SEPTEMBER 2016 NEWSLETTER
Director’s Notes
W
hat a summer! What summer? I knew it was summer because it was hot and there were no students in the building! My deductive powers are legendary!
We were in the midst of hiring two new faculty members—one in Photography (Armon Means) and one in Voice (Danielle Knox). We were awaiting the arrival of another new faculty member hired before school let out, April Dauscha-Upart, our new Fiber Arts teacher. I must add that the Fiber Arts program is the first of its kind in the nation: a program whose curriculum was developed in partnership with one of the leading fiber universities in the world, North Carolina State University, and a program underwritten by five textile firms, four in the upstate, the fifth in Rock Hill. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, your school has two firsts in three years— remember the Architecture program was also the nation’s first! The school district crews worked long hours, long weeks, to complete the transformation of two portables rescued, literally, from a place called the “Portable Graveyard.” To see it now, one could never have believed it would look like it does, inside and out. The transformation is so complete that we are no longer calling it a portable—it is now an Annex.
Table of Contents
Digital Filmmaking
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This summer, the Fine Arts Cneter hosted two conferences, one that we host every year for the Metropolitan Arts Council, the other for 130 district reading teachers. And, as with every school in the district, we dodged our extremely capable custodial crew as they went about their business of maintaining our reputation as one of the most beautiful buildings in the state. From the end of June to the end of July we were home for the second year to the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival—five Monday nights with world class chamber musicians and every concert boasted a full house! They’ll be back next summer and we will keep you posted on how you can get your tickets.
Music
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Theatre
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Visual Arts
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FAC Partners
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All of a sudden what I knew as summer was gone and I was attending district meetings to prepare for students returning in two weeks.
The School District of Greenville County,
Ah, but then, then, streaming through our front doors came the reason that we do what we do! Over 400 talented students, some for the first time, some for the fourth time, but all waiting for the challenge of being in classrooms with small classes, under the tutelage of immensely talented teachers, and all knowing that their education now would take an entirely different turn. Students from nearly all of the fourteen high schools, from charter schools, religious schools, students who are home-schooled, those from out of Greenville County (they pay tuition), all thrown together in a wonderful, dynamic mix of differences, but all focused on meeting the challenges of their classrooms and, in so doing, understand more about themselves, their capabilities, the possibilities open to them. The energy in this place is palpable. I went back ten years to September, 2006, to see what I had written then and found this:
School News
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Alumni News
5
Faculty News
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Creative Writing
8
Dance
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W. Burke Royster, Superintendent
Fine Arts Center Dr. Roy S. Fluhrer, Director 102 Pine Knoll Drive Greenville, SC 29609 864.355.2572 www.fineartscenter.net
Orbis Sensualium Pictus, the most famous of the writings of one Jan Komensky, also known as Comenius, published in 1650, got education right that long ago: “Change school from a prison to a scholae ludus (a play site), where curiosity is aroused and satisfied….Reduce rote learning and engage the child’s interest through music and games and through handling objects, through posing problems (the project method), stirring the imagination by dramatic accounts of the big world.” (From Jacques Barzun’s, From Dawn to Decadence) Yeah, that’s what we do, what we have always done. You are welcome to come play with us—anytime.
Dr. Roy S. Fluhrer, Director
2 The Fine Arts Center Newsletter
The School District of Greenville County does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, color, handicap, religion or national origin in its dealings with employees, students, the general public, applicants for employment, educational programs, activities, or access to its facilities.
School News
The Fine Arts Center Remembers Lori Storie-Pahlitzch Lori Storie-Pahlitzsch (11/22/1948 to 2/15/2016), the Fine Arts Center Director of Creative Writing in the first half of the 1980’s, was born and raised in Polk County, NC, and studied in France as well as at Converse College and the Warren Wilson MFA Program. An accomplished poet as well as a pianist, she taught at the Fine Arts Center and at the Governor’s School, and was also a master gardener. She was the beloved daughter of Hallard Benjamin Storie and Florence Gilbert Storie. Her husband Robert Pahlitzsch passed away in 1996. Surviving is one aunt, Martha Foster of Union, SC, a brother-in-law Kurt Pahlitzsch (Linda), a nephew Kurt Pahlitzsch, a niece Karen P. Hyland, and a host of cousins. Former Fine Arts Center student Joel McCullough writes, “All who knew Lori described her poetry and her spirit in terms of light, of illumination, of luminosity. As a teacher, Lori drew pupils up to her, as the sun does sapling trees; but, like the moon, her light never burned what it touched and always left space for mystery, for the individual writer’s exploration into the shadowlands of self.” Ms. Storie-Pahlitzsch was the author of the collection Sleeping in the Ruins. Other work appeared in journals such as Blue Unicorn, Crescent Review, Laurel Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Poetry Northwest, and Western North Carolina Woman, as well as in anthologies such as Kakalak ,45/96: South Carolina Poetry Anthology, and Looking for Home.
The Nation’s First Fiber Arts Program at the High School Level in the United States On August 10th 2016, a press conference was held in the atrium at The Fine Arts Center to announce the nation’s first fiber arts program at the high school level. Yes, there are other schools offering fiber, but none with a four year curriculum developed in collaboration with one of the leading fiber universities in the world: North Carolina State University. And none with the support of the fiber industry who have underwritten the outfitting of the new annex to the school, making it a state of the art studio whose teacher, April Dauscha, is a MFA graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. The companies involved understand at a deep level that the future belongs to industries who build relationships with education to identify students now with the imagination and creativity and technological and mechanical skills to secure not only their futures but the future of a historically significant and growing industry. The Fine Arts Center and The School District of Greenville County recognize the contributions of Sage Automotive Interiors, Glen Raven Custom Fabrics, Alice Manufacturing, Inman Mills and Springs Creative. We are indeed Woven Together in a partnership for a strong, bright and promising future. The link below will give you the essence of what was a memorable morning to begin the 2016-2017 school year.
Curtains This morning in the yard where raspberry light breaks, robins bathe and pair, dancing under the tent of new leaves. The woman with a country face holds up grief like a brooch, has a bone to pick, carries troubles, a wreath trailed through the room like feathers, ermine, crumbs or gifts of gypsy heather. Like wrestling a bear, she pulls a curtain through its sash, picks at springs of leaf and unnamed birds until they are satisfactory, hung holding air just so, and, evenhandedly, she does the other side as well. These curtains are formal, tense, too fierce, artificially tender. They are not at home in my house. And yet, entering the room quickly--at a glance, how they can frame the trees freshly. What two women love in common is a son, more nearly the same than imagined. Talk runs between us of fabric, netting, but this is not the subject, the subject hangs, holding air strangely and can be seen, like wraiths, or comets, only by viewing askance: over the shoulder with salt, from the corner of the eye at just dusk, above the tips of the generations of pine, at night through a bit of lace. Low windows, stone ledge to a garden of stars, tissues of old sky. Once, upon entering a room, suddenly.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Sk6ZTXSaXWTk9DV0N5elNsT3M/view?usp=sharing
Fall Edition, September 2016 3
School News
Peter Redstone Harpsichord at FAC By Tom Strange
In the early spring of 2016, I received a call from a family looking for options regarding a harpsichord they had owned for several decades. It seemed as we spoke that their primary hope was to find an appropriate school they could donate the harpsichord to, and I immediately suggested Greenville’s Fine Arts Center, to which, after I described the environment it would come into, they heartily agreed! This harpsichord is rather a special fellow, made by Peter Redstone in 1980 while he was also serving as curator of musical instruments for Colonial Williamsburg. Redstone began making harpsichords from authentic 18th C patterns in 1970 and was active until 2005. Measuring at just under nine feet long, the FAC harpsichord is among the largest English harpsichords ever constructed, and is inspired by the late harpsichords of Shudi – Broadwood which Redstone has closely followed. It features two manuals which was common for the time, allowing the performer to play on the lower manual one 8 foot choir, two 8 foot choirs, the 4 foot choir with or without the 8 foot choirs, and on the upper manual the lute stop with or without an 8 foot choir. It also features the buff stop, and all of this color is accessible while playing, through two pedals and a clever machine stop feature that was copied by Redstone from the Shudi examples. With all of this available to the performer, students and teachers now have a harpsichord at FAC that is second to none in sonic possibilities. It arrived at my shop in need of some care, as the family had not managed to look after it for a rather long time, but once everything was made free to play and we had ‘polished up the brass so carefully’, it is ready for a concert debut.
Kelly Hall-Tompkins
is the Fiddler on Broadway!
The Shudi Harpsichord replica, donated by Bruce and Rachel Davis, lovingly restored by internationally known, Dr. Thomas Strange.
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School News
Alumni News Architecture Alumni News Last years’ architecture student graduates, three of whom were from our first ever class, are all on their own unique paths and moving ahead on their way to becoming architects! Arden Gillchrest, Travelers Rest High School, and Allie Ward, Wade Hampton High School, both headed off to the University of Tennessee and are sharing a new found love of the color orange. And Javier Zarazua, Riverside High School, is now a transplanted Midwesterner Arden Gillchrest and Allie Ward landing at Washington University in St. Louis. From what we have heard, their experiences at the Fine Arts Center have been a great help in this first year of college, especially in their architecture programs.
Creative Writing Alumni News Carolyn Bayne (Creative Writing 2010) began a MA in Feminist Media Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis this fall.
Dance Alumni News Jacqueline Calle (Dance 2013) has signed a contract to perform with The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center as a dancer in Guillaume Tell. The new production will be performed October 18-November 12. Jacqueline ( Jacki) graduated in Dance in 2013 and is currently a senior at SUNY/Purchas. She received the Sheffield Wood Scholarship her senior year at the Fine Arts Center.
Calle
https://www.metopera.org/Season/ 2016-17-Season/guillaume-tell-rossini-tickets/
Dance alumna Nikki Morath (Dance 2013) was an intern at the American Dance Festival (ADF) this summer for six weeks at Duke University in Durham, NC. Nikki, a senior at Point Park University, reconnected with dance artist Sara Procopio at ADF, having worked with Sara when Nikki Morath (right) and Sara she was a guest artist at the Fine Arts Procopio (center) at the American Center. Sara, an independent artist, Dance Festival performs with Shen Wei and Jonah Bokaer, is adjunct associate faculty at University of the Arts and has been on the faculty at ADF since 2008. Sydney Parker (Dance 2015) attended the Movement Invention Project
a three-week summer intensive in New York City for advanced dancers, 18-23 years which offered study in improvisation, ballet, contemporary technique and Gaga along with Image Tech (a standing preparation for ballet class created by Alexandra Wells that combines Alexander Technique and Irene Dowd’s work.) Sydney is currently a sophomore at Florida State University. Isaac Owens (Dance 2006) performed in Berlin with the Mari Meade Dance Collective in the company’s first European tour premiering “Thresholden,” an exploration of coexisting worlds.
Digital Film Alumni News Rory Scovel recently appeared in the movie “DEAN,” directed by Demetri Martin. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be released nationwide. Since graduating from the FAC film program, Rory has found great success as an actor, writer, filmmaker, and comedian. Rory was formerly a cast member of the sitcoms “Ground Floor” and “Undateable” and is currently appearing in the “Those Who Can’t” on TruTV.
After receiving his filmmaking foundation at the Fine Arts Center, Ben Eastman went on to graduate from Full Sail University with a degree in Film Production. He now has over eight years of film industry experience Ben Eastman (left) on set as a Camera Operator working on various projects including “Top Chef,” “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” “Property Virgins,” “Sea Rescue,” “Arranged,” and many others.
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School News
Percussion Alumni News Nashville based Christopher Williams (FAC 2004), in the mere twelve years since his graduation, has built a solid career as a drumset player. He has performed in various genres with such artists as Kid Rock, Jessta James, Funkadelic, Lee Greenwood, Blackfoot, and Nashville metal band War Within, as well as others, and just completed his first year with the touring German metal band, Accept. A fully mature artist capable of Williams expressing himself in text as well as on his chosen instrument, the following letter describes his inspiring life as a musician more eloquently than any paraphrase we might offer: “I’m still with (the German metal band) Accept. We wrapped up our world tour for the Blind Rage album in April and are now in the beginning stages of writing the next album, which will be out sometime next year. Fall most likely. In January, we will begin an arena tour throughout Europe consisting of 55 shows across 28 countries. There will be a live DVD/album released in the coming months as well (though this hasn’t been announced yet). In the meantime, I’ve been touring with Andrew W.K. who is a blend of rock, punk-rock, and fun upbeat party-type music. Andrew is great and the band are as well. It’s really a fun group to be with. I recently recorded Rex Brown’s first solo album. Rex is known primarily as the bassist for Pantera, a heavy metal band that truly changed the genre and are considered to be quite legendary in that realm. I can personally say they had a huge impact on me and my drumming, so befriending and working with Rex was quite an honor. “It’s strange, in recent years I’ve worked with and/or befriended many of my heroes. So much that it’s incredibly surreal, almost as though I’m living in a dream-like state. Some of these drummers who were iconic to me (and in ways still are) now watch me play when we’re on the same show/bill. Case in point, I’ve found myself quite engrained in the KISS camp. The drummer, Eric Singer, has become a friend as have many of their techs and crew. The little kid in me is still in shock… In all, though, I’m still really just happy to be playing my drums and making music with others. Paying the bills by doing so is a nice bonus, while everything else is just the icing on the cake. I couldn’t have done it without you, though. The inspiration, your teachings, the support from yourself and the staff at the FAC meant and still to this day means the world to me. I will never be able thank you all enough. I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart.” 6 The Fine Arts Center Newsletter
Clockwise from top left: Percussion Alumnus Strasser, Nordinger, Matthews, Campbell Wesley Strasser (FAC 2011) enjoys continued success as he enters his
second year of graduate study in percussion at the University of Southern California Las Angeles. Wesley recently won an audition at USC and will perform with their orchestra as timpanist on a featured work, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4. Wesley will also resume his post as Principal Timpanist with the American Youth Symphony, and will perform, along with other USC percussionists, on the L.A. Philharmonic’s new music series (“Green Umbrella”) in October. Lex Nordlinger (FAC 2012) has been recruited by Sufjan Stevens producer Thomas Bartlett to gig with musicians under his umbrella in Manhattan for the 2016-2017 season. Nathan Matthews (FAC 2012) has been awarded the Presser Scholarship, the highest scholarship offered a rising senior at Winthrop University. Paul Mitchell (FAC 2014) transferred from Winthrop University to North Texas University in Denton, Texas to study drum set with the legendary Ed Soph. Nick Campbell (FAC 1990s) continues his work as full-time drum test for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Michael Cartellone.
School News
Faculty News
Sarah Blackman, Creative Writing, went to Brooklyn this June to read at Unnameable Books with the novelist Angela Woodward, whose new book, Natural Wonders, was published by Fc2 at the same time as Blackman’s novel, Hex. Also in attendance was Marc Anthony Richardson whose novel, Year of the Rat, won the Ronald Sukinick Innovative Fiction Award from Fc2 and will be released later this year. Thanks go to the FACPartners for providing the travel funds for this event!
Jan Woodward, Dance, traveled to Massachusetts to visit Jacob’s Pillow, which is one of the premiere summer dance festivals and the longest running dance festival in the U.S. She had the opportunity to see two performances (BalletX and ZviDance), and a performance by the dancers who were attending the Contemporary three-week dance intensive as well as two pre-performance talks by resident scholars. Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark and was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She was fortunate to be able to see a performance at the Tanglewood Music Center which is near Jacob’s Pillow. She also attended
two performances (each with a pre-show talk) of the New York City Ballet and visited the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York. Thank you to the FACPartners for their grant to help support her continued education over the summer.
Elizabeth Wright as the soloist in Andante, Hymn to Apollo at Battery Dance Festival. Photo: Jason Chuang Fine Arts Center dance teacher Elizabeth Wright spent three weeks in New York this summer working with Lori Belilove and the Isadora Duncan Dance Company. She taught technique and repertory in their intensive workshop and was featured in outdoor performances at the Alice Austen House, Fort Tryon Park, Untermyer Park and the Battery Dance Festival. Isadora Duncan is known as the “Mother of Modern Dance”, and her work is known for its musicality, flow, and human expression. Elizabeth will be teaching Duncan technique to the 8am dance class this year, as well as ballet and other styles of modern dance.
Fine Arts Center music faculty member Gary Robinson marked his 30th and final year as Music Director of the Greenville County Young Artist Orchestra—the orchestra-in-residence at the Fine Arts Center—by participating as a cyclist in the 2016 “Ride to Remember.” The RTR is a fundraising event in support of the Alzheimer’s Association, which provides treatment and seeks, “to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain
health.” Robinson was one of 311 cyclists who rode 253 across the state of South Carolina over three days in July, generating $417,789.01 in donations for the Alzheimer’s Association. Robinson will resume activities as an orchestral conductor in December of 2016 when he will appear as a guest conductor with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Robinson will also continue as a section percussionist with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra of its 2016-2017 season.
John Ravnan (Strings Chamber Music instructor) taught and performed at the Chamber Music on the Hill festival. The three-week intensive program was held at Converse College. In addition to teaching viola and chamber music, he appeared in two faculty concerts performing Brahms’ String Sextet in B-flat Major, Mendelssohn’s Octet, and with FAC’s composer-in-residence, Dr. Jon Grier, the premiere of his new version of Imperiled Blaze for viola and piano.
Teri Parker Lewis (Theatre Performance) will be a visiting artist-in-residence this year at Bob Jones University. The Theatre Department there has asked her to work with both undergrads and graduate students on the topics of movement, business preparation, and acting. She will also be choreographing Little Women, Nov 15-19. This is the first mainstage musical Bob Jones University has ever done in their ninety history of public performances. Tickets can be purchased through the Rodeheaver box office.
Fall Edition, September 2016 7
Dream Delivery Service Comes to the FAC In September, poet, publisher and, most recently, dream deliverer Mathias Svalina will come to the Fine Arts Center to teach a two day intensive workshop on obsessive form and do a reading. Svalina is the author of five books, including Destruction Myth (Cleveland State University Poetry Center), Wastoid (Big Lucks Books), and the recently released, The Wine-Dark Sea (Sidebrow Books). His poems and short fiction have been widely published and anthologized, including recently in New American Stories (Vintage Contemporaries). He is an editor for the small press Octopus Books. Since 2014 he has run a Dream Delivery Service and beginning in September 2016 he will be delivering dreams in various cities: Richmond, Tucson, Marfa, New Orleans, Chicago, and beyond. In an interview with Westword, Svalina explained the Dream Delivery Service as follows, “After having published a handful of books of mostly surrealist or absurdist poetry, I wanted to develop a way of connecting to readers differently than through a book, of being able to create a more intimate reading relationship. I wanted this reading relationship to develop over time and as part of a daily routine. Plus, it’s funny to me to think of people waking up and finding a poem written just for them on their doorstep every day. I would like that to happen to me! Hopefully subscribers incorporate the dreams into their day, the way they might have a dream in the back of their mind all day.” Please join us to hear Mathias read, and perhaps dream, on Thursday, September 15th, 7:00pm in the Black Box Theatre.
Poet Mathias Svalina delivering dreams
Creative Writing Students Found New Online Magazine AJ Nicoloff and Danie Weinstein, both second year
Summer Studies Second year Creative Writing student, Nola Propst, spent her summer in Massachusetts at Bard College at Simon’s Rock’s Young Writers Workshop. Nola spent three weeks in an intensive workshop environment as part of a selective program of students who auditioned for the chance to participate.
Creative Writing 8 The Fine Arts Center Newsletter
students in the Creative Writing program, spent the summer designing and launching their own online literary magazine for high school age writers. Called Apprehension Magazine (www.apprehension mag.com), the publication promises to “look for writers who are optimistic about their work, and wish to have their thoughts and voices heard.” AJ and Danie are currently reading for the first issue of Apprehension.
Dancers Perform in Local Festival
Saturday Day of Dance
FAC dancers will perform on October 22 as part of the Cornucopia Festival at the Kilgore-Lewis House in downtown Greenville. The 8am dance class will perform a short, site-specific program in the style of Isadora Duncan to accentuate the beautiful gardens and natural surroundings. Their teacher Elizabeth Wright and guest artist Meg Brooker may also perform a short duet program. In addition to dance, the festival will include fine art, craft booths, a plant sale, food vendors, and live music. It will all be outside and FREE!
The officers of the FAC Chapter of the National Honor Society for Dance Arts hosted a breakfast for the dancers to “kick off ” the 2016-2017 dance year. Students were able to meet each other and learn a little more about what to look forward to in the coming year. The Dancers have also organized five Saturday Days of Dance for students at the FAC and the community to explore a variety of styles of dance. The events are open for those interested in dance from grades 4 through adult. Information is posted on the FAC Dance website as Saturday Days of Dance Forms (www.fineartscenter.net)
FAC Dancers attend the NHSDA Breakfast
Dance Guest Artists Two guest dance artist residencies are scheduled for the Fall. Tyler Gilstrap will be in residence from October 3-7 and Brian McGinnis from October 31-November 4. Each artist will choreograph a new work and also teach technique classes.
Rachel Mack attended the Bolshoi Ballet
Academy’s summer intensive in New York City for six weeks. She trained in the Vaganova method with teachers from the Bolshoi Academy in Russia.
Selah Boughner attended Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh this summer in their musical theatre program. The six week program included classes in ballet, jazz, performance, audition, acting, voice, drama literature and improvisation. She gained a stronger focus and connection to her art form through the concentrated study in the program. Selah Boughner with Jill Wadsworth, Acting Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University’s Summer Program
Jack Beaule, Cailey Campbell and Hallie Walters attended the Commercial Dance Summer
Intensive at UNCSA in Winston-Salem, NC for two weeks. Classes were in a variety of styles from contemporary and jazz to ballroom and included mock auditions.
Rachel Mack attends the Summer Bolshoi Dance Intensive in NYC
Ellen Kilby attended the Nashville Ballet’s two week summer intensive which
included ballet, pointe, variations, pas de deux, modern, jazz and conditioning. Sofia Justo participated in the Art Of Classical Ballet’s one-week intensive in Pompano Beach, FL. She studied with Cuban trained Magaly Suarez and Alexis Saramite, who performed with the Paris Opera Ballet.
Dance Fall Edition, September 2016 9
Digital Filmmaking
Butch Bragg with his copilot, Manny. Donya Babcock spent the summer working at a camp in Croatia shooting and editing the various events scheduled for the campers such as paintball, bike riding, rafting and various games. Donya is both a student in Digital Filmmaking 1 and a returning student in Visual Arts.
For the third year, Film 1 student, Conner Nyberg, attended Camp Flix, in Atlanta. Camp Flix offers a one-week, real world experience where students are immersed in the craft of filmmaking.
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Sydney Richmond, produced a
Film 3 students, Sam Ramsey and Chris Matthews, spent the summer
video for her swim team, Stone Lake. The video, a spoof of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” was produced to get the team pumped about their upcoming divisional competition. It featured coaches playing hooky while riding around in a Porsche as well as a rendition of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.”
working on a short documentary about Butch Bragg, a freelance pilot in Eastern, NC. Bragg is a fascinating character who has done everything from flying across the country in his 1941 biplane to crashing into the Colombian jungle while spraying herbicide on crops owned by a drug cartel.
Over the break, Film 2 student,
Music
Fine Arts Center Orchestra-In-Residence: Greenville County Young Artists Orchestra The Fine Arts Center’s Orchestra-in-Residence, Greenville County Young Artist Orchestra, presents its 2016-2017 season under the baton of its new Artistic Director, Emily Schaad. Carrying out a unique first-year assignment, Schaad will also conduct YAO’s step-up orchestra, The Philharmonic. Concerts for the upcoming season will be staged at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts and Riverside High School:
“New Beginnings” Young Artist Orchestra And The Philharmonic
Winter Orchestras Concert
Peace Center for the Performing Arts, Dorothy Gunter Theatre
Tuesday, January 5, 2017, 7:00 PM
Thursday, October 20, 2016, 7:30 PM Welcome Emily Schaad, GCYO’s new Artistic Director and Conductor, as she leads the The Young Artist Orchestra and The Philharmonic in their first concert of the season.
Riverside High School
Admission: Adults $7.00, Students & Children FREE The Young Artist Orchestra, Philharmonic, Sinfonia and Intermezzo Tickets available at the door
• Hector Berlioz: Marche Hongroise
“Music From Many Lands”: The Young Artist Orchestra And The Philharmonic
• Dvořák: Silent Woods and Rondo for Cello and Orchestra, Daniel Hudson, cello
Peace Center for the Performing Arts Gunter Theatre
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 • Mascagni: Intermezzo Sinfonico from Cavalleria Rusticana • Dello Joio: Choreography: Three Dances for String Orchestra • Gliere: Russian Sailor’s Dance Admission: Adults $27.00, Students & Children $10.00
Friday, January 20, 2017 7:30 PM Join us as we tour Austria with Joseph Haydn, Czechoslovakia with Antonín Dvořák, and France with Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns. • Haydn: Concerto in C major for Violoncello and Orchestra, Jack Rose, cello
Spring Orchestras Concert: Prelude, Intermezzo, Sinfonia, The Philharmonic, The Young Artist Orchestra Peace Center Concert Hall Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 7:00 PM 300 students, 5 ensembles, a night of accomplishments. Greenville County Youth Orchestra’s annual end-of-year concert featuring the Junior Sinfonia, Chamber Strings, Sinfonia, The Philharmonic, and the Young Artist Orchestra. Admission: Adults $15.00, Students & Children $5.00 “Shoulder To Shoulder”: The Young Artist Orchestra With Greenville Symphony Orchestra Members Peace Center for the Performing Arts, Dorothy Gunter Theatre Saturday, May 13, 2017, 7:30 PM Members of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra combine with the Young Artist Orchestra in their annual “Shoulder-to-Shoulder” concert to perform two masterpieces. • Saint-Saëns: Concerto No. 3 for Violin and Orchetra, Sam Parrini, violin • Nielsen: Aladdin, op. 34, 7 pieces Admission: Adults $27.00, Students & Children $10.00
• Dvoák: Symphony No. 8 • Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Josh Liu, violin Admission: Adults $27.00, Students & Children $10.00
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Music
Music Department Welcomes Danielle Knox
Watson CD Release
After an exhaustive search that attracted applicants from across the USA and Europe, The Music Department is pleased to announce that Danielle Knox has been selected as our new Instructor of Voice. Ms. Knox holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music and Master’s Degree in Performance and Literature from Binghampton University and has maintained voice studios at Furman, Northern Kentucky University, Immanuel School of Music, Chicago Center School of Music, Chicago Opera Theater, and Binghampton University. Throughout her career she has maintained a national profile as a performer in opera and musical theatre, including engagements with Rochester Lyric Theater, The Know Theater, The Carnegie, Ohio Light Opera, Light Opera Works, Chamber Opera of Chicago, the Castleton Festival, Tri-Cities Opera, Atlanta Lyric Theater, and Eastman Opera Theater. Welcome, Danielle Knox!
Strings Chamber Music Summer Studies Sam Parrini studied at the Aria International Summer Academy at Mount
Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In master classes and individual lessons, Sam worked with several renowned violinists, including Daniel Phillips from the Orion String Quartet, Bayla Keyes, and Peter Zazofsky from Boston University. At the Brevard Music Festival, Samuel Tam studied piano with Norman Krieger from the University of Southern California. Samuel also observed master classes given by pianist Joyce Yang and the Shanghai String Quartet. Violinist Rachel Yi returned to the Heifetz International Music Institute at Mary Baldwin University in Virginia. Andrew Davis studied cello with Dr. Jonathan Kramer from North Carolina State University at the Chamber Music on the Hill festival held at Converse College.
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Steve Watson (FAC Jazz Studies Teacher) released a new CD “Playtime” to Jazz Radio May 2nd, 2016. It will contains the single “Playtime” that was co written with Chuck Loeb. Chuck produced the single and is featured on the track. Paul Brown mixed Playtime in Los Angeles CA. It reached #18 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Charts (BDS) on July 18th. Jeff Lorber produced and mixed another track Stones Throw on the CD. Both of these tracks were recorded at Jeff›s studio in Los Angeles, CA. There are seven additional tracks on the CD that Steve produced. The song “Pear Bear” was produced with Greg Alewine and Hazen Bannister. It will be released as the next single in mid December with a video shot by FAC Digital Film instructor Eric Rogers. Appearing on the CD are Chuck Loeb, Jeff Lorber, Jimmy Haslip, Gary Novack, Greg Alewine, Hazen Bannister, Tim Blackwell, (FAC alumnae) Wendel Donald and Jeff Holland. The CD is available at CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes and stevewatsonguitar.com.
Theatre
We are ready for another great year at the FAC Theatre department. We have two new faculty members, a brand new class, a guest director coming in for the fall, and have already had our first guest artist workshop before Labor Day! Below is more information, as well as a brief list of important dates. As always, we welcome communication with our Theatre families and look forward to seeing you in the Black Box.
Important dates upcoming:
—Teri Parker Lewis, Dirk Holleman, Anne Tromsness & Fulton Burns
Oct 18 – Twelfth Night at the Peace Center (9:15 class only)
Tromsness
Please welcome our new faculty members! Anne Tromsness is the ARMES Drama teacher and is now teaching our new “Theatre Foundations” class in the Black Box at 8am. We have eight students in that flagship class, and we are so excited to be able to offer this new level of instruction.
Fulton Burns (pictured instructing on this issue’s cover) is teaching in
the Theatre Performance track one day a week. Fulton is an alum of the FAC (in dance) and brings with him a wealth of physical theatre techniques, as well as yoga, nutrition, and directing. When not in the Theatre, you can find Fulton in the front office, helping Tonia Hubbard and anyone needing assistance. He’s even given a nutrition class to the Theatre and Dance students—so if your student starts asking for more fruit and granola bars, you know they have been listening! We are thrilled to have Fulton with us.
Sept 23 – College Day (1:30 class only) Sept 27 – visiting playwright from Centre Stage’s New Play Festival (9:15 class only)
Oct 26 & 27 – workshop with the Peace Center for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (9:15 class, with Tech Theatre and Creative Writing) Oct 26 – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at the Peace Center, 7:30pm, optional attendance (more info to come) Nov 11, 12, 18,and 19 – Hamlet, FAC 7pm Dec 5 – Theatre Semester Presentation, 7pm
The Advanced Theatre Ensemble will be welcoming a few special artists in for our production of Hamlet. Guest director, David Sims, has already been in to cast, and rehearsals begin with him later in Sims (left); Nelson (right) September. Guest actors David Lee Nelson and Anne Tromsness (our new faculty member!) will also be joining. The cast is rounded out with Teri herself as Gertrude, and here a play is made. We hope you will join us for those performances. In preparation for Hamlet rehearsals, teaching artists Mallory Pellegrino and Thomas Azar, from the Warehouse Theatre’s “Wooden O” educational outreach program, joined us on August 30 and 31. Mallory and Thomas led us through several “refreshers” and some new challenges as well—on Shakespeare, his language, the story of Hamlet, and even new theatre games! We look forward to a continued relationship with the Warehouse Theatre’s educational programming.
Above: Mallory Pellegrino and Thomas Azar work with students; Left: Mallory Pellegrino and Thomas Azar
Fall Edition, September 2016 13
Three Years In
Student Summer Travels Jasmine Klapperich, junior at Wade Hampton, had a unique opportunity to travel first to Chicago where she visited an architecture firm that she studied last year in architecture. Studio Gang Architects opened their doors and gave her a tour. While there, Jasmine was able to see all the buildings and sites that she studied and got to talk with architects about the new technology with which they are working. And she was able to see the design plans for a potential Greenville structure, Blue Wall, that the studio designed for completion in 2018. One unique discovery was a rooftop honey bee farm that Studio Gang was studying by video to understand the movement of the hive! You just never know where we might find inspiration or from what we might learn.
The first three years of work by the students in the architecture program were juried with care and displayed over the summer. The show was also curated by Hayden Duncan and Zoe Jackson. This was a unique chance for our students to see the progression of the program and for the Fine Arts Center Community to learn about exactly what happens in the back corner studio that we gratefully occupy. The projects over the course of the years have remained fairly similar for each class, and the wall of sketches showed just what other skills we work on in the studio as well. Currently all the students are getting a crash/refresher course in sketching, starting with the wonderful blind contour type. In this type of exercise students are not allowed to look at the paper or their drawing; they must try to coordinate what their eye sees to what the pen draws. These exercises reinforce all the critical components of observation, teach them how to look and see objects differently than before. This starts the conversation about thinking about what we see, not taking it for granted, and hopefully observing something with and from a different perspective. This is the imperative in architecture! As architects and design students, we analyze the situation, the space, and the goals. Then we formulate a solution while understanding how a variety of things may be perceived by others and have an impact in the built environment.
Visual Arts 14 The Fine Arts Center Newsletter
Then Jasmine traveled much further south to the city of New Orleans and visited the town and Tulane University. She even had a chance to see the US Custom House (the one Ms. Smith worked on while she lived there), walked the riverfront, and even took a moment to notice the difference between the architecture in the French Quarter and that of the Garden District.
Explore the Arts
Photos by Carol Baldwin This summer over 200 students participated in many exciting arts classes during Explore the Arts. First grader, Katie Gibson, along with her mother Monica Gibson and grandmother Audrey Sheets, made Explore the Arts history this year by three generations participating in the summer program during the same week. Students in kindergarten through high school and adults enjoyed classes in Creative Writing, Painting, Metals, Guitar, Drums, Collage Techniques, Theatre, Ballet, and many more!
L to R: Artwork: from the “Out of the Park 2: Bases Loaded” reception at Fluor Field’s 500 Club sponsored by the Greenville Drive; FAC student Sienna Patterson posing with their card from the “Out of the Park 2: Bases Loaded”reception at Fluor Field’s 500 Club sponsored by the Greenville Drive; FAC student Anna Brinkman posing with their card from the “Out of the Park 2: Bases Loaded”reception at Fluor Field’s 500 Club sponsored by the Greenville Drive.
Visual Arts Fall Edition, September 2016 15
New Faculty in Visual Arts The Visual Arts Department is pleased to welcome two new faculty members this year, photographer Armon Means and fiber artist April Dauscha. Mr. Means earned a master’s of fine arts degree in photography from Cranbrook Art Academy in Bloomfield Hills, MI and a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in photography from The Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied at Lacoste School of the Arts in Lacoste, France, and the School of the Arts in Budapest, Hungary. Means has been an exhibiting fine arts photographer and educator since 2003. He has taught at Kansas State University, Belmont University, and Coastal Carolina University. He has exhibited widely and has photographs in multiple collections nationally and internationally, especially in the Midwestern US, France, and Hungary, where he has been a visiting artist in multiple venues. His work centers on
ideas of cultural concerns, minority identity, and environmental influences. Ms. Dauscha is heading up the brand new Fiber Arts area. She earned a master’s of fine arts degree in Fiber from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, and a bachelor’s of fine arts in Fashion Design from the International Academy of Design & Technology in Chicago, IL. She has taught at her alma maters and the Chicago High School for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited and reviewed nationally and has won numerous awards, such as the 2015 Award of Excellence from the Surface Design Association. She uses the human body to investigate the ideas of morality, mourning and mortification. Her delicate lace works often explore topics such as transformation, reconciliation and communication through dress. Ms. Dauscha has had gallery representation since 2012 by the Page Bond Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.
The 26th Annual Upstate High School Exhibition, Greenville Technical College Fifteen Visual Arts students were selected to participate in the Annual Upstate High School Exhibition at Greenville Technical College. Eight Visual Arts student works placed in this show that invites participation from high schools throughout the region. The students recognized with Honorable Mention included Guy Benjamin (Photography), Ross Mackenzie (Ceramics), Hannah Rogers (Drawing and Painting) and Jackson Page (Design). Wren Brown was awarded 2nd place in Metals. First place honors were awarded to Jackson Shaner in Ceramics and Donya Babcock in Photography.
Visual Arts 16 The Fine Arts Center Newsletter
Jackson Shaner’s first place piece (left) and Jackson Page’s Honorable Mention piece in the Annual Upstate High School Exhibition at Greenville Technical College.
FAC Annual Juried Student Exhibition The annual juried student exhibition highlights the accomplishments of students at the Fine Arts Center in the mediums of drawing & painting, photography, metals, ceramics & design. One hundred works were submitted and twenty-one were selected for inclusion in the exhibition. This year’s juror was Valerie Zimany. Ms. Zimany’s ceramic sculpture is internationally recognized and she is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Clemson University.
2016 Juried Student Show PHOTO Honorable Mention 3rd place 2nd place 1st place
DRAWING AND PAINTING Destry McCall Brandon Barney Nick de Kraft Elizabeth Arana
DESIGN Honorable Mention
Honorable Mention 3rd place 2nd place
Bonnie McEachren Charlie Hyman Elizabeth Watkins
1st place
Nicole Salazar
CERAMICS Jan Allas
Honorable Mention
Catherine Morse
3rd place
Sammy Lazarus
3rd place
Bonnie Campbell
2nd place
Yun Faillard
2nd place
Katie Rivera
1st place
Sandy Zhang
1st place
Lindsay Ward
METALS Honorable Mention
BEST IN SHOW Jack Wilcox
3rd place
Abby Wasielewski
2nd place
Anna Heath
1st place
Libba Beattie
Lucy Ranson
Visual Arts Fall Edition, September 2016 17
The Fine Arts Center Partners is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and increasing the visibility of the Fine Arts Center of Greenville County Schools, South Carolina’s oldest public high school program for the performing, literary and visual arts. The Partners is an entirely volunteer-run organization, allowing us to donate 100% of all funds raised directly to the school to help fund the extraordinary arts education offered there. Partners membership is open to parents of past and present FAC students, FAC alumni and all community members who wish to promote the goal of the Fine Arts Center: to provide advanced, comprehensive arts instruction to students who are artistically talented and wish to participate in an intensive, pre-professional program of study in music, dance, theatre, visual art, creative writing or digital filmmaking. FAC students study with world-renowned guest artists and attend seminars and summer intensives, many of which are funded through assistance from the school. FAC graduates attend the most prestigious arts colleges and universities, and alumni have found successful careers on Broadway, as working artists and in other professional settings. Some have even returned as instructors at the Fine Arts Center. The Partners are proud to contribute to the future of the Fine Arts Center and that of arts education in Greenville. Join us by subscribing to our email updates, making a donation, attending our annual gala fundraiser, or volunteering your time. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to help. Fine Arts Center Partners facpartners@gmail.com | www.fineartscenterpartners.org | Find us on Youtube & Facebook