How do we fall in love with the arts? For many of us, it begins in childhood. My own love of the arts started early, which may be surprising given that I was raised on a naval base in the middle of California’s Mojave Desert.
My mother was a landscape artist who painted in oils; thus, the smell of turpentine is embedded in my earliest memories. While she would paint en plein air, I would busy myself by spelling out the colors of her Grumbacher® oils: Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Yellow Ochre are three that I can still recall. My mother’s taste in art was for the Impressionists, and our family would journey to see the new exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As a teenager, I developed an appreciation for Abstract Impressionism.
An electrical engineer and audiophile, my father was fascinated with the mechanics of the theater organ. After he purchased one for our house on the naval base, I began to take organ lessons. Sometime around age twelve, I transitioned from the glissandos of the theater organ to the counterpoint of Bach at the base’s All Faith Chapel. I went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in organ performance from the New England Conservatory and a master’s in organ performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music.
I developed a love for theater from local community productions, which my father would record on reel-to-reel tape. As a child, I was tasked with running the extension cords and microphone cables underneath the stage. For productions that included children—such as Oliver! and Hello Dolly!—I began auditioning and performing. I later pursued this interest when I earned an MA and PhD in musicology from Eastman, writing my dissertation, and subsequent publications, on Lady in the Dark, a hit Broadway musical from the 1940s.
My parents and their friends formed a concert association to present performing artists at the naval base’s movie theater. As a child, I experienced such artists as Van Cliburn and Jascha Heifetz and saw Alvin Ailey himself dance. From this series, I developed a passion for contemporary dance, traveling to Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires as an undergraduate and later to see Garth Fagan Dance while in Rochester as a graduate student. During the 27 years I spent as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Cincinnati, my partner and I rarely missed the Cincinnati Ballet’s new works programs.
I found my love of art, music, theater, and dance all during childhood. The necessity of exposing children to the arts drives CVPA’s community engagement programs for youth, such as the Summer Arts and Design Intensive, the Lillian Rauch Beginning Strings Program, and the North Carolina Theatre for Young People. The Cemala Foundation is enabling UNCG’s Concert and Lecture Series to hold special performances and interactions for children in the Guilford County Schools.
It is critical that we pass on our own love of the arts to children from across our community by making the arts accessible to all.
bruce d. mcclung, Dean
College of Visual and Performing Arts
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In the spirit of St. Valentine’s Day, the CVPA February newsletter is featuring love stories—stories of love between people and stories of love for the arts.
Arts students are a dedicated bunch. They eat, sleep, and breathe Art, Arts Administration, Dance, Music, and Theater, so it is no wonder so many form their most important and lasting relationships with people doing the same thing.
We asked some CVPA couples to share their Valentine's Stories. We know there are many more out there, so feel free to share yours here. We'll be posting these to social media during the month of February. |
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Barbara Campbell Thomas (Professor of Painting, Printmaking, and Drawing)
Chris Thomas (Academic Professional in Printmaking and Drawing)
Chris and I went to the same high school in northeastern Pennsylvania. I had a huge crush on him, but I was very shy so I didn’t tell him.
We both went on to get art degrees, then on to grad school.We reconnected after graduation when we both wound up in the magazine New American Paintings.
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Jon Anderson (’00 MM Music)
Doug Risner (2017 CVPA Distinguished Alumnus,’01 PhD Education, ’90 MFA and ’88 BFA Dance)
Our combined UNCG stories run deep and are lasting. We can’t imagine our career paths without UNCG, especially the dedicated faculty and our peer colleagues.
Each summer we return to North Carolina for three weeks on Emerald Isle, a tradition that began during our graduate work at UNCG. Our annual trek to the beach always includes an overnight stay in Greensboro with beers and chicken tenders at the Old Town Draught House.
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Karina Davidson
Grigor Zakyan
Current students
We are both at UNCG—me with an English and a Dance major and Grish with an Entrepreneurship major and Dance minor.
We also are both principal dancers with Triad International Ballet, and we love sharing the stage together.
It is truly so special to have the opportunity to dance with my husband.
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Antonio Truyols (’02 Piano Performance)
Gizem Yucel (’13 DMA Music)
Our paths crossed in the halls of the School of Music. Antonio, a persistent suitor, wrote countless songs in an attempt to win over Gizem’s affections. Eventually, his persistence paid off, and the two began dating.
Fast forward 11 years, we now reside in New York City where we continue to make music together.
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Cheryl Koski Mendolia (’12 BFA Acting)
Thomas Mendolia (’12 BFA Acting)
Cheryl and I met how most people meet: dancing oddly with each other during a callback for Jim Wren’s The Revenger’s Tragedy.
We began dating at M’Couls’ in the second booth after you walk in the door on the left when I asked her to be my girlfriend. Up to that point, I hadn't met anyone who made me feel the way Cheryl did.
To this day, the best word I can describe that feeling is “home.” We could be in a closet in NYC with no toilet, but if Cheryl is there with me, I’m home.
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Brenda Lunsford Lilly (’74 BFA Acting)
Michael Lilly (’75 BFA Acting)
Professor Tom Behm cast us in a North Carolina Theatre for Young People tour of Punch and Judy. We had to be at the theatre early on February 14th. Being a big fan of Valentine’s Day I had bought cards for everyone at a little shop on Tate Street. I arrived at the theatre and as I saw each member of the cast and crew, I handed them a card and kissed them on the cheek. Michael was the last to arrive. As I handed him his card and leaned in to kiss his cheek he leaned in and kissed me – NOT on the cheek but on the lips. It was wonderful – and I remember thinking “that was nice!” This August we will celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary.
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HOW DID YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH THE ARTS? |
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We asked CVPA Faculty to tell us how or when they fell in love with the arts.
What was that pivotal moment when they just knew they had to be an artist, arts educator or administrator, designer, scholar, or performer?
We'll be posting these on social media throughout the month of February.
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Robi Arce-Martínez
Asst. Professor of Movement
I first fell in love with Theatre as a community event where people come together to share an experience to then discover that Theatre is a powerful tool for social change.
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Chip Haas
Theatre Technical Director
A classmate dragged me into the scene shop to help him on his honors thesis production and that was it. I had found my home. Building, rigging, running productions is where I realized I was the happiest.
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Steve Haines
Professor of Double Bass
Hearing all of the instruments together playing “O Canada” changed my life.
I had never experienced anything like that before.
It was like someone turned the water on in my soul.
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Dan Hale
Asst. Professor of Animation
How truly amazing it would be to say that it was love at first sight, but that’s definitely not true for Art and me.
In truth, Art and I have had to really work on our relationship through open communication and trust over many years, and I’d like to think that I’m stronger for it.
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David Holley
Professor of Opera
A mezzo-soprano sang “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint-Saën’s Samson and Delilah, and I had never heard anything so beautiful.
I remember walking back to my dorm room in tears realizing that I had fallen in love with Music!
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Catrina Kim
Asst. Professor of Music Theory
I played the piano my whole life and sang in church as a child.
Music then was a part of my faith-based identity and a part of my immigrant family's association of classical music with discipline, education, and high culture.
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John Salmon
Professor of Piano
He played the Robert Schumann Toccata, which is one of the most virtuosic works there is, and I was mesmerized.
It drew me in, and I think that was a pivotal moment. From that moment, I knew I had to be a pianist.
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Lee Walton
Professor of New Media
and Design
As an undergraduate, I fell in love with the printmaking studio.
This became my home place where I found a community of artists.
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Clarice Young
Asst. Professor of Dance
Honestly, I believe I've always been in love with Dance.
I believe falling in love with Dance was about not giving up and following an ever growing and ever changing passion.
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Taylor Barlow (’21 BM Clarinet Performance and BA Arts Administration) has been appointed Executive Director of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra.
Tevondre Kemari Bryant (’21 BFA Musical Theatre) is touring with the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. The production will be at Greensboro’s Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts February 21st–26th.
Michelle Lanteri (’19 BA Media Studies, ’13 BA Art History and Museum Studies) published the chapter “Maria Hupfield’s Nine Years Towards the Sun: Reflections on Survival and Other Acts of Defiance in Performative Art Practice” in the book Visualizing Genocide: Indigenous Interventions in Art, Archives, and Museums (University of Arizona Press, 2022).
Shaylin Watson (’19 BFA Dance) got a shout out in the New York Times review of Ron Brown’s Evidence Dance Company at the Joyce Theater. Read the review here.
Tanner West (’18 BM Horn Performance) has been appointed Fourth Horn in the New York Philharmonic after an international audition.
Matty Miller (’14 MFA Directing) is an Associate Professor and Theatre Division Head at California State University Chico where he serves as the Musical Theatre Program Coordinator. He served as the President of the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance from 2021 to 2023 and is the
co-host of the Musical Theatre Educators’ podcast “Carefully Taught: Teaching Musical Theatre with Matty and Kikau.” He currently serves as Casting Director for the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre where he was the Producing Artistic Director from 2014 to 2020.
Matthew Reese (’13 MM Vocal Performance) is heading to Northern Germany this month to perform the role of Belize in Eötvös’s operatic adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at Theater Bremen with Will Kelley (’14 BM Piano Performance) who is currently the 2.Kappellmeister at Theatre Bremen.
Polly Butler Cornelius (’11 DMA, ’93 MM Vocal Performance) was Visiting Professor of Opera Workshop at the Accademia Europea di Firenze in Italy during the summers of 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. This past summer she co-produced several concerts and a production of La Traviata with the Compagnia d’opera Italiana di Firenze. She participated in a concert of American music at St. James Church with William Lenihan, classical guitarist. Dr. Cornelius is currently Coordinator of Voice and Senior Lecturer at Elon University.
Princess Howell Johnson (’07 BA Dance Studies and BS Business Administration) has been given a Greensboro Residency for Original Work (GROW) from Creative Greensboro and will be developing choreography for a new ballet titled The Hair Journey, which tells the story of Zuri, a young girl who learns to love her hair just as it is. Shar Joyner (’19 BM Performance) is collaborating on the work as music composer. Watch here to learn more about the project.
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Alumni News & Notes are compiled from self-submissions
and from the University’s news clip service.
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Atlanta Alumni Brunch
Sunday, February 26th @ 12:00–2:00 pm
Los Angeles Alumni Brunch
Sunday, March 12th @ 12:00–2:00 pm
Raleigh Alumni Reception
Thursday, March 30th @ 5:00–7:00 pm
Save the Date!
Chicago Alumni Brunch
Sunday, May 7th @ 12:00–2:00 pm
Save the Date!
Invitations are sent by email, but please make sure we have your current mailing address
so that you’ll be invited to the Alumni event in your area.
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FACULTY/STAFF NEWS & NOTES
Jim Fisher (Professor Emeritus of Theatre) has the Historical Dictionary of Vaudeville in press with Rowman & Littlefield. The book comes out in June and includes a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than one thousand cross-referenced entries on performing artists, managers and agents, theater facilities, and the terminology central to vaudeville’s history.
Lorena Guillén (Lecturer in Musicology) and her award-winning Tango Ensemble will celebrate the release of their second album, Exótica Flor, with a concert-party on Friday, February 10th at 8:00 pm at the Van Dyke Performing Space of the Greensboro Cultural Center. The concert is free and open to the public and will feature the UNCG Sinfonia and Weaver Strings as guests.
Dan Hale (Assistant Professor of Animation) was selected for the ReGroup at GreenHill Artist Residency from May 23rd to June 2nd.
Tarayjah Hoey-Gordon (Moss Street Partnership School Dance Educator) has released a Choreography Journal. It includes budgeting and organizational resources for movement Artists and is available at Tarayjah.com.
Andy Hudson (Assistant Professor of Clarinet) performed last month at the International Clarinet Association’s inaugural “Low ClarinetFest” in Glendale, Arizona. Hudson also gave two educational concerts at Mountain View High School. He also played a late-night performance at State 48 Funk House Brewery with Clarinet Studio alumni Dr. Lucas Gianini (’22 DMA, ’15 BM Music Education) and Taylor Barlow (’21 BM Music Education and BA Arts Administration), and current Clarinet Studio members Adella Carlson, Julianna Pierdomenico, and Taylor Stirm, during which the sextet gave spirited renditions of music by Britney Spears, Weezer, Radiohead, Taylor Swift, The Jackson 5, and more plus a round of “bass clarinet karaoke.”
Annie Jeng (Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy) is pianist of the Khemia Ensemble, which released their sophomore album, Intersections, with PARMA Records in December. It features commissioned works by Phillip Sink, Stefan Freund, Nicholas Benavides, David Biedenbender, and Nina Shekhar.
Catrina Kim (Assistant Professor of Music Theory) has co-authored with Alan Reese and Owen Belcher an article, “Public Music Theory’s Neoliberal Learning Outcomes,” which has been accepted for publication by Music Theory Online, a journal of the Society for Music Theory. It will appear this summer in Volume 29, no. 2.
Steve Landis (Part-Time Lecturer of Composition) was invited as part of the chamber music ensemble Winnfield Quartet to take part in a residency at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Landis and the group workshopped and performed a recital of seven new works composed by UMKC student composers and gave a presentation for the composers forum.
Billy Lee (Professor Emeritus of Art) was invited to give an online lecture at Xian Jianda Academy of Art in Beijing in January. In the lecture “Abstract Thinking in Art Education,” Professor Lee proposed that art education is “an organic process that must strike a balance between traditional training and contemporary ideas and technologies.”
Jennifer Meanley (Associate Professor of Painting, Printmaking, and Drawing), Barbara Campbell Thomas (Professor of Painting, Printmaking, and Drawing), Mariam Stephan (Professor of Painting), and Pat Wasserboehr (Professor of Ceramics and Sculpture) are included in Art of the State by Liza Roberts. Art of the State is a recent publication from UNC Press that highlights the rich presence of contemporary art in North Carolina.
Joshua Ritter (Lecturer in Theatre) received Scholars’ Travel Funding to present “The Pedagogy of Preparing Students to Develop and Manage Educational Programs for Arts Organizations” at the Southeastern Arts Leadership Educators Conference, which will take place in Charleston, South Carolina this month.
John Salmon (Professor of Piano) has contributed a musical piece to the book A Ras de Suelo: De la Ciencia a la Poesía, Transitando por el Cáncer de Mama (At ground level: From science to poetry, going through breast cancer), published by El ojo de Poe, 2022. Conceived and curated by gynecologist Dr. Margarita García Carriazo and pathologist Dr. Laia Bernet Vegué, this collaborative project features poems, drawings, paintings, and music by thirty artists, all created with the intent to comfort, uplift, and inspire breast cancer patients. Salmon recorded an improvisation on the piano, “Periplo” (Journey), which is accessible through a QR code in the book.
Barbara Campbell Thomas (Professor of Painting, Printmaking, and Drawing) has five paintings included in the exhibition “18” at Janice Charach Gallery in Detroit, Michigan. The exhibition includes work by eighteen abstract painters from across the country.
Joan Titus (Associate Professor of Musicology) published the essay “Shostakovich, Arnshtam, and the Sound of the Cinematic Soviet Heroine” on musical representation of women in Soviet wartime film in the collection Music, Authorship, Narration, and Art Cinema in Europe: 1940s to 1980s (Routledge Press, 2022).
Andrew Willis (Covington Distinguished Professor of Piano and Historical Keyboard Instruments) published a review of Tom Beghin’s Beethoven’s French Piano: A Tale of Ambition and Frustration (University of Chicago Press, 2022) in Early Music America.
Faculty/Staff News & Notes are compiled from self-submissions
and from the University’s news clip service.
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IN MEMORIAM:
CHRISTOPHER FLEMING, ELEANOR MCCRICKARD, KENT WILLIAMS
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Christopher Fleming, the School of Dance’s Technical Coordinator, passed away over Winter Break at the age of 55.
A Minnesota native, Christopher Fleming attended Oakland Community College before serving as studio assistant for a number of artists, including performance artist Karen Finley, choreographer Daryl Foster, choreographer Rosy Simas, and Daniel, a Japan-based installation/video artist.
Whether he was making magic on the light board, puttering around with equipment in the theater, or sitting on his favorite bench outside of the Coleman Building listening to a podcast and feeding the birds (and sometimes the squirrels), Christopher Fleming was an artist through and through. Read the full story here.
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Professor Emerita Eleanor McCrickard, a member of the School of Music’s faculty for thirty years and chair of the Composition, History, and Theory Division for twelve, passed away on Wednesday, January 18th at the age of 82.
Dr. McCrickard specialized in music history, with a focus on seventeenth-century Italian music. She was one of the foremost experts on the music of Alessandro Stradella.
She won the Teaching Award in the School of Music in 2001 and was a member of the honorary societies Phi Beta Kappa (Executive Secretary of the Epsilon Chapter at UNCG), Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Theta Kappa. Read full story here.
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Professor Emeritus J. Kent Williams, a member of the School of Music’s faculty for 42 years from
1970 to 2012, passed away on January 9th at the
age of 79.
Williams joined UNCG’s School of Music Faculty in 1970. He was a member of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, first as principal percussionist and later as timpanist.
In the School of Music, Dr. Williams proposed the first certificate program, the Post-Master’s Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy, and was instrumental in developing the MM in Music Theory degree. Read full story here.
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William Paul Thomas Exhibition
January 26th–February 26th | 9:00–4:00 pm
Reception on February 1st | 4:00–6:00 pm
Gatewood Studio Arts Gallery
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, adapted by Janet Allard
February 4th–25th | Pam and David Sprinkle Theatre
Wind Ensemble
February 10th | 7:30 pm | UNCG Auditorium
whose eyes i have: Linda Belans, Leah Sobsey, and Adam Sobsey Exhibition
February 14th–March 4th | Greensboro Project Space
The Passion of Antígona Pérez by Luis Rafael Sánchez
February 17th–25th | Taylor Theatre
University Chorale and Chamber Singers: Hagen’s Requiem, Ashes of Roses
February 19th | 5:30 pm | First Presbyterian Church
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The 2022–2023 University Concert and Lecture Series concludes with Seraph Brass, a dynamic ensemble drawing from a roster of America’s top female brass players.
Seraph Brass
March 24th @ 8:00 pm
Tew Recital Hall
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CLOSING SPOTLIGHT
CVPA took over the Spartan Spot at the UNCG Men’s Basketball Game on January 19th and cheered the Spartans to victory over The Citadel.
Back: Marya Fancey (Instructer of Organ). Front (left to right): Daniel Castro Pantoja (Assistant Professor of Musicology), Catrina Kim (Assistant Professor of Music Theory), Chip Haas (School of Theatre Technical Director), and Wendy Haas.
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The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) e-Newsletter is published eight times a year in September, October, November, December, February, March, April, and May.
The Newsletter is emailed to CVPA alumni, faculty, staff, students, patrons, and donors. Please feel free to forward your copy, and anyone who would like their name to be added to our distribution list can contact us via uncgarts@uncg.edu.
The e-Newsletter is edited by Terri Relos, Director of External Relations. Archived issues can be found in the “News” section of the CVPA website. To submit Alumni News & Notes, please use this form. To submit Faculty/Staff News & Notes, use this form.
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100 McIver St, Greensboro, NC 27412-5010
Tel: 336-334-5789
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