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School of Fine Arts News

KU music alumnus named Michigan Music Educator of the Year
KU faculty ensemble releases CD
KU's University Dance Company unveils spring concerts
KU fine arts alumni and students connect for Your Life in the Arts career day

 

KU music alumnus named Michigan
Music Educator of the Year
Daniel Steele, g’79, who graduated from KU with an MME in Music Education, was recently named Michigan Music Educators Association's (MMEA) Music Educator of the Year. Steele is an associate professor of music education and graduate coordinator for Central Michigan University's School of Music.

Steele holds degrees from Wheaton College, KU and the University of Cincinnati. He is a former K-6 general music teacher and joined CMU's faculty in 1983. He has held various positions with the MMEA, including MMEA president. He has also contributed to the Michigan Youth Arts Festival, Very Special Arts, Music Teachers National Association and other arts education organizations and agencies.

Steele is a founding member of the executive board of the Michigan Music Conference and serves on the conference's executive board. He has been published in the Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education, as well as recently publishing an elementary methods textbook and accompanying DVD titled "Music Is Fundamental: Fundamentals and Methods for Elementary Music."

Central Michigan University School of Music Director Randi L'Hommedieu presented the award to Steele at the MMEA annual conference.

 

KU faculty ensemble releases CD
Trio Fedele, an ensemble composed of KU faculty members David Fedele and Robert Koenig, as well as local cellist Matthew Herren, recently released a CD featuring the works of American composer Lowell Liebermann.

Fedele, assistant professor of flute, Koenig, Grammy-nominated associate professor of piano and Herren released the CD on Feb. 27 this year with Artek Records. The release features the world premiere performances of Trios Op. 83 and 87. The piece Op. 87 was commissioned by Trio Fedele with the support of KU Center for Research, the KU Department of Music and Dance, the New Faculty General Research Fund at KU and the Hiebert Fund. Read more.

 

KU's University Dance Company unveils spring concerts
Both contemporary and traditional flamenco works are featured on the University Dance Company’s spring concerts schedule. Guest choreographer Niurca Márquez choreographed Pa’lante es pa’lla (Forward is that way…), a contemporary piece in three parts, for UDC dancers during a residency in February of this year. The first part, performed to a work by La Negra, captures the innocence with which the dancers approach this new language. The second part, danced to a tango by Juaneke, reveals the quality or gracia of each dancer, while the third part returns to the innocence, but with growing knowledge that through the language of flamenco stories can be told.

Márquez also composed a traditional flamenco solo for dance faculty member Michelle Heffner Hayes, who makes her Lied Center debut in Tu Guajirita (Your Little Country Girl). She performs to an original composition by award-winning flamenco guitarist José Luis Rodriguez. Hayes adds her own take on flamenco in a second solo, which she choreographed in a mixture of traditional and modern styles. Her dance follows the expressive changes of Miguel Poveda’s extraordinary voice in one of the oldest flamenco forms, martinete.

Works by other KU dance faculty capture a variety of genres and styles. Ever Free, Jerel Hilding’s ballet for 17 dancers, uses the wonderful music from Act I of Guiseppe Verdi’s La Traviata to provide the motivation for a party scene of light entertainment and romantic intrigue set in the early nineteenth century. Joan Stone’s Baroque Backward and Forward takes the audience further back in time to a ballroom of the early 1700s. Two ladies and a gentleman perform a suite of French and English court dances with live accompaniment by flutist Matthew Allison. Read more

 

KU fine arts alumni and students connect for Your Life in the Arts career day
Students who are pursuing or who are interested in earning a fine arts degree will have the opportunity to discuss career possibilities with KU fine arts alumni at an upcoming career-related event: Your Life in the Arts. Known the last two years as Careers in the Arts, Your Life in the Arts will take place from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 14. Sessions will be held in both Murphy Hall and the Art and Design Building on the KU campus.

This third annual event, organized by KU's School of Fine Arts Career Services Center, brings back numerous KU fine arts alumni from all over the country to discuss and answer questions about their careers in the arts with fine arts students. Alumni will address such relevant topics as Getting into Galleries, Previewing a Career—the Value of Internships, Getting into Graduate School, Résumé Design, Creating Your Own Career, Teaching as a Career and much more. The day will offer separate tracks for art and design and music and dance students.

Dina P. Evans, career services coordinator for the KU School of Fine Arts, has organized an exciting day of diverse sessions featuring alumni such as Bill Bergman, ’74, a Los Angeles-based saxophonist, composer and music director and soloist for Ann-Margret; Sean Denning-Barnes, f’99, owner of DB Studios and Bethel Frameworks in Bethel, Alaska; Kristen Ferrell Logan, f’02, a Lawrence artist and owner of Kristen Ferrell Art and Clothing; Chuck Seipp, d’80, a Sergeant Major in the US Army Band and owner of a music publication company in Virginia; and many more.

"Our goal is to help current and prospective students gain additional insights about planning for their futures, using our fine arts alumni as motivators," Evans said. "We're grateful to the KU alumni who are willing to share their time and talents and we are looking forward to the energy and enthusiasm they will bring!" Read more.

 

Visit the School of Fine Arts Web site for more information.



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