This page includes recent achievements, performances, and publications of the Bienen School faculty.

Faculty: If you would like your achievements to be published on this page, please use our online submission form, or submit via email to fanfare@northwestern.edu. (Note: If you are submitting digital images to go along with your news item, you must use the email address and attach those images to the email.) Your information may also be included in the next issue of Fanfare. We reserve the right to edit your item for either online or print publication.

J. Lawrie Bloom (clarinet) performed the U.S premiere of Thea Musgrave's bass clarinet concerto Autumn Sonata with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in October. Conducted by Finnish Suzanna Malkki, Bloom for praised for his sympathetic and eloquent voice. The Chicago Tribune added that Bloom's "proficiency and sensitivity was something to marvel at."

Mark J. Butler (music theory and cognition) saw the publication this Spring of Electronica, Dance, and Club Music (Ashgate Publishing), which he edited. It is the first published reference work on electronic dance music. Read the press release.

Alan Chow (piano) gave a number of performances over the last year, including a solo recital and master class at the University of Washington; chamber concerts with Northwestern's Winter Chamber Music Festival and Rembrandt Chamber Players; a concert with baritone Jubilant Sykes at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas; and a concert with the Cheng-Chow Trio (with twin brother Alvin and his wife, Angela Cheng) at the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center in Rockford, Illinois. Professor Chow was a juror for the Los Angeles Liszt Competition; the Crescendo Music Awards in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Musicfest Northwest in Spokane, Washington. This summer, he will perform and teach in China at the Beijing Central Conservatory and Shanghai Conservatory and give master classes at MasterWorks Festival in Indiana and the New Orleans International Piano Institute.

Steven Cohen (clarinet) performed as part of a week of master classes with clarinetist Anonio Saiote in Guimaraes, Portugal, last summer. Also last summer, he performed as principal clarinet at the Brevard (North Carolina) Music Center, where a new teaching studio has been dedicated to him; and he participated in the Indiana University Clarinet Performance Workshop. In November, he was concerto soloist with the Montgomery (Alabama) Symphony Orchestra. In the past year, he has given recitals at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore; Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc.; Manhattan School of Music in New York; the Texas Clarinet Colloquium, Commerce, Tex., and the Interlochen Arts Academy.

Drew Edward Davies (musicology) has published Santiago Billoni, Complete Works (A-R Editions, 2011) as part of the the series “Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era.” This is the first complete critical edition of the work of a composer in 18th-century New Spain (Mexico). (Read more)Professor Davies continues to collaborate with the Chicago Arts Orchestra and the Dallas-based Orchestra of New Spain as scholar in residence in performances of earlier Hispanic musics. 

Charles Geyer (trumpet) performed as part of the Chicago Chamber Musicians BRASS and American Brass Quintet concerts in September. As part of the concert series, a contest was held in which the winning high school received a master class taught by Professor Geyer.

James Giles (piano) has performed solo recitals over the past nine months in Nancy, France, at the Festival Nancyphonies; in Florence, Italy on the series at the Accademia Cristofori; and at Christ Church in Newcastle, England. He gave a master class at the Royal College of Music in London and was the conference artist for the North Carolina Music Teachers' Association. He performed music by William Bolcom in the presence of the composer at the American Liszt Society Conference in Atlanta. Professor Giles was artist in residence at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he played a recital and taught a master class. He continued as chair of the piano program at the Eastern music Festival during the summer.

Robert A. Harris (conducting) received a Tribute Award in May from Chicago A Cappella in recognition of his “distinguished service to the field of choral music through teaching, conducting, mentoring, composing, and performing, all in the pursuit of excellence and through his ongoing training of superb musicians for this and future generations in Chicago and around the world.” The past year saw the publication of his choral works “One Small Child” for mixed chorus, unaccompanied; and “May the Lord Be With You” for mixed chorus and organ (both MorningStar Publishers); and “Set Me As A Seal” for mixed chorus and piano (Kjos Publications).

Robert G. Hasty (conducting) has joined platinum selling singer-songwriter Christina Trulio (ASCAP) in her recent performing and recording activities as the violinist in her band. Performances have taken place at several Chicago-area venues including Pick-Staiger Concert Hall for Northwestern's Japan Earthquake Relief benefit. Visit www.realiotruliomusic.com for more information. In November, 2010, Dr. Hasty conducted the Illinois Music Educators association Middle School Honors Orchestra for District 1. Over a decade ago, Dr. Hasty was Vice President of the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association. The SCSBOA invited him back for a homecoming of sorts to conduct the All-Southern California High School Honor Orchestra in a concert last January held at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center in Long Beach, California. Dr. Hasty led a performance of Belshazzar's Feast by Sir William Walton at the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, China, last February. The gala concert was presented by the International Schools Choral Music Society, for which Dr. Hasty is the practitioner for conducting. The choir featured over 300 voices of musicians from around Asia, and the orchestra included musicians from the Shanghai Conservatory. He led conducting workshops for students as well as music educators from International Schools.

Maud Hickey (music education) received a second year of funding ($50,000.00 grant) from the Chicago Community Trust to continue her research and work in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (CCJTDC) in Chicago. Professor Hickey and two music education PhD students, Nasim Niknafs and Jason Thompson, teach juveniles music composition through the use of the Apple app Garage Band& in weekly sessions. This year Professor Hickey's program is expanding through work with members of the Center for Civic Engagement. They are helping to organize a Saturday program for music mentors at the CCJTDC. Professor Hickey was invited to be a faculty member at the annual Tennessee Arts Academy which took place in July, 2011, on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. There she taught a workshop for music teachers from across the state of Tennessee on integrating music composition and improvisation into their classrooms. Professor Hickey presented or co-presented at the "New Directions in Music Education: Revitalizing Middle and High School Music" conference in East Lansing, Mich.; and the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference in Lincoln, Neb.

Lee Hyla (music composition) was composer-in-residence at the Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France in Summer 2011. Eleven students from eight countries worked with Professor Hyla. He later returned to Auvillar where he had a two-week residence to compose under the Virginia Cneter for the Arts European residency program. He wrote part of a piece for marimba for Bienen percussion professor She-e Wu. Works by Professor Hyla music was performed at the Tanglewood New Music Festival (House of Flowers for mezzo soprano, bass clarinet, bass, and piano) and the Portland, Maine, Chamber Music Festival (Amnesia Redux for piano trio) in August 2011. In November, he was awarded a fellowship/commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University to compose a piece for eighth blackbird. Professor Hyla's saxophone quartet Paradigm Lost was featured in an article in Chamber Music magazine's November/December 2011 issue. He was accepted to the Bogliasco Foundation in Genova, Italy, for a residence in the spring. Professor Hyla was named the recipient of their Aaron Copland Fellowship, which provides travel expenses and a stipend. The Bogliasco Foundation was created as a non-profit operating foundation in 1991 with the sole mission of running the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, which provides residential fellowships for qualified persons working on advanced creative or scholarly projects in the arts and humanities.

James Kjelland (string pedagogy) conducted the Wisconsin All-State Middle Level Orchestra in October 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin. He guest lectured that same month for the Illinois String Teachers Association's Teacher Enrichment Workshop in Elmnhurst, Illinois, presenting a talk titled "Planting Seeds for Advanced Technique." Last February he was the featured clinician for string class pedagogy, orchestral bowing, and teaching musicianship at the South Carolina Music Educators Association in Charleston.

Walfrid Kujala (flute) appeared as piccolo soloist in Daniel Dorff's Flash! at the National Flute Association convention in San Diego in August 2010.

Rex Martin (tuba) made trips in Spring and Summer 2011 to Osaka and Tokyo to give recitals and masterclasses. He also taught and gave recitals and masterclasses for two weeks in July at "Ticino Musica" in Lugano, Switzerland. In August he gave a recital and masterclasses at the "Festival Musicale Scaligera" in Bardolino, Italy. In September, Professor Martin returned to Kristiansand, Norway, to give a week of workshops with the brass section of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. In November, he traveled to Amsterdam, Milan, and Vienna as a member of Northwestern's Study Abroad Committee.

John Moulder (jazz studies) was recently honored by Lake Forest (Illinois) High School with a spot on the school's Alumni Wall of Fame.

Inna Naroditskaya (musicology) published her book Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarina from State to Stage (Oxford University Press), which explores musical theater as a manifestation of Russian imperial lore. Read the press release.

W. Stephen Smith (voice and opera) spent one week during Summer 2011 teaching at the training program "Opera on the Avalon" in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. He also spent a week at Santa Fe Opera working with their 40 apprentice artists. He spent eight weeks teaching at the Aspen Music Festival and School — his 16th summer at that institution.

Peter Webster (John W. Beattie Professor of Music Education and Technology) saw the publication of The MENC Handbook of Research on Music Learning (Oxford University Press), co-edited with Richard Colwell, professor emeritus of music education at the University of Illinois and the New England Conservatory of Music. Read the press release.

Gail Williams (horn) released a CD called Horn Muse (Disc Makers, 2011). Many colleagues joined her in the recording, including Bienen School faculty She-e Wu (percussion), Alan Chow (piano), and William Barnewitz (horn). In August 2010, Professor Williams was principal horn with the World Orchestra for Peace in performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in London and Salzburg. Bienen School faculty members Christopher Millard (bassoon) and Randy Hawes (trombone) also performed at these concerts. In January, the World Orchestra for Peace performed Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in Abu Dhabi.

Jay Alan Yim (music composition) released a live recording of the premiere of his composition neverthesamerivertwice by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, and featuring Eric Huebner as soloist. The recording is available through the Philharmonic's iTunes page. A collaborative project by Professor Yim and Marlena Novak (collectively known as localStyle) and Northwestern McCormick faculty member Malcolm MacIver was curated into the "TransLife Triennial Exhibition: Sensorium of the Extraordinary," at the National Art Museum of China last July. Titled scale, the project is a bio-art audience-interactive installation that involves electric fish from the Amazon River Basin. It was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, University Research Council, and the Murphy Society.

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