Division of Music students Amy Bach, Allison Chetta, Ardis Chetta, Hannah Hancock, Markel Toler and Stephany Waycaster attended the Valor Summer Conservatory, an intensive nine-week course of summer music study for Christian college-age musicians. Guest clinicians included Bradley Williams, tenor; Deborah Williams, soprano; Cliff Jackson, pianist and vocal coach; Rebecca Mayer, piano; and Rachel Klaus, violin.
The following students were category winners in auditions sponsored by the South Carolina chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing: Tara Solomon, Tim Renner and Jason Rush. Karla Beasley, Stephanie Greenwood, Stephany Waycaster, Ethan Simpson, Angela Hawkey, Jodianne Lindmark, Markel Toler, Philip Shambaugh, Tamra Jones and Angela Ouillette all received superior ratings.
The winners of the 2011 Commencement Contests are Adam Gingery, brass; Andrew Harry, composition; Sarah Northrop, plucked strings; Lydia Minnick, bowed strings; Ethan Simpson, men’s voice; Lydia Minnick, women’s voice; Laura Hayden, woodwinds; and Ethan Holmes, piano. These students performed in the Fine Arts Honors Recital held during commencement week.
This fall, senior pianist Daniel Overly will collaborate with Dr. David Stern, director of instrumental activities at Anderson (S.C.) University, in a series of euphonium and piano recitals at colleges in the Southeast. This past spring he collaborated with Dr. Megan McCauley (BMus Voice Performance 2003) in a recital titled “Ophelia from Song to Stage” at the Shakespeare Association of America’s 2011 conference held in Seattle, Wash.
The 2011 Piano Central Piano Pedagogy Award was presented to Jamie Board, current senior. The award, a generous scholarship, recognizes a piano pedagogy major who demonstrates outstanding potential for becoming an exemplary piano teacher. The recipient is chosen by the piano pedagogy department along with Mrs. Theresa Case, director of Piano Central Studios.
For the past two summers Tim Renner, a graduate student in voice, has served as the music director of The Wilds of New England. This involved service planning, special music preparation and performance, congregational song leading and accompanying, and choral directing as well as various other program activities.