Two faculty members in the West Virginia University School of Music – violin professor Mikylah McTeer and composition professor David Taddie –held residencies at Baylor University and the University of Texas at Austin in the fall, to exchange ideas and perform as part of the Big XII Faculty Fellowship Program.

The project will culminate with a concert at the WVU Creative Arts Center on Jan. 15 that will feature all four music fellows and their newly written works. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A) and is free and open to the public.

McTeer, Taddie and their Texas colleagues – flute professor Francesca Arnone of Baylor University and composition professor Russell Pinkston of the University of Texas at Austin – will also be joined by Margaret Schedel from Stony Brook University during the concert.

Works on the program will include “Vox Clamantis” for flute, violin and MAX (interactive music software) composed by Pinkston; “REACT” for flute, violin and interactive computer, by Ben Johansen, an alumnus of Baylor University; “Category 5,” by Taddie, a work for flute, piccolo, alto flute, violin and MAX; and “Luminosity,” also by Taddie, a work for flute, alto flute and electronic sounds.

The Big XII Fellowship Program was created by the chief academic officers of the Big XII universities to stimulate scholarly initiatives.

The project by Taddie, McTeer, Pinkston and Arnone was very much a collaboration.

“The four of us proposed a multi-faceted research project centered around the composition and performance of works written for flute, violin and electronic sounds,” McTeer said. “We have been sharing our scholarship through a series of events at each scholar’s respective institution.”

McTeer and Taddie both spent Nov. 9-16 in residence at the University of Texas at Austin, where McTeer rehearsed Pinkston’s “Vox Clamantis” and Taddie participated in a mini-residency and presented classes to Pinkston’s composition studio.

During the week of Nov. 16-21, they were at Baylor University, where Taddie held a mini-residency and presented classes to Scott McAllister’s composition studio and McTeer rehearsed “REACT” by Ben Johansen, who is a Baylor alumnus. She also gave a violin master class to Eka Gogichashvili’s violin studio.

Taddie returned to Austin during the week of Nov. 21-23 where he continued work in Pinkston’s studio.

All of the new compositions that will be performed at WVU were premiered at concerts at the University of Texas on Nov. 15 and at Baylor University on Nov. 18.
When all of the fellowship participants come together, Arnone and Pinkston will present forums and master classes for WVU students.

David Taddie is professor of music theory and composition and director of the electronic music studio at WVU. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in composition from Cleveland State University and a doctorate in composition from Harvard University. His music has been widely performed in the United States and Europe by many soloists and by ensembles. His awards include the Adelbert W. Sprague, Francis Boott and Bohemians prizes in composition from Harvard University, the Kaske Fellowship to the Wellesley Composers Conference, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation and the Fromm Foundation. He was named the Music Teachers National Association Distinguished Composer of the Year in 1995.

Mikylah Myers McTeer is an associate professor of violin at WVU and coordinator of the WVU string area. She was named the WVU College of Creative Art’s “Outstanding Teacher” in August 2014, West Virginia’s Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year by the West Virginia chapter of the American String Teachers Association for both 2010 and 2009, and received the WVU School of Music’s Outstanding Teaching award in 2008. She received her bachelor of music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and her doctoral and master’s degrees in violin performance from the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. She has performed with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera, the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida and the San Juan Symphony, as well as internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.

Francesca Arnone is assistant professor of flute at Baylor University. She is an active flute and piccolo soloist, recitalist, and clinician dedicated to promoting new music and engaged musicianship. She earned flute performance degrees from Oberlin, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the University of Miami. She also has many years of orchestral experience, holding the chairs of principal, second flute, and piccolo in numerous regional orchestras in the United States, Mexico and Spain. A winner of the National Flute Association’s Doctoral Dissertation and Convention Performers competitions, she is a frequent performer and presenter at NFA conventions. Arnone was on the faculty of the WVU School of Music for five years, where she received awards for her outstanding research in 2009 and 2010.

Russell Pinkston is professor of composition and director of the electronic music studios at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds degrees in music composition from Dartmouth College and Columbia University. He has written music in a wide variety of different media, ranging from concert works and sacred anthems to computer-generated tape pieces and live electronic music for dance. His compositions have been played throughout Europe, South America and the United States. Pinkston has received numerous awards for his compositions, including two prizes from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a senior Fulbright Fellowship in Composition and Computer Music to Brazil. His computer music research in the area of real-time performance interfaces for modern dance has recently attracted international attention.

For more information about the concert, contact the College of Creative Arts at 304-293-4359.

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CONTACT: Charlene Lattea
304.293.4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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