School of Fine Arts News
KU music and dance graduate receives Fulbright award
KU's Murphy Hall celebrates 50th birthday
KU music and dance professor awarded fellowship
KU music and dance graduate receives Fulbright award
A recent KU music graduate recently received a Fulbright grant for overseas study next school year.
Elaine Fukunaga, a 2005 music and dance graduate with distinction in piano performance and a minor in saxophone performance, plans to use her grant to travel to Madrid, Spain, to study the piano works of composer Joaquìn Rodrigo, the creator of the popular piece "Concierto de Aranjuez" for guitar and orchestra. Her study and performances will be overseen by internationally acclaimed master teacher Joaquìn Soriano, who has premiered and recorded a number of Rodrigo works.
When applying for the Fulbright grant, Fukunaga had to proclaim a clear statement of proposed international study and interview with the Fulbright committee of the school she is currently attending, the Manhattan School of Music. Fukunaga also underwent a Spanish language evaluation and submitted letters of affiliation and a full-length audio recording of her piano performance. She submitted her work in October of 2006 and received the favorable results five months later.
"This opportunity is a dream come true," said Fukunaga. "The bold and vivacious culture of Spain, particularly that which is reflected in the music of Rodrigo, is so little known to the piano world, and I very much look forward to assimilating the experiences I gain while living in Madrid into my performing and teaching careers." Read more.
KU's Murphy Hall celebrates 50th birthday
KU's Murphy Hall turns 50 years old during the 2007-'08 school year. The Music and Dramatic Arts Building on the KU campus was dedicated on Nov. 10, 1957. The music and dance department and University Theatre have planned a year-long series of activities to celebrate the students, faculty and staff who have occupied its halls and rooms.
Although many events are in the process of being finalized, the following events have been confirmed:
The department of music and dance, the department of theatre and film and the University Theatre will present The Music Man in Crafton-Preyer Theatre on Nov. 9-11 and 15-17. The popular musical premiered on Broadway in 1957.
The department of music and dance and the department of theatre and film will present a national symposium on Broadway musicals Nov. 9-10, directed by Paul Laird, professor of musicology and John Staniunas, professor of musical theatre and chair of the department of theatre and film. Additional support for the symposium is provided by the Hall Center for Humanities and the Office of the Provost.
The department of music and dance presents the Festival of the Arts celebration during April 2008. Included in this festival will be performances of the opera Picnic, a University Dance Company performance, as well as theatre, band, jazz band, choir, orchestra and alumni activities.
The department of theatre and film and the University Theatre will present Alums Come Home, April 24-27, a series of events that brings theatre and film graduates back to KU and Murphy Hall. Read more.
KU music and dance professor awarded fellowship
The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts recently awarded a fellowship to a professor of music and dance at KU.
Forrest Pierce, KU assistant professor of music composition, will be among the approximately 20 fellows who will focus on their own creative projects at this working retreat for visual artists, writers and composers. The VCCA is located in Amherst, Va., in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Pierce's residency, which he plans to take in June of this year, will last for three weeks.
"I'm very excited about this residency," said Pierce. "It will give me the opportunity to begin work on Picnic, an opera based on a play by Kansan playwright William Inge, c'35, that Tim Ocel, director of KU Opera, and I are creating for the 50th anniversary of Murphy Hall," said Pierce. "This fellowship will give me the isolation and concentration any artist needs to take on a project of this scope." Read more.
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