School of FIne Arts

Thomas named design department chair

The School of Fine Arts announces the appointment of Gregory Thomas as professor and chair of the department of design. Thomas will begin work in July.

Thomas is the owner and founding principal of Gregory Thomas Associates (GTA), a design firm specializing in brand strategy, corporate communications, multimedia and packaging. In addition to graphic design, he is also a prolific author, a university instructor, and belongs to the advisory board of Designer, the publication of the University and College Designer Association.

Thomas comes to KU from Los Angeles, where in addition to running GTA, he teaches graduate students at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California (USC) and is a former adjunct at the USC School of Fine Arts. Read More.

Students dominate awards at Naftzger competition

KU music students swept the top awards and the $11,000 in prizes at the 2004 Naftzger Young Artists Auditions and Music Awards Competition May 7-8 at Wichita State University.

The annual competition is sponsored by the Naftzger Fund for the Arts, based in Wichita and administered by the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. It offers $2,000 cash prizes in three categories: piano, voice, and instrumental. A $5,000 first place award is presented to an outstanding performer from the final round, which includes all categories.

KU violinist Svetlana Kosakovskay won the $5,000 purse for the competition. Violinist Aleksandry Syntkin won the instrumental division, pianist Maya Tuylieva won the piano division, and soprano Greer Brown won the voice division. Read More.

Music students win fourth Down Beat Award

Winning awards is becoming an annual rite of passage for students of Vince Gnojek, KU professor of saxophone and woodwind division director.

Under Gnojek's direction, the KU Saxophone Quartet I this spring won a Down Beat magazine Annual Student Music Award as Best Classical Instrumental Chamber Music for the second year.

It is the fourth time the group, which features KU's best saxophone students every year, has won the award; it was also presented with the award in 1994 and 1996

The 2004 Saxophone Quartet I includes: Kevin Gosa, soprano saxophone, a master's student in saxophone performance; senior Danny Loental, alto saxophone, a senior getting his B.A. in saxophone performance; Elaine Fukunaga, tenor saxophone, a junior working toward a B.M. degree in piano performance; and Dustin Bauerle, baritone saxophone, a senior pursuing a B.A. degree in music. Saxophone Quartet I is one of three saxophone ensembles at KU: Gnojek also directs Saxophone Quartet II, and Quartet III is directed by Gosa. Read More

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