Music in the Air

from portupress.com

It’s difficult to believe but we already are six weeks into the semester and rapidly approaching the half way point. That means that the Department of Music fall performance calendar is starting to get busy, dominated this fall by student recitals and large ensemble performances.

Our concert season kicks off on October 17 with a joint recital by two senior voice majors, Jena Gruver (Fairmount City) and Cami Shumaker (Hawthorn), and joined by senior voice major Caitlin Boyle’s (Hyde) recital and the first Wind Ensemble performance of the fall semester the following weekend. October closes with another student voice recital, Barbara Osborn (Clarion), on October 26.

Senior saxophone major Joel Gould (Transfer) will perform the first weekend in November, followed by recitals of two of the department’s student organizations – MENC and Sigma Alpha Iota – on November 13 and 14 respectively. Then, get your Thanksgiving week started right with a performance of the always-popular Jazz Band on Monday night, November 22.

December always is a busy month for performances, and this year is no exception. From December 2nd through the 7th you can enjoy a performance by Department of Music students nearly every day, and the semester culminates, appropriately, with our annual Holiday Festival Concert extravaganza on December 11.

For more information and full details on all of the upcoming Department of Music events, visit our Events Calendar. If you would like to receive an email reminder about upcoming performances, register your name on our Event Notficiation list.

Hope to see you at the Boyd!

Lazich to Perform

Professor Emeritus of Music (voice) and former Director of Choirs, Milutin Lazich, bass, will return to campus on Friday, April 9, 2010 to present a recital of art songs and arias. Joining him will be his son, Dimitrie Lazich, baritone, and current music faculty member Dr. Paula Amrod, piano.

After retiring from Clarion University in 2003 Mr. Lazich moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he continues to sing opera and concert repertoire and at the same time conducts several choral organizations. He is the Music Director and founder of the Masterworks Concert Choral in Murrysville/Monroeville area.

Mr. Lazich started his international career singing in Lucca and Barga Italy, as well as in Belgrade, Serbia. He has performed Ramfis in Aida, King Philip in Don Carlo, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, and the title role in Don Giovanni, among many others. His most recent operatic credits include: Alfieri in Bolcolm’s Veiw from the Bridge, Donner in The Rheingold, King Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Bartolo in Marriage of Figaro. As a musical theater performer, he has sung the leading roles in South Pacific, The Man of La Mancha, King and I, Mikado and Fiddler on the Roof.

He has performed extensively with symphony orchestras and choruses in many important choral works such as, The Messiah, Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and many others. He also was invited to teach several times as a guest lecturer at the University of Malta on the island of Malta.

Dimitrie Lazich, bass-baritone, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has performed leading roles in Carmen, Die Zauberflote, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Rake’s Progress, La Boheme, Die Fledermaus, among many others both here and abroad.

Mr. Lazich also has performed leading roles with the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh as Maximilion in Candide, Louis in their production of Bolcolm’s A View from the Bridge, and Marco in their production of Gianni Schicchi. With the Opera Company of Philadelphia, he has performed Marullo in Rigoletto, Wagner in Faust and Lakai in Ariadne auf Naxos. He has also sung as the Erste Soldat with Cleveland Opera in Salome, and La Traviata with De Nederlandse Reisopera.

Mr. Lazich made his professional European debut with the Staatsoper Stuttgart singing in their production of Dr. Faustus. He also has performed as part of The Music Academy of the West where he performed Beaupertuis in Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Sid in Albert Herring as well as Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims where he worked closely with Ms. Marilyn Horne and the late Randal Behr.

Dimitrie Lazich made his UK debut with Dorset Opera singing Zurga in their production of Les pêcheurs de perles and most recently Escamillo in Carmen with the Longborough Festival Opera. He will return to Europe to perform the role of Falke in Die Fledermaus in a touring production in The Netherlands and Belgium.

No stranger to the concert stage, he has performed solos in Faure’s Requiem, Durefle’s Requiem, Carmina Burana and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with different groups in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In Boston, he was the featured soloist with Worcester Symphony and Choir in both the Messiah as well as St. Matthew’s Passion. He will be performing The Creation and Durelfle’s Requiem in Pittsburgh later this spring.

The April 9, 2010 performance will take place in the Marwick-Boyd Auditorium on the main campus of Clarion University at 7:30 p.m. The performance will include works of Handel, Rosa, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Bellini, and Mozart, among others. The performance is FREE and open to the public.

For more information contact the Department of Music at 814-393-2287.

Trumpeter Judith Saxton Visits Clarion

Judith Saxton, trumpet artist-faculty and brass coordinator at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts will present a clinic titled “Building Blocks of Better Musicianship” on Thursday, February 11 in the Department of Music,  on the campus of Clarion University. The begins at 11 a.m. in Room 231 Marwick-Boyd Fine Arts Center.

Ms. Saxton enjoys an international career as a trumpet performer and clinician, with presentations in Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States. She held positions as principal and solist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Wichita and Illinois Symphonies, and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. Presently, she is principal and soloist with the Key West Symphony, and performs regularly with the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Roanoke (VA) symphonies.

Her versatility as a trumpet performer has allowed her to perform not only symphonic literature, but chamber, pop, and jazz literature, as well. She has performed with a diverse group of artisits, including Phil Woods, Joe Morello, Mannheim Steamroller, Placido Domingo, the Temptations, and the Empire Brass.

Ms. Saxton is a Conn-Selmer Artist and serves on the boards of the International Trumpet Guild, International Women’s Brass Conference, and the advisory committee and artisit/faculty for the National Trumpet Competition. She holds the B.M.E. degree from Mansfield University and M.M. from Northwestern University.

The presentation is FREE and open to the public.

Clarion Hosts PCCA Festival

This week Clarion University and the Department of Music will host the annual Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association Festival. The Festival brings together 120 outstanding collegiate vocalists from colleges and universities across Pennsylvania for 3 days of intense rehearsal, culminating in a free public performance on Saturday, February 6 at 1:30 p.m. in the Marwick-Boyd Auditorium.

The program will include:

“Music Spread Thy Voice Around” by G. F.  Handel
“Sicut cervus” by Giovanni Palestrina
“Kyrie eleison” from Missa secunda by Hans Leo Hassler
“Let Thy Holy Spirit” by Paul Tschesnokoff
“Go, Lovely Rose” by Halsey Stevens
“O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen
“The Promise of Living” by Aaron Copland;
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” arranged by Roy Ringwald

The gust conductor for the Festival is Director Emeritus of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and past director of the choral music program at Loyola-Marymount University, Paul Salamunovich.

Clarion University will be represented at the Festival by first sopranos Megan Heilbrun, Rebecca Hofmann, and Danielle Watt (MUED); second sopranos Caitlin Boyle (MUED), Mary Fahringer, and Lynnea Fiorentino (MUED); first altos Jena Gruver (MUED), Katie Rogers, and Jen Tame (MUED); second altos Marissa Coffey, Amanda Hershey (MUED), Cami Shumaker (MUED), and Nikki Toy; first tenor Ross Bish (MUED); second tenors Stephen Benton (MUED) and Jon Mracko (MUED); first basses Vince Angelo (MUED) and Justin Ringeisen (MUED); and second basses Kyle Hart (MUED) and Seth Robertson.

More information on the PCCA Festival and guest conductor Paul Salamunovich can be found on the Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association website – http://www.pacollegiatechoral.org/

Band Day 2009

Before you know it, on Saturday, October 17, BAND DAY 2009 will be here. What is Band Day, you ask? Well, only the most fun any instrumentalist can have in a single day, that’s what!

Who could resist spending the day with fellow music alumni, current and former members of the Golden Eagle Marching Band, and high school instrumentalists from throughout our region playing, marching, and raising all kinds of “spirit” on the field and in the stands as our Clarion football team takes on Mercyhurst.

Last year’s Band Day was an astounding success, and this year’s event will be even better because YOU will be joining us! So, dust of those marching shoes, oil your valves, and do a few stretches to get ready for Band Day 2009!

I’ll see you there!

For more information, visit the the Department of Music website or visit the Band Day page on the Golden Eagle Marching Band website. You also can telephone the Band Office at 814-393-2263.

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events Oct. 10-17, 2009

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events
Music events from October 10 – 17, 2009

GEMB Revolution!

Fall is just around the corner, and that mean’s only one thing….no, not raking….no, not back to school, either. It’s time to get out and enjoy the Clarion University Golden Eagle Marching Band, of course!

I recently had the chance to sit down with our Director of Bands, Dr. Hubert Toney, Jr., to discuss the 2009 Golden Eagle Marching Band season. You can listen to a podcast of our conversation here.

It sounds like the upcoming season will be really exciting and entertaining for audiences and participants alike. This year will bring a BIG surprise for some of you long-time GEMB followers! You’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out the big news, though. I can’t break the news here.

Dr. Toney has been working this summer to create a new Golden Eagle Marching Band website – http://sites.google.com/site/cupmarching/. It will function as an an information repository for current GEMB members and for those interested in the band. Take some time to visit the site and look around a bit. While it is still undergoing development, you already will find it to be rich in information and media.

So, invite your friends, your neighbors, alumni, and family out to enjoy the Golden Eagle Marching Band this season. With 5 Home games, 3 away games (California, Slippery Rock, and Edinboro), marching band festivals, and the Autumn Leaf Festival, you will find plenty of opportunities to get out and see the band.

For more information about the Golden Eagle Marching Band, visit the new Golden Eagle Marching Band website – http://sites.google.com/site/cupmarching/, email Dr. Toney (htoney@clarion.edu), or telephone the Band Office at 814-393-BAND (2263).

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events 4/17/09 – 4/23/09

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events
Music events from Friday, April 17 – Thursday, April 23, 2009

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events 4/3/09 – 4/9/09

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events
Music events from Friday, April 3 – Thursday, April 9, 2009

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events 03/27-04/02

Around the Boyd Podcast – Music Events
Music events from Friday, March 27 – Thursday, April 2, 2009