Award Winning Tradition

Our music students have the opportunity to participate in nationally recognized ensembles and have performed in prestigious venues and at international festivals. Indeed, because of the award-winning traditions in the UK School of Music, the school recently has been recognized as one of ten areas of excellence within the entire university. During this rise to national prominence over the past decade the UK School of Music has seen tremendous growth and now numbers approximately 370 majors in its program, which includes comprehensive undergraduate and graduate degrees. With our outstanding music faculty and superb library system we offer every opportunity for students to get the most from their education at the University of Kentucky. Following is a list of current achievements by our ensembles and students. See also a summary of other recent recognitions.

UK School of Music Ensembles
The Award-Winning Tradition Continues!
Trips and Invitations 2007-2008

AUGUST 2007

• In August members of the UK Opera Theatre traveled to San Francisco as part of its collaboration with the prestigious San Francisco Opera. UK Students had an auditions master class offered by Merola Director Sheri Greenwald and Music Director Mark Mason, as well as a Master Class with composer Thomas Pasatieri and attended the final dress and the San Francisco premiere of HOTEL CASABLANCA. This type of collaborations puts us among the elite opera programs in the country.

NOVEMBER 2007

• The UK Percussion Ensemble won the 2007 Percussive Arts Society (PAS) International Collegiate Percussion Ensemble Competition for the third time in three consecutive attempts—an accomplishment unmatched by any other group in the world. Their accomplishment has earned them a rare Showcase Concert at the PAS International Convention in Columbus, OH on November 1. The Percussive Arts Society is the world's largest percussion organization and is considered the central source for information and networking for percussionists and drummers of all ages.
• The UK Symphony Orchestra will perform Copland’s Appalachian Spring and perform with Arlo Guthrie at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall on 24 November. Carnegie Hall is the most prestigious place in the world for an orchestra to perform. Many schools of music rent out the hall themselves and take their groups to Carnegie to galvanize the energies of their current students, alumni, donors, and recruiting efforts. We are performing at the request of a legendary folk singer who invited us to perform with him at Carnegie. This is something no other university orchestra in the country has done.
• The UK Jazz Ensemble has been invited to perform at the 61st annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic to be held Dec. 18-22 in Chicago. The Midwest Clinic is an international Band and Orchestra conference featuring the most select music ensembles from across the globe. It is the most prestigious music education conference in the world attended by more than 17,000 people from all 50 states and over 30 countries. After a rigorous and highly competitive application process, including submitting a CD and DVD of live concerts, only the UK Jazz Ensemble and one other college jazz ensemble in the country were invited to perform.

JANUARY 2008

• The UK Conner Tuba-Euphonium has been invited to perform at the United States Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Conference, Washington, D.C. on Friday, January 31.

FEBRUARY 2008

• Three Distinct Groups at KMEA in Louisville, February 2008: UK Symphony Band, UK Men’s Chorus, and UK Gamelan. Each of these groups was selected by audition to perform at the state convention in Louisville.
• The UK Symphony Orchestra will perform with world-renowned cellist Lynn Harrell as he plays the great Elgar Cello Concerto in a concert on the Singletary Center’s main-stage series on February 15th.

MARCH 2008

• Both UK Women’s Choir and UK Men’s Chorus were invited by separate audition tapes to perform at the ACDA Southern Division in Louisville March 5-8, 2008. It is unprecedented for two choral ensembles from the same university to be invited for the same major convention. This convention, according to David Castlebury, President of ACDA Southern Division, is one of the “most visible and prestigious opportunities to perform in the choral field.” Over 80 performing ensembles submitted CD’s and only 18 of these groups were chosen to perform. In the last two years the UK Men’s Chorus has appeared in successive national conventions—a feat unmatched by any other Men’s Chorus in the country.

APRIL 2008

• The UK Women’s Choir is the only women’s choir and one of only three collegiate choirs in the country to be invited to perform at the 2008 Music Educators National Biennial In-Service Conference to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from April 9-13, 2008. The UK Women’s Choir appeared at the National American Choral Directors Association (ADCA) at Carnegie Hall in 2003. These two appearances have put our Women’s Choir among the top five women’s choirs in the country.

MAY 2008

• The UK Wind Ensemble was invited by the US-China Cultural and Educational Foundation to tour the People’s Republic of China in the summer of 2008. The invitation stemmed from its CD Distilled in Kentucky, which has subsequently been recommended for a Grammy nomination. The two-week tour will include performances in Beijing (Forbidden City Concert Hall and Renming University), Qingdao (Qingdao University Concert Hall), and Nanjing (Nanjing Arts University Music Hall).

OUTSTANDING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

• Junior Music major Beth McDonald has won several national performance awards, including first place in the Tuba Artist Division of the 22nd Annual Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival held in Twin Lake, Michigan. The competition is the most prestigious in the world and the Artist Division is their highest award. She was in competition with 120 competitors of all ages and experience.
• Ph.D. Musicology candidate Nikos Pappas won has won an Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation-Year Fellowship from the American Musicological Society. This is among the most prestigious honors in the field. The fellowships have traditionally gone to scholars from major universities. Of 86 total winners over the last 20 years this is only the second AMS 50 award to go to a student in a southern school (the first was given to a Duke student the first year). Pappas also won a fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society to perform dissertation research in their library in Boston.
• Music performance major Angie Ortega, a University of Kentucky senior, will be featured on the next record from Grammy award-winning jazz musician Gordon Goodwin and the Big Phat Band. Ortega got the singing gig by winning the “Big Phat Jam” online competition presented by the band on their Web site.

Updated: February 8, 2008