative project. He continues work on a Claude Debussy documentary (www.debussypiano.com) in which Austin Symphony Conductor Peter Bay and UT Professor Elliott Antokoletz appear.

UT alumna Susan Hatch Tomkiewicz (DMA 2005) was appointed Assistant Professor of Oboe at Columbus State University‘s Schwob School of Music in Fall 2009.

Alexander R. Treviño (BM 1995) continues as Director of Athletic Bands and Associate Director of Bands at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Since his ap-pointment in July 2007, he has created a new marching band to coincide with the return of football to Old Dominion University. The first Old Dominion football game in 70 years was played in September 2009, and the first–ever Monarch Marching Band, 140 members strong and under the field direction of Dr. Treviño, performed for the sold-out crowd of 20,000 in Ballard Stadium on the Old Dominion campus. In April of 2009, Dr. Treviño conducted the Old Dominion University Wind Ensemble in concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Yoichi Udagawa (BA 1985) was recently initiated as a National Arts Associate by the Boston Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota. In March 2010, he conducted the east coast premiere of Mendelssohn‘s Fantasy and Variations on a Gypsy March from Karl Maria von Weber‘s La Preziosa with UT alumnus Kiyoshi Tamagawa (DMA 1988) and Jun Toguchi as soloists. In the upcoming season he will conduct the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s Concerto for Bassoon and Clarinet with the Melrose Symphony. Udagawa serves on the conducting faculty at the Boston Conservatory, and is Music Director and Conductor of the Cape Ann, Melrose, and Quincy Symphony Orchestras.

Mike Vernusky (MM 2005) received one of four commissions for the 2009 Music at the Anthology Festival in New York City, and was recently a guest presenter at the 2010 Electro-Acoustic Music Studies conference in Shanghai, China, where he presented his paper “From the Studio to the Listener and Beyond, Packaging the Electronic Music Experience.” In July, Vernusky’s second studio album of his own com-positions, Music for Film and Electro-Theatre, was released on his label, Quiet Design, which features over 30 artists from around the world.

Amanda Martin Vincent (MM 2004) helped found Opera Louisiane in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with tenors Robert Grayson and Paul Groves in 2007. The company‘s opening gala featured renowned singers Susan Graham, Paul Groves, Elizabeth Futral, Jeffrey Wells, and Lisette Oropesa, and was broadcast nationwide on Public Broadcasting Sta-tions. Vincent served as director and worked on the opera board for two years.

Virginia McGovern Volpe (BM 1976), who was formerly the choral director at Dripping Springs High School, has taken the position of Choral Director at South Plains College. 

Benjamin Whitcomb (MM 1994, PhD 1999) was elected Secretary of the American String Teachers Association in February. During the past year, he had successful performance tours of Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Ireland, and won the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Publication Award for his book on practicing the cello and numerous published articles.

Edward White (MM 1999) and his wife, Katherine White (MM 2001), teach at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, where Edward is an Assistant Professor of voice and Katherine teaches adjunct voice and music appreciation. After graduating from UT, both earned DMA de-grees from the University of Kentucky. They have one daughter, Evelyn Claire.

Mike Vernusky

Mic

hael

McG

ill

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Lenore Alford (DMA 2008) is music director and organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in the San Francisco Bay area. She con-

ducts the adult choir and is in the process of founding a Royal School of Church Music program for children. She also composes music for the liturgy and teaches adult education classes. Under her direction, the church recently completed its first program entirely de-voted to women’s sacred music.

Jon Eifert (DMA 2010) was hired as part-time music director at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in San Antonio in 2009, while still prepar-ing his final DMA organ recitals. He was church organist and directed the adult, youth, and hand-bell choirs. He participated in the congregation’s decision to replace their hymnal with the new Lu-theran Service Book, and featured a number of its new hymns on a hymn festival for Ascension Day. Eifert was named to be full-time music director at Mt. Calvary beginning in August of 2010, with additional duties to include teaching bible class-es, confirmation, and preparation of events and festivals. “I am excited to be at Mt. Calvary at this

time,” says Eifert. “I am also grateful to the Hancocks for sharing all of their ex-pertise and experience in church music with me. They were, and continue to be, an inspira-tion to all of their students.”

Already putting his degree in organ perfor-mance to work, Scott McNulty (MM 2009) is the organist at University Presbyterian Church and Sacred Heart Catholic Church, both in Austin, and maintains a private

teaching studio. He is also an adjunct professor of music theory at the Art Institute of Austin, working with col-lege level students studying film and audio recording. The past dean of the Austin Chapter American Guild of Or-ganists, past president of the Austin Chapter Choristers Guild, and former member of the Austin District Piano Teachers Association, he continues to be involved with the local music guilds, often as a volunteer or judge. He has played recitals across the U.S. and Europe, implemented recital se-ries, and coordinated many children’s, youth, adult, and handbell festivals.

Russell Schulz (DMA 1974) will retire in December 2010 from his position as

Professor of Church Music at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. He began work there in 1974, follow-ing his teacher E. William Doty, who had taught there after retiring from UT. Schulz has directed music at University Methodist Church and Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Austin. He was a visiting lecturer at Austin Presbyterian Seminary and periodically lectured at the University of Texas. He has edited several hymnals and co-edited the Yale University Press New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools. Schulz was president of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, founding president of the Austin Boy’s Choir, and on the boards of the choral group Conspirare and Austin Lyric Opera’s Armstrong Community Music School. He is on the board of directors of the Center for Stud-

ies in Sacred Music at the Butler School and has served on its faculty at conferences. With more than 150 published works, his music is found in hymnals around the world. Upon retirement he plans to move to Berlin, where he will work on finishing several books and continue composing.

Since graduating, Christopher B. Teel (DMA 2003) has started a music department at Emery High School in southwest Houston, where he teaches music theory, music appreciation, choir, and jazz ensem-ble. He also serves as Associate Director of

College Counseling. During his time in Houston, Teel has worked as free-lance organist and a locum tenens. He served as Interim Organist and Choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church for a over a year, and regularly substitutes for col-leagues at area churches. Teel is in his seventh year as producer and host of PipeWorks, aired at 8 p.m. Sundays on

KMFA, 89.5 FM. Pipe organs and choirs from around the world are featured on the broadcast, and Teel has produced several programs on UT student and faculty organists.

Kathleen Thomerson (BM 1956, MM with Performance Award Diploma, 1958) is currently the Director of Mu-sic and Organist at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Austin, and Director of the Committee on Professional Certifica-tion of the American Guild of Organ-ists. She is well-known for the hymn I Want to Walk as a Child of God, and A Taste of Heaven’s Joys, a collection of new hymn tunes by Thomerson with text by Patricia Clark.

Graduates of the Organ Studio and the Center for Studies in Sacred Music

Lenore Alford

Jon Eifert

Kathleen Thomerson

Russell Schulz

Christopher TeelScott McNulty

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC14

At this time last year, the establishment of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Piano was announced, the latest

evidence of the Longs’ continuing support of the Butler School of Music. Last December the UT Board of Regents approved the school’s recommendation that the Long Chair be assigned to Professor Anton Nel.

This is a most appropriate honor for an outstanding faculty member who has brought great prestige to this institution through his perfor-mances around the world. Through his performance and his excellent teaching he has attracted some of the best musicians in the school from across the country and around the world. Congratulations to An-ton Nel for this deserved honor, and many thanks to the Longs for their generosity.

Endowed Professorships and Fellows NamedIn accepting the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Piano, Professor Nel relinquished the Priscilla Flawn Centennial Professorship in Piano or Organ to be assigned to another deserving faculty member. Professor Anne Epperson was named Holder of the Flawn Professor-ship last December. Since her appoint-ment to the faculty in the fall of 2008, Professor Epperson has established a world-class program in Collaborative Piano that has changed the very fabric of the Butler School.

In recognition of his outstanding work as Professor of Organ and Sacred Mu-sic, Professor Gerre Hancock has been named Fellow to the Flawn Professor-ship. Since joining the faculty in 2003, Professor Hancock has overseen the reinstatement of a sacred music pro-gram at UT that had gone defunct many years ago, and has made the or-gan program one of the most compet-itive in the nation. World renowned for his performance, and particularly for his improvisatory prowess, Professor

Hancock has attracted a full studio of world class-organists.

More than two years ago, just after giving the School’s naming gift, the Butlers gave the Sarah and Ernest Butler Endowed Professorship in Opera Conducting. After a two-year search the Butler Opera Center last fall welcomed its new conductor, James Lowe, formerly with the Hous-ton Grand Opera and most recently with the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC.

Professor Lowe was appointed Fellow to the Butler Professorship in Fall, 2009. Professor Lowe has already set very high musical standards and

has significantly strengthened the performances of the Butler Opera Center.

A year after giving the endowed professorship mentioned above, Sarah and Ernest Butler gave a second professorship entitled the Sarah and Ernest Butler Endowed Professorship in Music. In December the Board of Regents approved our recommendation that Professor of Flute Mari-anne Gedigian be named Holder of this professorship.

In the few short years she has been at UT, Professor Gedigian has built one of the strongest flute studios to be found anywhere. In giving this professorship, the Butlers continue to enhance the quality of the Butler School of Music, helping to retain outstanding faculty such as Professor Gedigian.

Anton Nel named holder of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair

Joe and Teresa Long speak at an April dinner and reception given in their honor. The event, held in the UT Main Building, included a recital by Anton Nel and several of his students.

Anton Nel and members of his studio who took part in the event honor-ing the Longs. Pictured left to right are Karolina Syrovatkova, Katherine Lee, Michael Schneider, Christopher Guzman, Anton Nel, Joseph Choi, Johan Botes. Several of Nel’s students receive scholarship support made possible by the Longs.

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15WORDS of NOTE

Ann Callaway Brown Endowment Fund for the UT String Project

Dr. R. Malcolm Brown, Jr., Johnson & John-son Centennial Chair in Plant Cell Biol-

ogy at The University of Texas at Austin, tells the inspiring story behind his and his wife Ann’s endowment that will provide perma-nent unrestricted support of the UT String Project.

The full story may be found online through The Legacy Project (endowments.giving.utexas.edu/endowments/legacy-project/), an award-winning online portal for collect-ing and sharing histories behind endow-ments to The University.

From Dr. Malcolm Brown: “When Ann was a little girl living in Austin, she enrolled in the Junior String Project at UT, as it was then named, and she learned how to play the violin. Ann benefited from this program for more than 10 years and became the concertmistress of the Junior String Project Orches-tra. The UT Junior String Project always has been a sweet spot in Ann’s life. Everyone in the Brown family is musical and loves and appreciates music.

On July 17, 2009, Ann suffered a severe stroke, which left her unable to speak and move, yet she understands everything, and we are develop-ing ways to keep the communication going.

Early in the morning on December 20, when I spent the night in Ann’s room at St. David’s Hospital near The University, I gazed out of the window and there was the UT Tower in all its glory basking in the re-flected light of the rising sun! I immediately took Ann’s camera and cap-tured this beautiful scene.

I showed the photo to George Mitchell, CEO of the University Coop, and his staff, and they agreed to sell this photo, with all proceeds going to the Ann Callaway Brown Endow-ment Fund.

Early on, I asked Ann where she would like the donated funds to go and what she would like to support. When I mentioned the

Junior String Project, her eyes lit up and she responded with a resounding ‘yes.’

This is how our contribution to the String Proj-ect at UT Austin came into being.

The University of Texas String Project has the potential to literally change the lives of thou-sands of young people. The ‘bottleneck’ is not the number of students who want to enroll in the project. It is in the space to house the proj-ect. Last year, more than 700 students were turned away from enrollment due to space limitations.

The Butler School of Music also believes in the String Project, and it is hoped that, through contributions to the Ann Callaway Brown En-dowment Fund for the UT String Project, funds can be raised for a new building as well as operating funds to enhance this valuable pro-

gram to the University, the community, and the state of Texas.

We believe that the human spirit requires music for fulfillment. To help meet these goals, this endowment will give more young people a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to literally ‘fall in love with music.’ Thus, if even one additional child can benefit because of this endowment, Ann and I will have been fulfilled immensely.”

Grant Awards for the UT String Project

The UT String Project strives to make string instruments and lessons accessible to all children in the program. To assist families in need, The UT String Project continually seeks the support of indi-vidual donors, founda-tions, and corporations.

This year, the UT String Project received two gen-erous grants: $4,000 from the Dell Foundation and $15,000 from the Texas Women for the Arts.

These funds enabled the UT String Project to se-cure an adequate inven-tory of instruments so that families of children who receive instruction through the UT String Project can afford to ob-tain an instrument at a greatly reduced rate or less for qualified families.

Recent Support for the University of Texas String Project

Ann Callaway Brown

UT String Project

Page 18: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC16

The Butler School of Music, still on cloud nine after the Butlers’ $55 million gift in 2008, re-cently added even more scholarships to its repertoire—thanks once again to the Butlers. In the summer of 2009, the couple pledged matching funds for scholarship gifts between $25,000 and $50,000 received through the end of 2009.

“The generosity of Sarah and Ernest Butler continues to amaze me,” says Glenn Chandler, director of the Butler School of Music.

Ten gifts qualified, and the result, including the matches, was $700,000 in newly en-dowed funds benefiting students across the musical spectrum. One of the scholarships came about when Professor of Musicology Michael Tusa spearheaded a fundraising effort among his Butler School colleagues. Chandler called the effort a testament to the faculty’s dedication to students, and was particularly moved that it happened during a belt-tight-ening year, in which there were no merit raises.

The rest of the donations are from the more traditional source of UT philanthropy: alumni and friends. Life members John McFarlane, BA ‘65, and wife Suzanne McFarlane, BA ‘65, BS ‘67, MEd ‘92 endowed two scholarships—one in vocal and choral arts, the other in winds.

“When we see the great things the Butler School of Music is doing, plus the high qual-ity of its students, it makes us want to be part of something bigger than ourselves,” Dr. McFarlane said. “And when we learned that the Butlers would be matching our contribu-tion, we realized we could split our money and create two!” Just what Sarah and Ernest hoped would happen.

—from the May/June 2010 issue of Philanthropy at TexasSarah and Ernest Butler

The Sarah and Ernest Butler Challenge Grant —A Banner Year for Endowed Presidential Scholarships in Music

BUTLER FEATURED EVENTS 2010-2011

Fall Faculty GalaSeptember 12, 2010 • Bates Recital Hall

University of Texas Wind EnsembleFeaturing Joseph Alessi, trombone

& The Jim Cullum Jazz BandSeptember 26, 2010 • Bass Concert Hall

Jessen Series of Distinguished Faculty ArtistsDavid Small, baritone / Rick Rowley, piano

October 15, 2010 • Jessen Auditorium

Miró QuartetBeethoven Quartets

November 18, 2010 • Bates Recital Hall

Jessen Series of Distinguished Faculty ArtistsAnton Nel, piano

January 30, 2011 • Bates Recital Hall

University of Texas Choral Arts SocietyFebruary 26, 2011 • Bates Recital Hall

Butler Opera CenterCosi fan tutte

April 21, 23, 29/May 1, 2011 McCullough Theatre

University of Texas Symphony OrchestraMay 6, 2011 • Bates Recital Hall

The Butler School announced its new annual recognition circle, The Butler Society, at the third annual Faculty Gala Concert in September. Named for philanthropists Sarah and Ernest But-ler, the Butler Society was established this year to recognize and honor individuals, corpora-tions, and foundations that make a philanthropic investment in the Butler School. Members of the Butler Society will be recognized in the annual school publication Words of Note, on the school’s website, and in the concert programs of Butler Featured Events, a series of per-formances showcasing the artist faculty, guest artists, and talented students from across the various performance areas of the Butler School of Music.

“Like the Butlers, members of the Butler Society share a common desire to support the future of the Butler School of Music and its students,” said B. Glenn Chandler, director of the Butler School. “This community of supporters has catapulted the Butler School into the elite compa-ny of top music schools, and they ensure the continued tradition of excellence in our program.”

The Butler Society recognizes all levels of giving to meet supporters’ needs and interests, and members may choose how their gifts will be used to make a difference. In order to help main-tain the program’s high standard of academic excellence, support may be directed to provide scholarships to top students, recruit the most talented faculty in each field, or to enhance com-munity outreach programs. Annual gifts may be used to support endowed program funds, scholarships and professorships, or they may be used to provide unrestricted support for the Butler School, an important benefit to all of the school’s academic endeavors.

Should you wish to make a contribution and join the Butler Society today, a reply envelope has been provided for you attached to this magazine. Simply fill in the required information and mail it to the address printed on the envelope. Please note that both your UT EID and your VIP ID can be found printed on the back of this magazine near your mailing address.

“Through their generosity, Butler Society members help us offer the very best enrichment and professional growth opportunities to students and faculty,” Chandler said. “We are profoundly grateful to our valued alumni, friends, foundations and corporate partners for their support of the Butler School of Music.”

Butler School of Music Announces ‘The Butler Society’ Recognition Circle

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Brittany Brown Endowed Scholarship in MusicHorn player and music educator Brittany Brown holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Butler School and is Director of Bands for Rouse High School in Leander, Texas. Established by her parents, Frances and Douglas Brown, this endowment honors Brittany’s outstanding work developing the band program at Rouse. The scholarship will support talented horn players and other instrumentalists graduating from the Rouse High School band program who choose to major in music at the Butler School.

Lennart and Daniel Kopra Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Classical Guitar or Music Education Marty Kopra established this new scholarship in honor and memory of her late husband, Lennart, and their son Daniel. Ultimately earning the status of Professor Emeritus in Communication Sciences and Disorders at The University of Texas at Austin, Lennart Kopra was first a student of music composition.

Daniel Kopra served the City of El Paso as Public Defender but derived great pleasure playing guitar and piano for friends and family. This new endowment honors Lennart and Daniel Kopra’s

passion for music and their appreciation for music educators by supporting outstanding students of Classical Guitar or Music Education.

Gift Highlights Professor Emeritus of Bands Vince DiNino has created two additional planned gifts for the Butler School of Music. One establishes the Vincent R. DiNino Endowed Presidential Scholarship for the Longhorn Drum Major and is given in honor of Robert Carnochan, Director of the Longhorn Band. The other establishes the Vincent R. DiNino Endowed Presidential Scholarship for the President of the Longhorn Band and is given in honor of Professor Jerry Junkin, Director of Bands. These two new planned gifts highlight Professor DiNino’s continuing legacy of support for the band program in the Butler School.

Ten New Endowed Presidential Scholarships

Other New Endowments

Vincent DiNino

Steve Barton Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Piano Created by Maria Candil to honor the memory of her friend Steve Bar-ton, this endowment supports outstanding piano students in the But-ler School of Music.

Brook Boynton Endowed Presidential Scholarship for a Clarinet Player in the Longhorn Band Lovingly given by family and friends, this new scholarship honors the legacy and memory of Brook Boynton, an outstanding clarinet player in the Longhorn Band.

Faculty Endowed Scholarship in Music A testament to the faculty’s commitment to students and to the health and vitality of the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, this new en-dowment is the collective result of many generous gifts by current and retired Butler School faculty and is designed to provide unrestricted scholarship support of students across all musical disciplines.

Albert Gillis Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Strings UT Professor of Art Kelly Fearing, with additional support from friends, former students, and colleagues of Albert Gillis, created this new schol-arship to honor the memory and legacy of Junior String Project found-ing director and Professor Emeritus of Viola Albert Gillis.

Suzanne and John McFarlane Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Vocal and Choral Arts Whether it is a sacred masterwork or a barbershop quartet, the McFar-lanes have enjoyed a lifetime of singing and making music with others. This endowment honors their shared passion for choral music.

Suzanne and John McFarlane Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Winds Given in gratitude for the opportunity to play in the Longhorn Band

under the direction of the legendary Vincent DiNino, this scholarship supports outstanding wind students in the Butler School.

Mary Elizabeth Sherrill Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Music Robert Sherrill created this endowment to honor the memory of his late wife, an accomplished pianist and organist who received a Mas-ter’s degree in Music Studies from the Butler School of Music. This new endowment supports outstanding music students, particularly those participating in chamber and collaborative music programs.

John W. and Suzanne B. Shore Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Music Through this new scholarship, which provides unrestricted support of outstanding undergraduate and graduate students in the Butler School, John and Suzanne Shore hope to encourage talented musi-cians to achieve their professional goals and to pursue their personal dreams in the arts.

Ward and Sarah Widener Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Music This endowment was created for Butler School students by Ward Wid-ener in grateful appreciation for having been provided a bassoon and the opportunity to perform in the Symphonic Band, the Symphony Or-chestra, and the Opera Orchestra during his undergraduate years in the Engineering School, 1944–1948.

Shirley Sue and Frank Howell Zachry Endowed Presidential Scholar-ship in Music Lauren Zachry-Reynolds and C. Winton Reynolds created this new en-dowment in loving memory of Lauren’s parents, who, during their life-times, provided unconditional support of their daughter’s musical edu-cation. This endowment provides unrestricted support for outstanding undergraduates in the Butler School of Music.

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC18

Elliott Antokoletz, Professor of Musi-cology, has published his 1992 book, Twentieth-Century Music, in Polish trans-lation. He has co-authored two new books, Manuel de Falla’s Cuatro Piezas Españolas: Combinations and Transformations of the Spanish Folk Modes (VDM Verlag, with Yu-Hsuan Liao) and Rethinking Debussy (Ox-ford, with Marianne Wheeldon). In the past year, he was also invited to present seven lectures in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, including the key-note lecture entitled “From Polymodal Chromaticism to Symmetrical Pitch Construction in the Musical Language of Villa-Lobos and His Contemporaries.” Antokoletz continues as editor of the annual Inter-national Journal of Musicology.

Lorenzo Candelaria, Associate Professor of Musi-cology, was awarded a full fellowship from the Na-tional Endowment for the Humanities to support his current research on the central role of music in the formation and expression of Mexican Catholic identity. The outcome of the project will be a book titled Music in Mexican Catholicism, currently under contract with the University of Rochester Press. This will be Candelaria’s second book on research focus-ing on Catholic sacred music in Western culture. His first book in that area, The Rosary Cantoral: Ritual and Social Design in a Chantbook from Early Renaissance Toledo, received the Robert M. Stevenson Award at the annual meeting of the American Musicological

Society in 2009. The award recognizes outstanding re-search on Spanish, Portuguese, or Latin American music. In September 2009, Professor Candelaria, his wife Monique and their two young daughters and son, joyfully welcomed the arrival of a new baby girl.

Andrew Dell’Antonio, Professor of Mu-sicology, was named to the 2010-2011 William David Blunk Professorship, a university-wide award that recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated

“an outstanding record both of undergraduate teaching and in concern for undergraduates.” He was also selected for the Phi Beta Kappa–Alpha of Texas 2010 Award for Distinction in Teaching, and was one of the inaugural recipients of the UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in August 2009. He was recently promoted to full professor. Professor Dell’Antonio’s book Listening as Spiritual Practice in Early Modern Italy will be published by University of California Press in early 2011.

Professor Robert DeSimone, Director of the Butler Opera Center, trav-eled in September 2009 to Panama City, Panama, where he directed a production of The Magic Flute at the Teatro Nacional. In October he trav-eled to Helsinki, Finland, for a new cooperative exchange program be-tween the Sibelius Academy and the Butler School of Music, and later served as judge for the finals of the International Bel Canto Voice Com-petition. In April he directed the BOC production of William Bolcom‘s A View from the Bridge, which received the 2009-2010 Austin Critics Table Award for Best Opera Performance. In July, DeSimone traveled to Gua-temala City and Antigua for the upcoming world premiere of the first Guatemalan written and produced opera, Tahuana.

Delaine Fedson, Senior Lecturer in Harp, taught Suzuki development courses to both teachers and students at the Colo-

rado Suzuki Institute, the American Suzuki Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and at the Southern Ontario Suzuki Institute at Wilfrid Laurier University. Fedson is a Director-at-Large for the Ameri-

can Harp Society, Inc., and was elected President of the national organization in June 2010. She was soloist with the Austin Civic Orchestra, performed with the Austin Symphony, and gave faculty recit-als at the Butler School of Music. At the Fourteenth Biennial Suzuki International Conference, Fedson presented three sessions: “Supplemental Mate-rial for the Harp,” “Arranging Harp Parts from UIL Scores,” and “The Benefits of a 21st-Century Suzuki Education.” She presented a session at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) convention, where she also directed a performance of The Uni-versity of Texas Harp Ensemble. She also directed the UT Harp Ensemble at the Corpus Christi Harp Festival and the Permian Basin Harp Festival.

Eugene Gratovich, Associate Professor of Violin, was joined by Associate Professor of Piano David Renner on the Faculty Gala Concert to perform Mendelssohn’s Sonata in F Major in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer‘s birth. Gratovich also performed the violin solos to the ballet Swan Lake with the Austin Symphony Or-chestra and Austin Ballet. During the summer of 2010, he was invited to the International Academy of Music near Florence, Italy, where he performed a world premiere of Italia by American composer

Sidney Knowlton, who performed on piano. Gratovich presented a vio-lin seminar for high school violin students in Katy, Texas, and a master class in Houston. He participated in the Austin Young Artist concert, presented ensemble classes for gifted high school students at the Asian Cultural Center, and was invited to adjudicate for the UIL Solo and En-semble Competition and the All-State TMEA auditions.

Professor of Organ and Sacred Music Gerre Hancock taught at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston as Visiting Pro-fessor of Organ and Sacred Music and performed on the Butler School’s Great Organ Series. His concert tours took him to Worcester, Baltimore, Gainesville, and to New York, where he performed in the dedication series of the restored Aeolian-Skinner organ at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. In June, Dr. Hancock was hon-ored by The American Guild of Organists as the Distinguished International Artist of the Year 2010, perhaps the highest ac-colade a concert organist can receive in the United States. Past recipients have included the great organists of Europe such as Marie-Claire Alain of Paris; Simon Preston, recently of Westminster Abbey; and Olivier Latry of Notre Dame Cathedral and the Paris Con-servatory. American organ-ists John Weaver and Thomas Murray have also received the award.

Faculty Activities

Lorenzo Candelaria

Eugene Gratovich and alumna Colleen Ferguson in Florence

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19WORDS of NOTE

Judith Hancock, Senior Lecturer in Organ and Sacred Music, per-formed in concert recently in New York City at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and at Grace Church in Brooklyn. She collaborated with Director Craig H. Johnson and his group, Conspirare, in performances of works by Duruflé and MacMillan in Austin and Corpus Christi. Dr. Hancock also collaborated with Professors Marianne Gedigian, Roger Meyers, and Joshua Gindele in a program of chamber music at The Blanton Museum. In December, she was joined by her husband, Gerre Hancock, and Professor Darlene Wiley in a concert of Christmas music for the city of Austin. She taught, lectured, and performed at the tenth anniversary of the Church of the Transfiguration at the Community of Jesus in Orleans, Massachusetts. She also performed a solo organ work at the Faculty Gala concert at the Butler School of Music.

Jeff Hellmer, Director of Jazz Studies, had an active year as performer and teacher throughout the U.S. He taught in the Idyllwild (California) Summer Jazz Program and directed the Longhorn High School Jazz Im-provisation Camp in Austin. He was conductor and piano soloist in the Dallas Wind Symphony’s Swing, Swing, Swing concert at the Meyerson Symphony Center. He performed at the International Trombone Fes-tival with Phil Wilson, David Gib-son, and Harry Watters, and played keyboards in orchestras of Bass Concert Hall productions Wicked, A Chorus Line, and The Color Purple. Hellmer led the UT Jazz Orchestra in a sold-out performance with sax-ophonist Chris Potter at the Long-horn Jazz Festival, and also com-pleted production of the Longhorn Music release of Duke Ellington’s opera, Queenie Pie.

Rebecca Henderson, Associate Professor of Oboe, was the featured clinician at Brigham Young Univer-sity‘s Double Reed Round Up in October 2009 and at the University of Nebraska‘s Double Reed Day in February of 2010. In March 2010 she performed three recitals in Ala-bama and Georgia with guitarist Alan Goldspiel, featuring the world premiere of Aspects of Cassiopeia by Joseph Landers, a duo written for Henderson. Henderson is putting finishing touches on a new record-ing that will feature commissions and premieres, to be released in the spring of 2011.

Recent publications by Senior Lecturer David Hunter, Music Librarian and Curator of the Historical Music Recordings Collection, include nu-merous entries for the Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia (Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 2009) on subjects related to George Frideric Handel and his audience, character, health, journeys, and other facets of his life and music. Hunter contributed “Bridging the gap: the Patrons-in-Common of Purcell and Handel” to Early Music 37 (2009) and an article on music of the period in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. 5, 1695-1830. His paper “Writing the Nation’s Musical Taste: Hawkins, Burney and the Popularization of Handel in the First Histories of Music” was presented at Music’s Intellectual History: First Conference of the Réper-toire International de Littérature Musicale and later published.

Kristin Wolfe Jensen, Professor of Bassoon, released a new solo re-cording, Parables and Reflections, music of Virko Baley, on the TNC label. She performed preview recitals on the UT campus and at the Ukrai-nian Institute of America in New York. The July/August 2010 issue of Fanfare magazine reviewed the recording, saying it gave Jensen “ample

opportunity to showcase her virtuosity; she’s unfazed by rapid pas-sages demanding agility and precision, she has mastered the Baroque technique of counterpointing melodious phrases with pedal tones, she alternates effortlessly between themes separated by register to create the illusion that a solo instrument can conduct a dialogue with itself, and she suavely overcomes the potential pitfalls that long-lined legato phrases pose for wind instrumentalists.” Jensen also completed a multi-year project, her free multimedia bassoon method web site, Music and the Bassoon (www.musicandthebassoon.org). The site includes an ex-tensive method book, over 100 audio clips, and over 30 video tutori-als. The Double Reed Journal called it “an incredible new website, which will be a tremendous asset to beginning and intermediate students, public school music educators, college method courses, and many oth-ers.” In January, Ms. Jensen was a featured performer and master class presenter at the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Symposium at the Oberlin Conservatory, where she collaborated with UT bassoon alumni, including Lecolion Washington (BM 1999, Associate Professor, The University of Memphis), Jenny Mann (MM 2000, DMA 2007, As-sistant Professor, University of Alabama) and Maya Stone (DMA 2010,

Assistant Professor, Middle Tennes-see State University), and piano alumnus Vincent De Vries (DMA 2004, Assistant Professor, Baylor University).

Professor of Violin Brian Lewis, holder of the David and Mary Win-ton Green Chair in String Perfor-mance and Pedagogy, performed as soloist with orchestras in Texas including the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston,  Amarillo Symphony, Midland-Odessa Sym-phony, and the Sound of Pride Orchestra in Austin, which was founded and organized by Butler School graduate Pasha Sabouri (MM 2007, DMA 2010). Lewis was also a soloist with the St. Barth’s

Festival Orchestra in the French West Indies. He was awarded the Medal of St. Barth’s by the President of the island for nineteen years of dedica-tion and artistic involvement in the island’s cultural life. Professor Lewis taught master classes and performed internationally on tours of Japan, Brazil, France, and El Salvador with faculty pianist Rick Rowley. With generous support from the Starling Foundation, the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program continues in Kansas featuring renowned violin faculty from across the nation. Lewis continues as Artistic Director of the Star-ling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at The Juilliard School.

Assistant Professor James Lowe, Music Director of the Butler Opera Center, conducted the New York premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s opera The Hotel Casablanca at DiCapo Opera. In New York he also served as As-sociate Music Director of the City Center Encores! production of Fanny starring the legendary George Hearn. In May he was Music Director of the workshop of a new musical by Joseph Thalken, Mark Campbell, and Michael Slade titled Wheatley’s Folly. A comedy about the production of The Black Crook, widely considered to be the first American musical, Wheatley’s Folly will premiere at Virginia’s Signature Theater in March 2011. In August 2010 he conducted Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Sugar Creek Symphony and Song Festival in Illinois.

While maintaining an active teaching schedule, Assistant Professor of Violin Anne Akiko Meyers toured nationally and internationally as guest soloist with jazz trumpeter Chris Botti and pop-opera act Il Divo,

BSOM Faculty at St. Bath’s (from left)Rebecca Henderson, Joshua Gindele, Roger Myers, John Largess, Daniel Ching, Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC20

and performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, and Toronto Symphony. In September, E1 Entertainment released her latest CD, Seasons…Dreams, featuring three world premieres and col-laborations with harpist Emmanuel Ceysson and pianist Reiko Uchida. This CD follows her highly successful recording Smile, which charted on Billboard. A recording of Meyers playing the Dvorak Romance with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Litton, was recently released by Sony. Meyers commissioned Jakub Ciupinski to write The Wreck of the Umbria for electronics and violin, which she premiered at the Butler School of Music. Professor Meyers was nominated for best instrumentalist and recitalist with pianist Anton Nel by the Austin Crit-ics Table in 2010.

In September 2009, John Mills, Associate Professor of Jazz Composi-tion and Jazz Saxophone, served as artistic director for the Tina Marsh Memorial Concert by the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, with mem-bers returning from across the country for a final tribute. Mills wrote orchestral arrangements for songwriter Arto Lindsay’s appearance with the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Parma, Italy, and played concerts with New York-based performers Diahann Carroll and Steve Lippia at the Long Center, Allan Harris at the One World The-atre, and Don Rickles at the Paramount Theatre. Mills leads Times Ten, an innovative ensemble that plays his compositions exclusively and will have a recording released in the fall. The University of Connecticut Jazz Ensemble devoted an entire concert to his composi-tions in November. Mills performed as a saxophon-ist with composer Graham Reynolds for the Houston Silent Film Series, Ballet Austin, and SXSW. He also played a variety of woodwind instruments for Grease, The Color Purple, and A Chorus Line during their Austin runs. He wrote new arrangements for Sara Hickman, Ray Benson, and Andrew Heller, and recorded with Ter-ri Hendrix, Michael DeBarres, and others. Once again, Mills returned with the Texas Horns as the “artists-in-residence” brass section for the Ottawa Cisco Systems BluesFest, one of the largest pop music festivals in North America.

Beginning with the birth of a new baby boy to Miró Quartet violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto in September 2009, the past season was busy and exciting for the quartet. Highlights included two appearances in New York and return visits to major concert series in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Montréal, among others. Of their appearance on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Beethoven Quartet series, The Strad wrote: “The Miró Quartet showed off its ability to balance strong individual voices with an equally compelling ensemble.” The Miró Quartet also toured Germany including a performance at Frankfurt’s esteemed Alte Oper. They toured Japan, participating in numerous community outreach concerts. The quartet also taught master classes at the Peabody Conservatory, Temple University, and Mercer University in Georgia. Their busy 2010 summer schedule brought them to Music@Menlo, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, White Pine Festival, San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, and the Banff Centre.  For more information on all of the Miró Quartet’s activities, please visit www.miroquartet.com.

Robin Moore, Professor of Ethnomusicology, published a new text-book with Oxford University Press entitled Music of the Hispanic Carib-bean. The book compares musical traditions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and is accompanied by a CD, listening guides, instructor’s manual, suggested classroom activities, and lists of audio-visual and other resources. Moore is currently editing a larger textbook project, Music in Latin America: An Introduction, which will include con-tributions from eight other specialists. To be published by Norton in

2011, the volume represents the first comprehensive overview of Latin American music for classroom purposes and will provide an introduc-tion to traditional, popular, and classical repertoire. Professor Moore spoke at the University of Florida and Grand Valley State University in Michigan, and organized two panels in Mexico City during the Society for Ethnomusicology’s annual meeting. He has served as editor of the Latin American Music Review.

Roger Myers, Professor of Viola and Head of the Strings Division, had a busy year which included two performances of the Suite for Viola and Orchestra written for him by composer Michael McLean. Myers com-missioned the work in memory of his mother and will perform it again with Orchestra Omaha in November 2010. He also performed the rarely heard Double Concerto for Violin and Viola by Benjamin Britten at the Marrowstone Music Festival. He performed and taught in many loca-tions including St. Barthelemy in the French West Indies, Beijing China, and six music festivals.

Anton Nel, Professor of Piano, enjoyed a year full of performances across North America. Highlights include tours performing the Grieg,

Brahms 2nd, and Stravinsky Piano Concertos, as well the Rach-maninov Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. He also served a weeklong residency in Vancouver, BC. During the summer he performed and taught at the Aspen Music Festival, Mainly Mozart in San Diego, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and the Highlands-Cashiers Festival in North Carolina. Notable chamber music performances include his eighth season of concerts with principals in the San Francisco Symphony, the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, and an all-Brahms concert with the Takacs String Quartet. At the Butler School, he performed on faculty recitals with Anne Akiko Meyers, Bion Tsang, and the Texas Piano Quartet. This season also saw the acclaimed release of his new recording with Bion Tsang, containing the complete Brahms Cello and Piano Works, plus Hungarian Dances transcribed by Profes-sor Tsang. In January, Nel, former holder of the Priscilla Pond

Flawn Regents Professorship, became the new occupant of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Piano.

Professor David Neubert has been nominated Chair of the IT Faculty Council, which oversees and advises UT on information and instruc-tional technology. He has recently done research into video conferenc-ing using cloud computing technology, in which multiple users simply use a web link to join a video conference, without needing specialized software. Neubert has hosted approximately 20 video conferences with various Austin public school music programs in a program sponsored by the Austin Symphony Educational Program and Dell. By hosting a committee meeting at UT while he was on vacation in California, Neu-bert demonstrated technology that may eventually save The University thousands of dollars in travel costs while also lowering carbon emis-sions. His next research project will be on software to record lectures

New book by Robin Moore

David Neubert, in California, presides over virtual conference at UT.

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in the School’s “smart class-rooms” with the lectures then accessible on the in-ternet to students enrolled in the courses. Neubert has applied for a major grant through the UT Research and Education IT Commit-tee to upgrade several of the “smart classrooms.” As Principal Bass of the Austin Symphony, Neubert chaired the orchestral audition competition and the All-State orchestra preparation workshop at the 2009 Texas Bass Symposium, held at Texas Christian University. His former student Yuan Xiong Lu (MM 1998), now Professor of Double Bass at TCU, orga-nized the symposium.

Professor of Saxophone Harvey Pittel’s recent activities include an appearance as featured classical solo recitalist, clinician, and adjudicator in Mexico City at the 2009 VIII Encuentro Universitario Internacional De Saxopfón at the Escuela Nacional De Música, The National Autonomous University of Mexico. Pittel released the re-cording Sextuor (Crystal CD353), perform-ing with the Westwood Woodwind Quintet, and with his student Sunil Gadgil (BM 2006, MM 2008) in the Hindemith Duo. Professor Pittel performs John Mackey’s Concerto with the Riverside Community College Wind Ensemble on the new release Shape Shifter, SBC4004, on the Sea Breeze Label. Another new release with the Jupiter Symphony is pending. TexSax, the Butler School of Music Saxophone Choir directed by Pittel, recently released Over the Rainbow and Bach Again, on the Butler School’s Longhorn Music label.

Professor of Trumpet Ray Sasaki pre-sented a recital in October 2009 for the Jessen Series of Distinguished Fac-ulty Artists that featured world premiere performances of Morgan Powell’s Ma-borosi for solo trumpet/flugelhorn and percussion and Chimera for six trum-pets, performed by the UT Trumpet Ensemble, which is comprised of Sasaki students. Renowned composer Morgan Powell, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, was in attendance. Special guest, Chicago per-cussionist Steve Butters, joined Sasaki in Mabarosi. Sasaki toured with the Saint Louis Brass Quintet through Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Florida and Georgia.

Sasaki was Artist-in-Residence at the University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, in February, performing concerts along with the Tone Road Ramblers and presenting improvisation master classes. Sasaki is the Frank C. Erwin, Jr., Centennial Professor in Fine Arts.

UT String Project Director Laurie Scott, Associate Professor in Music and Human Learning, has co-authored a new book with William Dick

and Winifred Crock, re-cently premiered at the national conference of the American String Teach-er‘s Association in Santa Clara California. Learning Together: Sequential Rep-ertoire for Solo Strings or String Ensemble features a CD of recorded repertoire including individual string solos with piano accompa-niment, mixed string trio ensembles, and piano ac-companiments alone. De-signed for use in the pri-

vate studio as well as in university methods courses, the book reflects the belief that the first stages of study are the most important and set the tone and limits of further development. In June, Dr. Scott was invit-ed to Hawaii as guest conductor of the Junior Orchestra Festival, which

featured middle and high school students and culminated in a Honolulu concert. The festival was sponsored by the Hawaii chapter of the American String Teacher‘s Association.

Professor of Composition Dan Welcher received a Faculty Research Assignment in 2009-10 to write an opera based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s seminal short story The Yellow Wallpaper, and spent the academic year away from UT. After writing his own libretto and beginning composi-tion in New York City, he spent six weeks as a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. The Camargo Foundation awarded Welcher a four-month residency

in Cassis, France, where he completed the full score while enjoying win-ter and spring on the Mediterranean. Cast in seven connected scenes, the opera is an unbroken 81-minute piece for mezzo-soprano, offstage soprano, and chamber orchestra. Welcher plans to conduct a London recording session of selections from the opera with soloist and alumna Lucy Schaufer (MM 1990) and the Endymion Chamber Orchestra, with hopes that the resulting recording will help secure a premiere in a ma-jor venue. Welcher describes the work as his biggest to date.

Laurie Scott (right) and musicians of the Honolulu Junior Orchestra

Ray Sasaki

Harvey Pittel (center), his student Branford Marsalis (left), and Sting

Dan Welcher serves four-month residency in the south of France.

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC22

Robert Duke, the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Pro-fessor and Head of Music and Human Learning in the Butler School of Music, has received a career re-search award from MENC: The Nation-al Association for Music Education. The MENC Senior Researcher Award is “meant to recognize a sustained re-cord of significant scholarly achieve-ment related to music teaching and learning.” One of his nominators wrote, “To say that he has been a con-sistently productive scholar across a long career in higher education seems to understate the amount of activity in research and teaching he has main-tained, the quality of that research and teaching, the positive influence he has had on students and colleagues, and the professional contribution he has made by shaping a research agenda that serves as a model for our discipline.” The award was presented at the organization’s

biennial meeting in Anaheim, California, in March 2010.

Judith Jellison, Professor of Music and Human Learning, was awarded a Regents Outstanding Teaching Award for 2010 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. The awards for the nine aca-demic institutions are a symbol of the im-portance placed on the provision of undergradu-ate teaching and learning of the highest order and

in recognition of those who serve students in an exemplary manner. In an August award ceremony, Professor Jellison stated: “Students graduate from our program mindful that they still have much to learn, but they are encouraged by their compe-tence as new teachers, and they are eager to affect the lives of the children placed in their charge. They want to change the world. It is a high privilege and a distinct honor for me to help pre-

pare them for the teaching profession.”

This year’s Butler School of Music Teaching Excellence Awards were awarded to Professor of Bassoon Kristin Jensen, who was given the award in the area of perfor-mance, and Byron Almén, Associate Professor of Theo-ry, who received the award in the academic area. Congrat-ulations to both of these out-standing teachers on being selected by their colleagues for this recognition.

Faculty Awards

Kristin Jensen

Byron Almén

Judith Jellison

Robert Duke

Assistant Professor of Musiciology Charles Carson is a musicologist whose interests are African-American/American expressive cultures, popular music, jazz, film music, and music and culture. A gradu-ate of the Moores School of Mu-sic at the University of Houston, Dr. Carson is a former Howard Mayer Brown Fellow for the American Musicological Soci-ety. He received his PhD in Mu-sic History from the University of Pennsylvania, with a disser-tation entitled “Broad and Mar-ket: At the Crossroads of Race and Class in Philadelphia Jazz, 1956-1980.” He has presented and published in a number of venues, on topics ranging from theme park music to smooth jazz.

Harrington Faculty Fellow Holly Watkins will be in residence in 2010-2011 as a Donald B. Harrington Faculty Fellow. This program brings to campus every year a small group of outstanding young professors from universities around the world for one-year residencies allowing them to focus on research projects and interact with UT faculty and stu-dents. Dr. Watkins received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been on the faculty at the Eastman School of Music since 2004. She has published in such leading journals as 19th-Century Music, Journal of the American Musicological Society, and Cur-rent Musicology, exploring the connections be-

tween music and culture. While in residence Dr. Watkins will be finishing a book dealing with metaphors of depth in German music criticism and analysis between 1800 and 1950. She will also offer a seminar for graduate students in spring 2011.

Specialist in Drum Set A versatile and active drummer and educator, Wayne Salzmann II has performed with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Chris Potter, Terence Blanchard, and many others, performed on over a dozen albums, and recorded multiple commercials, television shows and Hollywood film soundtracks. Salzmann has toured extensively throughout the U.S. , Eu-rope, and in Brazil. Notable perfor-mances include the National Wind Ensemble in Carnegie Hall, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Jazz Nos Fos in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and SXSW. He has studied with some of the world’s greatest drummers, and joins the fac-ulty immediately after finishing his Masters Degree in Jazz Performance at UT. He has taught private lessons for over ten years and has given doz-ens of clinics in the US and Brazil. In addition to teaching for the Univer-sity of Texas Jazz Studies depart-ment, Salzmann directed the Austin Live Music Academy Ensemble and performs almost every night in and around Austin.

New Faculty Appointments for 2010–11

Charles Carson

Holly Watkins

Wayne Salzmann II

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The students, faculty, and ensembles of the Butler School of Music continue to be recognized for their excellent

performances by the Austin community. Last spring the Butler School received ten Austin Critics Table nominations across the spectrum of Classical Music categories. Nominations included kudos for ensembles such as the Symphony Orchestra, Combined Choirs, and the Butler Opera center.

On June 7, 2010, the Austin Critics Table named four of those ten nominations as winners in their respective categories. The Butler Opera Center’s production of William Bolcom’s A View From the Bridge was named Best Opera of the 2009-2010 season, and Cristina Caldas (DMA Voice/Opera), received a Best Singer award for her work on that same production.

Brad Raymond (DMA Voice) also received a Best Singer award for his portrayal of the lead character in the Butler Opera Center’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring. For Best Original Composition, DMA Composition student Steve Snowden was recognized for his work Two Cautionary Tales. Butler School of Music alumnus James Dick (BM 1963) was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame as part of this same event.

Rubin Casas and Cristina Caldas

In January 2010, Longhorn Music announced a distribution deal with Naxos, the world’s largest distributer of classical and jazz music. As

part of the new agreement, Naxos is distributing Longhorn Music releases through it’s commercial channels worldwide, including online channels like iTunes and Amazon.com, as well as brick and mortar music retailers. Sales of Longhorn Music releases have increased 500% since the agreement was made.

Longhorn Music released three new recordings during the 2009-10 season. Miró Quartet’s new recording The Miró Quar-

tet Live! was released in November 2009, and quickly became the #1 seller through Naxos Direct, Naxos’ online music store. The recording includes Dvorak’s American Quartet, op. 96, and Credo by composer and former Butler School of Music professor of composition Kevin Putz. The recording has received wide critical acclaim. Gramophone Magazine recently praised the record’s “exceptional vibrancy,

warmth and nuance.“

In January, the label released Queenie Pie, the premiere recording of Duke Ellington’s only opera, featuring re-nowned jazz vocalist Carmen Bradford in the title role. This release is the only commercial recording of Ellington’s opus. University of Texas faculty scholars reconstructed Queenie Pie from incomplete scores specifically for a But-ler Opera Center production in spring 2009. This recording of Queenie Pie features the same award-winning cast as the 2009 live production, under the baton of Jeff Hellmer. The opera’s big band sound and clever

lyrics make it fun, but the story behind the album really makes it swing. Ellington began writing Queenie Pie late in life, and the score was un-

finished at his death in 1974. Over 35 years later, scholars at the Butler School of Music worked with Ellington’s friend and Queenie Pie co-author Betty McGettigan to reconstruct and finish the opera. While other versions of the work had been performed before, McGettigan considered this version to be closest to Ellington’s original vision. Before her death in Octo-ber 2009, McGettigan called this recording of Queenie Pie her “authorized version” of the opera.

In the spring of 2010 Longhorn Records re-leased Over the Rainbow and Bach Again fea-turing Tex Sax, the saxophone choir at the Butler School of Music, under the direction of professor Harvey Pittel. Over the Rain-bow and Bach Again showcases the diverse

sounds of saxophone ensem-ble music with a wide variety of repertoire. The album’s title is a clever play on words that actually describes the project. Featured prominently in the album is Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen, in celebration of the song’s 70th anni-versary. “Bach Again” describes the musical journey of the 12-piece ensemble, and is also a tongue-in-cheek refer-ence to the group’s 1997 album Tex Sax, which featured a different ensemble of student saxophonists performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 1. These, and all record-

ings from Longhorn Records are now available through Naxos, iTunes, Amazon.com, and other music retailers world-wide.

Longhorn Music inks deal with Naxos, releases three new recordings

Austin Critics Table Awards recognize Butler School of Music students

Brad Raymond Steven Snowden

Austin Critics Table Nominations, 2010Symphonic Performance UT Symphony Orchestra Bolcom Spring Concerto

Barber Piano Concerto op. 38 Prokofiev Suite from Romeo and Juliet

Chamber Performance Anne Akiko Meyers, violin & Anton Nel, piano

Texas Piano Quartet An Evening of Works by Robert Schumann

Choral Performance UT Combined Choirs /UT Symphony Orchestra

Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem Opera

Butler Opera Center Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring

William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge Vocalist

Cristina Caldas, A View from the Bridge Rubin Casas, A View from the Bridge

Brad Raymond Albert Herring Original Composition/Score

Steven Snowden’s Two Cautionary Tales

John

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC24

Barry Snyder is internationally acclaimed as a pianist and teacher. After winning the Silver Med-al, Pan American Union Award, and the Chamber Music Prize at the 1966 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he has gone on to record nearly forty CDs and given concerts around the world.

Olivier Latry, organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris and one of the world’s most distin-guished organists performed on our Great Organ Se-ries. He has performed in more than forty countries, and was named International Performer of the Year by the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists in 2009.

A guest performer on our Starling Distinguished Vio-linist Series, Erin Keefe combines exhilarating tem-perament and fierce integrity. A top prize winner of international competitions, she has appeared with or-chestras world-wide and has given recitals in the U.S., Austria, Germany, Korea, Poland, Japan and Denmark.

Warren Jones was recently named as “Collaborative Pianist of the Year” by Musical America. He performs with many of today's best-known artists, includ-ing Stephanie Blythe, Denyce Graves, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Anthony Dean Griffey, and in the past has partnered with such great performers as Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Carol Vaness, Tatiana Troya-nos, and Martti Talvela.

Billy Ray Hunter, Jr. (BM ’97) is Principal Trum-pet of the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Assistant Principal Trumpet with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago. He has per-formed with the New World Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Boston, Baltimore, Dallas symphonies, and many others.

Described as performing “stunningly beautiful guitar and harp duets to a captivated audience,” Kimberly DeRosa and Marc Garvin merge their classical backgrounds with their unique creativ-ity to produce exquisite arrangements of South American, Spanish and Classical music ranging from Andean folk songs to the music of Granados, Piazzolla and Bizet.

Elmar Oliveira was another special guest in our Star-ling Distinguished Violinist Series. He was the first vio-linist to win the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, and remains the only American to win the gold medal at the pres-tigious International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has performed as soloist with the world’s great orchestras.

Matthias Müller, Professor of Clarinet at the Zurich University of the Arts, is known as a versatile interpret-er, composer and teacher. He has performed as soloist with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Basle Symphony Orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, and as a chamber musician in various groups.

Susan Moeser is Professor of Organ and University Organist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is active in the American Guild of Organists, has performed concerts at sites all over the world, including Westminster Abbey and Portugal, Germany and South Korea.

Russian pianist and pedagogue Jura Margulis has won prizes in more than a dozen international competitions,and has also received the esteemed Pro Europa prize. He has been recognized for his compel-lingly communicative performances, the range of his tonal palette and his consummate virtuosity.

David Littrell is a University Distinguished Profes-sor at Kansas State University where he conducts the orchestra and teaches or plays the cello, baroque cello, five-string violoncello piccolo, double bass, viola da gamba, and electric cello. His recent recital tour in England included Coventry Cathedral, York, the Lake District and London.

Lynn Harrell is one of the leading cellists of his generation and is especially popular in the United States and Great Britain. He is known for his broad and big-toned performance style and technical mastery, as well as his geniality and delight in music making. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Piatigorsky Award, and the Ford Foundation Concert Artists’ Award.

Just a few of last year’s many distinguished visiting artists . . .

Jean

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Dan

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On October 29 the Butler Opera Center opened a three-night run of The House of the Sun by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara

here at UT. Through the co-production of this powerful dramatic op-era, the Butler School of Music and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, developed a meaningful collaboration.

Three Butler School opera students spent over five weeks in Helsinki studying and preparing for the joint production that opened in Hel-sinki on October 14. The composer attended the event. Rautavaara is perhaps not as well known in the U.S., but in Finland he is the most prominent successor to his famous teacher, Jean Sibelius.

The Sibelius Academy is a world renowned musical institution; its alumni include Esa Pekka Salonen, known in recent years as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Professor Robert DeSimone, Director of the Butler Opera Center, worked with Sibelius Academy Stage Director Vilppu Kiliunen to de-velop this collaboration. The production was cast with both Butler School and Sibelius Academy vocalists. The Sibelius Academy orches-tra performed in the pit in Finland and the UT Symphony Orchestra performed in the Austin productions. Sibelius Academy conductor Markus Lehtinen conducted all performances. The level of musical performance was outstanding and audience reception in both venues was enthusiastic.

One cast member, Butler School doctoral voice student Soo Ah Park, said that her experience in this collaboration changed her life. The But-ler School has a number of international exchange programs where similar experiences transpire regularly. These experiences enrich the education of our students in a special way that is not possible other-wise.

Providing opportunities to develop an understanding of other cul-tures is one of the most important things that educators can do for ther students. Music is the universal language providing one of the best tools to bring about cultural understanding. The Finnish students

said that their visit to Austin totally destroyed their preconceived no-tions of Texas as flat desert sands with bleached skulls under cacti.

Plans have already been laid for another initiative between the Butler School and the Sibelius Academy in the spring of 2011, and an even larger project is in the formative stages for the next year.

In the last few years Butler School faculty and students have per-formed or conducted research on six continents. The Butler School of Music is committed to establishing itself as a truly international institution.

Butler Opera Center and Sibelius Academy Collaborate on Two Continents

Butler opera students perform with students from Sibelius Academy

The 2009-10 season of the Butler Opera Center was

highlighted by the exchange production of The House of the Sun by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, which was premiered in Helsinki and later performed in Austin with cast from both coun-tries.

In February, Albert Herring was directed by DMA direct-ing major Marc Reynolds and conducted by Jim Lowe, the new BOC music director.

In April, the Center presented the world premiere of the new orchestration of William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge with performances in Austin and San Antonio.

The Butler Opera Center sea-son for 2010-11 will include E'lixir d'Amore, a new world premiere orchestration of Rappaccini's Daughter by Daniel Catan, and Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte.

Butler Opera Center2009–2010 Mainstage Productions

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SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC26

School-wide AwardsButler School of Music Concerto Competitions

Rachel Wong, BM Violin PerformanceStephen Key, BM Oboe Performance

Chia-Jung Lee, DMA Flute PerformanceChristopher Luther, DMA Viola Performance

David O. Nilsson Solo Piano Competition Joseph Choi, BM Piano Performance - First prize

Wayne Ching, BM Piano Performance - Second prizeG. Michael Frels, BA Music - Third prize

Eleanor A. Stribling Awards for Excellence in Jazz StudiesGraduate - Wayne Salzmann II, MM Percussion, Jazz EmphasisUndergraduate - David Sierra, BM Percussion, Jazz Emphasis

Sidney M. Wright Piano Accompanying CompetitionJohan Botes, DMA Piano Performance- First Prize

Michael Schneider, DMA Piano Performance- Second PrizeChristopher Guzman, DMA Piano Performance - Honorable MentionColleen McCullough, DMA Violin Performance - Best Instrumentalist

Alex Glen, BM Trombone Performance - Best InstrumentalistIcy Simpson, Artist Diploma, Voice - Best Vocalist

Undergraduate AwardsPresser Foundation Scholar, 2010-11

Elana Estrin, BA Music, Plan II Honors Program

Fulbright Grant for study at Kodály Institute, 2010-11Ellen Parks, BM Choral Music Studies

SAI Collegiate Honor Award and Scholastic AwardKaren A. Kachelmeier, BM Music Studies, Clarinet

Outstanding Undergraduate RecitalsPerformers Certificate Recital - John Arndt, BM Jazz Performance,

PianoJunior Recitals - Alicia Mielke, BM Flute Performance

Alex Glen, BM Trombone PerformanceAndrew Emerich, BM Percussion Performance

Cho Young “Gloria” Kim, BM Piano PerformanceGrace Woodworth, BM Oboe Performance

Senior Recital - Graham Gibson, BM Trombone Performance

Certificates of Recognition in PerformanceJohn Arndt, BM Jazz Performance, Piano

Meredith Bowden, BM Music Studies, VoiceThomas Roduta, BA Music, Voice

Jancie Philippus, BM Music Studies, HornShane Lamb, BM Composition, Piano

Aimee Chung, BA Music ; Pre Med, PianoAshley Pribyl, BA Music, Horn

Melissa Wyatt, BA Music ; Plan II, ViolaMegan Liles, BM Music Studies, VoiceTammy Vo, BA Music; Pre Med, Piano

Deolindo Chada, BA Music ; Pre Med, VoiceClaire Morris, BA Music, VoiceBree Guerra, BA Music, Piano

Graduate AchievementsOutstanding Dissertation

Russell Haight, DMA Jazz Performance, Saxophone

Outstanding Graduate RecitalsArtist Diploma Recital

The Æolus Quartet: Nicholas Tavani, MM Violin; Rachel Shapiro, MM Violin; Gregory Luce, AD Viola; Alan Richardson, MM Cello

Master of Music RecitalsJesse Cook, MM Trumpet Performance

Karolina Syrovatkova, MM Piano PerformanceRuoxu Chen, MM Piano PerformanceSoo Jin Nam, MM Violin Performance

Doctor of Musical Arts RecitalsMichael Schneider, DMA Piano Performance

Soo-Ah Park, DMA Voice/Opera Emphasis

Doctor of Musical Arts Chamber RecitalJoanna Martin, DMA Flute Performance

Doctor of Musical Arts Lecture RecitalsYi-Hui Wu, DMA Violoncello Performance

Elizabeth Petillot, DMA Vocal Performance Pasha Sabouri, DMA Violin Performance

Graduate FellowshipsWoodrow Wilson Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies

Sidra Lawrence, PhD Ethnomusicology

Netherland-America Foundation Fulbright Grant Royal Conservatory of the Hague, 2010-11

Abigail Mace, DMA Piano Performance

Harrington Graduate Fellowship, 2009-10 Steven Parker, DMA Trombone Performance

Cullen Trust Endowed Fellowship, 2009-10Jennifer Beavers, PhD Music Theory

William S. Livingston Endowment Fellowship, 2009-10Kim Kattari, PhD Ethnomusicology

David Bruton, Jr. Fellowship, 2009-10Yoon-Sang Lee, DMA Voice/Opera Performance

Butler School of Music Student Awards, 2009–10

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University Preemptive Fellowship, 2009-10Christopher Luther, DMA Viola Performance

University Graduate Recruitment Fellowships, 2009-10Malcolm Cooper, MM Opera/Voice Emphasis

Marcus Wilcher, MM Music Composition/Jazz Emphasis

Editorial Graduate Research Assistantship, 2009-10Krista Kateneva, PhD Ethnomusicology

Eben Graves, PhD Ethnomusicology

Outside Achievements2010 University of West Florida Philips Jazz Piano CompetitionPeter Stoltzman, DMA Music and Human Learning, Jazz Emphasis -

First Prize & Audience Favorite Award

2010 MTNA National Young Artist Wind CompetitionDaniel Velasco, MM Flute Performance - First Prize

2010 Byron Hester Memorial Flute CompetitionJoanna Martin, DMA Flute Performance - First Prize

Missouri Western St. Joseph International Guitar CompetitionJoseph Williams, DMA Guitar Performance - First Prize

2010 Florida Flute Association Young Artist CompetitionAlicia Mielke, BM Flute Performance - First Prize

2010 William C. Hall Organ-Playing Competition, First Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, Texas

Jung Jin Kim, MM Organ Performance - First Prize in Repertory & First Prize in Hymn-playing

Storm Knien, DMA Organ Performance - Participation Prize Winner

2010 Eastern Trombone Workshop National Solo Competition Finals

Bass Trombone Competition - Division 2 (age 18-23) - Jeriad Wood, MM Trombone Performance - First Prize

Division 3 (age 23 and up) - Darren Workman, DMA Trombone Performance - First Prize

Tenor Trombone Competition (age 18-23) - Amanda Lester, BM Trombone Performance - Finalist

2010 Big XII Solo CompetitionsTenor Trombone Competition - Amanda Lester, BM Trombone

Performance - First PrizeBen Balleza, MM Trombone Performance - Finalist

Bass Trombone Competition - Darren Workman, DMA Trombone Performance - First Prize

2010 Fort Dodge Symphony Young Artists CompetitionCaleb Polashek, BM Violin Performance - First Place

2009 Texas A&M Kingsville Horn Workshop Solo CompetitionMiguel Cabrera, MM Horn Performance - Winner

2009 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer AwardSteven Snowden, DMA Composition

2010 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer AwardGabriel Santiago, DMA Jazz Composition

2010 ISCM World New Music Days Festival, AustraliaIan Dicke, DMA Composition - Selected to represent the state of Texas

DownBeat’s 33rd Annual Student Music Awards, 2010Ulrich Ellison, MM Jazz Performance, Guitar - Outstanding

Performance AwardJuan Lopez, BM Recording Technology - Outstanding Engineered Live

Recording

2010 Mid-South Flute Society Solo CompetitionChia-Jung Lee, DMA Flute Performance - Second Prize

2009 Zellmer Minnesota Orchestra Trombone CompetitionGraham Gibson, BM Trombone Performance - Third Prize

2010 Crescendo Music Awards, OklahomaRachel Wong, BM Violin Performance - Third Prize

2010 San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Strings CompetitionRachel Wong, BM Violin Performance - Third Prize

2010 National Opera Association Vocal Competition 2010 Shreveport Opera Vocal Competiton

Yoon-Sang Lee, DMA Voice/Opera Performance - Finalist

2010 International Trombone Association CompetitionsWiehe Solo Competition (age 23 and under) - Matt Carr, BM Trombone

Performance - Second AlternateMarsteller Solo Competition (age 22 and under) - Josh Balleza, BM

Trombone Performance - Second AlternateGagliardi Solo Competition (age 18 and under) - Joey Prescott, BM

Trombone Performance - Second AlternateQuartet Competition - Subito Bones: Alex Glen, BM; Matt Carr, BM;

Josh Balleza, BM; Graham Gibson, BM - Honorable Mention

2010 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, OberlinLaura Miller, MM Bassoon Performance - Honorable Mention

Ensemble Awards2009 International Horn Symposium Ensemble Competition

UT Horn Choir - First PlaceAnthony Alonso, BA; Brittany Brown, BM Music Studies; Miguel Cabrera, MM; Anne Marie Cherry, MM; Allie D’Amico, BM Music

Studies; Cynthia Garza, BM Music Studies; Lauren McKinney, MM; Monica Martinez, DMA; Joel Ockerman, BM

2009 Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza National CompetitionUT Mariachi Ensemble (Michael Acevedo, MM Trumpet Performance,

director) - Third Place, Collage Category

2010 National Trumpet CompetitionUT Trumpet Ensemble - Finalists

Michael Acevedo, MM; Michael Arnold, BM; Jesse Cook, MM; Matt Carter, MM; Chris Heldt, MM; Ian Kivler, BM; Kyle Koronka, DMA;

Chris Prause, BM

Page 30: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC28

Student jazz composer wins ASCAP awardIn a June ceremony in New York City, doctoral jazz composition student Gabriel Santiago received the 2010 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award for his composition Northeast Impressions Suite, which was composed for and premiered by the UT Jazz Orchestra in 2009.

In Spring 2010, Santiago led his quintet on a tour which included performances in concert halls and a visit to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, where he was featured as a guest artist and composer. His compositions were featured at a concert performed by the school’s jazz ensembles along with the Santiago Quintet. Quintet members talked with music classes and participated in a master class. The group recently filmed a music video in California. A CD/DVD package is scheduled for a Spring 2011 release.

The Gabriel Santiago Quintet consists of Santiago on guitar and vocals, Peter Stoltzman on piano, Russell Haight on sax and clarinet, Wayne Salzmann II on drums, and Patrice Blanchard on electric bass.

Student wins jazz piano competitionPeter Stoltzman, DMA student in Music and Human Learning, Jazz Emphasis, won first prize at the Phillips Jazz Piano Competition, held in Pensacola, Florida, in April, 2010. He was also presented the Audience Favorite Award at the event, which is open to undergrad-uate and graduate jazz pianists throughout the United States.

This was the second consecutive year Stoltzman has been named as a finalist in the competition. He received a $5000 prize and per-formed a concert at the Pensacola JazzFest.

Doctoral student Abigail Mace was awarded a Netherland-America Foundation Fulbright Grant to study in The Hague during the 2010-

11 academic year. Her study will focus on interpreting and per-forming music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in par-ticular the toccatas and fantasias of Bach and his contemporaries.

Another goal is to learn more about the the success of early mu-sic in the Netherlands. The Hague, known as the center of early music, attracts students of early music from around the globe, creating many opportunities to perform in ensemble settings. Ab-igail studies with Professor Nancy Garrett. She has held a teaching assistantship, in addition to be-

ing coordinator of the UT Piano Project, which pairs piano majors with younger students. She teaches class piano locally and has also taught at the Interlochen Summer Music Camp.

Mace has performed in piano master classes for Emanuel Ax, Gilbert Kalish, Ruth Laredo, and Angela Dewitt, in harpsichord master class-es with Olivier Fortin, Arthur Haas, and Charlotte Nediger, and on fortepiano for Malcolm Bilson, David Breitman, and Andrew Willis. She is a member of The University of Texas Early Music Ensemble and has performed with the UT Bach Cantata Project.

Mace has performed across the U.S. and abroad, at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in Toronto, the International Baroque Institute in Massachusetts, the Prague International Piano Master-classes, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Malcolm Bil-son’s Fortepiano Workshop, and the Heifetz International Summer Music Institute.

Grad student awarded Fulbright

The Texas Chamber Group of Austin, Wesley Schulz (DMA 2010), conductor, has been named the winner of the 2010 American Prize in Orchestral Performance in the college/university division. In making their decision,

the judging panel praised the ensem-ble’s performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as “excellent...astonishingly good...extremely impressive in almost every detail.”

Founded in 2007 by alumnus Wesley Schulz, The Texas Chamber Group pres-ents chamber-sized orchestral concerts to the community of Austin. Schulz has also served as Conductor of the Univer-sity Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Austin Symphony, and Guest Con-ductor of the UT Symphony Orchestra, the Butler Opera Center Orchestra, and the UT New Music Ensemble.

The American Prize is a series of national competitions providing cash awards and recognition for the best recorded performances by ensem-bles and individuals at professional, college/university, church, commu-nity and secondary school levels.

Texas Chamber Group wins The American Prize

Texas Chamber Group

Wesley Schulz

Abigail Mace

Peter Stolzman

Nat

han

Russ

ell

Nat

han

Russ

ell

Page 31: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

29WORDS of NOTE

As an American, what does one think of when Beirut, Lebanon is mentioned? Music? Or Hamas, Hezbollah, and/or political conflict

with Israel? Unfortunately, probably the latter. My experience teaching classical music and cultural exchange in Lebanon has left me with a whole new perspective.

Last Spring I was recommended by Dr. Glenn Chandler at UT Austin to teach in a program called American Voices, YES Academy (Youth Excel-lence on Stage). The program was run by UT graduate John Ferguson (MM 1984), presenting workshops in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. This pro-gram included voice, piano, Broadway, and Hip Hop dancing. I love to teach music and violin to students of all ages and my mother is also Middle-Eastern (Iranian) so I was really excited about the possibilities of working in and visiting Lebanon. However, I really did not know what to expect.

When I arrived at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, I was met by John Ferguson, an individual deeply committed to his purpose of bringing classical music/ performing arts and cultural exchange to the Middle East. With him were three other talented teachers: Bruce Walker, Oregon string teacher; Marc Thayer, director of education for the St. Louis Symphony; and Dr. Greg Hurley, a UT graduate and Pro-fessor of Pedagogy and Viola at East Carolina University. Marc, Dr. Hur-ley, and Bruce had just presented the same program in Syria and Iraq so they quickly showed me the ropes and how we would set up the program.

The basic goal was to teach these students as much as we could with our own style of teaching and put on a performance in less than two weeks. One of the best parts of this experience was working with these very pas-sionate teachers who were so easy to work with. Dr. Hurley and I were responsible for teaching the junior strings. We had about 50 string students ages 6-27 split into two orchestras: seniors and juniors. I conducted the juniors from 10am-2pm everyday, then taught group violin to the seniors, coached two chamber groups, conducted senior strings, and taught private lessons into the eve-ning. All of the teachers had the same attitude: we were all very high energy, had fun, and loved what we were doing. The students, however, tripled the energy.

I have rarely seen students so excited and eager to make music. We were happy to teach long days because we were getting so much back. With the junior strings (age 6-13) we put together four pieces in almost no time and had a very success-ful performance. They were avid to learn more

music, begging for the next piece, the next string game, and laughing and playing their little hearts out. The senior strings also put together a challenging program consisting of the Mascagni Intermezzo (which I conducted), Handel, Bartok, Palladio by Jenkins, and their favorite, Pi-rates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest by Hans Zimmer. As a matter of fact, we held an extra concert before the gala concert so they could perform with their chamber groups and the cello group and violin group, which I led in a performance of Kreisler’s Tempo de Menuetto. What blew me away about the seniors was how good they were. It re-minded me that there are talented young players all around the world. These students were mostly trained in the French tradition and were eager to learn new techniques to expand their horizons. At the end of the day I had students lining up around the corner to play their con-certos, Bach, technical exercises, and other pieces for me. The students were also eager to show us their culture and would take us all around Lebanon to taste the food and see Beirut.

The Lebanese are a people that value family and community and have a good time getting together to enjoy each other’s company. Almost everyone, including my 6-year-old students, speaks fluent French, English, and, of course, Arabic. When the time came, I was really sad to leave my Lebanese family of students and friends, who I called my habibis (which means baby in Lebanese; the correct plural form is habi-betey). They loved it when I would try to get them to go faster or pay attention and I would yell, “Yallah habibi” (which means hurry up baby). They soon stopped calling me Mr. Bryan and started calling me Habibi. It is amazing how just using one word in someone’s native tongue can bring people so much closer together.

The students and their families were sad to see us go, and have been keeping in contact, tell-ing us how much they miss us and can’t wait for next year. One of them contacted me recently and told me that they enjoyed our orchestra so much that they are still getting together to re-hearse and have picnics and give concerts.

I was sad to depart Beirut as well, for it is a very fun city on the beautiful Mediterranean that never sleeps. It might surprise you, but it puts the likes of Austin’s Sixth Street to shame as far as the party meter is concerned! The people were so supportive of our efforts there, and to quote my esteemed colleague Marc Thayer, “Whenever we are living our American lives and Lebanon comes up in conversation or flashes across our TV sets, the first thing that we will think about is the wonderful, passionate, and beautiful stu-dents we got to work with in Beirut.”

My Summer of Music in Lebanon by Bryan Hall, MM student, Violin Performance

Bryan Hall leads the junior string orchestra in a gala concert to a large audience in Beirut.

Bryan and one of his habibis

Page 32: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

SARAH & ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL of MUSIC30

The Musicology and Ethnomusicology program at the Butler School of Music is among the top programs of its type in the nation. A key aspect

of the vibrancy and creative vision that attract exceptional faculty and stu-dents to our program are the performance ensembles within the Division. The impressive range of music offerings includes the award-winning Ma-riachi Paredes de Tejastitlan ensemble, Indian classical music, Early Music, Southeast Asian Gamelan, Caribbean, South American, Middle Eastern, Afri-can American and South/Central Texas Conjunto music ensembles. Beyond promoting an awareness and appreciation of diverse musical traditions among our students, these ensembles function as a unique bridge to the Austin community through various outreach projects and the inclusion of non-university ensemble participants. Highlights this year included a con-junto music workshop and performance with National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow Santiago Jimenez, Jr. The Bereket Middle Eastern En-semble joined forces with Texas Performing Arts for the third year in a pro-ductive outreach initiative to over 400 children in the Del Valle ISD. And the UT Mariachi placed third in the Mariachi Vargas National Mariachi Competi-tion. You can learn more about these ensembles and the Division of Musicol-ogy and Ethnomusicology at www.music.utexas.edu/musethno.

Musicology and Ethnomusicology Ensembles: Experience, Performance, and Outreach

Conjunto Ensemble with accordion great Santiago Jiminez, Jr.

Voice and Opera Professor William Lewis continues as President and Co‐Director of the Franco‐American Vocal Academy (FAVA) in Périgord, France, which has completed its fourth

summer. The Academy, founded by Professor Lewis and his wife, the Parisian soprano Frédérique Added, included forty–eight young singers from the U.S., Canada, and Russia, with six singers from UT, a chamber orchestra with four UT members, and a teaching faculty of fifteen, including four from UT. The curriculum includes classes in French, voice, role preparation, acting, French art song, and French opera. Lewis directed ten performances of Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers, adapted by Added, in a production acclaimed by the press as: “A triumph of music and theater.” Professor Lewis and his wife collaborated on three performances of music of Francis Poulenc at the Palais des Congrès in Périgueux. The music of composer Isabelle Aboulker, the program’s resident master class teacher, was featured in three recitals at the Conservatoire Supérieur.

The Franco‐American Vocal Academy has become a unique and successful part of the summer music scene in France. Professor Lewis and Frédérique Added recently released Letter d’Amour, a CD of the songs of Isabelle Aboulker, with the composer on piano, on the FAVA series.

Butler School grad student Christopher Lopez as Jupiter in FAVA production of Orphée aux Enfers

The Texas French Connection

The Jazz Studies division benefitted from a variety of excellent clini-

cians this past academic year. Tenor saxophonist Chris Potter was guest artist for the Longhorn Jazz Festival, performing with the Jazz Orchestra and giving clinics. A world-class solo-ist, composer, and bandleader, Potter has emerged as one of the leading jazz instrumentalists of his genera-tion. Down Beat has called him “one of the most studied (and copied) saxo-phonists on the planet” while Jazz Times identified him as “a figure of international renown.” He was voted second only to tenor sax great Sonny Rollins in the Down Beat 2008 Readers’ Poll.

Master classes were also presented by trumpeter Terence Blanchard, saxo-phonist Charles Lloyd, drummer Mike Clark, and pianist and composer An-dre Mehmari. Several of these events were made possible through collabo-rations with Texas Performing Arts.

UT jazz students learn from masters

Chris Potter

Chris

Dru

kker

Page 33: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

31WORDS of NOTE

Amy Farris, an active and highly successful member of the Austin and Los Angeles music communities died September 26, 2009. Born in Aus-tin in 1968, she received a BA in 1991 from the University of Texas, where she was active teaching in the UT String Project and privately. She con-tinued to teach in Los Angeles.

Farris played violin, viola, mandolin, and sang harmony with many art-ists in Austin, including Ray Price, Kelly Willis, Bruce Robison, Alejandro Escovedo, Tish Hinojosa, Sara Hickman and Ray Wy-lie Hubbard. In L.A., her first solo album was produced by singer/songwriter Dave Alvin. Her television perfor-mances included Late Night with Letterman, Conan O’Brien, The Grand Old Opry, Austin City Limits, and Sessions on W. 54th St. In Los Angeles she played exten-sively with Exene Cervenka, Stan Ridgway, Peter Case, Brian Wilson, and many oth-ers. In her studio work, in addition to performing solo, she would write string ar-rangements and perform all the instruments, creating ‘sections’ ranging from two to sixty parts.

Her death was widely mourned, by musicians, friends, her many former students and their parents. One Austin mother left this tribute on a web-site: “Don’t think that you pulled the wool over our eyes as parents—we figured out: That you spent every dime you earned as a music teacher buying rewards for the kids. That your extraordinary talent was just a means to an end, that your real objective, along with teaching a love of music, was to teach our kids how to love and accept themselves.”

Memorial concerts featuring many of the artists she collaborated with over the years were held in Austin and California. A close friend said she once confided “that she felt her best—most comfortable—in two situations: when she was onstage performing, with the audience on her side; and when she was teaching her violin students, whose drawings adorned one of the walls of her living room.”

Amy’s family encourages donations in her memory to Hungry For Music, Inc., a nonprofit effort to provide musical instruments to at-risk children.

Jeanne Marie Ellen Widergren, mezzo soprano, died February 24, 2010, in Hastings, Nebraska, where she was born.

She graduated from Hastings College, received a Master of Music de-gree from the University of Texas in 1950, and then taught music at Ohio State University for two years.

She received three scholarships from the Juilliard School of Music, and later appeared in several operas. After graduating from Juilliard, she was a private secretary to leading Broadway producer David Merrick for sev-eral years, and also worked as a private secretary to the President and Chief Executive of International Paper Company in New York City.

In MemoriamOur Maymester Trip to Englandby Patrick Scott, DMA student, Organ Performance

In March 2009 I was fortunate enough to attend a concert at St. Austin’s Catholic Church performed by the Choir

of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and I heard music unlike anything I had experienced. Later in the year Dr. Hunter March brought me and eight other UT students on an un-forgettable Maymester trip that allowed us to study and explore different churches and schools in Cambridge, Lon-don, Winchester, and Oxford for four weeks. We were giv-en unique opportunities to meet with directors, organists, and to discuss first hand with choristers their lives and mu-sical expectations. Each choir school greeted us with open arms and took the time to discuss their rich traditions.

We began in Cambridge with an early morning rehearsal of the choristers of St. John’s College, boys from 7 to 13 years old who possessed not only remarkable tone, but also incredible knowledgeable of theory, keys, and time. We spent the latter part of the week at King’s College, where the choristers exhibited the same level of knowl-edge and talent.

Later we traveled to London, where we observed the ex-traordinary choirs of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westmin-ster Abbey, both rich with tradition and beauty. Another group member and I were given the opportunity to play the Grand Organ in St. Paul’s Cathedral, a truly amazing ex-perience. We were invited to hear the Bach Festival Choir rehearsal at Westminster Cathedral, and later spent time with the choirs of Christ Church College, Oxford, and Win-chester Cathedral, which also has a girl’s chorus, which has only recently become more common in England.

We took in the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and the London Museum, and attended numerous re-citals. We were given a backstage tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and witnessed a gruesome, yet thrilling performance of Macbeth. After meeting with a member of Parliament, we toured Windsor Castle. No trip to Eng-land would be complete without a visit to Buckingham Palace. We were fortunate enough to get a glimpse of the Royal Family during a parade for the Queen’s Birthday celebration.

Another highlight was a backstage tour of the Royal Opera House any an exhilarating performance of Bizet’s Carmen. We went punting in Cambridge, visited Stonehenge, the Salisbury Cathedral, the Tower of London, and ate more fish and chips than we care to admit.

The Maymester experience was an opportunity to witness choirs rooted deep in tradition and customs perform mu-sic that we had studied and performed at UT. To hear this music in the sacred spaces for which they were written suddenly made all of my study and training click. Watch-ing the interactions of teen choristers taking young proba-tioner singers under their wing, demonstrating the tradi-tions and routine of rehearsal, helping to mold them into confident, brilliant singers gave me hope for our future and for the world of music. It is hard to grasp everything we experienced during these four short weeks but to say that it was life-changing would be an understatement. To Dr. Hunter March and all those who made this journey pos-sible, our class can simply say thank you.

Amy Farris

Lore

n M

inni

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Page 34: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

The Butler SocietyThe Butler Society is a community of supporters whose generous contributions provide enrichment and professional growth opportunities to students and faculty in the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. Members of the Butler Society are acknowledged in each Butler Featured Concert program, unless otherwise requested, based on contributions made in the past twelve months. We appreciate very much the support provided by members of the Butler Society and invite those who have not participated to consider becoming a member by making a gift today. For more information about giving and the Butler Society, please visit our website at www.music.utexas.edu.

Butler Society Permanent Members—Cumulative Giftsof $1,000,000 and aboveSarah and Ernest ButlerVincent R. DiNinoMary Winton GreenKent Wheeler KennanJeff and Gail KodoskyJoe R. and Theresa Lozano Long

Butler Society Members—September 2009 through November 2010Gifts $100,000 and aboveEstate of Cathryn G. BerningerSarah and Ernest ButlerHerbert R. Nubel Revocable TrustRobert SherrillDorothy Richard Starling Foundation

Gifts from $10,000–$99,999Johnella BoyntonExxonMobil FoundationKelly FearingThe Ann and Gordon Getty FoundationBen GomezMary Ann and Andrew HellerMichael KapoulasMarty KopraSuzanne and John McFarlaneMaria de Waal PutterSuzanne and John ShoreTexas Women for the ArtsMary and Dexter WhiteWard and Sarah WidenerLauren Zachry-Reynolds and C. Winton Reynolds

Gifts from $1,000–$9,999A & H Framing IncorporatedAustin Chapter American Guild of OrganistsAmy and Richard BlairFrances and Douglas BrownAnn and Malcolm BrownCheryl and Robert ButlerJoy and Glenn ChandlerTania and Don CoxCheney G. CrowThe Dell FoundationVincent R. DiNinoJudith Jellison and Robert DukeRichard EwenMartha Doty FreemanChristopher GodellWarren GouldMary Ann and Andrew R. HellerHowdy HondaJPMorgan Chase FoundationThe Junior League of AustinStephanie and Jerry Junkin

Ruth and Allen KillamGregory McCoyCharlotte and Gino NarboniNational String Project ConsortiumAnton NelDavid NilssonThe Presser FoundationKathleen and Glenn RichterThomas SadlerLottie and Sandy ShapiroKermie and David SloanAlbert J. StowellRose TaylorSusan Kidwell and Michael TusaUniversity Co-Operative SocietyLinda and Nicholas Van BavelWartsila of North America, Inc.Rebecca and Mark WilliamsPhyllis YoungSharon and Gerhardt Zimmermann

Gifts from $500–$999Rebecca BaltzerPam and Les BellSusan and Sterling BerberianRichard W. BerkleyLou Berger and Kim BoyntonSteven BryantMichael ChurginBarbie and Gary ColemanEugenia Costa-Giomi and Bruce PennycookRobert DeSimoneAnne EppersonDelaine and Robert FedsonFirst Presbyterian ChurchFriends of MusicMichael GabrielSusanna P. GarciaJudith and Gerre HancockElizabeth and Scott HannaJeff HellmerRebecca Henderson and Daniel KowalskiCarolyn and Adam HolzmanKathryn Hutchison and Rami El-FarrahRobin and David JacksonKristin and Stig JensenNancy and Bruce McCannLuisa Nardini and Guido OlivieriLaura and David NeumeyerJeanne and Ray SasakiSt. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran ChurchWilliam TurnerUniversity Co-operative SocietyUniversity United Methodist Church

Gifts up to $499Susan K. AdlerGregory D. AllenJuana and Elliot AntokoletzAustin District Music Teachers AssociationMargaret and Robert Ayres

James BalentineMartha and Gary BeckworthKlaus BichtelerKaren BlumenthalKelli and Joseph BolinAl Bowie and Ed BarcliffDeborah and Nathaniel BrickensMary and Carl BrockmanLaurie and Tim BubelBetty J. BuckspanSuzanne and Glenn BuckspanAmy and Randy BuckspanLauren and Eric BuescherLeslie Bush and James BuhlerH. David and Linda CaffeyAndrea Kay CamachoMonique and Lorenzo CandelariaCherrie and Ara CarapetyanRobert CarnochanEileen and Mark CasonMargaret and Thomas ChambersWuping Chen and Huijun ZhouJo Anne ChristianJonell and Mark ClardyCharles A. ClarkAnn CollinsPamela and Harvey CornMelinda P. CottenStephen CrawfordNancy C. CripeThomas Louis CzerwinskiNell B. DaleTeresa DanielsDeborah and John DavisPaula and Luke DavisJohn DebnerDell IncorporatedAndrew Dell’AntonioEllen DePierriRainbow Di BenedettoKoma and Warren DonworthThomas EarpSabine Steinbrich and Veit F. ErlmannLynn Langley and James EskewKaren and Scott FincherDonna and Ken FlowersSallie and Jeffrey FortneyRebecca Frazier-SmithCarol FredericksCarol and Robert FreemanJean R. FronebergerMark FronebergerCheryl FullerPamela and Douglas FusellaMaria and Gus GarciaSusanna P. GarciaMonte GarrettNancy GarrettHettie Page GarwoodMarianne Gedigian and Charles VillarrubiaBeverly GoldenDeborah Goolsby and James Ogden

Kathryn GovierDonald GranthamSylvia and Eugene GratovichLita GuerraAlexander HamiltonWendy HappelAnn and Wallace HarwoodMartha HilleyPatricia and Robert HintonJeffrey HittLavona and James HollandPatrick HughesDonna and William HulseyDavid HunterInternational Clarinet AssociationSylvia S. and David M. JabourMaria and Calvin JohnsonJeffrey Jones-RagonaElaine KaiserRoderic KeatingTerry and Jim KingEdith KnauerK. M. KnittelRita and Fred KogerWilliam KonitzerAnne KuempelLarry Gatlin EnterprisesMelanie LewisIsabelle and Jack LipovskiVirginia LuehrsenJean and Frank MainousBetty and Harry MallardRonald MartinMartha McAllisterDonna McCormickJulie and Jerry McCoyCarol McDonald and Scott SchmidtMargaret and Gary MeoHenry MerinoMichael P. MeyerAnne Akiko Meyers and Jason SubotkyJohn R. MillsSuzanne Mitchell and Richard ZansitisKathleen Monahan and Michael MullenEda MontandonRobin D. MooreJudith and Thomas MorrisCarl MullerBrenda and Russel NelsonTerri and David NeubertPhyllis and Allan NoonanMicahel E. O’CallaghanCaroline P. O’MearaCourtney B. OdellJulie and Derrik OlsenKristen and Frank OpolskiCarole and Roberto PachecanoGregory Charles PalmerKathleen PanoffEdward PearsallSuzanne and Rusty PenceShirley Bird and Sam R. Perry

Phuong-Dung and Binh PhamPhi Mu Alpha SinfoniaDiana PhillipsMargot and Russell PinkstonElisabeth and Harvel PittelLindsay PorterKathy and Michael PressleyCheryl and Gary PyleKatherine RaceJudith M. RatliffCory A. ReedKae and Sean ReedDavid RennerDouglas RensiBronwyn and Vernon RewEvelyn and Ben RichardsJanet RobertsBarbara and Corky RobinsonLaFalco Robinson, Jr.Tracy D. RosencrantzJane RossRick RowleyPenelope SailorScott SchmidtLaurie ScottJennifer and Gary SeighmanYevgeniy SharlatNicolas ShumwayDavid SmallGaylynn and Jerome SneedAnneke L. SpellerJean and Scott SpoorLee and Christopher StewartKatherine and Robb StewartNikita StorojevStrait Music Company, Inc.Carol TateMary and Charlie TeepleKathy ThomasMartha ThomasChristopher TuckerColette ValentineJanis and Mark VanderBergWilliam C.Vaughan, Jr.Sharon and Charles VeazeyVirginia VolpeWachovia FoundationPatricia WallisDan WelcherKathryn and Michael WendingJennifer WhatleyAlton C.White, Jr.Sarah WhittonMichele C. WibbelsmanNathan WilliamsMarilyn and Herschell WilsonWomen’s Symphony League of Austin, Inc.Darlyene and Dean YarianDaXun ZhangAmy Zolkoski

Page 35: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music

Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music Endowments The Butler School of Music greatly appreciates those who have established an endowed gift, and by doing so have forever linked their names, or those of family members, friends, or organizations, to the excellence in this program. For more information on how to establish a new endowment or how to give to an existing endowment, please contact Lauren Zachry-Reynolds at 512-232-3515 or [email protected].

PROGRAM SUPPORTWilliam D. Armstrong Music Leadership EndowmentAnn Callaway Brown Endowment Fund for the UT String ProjectSarah and Ernest Butler Opera CenterSarah and Ernest Butler School of Music EndowmentCollege of Fine Arts String Quartet EndowmentVincent R. and Jane D. Dinino Chair Fund for Director of BandsRobert M. Gerdes Music Program EndowmentThe Eddie Medora King Award for Musical CompositionMusic Education Endowment FundMusic Leadership Program EndowmentDavid O. Nilsson Solo Pianist Award

FACULTY SUPPORTMary D. Bold Regents Professorship of MusicSarah and Ernest Butler Professorship in OperaSarah and Ernest Butler Professorship in MusicSarah and Ernest Butler Professorship in Opera ConductingE.W. Doty ProfessorshipFrank C. Erwin Jr. Centennial Professorship in Fine ArtsFrank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professorship in MusicFrank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professorship in OperaParker C. Fielder Regents Professorship in MusicPriscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professorship in Organ or Piano PerformanceDavid and Mary Winton Green Chair in String Performance and PedagogyM. K. Hage Centennial Visiting Professorship in MusicFlorence Thelma Hall Centennial Chair in MusicHistory of Music ChairThe Lee Hage Jamail Regents Professorship in Fine ArtsThe Wolf and Janet Jessen Centennial Lectureship in MusicJoe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Chair in PianoMarlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professorship in MusicMarlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Visiting Professorship in MusicGrace Hill Milam Centennial Fellowship in Fine ArtsJohn D. Murchison Fellowship in Fine ArtsJack G. Taylor Regents Professorship in Fine ArtsLeslie Waggener Professorship in the College of Fine Arts

STUDENT SUPPORTAlamo City Endowed Scholarship for PianistsBurdine Clayton Anderson Scholarship in MusicRichard S. Barfield Endowed ScholarshipWayne R. Barrington Endowed Scholarship in HornSteve Barton Endowed Presidential Scholarship in PianoBetty Osborn Biedenharn Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicMary D. Bold Scholarship FundBrook Boynton Endowed Presidential ScholarshipBrittany Brown Endowed Scholarship in MusicDr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Butler Centennial Endowed Presidential Scholarship in OperaDr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Butler Endowed Presidential Scholarship in OperaButler Opera Center Endowed Presidential ScholarshipButler Opera Center Endowed Presidential Scholarship 2Sarah and Ernest Butler Family Fund Endowed Presidential Scholarship in OperaSarah and Ernest Butler Family Fund Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Opera 2Pauline Camp Operatic Voice ScholarshipEloise Helbig Chalmers Endowed Scholarship in Music Therapy and Special EducationPearl DuBose Clark Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicBarbara Smith Conrad Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Fine ArtsMary Frances Bowles Couper Endowed Presidential Scholarship for Graduate Students in Piano PerformanceMary Frances Bowles Couper Endowed Presidential Scholarship for Undergraduate Students in Piano PerformanceAinslee Cox Scholarship in MusicPatsy Cater Deaton Endowed Presidential ScholarshipWilliam Dente Endowed Memorial Scholarship in OperaE. W. Doty Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicE. William Doty Scholarship Fund

Whit Dudley Endowed Memorial Scholarship in HarpFaculty Endowed Scholarship in MusicMarguerite Fairchild Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicPriscilla Pond Flawn Endowed Scholarship in MusicFondren Endowed Scholarship in MusicDalies Frantz Endowed Scholarship FundDavid Garvey Scholarship FundGarwood Centennial Scholarship in Art Song PerformanceMary Farris Gibson Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicMary Farris Gibson Memorial Scholarship in MusicThomas J. Gibson IV Endowed Presidential ScholarshipAnnie Barnhart Giles Centennial Endowed Presidential ScholarshipAnnie B. Giles Endowed Scholarship Fund in MusicAlbert Gillis Endowed Presidential Scholarship in StringsMary Winton Green Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicMargaret Halm Gregory Centennial ScholarshipVerna M. Harder Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicLouisa Frances Glasson Hewlett Scholarship in MusicNancy Leona Dry Smith Hopkins Endowed Presidential Scholarship in PianoVirginia McBride Hudson Endowed ScholarshipLee and Joe Jamail Endowed Presidential Scholarships for the Longhorn BandMichael Kapoulas Endowed Scholarship in CompositionJean Welhausen Kaspar 100th Anniversary Endowed Longhorn Band ScholarshipKent Kennan Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Music Composition or TheoryDonald and Charlotte Knaub Endowed Scholarship in TromboneLennart and Daniel Kopra Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Classical Guitar or Music EducationJoe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Piano ScholarshipAnna and Fannie Lucas Memorial Scholarship FundGeorgia B. Lucas Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicPansy Luedecke Scholarship FundDanielle J. Martin Memorial ScholarshipJ. W. “Red” McCullough, Jr. Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Jazz StudiesSuzanne and John McFarlane Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Vocal and Choral ArtsSuzanne and John McFarlane Endowed Presidential Scholarship in WindsMusic Endowment FundGino R. Narboni Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Orchestral ConductingHettie Nel Endowed Scholarship in PianoWillie Nelson Endowed Presidential ScholarshipNelson G. Patrick Endowed Scholarship in Music EducationLeticia Flores Penn Endowed Presidential Scholarship in PianoWilliam C. Race Endowed Presidential Scholarship in PianoLouis W. Rase and Sophie Braun Rase Scholarship FundA. David Renner Endowed Presidential Scholarship in PianoLucille Roan-Gray Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicPhyllis Benson Roberts Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicE. P. Schoch Endowed Presidential Scholarship in BandThe Mary A. Seller-Yantis Endowed Presidential ScholarshipWilla Stewart Setseck ScholarshipMary Elizabeth Sherrill Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicMary Elizabeth Sherrill Endowed Presidential Scholarship in OrganJohn W. and Suzanne B. Shore Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicEffie Potts Sibley Endowed Scholarship FundLomis and Jonnie Slaughter Scholarship in MusicCarl and Agnes Stockard Memorial Endowment FundTexas Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicMollie Fitzhugh Thornton Music Scholarship FundThe Trammell Scholarship Endowment in MusicLaura Duncan Trim Scholarship in MusicElizabeth Anne Tucker Centennial ScholarshipRuth Middleton Valentine Endowed Presidential ScholarshipLois Johnson White Endowed Presidential ScholarshipWard and Sarah Widener Endowed Presidential Scholarship in MusicRobert Jeffry Womack Endowed Presidential ScholarshipLola Wright Foundation Centennial Endowed ScholarshipSidney M. Wright Endowed Presidential ScholarshipShirley Sue and Frank Howell Zachry Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Music

Page 36: Words of Note, 2010: Chamber Music thrives at the Butler School of Music