All events are on the University of Missouri - St. Louis Campus in the J.C. Penney Building..

Saturday, November 12, 2011 Women in the Arts Conference UMSL

Missouri Southern State University Saturday 8:30 JCP

 Title: Recital of Turn of the Century Songs
The faculty of Missouri Southern State University frequently collaborates with each other and this group is no exception. Dr. Cheryl Cifelli, Director of Woodwind Studies and a graduate of the University of North Texas, and Mrs. Debra Snodgrass Assistant Professor of Music and a graduate of Pittsburg State University as well as being Miss America in 1968, have performed many solo recitals together. With the addition in 2010 of Dr. Stacey Barelos, Director of Piano Studies and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that tradition continues. Ms. Lauren Alumbaugh, a vocal music education graduate from MSSU, currently teaching elementary music in the Carl Junction school district, and a top ten finalist at the Miss Missouri Pageant, carries on the tradition set forth by the faculty at Missouri Southern. Dr. Barelos and Mrs. Snodgrass will be performing works written by themselves and Dr. Cifelli will perform a work by composer Libby Larsen. All pieces are turn of the century works by living women composers performed by women in the arts.
clc313@hotmail.com

 

Loosely Identified

Title: Loosely Identified, A Women’s Poetry Workshop, 1974-2011 Saturday 9:00 JCP
The St. Louis women's poetry workshop Loosely Identified has its roots in the feminist activism of the 1970s and has engaged over 150 poets over time. In the 2000s, this writing and performing group has generated a collaborative anthology, Breathing Out, along with numerous small group and individual projects such as a chapbook series, “poemart” projects, and literary salons.   Working as a feminist collective, this group strives to counter the gender gap that persists in the realm of literary influence and impact. For Women in the Arts, this group will introduce its generative activities while presenting samples of members' current work. Participants: Mary Ruth Donnelly, Karen Mondale, Regina Popper, Nan Sweet, Jen Tappenden, Lauren Wilding.
nans@umsl.edu

 

 

Tatev Amiryan  

Title: “Last Lullaby” for soprano and piano – based on Armenian Genocide Saturday 9:30 JCP

Tatev Amiryan is a composer and pianist, a native of Armenia. She has completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in Armenia. She has studied in the piano department at Dilidjan Music College in Dilidjan Armenia. She has graduated Special Music School after Tc haikovsky Composition and Music Theory departments and Komitas State Conservatory Composition and Musicology departments both in Yerevan Armenia.

As a composer and pianist she has participated in over ten festivals held by the Association of Composers and Musicologists of Armenia and in numerous concerts and competitions and collaboration projects at Yerevan State Conservatory and UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.

Tatev Amiryan has a number of compositions in different genres: vocal, instrumental, chamber, symphonic, choir . She is also author of many popular songs and folk musical arrangements. Her music has been performed in Armenia, in US and in Europe.

As a musicologist Tatev Amiryan has participated in several Scientific Conferences held in Yerevan and Gyumri Armenia presenting researches concerning music of Armenian and European composers, dance art history etc. She is also an author of a large monograph about Armenian composer Levon Chaushyan.

Currently she is doing her Doctoral study at UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance in Music Composition program.
Tarh6@mail.umkc.edu


Jennifer Moder

Title: Instrument Selection and Gender Bias Saturday 10:00 JCP

Jennifer A. Moder received her bachelor’s degree in music education with honors from the University of Illinois. While directing grade school bands for six years, she founded and hosted the Illinois Lutheran Honor Band Festival. She then earned a master of music education from Illinois State University. Following a trip to England in 2009, she completed her thesis, “The Black Dyke Band: Over 150 Years of British Brass Banding”, which provided a historical overview of the internationally-renowned Black Dyke Brass Band. She is currently an IPhD student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with an emphasis in instrumental music education and a secondary emphasis in curriculum and instruction. Her research interests include recruitment factors, recruitment techniques, instrument selection, and gender bias in instrumental music education. In addition to her studies, Ms. Moder is an adjunct faculty member at Kansas City Kansas Community College and serves as a member of the Music Educator’s Journal advisory board.
Jam9bb@mail.umkc.edu

 

Amy Zigler

Title: Innocents’ Condemned: An Examination of Ethel Smyth and Francesca da Rimini Saturday 10:30 JCP

 Dr. Amy Zigler is a member of the piano faculty at the Music Academy of North Carolina, as well as an independent scholar and performer. She holds a Ph. D. in Musicology from the University of Florida, a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from Belmont University and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Alabama. Her publications include “The Romantic Chamber Music of Dame Ethel Smyth” published in the 2008 Journal for the International Alliance for Women in Music. Since 2003, Dr. Zigler has presented at international, national and regional conferences and is an active member of the American Musicological Society, the North American British Music Studies Association, and the College Music Society. Her research interests include the cultural study of 19 th and 20 th century chamber music, the social history of music in Germany, and the study of gender and sexuality in music. Dr. Zigler is an active soloist and collaborative artist, and has performed in Germany, Puerto Rico and across the United States.
azigler@ufl.edu

 

Joyce Hall Wolf

Title: I will Sing You a Song: The Art Songs of Jocelyn Hagen Saturday 11:00 JCP

 Soprano Joyce Hall Wolf is a frequent performer of recital, opera, and oratorio. Her operatic roles in works range from those by Monteverdi to Menotti. Wolf enjoys collaborating with Kentucky Ballet Theatre for whom she has sung George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children and Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brazileiras.

Wolf is a member of the Eastern Kentucky University Music Department and Honors Program Faculties. As a promoter and researcher of compositions by women, Wolf teaches Women in Music for the Honors Program and Women and Gender Studies. Wolf is a national presenter on the subject of Women Lieder Composers. She has also presented nationally and regionally on the subject of Guiding the Undergraduate through Critical and Creative Thinking and into Dynamic Art Song Performance. Wolf’s former students are active as performers and teachers.

As Professor of Music at Eastern Kentucky University, Wolf teaches voice, vocal pedagogy, vocal repertoire, and is Director of the EKU Opera Workshop. Wolf holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky with a minor in Music History. She also earned the Master of Music in Applied Voice and Bachelor of Music in Music Education degrees from West Virginia University.
joyce.wolf@eku.edu



Rachel Taylor

Title: I will Sing You a Song: The Art Songs of Jocelyn Hagen Saturday 11:00 JCP

 Dr. Rachel Taylor currently serves as a piano instructor at Eastern Kentucky University and the director of Foster Academy for Musical Excellence (FAME), the preparatory department of music at EKU. She also currently maintains a private piano studio in Georgetown, Kentucky. She previously served on the faculties of the preparatory departments at The College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati, Grinnell College, Coe College, Cornell College, and the Preucil School of Music. She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (Music Teacher’s National Association) and holds numerous certifications. Dr. Taylor serves on the faculty of the Stephen Collins Foster Summer Music Camps and is the director of the Middle School Piano Camp.
Rachel.taylor@eku.edu



Dr, Stella Markou

Award winning soprano Stella Markou has appeared as a featured soloist for numerous performing venues. Versed in the realm of oratorio, opera and recital work she has performed as a guest artist with the Union Avenue Opera, the Masterworks Chorale, the Dance New Amsterdam Company, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Ambassadors of Harmony as well as the Arianna String Quartet.

Her stage performances include Off-Broadway as well as roles performed from The Queen of Spades, Die Zauberflöte, The Turn of the Screw, The Mikado, The Telephone, La Canterina and Histoire du Soldat. Recently she opened an international Maria Callas exhibit for the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and the Consulate General of Greece.

Her festival work includes the Heidelberg New Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, and SEAMUS. A passionate performer of contemporary music, Dr. Markou holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from The University of Arizona.

Her work can be found on the SEAMUS and MSR record labels. Since 2007, Dr. Markou has been the Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Missouri St. Louis, where she teaches voice and directs their Opera Theatre productions.
markous@umsl.edu

Karen Cummings

Title: Artist-teacher/teacher-artists: Exploring self-identities, professional identities, and teaching practices Saturday 1:00 JCP

 Karen Cummings is an Assistant Professor of Art Education & the Art Education Coordinator at University of Missouri-St. Louis. Cummings received her Ph.D. in Art Education from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 2007. Her research record lists more than 50 conference proceedings as well as several peer-reviewed journal articles and chapter manuscripts on adolescent identity, teacher practice, and teacher identity. Her most recent work focuses on teacher motivation strategies utilized in urban secondary classrooms.

In 2009, Dr. Cummings co-founded the First Five, a mentoring program for beginning art educators in the St. Louis region, with her colleague Dr. Louis Lankford. In 2010, Dr. Cummings expanded the program throughout Missouri. She currently facilitates both the First Five in the St. Louis region and at the state level. In addition, Dr. Cummings developed UrbanARTsVOICE, a mentoring program for urban adolescents assigned to the Family Courts of St. Louis County. The program provides opportunities for adolescents to explore real-life experiences and to share views through visual art media. Dr. Cummings currently directs the program and leads all youth sessions. In 2011, Dr. Cummings received the Missouri Art Education Association Higher Ed Art Educator of the Year Award.
cummingska@umsl.edu

Murray State University

Title: Music from America’s Parlors: a unique voice for women Saturday 1:30-2:20 JCP

Sonya Gabrielle Baker , soprano, noted for her performances of American music, has been heard in concert both nationally and internationally, including recent performances in Havana, Cuba with the Yale Alumni Chorus and at the World Equestrian Games with the American Spiritual Ensemble. Her debut recording SHE SAYS, featuring art songs of American Women Composers, was released in 2004, a year after she made her Carnegie Hall debut with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and appeared as soloist on the Yale Alumni Chorus tour to Moscow. Baker’s lecture recital on Marian Anderson’s 1939 Easter Concert has been presented at universities, high schools and conferences. She holds degrees from Yale, Indiana and Florida State Universities. Baker serves as a board member for the Kentucky Arts Council and recently completed two terms as Kentucky Governor for the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is Professor of Music and Assistant Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Murray State University

Eleanor Brown is an adjunct faculty member of Murray State University’s Department of Music where she teaches functional keyboard and theory classes. She is co-founder and current director of the Athena Festival, a weeklong celebration of women and music, first held at Murray State in 1999. In addition to teaching at MSU, she maintains an active private piano studio in Murray. Brown holds degrees from Wilson College and the Yale University School of Music, with additional studies at Peabody Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. She was the 2002 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Kentucky Music Teachers Association, the organization’s highest honor for service and dedication. In 2011 she was awarded MSU’s first Dr. Virginia Slimmer Award for her dedication to women and their music.

Tana Field, mezzo-soprano and active performer of oratorio, has appeared as soloist with the Cincinnati Baroque Ensemble, Musica Sacra of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky Community Chorus, Wright State University Choruses, and the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. Her operatic roles include: the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, Florence Pike in Albert Herring, La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, and Suor Zelatrice in Suor Angelica. Field also created the roles of Rosa Stein in Cathy Lesser-Mansfield’s The Sparks Fly Upward and Bluma Gebirtig in Joel Hoffman’s The Memory Game. Upcoming performances include La Badessa in Suor Angelica, and Verdi’s Requiem. Field earned a B.A. in music, summa cum laude, from Luther College and an M.M. and D.M.A. in voice from the University of Cincinnati. She serves as an assistant professor of music at Murray State University where she teaches voice and singers diction.

Angela Wu, originally from Taiwan, joined the faculty at Murray State University in 2010. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed with musicians from Russian National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony. Also an active soloist, Wu was a finalist in the Web Concert Hall competition, semi-finalist in the Cantu Piano Competition, and a winner of Jessie Phillips Bourquin Award. Her performance at the Chopin Project Concert Series in Michigan was broadcast on “Performance Today” from NPR in March of 2010. Prior to her current position, Wu taught at Adrian College (Adrian, Michigan) and the University of Michigan where she received her doctoral degree.
Eleanor.brown@murraystate.edu



Chamber Project St. Louis

Title: Chamber Recital with Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Viola and Piano Saturday 2:30 JCP

Entering its fourth season in the fall of 2011, Chamber Project St. Louis presents a revolutionary approach to chamber music.  An exceptional ensemble performing in non-traditional venues for a twenty first century audience, we explore the relationship between the audience and performers by performing in intimate spaces amongst friends, new and old. The four artistic directors of Chamber Project St. Louis have performed with the St. Louis Symphony, New World Symphony, Illinois Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra, and are also committed educators who serve on the faculties of Maryville, McKendree, and Washington Universities as well as the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Community Music School of Webster University. Our members also volunteer with Orchestrating Diversity and with the music program at East St. Louis High School. Collaborating with the best people and musicians in St. Louis, we create an informal society of musicians who are committed to energetic and excellent performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music for our community.
alhonnold@yahoo.com

 Robin Moore-Chambers

Title: Sisterhood Freedom Dance – multimedia Saturday 3:00 JCP
chambersr@umsl.edu



Lola Perrin Saturday 3:30-4:20 JCP

 

Title: Piano Music of Lola Perrin Saturday 3:30-4:20 JCP

London-based American composer pianist Lola Perrin, recently described as a “modern –day Schubert” (Ratko Delorko) has been carving a niche in the piano world and making a name for herself through her diverse and eclectic collaborations with a variety of artists including authors Hanif Kureishi and Mihir Bose, scientists Dr Martin Coath and Dr Adam Maloof, poet Sue Hubbard, painter John Kennedy, singers Natacha Atlas and Y Yadavan. She has played live on BBC Radio 3 and FabTV (Berlin), been interviewed on BBC Radio 4, appeared at the First International Conference of Minimalist Music and performed extensively in the UK including at Lang Lang Inspires at Southbank Centre 2011 (her works for 2, 4 & 6 pianos), the Design Museum, Latitude Festival and Purcell Room.

Lola has two CDs on general release. She has been commissioned and published by Elena Riu/Boosey & Hawkes. Lola’s first eight piano suites are published by Lola Perrin Sheet Music, distributed by Spartan Press. Silent film commissions include Peninsula Arts (2009), two films for Barbican Cinema (2010) and Birds Eye View Festival (2011). Markson Pianos are hosting an entire concert series dedicated to her works in central London during 2011. Lola launched the Naim Audio International Piano Competition and is a contributor to International Piano magazine. Her appearance at Women in the Arts marks her USA début.

Gretchen Hewitt

Title: The Mechanical Cat—the collaborative process of writing a musical with Janet Doddard
Saturday 4:30 JCP

Gretchen Hewitt has been an active performer, composer and teacher in Seattle and Internationally for 25 years, and in the St. Louis area since 2002. She has soloed with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and The University City Orchestra performing Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915. Also with University Symphony Orchestra, Gretchen has performed Mahler songs, as well as in Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore as well as Sopie from the final scenes from Strauses’ Der Rosenkavalier. In 2007 she performed the Mother in Amahl and The Night Visitors with the Midwest Lyric Opera Company. In 2008 Gretchen was delighted to step back into the musical theater world performing Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn in STAGES St. Louis’ production of The Music Man.

While, at the age of five, she wanted to sing “high and fast” like Amelita Galli-Curchi, she was also showing signs of composing. At a young age Gretchen composed several pieces for piano. As the folk guitar became popular, she began what would be many happy years of writing songs for voice and guitar, embracing a variety of styles, including ballads, country, blues, gospel and jazz demonstrated in her CD, “Draw Close”. In the light classical and classical realm she has written for solo piano, solo violin and string orchestra, voice and piano, voice and string orchestra, and a fifteen-minute children’s opera entitled The Servant Princes. Gretchen’s song, Symphony of Brotherhood, for solo voice, gospel choir and piano has been performed on many occasions, including the Seattle Opera House, the KING CENTER in Atlanta, Georgia in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in a tour of the United Arab Emirates.

Recently again this song was performed in the United Arab Emirates again with a youth choir under the direction of Janet Hassouneh.

In 2005 Gretchen composed a song cycle for voice, piano and violin to poems by Rumi for the 21st Century St. Louis Female Composer’s Concert at University of Missouri St. Louis under the direction of Barbara Harbach.
spot28@sbcglobal.net



Alla Voskoboynikova

Alla Voskoboynikova has held the position of Coordinator of Piano Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis since 2004. She extensively performs and collaborates with area musicians and regularly accompanies and coaches for the Union Avenue Opera Company as well as Webster University in St. Louis.

Before moving to the United States in 1996, Alla was a pianist and vocal coach at the Kiev Opera and Ballet Theater in Ukraine. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Music College in Voronezh, Russia and her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Gnessins Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia. Her teachers were Oleg Milman and Lina Bulatova (student of Elena Gnessina and Henry Neihaus). Alla was an accompanist in the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1996 and has performed solo recitals along with chamber music in several European countries.

Since moving to the United States, Alla has collaborated  performing chamber music with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra members including concert master David Halen, violin,  Heidi Harris, violin,  John Sant' Ambrogio, cello, Darwyn Apple, violin, Saveliy Shuster, cello, and the STLSO Trombones . In 1998, she performed at Carnegie Recital Hall with flautist Brenda Hagni and in 2002, Alla performed  Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with the Voronezh Philharmonic Orchestra and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with the Webster University Symphony Orchestra. In February 2004, Alla was the Russian coach for the Saint Louis Symphony performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and coached the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus for the performance of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vespers in November 2006.  As a member of a duo, Alla performed John Adams’s Halleluiah Junction with pianist Orli Shaham in 2008. In the several past years Alla has organized a series of thematic chamber music recitals, including a commemoration of Dmitri Shostakovich's 100-year anniversary, a commemoration of Felix Mendelssohn's 200-year anniversary , piano and winds recitals and others. 

Alla resides in St. Louis with her husband Ilya Litvin, Russian born trumpet player and teacher and their son, Boris.

Joanna Mendoza

Violist Joanna Mendoza enjoys an active chamber music and teaching career. Praised for her "lush, sonorous and assertive tone" and eloquent phrasing, Ms. Mendoza has performed to critical acclaim throughout North America, South America and Europe and has given master classes in Beijing, China. She has collaborated with esteemed artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, David Shifrin,

Robert Levin, and members of the Cleveland Quartet. She has enjoyed summers teaching and performing at music festivals such as Interlochen Arts Camp, Madeline Island Music Camp, Killington Music Festival and Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

Joanna Mendoza is the violist of the Arianna String Quartet and Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Missouri - St. Louis where the quartet has been in residence since 2000. The Arianna Quartet has performed throughout the United States, Mexico, Japan, Canada and France with recent appearances in Brazil and South Africa. They have been heard on live, nationally broadcast performances in Osaka, Japan, on Canada’s CBC radio, National Public Radio as part of Chicago’s prestigious Dame Myra Hess Series “Performance Today,” and Live from Music Mountain which broadcasts to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. Current projects include a long-term, multi-disc recording contract with Centaur Records and a world premiere of David Stock’s String Quartet No. 9 which the composer dedicated to the Arianna String Quartet.

Prior to joining the quartet, Ms. Mendoza performed with the Harrington Quartet for 10 years. Together they premiered new works by contemporary composers such as Daniel McCarthy, Kenji Bunch and John Novacek . Ms. Mendoza earned her degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Juilliard School.