Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Winter Choral Concert This Sunday

The winter choral concert featuring three vocal ensembles will be held on Sunday, February 28 at 4 p.m. in the Jack and Deb Miller Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public.

Under the direction of Dr. Rowland Blackley, the University Choir will present an eclectic mix including Ola Gjeilo's Ubi caritas, a modern twist of a medieval chant; spirituals Abide with Me and The Battle of Jericho by Moses Hogan, and Eric Whitacre's composition of Frederico Garcia Lorca's Spanish love poem, With a Lily in Her Hand.

Dr. Blackley will also conduct the Chamber Singers performing Morten Lauridsen's Les Chansons des Rose, a set of songs based on poetry by Rainer Rilke.

The Women's Chorus, directed by Elizabeth Slade, will perform Johannes Brahms' Four Songs for Women's Chorus, Opus 17, which is one of his earlier works written when he was only 27 years old.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Navratil & Buchmelter Present Low Brass Recital

On Thursday, February 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall, Eileen Navratil, euphonium, and Jaylynn Buchmelter, trombone, present their junior recital accompanied by pianist Susan Gregg. Read more about Eileen, Jaylynn and the impact of their music professors in the recent Collegian article. HERE

Friday, February 5, 2016

Four Decades of AU Music Alumni Gather

Ashland University Department of Music held its annual alumni reception during the OMEA - Ohio Conference hosted by Tom Reed, Marla Butke and Ron Blackley. Meeting at Palomino Restaurant in Cincinnati, we had a chance to enjoy the company of graduates ranging over 4 decades from 1974 to 2015 including:

Tonya Carper Kral
Marty  Kral  
Jeff  Conklin, 1974
Dave  Wolbert, 1976
Tony  Novotny, 1985
Danell Smart Allar, 1994
Vicki  Mikkelsen, 2000
Julie  Strebler, 2002
Karen Gravagna Mahoney, 2002
Geoffrey  Zimmerly, 2003
Anne Patton Teschler, 2003
Brad  Allen, 2004
Megan  Routh, 2007
Emily Plummer Garlock, 2007
Laura Mohn Schantz, 2007
Christine Drabek Wedell, 2007
Katy  Kohman, 2009
Cassandre  Bull, 2009
Rachel Blenman Caldwell, 2010
Amanda Stahlecker Ballreich, 2010
Aly  Horn, 2011
Margo George Trinter, 2011
Lauren Massaro Colotto, 2012
Alex  VanScoy, 2014
Caleb  Stout, 2015
Devyn  Renninger, 2015

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Emmy-Nominated Composer to Visit AU

Ashland University Department of music will host a visit by Emmy-nominated composer and Wooster native Philip Giffin on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 1:40 p.m. in Room 303 of the Center of the Arts. His presentation will take place in the Music Theory IV class, but guests are welcome to attend.

Mr. Giffin will talk about careers in music including his experience as a composer/orchestrator for TV and films. As a composer living and working in Los Angeles, California, he has composed extensively for television & film including 93 episodes of the Disney animated cartoon called Darkwing Duck. Disney gave him a full orchestra every week to accomplish this opportunity and monumental task. In addition to composing music for several other television episodic's, he has orchestrated and written additional music for blockbuster features such as, Die Hard I, Die Hard II, Lethal Weapon I, Lethal Weapon II, Say Anything, Little Mermaid, Pee Wee's Big Adventure & more. He is also a music director for a Cirque du Solei's live stage performances.

For more information about Philip Giffin, visit his website at philipgiffin.com.