News you may have missed!

We're working hard to update things around here, and to that end, there are a lot of things you may have missed.  There's an awful lot to be proud of, from our students to our faculty!

Here's some selected tidbits from April 2012 until now:

• Following a successful stint in Italy (La Musica Lirica) as La Boheme's Rodolfo, UGA Doctor of Musical Arts candidate Joseph Brent was invited to sing the National Anthem for the San Francisco Giants this summer.  Brent, a graduate of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, can be seen in the titular role of next month's concert staging of The Tales of Hoffmann October 11 and 13.

• Les Chants du Maldoror, a composition by UGA Temporary Assistant Professor of Composition Natalie Williams, was featured as part of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra's New Music Symposium this past June.  The piece, conducted by Maestro Thomas Wilkins, was part of a week that culminated in a public performance in Omaha's arts district.

• Senior composition major Kent Kercher received first prize at the 2012 Georgia Young Composers Festival on April 28.  Kercher, who won with his composition Magnificat, is a student of Roger Vogel.  Fourth prize was also taken by a UGA student, freshman composition major Grant Koenning, who was sponsored by Leonard Ball.

• Hodgson School professor Amy Pollard was named 2012-2014 Lilly Teaching Fellow by UGA's Center for Teaching and Learning.  The program, which is directed by UGA horn professor Jean Martin-Williams,  selects young educators with great potential and mentors them through two years of intensive educational programs.

• Jennifer Holloway (B.M. vocal performance, 2000) has been chosen as an inaugural recipient of the Franklin College’s Outstanding Alumni Award.  Holloway, who has appeared in the premier opera houses of both America and Europe, made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010 as Flora in La Traviata.  She was nominated by voice professor Stephanie Tingler, and will be recognized at a ceremony on Oct. 18 at the Athens Country Club.

•  Congratulations to Jean Martin-Williams, who was named 2012 Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor this past April.  Martin-Williams, who joined the Hugh Hodgson School of Music faculty in 1990, was the first female tenure-track faculty member in the woodwind, brass, or percussion areas of the school.  The Meigs Professorship recognizes excellence in teaching at UGA, awarding a maximum of five educators at the university each year.