NEWS
Faculty News
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RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Kevin Allen sound designed and mixed two feature films that are premiering at the New York Film Festival in September/October 2023: The Night Visitors (world premiere) and Nowhere Near (U.S. premiere). FILM
- Nancy Yunhwa Rao presented a lecture entitled “A Chinese-American Soundtrack: Listening to Cantonese Opera in the Roaring Twenties” on September 28 as part of the Mannes’ Techniques of Music Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series at The New School. She is also featured in the Rutgers Office for Research’s first digitalĀ Rutgers Research and Innovation Annual Impact Report. MUSIC
- Kraig Alan Williams conducted two pieces that were featured in an episode of the NPR series More Than Music, hosted by music critic and historian Joseph Horowitz: trombonist David Taylor’s performances of Schubert’s “Mahlerie” and Daniel Schnyder’s “Sub Zero” Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra. Both performances took place in July with the Brevard Sinfonia at the Brevard Music Center, where Williams is in his 23rd year in residence as a faculty member, director of band activities, and cover conductor. MUSIC
- From September 12 to 17, Joe Tompkins performed with the New York Philharmonic in The Art of the Score series at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. Tompkins was part of the live music accompaniment to a screening of Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film West Side Story. Tompkins is set to perform again with the NY Phil at Geffen Hall from September 29 through October 1. In October he’ll travel with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra to Austria and Israel. MUSIC
- Riverside Choral Society will performĀ Scott Ordway‘s multimedia symphonyĀ The End of RainĀ at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on April 25.Ā Pat Gardner, emeritus faculty and former director of choral activities, will conduct.Ā MUSIC
- John Sheppard‘s arrangement ofĀ America the BeautifulĀ andĀ Lift Every Voice and SingĀ was heard at the 2023 U.S. Open earlier this month, when baritone Will Liverman sang live just before the men’s championship match between Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic.Ā MUSIC
- Bille Bruley stars as Steve Wozniak in Mason Bates’ and Mark Campbell’s Grammy-award winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with San Francisco Opera, September 22āOctober 7. The cast includes John Moore, Sasha Cooke, and Wei Wu under the baton of Michael Christie. MUSIC
- Pam Tanowitz‘s eponymous company is set to perform at the Barbican in London October 11ā14 and at New York City Center November 9ā11.Ā DANCE
- Breaking the Surface, an experimental dance film by John Evans and Ani Javian about climate change, had its world premiere on September 8 at the New Jersey Film Festival. The cast includes faculty Paul C. Ocampo, faculty/alums Heather J. Favretto and Kiana Rosa-Fischer, and alumni Aaron Lewis, Alex Silvis, Camille Moten, Marianna Allen, Elena Yasin, Aaron Ramos, and Nova Teeling. DANCE
- Gerald Casel has been awarded an Isadora Duncan Dance Award, aka āIzzie,ā for Outstanding Achievement in Direction/Choreography for Not About Race Dance.Ā DANCE
- The Coldest Case, an Audible Original scripted audio drama co-written byĀ Ryan Silbert, will be released in 2024. Aaron Paul and Krysten Ritter lend their voices to the second season, a collaboration with James Patterson Entertainment.Ā FILMMAKING
- Julie Langsam‘s film Garden State won the Best Environmental Film Award from the Toronto Beaches Film Festival. The experimental documentary short was an official selection of the International Filmmaker Festival of New York. ART & DESIGN
- John Yau‘s latest book, Please Wait by the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity in American Art, was published by Black Sparrow Press. The collection of essays includes reflections about Black, Asian, Latinx, and Native American artists. Yau was the 2022 recipient of the International Award from the Hunan Academy of Poetry. ART & DESIGN
- Park McArthur, the Tepper Chair in Visual Arts, is the recipient of a Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. The annual prize is given to risk-taking mid-career artists working in the fields of dance, film/video, music, theater, and the visual arts. ART & DESIGN
- Jeanine Oleson is the recipient of a 2023ā24 Rome Prize in visual arts from the American Academy in Rome. The annual prize is awarded to American artists and scholars for research and work in the arts and humanities. ART & DESIGN
- Mark Armijo McKnight has been namedĀ a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. He’s one of 171 fellows in 48 fields, and only one of two fellows from Rutgers. ART & DESIGN
FACULTY VOICES IN THE MEDIA
- Jeff Friedman spoke with NorthJersey.com about the new Disability Studies minor, a collaboration between MGSA, SMLR, Bloustein, and SAS, as part of the website’s feature “Rutgers launches disability studies minor to explore world of oft-ignored community.”Ā DANCE
- Rebecca Cypess, associate dean for academic affairs, has penned an Op-Ed at NJ.com titled “Rutgers gets creative about climate change and creates a new minor.”Ā MUSIC
- Composer and multimedia artist Scott Ordway speaks about the relationship between art, landscape, and emotion on the Climate Change and Happiness podcast (Helsinki, Finland).
- Patrick Stettner weighed in about the benefits and limitations of using a smartphone to shoot a movie in a WIRED article, “You Can Shoot a Movie on a Phone. Just Donāt Expect It to Be Easy.” FILM
- Julia Baumanis, assistant director of bands and the Marching Scarlet Knights and director of pep bands, spoke with WWFM host Rachel Katz. Baumanis shares her research into empowering female conductors and minority directors, topics she presented on Dec. 20 at The Midwest Clinic. MUSIC
- Cameron Knight, part of the Shakespeare and Race Festival at Shakespeare’s Globe in London in fall 2022, is quoted in The Guardian about color-blind casting. The two-day festival includes readings, performances, workshops, and round-table discussions highlighting the importance of race in the consideration of Shakespeare and provides a platform to scholars, actors, writers, theater professionals, and educators of color. THEATER
- Jeff Friedman is featured in this Discover Jersey ArtsĀ video interview about his involvement in bringing disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light to NBPAC. He also touches on the various academic and programming goals for the Integrated Dance Collaboratory (IDC).Ā DANCE
- Look for Gerry Beegan in this episode of the PBS YouTube series The Bigger Picture with Vincent Brown, which probes iconic American images. Beegan discusses scholar-activist Angela Davis’s “Wanted” poster, saying that Davis’s supporters used the poster as a means ofĀ “making her visible so she couldn’t become invisible through incarceration.” ART & DESIGN
- Conrad Herwig was interviewed by WBGO news director Doug Doyle about upcoming performances by the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, his career, and students. Herwig was also interviewed by jazz studies performance student Brandon Mejia, host of the “What Is Latin Music?” program on WBGO. Herwig’s albumĀ The Latin Side of Mingus was released on September 30, 2022. MUSIC
RECENT NEWS
Haiti-born Didier Williamās dazzling, gazing paintings are literally an eyeful (Los Angeles Times) ART & DESIGN
Review: Pam Tanowitzās Witty Dance Secrets in London (The New York Times) DANCE
Oakland Museum of California Opens an Exhibit Highlighting the Life and Career of Angela Davis (Gerry Beegan in Ebony magazine) ART & DESIGN
How to Decolonize a Museum? Try an Ax. (Raphael MontaƱez Ortiz in The New York Times) ART & DESIGN
Road Trip to Escape, USA (Julie Langsam in Dense Magazine) ART & DESIGN