School of Fine Arts

Music and Dance student wins prestigious contest

Dan Forrest, a Music and Dance graduate student pursuing a D.M.A. in composition, recently won the prestigious Raymond M. Brock Memorial Student Composition Contest sponsored by the American Choral Directors Association.

The contest was established by the Raymond M. Brock Memorial Student Composition Fund in 1999. The intention of the contest is to encourage young composers and reward student composers under the age of 28 for their excellence in choral composition. There are approximately 400 entrants per year and the prize for the winner includes $1,000, airfare and hotel accommodations for the ACDA convention and the premiere of the piece at the convention. Forrest won with his composition "Selah,” a piece from his doctoral recital. Read More

Fountain City Brass Band returning for Lied Center concert

The award-winning Fountain City Brass Band will return to Lawrence this month to perform their concert titled A Night at the Opera.

Performing at the Lied Center for the first time, the Fountain City Brass Band’s concert features music played by the instrumentation of a British-style brass band and includes tenor horns, baritones, cornets and other brass and percussion instruments. Led by conductor Jason Rinehart, the Fountain City Brass Band will perform such pieces as Verdi’s “La Forza Del Destino,” Wagner’s “Intro to Act III” and “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral,” both from Lohengrin, Saint-Saens’ “Baccanale” from Samson & Deliah and “Music of the Night” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. In addition, there will be a cornet solo performance by musician Alan Wenger and tuba player Thomas Stein will lead the band through “Flight of the Bumblebee.”

The concert takes place at the Lied Center of Kansas on Saturday, September 24, 2005, at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $10 and students and senior citizens pay $8. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Lied Center Box Office at 785-864-ARTS or the Murphy Hall Box Office at 785-864-3982.

For more information about this performance, please contact the Department of Music and Dance at 785-864-3436.

KU Youth Chorus Seeks Members

The University of Kansas Music and Dance Department has organized a KU Youth Chorus and they are seeking student members.

This chorus will be a non-auditioned group open to youth grades 4-7.  The first 75 students who apply for the KU Youth Chorus will be accepted.  Associate Professor of Music Education, Debra Hedden, will serve as the chief conductor, and KU undergraduate and graduate music students will act as student conductors.  The goal of this new group is to provide on-campus learning lab for KU music students to enhance their skills in the choral curriculum area by working with interested youth.  The rehearsals will be offered Tuesdays from 4:30pm-5:45pm, starting late October 2005.  The group will plan for only one informal concert at the end of the course, which will take place in May of 2006.  All rehearsals and the concert will take place in Murphy Hall.  The cost for the KU Youth Chorus is $35 per youth, and this covers the entire year.

For information about this new chorus, contact Dr. Hedden at dhedden@ku.edu or 785-864-9638. Registration information will be available on the KU Youth Chorus website in late September. Registration begins for this chorus on October 10.

Visit the School of Fine Arts website for more information.