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.

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

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

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.