The Board of Trustees today approved the degrees for Tennessee natives John Seigenthaler and Mary Costa. Seigenthaler will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and speak at the College of Law commencement at 5:00 p.m. on May 10. Costa will speak and receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane and Musical Letters at the College of Arts and Science commencement at 9:00 a.m. on May 10.

Theirs will be the fifth and sixth honorary degrees UT Knoxville has awarded.

“Throughout his career as a journalist, writer, and public servant, Mr. Seigenthaler has been a staunch advocate and defender of free speech and civil rights. His passion for human equality, for the pursuit of truth, and for protection of free speech and a free press have improved the lives of all Americans,” College of Law Dean Doug Blaze wrote in his letter nominating Seigenthaler for the honor.

A Nashville native, Seigenthaler worked at The Tennessean for forty-three years, moving up from reporter to assistant city editor to special assignment editor and ultimately to editor, publisher, and CEO. While there, he investigated corruption within the local branch of the Teamsters and looked into the criminal activities of Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa. His articles led to the impeachment trial of Chattanooga Criminal Court Judge Ralston Schoolfield.

He took a short break from journalism in the early 1960s to serve in the US Department of Justice as administrative assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He served as negotiator with the governor of Alabama during the Freedom Rides. During that crisis, while attempting to aid Freedom Riders in Montgomery, he was attacked by a mob of Klansmen and hospitalized.

In 1982, while still working at The Tennessean, Seigenthaler became founding editorial director of USA Today. He retired as chairman emeritus of The Tennessean and from USA Today in 1991.

Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center in 1991 to create national discussion, dialogue, and debate about First Amendment rights and values. The center is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and is associated with the Newseum and the Diversity Institute. The center has offices in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University and at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Seigenthaler attended Peabody College, which is now part of Vanderbilt University, and the American Press Institute at Columbia University. He served in the US Air Force after World War II.

The other honorary degree recipient is a well-known Knoxvillian and advocate for children and advancing art and culture.

School of Music Director Jeff Pappas nominated Costa for the honorary degree, saying she was worthy of the honor “because of her extensive and varied career, not just as a musician and entertainer, but for her role as a cultural ambassador, an advocate for the arts, education, young musicians, and at-risk children at the regional and national levels.”

Costa studied at the Los Angeles Conservatory in the late 1940s. An internationally acclaimed soprano, she performed in forty-four operas and worked with many of Hollywood’s legendary entertainers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jack Benny.

But it was early in her career, while she was singing and doing commercials on the radio, that Walt Disney discovered Costa and cast her as Princess Aurora in the 1958 film Sleeping Beauty.

Costa’s big break in opera came in 1958, just after she finished Sleeping Beauty. She was chosen to replace an indisposed Elisabeth Schwarzkopf for a gala concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Costa went on to sing leading roles in opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House in London, the Bolshoi Theatre, and the San Francisco Opera.

Costa—once heralded by The New York Times as “one of the most beautiful women to grace the operatic stage”—was the guest soloist at the memorial service for President John F. Kennedy at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1963. She also sang at the inaugural concert of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971.

She received the Licia Albanese–Puccini Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989 and the Disney Legends Award in 1999, and was honored with the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Distinguished Verdi Performance of the Twentieth Century for her 1964 Met debut as Violetta in La Traviata. She was appointed to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush in 2003 and served until 2007.

Costa has traveled across the country giving motivational talks at schools and colleges. She has served as an ambassador for Childhelp, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect.

UT Knoxville also has given honorary degrees to Howard H. Baker Jr., Dolly Parton, Al Gore, and Charles O. “Chad” Holiday.

Read more about today’s Board of Trustees meeting at the University of Tennessee System website.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

The public is invited to the free concert, which will begin at 7:30 p.m.

The event will feature a seventy-piece orchestra and more than 150 singers on stage—members of the Chamber Singers, the Concert Choir, the Men’s Chorale, the Women’s Chorale, and the Symphony Orchestra—all students from the UT School of Music.

“In the past, faculty and professional musicians would be needed to help a university-level ensemble attempt a work like Beethoven’s Ninth,” said James Fellenbaum, UT director of orchestras, who will conduct the concert. “Today, UT has many talented students who are more than capable of performing the vocal solo, orchestral, and choral parts.”

Symphony no. 9 was a revolutionary piece that changed the face of classical music, Fellenbaum said. Before Beethoven, no one had used a chorus and vocal soloists in a symphony before.

“The Ninth Symphony is just as challenging to play today,” he said. “It is a big undertaking for any program—professional or university-level—to perform.”

Some of the work is well known to the public.

“Music from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is often used to underscore a moment of triumph or joy in a lot of different media, like TV, movies, and radio,” Fellenbaum said. “For example, the trailer for the new Die Hard movie uses parts of the symphony’s final movement.”

For more information about the concert, visit www.music.utk.edu/events.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

Barbara Hill (865-974-8935, bhill29@utk.edu)

ReVOLution members pose with their qualifying certificate after Saturday’s competition.
Front row, from left to right: Jenna Weaver, Jenny Darden, Madelyn Pierce, Holly Ownby. Back row, from left to right: Sara Sinclair Wilkinson, Carrie Honaker, McKinley Merritt, Lauren Arp, Hana Lamb, Emily Emadian, Maddy Witt.

ReVOLution, UT’s all-women a cappella group, trumped challengers from several major universities this weekend to advance to the national semifinals of a collegiate a cappella competition.

The ensemble performed in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday in the regional finals of the 2013 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. They beat groups from several schools including Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, Southern Methodist University, University of North Texas, and Baylor University.

The ensemble’s next stop is the national semifinals in Nashville on March 23. ReVOLution is the first UT group ever accepted into the international competition. The eleven-member ensemble was formed in 2010.

Collegiate contemporary a cappella ensembles are singing groups that perform entirely without instruments.

To learn more about reVOLution and to listen to more of their music, visit their Facebook page (no log-in required).

Watch their recent interview and performance on WBIR Channel 10.

UT will commemorate the seventieth anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s final performance with an 8:00 p.m. concert on Sunday, February 17, featuring internationally acclaimed Russian pianist Evgheny Brakhman.

The celebration, “Rachmaninoff Remembered,” will take place in the Cox Auditorium of the Alumni Memorial Building, the same building where Rachmaninoff played. It is free and open to the public.

Brakhman will perform an all-Rachmaninoff program, including 6 Etudes-Tableaux op. 33 and 39; Variations on a Theme of Corelli, op. 42; 6 Preludes op. 23 and 32; and Sonata No. 2, op. 36.

The UT School of Music and the UT College of Arts and Sciences, in partnership with the Evelyn Miller Young Pianist Series, are presenting the event.

Media sponsors are WUOT 91.9 FM and WUTK 90.3 FM radio stations.

Rachmaninoff was a towering figure in late nineteenth and early twentieth century music. He was renowned as a composer, conductor, and one of the brilliant pianists of his time.

He was born in Russia in 1873 and achieved great success as a young pianist and composer.

A statue honoring the pianist/composer is at the World’s Fair Park downtown. It is entitled “Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert” and was created by sculptor Victor Bokarov.

For more information about the concert, visit the School of Music website.

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CONTACTS:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

Barbara Hill (865-974-8935, (bhill29@utk.edu)

The submission deadline for the contest is August 1, 2013.

The competition is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Music, and the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society.

“It takes a long time to write a piece of music and we want to give musicians as much lead time as possible,” said David Royse, associate professor of music education, who is coordinating the competition along with Brendan McConville, assistant professor of music theory, and Barbara Murphy, associate professor of music theory.

The competition is named after famous jazz trumpeter Doc Severinsen, the longtime band leader of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and a Grammy Award winner. Severinsen will help judge the contest.

All types of composers are encouraged to apply, from church musicians and music teachers to professional composers and students.

“There may be a young Mozart out there and we want to find him or her,” Royse said.

The music must be for solo trumpet and large ensemble, which could either be a symphony orchestra or wind ensemble.

The first-place prize is $10,000, second-place prize is $5,000, and third-place prize is $2,000.

The winners will debut their works during a world premiere performance with internationally renowned trumpeters Vince DiMartino and Allen Vizzutti on Friday, February 14, 2014, at 8:00 p.m. in Cox Auditorium of the Alumni Memorial Building.

The performance will be held during the Joint Regional Conference of the College Music Society Southern Chapter, the College Music Society Mid-Atlantic Chapter and the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, planned for February 13 to 15, 2014, at UT’s new Natalie L. Haslam Music Center.

Click here for more information including contest details, requirements and rules.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

That’s the premise behind one of the holiday’s newest crazes—Elf on a Shelf. And it’s the brainchild of Carol Aebersold, a UT alumna.

Through self-publishing and grassroots marketing, Aebersold and her daughters have introduced their elf into tens of thousands of homes, while building a multi-million dollar product line.

Growing up in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Aebersold had a scout elf named Fisbee. When Aebersold married, Fisbee tagged along with her to keep an eye on her children during the holidays. After Aebersold’s children were grown, one of her twin daughters, Chanda Bell, suggested that they could write a book about Fisbee and share their elf tradition with the world.

Aebersold resisted at first. Eventually, she gave in to Bell’s request, and in 2005 the pair created the beginnings of what would become the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon.

“It was something fun for both of us to do,” Aebersold said, reflecting on the project’s humble beginning. “But no one would publish the book. So we published it ourselves.”

Aebersold’s daughter Christa Pitts sold her house and moved in with her parents while Bell maxed out her credit cards in order to get the book printed.

Carol Aebersold, center, with her daughters, Christa Pitts, left, and Chanda Bell, right.

“We asked Santa to send us some elves,” said Aebersold. “Then we printed the books and started going around to service leagues. After that it spread by word of mouth.”

And spread it has.

Less than a decade later, Elf on the Shelf is quite the holiday craze with more than a million elves having been adopted. It’s now sold at more than 10,000 stores.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the traditional time that the Elf on the Shelf watches children and reports back nightly to the North Pole, children wake up each morning eager to find where their elf is hiding. And parents say the elf provides a visible reminder for children to behave.

Last year, Elf on the Shelf inspired “The Elf on the Shelf: An Elf’s Story,” an animated television special on CBS. Aebersold—who got her bachelor’s degree in music education from UT in 1970—wrote two original songs for the show. This year, the elf appeared as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The tradition has also inspired a legion of moms, who devote time and energy into creative endeavors for their child’s elf. There are websites and Pinterest boards dedicated to the Elf on the Shelf and the shenanigans that ensue while children are sleeping.

“My elf wasn’t quite as creative as these spectacular moms,” said Aebersold. “But Santa is such a gentleman that he will send you the kind of elf that fits your family.”

Aebersold, whom kids often mistake for Mrs. Claus, said her favorite elf story is about a family who found that their elf had lodged himself in a box of breakfast cereal and had to be extricated with salad tongs.

Why salad tongs? All good elf families know that the most important rule of Elf on the Shelf is that you don’t touch the Elf on the Shelf. Being touched by a human could cause the elf to lose all of its magic and result in a trip to the emergency room at the North Pole.

During the holidays, Aebersold spends her time traveling to more than 100 events to support Elf on the Shelf. This year, the brand went global and elves traveled from the North Pole to the United Kingdom, Australia, and Ireland.

“It’s all about creating family moments,” Aebersold said. “It’s wonderful to have kids coming up to me every day to ask about the elves, or to have parents tell me how it reminds them of their childhood. It’s very heartwarming.”

Ayres Hall

Shelley Binder, associate professor of music, has been named chair of the finance committee for the National Flute Association. The position is a four-year appointment. She also is featured as a new artist/performer on the Miyazawa Flute website. Miyazawa is a Japanese company renowned for its handcrafted professional flutes.

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Ham Bozdogan, a professor in the Department of Statistics, Operations, and Management Science, has become an advisory board member of Türkiye Klinikleri Journal of Medical Sciences, a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed medical journal based in Turkey.

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Ralph Brockett, professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, has received the Imogene Okes Award for outstanding research in adult education. The award was presented in November at a reception in Las Vegas. Brockett and his colleague Susan Stockdale at Kennesaw State University won for their “Development of the PRO-SDLS: A Measure of Self-Direction in Learning Based on the Personal Responsibility Orientation Model,” published in Adult Education Quarterly in May 2011. Brockett teaches graduate courses in adult learning and research methods.

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Terry Hazen, UT/ORNL Governor’s Chair for Environmental Biotechnology has co-authored a paper that appeared on cover of Environmental Microbiology. The paper is entitled “Deep-sea bacteria enriched by oil and dispersant from the Deepwater Horizon spill.” The paper shows how the Macondo oil degrades at low temperature with and without dispersant and other amendments at the refrigerator temperatures in the deep gulf, and which microbial communities members were responsible for the oil degradation in the deep Gulf of Mexico.

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Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has appointed George Hyfantis, an adjunct professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to the new combined Tennessee Underground Storage Tank and Solid Waste Disposal Control Board. This new board combines the regulatory oversight functions of the former Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Board and the Solid Waste Disposal Control Board. Hyfantis was chosen to represent an institution of higher learning. He has been an adjunct professor in civil engineering for more than thirty years, teaching mainly the graduate course Solid and Hazardous Waste Management.

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Claudia Rawn, joint faculty assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and Jeffrey Reinbolt, assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering, were selected to attend the Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium in October at the National Academies’ Beckman Center in Irvine, California. The Frontiers of Engineering program brings together a select group of emerging engineering leaders from industry, academe, and government labs to discuss pioneering technical work and leading edge research in various engineering fields and industry sectors.

Clarence Brown Theatre

Since 2005, Clarence Brown Theatre has presented A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ classic tale of a life redeemed, every holiday season. This year, director Casey Sams is switching things up a bit. The revamped production features new costumes, a new set, musicians on stage, and snow.

Sams and the designers have set the story inside a snow globe.

“That means there will be lots of snow for the set,” Sams said.

The play opens Friday, November 30, and runs through Sunday, December 23.

See the Clarence Brown Theatre website for show times and ticket prices.

UT School of Music

The holidays and music are strongly linked, and UT’s School of Music will host two events to showcase its talent and celebrate the holidays.

“Jazz for Tots,” a charity event for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Campaign, will feature jazz ensembles performing holiday classics. It begins at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 2, in the James R. Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building. For admission, bring a new unwrapped toy to donate to the Toys for Tots campaign.

The School of Music’s annual Holiday Choral Concert will begin at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 4, at the James R. Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building. Admission is free.

Visit the School of Music website for more information.

UT Gardens

Although the Holiday Express has moved from UT Gardens to Dollywood’s Eagle Theatre, the gardens are offering plenty of holiday activities for all ages, including the following classes:

Saturday, December 1

• Grandkids Growing: Trash into Treasure, 10:00 a.m. to noon. Grandparents and their grandchildren will learn how to make recycled cards and envelopes just in time for the holiday season. Cost is $10 per family for Friends of the UT Gardens members and $14 per family for nonmembers.
• Adult Workshop: Wreath Making, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Wreath-making beginners will be led step by step to create their own holiday wreath out of evergreen and other natural materials. Cost is $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers.

Friday, December 14

• Garden Sprouts: Gingerbread Cookies, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. Children ages three through five and their parents will learn how ginger root is used to make gingerbread, a traditional holiday treat. Children also will decorate a gingerbread boy or girl to eat and a gingerbread ornament to take home. Cost is $8 for members and $12 for nonmembers.

Saturday, December 15

• Garden Buds: Homemade Ornaments, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Children ages six through nine will learn how to make holiday ornaments from items commonly found around the house or yard, including popcorn and cranberry garland and pinecone ornaments. Cost is $10 for members and $14 for nonmembers.

Preregistration is required for all classes. Contact Derrick Stowell at 865-974-7151 or dstowell@utk.edu to preregister.

Visit the UT Gardens website for more information.

Frank H. McClung Museum

The McClung Museum on campus has collections of anthropology, archaeology, decorative arts, local history, and natural history. It is easy to spend hours wandering through the displays, learning about the geology, history, art, and culture of Tennessee as well as places around the world.

Current exhibits include

• Zen Buddhism and the Arts of Japan. Ending December 31.
• Celebrating the Tercentennial of Mark Catesby. Mark Catesby’s early eighteenth century illustrations of America’s flora and fauna.
• Ancient Egypt: The Eternal Voice. Ancient Egyptian objects arranged in categories of history, daily life, religion, and writing.
• Archaeology and Native Peoples of Tennessee. More than sixty-five years of research by UT archaeologists provides an in-depth view of the rich Native American heritage in Tennessee.
• The Decorative Experience. A collection of decorative objects from various cultures and ages.
• Geology and Fossil History of Tennessee.
• Human Origins: Searching for Our Fossil Ancestors. Casts of fossil hominids, artists’ reconstructions of life scenes, maps, diagrams, videos, and artifacts help explain human evolution.
• The Battle of Fort Sanders. East Tennessee’s pivotal role in the American Civil War.
• Tennessee Freshwater Mussels. Diversity of freshwater mussels, as well as their Native American and commercial uses.

The museum is free and open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. It will be closed December 24 and 25 and January 1.

For more information, visit the McClung Museum website.

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C O N T A C T :

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

The first session will begin at 2:15 p.m. and will include a mini-concert and a workshop on voice building and the male changing voice. The second session will begin at 3:45 p.m. and will include another concert and a workshop on music literacy. The workshops are geared toward area teachers and church directors who have children’s choirs.

All events, which are free and open to the public, will be held in the James R. Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building. The UT School of Music is sponsoring the event.

The choir is comprised of boys in grades four through eight who come from different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds from around the United States. They attend the Princeton, N.J.-based American Boychoir School, where they pursue a rigorous musical and academic curriculum. The school is the only nonsectarian boys’ choir school in the nation.

The choir has an active national and international touring schedule and performs with world-class ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. The group appears regularly as featured artists with James Levine at the Tanglewood Music Festival, and has performed with internationally renowned soprano Jessye Norman, prominent jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, pop diva Beyoncé, and at Carnegie Hall with Sir Paul McCartney.

The choir has been extensively recorded on its own label, Albemarle Records, and broadcast on radio and television, with more than forty-five commercial recordings.

To learn more about the American Boychoir, visit their website.

To learn more about the School of Music, visit the website.

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CONTACTS:

Angela Batey (865-974-6649, abatey@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

West African dance and drumming at the 2010 symposium.

Educators interested in integrating music into the curriculum to improve student achievement, and musicians who want to hone their craft, are invited to a six-day conference at UT.

The ninth biennial National Symposium on Multicultural Music will be held October 8-13.

The event is for general music teachers, choral and band directors, university students and professors, and the local community. Participants may earn professional development credit.

“We don’t live in isolation, especially as it pertains to music,” said Marvelene Moore, a UT professor of music education and founder of the symposium. “My goal is to bring together people from all walks of life to experience and participate in different types of ethnic music and genres.”

The symposium will kick off with a Multicultural Music Celebration Day that will feature performances and music ranging from Appalachian and Native American to Cajun and African drumming. The UT student jazz ensemble also will perform. About fifty booths will be set up at the all-day event on the Pedestrian Walkway on campus. The celebration day, which is free and open to be the public, will be held in partnership with the UT Appalachian Heritage Festival.

Bagpipes of Scotland at the 2010 symposium.

The next five days of the conference will feature a variety of paid sessions. Participants will learn from national and international experts on music integration and multicultural music.

The event will include field trips to the Museum of Appalachia in Norris and Knox County’s Mooreland Heights Elementary School, which has a successful arts integration program. There also will be folk dancing and storytelling.

The symposium sessions will be held at UT, at the UT Conference Center, and the Museum of Appalachia. Participants may register for one or a group of tracks.

Moore established the symposium in 1999 as a resource and inexpensive training for music teachers in the East Tennessee region. It has since grown to attract teachers from across the country. They have come from as far away as California and Washington State.

Melinda Russell, an elementary school teacher in Virginia, called past symposiums “a real shot in the arm.”

They’ve reinvigorated her teaching, she said. Because of the symposiums, she purchased angklungs, musical instruments made of bamboo, to help her students learn about the culture and music of Indonesia. She also added stories about Appalachian and Irish music to other curriculum units.

Korean mask used in dance and drama at the 2010 symposium.

“I don’t want children to hear different languages or music and start to laugh simply because they don’t understand it or have not experienced it,” said Russell, who plans to attend this year. “If we can help our children learn about other cultures, I think they will be more understanding of people in general.”

For Nancy Kahler, a teacher in Ohio, attending past symposiums has provided an intimate connection with the presenters and their music. The meetings have given her tools to create more effective lesson plans.

“More than that, I have new energy to share with my students at school and my church choirs,” she said.

The symposium is sponsored by the School of Music, the College of Arts and Sciences, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the Ready for the World initiative.

To register for workshops, or to see a detailed schedule of events and fee information, visit the symposium’s website.

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PHOTO CAPTIONS:

Korean mask used in dance and drama at the 2010 symposium

Bagpipes of Scotland at the 2010 symposium

West African dance and drumming at the 2010 symposium

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

That passion led the soprano to UT where she is a first-year graduate student in music with a concentration in opera. It also put her on the national stage Monday when she was invited to sing at a rally for President Barack Obama at Eden Park Seasongood Pavilion in Cincinnati.

Gabbard sang the national anthem before a crowd of about 3,000 people. Watch her performance on YouTube.

“It was incredible,” she said, noting that the crowd included family and a few friends.

Gabbard lived in Cincinnati and worked at a coffee shop there prior to coming to Knoxville. While there, she studied voice and operatic techniques with master instructor Alison Accord.

“I felt very privileged to be singing in front of the community I support and where I’ve lived,” she said.

She was chosen from a pool of about 20 people after a former colleague recommended her to the head of the president’s Columbus, Ohio, office.

Gabbard, who received her undergraduate degree in music from Willamette University in Oregon, has sung for several renowned opera singers including Gabriel Lechner and Barbara Bonney.

At one time, she added, “I sang in a bar for one of my all-time favorite folk-singers, Richard Buckner. It was a spontaneous request and very memorable.”

Now back in Knoxville, Gabbard is preparing for upcoming performances. This November, she will play the role of Musetta in the UT Opera Theatre’s production of La Boheme. In the spring, she will perform the role of Lucia in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.

Jeffrey Pappas began work August 1 as the school’s new director.

Among his priorities will be getting the new Natalie L. Haslam Music Center up and running and promoting the School of Music’s Steinway initiative, which is integral to the university’s mission of becoming a Top 25 public research institution. To receive All-Steinway School status, an international mark of music excellence, at least 90 percent of an institution’s pianos must be Steinway-designed. The school’s goal is to raise $3.5 million to purchase sixty-one Steinway pianos. To date, the school has received more than $1.6 million in gift commitments, with the purchase of pianos underway.

The new $40 million music building will open to students in fall 2013. It represents the first time all School of Music programs will be under one roof.

The four-floor, 123,000-square-foot facility will include the 400-seat Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall; a new music library; rehearsal facilities for band, choral, opera, and orchestra programs; computer labs, a recording studio; forty performance studios/offices; and a variety of technology-enhanced classroom and rehearsal rooms.

Pappas said all the changes will give music students more opportunities than they’ve ever had before.

“Students will have every opportunity to fully develop their talents,” he said. “We expect to graduate students who are at the top of their game.”

A Cincinnati native, Pappas got his start in music at age 5, when his father, a semi-professional athlete, encouraged him to take piano lessons to ensure he had a well-rounded life experience. He could often be found playing the piano next to the machines in his family’s dry cleaning business. But, it was winning a voice competition that ignited Pappas’ passion for music and set the course for his education and career.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Northern Kentucky University, a master’s degree in choral conducting from the University of Illinois, and a doctorate in choral conducting and pedagogy from the University of Iowa.

Pappas spent the last five years as professor and chair of the Department of Music at Marshall University. Prior to his appointment at Marshall, he was the director of choral activities and coordinator of ensembles and conducting at Ball State University. He has also served in positions at Mississippi State University, Clarke College, and Otterbein College.

“I view leadership as a calling to serve,” Pappas said of his new position. “The best leaders and administrators serve. As director, I’m here to serve the faculty, staff, and students of our great School of Music. I feel privileged to have that opportunity.”

Pappas succeeds the late Roger Stephens, who was director of the School of Music from August 2001 through February 2011. Angela Batey, UT director of choral activities, served as interim director.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pBHBd-Iagg

See more from the students’ trip here.

Their concerts in Dublin and Belfast will feature selections from the Anglican Church genre of Choral Evensong, which includes such musical forms as Preces and Responses, a call-and-response form of singing.

The Chamber Singers will be in Ireland through July 10.

Follow their journey through their videos and photographs.

Read more about their trip here.

But first, they will give the East Tennessee community a chance to enjoy some of the same music at a send-off concert Thursday, June 28. The 8:00 p.m. event, which is free and open to the public, will be at Farragut Presbyterian Church, 209 Jamestowne Blvd.

The concert, entitled To the Emerald Isle, will feature selections from the Anglican Church genre of Choral Evensong, which includes such musical forms as Preces and Responses, a call and response form of singing. This choral genre also includes the chanting of psalms by the choir, a practice that dates back centuries. It has been set to music by hundreds of composers.

Watch the video below for a preview of the group’s musical presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0q3avC_xHA

Two days later, on June 30, the choral ensemble will fly to Ireland for a ten-day concert tour with stops in Dublin and Belfast.

Their performance venues will include Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, which is the national cathedral of the Republic of Ireland; Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin where George Frideric Handel premiered his famous Messiah; Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, where St. Patrick is believed to be buried; and St. Nicholas’ Parish Church and Bangor Abbey, both in Belfast.

“For many of the students, this will be their first international trip,” said Angela Batey, interim director of the School of Music, director of graduate studies, and director of choral activities. She coordinated the trip.

Planning for the trip began two years ago. Preparations began in earnest in January when Batey required trip participants to sign up for a specially created course in the spring, Special Topics: Cultural Studies of Ireland.

It taught them about the culture and history of Ireland, from its religious conflict to its musical legacy. They learned of the two countries inhabiting the island—Republic of Ireland, a free-standing nation, and Northern Island, which is under the British crown.

Students also received a historic perspective of Choral Evensong, from the early Renaissance period to the Victorian era to the twentieth century.

“We want them to be aware and sensitive to cultural differences,” Batey said. “I think the students, having gone through the class, will now experience what they’ve learned.”

While in Ireland, the ensemble will perform thirty-eight pieces of music including several composed by a UT alumnus now attending graduate school at the University of Miami. Batey commissioned him to write the works.

Two members of UT’s Video and Photography Center will travel with the choral group to collect film to produce a documentary. The same team filmed the UT choral group’s premiere solo performance at Carnegie Hall in 2007. That documentary won a Silver Telly Award, a national honor that recognizes the best film and video productions, online video content, and local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs.

The documentary will bring more exposure to the university, Batey said.

It will likely be shown on UTTV, the university’s cable channel, and on campus.

“I want it to be used as a recruitment piece that shows UT’s Ready for the World initiative in action and how it makes a different in these kids’ lives,” she said. “I want to share the growth of our students in many ways.”

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

Jeremiah Welch, of Knoxville, will join other youth from around the country at the celebration, which will take place at the Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC.

The event is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Along with travel support, Welch, a sophomore cello performance major, will receive a $500 honorarium.

The event will begin with an art exhibit featuring contributions from youth, which will be sponsored by the American Art Therapy Association. Following the exhibit will be a tribute to the heroes of hope—family, friends and providers—who have helped young people who have experienced trauma.

Natalie Haslam signs the final steel beam to be placed in the new Natalie L. Haslam Music Center.

The final steel beam was placed on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s new Natalie L. Haslam Music Center on Wednesday, April 25, in a ceremony marking the midway point for construction.

Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek joined philanthropist Natalie Haslam, for whom the center is named, students, faculty, and administrators in signing the twenty-foot steel beam before it was set over the building’s north entrance.

The $40 million project began in 2010 and the building will open to students in fall 2013.

“I am quite honored and humbled to be here in this capacity,” Natalie Haslam said. “Jim and I are very proud of the University of Tennessee. We’ve been hanging around here over sixty years.”

She noted the university’s journey to becoming a Top 25 institution.

“I hope a building like this will make that realization true,” she said.

Cheek said the project set the course for the School of Music’s bright future.

“The support of Jim and Natalie Haslam was critical to this. Today, we celebrate Natalie’s love for music, the arts, literature, and her university,” Cheek said.

Natalie and Jim Haslam and the Haslam Family Foundation gave UT $32.5 million, $10 million of which was designated to the School of Music. The donation made the new facility possible. The state of Tennessee allocated $30 million.

“The Haslam gift was transformational,” said Angela Batey, interim director of the School of Music and director of choral activities.

She noted that it will make a difference in recruiting talented musicians.

“They’ll walk in and see themselves on the stage, and they’ll say, ‘This is a place where I can hone my craft,’” Batey said.

The new school will be a boon for all departments and will help enhance graduate programs.

The building also will be a community asset, which all lovers of music and the arts will enjoy, Batey said.

The new center replaces a facility that was constructed in 1964 to accommodate 100 students. The School of Music now has 400 students.

The four-floor, 123,000-square-foot facility will include the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall, named for another donor, a new music library, rehearsal facilities for band, choral, opera, and orchestra programs, computer labs, a recording studio, forty performance studios/offices, and a variety of technology-enhanced classroom and rehearsal rooms.

The orchestral library will be named for Roger Stephens, the late director of the School of Music, who was a driving force in the planning for the facility for many years before his death in early 2011.

BarberMcMurry Architects and Blankenship and Partners designed the center and Johnson and Galyon is the contractor.

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C O N T A C T :

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

A 1:00 p.m. ceremony will follow. Both events will take place on the corner of Volunteer Boulevard and Pat Head Summitt Street. The “Topping Out” ceremony marks the midway point in the construction of the building. The 123,000-square-foot facility will open to students in fall 2013.

The four-floor, state-of-the art center will include the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall; a new music library; rehearsal facilities for band, choral, opera, and orchestra programs; computer labs; a recording studio; forty performance studios/offices; and a variety of technology-enhanced classroom and rehearsal rooms.

The Showcase 2012: Soundsation! begins at 6:00 p.m. The black-tie-optional event will be held at the Knoxville Museum of Art and will include live music and fine dining.

School of Music students and internationally acclaimed UT faculty will provide live entertainment throughout the evening.

Event goers may bid on private musical performances by artists of the School of Music at their home or another location, a sightseeing or aerobatic flight in a World War II plane, one week in a vacation home with pool and home theater, Knoxville Opera season tickets, an original enamel and Swarovski crystal wine stopper, and a golf outing in Wears Valley.

Reservations and a minimum sponsorship of $150 per person are required. Three additional levels of donor sponsorship are offered, namely, Maestro, Impresario and Aficionado. Each level offers unique honors and rewards.

Last year, the board of advisors raised nearly $30,000 for student scholarships, helping many students to continue their education. This year, the board hopes to surpass that amount to help more students and award more scholarship dollars.

For more information and to view a list of auction items, visit music.utk.edu/soundsation or call 865-974-3241 or 865-974-8935.