Introducing Our New Interim Associate Director of Choral Activities
Laura Leigh Spillane is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Choral Music at the University of Southern California, where her fields of study are Choral Music, Musicology, Instrumental Conducting, and Vocology. She serves on the faculty at Saddleback and Scripps Colleges in Southern California, directing the Saddleback Chamber Singers, Claremont Concert Choir, and Claremont Treble Choir. As Senior Teaching Assistant for the USC Thornton School of Music, she is the Associate Conductor of USC’s premier choral ensemble, the Chamber Singers. Previously, she served the Thornton School of Music as the Lead Conductor of the USC University Chorus and the soprano section leader of the USC Chamber Singers.
Prior to her studies at USC, Ms. Spillane was the Choral Director and Music Theory instructor at Riverwood International Charter School and the Director of Music Ministries at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Her mastery-level women’s choir, Riverwood Singers, was selected to perform at Georgia State University’s SingFest in 2019.
Prior to her appointment at Riverwood, Ms. Spillane was the choral director at Osborne Middle School, where she directed seven choral ensembles. Her auditioned ensemble, Osborne Chorale, performed at the GMEA in-service conference in 2018. Through her recruitment initiatives, she grew the choral ensembles by 47% in just three years. Under her direction, ensembles consistently scored superior ratings at Large Group Performance Evaluation. She was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Georgia American Choral Directors’ Association Young Director Award in 2019. Additionally, she worked as the conductor of the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir Summer Music Camp for three consecutive years (2016, 2017, and 2018) and was the clinician for the Sixth Grade Honor Chorus in Cherokee County, Georgia in 2018.
Ms. Spillane holds the Master of Music degree in Conducting from the University of Georgia and the Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Reinhardt University, where she was a summa cum laude graduate. At UGA, she was a Carl Hoveland Fellow and graduate assistant. She was selected for the Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award in 2015.
Ms. Spillane has performed with choirs at state, regional, and national levels of ACDA, the annual conference of the Georgia Music Educators’ Association, and several international choir tours. Prior to her studies at USC, she enjoyed six seasons singing Soprano 1 with the Atlanta Master Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Eric Nelson.
Her conducting teachers include Drs. Cristian Grases, Tram Sparks, Larry Livingston, Daniel Bara, J.D. Burnett, and Martha Shaw. She has worked in conducting institutes and masterclasses with Drs. Joseph Flummerfelt, William Weinert, Craig Hella Johnson, Andrew Megill, Amanda Quist, Jefferson Johnson, Deanna Joseph, and Donald Nally. She is an active member of ACDA, NAfME, and NCCO.
Professor Spillane is very excited to begin her appointment at the University of Tennessee, saying “UT has such a vibrant community of musicians and scholars; it is an honor to join in its rich tradition of choral artistry and excellence in music education. I am thrilled to call myself a Volunteer!”
Ms. Spillane is soon anticipated to become Dr. Spillane and will join the faculty as Interim Associate Director of Choral Activities on August 01, 2023, where she will teach courses in choral music education and conduct the UT Concert Choir. Ms. Spillane will be eagerly available to visit local high school choral programs this fall!
The UT School of Music Gala
Join us for this black-tie event featuring riveting performances, top-tier food, and lively auctions. All proceeds from this event will fund scholarships in the School of Music to bring the very best student musicians to the University of Tennessee.
University of Tennessee School of Music Announces New Incoming Faculty
The University of Tennessee School of Music is proud to announce two new faculty hires, who will join the University in August 2023.
Jaren Atherholt, Assistant Professor of Oboe
Jaren Atherholt joins the University after serving as the Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She previously served as principal oboist of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2007–2018.
A native of Alaska, Atherholt has performed to stellar reviews as a featured concerto soloist with the Louisiana Philharmonic, A Far Cry, and the Hamptons Festival of Music. Atherholt has performed as guest principal oboist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Detroit Symphony, as well as guest associate principal oboist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Atherholt spent four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and currently performs each summer with the Grand Teton Music Festival.
She has served on the faculty of John Mack Oboe Camp, Interlochen Oboe Institute, the Wintergreen Music Academy, and the Vianden International Music School. Recent performances include guest principal oboist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Benjamin Atherholt, Lecturer of Bassoon
Benjamin Atherholt joined the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra as the Assistant Principal Bassoonist and Contrabassoonist in 2006. He also serves as Contrabassoon/Utility Bassoon with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in New York. From 2011-2013 he was acting Contrabassoon with the Houston Symphony, and has performed with the Alabama, Baton Rouge, Grand Teton, Mobile, Naples, National, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras. Atherholt graduated from the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, where he studied with Jeff Robinson. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with George Sakakeeny, and continued his studies with Benjamin Kamins at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
The UT School of Music presents a special outdoor showcase concert
The University of Tennessee School of Music is thrilled to announce a special showcase concert in the heart of downtown Knoxville at historic Market Square.
This showcase will feature a wide variety of ensembles from across the School of Music, showcasing jazz, woodwind, percussion, brass, and string instruments, with a wide variety of musical styles both classical and contemporary. Join us as we celebrate our talented students, faculty, and ensembles!
Where: Market Square, Downtown Knoxville
When: April 14, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
A Common Compassion
Ask Sarah Buzalewski if she’s excited, and she may ask you “what about?” Indeed, the second-year master’s student in violin performance has much to tout. In addition to her on-campus studies at the University of Tennessee, she is involved with three student-teaching programs, she founded a gig management service while an undergraduate at Penn State University, and she recently started an internship at the highly prestigious arts organization Silkroad.
Her vigorous pursuit of music as a passion was early and voracious. In her elementary school, the music program started teaching strings in the third grade. But it was every day in the second grade that Sarah told her music instructor she couldn’t wait to start learning the violin. And yet, this devotion was indicative of a core part of her that, she argues, started even earlier.
“Music has always been a part of me,” she said. “I was adopted, and it’s in my records that my biological parents were musicians as well. So it’s part of my identity as a Korean-American violinist, musician, and teacher.”
That existing passion took on a whole new meaning when additional hardship struck Sarah during high school. Both of her parents were diagnosed with cancer during that time. The violin, and music in general, became a sort of refuge for her, she says, especially after her father passed away in the summer of 2020.
“I ran to music because it was my way of expressing emotions I didn’t know how to verbalize. It was my creative outlet.”
Soon afterward, she was applying to graduate schools, nearing completion of her bachelor’s degree in music performance at Penn State University. It was a meeting with University of Tennessee Professor of Violin Miroslav Hristov that would bring these elements of her musical passion together. Not only did he see her potential and skill as a violinist, but he also encouraged her to pursue music education.
“I always wanted to teach and be a professor,” she says, “but I never thought about teaching a class here. Then in January of last year, Dr. Hristov told me about this great opportunity to teach in one of the schools here in the community. And I thought this would be a really great opportunity.”
“You can sense when someone has a gift in working with young people and passing on knowledge to them in a way that is so accessible and natural,” Hristov said. “She has a wonderful personality that makes her the ideal music teacher in the classroom, and this is in addition to her talent as a violinist.”
Sarah is now involved in not one, nor two, but three strings teaching roles, including Blue Grass Elementary School in Knoxville, the UTK String Project on campus, and a partnership afterschool program between the University of Tennessee and YMCA at Sarah Moore Green Elementary School in Knoxville.
“The intersection between music performance and music education is really important,” she said. “My love for music and the violin drew me to having a passion for teaching others and having an impact as an educator, touching the lives of a lot of students like me.”
This path has led Sarah to another exciting opportunity – an education programs internship with Silkroad. Originally conceived by world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the organization is named for the historic Silk Road, a network of trade routes used between China and the West for about 1,500 years. That globalization serves as the working ethos of the organization, which began as the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble, and has expanded to include social impact initiatives and educational partnerships. Sarah is working on the education team on a variety of initiatives, including the American Railroad Project, which uses multiple art forms – including new music commissions, a documentary series, and visual art installations – to illuminate the impact of immigrant communities on the creation of the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad.
“They teach us all of the really important skills related to running a non-profit organization, such as management, marketing, social media, and development. I was really drawn to that,” she said. “I want to make education accessible, high-quality, and diverse, especially with different music and different cultures.”
Sarah summed up the common thread connecting these webs of experience quite succinctly: “A common love for music also brings about a common compassion. Music makes us kinder.”
Ukrainian Rhapsody
Standing before the Rotary Club of Knoxville, 22-year-old Ukrainian violin student Marki Lukyniuk, wearing a Ukrainian shirt his grandmother embroidered for him, said, “We thank you for your support of my country. We feel your support.”
Lukyniuk played a Ukrainian melody called My Dear Mother then quickly transitioned to James Brown’s I Feel Good, shredding some funky solos. He then introduced a romantic song, As You Are by the Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy (Esla’s Ocean). “I used to get Ukrainian girls with this song,” he said with a smile. Indeed, the sentimental strains seemed to make an impression on some of the female Rotarians.
“Marki is outgoing and charismatic,” says Professor of Violin Miroslav Hristov. “He is a very talented young man with a broad spectrum of interests. He is studying to play standard classical repertoire, but I’m very happy to see him explore different genres of music that will make him a more versatile artist.”
Before his next selection, Marki asked if anyone knew the difference between a violin and a fiddle. “If you spill a beer on a fiddle,” he answered, “It will be fine.” With that, he ripped into a rousing version of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. While the Rotarians packed gift sacks for refugee families, Marki played Adele’s Rolling in the Deep and, of course, Rocky Top. “I was on campus for the Alabama game and saw the masses of people wearing orange clothing and singing this song,” says Lukyniuk. “I heard Rocky Top like a hundred times that day.”
The Reality of War
When Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Marki was in his junior year at the Kyiv Conservatory, also known as the Pyotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. As the bombs fell on Kyiv, he told the News Sentinel, “I just woke up and here it is, the war itself. I saw a lot of Russian military machinery and a couple of Russian soldiers. I saw military helicopters and explosions. I saw damaged houses and damaged goods. It’s not a pleasant experience.” Kyiv had no water. “It was scary just to go to sleep.”
His brother, Kostia, also a violinist, was in Kyiv after the visa ran out for his studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A week after the invasion, they fled to their western Ukraine hometown, Chernivtsi, near the Romanian border. Their father, Petro, is a Ukrainian Orthodox priest. Their mother, Yaroslava, keeps house and a productive garden. “I sang in the church choir for four years,” says Marki.
To support their country, the brothers made videos of themselves playing the Kalush Orchestra’s Stefania (as seen on Eurovision 2022) and Our Father Bandera, a folk song associated with the Ukrainian fight for independence, that quickly got tens of thousands of views.
They played dozens of concerts in Ukraine and Europe. “We were comforting people who had lost a lot of stuff, even parents,” says Marki. “We wanted to cheer them up and show them that life can still be beautiful. My dad knows lots of people who were reaching out for help.” In Chernivtsi they performed for pregnant women who had fled their pregnancy center in Kyiv after it was bombed. “We collected money to support people locally, and those who were going to the front lines and needed basic items like medications, food, and supplies.”
UT Jumps in to Help
Marki wasn’t sure what he was going to do, when he got a call from Oleksiy Hamov (’16), who had studied under Hristov. “He’s from Chernivtsi and has been a friend since childhood,” says Marki. “He suggested that I reach out to Professor Hristov. I did that, and we started a conversation that led me to where I am now. It has been my dream for a long time to study in the US. That’s why I started to learn English in middle school.”
Says Hristov, “I come from Bulgaria, right across the Black Sea from Ukraine, so I knew there were a lot of talented musicians there. Oleksiy, my former student, knew Marki. I had heard talk around UT about accommodating people from Ukraine. We had numerous phone calls between the School of Music and the provost’s office. I was so pleased that, in the end, we were able to jump in and make his dream of studying in the United States a reality.”
“I was so grateful to get this opportunity,” says Lukyniuk, who arrived in mid-September, after he got his visa. “My first day everyone was trying to help me in some way. I felt that this is like a big family here.
“I had to do a lot of work to catch up with my studies. This has been my first time in the US and first time learning in English. Professor Hristov is friendly and supportive of me. He knows so much about music that I want to learn. Right now, we’re working on the hardest piece I’ve ever played, the Sibelius Violin Concerto.”
Marki created a student organization, the String Players Visionary Club. “It’s for everyone who wants to push the limits,” he says, “to go beyond classical training and try different genres and different styles that can be performed in church, in the bar as well as in the recital and concert hall.”
Supporting the Cause
Lukyniuk has raised thousands of dollars playing for civic groups like Rotary and Civitan Club, at the Student Union on November 16, and at bars and private parties. “Over winter break,” he says, “I visited my brother, who’s now studying at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. We played a concert at the Fiddlershop headquarters in Pompano Beach, and I played parties in West Palm Beach and Miami.”
On January 28, Marki performed for the KiMe 10th Shakin’ Not Stirred Gala & Fundraiser at the Knoxville Convention Center. His set included Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal along with Ukrainian songs. “It’s about this beautiful music and culture,” he says.
Marki likes Potchke, the Gay Street deli that serves borsch, the Ukrainian beet soup. “It felt like home when I took the first bite of it,” he told the News Sentinel. “They do it pretty much like traditional borsch should be.” On Saturday, February 18, at 6:30 p.m., he performed a fundraiser, “From Ukraine with Love,” at Potchke. Marki and Kostia are invited to take part in the Ukrainian festival in Philadelphia in the summer and will present their duo project “LuckyBrothers”
“I’m doing all those concerts and shows to show how grateful I am,” he says. “When I saw the football game I got inspired. I would like to get on big stages and one of my dreams is to perform the American national anthem at arenas or stadiums before games.”
New UTK String Project Awarded Exclusive Grant
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.”