Natalie L. Haslam College of Music

New UTK String Project Awarded Exclusive Grant

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The UTK String Project at the University of Tennessee is one of only six national string programs to be awarded a recent grant from the National String Project Consortium, and one of three new programs to be a recipient.

A member of the National String Project Consortium, the UTK String Project is a program designed to teach beginning string students and develop future string teachers. Students ages 8-10 will attend two string classes every week, taught by music students at the University of Tennessee under the close supervision of the program director, Evie Chen. Students will study violin, viola, or cello. The program is a key part of the School of Music’s community engagement, providing accessible and affordable music instruction.  The grant, which is provided by the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Foundation and the National String Project Consortium, will provide $10,000 for the 2022-23 academic year.

“We’re thrilled to be recognized with this grant, which will allow us to continue to provide high-quality music education to the next generation of musicians and music educators,” Chen said. “This is a key part of our mission to bring life-enriching music to both our students and the community at large.”

“We’re especially excited that this work and grant will impact the future of string education,” said Jeffrey Pappas, director of the School of Music, “particularly for students who may not have this opportunity in their current schools.”

The National String Project Consortium (NSPC) is a coalition of String Project sites based at colleges and universities across the United States. The NSPC is dedicated to increasing the number of children playing stringed instruments and addressing the critical shortage of string teachers across the country. The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit organization funded in part by the National Association of Music Merchants. The Foundation’s mission is to advance active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving, and public service programs.

“Programs supported by The NAMM Foundation, including a grant to the National String Project Consortium, advance music learning for people of all ages and abilities,” Mary Luehrsen, Executive Director of the NAMM Foundation, said in a press release. “Together, we advance a more musical world based on a shared belief that music is a force for good and connections in our world.”

Internationally Renowned Composer to Visit UT School of Music, Premiere New Composition

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The University of Tennessee School of Music will welcome composer Kevin Day to campus for a three-day residency from November 15-17, culminating in the world premiere performance of his new concerto, Dual Strides for horn, trombone, and wind ensemble. This commissioned piece was made possible by a generous gift from Admiral Title, Inc.

Kevin Day is an internationally recognized composer and the recipient of several awards. He is a winner of the BMI Student Composer Award, a three-time finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and is considered for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for his work Concerto for Wind Ensemble. His pieces, which number more than 200, have been performed numerous times internationally, including the United States, Russia, Austria, Australia, Taiwan, South Africa, and Japan. Most recently, he had his Carnegie Hall Conducting Debut at the 2022 New York International Music Festival. He also holds a position as assistant professor of composition at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The concerto will be premiered at the University of Tennessee Wind Ensemble concert, which will take place on Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the James R. Cox Auditorium, which is located in the Alumni Memorial Building.

“This is just another example of what our students experience in the UT School of Music: Access to training from world-class musicians, composers, and scholars,” said Jeffrey Pappas, director of the School of Music. “We’re delighted to host Mr. Day and eagerly anticipate the wonderful experience his visit will bring to our School, the campus, and our community.”

The public is also welcome to attend a masterclass with UT students in the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall of the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center on Wednesday, November 16 at 12:55 p.m. At this masterclass, Day’s works will be performed by various student ensemble groups, including a saxophone quartet, horn and piano solo, and a tuba & euphonium sextet.

Music Graduate Student Mikeila McQueston Studies Privately with World-Renowned Composer in Exclusive Program

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Mikeila McQueston, a graduate student in the UT School of Music studying vocal performance and composition, is a rising star. This time last year, she was recognized with second place in the American Prize for student composition in choral works. This year, she has again placed second – this time for student composition in opera – and gained the opportunity of a lifetime to study under an internationally recognized composer.

Kaija Saariaho, a Finnish award-winning composer whom the BBC recently named as the greatest living composer, is leading this year’s masterclass at the Uuden Musiikin Lokakuu (Ostrobothnian Contemporary Music Festival) in Oulu, Finland. Only four active composers are accepted into the program each year, and McQueston is the only American in this year’s cohort. As part of this highly exclusive program, in addition to studying privately with Saariaho, one of McQueston’s pieces received its world premiere through the Kaaos Ensemble at the festival itself.

“Working with Ms. Saariaho has been such a positive experience,” she said. “She’s taught us about her use of harmonic language, orchestration, and temporality, but she also wants us to find our own unique voices and explore many different sound possibilities.”

Hailing from Peachtree City, Georgia, McQueston is a distinguished scholar and composer. In 2022, she received her Carnegie Hall debut and was named a Dominick Argento Fellow in Opera Composition by the National Opera Association. She has also been named a Presser Scholar and a Herman E. Spivey Humanities Graduate Fellow.

The honor of being named one of four composers for Saariaho’s master class comes at an especially fitting time, right on the heels of two high placements in the American Prize for student composition. Her most recent placing composition, Aurelia, is a one-act opera inspired by isolation during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The eponymous character has had no contact with her family for the past three years, but now will be playing the harp at her brother’s wedding ceremony. The story uses humor and reflection to investigate the protagonist’s deeper reasons for eschewing both her instrument and contact with her family. Over the course of the opera, McQueston incorporates several musical styles, including musical theatre and cabaret, invoking musical exploration alongside the character’s introspection.

“I kept coming back to this poem called ‘The Jellyfish’ by Marianne Moore, which is the opening song of the show, and has this constant back and forth as if somebody couldn’t make up their mind,” she said. “I based a character off of this idea, and then wrote several monologues from her perspective, just trying to understand why she was that way.”

In addition to her composition accolades, McQueston has also been praised for her “impressive lyrical vocal strength” (Arts Knoxville) and has performed a number of operatic roles, including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. You can experience her voice in an upcoming UT Opera Theatre / Knoxville Opera co-production of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow November 4 and 6 at the Tennessee Theatre. Tickets can be purchased from the Knoxville Opera website.

Photo by Franklin Green

“Pride of the Southland” Feature Twirlers Represent UT at International Baton Twirling Championships

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The “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band is making waves internationally.  Feature Twirler Laney Puhalla competed this summer in baton twirling world championships, taking home six medals.  Feature Twirler Abbie Hadener has qualified to take part in the world championships next summer.

There are two major international competitions for competitive baton twirling – the WFNBTA (World Federation of National Baton Twirling Associations) Championship and the WBTF (World Baton Twirling Federation) World Championships.  The competitions themselves differ from the baton twirling you typically see in “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band performances, with the structure of the competition similar to that of gymnastics in the Olympics.  Teams from each participating country compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals, while twirlers do the same for individual events as well. 

“When people think of batons, they think of old-school majorettes, who wear white boots and march in parades,” said Puhalla, who made her seventh and eighth appearances (across both world competitions) this year.  “In the world competitions, they used to do one turn and two turns, and now participants are competing in six spins.”

Abbie Hadener, who will make her third appearance on Team USA next summer, agrees: “The use of gymnastics tricks and tumbling has really evolved compared to earlier in the competition history.”

The two twirlers have remarkably similar stories, which speak to their early and constant dedication to the sport, their love of the “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band, and their continued success as performers and competitors.

Abbie Hadener

Hadener (pictured right), a rising sophomore from Boynton Beach, Fla. majoring in nutrition science, started on her baton twirling path quite early.  At just seven years old, she took her first baton twirling class and has been on an upward trajectory ever since.  She has since competed with Team USA on the international stage twice, the first time in Poreč, Croatia, in 2017, and the second in Limoges, France, in 2019.  She has qualified to compete internationally in summer 2023.  She had success in those first two competitions, as well, bringing home a bronze team medal in 2017 and placing in the top five in 2019.

The “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band has continued to play a role in her development as a baton twirler since her arrival on campus in fall 2021. She says that the UT campus felt like home, especially after her first band camp.  Her experiences since have only solidified that connection and continue to do so each gameday.

“When we open up the T with the band and run through it, the atmosphere lights up so much,” Hadener said.  “I continue to get chills every single time we open up the T.”

Laney Puhalla

A rising senior in pre-med who is also a Knoxville resident, Puhalla (pictured left) is a multi-generational baton twirler, having inherited a joy for the sport from her mother and grandmother.  She first picked up a twirling baton during her toddler years, and has since garnered many competition accolades.  Her first international competition was in 2012 and she has since gone back to at least one of the two world championships in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2022.  She has qualified to do the same in 2023.

This summer, Puhalla competed in both world championship competitions.  First she competed at WFNBTA in Eindenhoven, Netherlands, where she was awarded with two gold team medals with Team USA, and four silver medals for the individual competitions.  At WBTF in Turin, Italy, she competed individually in the senior women’s competition, where she placed sixth. These two competitions immediately followed the U.S. National Baton Twirling Championships, where Puhalla took first place in the Grand National Women’s Solo and 2-Baton events.

While it was the neuroscience program that ultimately brought her to the University of Tennessee, the “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band also played a critical role.  Not unlike Hadener, she thinks back to her first gameday experience as a formative one.

“When we had our first parade to the stadium on gameday, coming down the hill before salute to the hill happens, I saw nothing but orange.  It gave me chills,” Puhalla said. “When we were lined up for pregame waiting for our drum major to give us the call, I could feel the ground shaking under my feet from the crowd.”

School of Music Opera Graduate Receives Prestigious Scholarship for Graduate Study

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Ask Will Ryan (BM Opera Performance, ’22) about his post-graduation plans and he’ll tell you: to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.  But that’s not all – he’s also been selected for one of the most prestigious opera awards in higher education.

The recipients of several of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music scholarships are selected not from open applications, but from invited auditions – and not all incoming students receive invitations.  Ryan was one of those invitees.

“I’m grateful to be counted among this group, because everyone at that competition was absolutely spectacular,” he said.  “To have the opportunity to participate as someone not already enrolled in the program was really special.”

At the competition, he performed “O Isis und Osiris” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute), “I really miss that bar” from Michael Ching’s Speed Dating, Tonight! and “Ho capito, signor si” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni.  The judges were duly impressed, and he was recently notified that he will receive the Italo Tajo/Newburger Memorial Award.

Despite such a promising career trajectory, it was not always clear that Ryan would be an opera singer.  Late into high school, his intention had been to enter college as a neuroscience major.  His first experiences singing on stage came as part of his high school’s choir program, which included an opportunity to sing during an event at Carnegie Hall.  In his words, “It hit me with this wave that this is something that I wanted to keep doing forever.”

Even after that event, it took some time, and encouragement from friends and family, before he decided to pursue singing as a career path.  Once at UT and in the opera program, however, he flourished.  Of particular note was the various opportunities he had to perform on stage, in UT Opera Theatre productions as well as events with the student-run organization VolOpera.

“It’s fairly rare for opera students to have actual roles, because opera is usually meant for people who are older and have a more developed voice,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to have had such opportunities at UT.”

Ryan performed the role of Sarastro in UT Opera Theatre’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute), and also performed in VolOpera productions, including a premiere excerpt of a new adaption of Pinocchio, written by UT alumnus Aaron Hunt (MM Composition, ’20).

Ryan graduated earlier this month, and looks forward to continuing his studies at the University of Cincinnati.

UT Alumnus Michael Kurek Named Composer Laureate of the State of Tennessee

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UT School of Music alumnus Michael Kurek (BM Music Theory, 1977) has been blessed with a rare honor: to be named composer laureate of the state of Tennessee.

“I’m very deeply touched,” Kurek said.  “I’ve spent most of my life in Tennessee and to get this kind of recognition as a composer and a citizen on a state level is incredibly meaningful.”

His numerous career distinctions include an Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Academy’s Charles Ives Award, and the Tanglewood Music Center’s Fromm Fellowship in Composition, to name a few.  His music, which has included a stylistic progression from modernism to postmodernism to a fully narrative traditionalism, has been performed live and/or heard on radio or TV throughout the U.S. and, internationally, multiple times in 43 other countries, including France, England, Germany, Japan, Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, Portugal, Australia, Brazil, Italy, and Sweden.  It’s for reasons like these that the bill which designated him composer laureate, which was recently signed by Governor Bill Lee, described Kurek’s music and talent as “unparalleled.”

It’s rather fitting that the honorary title, a lifetime appointment, is itself a rarity – only a small handful of states have such designations.  The only previous incumbent of the position in Tennessee was David Van Vactor, a former director of the School of Music (then known as the Music Department).  Since Van Vactor’s death in 1976, the position has remained vacant.  The two composers have an additional connection as well – Van Vactor was Kurek’s first music composition instructor when the latter was at the University of Tennessee as a student.

“What sticks out to me about my time at UT is the people,” Kurek said. “I had particularly well-qualified, smart, sophisticated, and caring teachers who gave me extremely rigorous training.  When I became a professor at Vanderbilt, I used some of the same material I had gone through at UT, and some of the same notes I had taken as a student.”

From the time he was a child, Kurek has felt a compulsion to create music of his own.  Following UT and graduate school and the University of Michigan, Kurek has excelled as both a composer and a teacher.  Now a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, he continues to compose and has numerous upcoming works, including a 45-minute symphony that will be recorded in Europe and a commissioned ballet for full orchestra.  As he looks back on his career, he says this kind of creative spark is interwoven with – rather than separate from – his experience teaching.

“It’s a sort of wheel; they feed each other,” he said.  “Doing music gives the teacher energy and desire to teach, and then the teaching gives back to the teacher a desire to make music. If I weren’t making music, I couldn’t have been a very good teacher.  You must feed your own soul before you can feed others.”

When asked about his legacy, his answer combines these two things in a way, displaying a love for creating music, and a student-focused approach – one in which he still sees himself as a music student as well.

“I didn’t really achieve any kind of wider recognition until I was probably 50, because it just took me that long to learn to do it well,” he said.  “I never stopped working to improve, and I’m still trying to improve.”

Photo credit: Steve Green, Vanderbilt University

Graduate Student Zhaohan Wang Places First in International Piano Competition

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Music faculty awarded $32,000 in grants for diversifying string music curriculum

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In an effort to expand the slate of music commonly taught to young musicians, a group of School of Music faculty has assembled a collection of beginner repertoire for string instruments featuring Black and Latino/a composers.  The published collections, made possible by private and federal grants, will be distributed to schools and educators free of charge. 

The support will enable four School of Music faculty – Professor of Cello Wesley Baldwin, Lecturer of Violin Evie Chen, Assistant Professor of Jazz and Classical Double Bass Jon Hamar and Professor of Viola Hillary Herndon – to publish and distribute the first set of graded anthologies, as well as to produce recordings to accompany them.  Guest artists will come to campus in Fall 2022 to record the pieces.   

The publication and distribution of the curricula is supported by a grant of $22,000 from the Sphinx Organization, an organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. The recording of the pieces is supported by a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), an independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations and develop their creative capacities. 

The inception of the project came following a conference talk in Poland which Herndon attended.  The speaker described the challenge of finding music representative of her heritage and culture.  Herndon wanted to contribute to rectifying that problem and make such pieces of music easier to find.  That soon proved a challenging task.

“I wanted to assign more music from diverse composers, but for myself, it was so hard to figure out where to start,” Herndon said.  “So I thought, ‘If I’m going to expend all of these resources in order to find these pieces of music, what about teachers who don’t have the time or support to pursue that?’”

“For bass, there are fewer options than any other string instrument because our history is so much shorter,” Hamar said.  “We borrow everything from everybody, which is good from an inclusion standpoint.  But the things that are still required for many auditions in the industry do not include composers from diverse backgrounds.”

The collaboration between these four faculty allowed the project itself to expand, developing volumes in violin, viola, cello and bass (each with piano accompaniment), as well as string ensemble.  Each volume contains about 30 pieces by Black and Latino women and men, with composition dates as old as the 1700s and as recently as last year. 

“We’re trying to broaden, not restrict,” Baldwin said.  “we’re going to make these resources for people who are open to expanding their literature to have a really accessible way to get started.”

“Ever since my master’s recital, and extending to my dissertation, I’ve been playing pieces that haven’t been common in the repertoire,” Chen said.  “And you can use that as a teacher to better your students, your studio, and yourself.”

As part of the initiative to broaden this access, the distribution of the volumes will be expansive, including member institutions of the National String Project Consortium, the largest university string music education program in each state, and El Sistema, a nationwide collection of programs which brings music education to children in low-income families. There will also be additional copies available that individual teachers can apply to receive. The result will be an expansive choice of music used not only in schools and universities, but also community music programs and private instruction studios.

The project will extend further than these beginning volumes, as well.  While their attention is at present focused on completing the current set, the project will continue with intermediate and advanced volumes, as well.  Publication of this first set of volumes is expected around the end of 2022.