This summer, some of the School of Music's graduate students will bring their talents to seniors. The goal of the Arts Connection Recitals is to bridge the gap between college-aged musicians and the elderly through two performance opportunities, increasing the quality of life for seniors through interpersonal relationships and live music performance and creating opportunities for students to study and perform additional repertoire, in the context of building relationships with senior citizens.
Date: 04/24/2013
Laura Hynes turns her D.M.A. recital into a unique performance titled Raise Your Voice, exploring issues of Violence Against Women through the ages via art song, text, dance and staging. The event was sponsored by a Community Engagement grant through the School of Music, and by the Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education.
Singers Laura Hynes, Beth Bayley, Elizabeth Windnagel, Sara Yoder, and Lauren Feider were joined by dancer Samantha Phillippi - the currently reigning Miss Minneapolis, guitarist Maja Radovanlija, and pianist Mijin Choi.
Repertoire includes songs by Libby Larsen, David Evan Thomas, William Bolcom, Kurt Weill, Leonard Bernstein, Germaine Tailleferre, Benjamin Britten, Jake Heggie, Aaron Copland, Ben Moore, and Reynaldo Hahn.
This new residency is an innovative collaboration with the School of Music that intersects the teaching artistry of Cantus with the University's instructional and community engagement initiatives. Our focus is to train and mentor future performers and music educators using the unique approach Cantus brings to collaborative music making.
We recognize the Cantus programming model as something that can benefit both performance and music education students in their growth as versatile teaching artists of the 21st Century. This exciting residency provides singers of all levels with meaningful opportunities for artistic growth and educational exchange. For more information about the Cantus Residency and related activities, please contact Kathy Romey.
From April 19-22, 2012, University Opera Theatre will present Robert Aldridge's Parables for chorus and orchestra featuring librettist, Herschel Garfein. With text by Herschel Garfein, direction under David Walsh, and conducting by Kathy Salzman Romey, Parables aims to engage university, religious, civic, and school partners in community-building workshops centered on the backlash against non-Christian-based religions after the events of 9/11.
Interactive workshops and concerts will challenge participants to examine, explore, and reflect on their attitudes toward critical issues, as well as to encourage and promote thoughtful dialogue about our rich cultural heritage. An integral part of the project will be to showcase the positive role of the arts, particularly music, in expanding our imaginative response to religious and cultural difference - the 'other' - in our society.
Through a series of school-based lessons, performances, informal discussions, and a Parables Forum, this project is bound to make an important mark on engagement efforts around the Twin Cities metropolitan region. Partners in the critical and collaborative discussion include: high school partners, religious and ethnic cultural groups, and the University Opera Theatre, U of M School of Music, Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, Department of Art, Department of Anthropology, and the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature.
Those interested in being a part of this community engagement project may participate in a springtime forum slated to take place in early April as well as the performances. Visit music.umn.edu for complete details.
Contact
Kinh T. Vu, Assistant Project Director
kvu00001@umn.edu
David Walsh, Project Director
FIND US ON FACEBOOK! https://www.facebook.com/uoperaengage
The School of Music is partnering with the Augustana College Choir, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Boy Choir , Gutersloh Boy Choir, and the Detmold Hochschule fur Musick in Germany to perform Benjamin Britten's stirring War Requiem. Students are studying the work's historical and artistic relevance through their coursework, dialog, rehearsal, and performance. Performances will take place on February 18 and 19, 2012 in Detmold, Germany, March 1, 2012 at our own U of MN, and March 4, 2012 in the Quad Cities. Read more at War Requiem Handout v4.pdf
This spring, U of MN Opera's David Walsh is taking on religion, culture, and art in our society. Partnering not only with surrounding U departments such as the Center for Jewish Studies and Classical and Near Eastern Studies, he is also working with the surrounding public schools and community organizations including the American Composer's Forum and the Confederation of Somali Community to foster significant artistic and community dialog. The Parables oratorio will be work-shopped with our students and in performance and field visits, it will be book-ended by the music of diverse religious cultures.
The Community Engagement Leadership Team (CELT) calling for proposals for grant funding to support projects that integrate community engagement into the curriculum, creative activities, and research of the School of Music. Projects can be student generated, faculty generated, or (ideally) collaboratively designed. All ideas are welcome. The CELT will assist with refining ideas you might have.
Each proposed project is eligible for up to $500 in support for travel, expenses, and equipment necessary for the successful implementation of the project. Projects will be assessed according to how well the following questions are addressed.
* How does this project use community engagement to contribute to the stated mission of the School of Music?
* How does this project impact the curriculum in the School of Music? The committee is especially interested projects that enhance learning and teaching opportunities for members of the School of Music community.
* What will "success" look like for this project?
* How will that success be assessed? Assessment can include measurement or narrative. We just want to know how you will know that the program has been successful and how you will evaluate the success.
* What are the benefits to the various constituencies involved in the project: students, faculty, and community partners? Of importance in assessing this category are the concepts of mutual contribution and mutual gain.
* How could this project serve as a model to others interested in community engaged scholarship and teaching?
* To what degree is this project sustainable?
Please use the form, Community Engagement Grant Application, which can be found on the Engagement page of the SOM website.
If you have any questions, please contact any member of the Community Engagement Leadership Team or Team Leader, Keitha Hamann.
Scotty Horey, percussion, and Jennifer Hanson, are passionate about taking their unique and successful ensemble into various communities. They worked with music educators in remote high schools and colleges in Minnesota to provide masterclasses and recitals tailored to the needs of the community. This September, Scotty and Jennifer will perform exciting duo works by Engebretson, Lorenz, Piazzola, and U of M student composer Brett Wartchow, as well as teach and discuss music with high school and college students at each location. Find tour dates: 9-19 Rococo Duo.pdf.
School of Music faculty and students are frequently engaging in K12 music programs, delivering master classes and clinics for music students throughout the state, and we're looking forward to many more collaborations this upcoming year. Beginning this Fall, Professor Tom Ashworth will be giving low-brass and jazz band clinics for area high school bands, and come Spring these visits will include his student group, the University of Minnesota Trombone Choir. To bring one of these clinics and concerts to your high school, contact mnmusic@umn.edu. Professor Ashworth will emphasize the many opportunities students will have as both music majors and non-music majors at large public university.
Here are just a couple of the highlights of faculty engagement with the schools from 2010-2011:
- Associate Director of Bands, Jerry Luckhardt and the University Wind, Symphonic, and Campus Bands rehearsed, dined, and performed alongside the Hastings High School Band. Thank you, Band and Band Boosters, for the great hospitality!
- Dr. Laura Sindberg's Music Ed students helped 5th and 6th graders pick out their band and orchestra instruments at the Wayzata Public Schools Instrument Recruitment Night.
Music Therapy faculty member, Michael Silverman, sends our therapy program's guitar and doctoral students to Minneapolis' Mill City Clinic and Boynton Student Health Care Center to provide live music in the waiting room. The Mill City Clinic is led by the U's own Jon Hallberg, and is dedicated to a healthy community, innovative medicine and excellence in health care. This engagement opportunity is based from positive data of a research study conducted by Dr. Silverman and Dr. Gary Christenson (head psychiatrist at Boynton Health Center).
Recent Comments