Daryl Yoder, baritone

Robert Nims , piano

Schwanengesang

Sunday, February 14, 3:15 pm, Jemison Auditorium

Ohio Wesleyan University’s Department of Music will present a faculty recital with Daryl Yoder, baritone, and Robert Nims, piano, on Sunday, February 14, 2010, at 3:15 pm in Jemison Auditorium of Sanborn Hall on the Ohio Wesleyan campus.

The program will be Schubert’s last, great song cycle, Schwanengesang.  Written in the last year of Schubert’s life to poems by Rellstab and Heine, the cycle includes some of his most daring and forward-looking songs, such as Der Doppelgänger and Der Atlas, as well as some of his most well-loved like the famous Ständchen (“Serenade.”)  Admission is free and open to the public.

Daryl Yoder has performed in concert, opera and recital in repertoire ranging from the 15th century to new music premieres.  He has appeared as a soloist with such groups as Apollo’s Fire (the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra), Boston’s Cantata Singers, the Columbus Bach Ensemble, Choral Arts of Springfield, the Cincinnati Camerata, Longwood Opera, and the Waltham Philharmonic and his work as a recitalist has been broadcast on Boston’s WGBH Radio.  An active performer of early music, Mr. Yoder was a fellow at Tanglewood’s Bach Cantata Institute and has been a member of such noted ensembles as the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music and the Boston Early Music Festival.  He has recorded music of Handel and Praetorius on the Koch label.

Robert Nims retired in 2002 from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was Professor of Voice and Director of Choral Activities. Since then he has served as interim teacher of voice at Capital University and at the Cleveland Institute of Music and as an adjunct teacher of voice at Ohio State University.  He is currently a member of the adjunct voice faculty at Otterbein College.

Jemison Auditorium is in Sanborn Hall, located at 23 Elizabeth Street, Delaware, Ohio, 43015. For additional information, call 740/ 368-3700, musicd@owu.edu.

February 18 @ 3:15 pm & 8:00 pm

February 19 & 20 @ 8:00 pm

Jemison Auditorium

Ohio Wesleyan University’s Department of Music will present the 3rd annual OWU // NOW Festival of New Music - four concerts celebrating The Music of Our Time. The festival will run Thursday, Friday & Saturday, February 18-20, with performances at 3:15 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, and 8:00 p.m. on both Friday & Saturday. All performances will take place in Jemison Auditorium of Sanborn Hall, located on campus at Ohio Wesleyan University (23 Elizabeth Street in Delaware). Admission for all performances is free and open to the public.

New to the festival this year is a “call for scores” from composers across the country. Over 350 scores were submitted for consideration from 213 different composers!  The festival will kick-off with an afternoon presentation on Thursday, February 18: Voices of Tomorrow – featuring OWU student composers. Five OWU student composers will be featured – Lauren Spavelko, Lauren Chapman, Meag Dow, Justin Giarrusso & Jabez Co - along with composers Paul Thomas & Robert Cohen, as selected from those submitting works in the call for scores.  The three evening performances will feature 12 performing musicians – OWU Music Faculty members joined by some of the finest professional musicians in central Ohio – 17 works, 2 world premieres, and 9 Ohio & Regional premieres!  The works range from traditional to experimental, chance music to electronic, and will present a wide variety of sounds and styles.  OWU // NOW celebrates The Music of Our Time multidirectionally – retrospectively looking back at the music composed during the past generation and brazenly looking forward at the music being composed today. Surprise, shock and intrigue promise a memorable festival extravaganza not to be missed.

The first evening concert on Thursday, February 18 – Take a Chance On Me – will feature three Ohio & Regional Premieres! The Carpe Diem String Quartet, violinists Charles Wetherbee, John Ewing; violist Korine Fujiwara; and cellist Diego Fainguersch, together with pianist Cameron Bennett will perform Steven Snowden’s The Devil’s Nine Questions. Carpe Diem - the ensemble-in-residence at Ohio Wesleyan University - is an exciting group that has captured the imagination of audiences, the respect of critics, and is becoming one of the most versatile ensembles of its generation. Carpe Diem has earned critical acclaim with innovative programs, electrifying performances, and a passion for audience engagement. CDSQ & Bennett will be joined by bassist John Pellegrino in the chance music composition of Barney Childs – Music for Piano and Strings. Violinist Charles Wetherbee will be featured in two works – HyeKyung Lee’s Gust of Embers – where he will be joined by pianist Cameron Bennett and clarinetist Nancy Gamso; and David MacDonald’s Four Pieces, where he will be joined by pianist Cameron Bennett and cellist Diego Fainguersch. Rounding out the program will be Daniel Levitan’s Duet for Marimba and Vibraphone, performed by Kimberly Burdett, vibraphone and David Wolf, marimba. 

Friday evening’s concert (February 19) – Answering the Call – will feature two Ohio & Regional Premieres! The Carpe Diem String Quartet, violinists Charles Wetherbee, John Ewing; violist Korine Fujiwara; and cellist Diego Fainguersch, will be featured on the entire concert and will perform Greg Hutter’s Deploration for String Quartet; Robert S. Cohen’s String Quartet No. 2, “A Day in the Life”; Simon Fink’s Pastorals for String Quartet; and Piotr Szewczyk’s Half-Diminished Scherzo.  Carpe Diem - the ensemble-in-residence at Ohio Wesleyan University - is an exciting group that has captured the imagination of audiences, the respect of critics, and is becoming one of the most versatile ensembles of its generation. Also featured on the program will be Korine Fujiwara’s virtuoso Six Tasty Caprices for Solo Violin performed by Charles Wetherbee.

The festival will close with Raising the Bahr on Saturday, February 20. This concert will prominently feature the music of OWU’s Professor of Composition, Dr. Jason Bahr. Bahr’s works have received more than 180 combined performances in twenty-nine states and eight foreign countries. He has received awards and grants from the Fromm Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, Northridge Composition Prize, Renee B. Fischer Piano Competition, Kubik International Prize, ASCAP, SCI, and the Cambridge Madrigal Singers. The program includes two World Premieres and four Ohio & Regional Premieres!  Canadian pianist Cameron Bennett will perform Bahr’s Two Preludes – Piano Prelude No. 7 and Plaza Prelude; Bennett will also perform the world premiere of OWU alum Nicole Piunno’s Le Petite Suite; Kim Goodman, flute, will perform Bahr’s The Four Humors; Nancy Gamso will be featured on two works – Ken Davies’ Soufriere for Flute and Digital Media and Aaron Alon’s Hibakusha for solo flute. Also on the program are Jed Hacker, horn and Mariko Kaneda, piano, performing Elizabeth Vercoe’s Five Inventions; mezzo soprano Marilyn Nims and pianist Mariko Kaneda performing Lee Hoiby’s Three Ages of Woman; and percussionist Thomas Reinman performing Jason Bahr’s Little Landon.  

For more information about OWU // NOW, contact the Department of Music at (740) 368-3700, musicd@owu.edu, or http://music.owu.edu.

Best of the Best!!

Carpe Diem String Quartet's latest CD, featuring String Quartet No. 1 by Jonathan Leshnoff, was voted as one of Naxos' Best of the Best list for 2009!

During 2009, hundreds of Naxos recordings gained top reviews around the world and were featured on their monthly Critics’ Choice pages. This month they presented the 40 Naxos CDs which were featured most frequently as Critics’ Choices throughout the year.

For additional information regarding CDSQ's latest CD, click here!

100 Random Acts of Music!!

#57 done, 43 more still go in Spring 2010 semester!

In honor of Sanborn Hall's 100th Anniversary, OWU's Department of Music celebrates 2009-2010 with 100 Random Acts of Music!

Events are Unscheduled and Unannounced and will occur throughout the Ohio Wesleyan campus and Delaware community. 

Celebrate Music, Celebrate Sanborn Hall, Celebrate Ohio Wesleyan!

The season-long 100 Random Acts of Music is going strong......as of December 17th, 57 RAM's have been performed to-date!!

Click here to follow along with pictures of the 100 Random Acts of Music!

The Department of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University announces Spring 2010 concert schedule

A Season of Celebration: Sanborn @ 100

Department of Music receives $800,000 estate gift

from former Music Faculty member Richard Strasburg

Ohio Wesleyan University today announced the receipt of an estate gift from former Music Department faculty member Richard Strasburg.

Professor Strasburg's bequest of more than $800,000 will be used to create the Richard W. Strasburg Endowed Music Merit Scholarship Fund in his memory. Strasburg scholarships will be awarded beginning in fall 2010 to first-year students majoring in music. Recipients will be eligible to renew the Strasburg awards for three additional years as per the Music Department's scholarship guidelines.

An accomplished concert pianist, Strasburg taught at Ohio Wesleyan from 1956 until his retirement in 1983. In addition to holding degrees from Oberlin College, the University of Southern California, and Florida State University, Strasburg studied at Les Ecoles D’Art Americaines at Fontainebleau, France, and at Ecole Normale in Paris. A longtime resident of Delaware, Ohio, Strasburg died in April 2008.

“Richard Strasburg was an influential teacher for so many Ohio Wesleyan piano students and an incredibly gifted pianist,” said Cameron Bennett, D.M.A., chair of the OWU Department of Music. “His generous gift to fund a significant music merit scholarship highlights his devotion to Ohio Wesleyan. Future generations of talented music majors will benefit from this generous gift and ensure that Professor Strasburg’s legacy will live on at Sanborn Hall.”

New Music Education Professor

Dr. Richard Edwards

Dr. Richard Edwards will join the full-time Department of Music faculty at Ohio Wesleyan University as Assistant Professor of Music (Music Education) in 2009-2010

Originally from Willoughby, Ohio, Richard Edwards currently serves as assistant professor at Ithaca College teaching instrumental music education courses and conducting the All Campus Band.  He completed the Ph.D. in Music Education at UNC Greensboro (2008), the Master of Music in Music Education at UNC Greensboro (2002) and received the Bachelor of Music degree from Ohio University (1996).  His research interests include neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and the pedagogy of music education.  Dr. Edwards has taught for six years in the public schools of Ohio and North Carolina as both a high school band director and an elementary music teacher, and as an undergraduate, he served as the field commander for “The Ohio University Marching 110".  He is a member of MENC, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, The College Band Director’s National Association, and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.

The Musical Brain Imaging Research Database (MusicBIRD) was originally created as a component of his UNC Greensboro Ph.D. dissertation titled, “The Neurosciences and Music Education: An Online Database of Musical Brain Imaging Research” (2008).  The MusicBIRD is intended to serve as a resource for anyone interested in the field of neuromusical research (i.e., the study of brain processes associated with musical experiences) and its primary objective is to organize neuromusical research by presenting summative information from all peer-reviewed musical brain imaging studies.

The Department of Music announces

the opening of the newly renovated

McMullen Electro Acoustic Music Studio (MEAMS)

With the opening of  the newly renovated McMullen Electro Acoustic Music Studio (MEAMS),  students now have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of electo acoustic music composition.  The studio, located in Sanborn Hall, is overseen by Assistant Professor of Composition, Music Theory and Electronic Music, Dr. Jason Bahr. The MEAMS has the latest in digital audio editing technology.  In the studio, students can create new electro-acoustic music compositions, master compact discs (CDs) or add music to film.  The MEAMS is a Mac-based environment that boasts an incredible 2.5 terabytes of hard drive space.  "We have tried to build a studio that is both flexible and powerful," says Dr. Jason Bahr, the MEAMS director.  "It is an exciting time for our department and students across the
campus."  Students learn the basics of acoustics, musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) technology, and digital audio through MUS229 Introduction to Electronic Music Composition.  They also work hands on with the equipment in their own three-hour block of studio time each week.  This course culminates in final projects that are original compositions.  Students may continue work in the studio through an independent study.

Dr. Thomas Carto founded the MEAMS in 1989 through a generous bequest of Marie McMullen.  The times have changed, but the mission remains the same: to broaden the resources of music technology at OWU so that students and faculty members may explore, learn and create.

2009-2010 Performing Arts Series

The 2009-2010 Performing Arts Series:

Sunday, October 25, 7:00 pm, Chappelear Drama Center

Gale McNeeley, "Archy & Mehitabel"

Saturday, January 16, 8:00 pm, Chappelear Drama Center

Columbus Dance Theatre, "The String Machine"

Sunday, January 31, 8:00 pm, Gray Chapel

Cecile Licad, piano

Saturday, February 27, 8:00 pm, Gray Chapel

Chanticleer

Click here for more information.

For tickets call 740-368-3629 or visit www.ticketweb.com

Naxos CD release: Carpe Diem String Quartet

Naxos has released the complete String Quartets (Vol. 1) of Sergey Taneyev by the Carpe Diem String Quartet, OWU's Ensemble-in-Residence.

Music at OWU featured on Connect2OWU!

Read all about the music events at Ohio Wesleyan on Connect2OWU:

http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20080730/newsAndViews/opera.html

http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20080206/newsAndViews/musicOfOurTime.html

http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20080206/ourTown/artZine.html

http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20071128/newsAndViews/performanceFaculty.html

http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20071010/ourTown/choralArtSociety.html