Many of our faculty members traveled across the Atlantic this summer to teach and perform.  Highlights include:

  • Robert Becker, assistant professor of music, was invited to Cremona, Italy as a guest concerto soloist, chamber music artist, and string adjudicator for the International Music Competition and Festival.
  • Assistant professor of theatre Donald Guy and associate professor of dance Alicia Guy traveled with twenty-one students on a 23-day long journey through France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City and Greece, touring ancient theatres, historical sites, and culturally significant museums.
  • Associate professor of music Peter Atherton joined the voice faculty of The University of Miami Frost School of Music Salzburg Program, where current student Kevin Gino (‘14) was a winner of the prestigious Schloss Mirabell Competition.
  • Grace Fong, director of keyboard studies, was a guest performer at the Callian Festival in France, and was thereafter the featured pianist at Festival Les Recontres de Moita in Corsica. In August, she was the guest performer at the Festival Musica in Collina, Lapedona, Italy.
  • Dean of the College of Performing Arts Dale Merrill taught a workshop at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München for student performers from the kids4kids World Foundation, which will culminate in a benefit performance in November supporting music therapy and abuse prevention programs for children.
  • Associate professor of music Jeffrey Holmes traveled to France for the premiere of his piece for violin and percussion, Nastrond (IV), by Ensemble Sound Initiative (Paris) at the Etchings Festival in Maulin a Nef, Auvillar.
  • Jessica Sternfeld, assistant professor of music was selected to give a talk for the conference Song, Stage, & Screen in London in July, titled “Teaching Children to Teach the Community:  Godspell in Texas”.
  • Assistant professor of music Nicholas Terry, as a member of the international percussion-orchestra Ensemble XII, performed Schallmachine Maximus at Agusta Raurica and returned to the Lucerne Festival to present two concerts, featuring a world premiere by composer Milica Djordjevic.
  • Director of choral activities Stephen Coker served as the headlining clinician for the choral festival VOCALIZZE held in Portugal under the auspices of the Instituto Piaget in Lisbon, where he taught conducting and conducted the Festival Choir.