Joseph Nunez (BM ’18), was named most outstanding double bass instrumentalist of the Sphinx Orchestral Partners Auditions (SOPA) Excerpt Competition (2021) sponsored by the Sphinx Organization with the goal of job placement for musicians of color in American orchestras.
MidAmerica Productions tapped Ryan Sullivan, (DMA ’19) to conduct a concert of Felix Mendelsohn’s Jesu, Meine Freude and Antonín Dvořák’s Te Deum. He is Assistant Professor, Director of Choral Activities and Vocal Studies Coordinator at Arkansas State University.
DMA student Sungyun Kim won first prize in the Bill Hall Pipe Organ Competition while Jonathan Story, GAC student, received second prize and best hymn award.
The Southern Plains Chapter of The Society for Ethnomusicology awarded its 2020 Vida Chenoweth Prize for best paper to Yang Chen (MA, Ethnomusicology, ‘20). His paper is titled “Sounding the Ancestors: Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw and the Ancestral Spirit Imaginary.”
Jacob Nydegger (MM ’20, BM ’17) was awarded 1st Prize in the Senior Category of the 2021 Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition. As part of his award he will be making his performance debut in London at Royal Albert Hall, Elgar Room.
UNT Assistant Professor of trumpet and co-director of the UNT Brass Band, featured in Brass Band World Magazine
https://www.brassbandworld.co.uk/preview/index.php
Dave Pietro, alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, alto flute, piccolo - Best Large Jazz Ensemble, Best Instrumental Composition - Sputnik (Maria Schneider Orchestra).
Assistant Professor of Jazz Violin, Scott Tixier, performed on the Best Contemporary R&B Album (John Legend).
Snarky Puppy for Best Contemporary Album - with alumni Michael League, Shaun Martin, Justin Stanton, Chris Bullock and Mike Maher.
Soprano Latonia Moore portrayed Serena in the Metropolitan Opera production of Porgy and Bess - Best Opera Recording.
Francis Cathlina and McKenna Stenson, both doctoral choral conducting students, have been named semi-finalists for the American Prize in conducting. Francis Cathlina for his work with the UNT Men’s Chorus and McKenna Stenson for her work with the Manassas, VA Chamber Ensemble.
Mellonee Burnim (BM ‘71) gave the keynote address at the 2021 Society for Christian Scholarship in Music Conference presenting "Aretha's Amazing Grace: Symbol of African American Religious and Cultural Identity."
http://tinyurl.com/UNTMelloneeBurnim
Dion Tucker chats with Professor of Trombone, Tony Baker, for Episode 2 of The Black Trombone Chronicles.
http://youtu.be/9Au5z3bMCn0
Assistant Professor of Music Theory Andrew Chung’s article, Music as sexual violence? Investigating the case of bar/club-based sex trafficking and sonic harm, was published in the interdisciplinary journal.
http://tinyurl.com/19qwn84n
Trio Resonance - a classical guitar trio comprised of DMA students Héctor Torres, Noe Garcia, and Zhi Li (DMA ’20), has released its debut album Sound & Motion. This recording includes the debut of The Art of Sound and Motion by New Zealand composer Bruce Paine as well as pieces by Piazzolla, Glass and others. Available across all platforms.
http://tinyurl.com/TrioResonance
Jacqueline Foertsch, chair of the Faculty Awards Committee, announced Eric Nestler, Distinguished Teaching Professor (Saxophone), as recipient of a 2021 President’s Council Teaching Award.
College Gazette named the University of North Texas the Best Performing Arts College in the United States. According to the authors, “These [ten institutions] are exceptionally prestigious schools that regularly invite major guest artists to campus, are highly selective, and have stellar faculty who are accomplished performing artists themselves.” In addition to the significant offerings of the College of Music, the ranking includes our friends in UNT Department of Dance and Theatre along with the extensive UNT Music Library.
http://collegegazette.com
Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei (BM ’14) was selected as a Fellow for 2021 CULTIVATE, an annual emerging composers institute, along with 5 other composers.
https://danielsabzghabaei.com/
The Yamaha Institution of Excellence program has included the UNT College of Music in its inaugural list of 10 distinguished colleges and universities recognizing extraordinary commitment to innovation in the study of music. “These schools rise to the level of exceptional academic leadership that first inspired Yamaha to introduce this vital program and we are eager to join with them in a shared mission,” said Dan Rodowicz, senior director, Institutional Sales, Yamaha. According to John W. Richmond, dean of UNT’s College of Music, “We are thrilled to be included in Yamaha’s inaugural class of Institutions of Excellence and are eager to evolve our relationship with Yamaha Corporation of America (YCA) from a transactional one to a collaborative one. We envision collaborations across domains in music performance, music technology, music education, music production/distribution, instrument design/engineering/testing, music business and musicians’ health. We believe this new way of work to be enlightened and momentous. We can’t wait to get started!”
https://tinyurl.com/yamahaunt
DMA voice student Hilary Grace Taylor was named a national semifinalist of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
https://tinyurl.com/hilarygracetaylor
Eugene Corporon, University of North Texas Director of Wind Studies, Regents Professor of Music and Conductor of the Wind Symphony along with Chair of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles, Associate Professor of Wind Studies and Conductor of the Wind Orchestra, Andrew Trachsel, spoke about their respective chapters in the new Teaching Music through Performance in Band, Volume 12.
Written by Assistant Professor of Music Education, William J. Coppola, From Clubs to Concert Halls: The Influence of Performance Venue on Collective Identity Formation in Jazz was recently published by Indiana University Press for the Spring 2021 Volume of Jazz Education in Research and Practice.http://tinyurl.com/1ukhlb2t
Mike Morey (PhD ’19, DMA ’11) has published "Christopher Rouse's Symphony No. 1 (1986): Heroism in a Lyric Context" in Music Research and “Longing for a Fragment: Sappho as a Figure of Hope in Paul Sánchez’s ὁδοιπορία" in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Song Cycles Analytical Pathways Toward Performance" Gordon Sly and Michael R. Callahan, eds. Routledge Press (2021). His grandfather, George Morey, conducted the UNT Symphony Orchestra for 25 years and many of his family members are counted as UNT alumni.
The Journal of Research in Music Education has published a new research article, Perceptions of Choral Performances with Static and Expressive Movement, written by Jessica Napoles, University of North Texas Associate Professor of Music Education, UNT alumna Kari Adams (PhD ’20) and colleagues John M. Geringer and D. Gregory Springer.
Taught by Nick Finzer and directed by Jack Courtright, the UNT Jazz Studies student ensemble, U-Tubes, won the Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition while the University of North Texas Trombone Consortium, conducted by Natalie Mannix and Steve Menard, announced as the winners of the Emory Remington Trombone Choir Competition - both led by the International Trombone Association http://trombone.net/general-information/
