APRIL 1-3 at 7pm | CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS RECITAL HALL

The University of Toledo Department of Music Spring Festival of New Music opens Tuesday, April 1 with two compositions dedicated to the late Bernie Sanchez and concludes with guest artist Latitude 49.

Guest Artists Latitude 49, to perform Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m.

In between, is an exciting and varied mix of new music in virtually every genre. A total of three concerts will be presented, one each night at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 1 through Thursday, April 3 in the UT Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. All concerts in the festival are free and open to the public.

The UT Spring Festival of New Music is one of the highlights of the cultural year for both the campus and the Toledo music community. For 37 years, guest composers and performers have interacted with students and faculty, resulting in exciting concerts and presentations on campus. The Festival has also sponsored premiere performances of student and area composers.

TUESDAY, April 1  This year, the winner of the student composer contest will be announced at the Faculty and Student Chamber Music Concert, which kicks off the Festival on Tuesday. In addition, two works – “Tribute in Brass” for brass quintet, composed by UT professor Dr. David Jex, and “To the West Wind,” composed by Music faculty member Dr. Lee Heritage, will also be premiered at this concert.

Bernie Sanchez (1935-2013), former UT Music Department chair, performer, teacher, conductor, & advocate for music and the arts.

Both compositions honor the memory of UT Professor Emeritus Bernard Sanchez, who passed last October. Professor Sanchez retired after serving for more than 30 years at UT and in our area as a performer, teacher, conductor, department chairman, and advocate for music and the arts.

Heritage said, “While I was composing this quintet, the news came suddenly – and with a great sense of shock and tragedy – that Bernie had died.  I was deeply saddened, and gradually realized that the second movement of my woodwind quintet was taking shape as an elegy to our great friend.  The movement is set for flute solo, singing an angular, emotional melody, accompanied by somber chords in the rest of the quintet.”

“To the West Wind” will be performed by the Toledo Symphony Woodwind Quintet. The instrumentalists are Joel Tse, flute; Michele Tosser-Smith, oboe; Georg Klaas, clarinet; Sandra Clark, horn; and Gareth Thomas, bassoon.

The “Tribute in Brass” quintet will be performed by UT faculty members David Jex, Alan Taplin, Dan Harris, Andrew Rhodes, and features guest trumpeter David Kosmyna, a UT alumnus who is currently Professor of Music at Ohio Northern University.

The Good, The Bad, and The Blues – to perform Tuesday, April 2 at 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, April 2 The second concert of the Festival is an eclectic mix of new music in a variety of genres. The Good, The Bad, and The Blues!, a funk, fusion quartet, will perform a set of original songs. They are 4-time Black Swamp Blues Society Challengers, and were among the International Blues Challengers Semi-finalists of 2013 in Memphis.

UT graduate student and teaching assistant Christina Eck, an electronic music composer, singer and songwriter, will be performing her album “Diamond in the Rough,” featuring a collection of four original songs. Stephen Mariasy, a UT Film/Video student, will present his new composition “Raindance,” all realized by virtual-instrument, computer-based digital sound.

David Mariasy, Senior Lecturer of Music Technology will debut his new composition, “Requiem for Violin and Digital Orchestra.” Performing on the work will be violin soloist, Cecilia Johnson, a member of the strings faculty at UT. Video projections will be part of the concert as well, produced by Holly Hey, Associate Professor of Film and Head of Film at UT.

THURSDAY, April 3 Concluding the festival is guest artist Latitude 49. The music of Latitude 49 explores new sounds, engaging diverse audiences, and holding hands with composers of today. Twice featured by the Michigan Muse magazine, the group’s University of Michigan roots have grown to include performances on stages across the Midwest and public radio. L49’s top priority is to foster future audiences by creating dynamic concert experiences that give a voice to some of today’s hottest composers.

Guest Artists Latitude 49, to perform Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m.

What do nightmares, rattlesnakes, and the pyscho-sexual have in common? Come find out! These subjects and more will be featured in the annual University of Toledo Aspiring Filmmakers Showcase. Presented by the UT Film & Video Society (a student-run organization) and by the UT Department of Theatre & Film, this year’s Showcase will screen on March 15, 2014 in the Center for Performing Arts Center Theatre at 7:30 p.m. (Scroll down to link to films)

An eight-member panel of judges made selections into the Showcase. The panel included Film faculty, outstanding former students of the film program, Dean and Associate Dean of the College of Communication and The Arts, Debra A. Davis and Holly Monsos, and distinguished professionals within the community, Brett Leonard (feature film director and producer) and Dustin Hostetler (graphic artist and illustrator). Leonard will also be in attendance at this week’s screening. The majority of submissions were from Film majors, but the competition was open to any student who made work in the Film program’s production courses.

Tickets to the Showcase cost $5 for the general public and $3 for students and senior citizens (60+). The Center for Performing Arts is located on UT’s Main Campus at Towerview West and West Rocket Drive.

“This year’s selections were the most competitive yet in my opinion! I think it shows how our program and our students continue to grow and get even better each year. We use a juried entry process so that our students have ‘real world’ experience with both acceptance and rejection of their work by audiences outside the classroom. We had some very good work this year that didn’t get into the Showcase. A few of my favorite projects didn’t get in, and I was one of the judges. It just goes to show how subjective festival entry can be, and that’s vital for our students to learn and understand. Although rejection is difficult, it is necessary for success. To be rejected shows that you’re trying to get your work shown, and as a creative person, that’s really what you have control over; how and how often you try. The rest is up to the audiences that you reach. Ultimately, the more attempts at recognition, the more likely recognition will happen. It’s a number’s game in my opinion. At the same time, a competitive entry process should be a great eye-opener for the students whose work was accepted; it should awaken them to not taking their work for granted. It’s one thing to not know the person you competed against, but when you know your work was selected over your friend’s or colleague’s work (people and work you really value and respect), that’s something much different; it’s much more profound and meaningful to have your work recognized.”

– Holly Hey, Associate Professor and Head of Film

“The showcase is a great experience for students not only to see each other’s work, but to see what other students are creating. Collaboration is the spirit of filmmaking and it is of value to students to realize that often they may be each other’s best resources. In addition it is always nice to see your work on the ‘big screen.’ Nothing compares to having a large audience view and respond to your work. Often in classes your only critique is that of your classmates and your professor, but with the showcase a much larger community can be reached.”

– Samantha Muirhead, President of the UT Film Video Society student organization

Aspiring Filmmakers Showcase Works To Be Screened

Melissa Byrd
Instinctual Drives
Fall 2013, Film I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lbpkvwH54U
5:03

Crista Constantine
The Figure And The Mind
Spring 2013, Video I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2z7xyuNwR8
3:00

Anna Coulter
Don
Fall 2013, Optical Printing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUsU132ZFIg
5:58

Tyler Curry
Don’t Bite The Hand That Feeds You
Fall 2013, Film I
https://vimeo.com/85389326
5:02

Ian Henry
System
Spring 2013, Film I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6R3XWdpa0E
5:01
Machines
Fall 2013, Video I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAe9cP48Qjo
3:00

Andrew Jex
About Anna
Fall 2013, Optical Printing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1BmyI3lQD8
3:46
Rocket Marching Band Promo
Fall 2013, Advanced Post Production
https://vimeo.com/85601439
0:45

Chris Kaiser
Rattler On The Doorstep
Fall 2013, Film I
https://vimeo.com/85197776
6:46

Lydia Kane
First Encounter
Spring 2013, Video II
http://vimeo.com/65327189
3:09
The Spirit Of The Game
Summer 2012 (Abroad), Documentary Production
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsiycoAvtjE
4:42

Charles King
Epoch
Spring 2013, Film I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvvMUXv5_OY
4:25

Stephen Mariasy
Process
Spring 2013, Video I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjWV96D2GeI
3:02
I Am Become Cat
Fall 2013, Film I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNuKJX4K0PI
5:00

Lydia Messer
Soteria
Spring 2013, Film I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3VY-uWom_c
3:31

Samantha Muirhead
Aspiring Filmmaker’s Showcase Lead In
Fall 2013, Advanced Post Production
https://vimeo.com/85046930
0:30

Carolyn Sharkey
Icarus
Spring 2013, Video I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VsBuX2XtRc&feature=youtu.be
3:20

Cory Vail
Elementals
Spring 2013, Video I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu2RYn7K3SY
2:52
Disconnect The Dots
Fall 2013, Film I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ABLIFa8hCw
5:54

Heather Wilson
Ruminate
Fall 2013, Film I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHYl1YvSMiE
5:24

Noah York
Fohat Speaks
Fall 2012, Video I
https://vimeo.com/84998402
3:08
Fallen
Spring 2013, Video II
https://vimeo.com/85291781
7:34

Leonard Zaleski
Clearwater COG Video Project
Fall 2013, Internship Credit
https://vimeo.com/85638404
9:37

Clifton Harvey, 2006 BFA graduate from the University of Toledo Department of Art

A 2006 BFA graduate from the University of Toledo Department of Art, Clifton Harvey, is exhibiting some of his most creative work in the UT Clement Gallery, located in the UT Center for Visual Arts next to the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibit, on display now through April 12, is free and open to the public.

A Digital artist and Toledo native, Harvey combines his skewed photographic work with his unique hand-drawn creations. Drawing inspiration from childhood nostalgia and daydreams, his illustrated narratives depict surreal worlds inhabited by broken creatures searching for what the artist describes as their “missing parts.” Exploring themes connected to hope, despair, and the search for wholeness, Clifton’s work is an allegory for his personal experiences.

“The Last Tenant” by Clifton Harvey

“An unspoken dialogue exists between artwork and viewer. During this exchange, unexpected conclusions are drawn based on our unique experiences. These unpredictable associations may not be consciously made, but rather felt deeply, like a sensation of nostalgia for something never personally experienced. Exploring the precarious notion that a camera’s ability to freeze a moment is somehow linked to reality, I digitally combine my photography and illustration to discover my own kind of photographic truth. The ebb and flow of inspiration I experience between these media wouldn’t necessarily occur if I worked with each independently.”

Harvey is accomplished young artist with several important awards and accolades to his credit. He was selected for the Arts Commission’s Artist Designed Bike Racks Project (2013) and the “You Are Here, Toledo” public art project (2012). Harvey has also won first place in the 19th Annual UT Alumni Association Outdoor Juried Art Fair (2011), the People’s Choice Award at Artomatic 419! (2011), the Juror’s Choice Award at the Sixth Annual Ohio Online Visual Artist Registry Juried Show (2011) and has had his work featured on the Behance Network.

Learn more about Clifton Harvey:  http://www.cliftonharveyart.com/bio.html
See his work on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67209226@N07/

Theatre alumnus PAT MILLER is in the news! In December, he received two awards for his work in the Beck Center for the Arts’ MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT.

2013 News-Herald Best Theater Awards
Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical Pat Miller, “Spamalot” – Beck Center for the Arts

2013 BroadwayWorld Cleveland Awards
Best Actor in a Musical – Guest Artist Theatre
Pat Miller – Monty Python’s SPAMALOT – Beck Center for the Arts

Pat credits his faculty at UT with his success – to Theatre Lecturer Irene Alby he writes:

“I truly appreciated all of your support and encouragement with the BroadwayWorld Cleveland Awards. It really meant the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Some pretty cool things ended up happening: I somehow received a Critic’s Choice Award from The News-Herald (a major Northeast Ohio newspaper) and also the BroadwayWorld Cleveland Award. So much of what you, Cornel, and Ed taught me at UT stays with me on stage. Unending thanks!”

Photo: UT Alumnus, Pat Miller in the Beck Center for the Arts production of MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT (Photo: CBS WDOK, Cleveland’s New 102)