Newsletter

Student Achievements

2008

• Daniel Schenk '09 (BA-Biology/B.Mus.-Piano Performance), won second prize in the Concord Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition held December 20, 2008 in Milwaukee.  He performed the Concerto for Piano Left Hand by Maurice Ravel (which he will also perform with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra in May as one of this year's winners in the LSO Concerto Competition). 

• David Keep '11, won the Green Bay Civic Symphony Young Artists Competition held in mid-November and will perform the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with the GBCS in February, '09.  In early November, he placed second in the Wisconsin state auditions of the Music Teachers National Association Young Artists Competition.
• Daniel Shenk '09 (BA-Biology/B.Mus.-Piano Performance), is one of the winners of the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition held Nov. 9; he will perform Maurice Ravel's Concerto for Piano Left Hand with the LSO on May 15, 2009.
• Brent Funderburk '09, was one of the six pianists nationwide chosen to participate in the Vocal Piano Program at the Music Academy of the West this summer. He studied with Warren Jones. As an Academy Fellow, he received full tuition, room and board for the eight weeks of study and performance.
• Amy Lauters '11, earned first-place honors at the annual Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Badger Collegiate Piano Competition May 17 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• David Plank '08, won the Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition in January 2008. He performed Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Lawrence University Wind Ensemble in their May 2008 concert.
• Amy Lauters '11, won the 13th annual Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition (sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio) in March 2008. She performed Haydn's "Piano Sonata in C major, no. 60," Chopin's "Nocturne" and Ravel's "Jeux D'eau" during the winners' performance on April 30, 2008 that was broadcast live statewide on the NPR News and Classical Music Network of WPR.
• Michael Smith '10, won the 13th annual Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition (sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio) in March 2008. He performed Schumann's "Sonata no. 3 in f minor, op. 14" and "Fantasia" from J.S. Bach's "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" during the winners' performance on April 30, 2008 that was broadcast live statewide on the NPR News and Classical Music Network of WPR.
• Will Martin '10, won the 13th annual Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition (sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio) in March 2008. He performed Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" during the winners' performance on April 30, 2008 that was broadcast live statewide on the NPR News and Classical Music Network of WPR.

2007

• Peter Raccuglia '09, won the Beethoven Choral Fantasy Piano Competition in November 2007. He performed the "Choral Fantasy" with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and Lawrence choirs in their December 2007 concert.
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '08, won the 14th annual Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in November 2007. She will perform Franz Liszt's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major" with the LSO in their May 2008 concert.
• Amanda Gessler '07, was one of eight pianists in the world selected to participate in the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation's Beethoven program in Positano, Italy.
• Elliott Cairns '10, performed Ravel Piano Concerto in G with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada at the Brott Music Festival on July 19 in Hamilton, Ontario.
• Helen Kashap '10, earned first-place honors at the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association's annual Badger Collegiate Piano Competition held May 19 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She played two movements from Beethoven's "The Tempest Sonata," Chopin's "Nocturne," and "Danzas Agentinas" by Alberto Ginastera. This summer, Kashap spent a month studying at the Orford Arts Academy in Montreal.
• Daniel Schenk '09, earned second-place honors at the WMTA's annual Badger Collegiate Piano Competition held May 19 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He performed works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, and Scriabin in the competition.
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, won 2nd prize at the Schubert Club Competition held April 26 in Minneapolis.
• Amanda Gessler '07, was named first alternate at the East Central Division of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artists Piano Competition held January 27 at Central Michigan University.

2006

• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, won the Concord Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition in December 2006. She performed Franz Liszt's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major". She received the $500 Dorothy Oestreich Concerto Competition Scholarship, and performed with the CCO in March 2007.
• Scott Englund '09, earned second-place honors at the CCO Concerto Competition for his performance of Bohuslav Martinu's "Piano Concerto No. 4" in December 2006.
• Amanda Gessler '07, received honorable mention at the CCO Concerto Competition in December 2006.
• Eric Jenkins '07, and violinist Burcu Göker, performed at the Austrian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, December 18. The audience for the embassy performance will include ambassadors and other special guests and dignitaries.
• Krystle Maczka '09, was invited to play a dedicatory recital for a new 7-foot Steinway grand piano, a gift to the Clinton Foundation, in the Great Hall of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She performed Brahms Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2 and Beethoven's Variations on "God Save the Queen" on March 22.
• Jestin Pieper '09, won the 12th annual Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in October 2005. He performed Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the LSO in their January 2006 concert.

2005

• Eric Jenkins '07, and violinist Burcu Göker were invited to perform at the memorial service for Ismet Inönü (the second president of Turkey) in Ankara, Turkey in December 2005. Their performance of violin and piano repertoire by Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, and Turkish composer Ahmet Adnan Saygun was televised live in Turkey. Jenkins and Göker have been invited to return to Turkey for performances at the International İstanbul Music Festival in summer 2006 and at the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul, Turkey in December 2006.
• Alvina Tan '06, placed runner-up at the Concord Chamber Orchestra concerto competition in Glendale, Wisconsin in December 2005.
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, placed runner-up at the Music Teachers National Association's state-level competition in October 2005.
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, was again selected to participate in the 10th Annual World Piano Pedagogy Conference (Oct 26-29, 2005) in Anaheim, California.
• Kudos to Aaron Ewell '07, who brought down the house with his fine performance of the Finale of Russian jazz composer Nikolai Kapustin's Sonata Fantasy, Op. 39 at the Welcome Concert on September 14, 2005.
• This summer, Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC as part of the 2005 Eastern Music Festival Piano Program. Her performance can be viewed here.
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, was the winner at the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association's annual Badger Collegiate Piano Competition in May 2005.
• Amanda Gessler '07, earned honorable mention recognition at the WMTA's annual Badger Collegiate Piano Competition in May 2005.

2004

• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, was selected to participate in the 9th Annual World Piano Pedagogy Conference (Oct 27-30, 2004) in Las Vegas. She performed Liszt's "Tarantella, from Venezia e Napoli" at the Marc Durand & Phillip Kawin teaching demonstration.
• Sarah Wheeler '06, won the A.H. Chatfield Junior Piano Prize awarded by Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine in June 2004. She performed Schumann's "Arabesque Op. 18" in the prize winners' concert in August 2004 in Rockport. She also performed Schumann's "Arabesque Op. 18" in a concert in Machias, Maine in July 2004.
• Abigail Birling '05, was awarded the WMTA Collegiate Foundation Grant in May 2004. The grant was used for summer music study at the Bay View Music Festival in Bay View, Michigan, June-August 2004. While at Bay View Music Festival, she was rehearsal accompanist and pianist for the festival musical, "Fiddler on the Roof".
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, earned honorable mention recognition at the WMTA's annual Badger Collegiate Piano Competition in May 2004.
• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '07, won the 10th annual Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition (sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio) in March 2004. She performed Debussy's "Suite for the Piano" and Liszt's "Legend of St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Water" during the winners' performance as part of WPR's "Live from the Elvehjem" series.
• Joseph Ross '06, won the 10th annual Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. He performed J.S. Bach's Concerto No. 1 with the LSO in their January 2004 concert.

Alumni News

• Ka Man (Melody) Ng '08, won the Wisconsin state auditions of the Music Teachers National Association's Young Artists Piano Competition held in October 2008.  She was a featured performer at the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Annual Convention on October 31, 2008, and will represent Wisconsin in the East Central Division round of the MTNA competition to be held at Oberlin Conservatory in January, 2009.
• Brooke Joyce '95, is Assistant Professor of Music at Luther College, in Decorah, Iowa.
• Jeffrey Meyer '96, is Assistant Professor of Music at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY and conducts the Symphony Orchestra there.
• Hillary Nordwell '03, received a Masters degree in Piano and Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory and is now an active freelance musician on both piano and viola in the San Francisco Bay area.
• Cara Gruber '02, is pursuing a Master's degree in musicology at Yale.
• Julie Kostuch '01, won the Oklahoma State Music Teachers Association Competition and performed at the state teachers convention.
• Peter Land '01, received his Post Graduate Diploma in Solo Performance from the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Yonty Solomon. He is now completing a Master's of Music degree as a full scholarship student with Douglas Finch at the Trinity College of Music in London. He took part in master classes in Salzburg and Lucerne with Dmitri Bashkirov and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
• Ha-Young Park '01, is pursuing a Master's in Piano Performance and the Performer’s Certificate at Northern Illinois University. She won first prize in the 2002 Mendelssohn Club Competition and at the NIU Philharmonic Concerto Competition.
• David Rees '01, is pursuing a M.A. in modern history in Munich, Germany, where he won the German Academic Exchange Service graduate prize at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.
• Jill Waycie '01, is pursuing a Master's of Music in piano accompanying at Westminster Choir College, studying with J.J. Penna.
• Victoria Tsangari '00, graduated with a Master's of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, where she studied piano with Howard Lubin and pedagogy with Jane Magrath. She teaches piano, music history and music theory to pre-college level students in Cyprus.
• Stephanie Webster '00, is pursuing a Ph.D. in ethnomusicoloy at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in Chinese music. Last summer, she was awarded a Nationality Rooms Scholarship to study the Children's Palace (an after-school institute in China that focuses on teaching music to children). This year, she is completing her master’s thesis on "Teaching Skills and Morals through Music at the Children’s Palace of China."
• Zachariah Victor '99, is pursuing a Ph.D. in musicology at Yale, where he was awarded a Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies and the A. Bartlett Giamatti Fellowship.

[Top of page]

Off-Campus Opportunities for Students

In addition to the excellent facilities and events on campus, Lawrence offers off-campus activities as well. Very close to home is Björklunden, Lawrence’s 425-acre estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. Each year, pianists participate in a number of weekend seminars there. You may go as part of the choir or orchestra or for a chamber music weekend, or your own piano studio may go and present a concert. Often, interdisciplinary events occur there, bringing together students from different parts of the Lawrence community. But, no matter what the purpose of the weekend, you’ll have a chance to walk in the woods, eat wonderful food, watch movies, and have conversations with both your teachers and your colleagues that just might never have taken place in a classroom.

Going farther afield, generally in your sophomore or junior year, you may choose to participate in one of our many off-campus programs. Programs are available in numerous locations, but the London and Vienna programs tend to be of particular interest to conservatory students. Lawrence runs its own London Centre, and should you elect to spend a term there, you can probably hear more concerts than anywhere else in the world, as well as study piano with a number of remarkable artists who reside in London. Choosing to study in Vienna, you could join a program specifically designed for music students. Vienna provides the benefit of residing in a city replete with musical traditions; you may also take music courses that will fulfill your conservatory requirements, study with a prominent Austrian teacher, and hone your German skills all the while. Perhaps you’d like to go with the French students who travel to Senegal in Africa, studying ethno-musicology and African drumming along with French and other subjects. Or you might choose to participate in a program in the Far East, benefiting, as will many students, from the generous Freeman Grant that Lawrence recently received to send students and faculty on study and concert trips to the Far East, all expenses paid – like the group of conservatory students who toured and performed in China in the summer of 2002 with Professors Fan, Jordheim, and Padilla.

[Top of page]