Music Department. Newsletter. Chair s Corner. University of San Diego Fall 2014

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1 University of San Diego Fall 2014 Music Department Camino Hall Alcala Park San Diego, CA Phone: (619) Music Department Newsletter Chair s Corner Inside this issue: Chair s Corner 1-2 Faculty Spotlights 2-6 Welcome our new faculties 3 Student Activities 7 Calendar 8 Renovation Pictures Announcements: 9 We have exciting additions to our faculties. Unfortunately, Dr. Etheridge will be on leave until the Spring semester. Pictures from the Music meeting. Welcome to the academic year! We look forward to a wonderful year of new students, concerts and music events. The USD Music Department continues to grow and innovate and we have several initiatives underway. The major announcement is that our classrooms Camino 153, 154 have been completely renovated, the offices and practice rooms in C were completely renovated, and we have a new rehearsal and seminar room, C-156! Last year the Camino 161 rooms and offices came into existence. All of these spaces are state-of-the-art and will be a tremendous asset to us for many coming years. Another big announcement is that we have a new Assistant Professor of Choral Studies, Dr. Emilie Amrein! Dr. Amrein comes to us from Lake Forest College and conducts the Choral Scholars and the Concert Choir. In addition she is spearheading the music in education Department initiative, which will include a path to single-subject teaching credential in music, and is participating in creating the Arts Entrepreneurship minor degree program. We expect both of these programs to be operational next fall. The Concert Choir, the ensemble open to all students, meets on Monday in Camino 153 at 7pm. Come and sing along! Justin Grinnell is in his second year as Jazz Ensemble Director. The soon-to-be Dr. Grinnell (USC) seeks to grow and expand the jazz program. As always, the Jazz Ensemble meets on Wednesday nights in Shiley Theatre at 7 pm. This is the primary ensemble in which to develop your improvisational skills. This is the third year of the USD Mariachi Ensemble, directed by Serafin Paredes. The ensemble has been performing throughout campus and in parts of San Diego and we again hope to grow this program to be an asset both at USD and in the community. Mariachi meets on Thursday nights at 7 pm in Camino 153. Putu Hiranmayena (IPutu Adi Tangkas Hiranmayena try saying that five times fast! Students just call him Putu ) is now onboard as the Director of the USD Gamelan Ensemble, named Gunung Mas (Mountain of Gold). This Indonesian ensemble comes from Bali and its music is mostly percussion gongs, metallophones, gong-chimes, drums. I assist in the class, which is held on Tuesday nights at 7 pm. The gamelan will host several Balinese dancers and guest artists for the end-ofsemester concert. Chamber Music Ensembles are underway. For more information, please contact Dr. Angela Yeung. Several incoming students are fine musicians and we look forward to excellent duos, (Continued next page)

2 P a ge 2 Chair s Corner, continued trios, quartets and quintets. We have an exceptional number of fine strings players and a growing group of winds! Dr. Jeff Kaiser became our Concert Manager last spring and is teaching MUSC 420 Digital Audio Composition this fall. He will teach a new course MUSC 421 Interactive Digital Music and Arts in the spring. Dr. Kaiser will be one of our teachers in the Arts Entrepreneurship minor program. We have several new applied lesson instructors that you might work with or run into: Brian O Donnell has come onboard as the low brass and brass ensemble instructor, Beth Ross-Buckley is now teaching flute, and other hires are in process. We begin our music series this fall semester with the Meeting of East & West Germany (25 years after unification) concert featuring the group Toutes Suites, directed by Dr. Pfau on October 9 (12:15pm French Parlor). There are a series of excellent events in November, including Solo Trumpet with Interactive Digital Music and Video (with Jeff Kaiser and Jason Ponce, Nov. 1 7:30pm Shiley Theatre), Faculty concert with orchestra (with Eric Foster, Edmund Stein, and Ramon Negron and directed by Dr. Yeung, Nov. 9 at 2pm Shiley, and Nov. 13 at 7:30pm Shiley), Opera Workshop (Nov. 16 2pm, Shiley) and the Alumni Piano Concert (Nov. 19 at 7:30pm French Parlor). December will feature student ensemble end-of-semester concerts (Chamber Ensembles, Gamelan, Jazz, Mariachi, Student Recitals, Digital Audio Composition Student Recital), along with the Annual Messiah Sing- and Play-Along. This promises to be an exciting semester. I hope that it is a rewarding time for all of you and that you will take full advantage of your time here at USD! If you need help in any way, just let one of us know. David Harnish Faculty Spotlights Music Pizza Meeting The music faculty would like to thank all the students for attending the fun and very in-

3 P a ge 3 A warm welcome to our new music faculty Dr. Emilie Amrein - Director of Choral Activities Elena Mashkovtseva - Harp Instructor Ruth Mayhew - Music Education, Substitute Professor Brian O Donnell - Brass Private & Ensemble Instructor Ramon Negron Briana Robell - Class Piano I, Substitute Professor Beth Ross-Buckley - Flute Instructor Barry Toombs - French Horn Instructor I participated in the American Bach Soloist Academy at the San Francisco Conservatory this summer, an advanced training program for emerging professionals of historically informed performance practice. It was a musical retreat full of challenge and rigorous coursework, insightful masterclasses and magnificent concerts. It was a privilege to collaborate with such highly acclaimed musicians to make great music. This is what it means to be a musician. In December I have been selected to perform with the American Bach Soloist Orchestra. We will be performing Handel s Messiah in San Francisco s iconic Grace Cathedral, which will be filmed by Frank Zamacona, director of the San Francisco Opera s HD video series (on PBS and live simulcasts) since I am excited to return as an alumni of the Academy to perform with the ABS orchestra. Handel s Messiah is a truly spectacular piece. I am pleased to make Handel proud and on film no less. Dr. Angela Yeung Dr. Yeung directed the USD Summer Chamber Music Festival that was held from June 22 to July 6. In August, Dr. Yeung held a clinic for the Advanced Choir at the Sacred Heart Academy and another one for the Advanced Choir at the 'Iolani School, both in Honolulu, Hawaii. On September 14, Dr. Yeung, with her Greater San Diego Chamber Orchestra, performed as the finale for the First Chinese Youth Arts Gala at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. Dr. Jeff Kaiser Dr. Yeung and the Advanced Choir of Sacred Heart Academy Honolulu, Hawaii I performed with my trumpet/technology duo (trumpet-trumpet, featuring myself and David Ballou) at the Wind-Up Room in Baltimore and International Society for Improvised Music Conference at The New School in New York in June. Also performed with the Los Angeles Trumpet Quartet last week at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, and with vocalist Anna Homler at Automata in Los Angeles. Recent recordings include Anna Homler's new CD, "Here & Here & Here" released in June.

4 P a ge 4 Dr. David Harnish During the summer Dr. Harnish co-taught a USD course with THRS professor Lance Nelson in Bali, Indonesia, titled Religion and the Performing Arts of Bali, and gave research presentations at a Southeast Asia performing arts conference at the ISI Conservatory in Bali and at a world jazz conference at the Conservatory in Amsterdam, where he discussed Krakatau, a jazz-gamelan fusion band in Indonesia. He also performed a few gigs in LA with La Revancha, a Latin rock band. Dr. Harnish published a co-authored, co-edited book, Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Interreligious Relationships in Bali and Lombok, Brill Press (with Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin), and wrote two chapters in that volume. He was pleased to become a co-recipient of both the Bruno Nettl Prize and the Best History Award from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, both for the Longing for the Past publication (2013) of early 20th-century Southeast Asian recordings, annotations and descriptions. Justin Grinnell Justin Grinnell, Director of the USD Jazz Ensemble, had an eventful and productive Summer Grinnell, also a freelance acoustic and electric bassist, maintained a busy performing schedule throughout the summer. Notable performances with the Brazilian Jazz-influenced Danny Green Trio included concerts at the Loft at UCSD (a tribute to Chick Corea featuring guitarist Peter Sprague) and at the Integrity Jazz Festival in Minot, North Dakota. Frequently called upon to play "rhythm bass" with the San Diego Symphony Pops, Grinnell accompanied Glee's Matthew Morrison for Symphony at Salk: A Concert Under the Stars. Grinnell's playing was also featured on the summer release of jazz flugelhorn master Dmitri Matheny's latest album, "Sagebrush Rebellion." The CD contains a mix of Matheny's originals and select covers including Grinnell's composition "Hit the Brakes." In mid-july, Grinnell served as a clinician and ensemble director for the 4th annual Jazz 88.3-House of Blues Summer Jazz Workshop at Francis Parker School. Most recently, Grinnell's debut CD "Without You" was nominated for a 2014 San Diego Music Award for "Best Jazz Album." Renee Calvo Renee Calvo, adjunct voice faculty, attended the National Teachers of Singing Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. While at the convention, she represented the San Diego chapter at the Leadership Summit which recognizes chapter presidents and promising new leaders. She recently was appointed as Director of Music at Reformation Lutheran Church in El Cajon, CA.

5 P a ge 5 Dr. Christopher Adler Christopher Adler will join soprano Stephanie Aston for a performance of Olivier Messiaen s Harawi on Thursday, October 10, at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla. Composed in 1945, Harawi is an ecstatic exotic symbolist tragedy expressed in Messiaen s unique and evocative musical language. A demanding virtuoso work, it is Messiaen s only concert-length song-cycle and very rarely heard in live performance. Drawing on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, Messiaen recasts the story of love and transcendent death through an Andean folk tale set amidst towering mountains, primitive rituals and choruses of birdsong. Tickets are available from San Diego New Music (sandiegonewmusic.com) and are only $10 for students! Dr. Ron Shaheen This Fall semester marks an important milestone for the Music Department s Opera Workshop. For the past five years, the course was offered only in the Spring semester, but now will be offered every semester. Interest in the course has grown significantly, with nine students enrolled last Spring, and twelve students currently enrolled. The Fall 2014 Opera Workshop performance, which takes place in Shiley Theatre on Sunday, November 16 at 2 p.m., features scenes from Die Fledermaus, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Candide, The Mikado, Kiss Me, Kate, Fiddler on the Roof, Into the Woods, and Mame. Sara De Luca and Jesse O Sullivan perform a scene from Smetana s The Bartered Bride during last semester s Opera Workshop. Briana Robell ( 12) has been accepted into the San Diego Opera Opera Exposed program. Her first appearance will take place at the Weingart/City Heights Library on Friday, October 24. The time has been tentatively set at noon. Briana will sing Laurie's Song from Aaron Copland s The Tender Land and "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from Mozart s Don Giovanni. Briana is a student of Dr. Ron Shaheen and the substitute professor for Class Piano I. Opera Exposed is a community outreach program that represents a reciprocal effort of the San Diego Opera Education and Outreach Department and the Music Departments of USD, SDSU, and Point Loma Nazarene University. Participants audition for and are selected by Dr. Nic Reveles, the Education Department Director (also an alumnus and former professor of the USD Music Department). Singers perform at various outreach concerts for San Diego Opera. In return they receive valuable experience, as well as admittance to San Diego Opera rehearsals, master classes, and other benefits. Through the Opera Exposed program, San Diego Opera hopes to generate general interest in its season, as well as in opera in general.

6 P a ge 6 Eric Foster Eric Foster, who teaches guitar classes at the University of San Diego, spent his summer playing weddings, concerts, and private events. Pictured here is Eric at a corporate event where two blocks in the gas lamp area of downtown were roped off with music and catered food for several thousand convention goers. Also pictured here is Eric at Arrow Bear Music camp where a youth orchestra, under the direction of Branden Muresan, played his "Latin Wave Concerto" with Eric as soloist and lecturer after the performance. Mr. Foster's newest composition for guitar and orchestra will be performed November 9 at Shiley Theatre with the Greater San Diego Chamber Orchestra. Anh Le Meet the Staff Anh is a sophomore at USD and lives with her family in Arizona the other 4 months in the year. She plays the flute and is considering a Music major. Some of her other interests include French, math, and the field of nonprofit. After college she hopes to become a nonprofit professional. Anh s favorite thing about USD is the music department; although it s small, everyone is friendly and she always feels welcome here. Also because Marilou is the best. People would be surprised to know that I was born in Vietnam and moved to the United States when I was nine years old. What is your favorite animal? ALPACAS!! Name your favorite movie. My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki) and Up (Pixar) because I am a child from now until the end of time. What is your favorite song? This question has a different answer almost everyday but right now it s 3 Things by Jason Mraz because it s very applicable to my life at the moment. Who is your favorite comedian? Top Three: John Mulaney, Jim Gaffigan, and Mike Birbiglia. Who is your favorite cartoon? Can t go wrong with Spongebob. What is your favorite motto or personal mantra? (I would like to share a quote by John Lennon. This is long, so brace yourselves.) When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down happy. They told me I didn t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn t understand life. -John Lennon

7 P a ge 7 Student Activities Mae Frank As with summers past, Mae went to the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival for three weeks. The first two weeks she was on the big island of Hawaii in Waimea. There, she practiced in quartets which practiced individually and with multiple coaches for a total of 3-4 hours a day. Then she had private lessons and master classes most days. Every night would end with orchestra for two hours. She performed 5 concerts all over the big island. For the last week, she traveled to Honolulu and stayed on the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus. There, she continued to rehearse and played a concert for the donors. Overall, she learned about what it takes to become a professional musician. Mae Frank playing at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. Monserrat Lopez This past summer, Monserrat helped teach students from King Chavez high school to learn Mariachi pieces to perform at their talent show. In addition, she is in an organization called Music4peace and the musical group 4Bliss, of which she is a songwriter and lead singer. The group raised money over the summer on Kickstarter to produce their first EP based on original pieces. Hayley Park Over the summer, Hayley had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem for two baseball games for the Mavericks, which is a minor league team in Adelanto, CA.

8 P a ge 8 October 2014 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat November 2014 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat October 9th: Meeting of East and West (Germany); French Parlor at 12:15pm November 1st: Jeff Kaiser & Jason Ponce; Shiley Theater at 7:30pm November 9th & 13th: Faculty Concert; Shiley Theater at 2pm & 7:30pm, respectively Novermber 10th & 11th: In Remembrance: Commemorating Veteran s Day; (Monday) Founders Chapel at 7:30pm (Tuesday) The North Chapel, Liberty Station at 7:30pm November 16th: Opera Workshop; Shiley Theater at 2pm November 19th: Alumni Piano Concert; French Parlor at 7:30pm

9 P a ge 9 Renovations As you probably have noticed, the Music Department had an extreme makeover over the Summer! All music classrooms, practice rooms and four faculty offices were renovated. State-of-the-art technology were installed in all the classrooms and new tablet arm chairs aka musician s chairs replaced the old desks. Insulation were placed in the walls to help with sound proofing. Best of all, the music classrooms, faculty offices and practice rooms now have AC...yaaay!!! Here are some before and after photos of the construction. If you haven t seen the newly renovated music rooms yet, please come by the Music Office in Camino Hall, Room C161 and we ll be happy to give you a tour! C156 Before and After C154 Before and After The H A L L W A Y