Composing a Presidential Farewell | Finding Chopin | Fortifying Arts in Health
MGSA
MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
A BRUSH WITH GREATNESS
ALUMNUS ALONZO ADAMS PAINTS A PAUL ROBESON MURAL ON VIEW AT SHI STADIUM
HIGH NOTES
MGSA turned the Oscars Scarlet this year: Acting alum received a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his turn as a young President Donald J. Trump in The Apprentice ; costuming alum was part of the team that assisted Arianne Phillips, nominated for an Oscar for her work on the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown ; and alum led a group that included alums , , , , and Costume Technology faculty , also associate dean for Academic Affairs, to design costumes featured in LIVE’s After the Oscars Show film parodies. Read about Stan’s busy awards season on page 14.
Faculty ’s Or Forevermore , created for the Royal Ballet last fall in London, is cited among the Best Dance Performances of 2024 by The New York Times . “The speed and stylish wit of Tanowitz’s configurations [are] invigorating and thrilling,” Roslyn Sulcas writes.
Last fall, Rutgers Arts Online faculty unearthed a previously unknown waltz by none other than Frédéric Chopin. “I'm one of the first people to hear this tune in living memory,” he marvels.
Read about McClellan’s discovery on page 9.
The Rutgers Filmmaking Center is featured in MovieMaker magazine’s 2024 roundup of the in the U.S. and Canada. The magazine cites a healthy mix of theory- and productionbased learning and “networking opportunities galore.”
A
,
Ezar Israel, from left, Ellanora Cabrera, Jaya Dave, and Lily Mollicone in a restaging of Jose Limón’s
Choreographic Offering
part of the 2024 Dance Plus Fall concert at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.
JOHN EVANS
OUR LEADERSHIP
J ason Geary
Dean
E llen Bredehoft
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Annabelle Luu
Associate Dean for Finance and Administration
M arshall Jones III
Associate Dean for Equity
A lana Integlia
Assistant Dean for Admissions and Enrollment Management
L isa Sanon-Jules
Assistant Dean for Advising and Student Success
D enyse Reed
Director of Development
J acqueline Thaw
Chair of the Art & Design Department
G erald Casel
Chair of the Dance Department
Amanda Eubanks Winkler
Director of the Music Department
D avid P. Gordon
Chair of the Theater Department
Patrick Stettner
Director of the Rutgers Filmmaking Center
Kevin Bott
Director of Rutgers Arts Online
T ELL US ABOUT
IT
+ Share kudos, news, and career moves via our online form at go.rutgers.edu/submit-news
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+ Connect with the Rutgers University Alumni Association at alumni.rutgers.edu to update your info or to access alumni resources, benefits, events, and more.
As I look ahead to assuming the role of provost at Rutgers–New Brunswick, I am also reflecting on my five years as dean of Mason Gross. Despite joining the school at the height of the pandemic, I felt embraced by a warm and welcoming community eager to write its next chapter. Together we spent roughly a year and a half engaging in a series of wide-ranging strategic discussions that ultimately took shape in our Future Roadmap, whose core pillars of Inclusive Excellence, Collaboration, and Community continue to guide our path forward.
Mason Gross’s commitment to excellence and inclusivity is embodied in our outstanding students and accomplished alumni, in the dedication of our devoted staff, and in the extraordinary achievements of our world-class faculty. This past year alone saw alum Jennie C. Jones installing a trio of acoustic sculptures at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Art & Design faculty Miranda Lichtenstein and Marc Handelman named Guggenheim Fellows; Theater alum Sebastian Stan receiving an Academy Award nomination; Music faculty Bille Bruley’s debut at The Metropolitan Opera; and Music’s Nancy Yunhwa Rao elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among the many initiatives and curricular developments inspired by the Mason Gross Future Roadmap are the first-year cross-disciplinary course, “Interplay,” a robust partnership with the New Brunswick Public Schools, and a minor in Arts Management and Leadership with the Rutgers Business School that launched last fall.
I am especially pleased to share details about a new effort that meets all three of our core principles. Thanks to a transformative $8.8 million gift from an anonymous donor, we are in the final stages of appointing a new endowed professorship in Arts in Health, a field of study aimed at exploring the ways in which the arts contribute to health and wellness. Emerging from our groundbreaking Arts in Health Research Lab, a partnership between Mason Gross, the School of Public Health, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, this new faculty role will oversee our arts in health initiative and help realize a vision for the future that positions Rutgers as a global leader in this pioneering space. One example of the kind of work this initiative will help facilitate is Scarlet Arts Rx, a wildly successful program in its first year that has partnered with several entities across campus to help prescribe arts experiences for undergraduates and, through collaboration with the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, works with doctoral students to document the extent to which these experiences positively impact their lives.
It is this innovative, artistic, and creative spirit of the Mason Gross community that leaves me with nothing but optimism for the future of this stellar school. It has been a genuine honor to get to know such wonderful faculty, students, staff, alumni, and supporters, and I am eager to see Mason Gross continue to shine, even if I will be doing so from a different vantage point on campus.
KEITH MUCCILLI
ASON GROSS...[WAS] WHERE I REALLY, TRULY GOT TO KNOW ACTING.... IT’S DEAR TO MY HEART.”
– Acting alum Sebastian Stan. Read about Stan’s Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win on page 14.
6 A BRUSH WITH GREATNESS
S tudent Jocelynn Hunter Dow, left, and recent grad Beatryz Mendes Hornung assisted alum Alonzo Adams in his painted tribute to Paul Robeson.
15 RITE OF PASSAGE
A n award-winning theater project implements an onstage ritual supporting formerly incarcerated people reentering society. 22
“WHEN I NOTICE THAT A CLIENT IS STRUGGLING WITH RECONNECTING TO THEIR BODY, I WILL USE DANCING MINDFULNESS
TO
HELP THEM.”
D ance alum Maddy Zijdel, assistant director of clinical support at the university’s Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance.
ON THE COVER :
Alum Alonzo Adams working on the Paul Robeson painting eventually reproduced as a mural on view at SHI Stadium.
Photo by Jonathan Kolbe/Rutgers University.
Best in Class: Courses explore voguing, fashion upcycling, animation, and more
MGSA’s largest-ever gift supports Arts in Health initiatives
Alum composes funeral march performed at ceremonies honoring former President Carter
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor: Laurie Granieri
Contributing writers: Beth Fand Incollingo, Lisa Intrabartola, Mike Lucas, Roya Rafei, Emily Soper, Sam Starnes, Maddy Zijdel (BFA’13)
Designer: Mónica Toledo-Fraginals
JONATHAN KOLBE
COURTESY OF MADDY ZIJDEL
A Brush with Greatness
A COALITION OF RUTGERS ORGANIZATIONS SELECTED ALUMNUS ALONZO ADAMS TO PAINT A MURAL OF PAUL ROBESON NOW ON VIEW AT SHI STADIUM
Excerpted from an article by Sam Starnes
Courtesy of the Rutgers University Alumni Association
When Alonzo Adams moved onto the College Avenue campus at Rutgers–New Brunswick as a freshman in 1979, he had never heard of Paul Robeson.
Robeson, who had died three years earlier in 1976 at the age of 77, was a New Jersey native and the son of a runaway slave. He became valedictorian of the Rutgers Class of 1919 while excelling in four sports for the Scarlet Knights, twice earning football All-American selections in an era when racial segregation prohibited Black players at many colleges and universities. Robeson went on from Rutgers to a famed career as an actor, singer, scholar, and global activist.
While a student at Rutgers, Adams learned much about Robeson. Two years after Adams graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts in 1984, he painted a portrait of the iconic alumnus that hangs today in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center on the Busch Campus.
Nearly four decades later, Adams again has painted Robeson— this time on a much larger scale. His mural of Robeson was
unveiled in SHI Stadium on October 19 during the Scarlet Knights homecoming football game against UCLA. Art & Design student Jocelynn Hunter Dow and recent alum Beatryz Mendes Hornung assisted Adams as he painted.
“A lot of people don't know who Paul Robeson was,” Adams says. “They don't know the man he was. I didn't know the man he was when I got to Rutgers, but I found out the giant that he was, the humanitarian, the man who fought for peace, the athlete, the celebrity, the activist. I want his image to be magnified. I want people to be like, ‘Wow, OK, that’s who Paul Robeson was.’ And then I want them to go back and do research on Paul Robeson.”
Adams says it is remarkable that Robeson was so far ahead of his time as a “Black man to have that much presence and fortitude and commitment.”
Robeson’s success as an actor and singer after his time at Rutgers sometimes overshadows his athletic prowess as a young man. An inductee in the College Football Hall of Fame, he played four seasons for the Scarlet Knights, helping legendary Coach G. Foster Sanford lead the team to a 22-6-3 record in that period. In addition to four letters in football, he also earned three letters each in basketball and baseball, and two
JOHN O'BOYLE
Paul Robeson’s granddaughter, Susan Robeson, with alum Alonzo Adams in front of his mural, unveiled at SHI Stadium on October 19, 2024.
in track. After Rutgers, Robeson played pro football for three seasons, using that income to pay tuition while earning a law degree at Columbia University.
Dow says working on the Robeson mural with Adams was inspiring and insightful. “I've gained so much from working on this project, especially in honing my technical skills, and deepened my appreciation for Paul Robeson while working with Alonzo,” Dow says. “I'm very grateful for the experience.”
Hornung helped with the mural from the beginning stages through the final brush strokes. “Painting can be such an individual thing,” she says. “It has been a great learning experience to work on this project with Alonzo.”
The initiative for the Robeson tribute at SHI Stadium originated with Jim Savage, president of the Class of 1971, and ultimately involved a joint effort across the university that brought together a vast coalition: Rutgers Athletics, the Rutgers University Foundation, the Rutgers University Alumni Association, the Rutgers Alumni Association, the Rutgers Class of 1971, Ubuntu Cultural Pavilion (based in Somerville, New Jersey), the Rutgers African-American Alumni Alliance, Douglass College alumnae, and the Blacks on the Banks Legacy Circle.
“I am extraordinarily proud of my classmates, these five other alumni organizations, and those two major Rutgers executive units for serving as champions of a lasting tribute to Rutgers and global legacy Paul Robeson,” Savage says.
Savage collaborated on the mural closely with Kendall Hall, past president and co-founder of the Rutgers African-American Alumni Alliance. Both also worked on the creation of Paul Robeson Plaza on the College Avenue Campus, which was dedicated in 2019, the 100th anniversary of Robeson’s Rutgers graduation.
Hall, who is founder and president of the Ubuntu Cultural Pavilion, says collaborators are thrilled about this venue for telling Robeson’s story.
“We wanted to make sure that we could continue to uplift Paul Robeson’s legacy,” Hall says. “This is another means for us to spread the great work and the legacy of Paul Robeson.”
Adams's works have been showcased all over the country. His work was exhibited in 2023 and 2024 at the university’s Zimmerli Art Museum.
I“WANT HIS IMAGE TO BE MAGNIFIED. I WANT PEOPLE TO BE LIKE, ‘WOW, OK, THAT’S WHO PAUL ROBESON WAS.’ AND THEN I WANT THEM TO GO BACK AND DO RESEARCH ON PAUL ROBESON.”
– ALONZO ADAMS
The mural, which measures 24 feet wide by 8 feet high, graces a wall behind student seating in SHI Stadium in Piscataway. That mural is a reproduction of an original painting by Adams, which measures 12 feet by 4 feet. Plans are underway to display the original painting at Rutgers as well.
At a reception before the game, Susan Robeson, Paul Robeson’s granddaughter, said she hopes the mural will educate future generations about her grandfather’s legacy and inspire others to be vocal in support of worthy causes.
“For me, the most important thing is our responsibility to live his legacy—celebrate it, lift it up,” she said. “Our responsibility is to live with the legacy every day. You can never do enough because every generation forgets unless we teach and show by our example.”
JONATHAN KOLBE
Adams works on the Robeson tribute in his Plainfield, New Jersey, studio with Art & Design student Jocelynn Hunter Dow.
Faculty + Staff News
Percussion area head Joe Tompkins has been commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) to write a solo work for CSO percussionist Vadim Karpinos, which will be performed at CSO events in the next year. In addition, the Cleveland Orchestra percussion section performed his Trio in a Rudimental Style in April at the orchestra’s Brass and Percussion Chamber Concert.
Dance’s Jeff Friedman was a recipient of a 2024 Fulbright Specialist grant to travel to New Delhi, India, where he was in residence in the Art, Media and Performance Department at Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh, from April 1 through May 12.
Congrats to Stephanie Cronenberg, head of Music Education: In June 2024, Cronenberg was selected to serve as MGSA's inaugural director of research for a three-year, renewable term.
The Senate of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater has elected jazz faculty Anthony Branker as an honorary member of
their academy for his contributions to their jazz department and to Estonian jazz. He also is a recipient of a 2024 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant funded through the Doris Duke Foundation.
Documentary Film Lab director Thomas F. Lennon served as contributing producer on Cutting Through Rocks, which won the Documentary World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Art & Design’s Stephen Westfall is a recipient of the 2024 Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award, which recognizes artistic excellence in mature visual artists with a long history of creative practice.
Art & Design’s Natalie Bookchin is a recipient of the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, an unrestricted grant of $25,000 that empowers women artists over age 40 to cultivate their practice. The award is by nomination only.
Art & Design’s Heather Hart, also an alum, has received the Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize 2025. As part of the honor, Hart will be living and working at the American Academy in Rome.
Filmmaking’s Ryan Silbert received a Signal Award nomination for Best Writing for his work with James Patterson on the The Coldest Case: The Past Has a Long Memory, the second season of the No. 1 Audible Original starring Aaron Paul, Krysten Ritter, and Beau Bridges.
Composition faculty Scott Ordway was awarded the two-year Fireline Fellowship from the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts at Oregon State University. Through 2026, he joins a multidisciplinary cohort of artists, writers, and journalists whose work addresses themes of landscape, ecology, and culture in the American West.
Melissa Dunphy’s BBC commission “Totality” had its world premiere at the BBC Proms last July. VOCES8 and The King’s Singers performed the work, inspired by 2024’s total solar eclipse. The performance took place at Royal Albert Hall and was broadcast live on BBC 3 Radio.
On October 28, Theater’s David P. Gordon won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for his work on Arden Theatre Company’s production of Once on This Island The Barrymore Awards recognize professional theater in the greater
Philadelphia region.
Voice faculty Bille Bruley made his Carnegie Hall debut in December, appearing as a soloist in The Messiah with The Masterwork Chorus.
Didier William, assistant professor of expanded print, received the Rutgers Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.
Mark Armijo McKnight made his Whitney Museum of American Art debut in August with Decreation, a show of new and recent blackand-white photos of bodies and landscapes. The show ran through January 5.
George B. Stauffer received an Honorary Lifetime Member Award from the American Bach Society, joining a group of distinguished scholar-performers that includes Christoph Wolff and Masaaki Suzuki.
Art & Design MFA alum and professor emeritus Patrick Strzelec describes his latest sculpture—a 13-foot-tall work made of high-grade aluminum— as “a song to 1965 class members. The sculpture is intended to represent the bending of the circle of history.” Past is Prologue is now installed on the terrace of the university's Zimmerli Art Museum.
In October at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City, Dance chair Gerald Casel, right, performed with singer-songwriter and author Patti Smith, aka The Godmother of Punk, in Woolgathering, a spoken-word opera based on Smith’s memoir chronicling her South Jersey childhood. In their review of the performance, The New York Times described Casel as “beautifully delicate and graceful.”
MARIA BARANOVA
NEW FACULTY
Finding
SUE HUANG
“One of the great joys of being in the arts is to be in community with other artists,” says Huang, an assistant professor in Design in the Department of Art & Design.
“As an educator, this starts first in the classroom. I am excited to work with the next generation of young creatives—imagining new futures and manifesting new worlds through a collaborative process of discovery.”
CHEON PYO LEE
“I am committed to offering openness, support, and conversation to the students, because that’s what is needed for students to feel safe to express themselves through their work,” says Lee, an assistant professor leading the Foundations area in the Department of Art & Design.
CHOPIN
In the fall, Arts Online music theory faculty Robinson McClellan made headlines by making a rare discovery: a previously unknown waltz by none other than Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849).
NPR, The New York Times, and other major media outlets feverishly reported on McClellan’s discovery.
In McClellan’s position as associate curator of music at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, he mounts exhibitions, acquires items for the Morgan’s collection of printed music manuscripts and printed music, and organizes the existing collections.
It was in this last capacity that McClellan was sifting through items
from a bequest that had come to the Morgan from arts education leader Arthur Satz when he came upon some music with Chopin’s name on it, written in the Polish composer and pianist’s distinctive handwriting.
“To be honest, it was a bit of a back-burner project delayed by the pandemic and my work on [an] exhibition,” he admits. “I didn’t expect something this exciting to be in there. So, I opened the Satz Collection and there it was.”
But this was not the “aha” moment—not yet.
“I didn’t recognize the music, so
CHAT TRAVIESO
“All design has social impact,” says Travieso, our newest Tepper Family Endowed Chair in Visual Arts in the Department of Art & Design. “I want my students to be civically engaged and be conscious of their impact on the world.” Read more about Travieso on page 18.
ANN-LOUISE WOLF
“I enjoy using play and games in the classroom, which require focus, commitment, precision, and risk—along with a healthy dose of the ridiculous,” says Wolf, a professor of Voice and Speech in the Theater Department.
ARTS ONLINE FACULTY ROBINSON MCCLELLAN UNCOVERS WALTZ BY FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
I assumed it was just a copy of a Chopin work I didn’t know,” McClellan says. He sorted through Chopin’s A-minor waltzes, including a list of works that are known but lost, figuring maybe the piece in front of him was one of those. Finally, he snapped a photo of the manuscript and sent it to prominent Chopin scholar Jeffrey Kallberg.
Kallberg confirmed it: “He wrote back almost immediately saying it appeared to be a completely unknown work, and that the handwriting looked authentic,” McClellan says. “My jaw dropped,” Kallberg told The New York Times. “I knew I had never seen this before.”
They inspected the manuscript (at left) together, in person, alongside the Morgan’s conservators who said that the paper and ink matched the period in which Chopin would have been writing, around 1830–35.
“We determined that to the best of our knowledge, it is an authentic manuscript written by Chopin,” McClellan says. “What we can’t know for certain is whether this is music he composed, but there seems to be a growing consensus that it sounds and feels like genuine Chopin.”
Pianist Lang Lang made a recording of the waltz for The Times at Steinway Hall in New York City, which premiered as a digital single on November 8.
But he’s not the only one.
“People have even written their own ‘completions,’ adding to the
existing waltz with newly composed music in Chopin’s style,” McClellan says. “In addition to the scholarly value in adding a new layer to our understanding of Chopin, all this creativity is the best part.”
And McClellan says these reactions—not just from music scholars but from ordinary people across the globe—have meant the most to him.
“I have been overwhelmed, and moved, by the response from the world,” McClellan says. “I thought it would run in a few news outlets and people would say ‘Oh, cool!’ and move on. Instead, there has been an outpouring of what I can only describe as love and joy.”
Listen to Lang Lang’s worldpremiere recording of Waltz in A Minor “Found in New York” at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.
Clockwise from upper left: Daniel Ehrenfeld; Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University; Courtesy of Ann-Louise Wolf; Ron Hester
Courtesy of the Morgan Library & Museum
Former Music student Terence Blanchard, who studied trumpet with William “Prof.” Fielder, opened the broadcast of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans with a performance of Teddy Swims’s “Lose Control ”
Ar t & Design alum Jason Baerg was part of a group of designers showcased in Los Angeles at the Getty Museum’s Fashioning Indigenous Futurism runway show in September. The showcase featured clothing that draws on traditional craftwork woven into contemporary design. Vogue cites Baerg among “five contemporary designers who are redefining Indigenous fashion.”
Theater alum Bianca Leigh is in the cast of the Tony-nominated Oh, Mary! on Broadway, while alum Bev Fremin serves as associate lighting designer. The farce, a NYT Critic’s Pick open through June 28 at the Lyceum Theatre, imagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a bored, alcoholic cabaret singer.
Music alum Patrick B. Phillips made his Broadway debut in June 2024 conducting the revival of The Wiz at the Marquis Theatre. Phillips also worked on the music team for the cast recording.
Art & Design alum Peggy Chiang is one of 2024’s Joan Mitchell Fellowship recipients. Fellows each receive $60,000 in unrestricted funds, distributed over five years alongside opportunities for skills development, peer exchange, and network building.
Theater alum Maxim Jean (née Bouffard) is a newly minted member of The Blue Man Group’s Shanghai ensemble.
Music alum Brian Landrus has been appointed associate professor of jazz composition at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. The composer and sax player released an album in July 2024, Brian Landrus Plays Ellington & Strayhorn, awarded a five-star review by DownBeat Jazz faculty Dave Stryker plays guitar on the album.
Art & Design alum Raque Ford was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art to create a billboard on an adjacent building on Gansevoort Street in New York City’s Meatpacking District. The collage of shoe prints and other graphic shapes, titled A little space for you right under my shoe, was on view from August 2024 through March 2025.
Former Theater student Tawny Cypress was back as Taissa for Season 3 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets
Music alum Nate Barnett sings tenor with The Crossing Choir, the new-music ensemble that took home this year’s Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
The Rutgers Theater Department took Manhattan this spring: Current student Maddox Morfit-Tighe appeared in Caryl Churchill’s Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. at The Public Theater, while recent grad Malcolm Callender made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of Stranger Things: The First Shadow Meanwhile, alum Calista Flockhart starred in The New Group’s off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class alongside Christian Slater. And Melissa Gilbert led an off-Broadway return engagement of alum Lia Romeo’s play Still at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture.
Music alum Kaitlyn Davis won big last September at Chicago's Jeff Awards for Equity Theater: Davis tied for Best Performance in a Principal Role - Musical, for her role as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theatre.
Choreography by Dance alum Kyle Marshall was named a NYT Critic’s Pick, with its performers described as “superb.” Marshall’s Joan had its New York premiere at the Out-Front! Festival in January.
The Bel Suono Quintet, featuring students Julia Guarnaccia, Nicholas DelRosso, Erol Yilmaz, Xiangyu Liu, and Finn Gallagher, is among the few undergraduate groups to receive admission to the American Brass Quintet Seminar at the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado. The group will receive chamber music coaching and performance opportunities during the festival, running July 2 through August 24.
Music alum Nick Raynor has been serving as a swing on the production of the musical Shucked since September. Broadway World gave his February 25 performance at the National Theatre major kudos: “. . .the stand-out performance of the entire show was easily Raynor. There is not a moment when he is on stage that he is not turned to 11 giving a dazzling performance.”
Music student Connor Morrissey spent 10 days at the Vatican conducting research for his senior thesis, which explores the contemporary possibilities for sacred music in the Roman Catholic Church. He is set to attend the University of Notre Dame to pursue a master's degree in sacred music.
Variety reports that Art & Design alum Cheryl Dunye, a filmmaker who, as of late, has been directing episodic work like Netflix's Bridgerton, is about to produce the feature Black Is Blue , a “sci-fi trans erotic thriller” based on Dunye’s 2014 short by the same name.
In March, jazz radio station WBGO 88.3/ Newark Public Radio invited two faculty members and several students to Yamaha Artist Services in New York City to record selections that aired in April, as part of the station’s Jazz Appreciation Month celebration. Faculty Robby Ameen and Orrin Evans brought along Alexander Ayala-Berrios, Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez, Ariana Hartunian-Sowa, Jacob Hurlock, Carlos Hernandez, Jeremy Leon, Eunice Park, Michael Price, and Aidan Vera
Art & Design student Gabrielle Carmella used her internship at the university’s Zimmerli Art Museum to assess and ameliorate access issues and help coordinate one of their fall exhibits, which featured artists with disabilities. Carmella, who describes herself as neurodivergent, has undergone multiple surgeries and physical therapy to address a physical condition known as leg-length discrepancy. “All the artists in the show have some type of impairment or a roadblock in their art making, and they all tackle it differently,” Carmella says. “And I think it's really interesting to see how they work so that I can be like, ‘Oh, this is how they worked. This is how I
Installation view of Art & Design alum Malcolm Peacock's first solo show, a signal, a sprout (foam, cement-mix overlay, wood, synthetic hair, six-channel audio; 96-by-96-by-96 inches), on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art through August 2025.
MITRO HOOD can work ’”
Excerpted from a story by Roya Rafei
Courtesy of Rutgers Today
Class of 2028 jazz piano and music education student
Seraphina Taylor remembers when the music of pianist Thelonious Monk made its way onto her Spotify “recommendedfor-you” playlist. She describes the feeling in her application essay to Mason Gross: “My head was buzzing, and my eyes welled with tears. It felt like my brain had burst into glitter.”
Taylor is ready to spread that glittery feeling around. Taylor is
“The Cube Guy” ALL THAT JAZZ
JAZZ PIANO AND MUSIC EDUCATION STUDENT IS EAGER TO REACH THE NEXT GENERATION
studying music education along with jazz so she can teach full time after graduation.
As a teenager, she served as an instructor with Keys 2 Success, a nonprofit that brings quality music education to children in underserved communities in Newark, New Jersey. She recalls her first student, a loquacious 8-year-old girl who appeared interested in everything but the piano. Taylor learned that her student’s favorite singer
was Ava Max, so she found an arrangement of one of Max’s songs and used it to teach her new student. It worked: The young girl continued showing up for her lessons.
“I don’t expect any of these kids to become pianists. That’s not what I aim for,” Taylor says. “It’s more about teaching them discipline and teaching them how to build community, overcome obstacles, and pursue things they want to pursue through the piano.”
PEACOCK’S OLYMPICS COVERAGE FEATURED ALUM'S IMMERSIVE ‘INFINITY CUBE ’ INSTALLATION
Rutgers athletes weren’t the only ones making a strong showing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris: Peacock TV commissioned Art & Design alum Dave Cicirelli’s kaleidoscopic artwork to serve as the splashy centerpiece of the streaming service’s promotional campaign for the Summer Games. His art was woven into Peacock’s broadcasts, popping up in commercials, as well as in athlete- and station-identification spots.
Cicirelli’s patented Infinity Cube is an immersive art installation combining video with coated glass to create a dynamic visual experience that repeats an image endlessly in all directions. In this high-concept promotional spot, shot over five days on a Universal Studios backlot in Hollywood, multiple athletes from the 2024 games moved— even, ahem, peacocked—around the glassy, light-filled Infinity Cube environment.
Despite the installation’s whimsical air, Cicirelli says the Infinity Cube was also a practical choice for this kind of promotional spot. In fact, over the last few years, his Infinity Cube Studio has filmed
high-voltage collaborations with several NFL and NBA teams, as well as Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.
“Athlete shoots are a lot like red carpets, where you have a high volume of important people passing through for a very short window of time,” says Cicirelli, whose installation was also featured as part of Peacock’s Paralympic Games coverage. Because the Infinity Cube is seethrough, mirror- and video-based, even a brief shoot can generate a
wide variety of kinetic shots and angles that production teams can play with; plus, it doesn’t hurt that the subjects seem to be having a ball interacting with the setup.
“Athletes are immersed in the environment. An engaged subject creates engaging content,” Cicirelli says. “The result is a ton of great capture and shot variety despite the time restrictions, with genuine excitement from the athletes and requiring minimal post-production to make it ready for air.”
Cicirelli, who also designed the
cover of the U.S. version of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s No. 1 New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation, credits his time at Mason Gross with providing a solid grounding in design’s broader uses. Faculty “really made sure we understood design as something deeper than technical mastery of the tools—but as the fundamentals of communication itself,” Cicirelli says.
Still, the Olympic experience, which he describes as “surreal” and “validating,” is a long way from downtown New Brunswick.
“It’s surreal to think back to just a few years ago when the Infinity Cube was just an acrylic box on my coffee table, and now it’s on the world stage,” Cicirelli marvels.
“I mean, you’re on a soundstage next to . . . the virtual set they shoot Star Wars on, and hosting VIPs like the president of the International Olympics Committee and Snoop Dogg,” he says.
“. . . These are extremely discerning audiences who have seen a lot of things, and for them to come up to you and say, ‘You’re the cube guy!’. . .it’s just really cool. I’m a boutique agency. And we showed people who’ve seen an awful lot something they’ve never seen.”
NICK ROMANENKO
Seraphina Taylor has been studying piano since she was 8 years old.
RHET BEAR
Box Office
MEET JESSICA COGAN, OPERATIONS MANAGER AND KITTEN FOSTER PARENT
WHAT I DO
I supervise the front of house and ticketing operations for the sixtheater Mason Gross Performing Arts Center (MGPAC). MGPAC contains the performance spaces for the Dance, Music, and Theater departments at Mason Gross. I wear many hats for my unit, primarily office manager, business manager, HR manager, and operations manager.
FAVORITE MEMORY
I can’t single out one favorite moment in my time at Rutgers. But I can identify a favorite type of recurring moment. I supervise about 20 student staffers who are mostly Federal Work Study students. I like to call their position “Working in the Real World 101.”
When they are assigned to us as first-year students, they arrive with a wide variety of life and work experiences. My favorite type of moment is watching the students grow, mature, and learn new skills during their journey as employees at MGPAC.
F UN FACT
Many of the administrative staff at MGSA are also artists; I am no exception. I have performed in community theater productions in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Recently: Mrs. Paroo in The Music Man and Ensemble in Ragtime, and
IN MEMORIAM
DEATH DATES AND DEATH NOTIFICATION DATES THAT WERE RUN FOR THIS LIST: MAY 1, 2024, TO FEBRUARY 28, 2025
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
John B. Aniano, ENG’88, GSNB’90, BS (Ceramic Engineering), October 23, 2024
Dr. Alan D. Antonie, Faculty Retiree, October 20, 2024
Virginia Matosian Apelian, DC’75, BA (Psychology), September 11, 2024
Charles Burgess, AG’68, BS (Agricultural Economics), July 27, 2024
Dr. Maureen A. Carr, GSNB’64, MFA (Music), February 11, 2025
Natalie Darwin, Friend, October 11, 2024
Ronald W. Giaconia, RC’58, BA (Economics), September 13, 2024
Susan C. Guerrini, Former Faculty, July 14, 2024
George Kelly, Friend, October 11, 2024
Karl G. Manger, RC’75, GSNB’77, BA, October 23, 2024
Professor Edith D. Neimark, Faculty Retiree, February 25, 2025
Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, as well as Jack's Mother in Into the Woods Support local theater!
I also volunteer as a kitten foster parent for the Monmouth County SPCA. In the last two years, I have saved 21 lives, all of whom have been adopted into loving families. Adopt, don't shop!
John F. Pierce, RC’51, BS (Business Administration), July 14, 2024
Ingrid W. Reed, Retired Staff/Administration, July 27, 2024
Aldonna T. Skislak, UCNB’83, BA (English), October 14, 2024
Dr. Theodore J. Stahl, M.D. FANP FACE, RC’53, BS (Biological Sciences), December 10, 2024
Jay G. Trachtenberg, Esq., RC’64, NLAW’67, BA (English), August 11 2024
Ann Naoko Tsubota, DC’67, GSNB’74, BA (American Studies), October 18, 2024
Richard Morton Walker, RC’56, BA (Journalism), August 1, 2024
Dr. Leonard B. Williams III, RC’62, GSED’70, BA, July 2, 2024
All death notifications included in this issue of our magazine were submitted to the university after our last issue in spring 2024 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@rutgersfoundation.org. Please be sure to include the full name of the deceased (and name as a student), death date, class year, and major. Thank you.
NICK ROMANENKO
best in class
FIVE
by Emily Soper
THEATER
What it's called: “Upcycling: An Artistic Response to the Environmental Effects of Fast Fashion”
Who can take it: All Rutgers students
What it’s all about: Every day is Earth Day in this hands-on course!
Taught by Costume Director Denise Wagner, students learn to turn discarded garments into sustainably stylish one-of-a-kind pieces. From natural-resist dyeing to employing Japanese techniques for visible mending, students practice a variety of skills, while incorporating readings and screenings covering the economic, environmental, and humanitarian impact of the textile industry.
“The more we use what we already have, the more it stays out of a landfill,” Wagner says. “The less we buy, the less ends up there.”
Wagner says she hopes students end the semester with a broader understanding of where their clothing comes from, and the effect fast fashion can have on people and the planet. Read more about the course at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag
DANCE
What it’s called: “Special Topics: House”
Who can take it: MGSA Dance majors
What it’s all about: Turn up the music! This special-topics course invites
dancers into the world of ballroom— a highly stylized genre of dance developed by Harlem’s Black and Latino LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s.
Course instructor and BFA Dance alum José Lapaz-Rodriguez guides students through the basics, first practicing foundational movements, then adding on flourishes.
Lapaz-Rodriguez teaches two styles: “Vogue Fem,” which includes elements like catwalking, spins, and dips, and “New Way Vogue,” in which dancers create rigid, angular shapes with arms, wrists, and hands.
Classes recreate the boisterous setting of a “ball,” with students practicing combinations all across the floor as uptempo club beats are cranked high. “These street styles are grounded in telling a story,” Lapaz-Rodriguez says. “[They’re about] bringing one’s true personality and soul to the dance.”
“What is the world telling us to fear? And what does that mean?”
Read more about “Horror Film Production”on page 17.
MUSIC
What it’s called: “The Art of Production 1: Recording”
concerts on campus featuring tracks from “Overcooked 2,” “Donkey Kong Country,” and “The Legend of Zelda.”
ART & DESIGN
What it’s called: “Drawing 2B, Graphic Novel”
FILMMAKING
What it’s called: “Horror Film Production”
Who can take it: MGSA Filmmaking majors
What it’s all about: “Engaging with horror films is like a rite of passage, between being young and being an adult,” says professor Caroline Key Key encourages students to look beyond the spooky surface of films, and to explore horror as a visceral experience.
Students produce a piece of creative writing, a non-narrative “horror” short film, and a final film, based on the material they’ve studied. Throughout the semester, Key and the students investigate two central questions:
Who can take it: MGSA Music majors who have taken “Making Music With Computers: Introduction to Digital Audio” or “Introduction to Music Technology” or “Making Music with Computers: Introduction to Digital Audio Online”
What it’s all about: Lecturer Gregg Rossetti knows that behind every great song, there has to be great production. Students take it from the top, starting with the basic properties of sound and hearing. Later in the semester, they try their hand at recording with analogue and digital equipment. Along the way, they’re investigating the unexpected complexities of capturing sound—a foundational skill for creating all kinds of music.
Rossetti also serves as faculty advisor to the Rutgers University Club for Video Game Music. The club, open to all Rutgers students, has performed
BUILDING AN ALUMNI NETWORK
Who can take it: Art & Design students who have taken “Drawing Fundamentals” and “Drawing I-A” and are concurrently taking “Drawing I-B: Systems and Mapping”
What it’s all about: Joshua Bayer’s class may seem to present an usual confluence of ideas—an assignment on “ambiguity,” then a lesson on the work of William Blake, then a few days dedicated to recalling an injury—but for Bayer, it’s all part of the creative process. The goal of the class, he says, is to “provide students with the missing link that ties together research, memory, imagination and reference” to create compelling stories.
Students explore a variety of artistic influences, learning methods for capturing mood or emotion, and are challenged with “visualization assignments,” where the goal is to use illustration to transform an abstraction—a memory, a feeling, or, as one assignment revolves around, a void—into something tangible.
OUR NEW ALUMNI RELATIONS TEAM PREPARES FOR MGSA’S GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
Over the past year, the Development team at Mason Gross, under the leadership of Denyse Reed, has worked to connect with alumni, both from MGSA and the wider Rutgers community. This outreach effort is meant to cultivate community among our 7,000+ alumni, which will be essential as we approach a major milestone: the school’s 50th anniversary, in 2026.
Kelsey Ketelsen joined the school in September 2024 as senior program coordinator, Alumni Relations, a new position established to nurture alumni engagement. Ketelsen has already been planning a variety of dynamic events and launching initiatives. Recent events include:
Hosting a reception of 70+ guests at Catch NYC prior to faculty Mark Armijo McKnight’s conversation with Garth Greenwall at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Collaborating with the Department of Art & Design to bring students to alum Malcolm Peacock’s exhibit and artist talk at MoMA PS1 in Queens
Hosting a filmmaking alumni social in New York City
Traveling to Washington, D.C., to host an alumni reception prior to a performance of Death on the Nile at Arena Stage, featuring alum Ryan Michael Neely, pictured, with the block R
Taking a small group of faculty and MGSA friends and alumni to a performance of The New Group’s off-Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s play Curse of the Starving Class, starring alum Calista Flockhart
Spearheading an alumni reception prior to the opening of Salome at The Metropolitan Opera, starring faculty Bille Bruley
In the next year, alumni can look forward to updates, surveys, and opportunities to gather on campus and beyond. If you’d like to attend an event, have an idea to share, or simply wish to reconnect, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to Kelsey at alumni@mgsa.rutgers.edu
To ensure you don’t miss any of the 50th-anniversary fun, update your contact information using the QR code.
LYNNE DELADE
COURTESY OF KELSEY KETELSEN
TAKING THE LEAD
ALUM SEBASTIAN STAN RECEIVED MULTIPLE HONORS DURING HOLLYWOOD'S AWARDS SEASON
Theater alum Sebastian Stan, perhaps best known for his role as Bucky Barnes in Marvel’s Captain America and Avengers series of films, had a busy awards season this winter. He received Golden Globe nominations for his lead roles in two controversial films: The Apprentice, in which he starred as a young version of President Donald J. Trump; and A Different Man, as an actor whose face is altered in the wake of an experimental treatment.
Stan won the Golden Globe for A Different Man and was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for The Apprentice
RUTGERS AND MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS [ARE] A BIG PART OF MY LIFE.”
Stan garnered positive reviews for both roles, including this one, from ABC News: “Stan plays Trump with a blazing commitment that nails every nuance,” they say, adding that he “avoids cheap imitation to show us this version of Trump building a hard shell over his feelings.”
Stan, who’s back as Bucky in Marvel’s Thunderbolts* , released in May 2025, told NJ.com that his years at Mason Gross were formative.
“Rutgers and Mason Gross School of the Arts [are] a big part of my life,” he says. “It’s where I really, like truly, got to know acting and the history and everything. I had great teachers there. I had great classmates. I love the program. It’s dear to my heart.”
TO YOUR HEALTH
MGSA’S LARGEST-EVER GIFT SUPPORTS ARTS IN HEALTH INITIATIVES
In February, Mason Gross School of the Arts announced that it had received the largest gift in its 49-year history—an anonymous $8.8 million gift to support the school’s ongoing Arts in Health initiatives. The gift will fund programming and endow a new faculty chair in Arts in Health, thus ensuring long-term stability for these initiatives.
MGSA’s Arts in Health efforts launched in 2023 with the Arts in Health Research Lab, a collaborative partnership with the Rutgers School of Public Health and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The mission of the Arts in Health Research Lab is to support arts in health research, education, community development, and interdisciplinary partnerships to improve individual and community well-being and health outcomes.
Other MGSA Arts in Health initiatives include an undergraduate-level Arts in Health
interdisciplinary course and a popular and free Rutgers–NB Chancellorfunded arts and wellbeing program called Scarlet Arts Rx, a partnership between MGSA and the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP). Scarlet Arts Rx educates and involves GSAPP students in arts prescribing and collaborates with dozens of campus partners to offer free and varied arts programming that aims to address multiple aspects of student well-being.
Jason Geary, Mason Gross dean and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives, says this gift could help Mason Gross emerge as a global leader in a burgeoning discipline.
While institutions such as the University of Florida and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins have instituted arts-in-health programs, Geary says, “we have the unique opportunity to chart a path forward that encompasses both the visual and the performing arts while ensuring that a practice-oriented approach to the arts remains at the forefront of our endeavors. Such
Stan adds that he is “really, really grateful” for his time in the Theater Department. “I think it went a long way for me, and I think about it a lot.” Stan brought his mother, Georgeta Orlovschi, as his date to the Oscars on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre.
“One of the first times we ever came to America we took this L.A. bus tour; we stopped outside this theater and had a moment,” Stan, who was born in Romania, told Good Morning America “Now we’re here.”
an approach will ensure that our focus remains on creating curricular and engagement opportunities for our students that are grounded in their creative practice and that offer innovative career pathways combining the arts and wellness with a community orientation.”
The MGSA Arts in Health initiatives such as the Arts in Health Research Lab, Scarlet Arts Rx, and the undergraduate course draw on research establishing a connection between arts experiences and well-being. A recent report from the National Endowment for the Arts found that “adults who attended
live arts events were less likely than non-arts attendees to report feeling more acute levels of loneliness,” and the National Library of Medicine reported similar findings for adolescents aged 11 to 21.
Or, as one Rutgers student reported after participating in Scarlet Arts Rx activities: “[Scarlet Arts Rx is] . . . genuinely the love of my life right now . . .It’s not a stretch to say that the painting/drawing events I’ve been going to are all that’s keeping me from crashing out. Being able to put work aside and just create art is such a de-stressor for me. It makes me realize that there is a beautiful world beyond my worries.”
PIEF WEYMAN
LYNNE DELADE
BELOVED COMMUNITY
AWARD-WINNING THEATER PROJECT SUPPORTS FORMERLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE REENTERING SOCIETY
Excerpted from a story by Beth Fand Incollingo
Courtesy of Rutgers Today
After incarceration, how can people heal from trauma, shame, and the feeling that society no longer wants them? Kevin Bott, who oversees the online division of Mason Gross School of the Arts, has spent 16 years answering that question.
H e is the creator of a project that works with people coming home after incarceration to develop a healing and transformative ritual through theatrical storytelling that helps them move on from their experiences.
A Rutgers graduate, Bott founded the initiative called Ritual4Return while completing his doctorate in educational theater at New York University. He recently introduced the project at Mason Gross in collaboration with the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prison Consortium (NJ-STEP), which offers for-credit courses inside New Jersey state prisons and then after reentry at several universities within the state, including Rutgers. Ritual4Return is now offered at Rutgers as a two-class series, with one course open to all undergraduates and both available to those who have been incarcerated.
T he theater-based course for students returning home after incarceration culminates in a public rite of passage at Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The success of Ritual4Return was highlighted last fall when Bott was named by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities as the winner of the 2024 Katz Prize, celebrating excellence in public humanities.
“I’m thrilled to be recognized for this initiative that positively affects people's lives,” he says. “The efforts of these returning citizens create an impact that ripples out to families, communities, and society.”
A student documentary completed under the guidance of Academy Award-winning faculty Thomas F. Lennon and activist-documentarian Dorie Hagler focuses on Mexican American women who travel around New Brunswick and serve as educators about health care resources available to their communities.
Promotora, a 14-minute film, was screened during an event in November 2024 centered on health and well-being in New Jersey’s Mexican American communities. The event was co-sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, who financed Promotora, the Mexican Consulate in New Brunswick, and Mason Gross.
Baiyinah Shewmake, who left prison in 2020, appreciated the chance to address some feelings associated with childhood trauma after Bott recruited her to participate in Ritual4Return early in 2024. Now, she gives back by participating in homecoming and project demonstrations. She’s found that each one is different, offering something new to contemplate.
“Kevin is really, really, really dedicated. He lives this and through this,” says Shewmake, a Hunterdon County resident who was incarcerated for drug, gun, and aggravated assault charges and now works as a substance abuse counselor. “I also appreciate the network of wonderful women I’ve met through Ritual4Return. My philosophy is that it takes a village to live a life, whether you’re a child or an adult.”
O ffered through Mason Gross, courses related to Ritual4Return are held at Rutgers–Newark. “Workshop Topics Theater: Reentry as a Rite of Passage” is open to any Rutgers undergraduate, regardless of campus affiliation, and focuses on literature from across criminology and sociology that demonstrates the power of rites of passage to restore civic identity after incarceration.
“
A COMMON SENTIMENT FROM PROJECT GRADUATES IS THAT THEY FEEL UNBURDENED.”
Students who were previously incarcerated must take that short course as a pre- or co-requisite to a longer, single-credit Mason Gross theater class, “Project Work: Reentry as a Rite of Passage Lab.” In that class, participants in the NJ-STEP program spend a semester preparing for the homecoming ritual by crafting and performing stories related to their incarceration, which may include aspects of their childhood, their time behind bars, and their experiences after release.
During the ritual, participants perform scripted stories, participate in chants, drumming, and dances and make vows about their lives ahead. Audience members join in through songs, writing about experiences for which they need to forgive or be forgiven and standing in support of their loved ones as they make their vows. The five- or six-hour event ends with a shared meal.
“A common sentiment from project graduates is that they feel unburdened,” Bott says. “There’s a deep fear that, if they reveal themselves, it’s going to confirm that they don’t belong in society, and having the exact opposite experience can give them a sense of transformation.”
STUDENT DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHTS MEXICAN AMERICAN HEALTH CARE EDUCATORS IN NEW BRUNSWICK
Promotora is a quiet film featuring promotora Teresa Vivar as well as mother-and-daughter promotoras Martha and Kareli Barragan. Ten students from the Documentary Film Lab, housed within the Rutgers Filmmaking Center, worked on the film.
In the documentary, Martha Barragan says in Spanish, “I didn’t know I could go to a clinic. I didn’t know I could go to a hospital. I was always with that fear that they will not treat me. Or that they would ask for my documentation.” The promotoras taught her otherwise.
Alum Ivanna Guerrero worked on the film in 2021 and 2022, while she was a student at Mason Gross and after her graduation in May 2022. She now serves as a video editor at the MLB Network.
“The love and care that these women have for their community is just so amazing to see, and I wanted to be a part of bringing this to light,” Guerrero says.
“. . . The promotoras have helped Latinos for years, and they did it for nothing but the joy of seeing their community healthy.”
Rutgers filmmaking students and alums who worked on Promotora were:
Cinematography: Ivanna Guerrero and Alla Rico; sound: Andrew Alexander, Denisa Benesova, Daphne Sardis, and Gia Simone; assistant editor: Kim Hansen; additional cinematography by Kim Hansen, Isabella Reich, and Connor Riccardi. Apprentice editors: Isabella Bonvini and Gia Simone Watch Promotora at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.
NICK ROMANENKO
AMANDA BROWN
Documentary Film Lab director Thomas F. Lennon, from left, Dean Geary, student Connor Riccardi, recent alums Nolan Maraziti, Kim Hansen, and Andrew Alexander, documentarian Dorie Hagler, and Filmmaking chair Patrick Stettner at the public premiere of Promotora at NBPAC
Composing History
ALUM COMPOSES FUNERAL MARCH
HONORING FORMER PRESIDENT
JIMMY CARTER
Music alum Andrew Kosinski recently received the mission of a lifetime: composing a funeral march for former President Jimmy Carter.
Carter died in December at age 100. He was honored with a state funeral service on January 9 after days of ceremonies in the nation’s capital.
Army Staff Sgt. Kosinski, the staff arranger and composer for The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” composed a funeral march that military bands performed at least four times—when Carter’s remains arrived at Joint Base Andrews; in a horse-drawn procession bearing Carter’s flag-draped casket; at the U.S. Capitol, and on the way to the National Cathedral—as the nation honored the 39th president.
Kosinski says he received the honor for a decidedly practical reason: plummeting temperatures in the nation’s capital. In November 2023, when the president entered hospice care, the Carter family selected a variety of standard hymns for the services. However, as Kosinski explains it, The U.S. Army Band, keenly aware that colder temperatures cause brass instrument valves to freeze, crafted a backup plan. Another consideration: woodwind players struggling to play while wearing thick gloves to ward off the cold. The requirements were clear: Kosinski had to create a reverent piece of music using a limited selection of “open notes,” i.e., notes that don’t require musicians to press any valves on the brass instruments, and music that
A NEW PATH
AFTER FIVE YEARS AS DEAN, JASON GEARY WILL MOVE TO THE RUTGERS–NEW BRUNSWICK
PROVOST'S OFFICE
Dean Jason Geary is set to assume the role of provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Rutgers–New Brunswick, effective July 1, 2025. He will replace Dr. Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, who will continue to serve as Special Advisor to the Chancellor. A nationwide search is underway to find the next dean for Mason Gross.
Dr. Geary is a musicologist who, in addition to serving as dean of Mason Gross School of the Arts since July 1, 2020, is a Distinguished Professor of Music and senior vice provost for academic initiatives at Rutgers–New Brunswick. Under his leadership, Mason Gross launched interdisciplinary programs such as a minor in Creative Expression and the Environment with the School of Arts and Sciences and School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; the Arts in Health Research Lab with the School of Public Health and New Jersey Performing Arts Center; and the wellness initiative Scarlet Arts Rx with the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. Geary also established the Mason Gross Office of Advising and Student Success, focusing on wellness, career development, and alumni engagement. He also solidified community engagement, establishing partnerships with the New Brunswick Public Schools and the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts in East Orange.
avoids fast runs on the woodwind instruments.
“The blizzard that week caused exactly those conditions,” he says— and inspired the title of the march: “Frigidus Est Foras (Funeral March for President Carter),” Latin for “It’s cold outside.” He completed the final version of the march at 2 a.m.
January 6, just a day before the president’s body arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“President Carter was known for his characteristically unpretentious leadership style,” Kosinski says, explaining the vaguely cheeky title.
“One image that remains in my head is video of him running off Air Force One in the rain carrying his own luggage. I wanted a title that would tell the band, ‘Play this if it snows,’ but also be fitting for a funeral (hence the Latin), and give a playful laugh when translated. The Carter family directly approved the composition, and I’d like to think
President Carter would have enjoyed the laugh.”
Kosinski says he believes the sound should encompass the full spectrum of emotions that might swirl around a moment of collective grief for a public servant such as Carter.
“While it is a period of mourning, I personally feel there is cause for celebration,” Kosinski says.
“President Carter lived a remarkably full life and accomplished so much on the humanitarian front.
“I don’t want to attract too much attention to myself,” he adds, “but it certainly was a profound honor to be able to compose this piece in memory of President Carter. This was inarguably the most important event of my career thus far.”
Watch The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” perform “Frigidus Est Foras (Funeral March for President Carter)” at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.
I’VE BEEN HONORED TO GET TO KNOW AND WORK ALONGSIDE SUCH A CREATIVE COMMUNITY OF DEDICATED ARTISTS AND PROFESSIONALS AT MASON GROSS.” – Dean Jason Geary
Dean Geary, a musicologist, arrived at Mason Gross in 2020.
KEITH MUCCILLI
STAFF SGT. RACHEL MINTO
SCARY MOVIE
FILMMAKING COURSE FOCUSES ON HORROR
By Emily Soper
Ever since Caroline Key was a little girl, she’s been curious about the things that frighten us.
She recalls waking in the middle of the night at a slumber party and finding her friend’s parents settled on the couch watching a horror movie. She peeked over the cover of her sleeping bag, catching glimpses of the film, because, as she tells it: “I felt compelled to understand what it was. There’s like, a little bit of a taboo, or a mystique around it.”
Besides, says Key, a Rutgers Filmmaking Center faculty member: “Engaging with horror films is like a rite of passage, between being young and being an adult.”
Key continues to be fascinated by the scary stories that tug at us. But students enrolled in her “Horror Film Production” course aren’t after a quick fix of jump scares or gross-out gags. They’re delving into horror not only as a film genre, but as a visceral experience.
While the syllabus includes typical fare like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, students are also assigned experimental films, documentaries, and even performance art pieces. John Waters’s ultracamp Pink Flamingos makes the list, in addition to footage from artist and MGSA alum Pope L.’s “crawls” through New York City, a series of provocative performances that interrogate our perception of race and social norms.
By the end of the semester, students will have produced one piece of creative writing, one non-narrative “horror” short film, and one final film, each in response to the material they’ve studied.
And all along, Key says, she and the students ask two central questions: “What is the world telling us to fear? And what does that mean?”
Chloe Chowaniec, who took “Horror Film Production” with Key in 2022, says the class gave her a new perspective on the power of sound.
She cites a short film titled Untied, which includes scenes of violence against women.
“The sound you’d expect to accompany it is either never heard or delayed,” Chowaniec says, mentioning that the violence is overlaid by an incessant dial tone, as opposed to, say, screams. “I hadn’t thought of using sound in that way before.”
For Chowaniec’s final project, she chose to create a film about being cursed. Titled Facendo Le Corna, (Italian for “Making Horns”), the five-minute piece includes a synth score that she composed herself.
“I wanted to make the score moody and slow, with the tone becoming flatter and flatter as the film went on,” she says. Chowaniec’s goal was to invoke similar feelings of disjointedness and discomfort akin to those she experienced while watching (and hearing) certain films.
But the goal of the assignment, and of the course, isn’t to create the next Halloween blockbuster, but to understand why we make them in the first place.
“Students come in and they delve into things that might be difficult,” Key says—often-fraught topics like gender, race, sexuality, things that might unsettle them, “and we try to create a supportive environment, and they hopefully come out through the other side, [and] stronger for it.”
Please consider making a gift to the Mason Gross Student Emergency Fund to support SUPPORT THE MASON GROSS STUDENT EMERGENCY FUND
Increasingly, our students are facing unanticipated challenges that negatively impact their academic career. These sudden disruptions not only have an emotional and mental impact, but they often also demand financial resources. This inevitably leads to additional pressure and anxiety as students struggle to support themselves while simultaneously striving to maintain satisfactory academic progress.
our students. The fund, launched in 2024, provides access to necessary financial relief for all Mason Gross students.
Have questions?
Please contact Denyse Reed, Director of Development, at (848) 932-5197 or denyse.reed@mgsa.rutgers.edu.
Give now at go.rutgers.edu/givemgsa.
ADOBE STOCK
Don't Touch
TEPPER CHAIR CHAT TRAVIESO IS TEACHING STUDENTS ABOUT THE ART OF COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
Excerpted from a story by
Roya Rafei
Courtesy of Rutgers Today
Chat Travieso isn’t interested in creating precious works of art sequestered behind a velvet rope or a museum entrance fee. Instead, he designs engaging, colorful works of art that usually can be found in a park, at a bus stop, or on a playground.
Travieso describes his work as “urban intervention projects” that create spaces for people to gather and linger.
“The work is successful when people are engaging with it, whether that’s someone sitting on a bench that I designed, or someone liking the way it looks, or a child finding joy and playing with one of my projects,” he says. In the fall, Travieso was named Tepper Family Endowed Chair in Visual Arts at Mason Gross. The position, usually a two-year term, was created in 2011, and each Tepper Chair has served to inspire and mentor students.
Travieso says he wants to teach students to get outside of their insulated, academic environment, and to spend time observing, listening, and getting the feel for an unfamiliar space. He calls this practice “participatory design.”
“I want the students to understand
that they themselves are stakeholders in the world,” he says.
“You’re part of a community too; reflect on your community and how you might want to engage.”
To that end, early in the spring semester, 10 students in one of Travieso’s design practicum classes mounted a site-specific
DONOR SPOTLIGHT
BOOSTING THE GLEE CLUB AND ESTABLISHING A LASTING LEGACY
because we wanted the sculptures to interact with their environment as well as each other,” design student Eliza Gislao explains. “You get some really beautiful moments when the light is shining through.”
“EMPATHY IS A KEY PART OF ANY DESIGN PROCESS. .... YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE, YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT HOW SOMEONE MAY BE READING THAT POSTER OR USING THAT CHAIR.”
But Travieso says he also is committed to teaching students practical skills they need as designers, such as writing grants, working with commissioners, learning to ask the right questions, and identifying the needs of all the users of a space.
public installation on the Fern Trail at Rutgers Gardens. Chromatic Canopies served as a response to the wooded area, a collection of flat, transparent, acrylic sculptures suspended from the trees, colorful pieces that threw light on the ground.
“As a class, we chose to work with colored transparent acrylic
Paul Orvos (RC ’74) has been singing choral music since his high school days in Edison, New Jersey. His deep appreciation for tenor-bass music, however, stems from his years with the Rutgers University Glee Club. Orvos’s eyes light up as he shares memories of concerts with his “brothers in song,” led by the beloved F. Austin “Soup” Walter.
Orvos wants the Glee Club to continue touching the lives of members like him, and to endure for generations. To that end, he and his wife, Judith, an alumna of Seton Hall University, decided to include a bequest to the organization in their wills.
From Rutgers University Foundation’s Estate and Gift Planning office, they also learned about how creating a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) could bolster the principal of the Rutgers Glee Club Endowment Fund. CGAs allow you to donate assets to a charity in exchange for receiving fixed income payments for life. After your death, the charity receives any remaining principal. To create his CGA, Paul rolled over funds from an existing IRA, from which he takes IRS-required distributions each year.
“Our gift helps grow the Glee Club Endowment, and we benefit from a charitable deduction on our taxes plus another reliable source of retirement income,” Orvos says.
“Empathy is a key part of any design process,” he says. “Design is a kind of social practice: You’re thinking about other people, you’re thinking about how someone may be reading that poster or using that chair. You have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but whose shoes are you putting yourself in?”
Through the Orvos’s generosity, the Glee Club can build its Endowment Fund and draw on the revenue in perpetuity to fund program expenses such as new uniforms, recordings, performances, and travel.
“The Rutgers University Glee Club is one of the oldest collegiate tenor-bass choral ensembles in the United States, and among the few that remain,” says Orvos. “Financial support from alumni is vital to sustaining both the organization and its distinctive repertoire on an ongoing basis.”
The Rutgers and Mason Gross community thank Paul and Judith Orvos for helping to ensure the Glee Club’s future and for choosing Rutgers to steward their legacy.
There are many creative ways to support students and the programs you love while enjoying tax benefits. Scan this QR code to learn more about including Rutgers in your estate plans.
You may also reach out to Denyse Reed, Director of Development, at denyse.reed@mgsa.rutgers.edu or (848) 932-5197.
NICK ROMANENKO/ RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
Chat Travieso describes his artwork, such as this sign outside the Civic Square Building, as “urban intervention projects.”
COURTESY OF PAUL AND JUDITH ORVOS
Chelsea Olivia Friday likes to joke that her career in stage management was written in the stars.
“I am a Virgo,” says Friday, who refers to herself as a “Chaos Organizer” on her LinkedIn profile, “so anything that has to do with organization and being meticulous is a joy to me. I love spreadsheets, puzzles, and planning, so stage management was a natural fit.”
Destiny or not, this graduate of the Mason Gross Stage Management program found herself surrounded by stars as rehearsal stage manager on George C. Wolfe’s much-anticipated Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy . This fifth Broadway revival of the beloved 1959 musical stars none other than six-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald as perhaps the world’s most famous stage mother. Tony-winner Danny Burstein (Moulin Rouge) is also in the cast, while Camille A. Brown (Hell’s Kitchen) choreographs the show, which opened at the Majestic Theatre on December 19. As of this printing, Gypsy was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.
Friday credits a robust Rutgers alumni network with helping her land her second Broadway gig: She says Theater alum Marshall Jones III, former head of BA Theater and former producing artistic director of Tony Award-winning Crossroads Theatre Company (he now serves as the school’s associate dean for equity), connected her with Rick Steiger, Gypsy‘s production stage manager. This is their fifth show together.
“My training [at Rutgers] really prepared me for any situation—the unimaginable and unheard of,” says Friday, who works on Gypsy alongside Costume Technology alum Melissa Joy Crawford. “…The art of making something out of nothing is a skill that can’t be bought; it comes from being trained and tempered” in a variety of situations, including at London’s famed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, where fourth-year Rutgers Theater students work alongside master practitioners of the craft. “Mason Gross taught me that in this business, it’s cool to take the elevator, but it’s best to take the stairs, in terms of working your way up.”
And who can complain about taking the stairs when those stairs lead you to the likes of Wolfe and McDonald? Between the two of them, they’ve earned a dozen Tony Awards.
Of McDonald, Friday gushes: “She is amazing, has a wonderful voice I never get tired of listening to, and is really funny. She’s the epitome of Black Girl Magic. I really admire how hard she works and how she always brings something new to the stage every night.”
As thrilling as the performances can be, Friday seems content to remain a steadfast backstage presence, helping to steer the behemoth that is Gypsy on Broadway. Among other things, Friday helps coordinate rehearsal schedules, as well as makeup, hair, and costume fittings for a cast of 40. There are no small parts, indeed—onstage or backstage.
Friday says she likes to view stage managers as “the bridge between the director, cast, crew, and production team, working to create harmony between all aspects of the production. We keep things running and moving forward, no matter what.”
Serving as a sturdy bridge—Chaos Manager Extraordinaire—seems to come naturally to Friday.
“Stage management has helped me grow as a person, become disciplined, and it’s helped me with my emotional intelligence and empathy,” she says. “I’m not a mother yet, but I’d like to be, and stage management is perfect training for that, so I’ve heard. There’s always someone or something to take care of or watch over in this line of work.”
JULIETA CERVANTES
“Chaos Organizer” and alum Chelsea Olivia Friday (inset) works backstage at Broadway’s Gypsy, starring Tony-winning actress Audra McDonald (above).
MGSA
Graduation 2025
The class of 2025 said their goodbyes to the Banks of the Old Raritan on May 15 with a boisterous ceremony at the State Theatre New Jersey in downtown New Brunswick.
“I think there is magic in art and therefore in all of you,” student speaker Molly McInturff said to her fellow students.
“Power shifts. Money evaporates. Empires crumble. Tyrants die. But art goes on forever,” Rutgers alum and
Emmy-winning screenwriter and producer Chris Markus (Avengers: Infinity War; Avengers: Endgame), center, told the crowd.
Families and friends celebrated the class of 2025 afterward with a reception that included cake, wine, and a jazz quartet next door at the Civic Square Building. Find more photos of the day at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.
PHOTOS BY LYNNE DELADE
VISIT
Art & Design alum Jennie C. Jones’s installation Ensemble opened on April 15 in New York City as this year’s Roof Garden Commission at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The stark, architectural structures feature steel strings. “These objects are instruments and sculptures at the same time,” Jones explains.
“They hold this potential in between these two worlds. That is a magical place to exist.” The experience of Ensemble is meant to be ever-changing, as shifting winds interact with the strings to create sound. The installation is on view through October 19, 2025. Watch Jones discuss Ensemble at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.
LISTEN
Billboard cited alum Eric Lindberg’s (left, on guitar) band Nefesh Mountain’s music on its latest album, Beacons, among its list of “6 Must-Hear New Country Songs.” Listen to Lindberg and the band discuss their album on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday at go.rutgers.edu/mgsa.
WATCH
Emmy-winning Theater alum James Pearse Connelly designed the set for the Wheel of Fortune’s Season 42. Look for his work over at The Voice and in Deon Cole’s most recent Netflix stand-up special.
COURTESY OF ERIC LINDBERG
THE METROPOLITCAN MUSEUM OF ART/HYLA SKOPITZ
Jennie C. Jones (born 1968, Cincinnati, Ohio). Installation view of The Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble, 2025
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
ARTS MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP MINOR EQUIPS STUDENTS WITH BUSINESS SKILLS
At the beginning of the school year, Mason Gross and the Rutgers Business School launched a minor in Arts Management & Leadership positioned to support students seeking to gain skills or build careers in arts administration in the nonprofit or commercial sectors. The minor is approved for all MGSA and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) undergraduate students.
MGSA alum and Theater faculty member John Keller co-teaches with Rutgers alum Dan Swern one of the minor’s required courses, “Introduction to Arts Leadership.”
“How are students thinking about their careers, and how are they thinking about their lives out of school?” Keller told The Daily Targum, which
P erson FIRST
ALUM RELIES ON DANCE BACKGROUND IN HER CAREER AS A SOCIAL WORKER
by Marjolein “Maddy” Zijdel
As a young dancer growing up in New Jersey, I had numerous dance teachers who attended MGSA. These teachers had such grace and elegance when they moved, and I aspired to be like them. But then, in high school, I realized there was another part of me that knew I wanted to help people and make a difference in people’s lives on an emotional level.
At Rutgers, I majored in dance and took social work classes as my liberal arts credits. Even though my priority was dancing, the budding social worker in me was always present. I made sure I was an advocate for my fellow dancers, speaking about the importance of health and wellness and emotional safety. My ballet teacher, Sheri Alban, noted that I would stand in the back of the studio scanning my classmates to see if anyone needed anything from me.
As I got closer to graduation, I realized I was meant to be in social work, so I applied and got accepted
to the Graduate School of Social Work at Rutgers. I fell in love with my second-year internship at the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, whose mission includes, among other things, raising awareness of and responding to interpersonal violence. I vowed that I would return to that office one day, and I did, two years later, as a fulltime clinician. I now serve as the assistant director of clinical support.
I fell in love with this office because I was able to not only provide direct service as a clinician, but I was also able to help raise awareness around the problem of interpersonal violence on college campuses, through our annual events. In my current role, I provide counseling and advocacy services to students, faculty, and staff who have been impacted by interpersonal violence. I am just in awe of the survivors as they heal and grow and find their
published a deep dive on the minor. “We want to provide some effective strategies to prep them for that.”
Ideally, the minor equips students with the basics of business skills such as economic and financial literacy, data analysis software, management skills, and teamwork skills, and their application in a variety of subfields within arts administration, including education and outreach, arts marketing, development and grantseeking, and production.
SAS undergraduate Somiah Shehata decided to try the “Introduction to Arts Leadership” course, cited by Rutgers Today as one of the university’s most innovative courses of the year.
“I’ve always been interested in the arts but don’t want a job that requires me to be artistically talented,” says Shehata, who is set to declare a major in journalism and media studies. “So, I thought the class would be a nice introduction to the industry and the possible careers I could consider.”
Shehata says learning about the issues that nonprofits face as they struggle to secure and sustain funding was an eye-opener and piqued her interest in development. Connecting with visiting speakers from the industry was also edifying, she says, because the interactions “helped me imagine my future career more clearly.”
Electives include “Organization and Management of the Music Industry,” “Festival Curation Seminar,” and “Digital Marketing.”
“The. . . goal,” Keller told The Targum, “is to provide opportunities for the students . . . to understand the full depth and breadth of possible career opportunities that there are in the arts fields.”
own meaningful path in life. The survivors’ resilience is inspiring. Although I don’t dance regularly anymore, I do make sure to use dance and movement in my work. Dance is such a great outlet for emotions, and when I notice that a client is struggling with reconnecting with their body, I will use dancing mindfulness to help them. I will provide the client with a playlist of music around a
particular theme, like grief, anger, or re-adjusting to the world as a survivor, and then I will give them prompts on how to move through the music set. Providing these clients, especially those who don’t have dance experience, with a prompt like using their body to paint a picture, helps them move through the sets independently. I love that I can use both of my degrees in my work, and I love that I am able to give back to the community that gave so much to me.
MATT RAINEY
LOURA ZIJDEL
THE LAST WORD
This piece explores how. . .our daily lives, often performed with an awareness of being watched, transform into acts of curated expression. Technology serves as both the stage and the audience, amplifying and archiving these performances. This interplay blurs the lines between one’s authentic self and [one’s] digital persona, where each interaction with a device becomes a part of an ongoing performance. Time’s relationship with technology, however, is peculiar: Even as [time] advances, traces of our past selves remain everywhere online. We perform, yet we do not move. Our lives continue, but parts of our identity do not regenerate.” – BFA Art & Design student Van Aileen
LYNNE DELADE
Student Solange Wilkins interacts with Van Aileen’s multimedia The Wire, the In-Between, and the Persona. Aileen’s work was on view last fall in the Mason Gross Galleries as part of the annual Co-Cureate shows.
THE LAST LOOK
The cast of the Theater Department's October 2024 production of Dominique Morisseau’s Mud Row: Charity Wilder, from left, Ananda Barnes, Sophonie Pierre, Noelle Young-Davis, Jaquan Spann, and Nasiyr Owens.