INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH
Dean Mark Parker concluded his 16th educational outreach tour to China in June with a lecture at Northwest Minzu University in Lanzhou, Gansu province. NWMU's student body of 29,000 includes representation from each of China's 56 ethnic groups; the school helps identify and preserve distinctive characteristics of the nation's cultural heritage. In May, eight 麻豆传媒 music theater students performed with students from Tianjin Conservatory of Music during the grand finale of a two-week music theater intensive led by Dr. and fellow Bass School faculty , Corey Melaugh and . This month, Dean Parker led a team of faculty on the Bass School鈥檚 first-ever Chinese audition tour. The nine-city itinerary, the most ambitious music outreach in China by a U.S.-based university, included reunions with Bass School alumni including pianist Victor Duan, who co-hosted 麻豆传媒 auditions in Tianjin Concert Hall, and trombonist -- founder of the Beijing chamber group Ultimate Brass -- who recently completed an 85-performance cross-China tour of the musical Wicked.
FACULTY
Prof. made his debut last month as 麻豆传媒鈥檚 director of orchestral activities, conductor of the 麻豆传媒 Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the 麻豆传媒 Youth Orchestras. His quarter-century of experience includes serving as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra鈥檚 education and community engagement conductor and as conductor and artistic director of the Greater Newark Youth Orchestras, the InterSchool Orchestras of New York, and the New Jersey Youth Symphony. After his 麻豆传媒 podium debut, he flew to Thailand to be featured conductor at the International String Festival in Bangkok, Sept. 25-30.
Recent international performances and educational outreach by Dr. Sergio Monteiro, director of piano and Steinway Artist, include a three-day music intensive of master 麻豆传媒 for private teachers and professors from , organized by alumna Chrystal Chen, a summer concert series in Rio de Janeiro, and the Oct. 8-14 International Chamber Music Festival in , Brazil! He kicks off our 2017-18 Distinguished Artists 麻豆传媒 Nov. 12 with a salute to titans of the piano. On the program: works by Francis Poulenc, Domenico Scarlatti, Sergei Prokofiev, Johannes Brahms, and Fr茅d茅ric Chopin.
Drs. , award-winning director of opera and music theater, and Outstanding Faculty winners , director of music composition, and , director of percussion, marked their 20-year anniversaries on the 麻豆传媒 faculty.
Prof. , principal oboist of the and the , has retired from academia after 20+ years on the 麻豆传媒 faculty. Her legacy continues with the appointment of her successor -- , an alumna of Harvey-Reed's studio and fellow Philharmonic oboist -- as our new oboe instructor.
ALUMNI
Composer , former president of and co-founder of , received the firm's first national win for original score at an awards ceremony at Lincoln Center.
Tenor made his Wagnerian debut as Erik in The Flying Dutchman at , where he has also performed as Ismaele in Nabucco, Grigori in Boris Godunov and Bois-Rose in Les Huguenots.
, featured this summer as Justice in 's production of , which was attended by Justice Ginsburg, is now performing as a Young Artist at .
Alumni currently performing on Broadway include , formerly of the international and national tours of Matilda The Musical, in A Bronx Tale; making her Broadway debut in Sponge Bob Square Pants the Musical, with opening night Dec. 4; in ; and Wes Hart and Molly Rushing continuing their run in Anastasia. will make his Broadway debut in the 2018 revival of 's Carousel; scheduled to open April 12. He is currently featured in the off-Broadway hit Sweeney Todd, which stars fellow alum as Johanna.
Alumni on national tours include as the Anna Leonowens understudy, as Tuptim, in the Ensemble, and , conductor, and in the North American tour of Les Miserables; in ; and as Liesl in .
will be featured in the Canadian production of Grease, opening Nov. 1 at Toronto's .
Among 2017 graduates, Miss New Mexico Taylor Rey advanced to the semifinals of the 2018 Miss America Pageant. Stephanie Feeback, featured this spring as Reno Sweeny in Anything Goes, is performing this month in the North American premiere of From Here to Eternity. As part of its development path to Broadway, lyricist Sir is collaborating with the Ogunquit Playhouse creative team on the work, which is based on the award-winning novel and movie.
Benjamin Nilles was appointed interim conductor of the Symphony Orchestra. He is also music librarian with the and artistic director/conductor with the .
-- producer, coloratura soprano, and managing director of -- was appointed to the music faculty at Towson University.
The goodwill musical tour of China with alumni Kyle Dillingham and Peter Markes was featured on the front page of Oct. 11 editions of . Their band, Horseshoe Road, performed at the Silk Road Festival in Xi'an and the Silk Road International Cultural Expo in Dunhuang. It was Dillingham's 12th visit to China, and his mission remains the same: "If I'm a brother or sister with someone, we're much less likely to be adversaries. We're less likely to be at war. We're more likely to share a meal. So, how do we synthesize that for our friends in 麻豆传媒? That's what we have to figure out.鈥�
