Spring 2022 Mason Gross Magazine

Onstage with J.Lo

│

Remembering Kim Elliott

│ Celebrating MLK

MGSA M AS ON

GR OS S

SCHOOL

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ARTS

SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT S T U D E N T S

SPRING 2022

T H R O U G H

D A N C E

T E A C H

T O

S O C I A L

C H I L D R E N

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J U S T I C E N E W

B R U N S W I C K

BY THE NUMBERS As of fall 2021, MGSA students hailed from

912

were undergraduates;

Youjin Cho, from left, Lauren Barchi, Franchesca Henry, Cape Miele,#keepmakingart Jessica Vargas, Lindsay Cherin, Lizi Kvernadze, and Isabel Avila in the Opera Theater Rutgers COVID production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, staged on March 28 at Nicholas Music Center.

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22

nations and

290 Source: The Office of Institutional Research and Academic Planning

32

states.

were graduate students.

AMANDA BROWN

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OUR LEADERSHIP

L E T T E R

F R O M

Jason Geary Dean

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Judy Zenowich Associate Dean for Finance and Administration Mandy Feiler Assistant Dean for Advising and Student Success Kara Cabrera Assistant Dean for Admissions and Enrollment Management Marc Handelman Chair of the Art & Design Department

Steven Kemper Interim Director of the Music Department Ellen Bredehoft Interim Chair of the Theater Department Kevin Bott Director of Rutgers Arts Online Barbara González-Palmer Interim Director of Rutgers Community Arts Patrick Stettner Director of the Rutgers Filmmaking Center MASON GROSS S C H O O L O F T H E A RT S

D E A N

n many ways, the 2021–22 academic year represented uncharted territory. Even as we eagerly returned to in-person classes, performances, and events at Mason Gross, we navigated the challenges of responding to ever-changing COVID-19 protocols mirroring the unpredictability of the virus itself. But, as we have seen, if any community has the capacity to adapt to the unexpected, it is a community of artists!

Rebecca Cypess Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Frederick Curry Interim Chair of the Dance Department

T H E

KEITH MUCCILLI

Indeed, even amid this continuing uncertainty, faculty, staff, students, and alumni came together to engage in robust discussions about our path forward, resulting in a Future Roadmap for Mason Gross that we recently finalized and that we will share publicly in the coming months, along with a schoolwide Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan.

The Future Roadmap adopts three core pillars that will serve as a framework for departmental conversations related especially to curriculum and programming: Inclusive Excellence, Collaboration, and Community. If the first of these pillars affirms our mission as a leading arts conservatory housed within a premier public research institution, the second and third pillars articulate two innovative pathways to realizing this larger goal. To give a sense of what this looks like, the current issue of this magazine offers multiple examples of how the arts can be employed to engage community in ways that contribute to social justice and the broader public good.

Alongside those initiatives that point toward the future, this year has also seen events celebrating the legacy of our past, including the jazz program’s commemoration of the 100th birthday of jazz great Charles Mingus and the Glee Club’s 150th anniversary spring concert. The impulse to honor tradition even as we embrace change will guide us as we write the school’s next chapter.

Another constant will be the creative spirit and ingenuity that is likewise highlighted in the pages that follow and that is consistently on display in the work of our talented faculty, staff, and students, as well as the thousands of alumni who continue to create art and shape the world for the better under the proud banner of Mason Gross School of the Arts.

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© 2022 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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M A S O N

G R O S S

S P R I N G

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M A G A Z I N E

“I

remember the first time I really allowed myself to hear Shakespeare’s words, and I remember how exposed I felt. He placed poetry on top of my most personal and indescribable feelings. From that point on, my attitude towards Shakespeare changed.” –BFA actor Ryann Myers, who studied at the Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

6 SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT

FAV O R IT E T H I N G S

S t u d e n t s te ach child ren social ju stic e thro ugh d an ce.

12 D an ce al u m s h a re s

th e s tage w it h J . L o , Ari an a G rand e , a n d oth ers .

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14 M u s i c facu lt y m e m be r

MOONLIGHTING ON THE WEST SIDE

m akes Ru tg e r s h is to r y.

Pe rc u ssio n fac ulty Javier Diaz ap p e a r s in Steve n Spielberg ’s West S i d e Sto r y.

17 Ar t & D es i gn s t u d e n t fi n d s s u b j ec t s a t t h e N ew B ru n s wic k t ra in s t ati on .

KIM ELLIOTT

22 “SHE WAS AN ADVOCATE FOR WH AT SHE LOVED AND EXPECTED NOTHING LESS FROM H E R S T U D E N T S .”

COURTESY OF JAVIER DIAZ

Da n cer M ad i s on M ered i t h p ays tribu te to t h e l ate K i m El l i ot t.

O N T H E C O V E R : Recent Dance

EdM grad Jackie Carelli leads the warmups for second and third graders during an after-school dance program at Paul Robeson Community School for the Arts in New Brunswick. Photo by Amanda Brown.

DEPARTMENTS Facu l ty + S taf f N e w s Al u m n i + S tu d en t N e w s I n M em oria m

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EDITORIAL STAFF Ed itor : Laurie Granieri Con tribu t in g w r ite rs: Risa Barisch, Lisa

Intrabartola, Madison Meredith (BFA 2022) D e s ig n e r : Mónica Toledo-Fraginals

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Social Justice Movement Dance Education Students Bring After-School Classes With a Social Justice Theme to a New Brunswick School

AMANDA BROWN Dance Education grad student Kara Kamenski leading an after-school dance class for second and third graders, part of a program this spring at New Brunswick's Paul Robeson Community School for the Arts.

By Risa Barisch

E

very Wednesday after school this spring, students at the Paul Robeson Community School for the Arts in New Brunswick were moving, dancing, leaping, and twisting, all while learning about community, emotions, and identity.

“Kinetic Connections,” a 10-week program launched in February, taught social justice through dance to upwards of 60 children at the school through a partnership with Rutgers.

Graduate students participating in the five-year teacher education program in dance education (EdM), offered jointly by the Rutgers Graduate School of Education and Mason Gross School of the Arts, complete the Students, Communities, and Social Justice course in their final semester while teaching in a local school.

The course allows them to combine the concepts they learn in class with real-world practice in presenting “the big ideas of social justice” to school-age children, says Becky Visintainer, a 2016 dance education alum who now teaches the course at Rutgers and works as a dance teacher at North Plainfield High School. “We do a lot of reading about what social justice is in education and some of the current events going on that we could address in classes, but then we ask dance education students, ‘What are your ideas?’ ” says Visintainer. “How do you integrate this through a dance framework where your students can leave having

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learned some dance and also learn social justice and be able to apply it in their everyday lives?”

For Cassidy Rivas, who graduated in May, the answer is enriching the New Brunswick community by helping students feel connected to dance.

Rivas and her co-teacher, Johsian Martinez-Gonzalez, who also graduated in May, designed their teaching plan to help students understand themselves and those in their neighborhoods. For fourth and fifth graders in their class this means learning social dances with roots in ’80s and ’90s hip-hop as well as Latin dance styles including bachata, merengue, and salsa.

“A lot of the students are of Hispanic descent or African American/Black, so making sure that we get them to see and represent who they are in the classroom was really important to us,” Rivas says. “We always cater to the students and the community and what they may need.”

Participating in the class makes fourth-grader Mayki Guardado Mendez feel good.

“My family, they dance bachata, and then they like to push me in, and I don’t want to dance because I don’t know how, and now I know I can dance,” says Guardado Mendez.

“It’s not about right or wrong when it comes to a dance step,” Rivas says.

“It’s more about getting to experience that vulnerability in the space, whether it’s a cypher circle in hip-hop, where students get to showcase their individuality, or sharing a dance with a partner, getting to move with people in the same direction.”

Dance classes were divided by grade and provided an age-appropriate curriculum that includes cultural and historical background along with accompanying movement practice—from kindergartners and first graders learning about communities through La Plena, a dance from Puerto Rico, to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders learning about identity, diversity, and group dynamics through jazz dance.

ART FOR ALL

“We get to learn dances that we didn’t know about,” says Payton Patilla, a fifth grader who was initially nervous to join the after-school program with so many people she didn’t know aside from her sisters. “I actually feel happy when I dance, because now that we have the program, I can dance in front of people without feeling embarrassed.”

MOVING

EXPERIENCE

Kara Kamenski co-taught the second- and third-grade group with fellow graduate students Jackie Carelli and Kassie Ruboyianes. Their teaching plan promoted social justice and wellness by exploring identity and emotions, including joy, sadness, and fear, that students respond to through movement.

“The social-emotional skills students develop help them to recognize their own feelings, empathize with others, and build positive relationships,” Kamenski explains.

This is especially important in the wake of the pandemic, Visintainer says.

“It is really hard right now and there’s a lot of learning loss and rebuilding happening,” says Visintainer. “We have to find ways to connect and work together to improve and strengthen a community.”

The program provided Rutgers student-teachers the opportunity to get involved in the New Brunswick community by getting to know the students, their interests, and their everyday lives, Kamenski says.

“Our students have been so open to sharing their experiences with us, even when discussing challenging emotions,” Kamenski says. “Our presence fosters a positive relationship between the university and the local community so that we can work together and support each other.”

The after-school program, which ended May 4, proved so popular that classes reached capacity.

“There are so many people who want to move and dance. It’s generally enjoyable for them because they’re not sitting down all the time, they can express themselves through movement, they listen to the music they like,” says Jeeseon Chung, the dance teacher at Paul Robeson and a 2019 dance education graduate. “That’s what really catches their attention.”

Violet Robinson, principal of the Paul Robeson School, says the program has “ignited the spark to dance in our students.”

“The program inspired self-confidence in both novice and advanced dancers and the encouragement for students to explore the art form of dance,” Robinson adds.

Bringing in programs like “Kinetic Connections” is extremely important, says Sara Martino, the elementary school’s arts integration specialist and a 2018 dance education graduate, because many students, including those with special needs or who are bilingual, English-language learners, don’t get to experience the arts outside of school, so movement is a natural way to communicate social issues or topics about culture and history.

“I really appreciate that it has a background of social justice and civic duties, especially for our school and our district, because we really try to home in on culturally responsive learning and teaching as well as socialemotional learning,” says Martino. “By focusing on social justice through the lens of dance, it is so complementary to our mission. It really is an authentic alignment.”

AMANDA BROWN

M

ason Gross is bringing the arts to the local community in many ways thanks to a new initiative launched by the Dean’s Office at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester. Centered on the idea that the arts can and should be all around us, Pop-Up Arts Across Middlesex County was created so that students and faculty across the school could engage with the Rutgers campus and beyond to spread joy and bring people together through free performances, exhibits, or any other creative display in informal settings.

Events in the fall included a performance by the New Brazilian Jazz Ensemble, made up of students in the jazz studies program, at Tavern on George in downtown New Brunswick to highlight diverse Brazilian styles and their impact on modern music and Latin jazz. Dance students, accompanied by live percussionists, performed in front of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary to bring attention to the SHELTER exhibition of commissioned works about vulnerable community members impacted by the pandemic.

In the spring, music students in a conducting class led workshops at Lincoln Elementary School in New Brunswick, inviting children to conduct and sing along. Chamber music students presented concerts at Greenbriar Whittingham Active Adult Facility in Monroe Township and outside of the New Brunswick Free Public Library, and flute students (pictured above) performed a concert at The Chelsea of East Brunswick, an assisted living community.

“Resuming in-person activities is especially meaningful for Mason Gross given the extent to which the arts depend on deeply human connections to tell stories, challenge our ways of thinking, and hold a mirror up to society,” Dean Geary said in his message calling for proposals, which emphasized the importance of gathering people together after the isolation of the past two years.

Students and faculty were invited to submit proposals and were eligible for funding through a grant from the Arts Institute of Middlesex County, a division of the Middlesex County government that supports arts and cultural events.

“The arts have the capacity to bring people together, spark empathy, and share joy,” says Rebecca Cypess, associate dean for academic affairs, who helped to organize the partnership with Middlesex County. “These are the motivations behind Pop-Up Arts Across Middlesex County.”

View a video about “Kinetic Connections” at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag22 07

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Faculty + Staff News

Works on view in Philadelphia earlier this year by late faculty member Emma Amos included: “Targets,” 1989. Acrylic on canvas with hand-woven fabric and African fabric borders, 57 inches × 6 feet 1 1/2 inches. Amos Family, courtesy Ryan Lee Gallery; “Godzilla,” 1966. Oil on canvas, 50 × 46 inches; framed: 51 1/4 x 47 1/4 inches. Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY; “Seated Figure and Nude,” 1966. Oil on canvas, 56 × 50 inches (no frame). Emanuel Family Collection.

“E

ight of Swords,” a composition by Music’s Melissa Dunphy had its world premiere April 9 at Carnegie Hall.

The piece was commissioned in celebration of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage.

Film’s Shawn Snyder is co-writer and director of The Futurist, which received the 2022 Sundance Institute/Sloan Commissioning Grant.

Scott Ordway’s new full-length album, The Clearing and the Forest, was recorded by SOLI Chamber Ensemble and released April 14

by Acis Productions. Ordway describes the recording as “a large-scale work exploring the relationship between landscape, migration, and refuge. It’s a statement of belief about the difficulty, but not the impossibility, of creating a sense of home and safety in the world.”

Theater faculty Don Holder, head of lighting design, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Paradise Square. This is Holder’s 14th Tony nomination; he's won twice.

Pam Tanowitz’s “Four Quartets” had its New York City debut earlier this year at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In addition, in February the New York City Ballet performed Tanowitz’s “Bartók Ballet” as part of the Visionary Voices program, and in April, the New York City Ballet performed her work set to Ted Hearne’s “Law of Mosaics.” This piece was named a “NYT Critic’s Pick” by The New York Times, which described Tanowitz in the review as “an artist always pushing herself in new directions.” From May 1 to 5, she

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presented Dancing the Studies at the Venice Biennale, part of a series of new performances created by internationally renowned choreographers invited to develop a project in dialogue with the exhibit Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies, on view in Venice.

Bill O’Connell’s arrangement of Richard Baratta’s “Chopsticks” was nominated for a Grammy Award in the instrumental arranging category. O’Connell also played piano on the piece.

Chien-Ying Wang of the Dance Department was awarded the Mixtures Artistic Creation Grant 2022 from the Consulate General of Spain in New York City. As part of the grant, she collaborated on a project with Spanish fashion designer and photographer Icia Vázquez, which was presented on May 3 in New York City.

Barbara Madsen, director of the Rutgers Print Collaborative, received a $15,000 Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in Printmaking/Works on Paper/ Book Arts.

Hyperallergic named the Emma Amos show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art among the Top 10 in the United States. Amos, who died in 2020, was a longtime Art & Design faculty member and “joins the pantheon of octogenarian and nonagenarian women finally getting retrospectives in major museums,” says writer Ilene Dube.

Emma Amos: Color Odyssey ran from October 11 through January 17.

Amanda Harberg’s Piccolo Concerto had its official premiere in December with The Philadelphia

Orchestra, soloist Erica Peel, and Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

In November, three faculty members received a Universitywide Faculty Award for the academic year 2020–2021.

Nancy Rao of the Music Department received The Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research; Julia M. Ritter of the Dance Department received The Presidential Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award; and Steffani Jemison of the Department of Art & Design received The Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence Award.

Art & Design faculty and MFA alum Jeanine Oleson has been awarded a summer residency at MacDowell in New Hampshire. The group of fellows includes architects, composers, playwrights, and poets.

Notable MacDowell alumni include Willa Cather, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and James Lapine.

Dance’s Frederick Curry and Jeff Friedman, as well as Art & Design’s Jacqueline Thaw, were each awarded $10,000 MGSA-SPH Collaborative Seed Grants through funding provided by Mason Gross and the School of Public Health.

In May, Friedman received the 2021–2022 Chancellor-Provost Award for Excellence in Service.

Gerry Beegan co-curated the Zimmerli Art Museum's exhibit Angela Davis—Seize the Time, which viewed the activist through the lens of archival materials and contemporary art; Beegan also co-authored the exhibition catalog.

Steffani Jemison’s work is among those featured in the exhibition, along with that of former longtime faculty Melvin Edwards. Atif Akin’s design practicum class contributed

to the exhibit's branding, producing, among other materials, an educational guide for high school students. The show was on view from September 8 through June 12.

Didier William’s solo presentation in the highly competitive FOCUS section of the Armory Show at the Jacob Javits Center was featured in The New York Times.

Steffani Jemison received The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts and attended a residency at California Institute of the Arts.

Brandon Williams of the Music Department received the inaugural Inclusive Community Award at the MGSA convocation ceremony.

Williams was nominated by students who say they are grateful that he celebrates women and other historically excluded composers. Williams also was awarded the university's Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.

John Yau of Art & Design was awarded a Rabkin Prize from The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation. The foundation uses the awards to distribute $50,000 each to eight visual arts journalists.

Kevin T. Allen of the Filmmaking Center collaborated with artist Sara Cwynar in October to sound-design her six-channel video installation Glass Life in New York City. The piece was re-installed in the city later that month at the Performa Biennial.

Heather Hart of Art & Design was named a 2021–2022 fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Past fellows include Zadie Smith and Michael Pollan.

N E W FA C U LT Y

T H E AT E R “Performance arts are—or should be—in an ongoing state of evolution, and stage management as an art and craft must also continue to evolve,” says Anne McPherson, head of stage management.

“Engaging with students about stage management informs my own thinking. It provides an opportunity to continue examining the ‘whys’ behind the ways in which we practice professionally, grow in my own practice, and in turn, be an even stronger teacher.”

“By continuing to work as an actor and director, I have the capacity to relate to and articulate how to navigate similar experiences the students may encounter,” says Cameron Knight, head of acting.

“I care as much about the person creating the work as I do ​the work they create.”

MUSIC “I have been incredibly fortunate to have very present mentors throughout my career,” says Julia Baumanis, assistant director of bands and director of pep bands. “To know that I am helping someone on some level, whether it be figuring out a musical phrase issue or getting my students their first band director job, is what is most enjoyable about teaching. I was so appreciative to my mentors when they helped me—now I am that person for my students.” Read more about Baumanis on page 14.

From top: Photos by Lynne DeLade, Ian McLaren, and Nick Romanenko.

MOONLIGHTING

ON

THE WEST SIDE

By Lisa Intrabartola, excerpted from Rutgers Today Look for percussion faculty Javier Diaz performing in Steven Spielberg’s much-anticipated West Side Story remake, released in December. Diaz plays congas during the “Dance at the Gym” mambo number that relies on dance more than dialogue to foreshadow the impending bloodshed between the Jets and the Sharks.

While playing West Side Story rehearsals with the New York Philharmonic (and percussion head Joe Tompkins) eight hours a day, six days a week for three months, Diaz also worked on Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud, recorded Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights soundtrack, and taught at Mason Gross.

Throughout the process, Diaz shared his experiences on set with his students.

“I want my students to be better than me and dream of opportunities I never dreamed,” he says. “What I tried to communicate to them about this experience is the passion I was putting into my rehearsals. The oomph I was bringing to the process is the same as when I’m playing a batá session PHOTOS COURTESY OF RICHARD DEANE in the Bronx or with Ain’t Too Proud, or with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. It’s all part of the same continuum.”

Read the full article at go.rutgers.edu/WestSideStory

COURTESY OF JAVIER DIAZ

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ALUMNI +

We don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no! But we do talk about Theater alum Jessica Darrow, who voices Luisa (second from right) in the animated Disney film Encanto. Brava!

DISNEY

A

rt & Design Department alum Jennie C. Jones’s solo exhibit, Jennie C. Jones: Dynamics, ran February 4 through May 2 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. “Jennie’s career is an object lesson in being an authentic artist and operating outside the framework of the market,” gallerist Alexandra Gray told The New York Times.

A huge thank-you to theater alum Ben Jeffrey (aka Pumbaa in Broadway’s The Lion King) for leading a master class onstage at Nicholas Music Center on November 22 with our vocal performance students. Kudos to Jared Borja, Michelle Molina, David Charris, and Noelle Vallario for their beautiful performances, and to Carlos Avila for piano accompaniment. “We are storytellers,” Jeffrey remarked. “The music tells the story.”

Dance alum Kyle Marshall was named one of “12 Under 40” by the Rutgers University Alumni Association. The New York Times dance critic Siobhan Burke has praised Marshall for having “a choreographic voice like no one else’s.” “Continuing to present groundbreaking work in New York City and nationwide, Marshall is also inspiring as a teacher and mentor to younger artists, including students at his alma mater, ” the RUAA said. Marshall’s company, Kyle Marshall Dance, performed several shows at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in the fall.

Music alum Eric Lindberg and his Jewish bluegrass band, Nefesh Mountain, made their debut at the legendary Grand Ole Opry in December and performed on the Mountain Stage radio show's 38th anniversary episode. Rolling Stone describes the band as a “powerhouse unit.”

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Dance alum Megan Amen has been appointed a congressional staffer with the U.S. House of Representatives, where she is involved in public relations and scheduling. Amen is pursuing a master's degree in international affairs and leadership at Arizona State University.

Music alum Paul Chwe MinChul An made his LA Opera debut in On Gold Mountain, which ran May 5 to 15.

Graduating BFA artist Jon Lewis has been selected as a fellow at Yale Norfolk School of Art for summer 2022. The sculptor/painter is one of approximately 25 artists entering the highly selective program.

Dance alum Anna Gichan is the inaugural recipient of the two-year Arts & Social Justice Residency at Brooklyn College and BAX/ Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

Art & Design alum Charles Ray has had four surveys of his work mounted around the globe this year, including at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Paris’s Centre Pompidou.

The New York Times describes this as “a summation moment for an artist who has thought harder than anyone about how to haul sculpture into the 21st century, and to retain the distinction of three-dimensional art in a world reshaped by flat screens.”

Theater alum Jessica Darrow voices Luisa in Disney’s wildly successful animated film Encanto, with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Darrow figured Encanto might just be about “Latino superheroes...but once she started speaking with the creative team, she realized how much this would be an incredibly poignant

STUDENT NEWS

JASON FRANK ROTHENBERG Earlier this year, sonic and visual artist Jennie C. Jones, Art & Design alum, had a solo show at the Guggenheim in New York City.

film about family,” says Buzzfeed. Darrow’s song “Surface Pressure” from the film cracked the Billboard Top 10, and Encanto won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

Art & Design alum Raque Ford’s work appeared in 2021’s edition of Greater New York at MoMA PS1, alongside faculty Steffani Jemison. Ford’s first solo exhibition with New York City’s Greene Naftali ran from March 4 through April 9.

Theater alum Sebastian Stan starred in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, a miniseries about the Baywatch star and Mötley Crüe drummer that premiered in February. In January, co-star Lily James and Stan appeared on the cover of Variety.

Bravo to music alum Andrew Moore: He has signed with IMG Artists and will join Zürich Opera as a principal soloist next season.

In December, The Watermelon Woman, a film by Art & Design alum Cheryl Dunye, was added to The Library of Congress's National Film Registry. Dunye wrote, directed, and starred in the film, which made history in 1996 as the first narrative feature to be released by an out Black lesbian filmmaker.

The Scarlet Knights Jazz Trombones were named winners of The United States Army Band American Trombone Workshop's National Jazz Trombone Ensemble competition.

Entertainment Weekly says theater alum Sheryl Lee Ralph “commands her scenes” as the been-there-done-that teacher Mrs. Howard in season one of the hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary. We couldn't agree more!

Music alum Tom Nazziola was nominated for a Grammy Award this year in the Best Instrumental Composition category for his piece “Cat and Mouse.” The composition is from his album Distant Places, recorded and written in part when he was a PhD student at Rutgers. Nazziola’s music has been performed by ensembles including the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Bang on a Can, VocalEssence, and the New Jersey Youth Symphony and has been featured on TV and radio, including John Schaefer’s New Sounds show on NPR member station WNYC-FM. On January 21, music alum Amanda Batista took second place in the Houston Grand Opera's 2022 Concert of Arias. In addition, Batista has been selected as a Merola Opera 2022 Young Artist.

Merola alumni include Debra Voigt and Joyce DiDonato. Next season, she will join the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.

Music alum Peter Martin’s ensemble Third Coast Percussion earned three Grammy nominations this year, for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and Best Engineered Album. Their album, Archetypes, is a collaboration with Brazilian father-and-daughter musicians Sérgio and Clarice Assad. Third Coast won a Grammy in 2017 for their recording of Steve Reich’s works for percussion.

Recent Department of Art & Design MFA alums Peggy Chiang, Anoushé Shojae-Chaghorvand, and Renana Neuman are recipients of the Skowhegan summer residency in Maine.

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All The Right Moves ALUM DANCES ALONGSIDE J.LO, ARIANA GRANDE, AND OTHERS By Risa Barisch Lopez, whom Alberti calls her “dream artist,” in the Super Bowl LIV halftime show in Miami, Florida, in 2020.

Alberti spent four months working on the event, first as part of a 10-person skeleton crew in Los Angeles to map out a creative blueprint for the performance, followed by three months in Miami filled with nine-hour rehearsal days overseen

by Lopez herself.

“It was definitely the best experience of my life to date,” says Alberti. “From booking the job to doing the show and everything in between...I got to see it from a seed to completion.”

Alberti says she’s never worked harder than in rehearsals with Lopez—a reflection of her own drive as well as the example set by the idol she says she’s looked up to her whole life. “[Lopez] is definitely the hardest-working artist I’ve seen,” says Alberti. “She was there from day one until the very end, and she was so involved. She cared, and that’s really inspiring because it makes you feel extremely valued.”

“I

t’s crazy to look out and see so many people…and the sound, even on stage, you can’t hear anything over the roar of the crowds. It really pushes you to turn into a superhero version of yourself on stage.”

GOING

PRO

Breaking into commercial dance hasn’t been easy for Alberti, who points out that waves of talented performers show up in Los Angeles all the time. Competition at auditions is fierce, and even the slightest miscalculation—like not dressing the part or standing in the back—can make the difference between getting a callback and losing the audition, says Alberti.

To hone her skills, she enrolled in hip-hop, street, and jazz classes.

DREW CHRISTOPHER GRAHAM

“It was really hard for me in the beginning. I couldn’t even get through four eightcounts without forgetting moves,” says Alberti, who had no previous training in these styles of dance. “I was definitely an underdog, but I really committed myself.”

As a kid, Nicolette Alberti loved watching awards shows and going to concerts with her mom, not just to see big-name stars but also the dancers who appeared alongside them.

Alberti’s networking strategy included focusing on which artists she wanted to dance for, and finding classes taught by their choreographers, assistants, or other dancers who had performed with that artist.

Alberti would rush home from school and tune in to TRL on MTV to catch the weekly countdown of music videos featuring singers known perhaps more for their killer dance moves than their voices, including Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez.

Alberti also stresses the importance of being the artist that other artists want to work with. Basics like punctuality, positivity, and an easygoing attitude go a long way in the industry, she says.

She didn’t want to be them—she wanted to join them.

“I’ve always loved that part of the industry—the big stages, the lights, performing in front of 60,000 people,” says Alberti, who grew up on Staten Island, New York. “I wanted to be able to do what I love at a massive scale for huge audiences and work with the best of the best in entertainment.”

After graduating with a BFA degree in dance from Mason Gross in 2015 and dancing professionally with contemporary and modern companies including Von Howard Project and Company Stefanie Batten Bland, Alberti made her way to Los Angeles in 2018 to pursue commercial dance opportunities in music videos, TV, and live productions.

In just three-and-a-half years, she has catapulted her career, dancing in music videos by some of the industry’s biggest names including Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Maluma, Kanye West, and Iggy Azalea and appearing on TV shows like The Voice and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

She has also performed in live stage shows including the 2019 Grammy Awards with Camila Cabello, Ricky Martin, and J Balvin and at the Hollywood Bowl with Tyga. These live shows are the performances Alberti loves best because, she says, they carry an energy that is unmatched by anything else she’s ever done.

“It’s a different level of being. You feel superhuman,” says Alberti. “It’s crazy to look out and see so many people…and the sound, even on stage, you can’t hear anything over the roar of the crowds. It really pushes you to turn into a superhero version of yourself on stage.”

And one performance has stood out among them all: dancing with Jennifer

12

MASON GROSS

“You could be the best dancer, but are you a hard worker? Are you good energy?” says Alberti. “What do you bring to the table? If it’s just smooth moves that might not be enough.”

That combination of hard work and intense focus has opened many doors for Alberti, but she's quick to acknowledge that her path to success was made possible by people who took chances on her and believed in her, going back to her days as a college student.

“All the teachers at Rutgers, they were very invested in me and supported me— even after I was out of school, they came to my shows,” says Alberti, who credits Mason Gross Dance faculty member and alum Julia M. Ritter with giving Alberti her first professional job, as a collaborator on a site-specific dance theater project in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2014.

Ritter remembers Alberti as a “a singular, stellar presence from the moment she walked through the doors of Rehearsal Hall as a first-year dancer.”

“She is and always has been imminently watchable,” Ritter adds. “She has a rare ability to learn choreography at lightning speed while attuning herself to the most subtle nuances of movement. As an improviser, she is undeniably mesmeric, drawing upon an enormous qualitative range and making sophisticated choices in the moment to captivate viewers.”

Now, Alberti is committed to helping other dancers achieve success in the industry through recommendations and sharing her connections.

“It’s important to me to be able to pay it forward because it definitely has been done for me,” says Alberti. “People can say they’re self-made, but no one can say they’ve done everything on their own. There are people who help you along the way.”

IN MEMORIAM DEATH DATES AND DEATH NOTIFICATION DATES THAT WERE RUN FOR THIS LIST: JULY 1, 2021 to MARCH 31, 2022

Rudolf A. Berens, AG ’50 BS (Agricultural Education), Donor, November 25, 2021

THE MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS COMMUNITY REPORTS WITH GREAT SADNESS THE LOSS OF ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE SCHOOL. WE EXTEND OUR CONDOLENCES TO EACH OF THEIR FAMILIES AND CLASSMATES.

David A. Drinkwater, Retired Faculty (Music), October 14, 2021

All death notifications included in this issue of our magazine were submitted to the university after our last issue in spring 2021 and before going to press on this issue. We apologize for any omissions and ask that loved ones of deceased alumni, friends, donors to the school, faculty, and staff notify us by emailing records@ruf.rutgers.edu. Please include the full name of the deceased (and name as a student, if it differs), death date, class year, and major. Thank you.

Richard Bravo, Esq., CLAW ’93 Juris Doctorate, ENG ’71 BS (Electrical Engineering), Donor, January 6, 2022 Charles J. Devine, RC ’67 BA, (Physics), Donor, November 4, 2021 Lloyd P. Harris, RC ’67 BA, MGSA ’81 MFA (Theater), September 23, 2021 Richard W. Hill, RC ’57 BA (Mathematics), Parent and Donor, January 2, 2022 Bella D. Hittner, SCILS ’62 MLS (Library Science), Parent and Donor, June 18, 2021 Wayne A. Jameson, PHARM ’76 BS (Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Science), Donor, December 28, 2021 Marion J. Lane, MGSA ’78 MFA (Art), January 10, 2022 Stuart M. Lane, GSNB ’68 Doctorate (Chemistry), Donor, July 5, 2021 Lloyd G. McNeill Jr., Retired Associate Professor of Art (MGSA Visual Arts), November 5, 2021 Richard M. Neuberger, D.D.S., RC ’52 BS (Biological Sciences), Parent and Donor, February 19, 2022 Robert L. Remine Jr., MGSA ’03 BFA (Theater), June 12, 2021

MGSA MERCH You asked, we listened: The Mason Gross-branded e-shop is open for business, featuring coffee mugs, keychains, and more! T-shirts and sweatshirts can be personalized with identifiers such as “Actor,” “Artist,” “Dancer,” “Musician,” “Filmmaker,” etc. New offerings are always being added. New to the shop: baseball caps and T-shirts celebrating the Rutgers University Glee Club’s 150th anniversary and class of 2022 T-shirts! shop.masongross.rutgers.edu

CONCERTS FROM YOUR COUCH New this year: Live-streamed performances from Nicholas Music Center! Stream performances at go.rutgers.edu/nmcstream or browse the event page on our website and click on the “View the Live Stream” button.

TELL US ABOUT IT + Share kudos, news, and career moves via our online form at go.rutgers.edu/mgsaalumninews.

+ Join the Mason Gross LinkedIn community to network, share news and job opportunities, and interact.

+ Connect with the Rutgers University Alumni Association

at alumni.rutgers.edu to update your info or to access alumni resources, benefits, events, and more.

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SPRING 2022

Striking Up the Band JULIA BAUMANIS IS THE FIRST WOMAN NAMED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF RUTGERS UNIVERSITY BANDS

By Li s a In t ra b a r tola Cour tes y of R u t g er s To d ay

E

arlier this year, Julia Baumanis, assistant director of bands and director of pep bands, made history at Rutgers alongside the men’s basketball team as she filled Jersey Mike’s Arena with thunderous chants of R! U! during the last home game of the season.

The Scarlet Knights were shattering expectations as the team competed for (and lost) its second consecutive NCAA tournament bid. Baumanis broke a different kind of record in July 2021 when she became the first woman band director at Rutgers University in the school’s 255-year history. According to her research on programs accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, male collegiate band conductors outnumber their female counterparts 9-to-1.

Of that narrow margin, women conductors of color are even more rare, said Baumanis, which makes the first-generation Filipina-American a “bit of a unicorn” among her peers.

But from her platform at Mason Gross—where she serves as the assistant director of the Marching Scarlet Knights, conducts concert ensembles, and teaches courses in instrumental music—Baumanis is actively working to level the playing field for those who follow her.

“The goal is for there to be so many of us that we no longer talk about firsts anymore. A lot of it is because we don’t have someone who looks like us in this role. If there is no rubric for what is going to be on the test, then how do we study for it?” said Baumanis, who also mentors women students and conductors and serves as design editor of The Woman Conductor for Women Band Directors International.

With odds like that against her, one might assume Baumanis was a musical prodigy who began charting her career path in middle school. Instead, she said her entry into conducting and music education was more serendipitous.

“My story has been a series of happy accidents that have led to incredible communities of support,” she said. “I don’t think you can do this just by being good. You have to have people to champion you.”

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, to enlisted U.S. Army parents, Baumanis and her two sisters lived at multiple bases until their father retired, moving the family to Florida to be near relatives after a car accident claimed the lives of several aunts and her paternal grandmother. Then 12, Baumanis inherited her first instrument: her grandmother’s piano.

“M

y story has been a series of happy accidents that have led to incredible communities of support. I don’t think you can do this just by being good. You have to have people to champion you.”

“When we’d visit her apartment, I was the only grandkid that cared about the piano. I would go up to it sneakily, bang on it fast, run away and blame it on my sisters,” said Baumanis, who decided to get lessons once the piano belonged to her. “I was infatuated with the cool sounds it would make.”

Not long after, she also picked up the clarinet and joined middle school band.

After being uprooted multiple times during her childhood, Baumanis found her niche with the band crowd. She continued in her high school marching band, where she excelled. However, after earning a full music scholarship to Florida State University (FSU), Baumanis was not convinced she was cut out for the life of a band director.

“I thought I was going to be poor. I thought I needed to make money and embrace all these opportunities my immigrant parents built for us,” she said of her father, who emigrated as a baby from Latvia, and mother who grew up in poverty in the Philippines. “After coming to the U.S. as a teen, my mother enlisted in the military so she could get an education, and now has a doctorate and teaches international business management and poverty alleviation. This is the woman that raised me.”

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MASON GROSS

NICK ROMANENKO

But her college band director, Patrick Dunnigan, wouldn’t take no for an answer. When he learned during her sophomore year that Baumanis hadn’t yet declared herself a music education major, he flat out told her: “You need to change that right away.”

She did. And hasn’t looked back since—working first as a high school band director, returning to FSU for her graduate and doctoral degrees, and moving up to the collegiate band director level at the University of Central Missouri before landing at Rutgers during the pandemic.

“I accepted on a Zoom call without seeing the place first. I could feel there was support and resources here,” said Baumanis, who lives in New Brunswick with her husband, Adam Klein, a part-time lecturer in sound engineering who runs the Mason Gross Recording Studio. Director of university bands, Todd Nichols, said securing an energetic leader like Baumanis was a big win for Mason Gross and Rutgers.

“What she brings to Rutgers above all else is an infectious spirit and tremendous passion to help our students grow,” said Nichols. “I love the combination of her background, being closely rooted in music education along with being on the cutting edge in the world of ensembles and directing large musical performances.”

That breadth of experience means Baumanis is just as comfortable conducting the Rutgers Symphony Band on classical arrangements in the formal Nicholas Music Center as she is leading the Pep Band through chants and modern medleys from the raucous student section at Jersey Mike’s Arena—with Rutgers men’s basketball up by only one point on Senior Day. “I’ve had some experience doing this before, but it was no way at all like Jersey Mike’s Arena. It’s so boisterous and loud,” she said, noting all those “RU!” chants and heckles originate with the Pep Band. “It is the most fun thing to do because I see how incredibly spirited my students are. They will do this whether we are the worst team in the world or the best team in the world.”

View a video profile of Baumanis at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag22

“A

MGSA C E L E B R AT E S M L K

s artists, we have a unique responsibility to use our talents to help bridge the divides that separate us and to help propel us toward achieving that Beloved Community that is part of President Holloway’s vision for Rutgers, and that itself channels the legacy of Dr. King. That’s why, for me, a moment like this one that brings together the university and the surrounding community to celebrate Dr. King’s vision through the arts is also an expression of hope.”

—Dean Jason Geary, at the school’s inaugural MLK Celebration. The event took place on February 6 at Nicholas Music Center and featured MGSA student and faculty reflections on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. legacy through film, dance, music, theater, and visual art.

Performers and guest speakers included: host Madalynn Heeren; Rutgers Scarlet Knight Jazz Trombones musicians Adam Machaskee, Ford Lambert, Matthew Rossi, Kieran Bonsignore, Melanie Shultz, Kyle Courter, Justin Farquhar, Ian Young, and Donald Solomon; chamber musicians Claire Oplinger, Anita Gosevska, and Georgia Wang, plus narrator Gabriel Lukijaniuk; the Rutgers Documentary Film Lab; Art & Design faculty Steffani Jemison; choreographer and dancer Cassidy Rivas; actors Malcolm Callender and Noelle Young-Davis; Rutgers University—New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway, and Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway. Head of BA Theater and Mason Gross Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee chair Marshall Jones III served as artistic coordinator of the event.

AMANDA BROWN BFA actor Noelle Young-Davis performs a scene from Katori Hall's The Mountaintop at MGSA's first MLK Celebration.

AROUND THE GLOBE

“ SIMON PURSE

I had built up all these expectations in my head about what it would be like to stand on the [Globe] stage. The thing that surprised me the most about it was how humbling it is. It's just you up there. No microphones, no lights, no set—just the actor on a stage made of wood. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time.” —Theater student Daniel Cooney. In December, Cooney appeared in a production of Twelfth Night at Shakesepare’s Globe Theatre in London. The production is part of the Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe program for third-year design, production, and acting students.

15

SPRING 2022

BACK TO THE

GARDEN

JOHN EVANS BFA actors Grace Isaacs, from left, Lux McCastle Stewart, and Ellen Valencia with a March2RUGardens participant. The students performed Water, Air, and Land, written by Head of Dramaturgy Christopher Cartmill, with costumes by Head of Costume Design Valerie Ramshur.

A RTS - I N F L E CT E D MARCH FOR “ S PAT I A L J U S T I C E ” HIGHLIGHTS ACCESSIBILITY I S S U E S AT RUTGERS GARDENS

The event, which featured dance, music, theater, and visual arts interventions along the way, was a project of the AIR (Arts Integration Research) Collaborative and was organized by faculty Anette Freytag, a professor of landscape architecture, along with Julia M. Ritter, an alum and faculty member in our Dance Department.

On September 25, Mason Gross School of the Arts and the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences co-hosted a two-mile walk winding from Douglass Campus through Cook Farm to Rutgers Gardens. The walk, known as March2RUGardens, was meant to underscore the history of the land on which the university is built and to highlight the need for equal access to the 180 acres of recreational space contained in the botanic gardens, situated off Ryders Lane in New Brunswick. The gardens are surrounded by highway, and with no sidewalks, bike paths, or direct bus access, they remain safely accessible only by car.

“The pandemic underscored the importance of exercise and access to green spaces for everyone,” says Ritter, who has long worked in the arena of immersive dance integrated with the everyday, creating performances that unfold in nontraditional spaces. “This has been especially true for dancers given we could not train or create safely indoors…. Rutgers Gardens was the site for dozens of dance films made by Mason Gross dancers between March 2020 and May 2021. The gardens became key to continuing our artistic work during a challenging period.”

During the walk, participants

encountered a movement choir, as well as live music and storytelling and an introduction to the famed Fluxus art movement, among other activities. In the Cow Tunnel beneath Route 1, Rutgers University Voorhees Choir performed an immersive sound score from faculty Scott Ordway. Along the way, walkers encountered students’ sound and landscape installations, as well as fanfare from the Marching Scarlet Knights and various short talks about campus land.

“I’m channeling playwright Anton Chekov, who stated, ‘Art doesn't have to solve problems, it only has to formulate them correctly,’” Ritter says of the inspiration for the march.

The march was a reminder, she adds, that the arts can serve as an effective tool of activism---perhaps more effective, in fact, than any stump speech.

“The march was offered to the

community as an intervention and means by which to foster awareness of the problems related to equity, access, and connectivity on campus,” Ritter says.

“I believe such concerns would be best understood when participants could see, feel, and know them more fully through their personal, embodied experiences.”

Participating MGSA faculty, staff, and students included: Valerie Ramshur, Patrick Stettner, Tamara Tinawi, Alessandra Williams, Brandon Williams, Todd Nichols, Julia Baumanis, Steven Kemper, Christopher Cartmill, Gerry Beegan, Elizabeth Calderone, Grace Isaacs, Lux McCastle Stewart, Ellen Valencia, Jasmine Agme, Elena Yasin, Julia Ramirez, Lyle Mcleod, Nathalye Abreu, Lauren Goldman, Joshua Friedman, Caitlyn Ostrowski, Jon Balagtas, Anne McPherson, Ria Monga, Amee Pollack, Capri Leone, John Evans, Yogini Borgaonkar, Gray Burdick, Sophia Hoyt, and Dean Jason Geary.

View a video about the march at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag22

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MASON GROSS

DRAWING ON THE

Beloved Community

NICK ROMANENKO

COURTESY OF TEHYLA MCLEOD

STUDENT HONORED FOR WORK SKETCHING STRUGGLING P O P U L AT I O N S I N NEW BRUNSWICK In September 2020, Department of Art & Design student Tehyla McLeod grabbed her sketchbook and headed to the New Brunswick Train Station. Her goal: create portraits of the displaced and struggling community of people who congregate at and around the station.

McLeod, who says her religious faith spurred her to launch the project, was initially met with a measure of suspicion. But the young artist was tenacious: She kept returning to the downtown station, spending most Fridays hanging out, talking, and, eventually, with the people’s consent, drawing.

Not everyone welcomed McLeod; at times, she says, she was met with stares. She witnessed fights. But little by little, she forged a rapport with some of the people she encountered, getting to know them by name, people like Dominique, who shared stories about her children, and Ernest, a father of

five who invited McLeod to his cardboard dwelling.

whom also have artwork on display at Winants through the summer.

The result is an intimate portrait series not of “the homeless,” but of individuals whose facial expressions and body language reveal them as three-dimensional people with history, joys, sorrows, and, perhaps most importantly: dignity.

“What Tehyla has done is simply extraordinary,’’ says Holloway, shown above with McLeod at the reception. “These aren’t simply impressive pieces of art. Though they certainly are that; much more important, they are the product of an intimate and personal relationship she has built with each of the individuals whom she has portrayed. They are about humanity and beauty and trust. I couldn’t be prouder to include them among the outstanding artworks by Rutgers students we have installed at Winants.”

On April 20, McLeod was one of three Mason Gross School students to receive a Beloved Community Initiative Award for her art from the university’s Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes (CACP).

The award recognizes faculty, staff, and students who among other things, according to CACP, “Engage in frequent acts of kindness toward all, particularly those who may be ‘invisible’ within the Rutgers community [and] makes others feel seen, heard, and valued.”

Other MGSA award recipients were Department of Art & Design students Ria Monga and Emma Broggi.

Now, four of McLeod’s sketches and one of her paintings are on view in President Jonathan Holloway’s office suite at Winants Hall. On April 28, he greeted her at a reception along with MFA student Grace Lynne Haynes and graduating MFA Kyle b. co., both of

Ultimately, McLeod has not emerged merely with a portfolio, but she says with a deepened understanding of connection—an especially significant revelation given that she launched her project during a pandemic.

“It is through these experiences— through the light-hearted and laughfilled games of Uno, the sorrowful conversations about the tragedies of past and present, the passionate ruminations shared over a bowl of soup and a drawing, and absolutely everything in between,” she says, “that I am powerfully taught about love.”

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SPRING 2022

WHY YOU

Should Give

“I've been making small short [films] since seventh grade with my brother and cousins and have never stopped. I love working with other people to make a final product, and filmmaking is a job that requires several people to work together. It's something that makes me feel really fulfilled.

I had applied to many film schools, but receiving my scholarship was one of the biggest reasons for deciding to come to Rutgers.” –Film student Parth Marathe Your support can help students like Marathe achieve their goals. Please consider donating to selected Mason Gross funds. Learn more at give.rutgers.edu/mgsa.

COURTESY OF PARTH MARATHE

150

YEARS

“ON

THE

BANKS”

AMANDA BROWN

On April 30, the Rutgers University Glee Club— the university’s oldest continuously active student organization and one of the oldest glee clubs in the nation—celebrated 150 years at their spring concert in Nicholas Music Center. Music faculty David Chapman was on hand to sell copies of his new book, A History of the Rutgers University Glee Club, from 18

MASON GROSS

Rutgers University Press. Concert selections included Felix Mendelssohn’s Festgesang an die Künstler for Tenor Bass Choir and Brass Ensemble featuring the Glee Club and alumni, as well as popular university songs, because, well: “Ever changing, yet eternally the same.”

R-U, RAH RAH!

MORE THAN FUN AND GAMES

DOCTORAL STUDENT EXPLORES VIDEO GAME MUSIC IN C AR EER IN S P IRED B Y ATA R I NICK ROMANENKO

By Risa Barisch Aaron Vaders-Collins has been moving toward a certain career path since the age of 4, when he started playing video games on an Atari 2600, challenging his skills with early-’80s classics like Pitfall! and Adventure. As the technology evolved, the systems and games grew more complex, with richer visuals and sophisticated soundtracks.

Later, as a self-taught guitarist, Vaders-Collins began to recreate the games’ music by ear and write his own arrangements. An unshakeable passion for video game music was born.

“If you grew up playing video games and you also play an instrument, you don’t initially think, video game music should be where I go in life,” says Vaders-Collins. “But over time it just kind of inches in that direction.”

Vaders-Collins is a second-year doctoral student pursing a degree in music composition and the emerging field of ludomusicology, the scholarly analysis of video game music. A mashup of technology and music theory, engineering, and production, the subject is a perfect blend of Vaders-Collins’s interests.

“I’m one of those odd people who is very creative and artistic but also technical and analytical,” says Vaders-Collins. “I’m a creator, and the more ideas I can have to work with, to explore, the more exciting and inspiring it is.”

The path to a PhD has been a challenging, far-reaching personal exploration for Vaders-Collins—“a constant journey, a struggle—a grind,” as he describes it.

Vaders-Collins dropped out of a homeschool education at age 16 to work to support his family, but then earned a GED at age 18 to pursue a music degree at Liberty University in Virginia. He worked a full-time job in IT while going to school and began tutoring fellow students in music theory.

Then, in the middle of his sophomore year, after a devastating breakup, he impulsively joined the U.S. Army.

“I was trying to figure what to do with my life,” explains Vaders-Collins, a field artillery specialist who was stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, before deploying to Iraq in 2008. “Everybody has a different reason for joining the Army, but for me, I wanted to grow. I was 20 years old at that point and I hadn’t done many significant things in my life.”

Vaders-Collins, who had taught private guitar lessons since the age of 15,

always knew he wanted to be an educator, and says his Army experience was invaluable in preparing him to guide younger people.

“Professors are mentors, they’re not just content-delivery systems,” says Vaders-Collins. “What I really wanted out of [my Army experience] was to mature, to be put through difficult situations and to become strong, to be able to use that experience to make me wise. I just wanted to develop as a person and be able to take that with me throughout my life and career.”

Nearly four years after enlisting, Vaders-Collins, who had continued his studies at Liberty through the school’s online program, transferred from active duty to the Army National Guard and finished his undergraduate degree focused on music and computer information systems.

He then earned a master’s degree in music education from Liberty and an additional master’s degree in music technology from the University of Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, all while continuing to work in IT to make ends meet.

Vaders-Collins says having to work throughout his academic career helped him develop a dedication to expanding access to collegiate music programs for all students. This includes the creation of programs that can be completed over distance and on varying learning platforms and formats.

“Someone shouldn’t be inhibited from taking a certain career path or learning about a certain thing just because they don’t have the privilege to stop working or relocate to go to school full time,” says Vaders-Collins.

“I have a big passion for figuring out how we can make these music programs friendly to people of different lifestyles.”

Even better, his professors in the Music Department have “another vision for music education and music in academia than other schools seem to have,” says Vaders-Collins.

“Rutgers seems to want people with my interests and my background— more interdisciplinary people,” says Vaders-Collins, who plays guitar in the U.S. Army Band as well for professional musical theater productions.

“I like to write rock music and funk and jazz, and I like to write for games, these fun little catchy tunes that happen in the background while you’re playing. This is the place that said, ‘Heck yeah, come on out, let’s do it.’”

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SPRING 2022

MGSA

PHOTOS BY AMANDA BROWN

Convocation 2022

This year, for the first time since 2019, Mason Gross School of the Arts hosted an in-person convocation ceremony. Approximately 260 undergraduate and graduate students attended the event, which took place on May 16 at the State Theatre in downtown New Brunswick. Afterward, guests congregated in the atrium of the Civic Square Building for wine, lunch, cake, and a live student jazz trio.

BFA dancer Alex Silvis served as student speaker. Drama Desk Award-winning dance alum Stephanie Klemons, original dance

20

MASON GROSS

captain of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Hamilton, addressed the graduating class, along with Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway.

“Live boldly,” Silvis advised his classmates. “Use volume, brashness, and persistence to push boundaries and labels to fight for what you believe in with your art. Go forth and continue to make art that changes the world.”

View more photos at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag22

VISIT El Museo del Barrio’s Raphael Montañez Ortiz: A Contextual Retrospective is the largest exhibit to date dedicated to the artist, activist, educator, founder of El Museo, and distinguished professor emeritus. The exhibit, which opened April 14 and runs through September 11 at the East Harlem museum, embraces several decades of his production, from the 1950s to the early 2020s, in media including film, painting, photography, video installations, documents, and assemblages. “The art world has finally caught up to him,” art historian Kevin M. Hatch tells The New York Times, “and I think this really is a nice moment for him to gain the recognition that maybe he hasn’t had along the way.”

On October 15, the show opens at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City.

Ortiz with Archaeological Find # 22: The Aftermath, 1961.

El Museo del Barrio Archives, New York.

Raphael Montañez Ortiz, The Memorial..., mixed media, 2019–20. Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York.

Gift of the artist.

READ

LISTEN

Theater alum Kevin Goetz, dubbed the “doctor of audience-ology,” is the founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, which has test-screened thousands of movies including Titanic, Forrest Gump, 12 Years a Slave, Green Book, and Nomadland. In November, Goetz published Audience-ology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love, co-written with Darlene Hayman. In it, he details his work, which results in revisions to movies based on feedback from test audiences. “Like building a character, it’s all about peeling back the layers to get to the ultimate truth,” he told the Rutgers University Alumni Association. “But for the fact that I was an actor, I would not have honed that skill to the level that I had.”

Interim Music Department director and head of music technology Steven Kemper partnered with NJ.com and the New Jersey Youth Symphony to create the soundtrack for In Memoriam: COVID in New Jersey, an interactive memorial dedicated to the more than 33,000 state residents who died in the pandemic. Kemper created a software program to interpret the data into sound, and composed short excerpts that reflect the ebb and flow of deaths in the state since March 2020. “In wars, you get memorials, but often with diseases, we don't think about it in the same kind of way,” says Kemper. “In this case, it's a lot of innocent lives. It's important for everyone to take time to reflect on that, even as we continue to deal with the ramifications of the virus.” Experience the project at projects.nj.com/memorial.

21

SPRING 2022

IN

MEMORIAM: KIM

ELLIOTT

Kim Elliott carried the rhythms of New York City with her wherever she went.

Elliott, who joined the Dance Department faculty in 2020, grew up in the South Bronx and Harlem, immersed in hip-hop and street dance. Her body absorbed salsa, modern, jazz, and other dance idioms from friends and family, and in classes taught through the New York City public school system. She died on March 23.

“We always learned in an environment that didn’t include a dance studio, wood floors, mirrors,” Elliott said when she spoke to us in October 2020. “In the beginning of my training… watching music videos, dance movies, and learning from friends in the community was how I learned. I have used that advantage in my remote instruction.”

Madison Meredith is a 2022 BFA Dance grad who is set to complete her EdM in Dance Education in 2023. Here, she shares her tribute to Elliott.

Elliott teaching her Movement Practices class on October 27, 2021.

“K

im’s incomparable energy had the power to re-excite us about learning during a pandemic.”

There are teachers that do their job and there are teachers that live their job. Those teachers that live through their work are often the ones who tend to leave their students with the most meaningful lessons. Kimberly Elliott is a teacher who taught her students dance and education, but through those teachings shared so much more. I say “is” because although she died in March, the knowledge and wisdom that she shared will continue to live on through her students everywhere.

One of the first times I met Kim was through a Zoom screen, and her incomparable energy had the power to re-excite us about learning during a pandemic. She always created a space that allowed us to challenge and express ourselves without judgment, knowing that for most of us, hip-hop is not our forte.

Kim’s teachings always went far beyond technique, however, giving validity to our movement practices–pushing us to recognize where dances originate from, credit those who create them, and understand their importance throughout various time periods, cultures, and communities.

Her passion always spoke volumes to me because she was an advocate for what she loved and expected nothing less from her students. The same was true when I stepped into her classroom as a future educator: Kim’s encouragement regarding our individual goals as teachers let us know she was one of our biggest supporters. Within those goals Kim had extremely high expectations of us, constantly challenging us to consider alternate perspectives, questioning why systems are put into place, and what purposes they serve.

Her lessons did not end there. With every encounter Kim modeled how to be an educator that showed compassion, dedication, and unbounded joy and positivity, because she was that teacher for us. I hope to be able to share with others even a fraction of the fiery energy and passion she radiated.

Listen to a 2020 interview with Elliott at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag22

PHOTOS BY AMANDA BROWN

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MASON GROSS

AMANDA BROWN

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LAST WORD

Designed to be a domestic space in the Korean countryside, I am incorporating textile and embroidery work in my project to honor the same labor of love my grandmother has done her whole life, while also challenging the ideas of what ‘belongs’ on the white gallery walls. Much of my work in this show involves the hand [in order] to honor traditional women’s work, or craft, that has largely been ignored in the fine arts world.”

—Graduating artist Chuan Nitta's installation Did you eat yet? was part of the BFA Visual Arts Thesis II exhibition I Know a Place, on view March 28 through April 9 at Mason Gross Galleries.

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SPRING 2022

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 33 Livingston Avenue New Brunswick, NJ 08901

THE LAST LOOK

Piper Runge as Puck in Rutgers Theater Company's A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

MATT PILSNER