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AMHERST (MA) – The UMass Amherst Department of Music & Dance concluded a highly- successful 2017-18 academic year with two events highlighting the outstanding achievements of their students.

On May 1, the Department held its annual Convocation Ceremony to honor undergraduate, graduate, and honors students for their accomplishments. The event featured performances by clarinetist Sarah Harney, winner of the 2017 Theodore Presser Scholar Award, UMass faculty pianist Nadine Shank, vocalist Jessica Toupin, last year’s winner of the Howard LeBow Memorial Scholarship, and Kristen Flanagan, last year’s winner of the Eugenie M. May Piano Award.

This year’s award-winners are:

Theodore Presser Award - Erin Hussey

Howard Lebow Memorial Scholarship - Caroline Lee

Friends of Music Senior Award - Nicholas Lawrence, Jessica Toupin

Susan Campbell Cunningham Outstanding Sophomore Award - Abigail Haines

Susan Campbell Cunningham Outstanding Freshman Award - Rongbing Shen

Eugenie M. May Piano Award - Yuji Sato

Fletcher Henderson Memorial Award - Forest Loomis-Dulong, James McCarthy 

Geraldine Shank Collaborative Piano Award - Brenno Lima

Julian Olevsky Memorial Award - Celaya Kirchner

Laura Klock Award in Horn - Diana McLaughlin

Lynn Klock Award in Saxophone - Nicholas Suosso

Ornest Undergraduate Award - Colleen Burns, Grace McKay, Linnea Henningson, Matthew Garrity, Jessica Toupin

Philip Bezanson Graduate Voice Award - Amanda Lauricella, Ava D’Agostino, Emily Brink, Naomi Goodman

Russell E. & Janet R. Falvey Scholarship - Anna Pless

Walter Chesnut Award in Trumpet - Timothy Hoefler

William F. Field Alumni Scholar Award – Claire Esterman

On Thursday, May 10, the Department will also host its second annual Chair’s Showcase, featuring graduating seniors who were selected by audition to perform. The program will feature performances of Marcel Bitsch’s Quatre Variations Sur Un Thème De Domenico Scarlatti by Nathan French (trumpet), Béla Kovács’s Hommage à Manuel de Falla by Elizabeth Orchulek (clarinet), and excerpts from Robert Muczynski’s Time Pieces by Sarah Harney (clarinet).  The Showcase will also include performances by senior dance majors, including “A Memoir of Me” choreographed and performed by Asia Miller-Patterson and “Circles and Minds,” choreographed and performed by Paulina Schaefer, featuring dancers Leah Calabro, Cassidy Dekreon, Adriana Greaves, Stacey Hazen, Tia Petelle-Murphy, and Kelsey Saulnier. The Chair’s Showcase will take place at 5 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall, and is free and open to the public.