Faculty News - Summer 2015

The faculty of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music stayed busy over the summer with performances, seminars and conferences on regional, national and international stages.

Timothy Adams Jr., chair of the Percussion area, and Kimberly Toscano-Adams, Instructor of Percussion, hosted the 34th-annual Cloyd Duff International Timpani Seminar at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music (pictured at right). Students traveled as far as Sweden and Argentina to attend the class. Faculty included Tom Freer of the Cleveland Orchestra and Jim Atwood of the Louisiana Philharmonic.

Peter Jutras, Associate Professor of Piano, was the headline presenter at the Oregon State Music Teachers Association Conference in Welches, Oregon, and delivered an address at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago.

Philip Smith, the William F. and Pamela P. Prokasy Professor in the Arts, conducted, taught or performed with a variety of groups in locations across the globe: the Domaine Forget Brass Academy in Sainte-Irenee, Quebec, Canada; the Blekinge International Brass Academy in Karlskrona, Sweden; the Imperial Brass Band at the Ocean Grove Summer Stars Series in Ocean Grove, New Jersey; the MasterWorks Festival at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana; and the Gramercy Brass Band Camp at Montclair State College in Montclair, New Jersey.

Double Bass Professor Milton Masciadri directed the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s Study Abroad program at conservatories in Parma, Alessandria and Torino in Italy. In addition to performing in Milan and Paris, Masciadri taught and performed at “Mango Musica” Italy, the 30th International Music Festival of the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, and the International Chamber Music Symposium of String Instruments in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Joshua Bynum, Associate Professor of Trombone, will join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as 2nd Trombonist for the 2015-2016 season. Bynum’s first solo recording, with pianist and HHSOM resident accompanist Anatoly Sheludyakov, will be available through Potenza Music soon.

Harp Instructor Monica Hargrave spent two weeks teaching the history of African-American music to 40 graduate students in Xi’an, Shaanxi, China. The students learned about spirituals, gospel, jazz, rap, and hip hop as well as different rhythmical patterns. In addition to teaching the course materials, Hargrave received lessons on a harp-like, ancient Chinese instrument, the guzheng.

Roy Kennedy, director of the Music Therapy program, presented three research papers and attended the executive board meeting at the Interdisciplinary Society of Quantitative Research for Music and Medicine Conference at Immaculata University in Malvern, PA.