Professors Take Center Stage at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music for 2019 Faculty Gala
SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will officially open the 2019-20 academic year with the annual Faculty Gala, on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall.
The performance will highlight members of Crane’s illustrious and world-renowned faculty of scholars and artists.
“This year, Crane and SUNY Potsdam will focus on the contributions of women in the arts, and the selections for this year’s gala were chosen to represent gender and racial inclusivity in the arts. Specifically, the program selections include seven works by women, pieces by composers from underrepresented groups, pieces reflecting stylistic diversity, and pieces whose title, text or programmatic content reflect this concern. Many of the composers are contemporary, so the audience can hear works (and voice) of the modern artist,” said concert organizer Dr. Lonel Woods, co-chair of music performance at Crane.
This year’s gala program was also designed to particularly highlight group and ensemble performances, allowing the audience to see a broader cross-section of the faculty, and to see the idea of collaborative performance in action, Dr. Woods said.
The performance will include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Leonard Bernstein, Valerie Coleman, Jeanne Demessieux, Roshanne Etezady, Alexander Goedicke, Katherine Hoover, Joseph Horovitz, Jessie Montgomery, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Barbara York, as well as works by musical theatre composers Rick Bassett, Mindi Dickstein and Jason Howland, and commercial artist Francesco Sartori.
The performance will officially introduce new or visiting faculty to the Crane stage, including Jean Desmarais (piano), Nathan Giroux (jazz), Jean-Hee Lee (violin), Feryal Qudourah (voice), Will Sutton (euphonium) and Chelsea Tanner (flute).
Additional performers include:
- Brass faculty: John Ellis (trumpet)
- Choral faculty: Andrea Maas
- Guitar faculty: Doug Rubio
- Jazz faculty: Tim Savage (piano)
- Keyboard faculty: Michelle Martin-Atwood, Julie Miller, Rosemarie Suniga and Young-Ah Tak
- String faculty: Liesl Schoenberger Doty (violin), Marie-Elaine Gagnon (cello), John Geggie (double bass), Sarah Hersh (violin) and Shelly Tramposh (viola)
- Voice faculty: Margaret Chalker (soprano), Donald George (tenor), Nicholas Kilkenny (bass-baritone), Deborah Massell (soprano), Kathleen Miller (soprano) and Lonel Woods (tenor)
- Woodwind faculty: Julianne Kirk Doyle (clarinet), Casey Grev (saxophone), Jill Rubio (flute), Raphael Sanders (clarinet) and Chelsea Tanner (flute)
This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend.
This concert will be broadcast live on the Crane School of Music YouTube channel at the performance time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.
About The Crane School of Music:
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution. For more information, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.