Natalie L. Haslam College of Music

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.

Michael Stewart announced incoming Director of the Pride of the Southland Marching and Athletic Bands, Associate Director of Wind Studies, and WJ Julian Endowed Professor

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A longtime mainstay in the School of Music will continue to add to his legacy in music education. 

Michael Stewart, currently associate professor of music education and associate director of bands, arrived at the University of Tennessee campus in 2007.  Since then, he has been a frequent face to the UT community, both with the Pride of the Southland Marching and Athletic Bands, and as conductor of the UT Symphonic Band and University of Tennessee Pep Bands, and as a beloved instructor in the classroom.  Effective July 1, 2022, he will become Director of the Pride of the Southland Marching and Athletic Bands and Associate Director of Wind Studies.  This position also holds the WJ Julian Endowed Professorship.  

“I look forward to working with the amazing students of UT as well as the Pride alumni, my colleagues, and fans that so passionately support this band and the Vols,” Stewart said.  “I’m also humbled, but excited to stand in front of this amazing group of students with 152 years of tradition behind them.  I’m grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait for the fall to hear Rocky Top ringing throughout Neyland Stadium.”

 “I am thrilled that Dr. Stewart will continue in our school and take on this new responsibility,” said Jeff Pappas, director of the School of Music. “His expertise and vision for the Pride of the Southland and other aspects of the band program are exceptional, and everyone looks forward to working with him to realize these goals. The future is as bright as ever for this important area in our unit and for our campus, alumni and friends.” 

Stewart received his B.M, M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in music education from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Alumnus Makes Met Opera Debut

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University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alumnus Rocky Sellers was on a four-day vacation in New Orleans, eating chicken étouffée at Antoine’s Restaurant and chatting with his friends about life, when he saw an email on his phone. “It was like a scene in a movie. I thought, ‘No, wait. What?’ I said to my friends, ‘I want you to read it to make sure.’ I read the email again and again.”

The message was from Paul Hopper, associate artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Sellers had been covering—that is, serving as understudy—for Calvin Griffin in the role of Adult Robert in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the life of New York Times columnist Charles Blow. Griffin had tested positive for COVID-19 and was isolating for 10 days, so Sellers would be going on as Adult Robert on October 8 and 13—his mainstage Met debut. He called Hopper back, “I’m ready. This is amazing news!”

“I thought I was going to lose it,” says Sellers. “I was so happy. I have friends who have covered for the Met for years and never gone on.”

Band Geek to Feeling Fancy

Sellers grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Eugene, a lab supervisor at a chemical plant, and Estrelita, a high school cosmetology teacher and beauty shop owner. His younger sister, Razel, graduated from UT in 2019.

His first foray into singing did not go well. When he was seven or eight, he sang an Easter solo in church. “I was nervous. I thought, ‘I can’t do this.’ So I became a band geek.” He played the clarinet, flute, and piccolo until his junior year at Central High School, when he switched to choir. “I wanted to do it all,” he says. “I said, ‘I’m done with musical instruments.’”

His years being a part of an orchestra came in handy when he transitioned to opera. Vocal scores do not usually have the musical dictations that the orchestra scores do. “I usually go to the library near the Met to look at the full orchestra score and make sure all the dictations align,” says Sellers. “Using a metronome, which I picked up in orchestra days, has been very useful when learning music.”

For his show choir audition, he sang India.Arie’s “I Am Ready for Love.”

“It was a cappella and I couldn’t stay in the key of the song because I got lost during a run,” he remembers. “I knew I was not going to nail it, but I loved the song so much that I had to sing it. I explained that I was switching keys. The guy doing the audition said he liked that I was aware that I was switching keys.” Sellers’s choir won Tennessee All West, then All State, and he made the All-State Choir as a Bass 2.

A friend he’d met at the All West competition introduced him to an opera voice teacher. “I thought, ‘I like the idea of singing in another language. I feel fancy.’” At an Opera Memphis camp before his senior year of high school he did his first opera scene, singing Don Alfonso in Così Fan Tutte.

Rocky on Rocky Top

When it was time to pick a college, Sellers was considering the Manhattan School of Music, but thanks to his ACT score he was invited to come to UT for a campus visit. “I got on a bus with a bunch of guys and stayed for a weekend,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘Everybody is so welcoming and so nice. It’s calling my name.’”

He was one of seven chosen to audition for the Grace Moore Scholarship in Voice. “I didn’t win it, but I got a lot of money. I met Pappa [Professor of Voice Andy Wentzel]. He had a unique studio and chose one or rarely two undergraduates a year. He took me under his wing for all four years. Lord knows I was a rambunctious freshman. He navigated me to be on the straight and narrow. We had heart-to-hearts.

“He was a father figure to me and a mentor. He’s been there as a guiding hand throughout my career and even to this day. He knows the ins and outs of the opera world, and he’s been great about guiding me through, keeping me going. Sometimes you may not hit that high note or have an off day, but you have to keep going.”

With the UT Opera Theatre, Sellers sang Barone Douphol in La Traviata, Henry Davis in Street Scene, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and Betto in Gianni Schicchi.

After graduating with his bachelor’s in vocal performance in 2010, Sellers packed up and went to Philly, where he had a friend attending the Curtis Institute of Music. “It was eye opening. I had never heard such fierce high-level singing. I spent the year just listening, living, learning.”

He started his master’s at the Manhattan School of Music but didn’t finish because he landed a succession of young artist programs with the Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Saratoga, Opera Naples, and Opera on the James in Lynchburg, Virginia, and then sang as a guest artist with the Manhattan Opera Studio.

The Road to the Met

In 2015, he covered Joe in Showboat for the Portland [Oregon] Opera and then sang the role with the Natchez Festival of Music in 2016. He sang Dr. Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love with Portland Opera to Go and the Pacific Opera Project in 2017. That year he also made his Tokyo debut singing Male 3 in a new work, Four Nights of Dream. In 2019, he was Valerie in Stonewall with the New York City Opera.

In 2019, he competed in the Met Opera Competition in Nebraska. (Wentzel was one of the judges.) “Based on my audition there,” says Sellers, “I was referred to the chorus master at the Met, Maestro Donald Columbo. He gave me a personal audition for the chorus for Porgy and Bess. Two days later, I got a cover and chorus opportunity for a mini-role in Porgy—the Fourth Crapshooter. (Denisha Ballew, who received her Master of Music from UT in 2016, sang in the Porgy chorus.)

In February of 2020, a mainstage audition got him the job of principal cover for the Undertaker in Porgy and Bess and then for Adult Robert in Fire Shut Up in My Bones. “My heart stopped,” he says. (Ballew sang the role of Verna and in a chorus of women in Fire.)

Sellers received contracts to participate in 2021–22 season productions of Porgy and Bess, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, as well as Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem, Die Meistersinger, and Don Carlos.

Before the season, he and two friends decided to take four days in New Orleans, sitting by the pool at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, eating beignets and sipping coffee at Café du Monde, sampling the buffet at the Court of Two Sisters, and touring a swamp on an airboat. Then came the email.

Back in his apartment in Brooklyn, Sellers girded for his October 8 debut: “I ate my favorite comfort food. I watched some anime. Andy [Wentzel] called and said, ‘You’re going to remember this moment for the rest of your life. Just live it.’ I just felt this sense of energy. I was so hyper focused, bouncing around with joy. I’ve never felt so much adrenaline in my life. My colleagues were so great.”

Latonia Moore, who sings Billie the mother, told him, “This is your time, and you shine. Live it and live in it.”

Sellers debuted on October 8 and 13 and knocked ’em dead, like Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street. He has signed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover Adult Robert in their spring production of Fire, so he will fly back and forth from Chicago back to New York for the Met production of Don Carlos as needed.

“His story really is one of persistence and being prepared and ready,” says Wentzel.

Needing more space, Sellers recently moved from Brooklyn to an apartment in Washington Heights, a block away from a view of the Hudson River and a straight 30-minute shot on the Number 1 train to Lincoln Center.

Says Sellers, “I will continue growing and learning as an artist in hopes of expanding my career to even greater heights—La Scala, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House, Sydney Opera House, Vienna State Opera, to name a few—so I can become a beacon of light for people, specifically people of color, who need someone to look up to and see themselves in, so they can keep their hopes and know that their dreams can become a reality.”