Maggie Matejcek (BM, voice, student of Jean del Santo) placed third in her division (7A) at the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition on November 6 at St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN. Lydia Michel (MM, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) performed the first movement of the Mozart Piano Concerto in B Flat Major, K. 450 with the Parnu City Orchestra (at the Parnu Concert Hall) with the SuveUni Orchestra on August 9, 2015 in Parnu, Estonia. Michel was awarded a Schubert Club Special Grant to supplement her studies at the Brevard Music Festival and Institute last summer. Zachary Miller (BM, music education, saxophone) performed Bernhard Heiden’s Diversion with the Owatonna High School Concert Band on November 17, 2015. Soyoung Park (DMA, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) received Honorable Mention in the 2016 Golden Key International Piano Competition & Festival. She performed Haydn in the winners’ concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in April 2016 and participated in the Golden Key International Festival in Vienna in August. Lisa Perry (DMA, clarinet, student of Alexander Fiterstein) played in the clarinet section of the North Carolina Symphony on their Classical Concert Series. The program included John Adams’ Absolute Jest and the Beethoven Violin Concerto with soloist Noah Bendix-Balgley (concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic). Neil Nanyi Qiang (DMA, collaborative piano, student of Timothy Lovelace) was accepted into
Centre d’Arts Orford’s Piano Trio Program, a two-week summer workshop coached by the Gryphon Trio in Quebec. He was also a collaborative piano fellow for the Music Academy of the West 2015 in Santa Barbara (June–August). Qiang was awarded the John Steele Ritter Scholarship to participate in SongFest 2016 at the Colburn School in LA (May 28–June 26, 2016). He was in the Professional Program for Collaborative Pianists led by Roger Vignoles, Margo Garrett, and Martin Katz. Gabriel Quenneville-Bélair (DMA, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) performed with the Kenwood Symphony (Minneapolis) in May 2015, at the Orford Contemporary Music Workshop and Festival (Orford, Canada) in August 2015, and at the opening concert of the Thursday Musical Concert Series in October 2015. Quenneville-Bélair was winner of the U of M School of Music University Symphony Orchestra 2015–16 Concerto Competition, and performed Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, with the University Symphony Orchestra in April 2016. He was the recent recipient of a $6,000 scholarship from the Fondation de soutien aux arts de Laval (Quebec, Canada). Maria Ritzenthaler (DMA, viola, student of Korey Konkol) was appointed principal violist with the Great Falls Symphony, Montana, and violist with the orchestra’s acclaimed Cascade String Quartet. Her tenure began with the 2015–16 concert season. Ritzenthaler formerly held positions in many orchestras including principal viola of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, assistant principal of the South Bend Symphony, and the South Dakota Symphony as well as violist with the Chicago-based new music ensemble
Anaphora. Ritzenthaler has taught students of all ages at the Merit School of Music as viola professor at Harper College in Palanine, IL. Lydia Sadoff (BM, clarient, student of Alexander Fiterstein) shared her thoughts on being a student ambassador for the Minnesota Orchestra in her essay Reflections on being a Student Ambassador on the Minnesota Orchestra website. She was instrumental in making the fantastic U of M Gopher Nights at the Minnesota Orchestra possible. Justin Sales (BM, saxophone, student of Preston Duncan) won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist National Competition. He won $2,500 in prizes and performed at the Music For All festival in Muncie, IN. Lindsay Schlemmer’s (DMA, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) proposal was selected to receive a 2016 Graduate School Summer Research Internship Award. Schlemmer received a $4,000 stipend to pursue her dissertation research on grant writing and entrepreneurship as an intern with the Artaria String Quartet during the summer of 2016. Eric Schultz (MM, clarinet, student of Alexander Fiterstein) attended the international orchestral festival Prague Summer Nights last summer as a fellowship recipient. Schultz studied with Walter Seyfarth of the Berlin Philharmonic while in Prague. Schultz performed a major orchestral program for the Czech National Symphony’s Prague Proms Festival at Prague’s Smetana Hall, performed in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and performed in an orchestral program of orchestral works by Mozart at the Estates Theater, includ-
Iris Kolodji’s (BM, music education) article “University of Minnesota Music Education Students Pay it Forward” is in the Connections section of the National Association for Music Education's (NAfME) Music Educators Journal (June 2015). The article features U of M School of Music music education students Emily Curran (BM, music education), Iris Kolodji, and Sandor Miko (BM, music education) who delivered and donated instruments to the band at Underwood School in Underwood, Minnesota. The instruments were purchased through the fundraising efforts of the U of M NAfME Collegiate Chapter. Laura Sindberg (music education), U of M NAfME chapter advisor, drove the students to Underwood School. Left to right: Emily Curran, Iris Kolodji, and Sandor Miko en route to Underwood, MN.
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University of Minnesota School of Music