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UMass Music & Dance Announces Student Awards for 2017-18
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Thursday, May 3, 2018
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.