Cadenza | Opus 31

CADENZA

UTSA DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC | SEPTEMBER 2021 Opus 31

BACK TO SCHOOL...

Closer to the real thing!

CONTENTS

03 04 06 09 10 12

WELCOME A word from Department of Music Chair, Dr. Tracy Cowden

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Matt Evans (‘14) soars to new heights and brings the arts with him

COLFA GAINS A NEW DEAN Dr. Glenn A. Martinez plans for a brighter and stronger College of Liberal Arts under his direction

SOUND, COLOR, AND CONNECTION UTSA Music alumnus, Ben Carlee explains how colors can do more than what meets the eye

NEW FACES, NEW BEGINNINGS UTSA Music welcomes five new faculty members to Roadrunner Nation

CONTINUING THE FIGHT Learn how UTSA and Dr. Tracy Cowden are staying focused on keeping students safe during the ongoing pandemic

CONTRIBUTORS: Cindy Solis - Publisher Jason Guzman - Graphic Designer Rebekah Alegria - PR Assistant/Editor Rebecca Luther Ben Carlee

Welcome to

CADENZA

Showcasing UTSA Music

FRIENDS, I am delighted to welcome all of you to the first 2021-2022 issue of Cadenza on behalf of the Department of Music. Our students, staff, and faculty are eagerly anticipating the opportunity to share our music with you this season!

If this is your first issue of Cadenza, you will find a wide range of content in each issue, from announcements about upcoming performances to articles about the accomplishments of our students, faculty, and alumni, as well as introductions to new faculty in our department this fall. Our first concert this season is an outdoor program, scheduled for Sept. 23rd in the Sombrilla on the Main Campus. And while you wait, we encourage you to follow us on social media, where we continue to post livestreaming and pre-recorded performances regularly.

I invite you to read ahead to learn about alumnus Matt Evans, who has a unique position in the arts that impacts thousands of people passing through our community every day! You will also learn about our new College of Liberal and Fine Arts dean, Dr. Glenn Martinez.

One of our primary purposes of Cadenza is to connect with you!

To our alumni, in particular, we invite you to submit your news and reconnect with your UTSA Music friends. We would love to post your news and updates in Cadenza; please reach out to us at music@utsa.edu with questions, comments, and photos. We hope you have a wonderful September, and we look forward to welcoming our wonderful audiences back to campus for live music at UTSA! Tracy Cowden Roland K. Blumberg Endowed Professor in Music and Chair

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: MATT EVANS At the end of 2019, the San Antonio International Airport welcomed 4.9 million domestic and international travelers to its terminals right before the world resigned itself to quarantine. According to the December 2020 monthly statistical report found on flysantonio.com, that year the number dipped 61% to a COVID-19 related low of 1.9 million. For Matt Evans (‘14), Arts & Culture Manager for the City of San Antonio Aviation Department, the diminished number of visitors to the airport caused by the global quarantine was an unforeseen challenge to the nascent arts and cultural program he was hired to manage. Evans, a classical guitarist, was prepared to use the skills and resources attributed to being a musician and a UTSA Music alumnus to triumph over the distressing situation.

What is the role of the Arts & Culture Manager for the city’s Aviation Department and how did you come by the position?

By way of higher education and the nonprofit world I have ended up at the cross-section of municipal government, the aviation industry, and arts administration. The City of San Antonio Aviation Department is responsible for the San Antonio International Airport and Stinson Municipal Airport.

I am the first person to occupy this role and I have been here since January of 2018. The position was created with the intent to communicate a “sense of place” in our city’s airports through cultural programming and the arts. To that aim three distinct initiatives have been created; The Galleries @ SAT - a rotating gallery series, SAT Cultura - a cultural and special events initiative, and SAT Live - a performing arts series. The Galleries @ SAT utilizes approximately 400 linear feet of gallery space to host art and exhibits from local artists and organizations. A typical exhibit will be installed for a 3 to 4 month period and when we’re not

going through a pandemic, said exhibit has the potential to be viewed by as many as 5 million travelers during that time frame. SAT Cultura is the moniker under which events like the airport’s Fiesta Parade and SAToberfest fall. The events typically involve community partnerships and are geared towards providing a taste of San Antonio for anyone traveling through the airport. SAT Live is a performing arts series that features local performers (typically musicians) in the terminals 5 days a week. The program will be 2 years old this summer and will have hosted just under 1500 performances since its inception. In addition to these initiatives I also manage the airport’s public art collection and work with Public Art San Antonio on the 1% for art projects that take place at the airport.

You met the demanding challenges of owning a newly-formed position and keeping it’s programming alive during the pandemic. To what do you owe the skill set that assisted you?

My time at UTSA provided a number of experiential learning situations, the impact of which I still benefit

from today. I was involved with the UTSA String Project throughout the entirety of my graduate studies and it was in the context of that setting that I was able to establish and begin to work on many of my early organizational management skills. As a graduate student with the String Project I worked with a “staff” of undergraduate educators and together we managed constituent relations, created short and long term strategic planning, engaged in limited resource optimization, initiated process improvement protocols, and executed regular operational evaluations. In the moment I would have been hard-pressed to identify any of those elements. However, the gift of hindsight has revealed to me the many seeds that were planted under the tutelage and guidance of my professors and peers.

How did you have to adapt the programming to the constraints of the pandemic and how is it coming back?

Oh boy…this past year was rough. The airport went from processing tens of thousands of passengers a day to processing just a few hundred. This meant that at any given moment you might only have a few dozen passengers sitting in the terminals.

The impact of that situation meant a significant drop in revenue. In regards to the “sense of place” initiatives at the airport, with no passengers and no money…programming was limited to say the least. Late in the summer of 2020 the airport received some provisional funding which allowed us to temporarily reactivate our SAT Live program.

While the number of travelers in the terminals was still very low, we saw an opportunity to give back to our community while helping to support our performers during the pandemic through a partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank and the activation of a live-streamed concert series. For two months, the Aviation Dept. paid local artists to perform concerts at the airport that were livestreamed via Facebook everyday at 12:00pm.

Viewers were encouraged to make a donation to the food bank. At the conclusion of the program, the series had over 100,000 views and had raised enough funds to provide 10,500 meals to San Antonians in need while employing over 40 local artists. As we begin to see people return to air travel, we are increasing our programming as a corollary of increased traffic and revenue. I hope to have the program operating at full capacity by October 2021.

You received your Master of Music in Performance as a classical guitarist. Do you still play?

I do still play! While I don’t practice nearly as much as I’d like…I still try to coordinate 1 or 2 concerts a year. I also work as a music director for a local church so playing there on a weekly basis keeps me honest. I also regularly play as a hired gun in a few different bands. My degree was a performance degree but I feel that the curriculum at UTSA was very holistic in that it approached the musician as a whole and not just as an “educator,” “performer,” or “theorist.”

How did you decide to make UTSA your graduate school of choice?

I initiated my search by reaching out to senior colleagues, university staff, and mentors for program recommendations. I then took that list of recommendations and passed it through a series of filters. Through these filters I refined a long list of recommendations to a small list of preferred destinations. From there I began reaching out to professors and department chairs to discuss degree programs and curriculum. Each university had positive attributes, but at the conclusion of my visit to San Antonio I had decided that UTSA was my institution of choice and it was the faculty and students that made that decision so easy.

“My degree was a performance degree but I feel that the curriculum at UTSA was very holistic...”

Glenn A. Martinez selected as next dean of College of Liberal and Fine Arts

By Rebecca Luther

U

TSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy announced the selection of Glenn A. Martinez, professor of Hispanic linguistics at The Ohio State University, as dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts and the Stumberg Distinguished University Chair. He began his duties July 1.

“Glenn Martinez is a highly accomplished administrator and scholar with a proven commitment to both promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and advancing diversity and inclusion,” Espy said. “He has a dynamic and impactful vision for coalescing a shared identity among—and creating opportunities between—our liberal arts, humanities and fine arts disciplines. We are excited for him to return to Texas and the UT System to join our academic leadership team.”

“I thank the search committee and committee chair, Lisa Montoya, for their exceptional work,” Espy continued, “as well as Sean Kelly for his extraordinary service as interim dean and his dedication in leading the COLFA visioning process this year in conjunction with the dean search.”

The visioning exercise focused on identifying COLFA’s strengths and opportunities for internal and external partnerships to support the university

and serve the San Antonio community. Ten visioning task force members also served on the dean search committee, including Montoya.

“Dr. Martinez deeply appreciates and embraces COLFA’s role in focusing on the human experience, and he has articulated a strong vision for expanding on that focus by creating new knowledge around how life is experienced in different ways by diverse populations,” said Montoya, vice provost for global initiatives.

At Ohio State, an R1 research university, and member of the American Association of Universities, Martinez has served the last five years as director of the Center for Languages, Literatures and Cultures. The CLLC collaborates with the university’s multiple language departments to offer programming to undergraduate and graduate students to support their success in the global economy, including interdisciplinary research opportunities, professional training, and outreach projects. The center also serves as a pipeline to the university for second language and heritage language students throughout Ohio. In his role as CLLC director, Martinez further initiated a working group from across seven academic departments to develop a framework for heritage languages at Ohio State.

From 2013 to 2016, Martinez served as chair of the university’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese. As chair, he initiated a dual-enrollment Spanish for heritage learners program for high achieving Latino high school students. Since joining Ohio State in 2013, Martinez has also served as an adjunct professor in the College of Nursing and a member of the Cancer Control Program at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is an investigator on several grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Prior to Ohio State, Martinez served as professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of Texas– Pan American, where he held leadership roles as assistant dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literature, and executive director of the Office of International Programs. At Pan American, Martinez led the development of the nation’s first minor in medical Spanish for heritage learners, which was recognized by Excelencia in Education in 2011 as a best practice for improving Latino achievement in higher education and contributing to Latino success in health professions.

He has held faculty roles at the University of Arizona, where he also served as director of the Spanish for Heritage Learners Program, and the University of Texas at Brownsville.

“...I am ready to lock arms with faculty colleagues, students, staff and stakeholders to move COLFA forward...”

Dr. Martinez’s expertise is in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics of Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. and along the U.S.-Mexico border. His current area of focus is on language and health care, and he has published extensively on language policies in the health delivery system, on linguistic practices of Spanish-speaking patients and providers in healthcare settings, and on the development and evaluation of language pedagogy for healthcare professionals. In 2020, he published the book Spanish in Healthcare: Policy, Practice and Pedagogy in Latino Health (Routledge) and

co-authored Tension and Contention in Language Education for Latinxs in the United States: Experience and Ethics in Teaching and Learning (Routledge).

His research has been funded the U.S. Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Martinez earned a Ph.D. in Hispanic linguistics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and later completed an M.P.H. in social and behavioral health from Texas A&M Health Science Center’s School of Rural Public Health. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Texas– Pan American and a master’s degree in Spanish linguistics from the University of Houston.

“Serving as dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts is an unparalleled opportunity, and I am humbled by the chance to impact lives of so many students and their families,” Martinez said. “I am excited by President Eighmy’s and Provost Espy’s vision of UTSA becoming a model of an R1 university that stays true to its roots as a Hispanic serving institution. I’ve also been heartened by the COLFA visioning exercise, and I am ready to lock arms with faculty colleagues, students, staff and stakeholders to move COLFA forward to what I know is a bright future for the college. The opportunities are endless and the impact in the community is palpable.”

The College of Liberal and Fine Arts at UTSA is home to nine academic departments encompassing the fine arts, humanities and social sciences. With more than 4,400 students, it is UTSA’s oldest college.

COLFA shapes the education of virtually every UTSA student through its highly ranked core curriculum.

The college offers 33 degree programs, including doctorates in anthropology and English; a nationally recognized M.F.A. and one of the nation’s largest undergraduate programs in medical humanities. Its faculty includes exemplary, award-winning teachers and internationally recognized researchers and artists. COLFA is also a major provider of arts and humanities programming in Texas, reaching an audience of more than 70,000 guests annually.

Originally published on May 4, 2021 on UTSA Today Reprinted with permission.

Enhance Your Sound with Color and Connection

By Ben Carlee (B.M. ‘20)

M.M. Candidate, Texas A&M University - Commerce

A

s we approach a new school year, I wanted to share a concept I have incorporated with my private students. It has produced amazingly positive results in their growth and development as flutists and musicians. It is the concept of “color and connection.”

Recently, in my studies with Dr. Julee Kim Walker, the subject of color came up. She asked, “Ben, what is the color of your soul?” I must admit, I was taken aback. What kind of question was this and what did this have to do with flute playing? After a few moments of self-reflection, I answered: “Purple.” I was then instructed to play my tone exercise (which was the Bernold Vocalise #13), but thinking about each note as “purple.”

This seemingly simple task would prove to be invaluable to me. Right away, I played with more support and the connection in between the pitches in the exercise was palpable. I found myself playing more from my core... as if I were playing with my whole being! I began to wonder how I could integrate this idea into my teaching. Soon after, I started to incorporate this exercise with my students.

My pedagogical concept of sound has evolved into the idea of “color and connection.” However, I must clarify that I do NOT mean color as a form of tonal shading (i.e. this section has a yellow sound, while this section has a blue sound). I mean it in terms of core/air support. I have found that this works because the student puts more of themselves into their sound, as I did with Dr. Walker, which translates to more core support.

Because, I primarily teach at the high school and middle school levels, I tend to simplify the concept. Instead, I ask “What is your absolute favorite color?” For my college students, I keep the same question that was asked of me, “What is the color of your soul?” After they have answered, we begin by applying it to their tone exercise.

First, I have the student play each note as their favorite color. For example, if their favorite color is pink, I ask them to play each note “pink.” More often than not, this will produce a sound that has increased resonance and support. Then, I tell the student to not only make the pitches their favorite color, but to imagine the space in between each pitch on the page as their favorite color as well. Again, most of the time the student will play with a much more supported tone pitch to pitch resulting in a more connected legato sound. Once they are comfortable applying this concept to their tone exercises, the next step is to apply it to a more technical exercise where there is more finger movement. More finger movement will usually take the focus away from the air support, so asking the student to apply this concept to a more technical exercise usually helps alleviate this issue. I like to use Reichert #1 under tempo for this step and then gradually increase the speed. I always remind my students that no matter how small the note values are, there is always space in between those pitches that need “color and connection.”

I sincerely hope this concept of “color and connection” will help your students achieve a more homogenous and resonant sound! Have a wonderful school year!

UTSA MUSIC WELCO The new semester brings with it new faces and talents. The Department of Music strengthened our ranks in the areas of private instruction, jazz, marching band and music education with the recent hiring of five new faculty. This fall, we welcome Dr. Rachel Frederiksen, Gerardo (Jerry) Espinoza, Dr. Chad West, Don Marchand and John Caputo to #UTSAMUSIC and look forward to their contribution to our success.

Dr. Rachel Frederiksen is an active freelance bassoonist and educator from New Braunfels, TX. She currently teaches a large studio in the San Antonio area, serves as principal bassoonist in the Heart of Texas Concert Band, and is second bassoonist for the Symphony of the Hills orchestra in Kerrville.

As an artist, Frederiksen is a collaborator on Ricardo Lorenz’s chamber CD, Open Borders, which was released this past December.

‘Tendril Rapture’ was written for oboe, bassoon, and piano as part of a commissioning project that was funded through a grant award from the 2019 MSU Running Start Entrepreneurship Competition. As a researcher, Dr. Frederiksen is a part of a team of researchers and artists from the Michigan State University Residential College of Arts and Humanities (RCAH) Fellowship Program. Their project, titled ‘Love the Learner,’ investigates professor/ student relationships and their effects on student learning. Dr. Frederiksen completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Michigan State University. She holds a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Texas Lutheran University and a Master of Music and Master of Music Education degrees from Baylor University. Dr. Frederiksen joins the department as the new Lecturer of Bassoon.

Gerardo Daniel Espinoza, Jr. received his undergraduate degree in classical saxophone performance at Texas A&M--Kingsville.

While there, he studied under the direction of Professor James Warth, Dr. Russell Haight, Dr. Bennet Wood, and Professor Scott Benner. In 2013, Espinoza chose to pursue a masters degree at Texas State University in jazz studies. While at Texas State, he studied under the direction of Dr. Russell Haight, Dr. Utah Hamrick, and professor Hank Hemsoth and performed in the top jazz ensembles and jazz combos. As a professional freelance musician, Mr. Espinoza is a top call saxophonist in the area, playing with various types of small and large jazz ensembles. He has performed alongside many jazz greats such as Doc Severinsen, the Jeff Hamilton Trio and many others. He currently leads his own jazz quartet ensemble which performs regularly in popular jazz venues in the central Texas area.

Espinoza joins the Department of Music as the new director of the UTSA Jazz Ensembles.

OMES NEW FACULTY Dr. Chad West has joined the music faculty as an associate professor of instruction in music education.

His research on music teacher education and socially relevant music teaching has appeared in every major American music education journal including the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Journal of Music Teacher Education, Music Educators Journal, and the Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education. He has published two books with Oxford University Press and has given over 90 presentations at state, national, and international music education conferences, several as keynotes.

He has served on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Music Teacher Education, Music Educators Journal, and currently, the Journal of Popular Music Education. Most recently, Dr. West guest-coedited the first Music Educators Journal special focus issue on popular music education since 1991.

Don Marchand joined the staff in the summer to begin coordinating the administrative requirements for UTSA’s Spirit of San Antonio Marching Band.

Before taking on his current role as Program Specialist, Marchand had been a teacher and professional musician for over 40 years; he served 23 of those years in active duty as a Trombonist, Staff Arranger, Director of Strategic Communications, Production Manager and

Director of Operations in the USAF Band career field and retired in 2012 as a Master Sergeant.

Marchand has an Associate Degree in Applied Sciences from the Community College of the Air Force, a Bachelor of Music Performance with a concentration in jazz and commercial music from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana and a Masters of Music from University of Arkansas at Monticello. He is a native of Houston.

Euphonium soloist, conductor and educator John Caputo joins the UTSA music faculty as the Lecturer of Euphonium and Trombone. A sixteenyear veteran of the US Air Force Bands Program, he has built an international reputation for excellence as a performer and educator. As a chamber musician and clinician for the Air Force, he travelled to top university programs throughout the US with the USAF Reserve Brass Quintet. That quintet is featured on Firepower, which has played on NPR’s Performance Today over forty times in the last ten years. John was also a critical member of the Georgia Brass Band, where he performed as their Solo Euphoniumist from 2003-2010. Since retiring from active duty in 2015, John has become an active teacher and clinician throughout South Central Texas and Louisiana. He is currently the Music Director for the Austin Brass Band and the British Brass Band of Louisiana. John plays Solo Euphonium for the San Antonio Brass Band and is in demand as a soloist and clinician throughout the US. He currently resides in San Antonio with his wife Elizabeth Jones and their cats Lily and Joey Pancakes.

Staying Safe in 2021 A

fter three semesters of online learning, it is finally time to resume the normalites of inperson university life... or at least a hybrid version of it. Following the weekly updates from University of Texas at San Antonio’s president Taylor Eighmy, it was announced that the previously predicted fully in-person semester would be postponed. Instead of resuming in a traditional classroom setting, President Eighmy announced to all students and faculty on August 11, 2021 that classes will begin online for the first three weeks of the Fall 2021 semester, which took effect on August 23rd.

In addition to the switch in modality, President Eighmy implemented a mandatory COVID-19 testing requirement for students, faculty, and staff. The testing process began with the students moving into university housing and will migrate to the rest of the university community in the coming weeks. Both UTSA and #UTSAMUSIC are working hard to provide every student with the necessary tools and safety precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the unyielding Delta variant.

The Department of Music’s successful path to recovery is due to the leadership of music chair, Dr. Tracy Cowden. Cowden served as a member of the UTSA Recovery Operations Committee--a special task group of UTSA faculty and staff chaired by Assistant Vice President for Business Affairs, Mary

Hernandez whose mission during the pandemic was to work “with the Tactical Teams and university leadership to operationalize the recommendations and offer a consolidated operational response to plan for a successful return to campus operations.”

In her role, Dr. Cowden proved time and time again to be the lifeline for information and policy updates the department was in desperate need of receiving during the pandemic. She was able to put forth the protocols needed for students, staff and faculty to return safely in the 2020-21 academic year--many of which are being repeated this semester.

“We are adhering to our Spring 2021 safety protocols for in-person education until we are given the “all-clear” by the UTSA Public Health Task Force...we are continuing to recommend masks, vaccination, and physical distancing while the spread of the Delta variant remains a very serious concern in our community.”

The department has added air purifiers in all 23 practice rooms and in the studios of faculty who requested them. In addition to addressing the current situation they will also help alleviate the symptoms attributed to seasonal allergies.

Returning to campus in the midst of another uptick in COVID cases can be unsettling but #UTSAMUSIC students, faculty and staff are motivated to make the best of this most recent challenge.

“We are very much looking forward to making music together in person again! Our goal is always to foster excellence in the education of music students, research and creative activities among faculty, and engagement with the greater community. Thanks to our ability to livestream performances, and our flexibility with both inperson and virtual educational platforms, we are ready for any challenges this semester brings to us!”

As UTSA begins yet another semester online, the best defense is to mask up, get vaccinated, and stay positive and consistent in the fight against COVID-19 and the dreaded Delta variant.

Mask up and birds up this fall semester, ‘Runners!

For more information on COVID-19 vaccine locations and university updates visit https://www.utsa.edu/roadmap/.

BIRDS UP, SLEEVES UP!

HAVE A GREAT SEMESTER! STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST INFORMATION ON THE UPCOMING SEMESTER AT #UTSAMUSIC MUSIC.UTSA.EDU

FOLLOW US! @UTSAMUSIC