Ian Hodges (D.M.A., 2010, guitar, student of Jeffrey Van) spent the weekend in Norway House, Manitoba, teaching guitar and performing with some of Canada's finest fiddlers. He reports that "this was a chance to see another remote part of the North, to play classical and jazz music for students and an audience that rarely gets to hear this in person, and to take part in one of the largest jamboree events in Canada! It was a great experience to accompany these legendary fiddlers in concert, and a new musical challenge for me."
At the NAfME (formerly MENC) Biennial Research Conference in St. Louis, Sondra Wieland Howe (M.A., 1985, musicology, student of Donna Cardamone Jackson/Ph.D., 1988, music education, student of Charles Furman) presented a poster on "Music Teacher Education before 1940: The Role of Women in the Development of Music Schools." She was also elected chair-elect of the NAfME Gender Special Research Interest Group.
Composer, copyist, and producer Ryan Truesdell (B.M., 2002, music education, student of Dean Sorenson) was recently featured on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday (May 13) in the story "Gil Evans, Essential Jazz Arranger, At 100" in connection with the upcoming release of his CD Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans. Truesdell will return to the School of Music to perform the music of Gil Evans with the U of M Jazz Ensembles on December 3, 2012.
Megan Wagner (M.M., 2010, voice, student of John De Haan) has been awarded the Kenneth Hoving Fellowship for Graduate Study at the University of Oklahoma in pursuance of her doctorate in voice performance. Wagner will be a part of an elite group of students across the university and will represent the School of Music and the university at recruiting events, public performances, and other activities.
Immanuel Davis's recent performance with the Bach Society will be broadcast by Steve Staruch on May 17 at 3:15 p.m. on Classical Minnesota Public Radio (99.5 FM). On the broadcast, he will perform a Telemann Quartet from "Tafelmusik" for flute, oboe, violin, and continuo (playing baroque instruments). Davis received a $10,000 Artist Initiative Award grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board in March. With the grant, he will perform a series of concerts around the state of Minnesota with world-renowned colleague Barthold Kuijken.