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T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E C O L L E G E O F P E R F O R M I N G A R T S

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Update from the DeanIt has been over a year now since I began serving as the Dean of the College of Performing Arts (CoPA), and what a year it has been! It was a year defi ned by the opening of the magnifi cent Musco Center for the Arts last March, at a gala where Placido Domingo sang with our students. � e short preview season that followed in April and May allowed our students to star in � e Merchant of Venice and

in opera productions of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi on that stage, as well as presentations of dance, orchestra and wind symphony concerts, culminating in the annual Sholund Scholarship concert by the orchestra and choirs.

We certainly packed a lot into those six weeks, and this year, the inaugural season for Musco Center, we have moved even more CoPA productions into this new, wonderful facility, including the Fall and Spring Dance Concerts, the fi rst musical theatre production in the Center, � e Who’s Tommy in February, and an opera gala in April. � e most exciting thing for me is to see the excitement on the faces of the students who perform on the Musco Center stage, and of those students who work behind the scenes as they learn how to run a modern theatre. Students are awed by what the facility can do and by its amazing acoustics, but I know that without them Musco Center would be just an empty building. We never lose sight of the fact that all of this is for the students; it is to prepare them to shine in a very competitive professional environment, and to make them feel even more proud of being Chapman students and future alumni.

Without the students, any building, no matter how beautiful, is just a building. Our students are the soul and the heart of CoPA and they are the ones infusing Musco Center with dance, music, and theatre, and are the very heartbeat that makes Musco Center come alive.

This past August we welcomed another extremely talented class to CoPA, and at the end of September, our faculty and students gave a huge contribution to the inauguration of our 13th President, Daniele Struppa, who is a great lover of the performing arts. I can’t count the number of staff, faculty, guests, trustees, and visiting dignitaries who, after the ceremony, told me how deeply moved they were by the performance of our students. It was a splendid way to launch what is turning out to be a great year for our College.

In 2017-18 we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of CoPA’s founding. It is truly remarkable when we look back on all that has been done to strengthen and expand the educational opportunities for our students, whose outstanding performances are testament to these eff orts. Check out our events calendar online and make sure you come to enjoy and support our students and faculty, who work so hard on each and every project.

CONNECT WITH US!Web: chapman.edu/copa

E-mail: [email protected]

Tickets: chapman.edu/tickets or call the CoPA box offi ce

hotline (714) 997-6624

Music performance majors MADI MCGREGOR ’20 and GRECIA RODAS ’18 were accepted by audition to participate in the 2017 Opera Maya international music festival this summer in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. � ey will accompany Dr. Christopher J. Nicholas who serves on the faculty as conductor and guest artist performer of trombone.

Freshman double piano performance and business major CRYSTAL MO placed 5th in the highly competitive Los Angeles International Lizt Competition in November at Azusa Pacifi c University in Azusa, California. Crystal is a student of Dr. Joseph Matthews. (Photo: Crystal Mo)

Chapman clarinetist TAYLOR KUNKEL ’18 spent the last fi ve months of 2016 studying music at University of Cape Town in South Africa, thanks to a $2,400 grant from the Earl Babbie Research Center in conjunction with the Offi ce of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (OURCA). Kunkel recorded and documented the music she encountered in both formal and informal settings in Cape Town and beyond as part of her musicology research project on social change through music. Her fi ndings will be presented later this spring, including numerous audio and video examples of protest music in various indigenous languages and varying vocal and instrumental settings. Dr. Christopher Nicholas serves as her mentor and research advisor.

Chapman dancers NICOLE HAGEN ’17, CASSI MIHALOVICH ’18, EMMA ROSENZWEIG-BOCK ’18, and ELIJAH RICHARDSON ’18 were selected to participate in a special master class with Ivan Vasiliev,

principal of the Mikhailovsky Ballet at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in November 2016.

Senior piano performance major CONNIE TU was recently featured as the pianist in the award-winning fi lm short A Children’s Song, (winner, Chandler International Film Festival, winner, NYC Film Awards) as well as in the commercial for the toy Pom Pom. Tu was also one of fi ve other piano performance majors from Chapman who were accepted to and participated in international music festivals: HEATHER MOORE - Dublin International Piano Festival and Summer Academy; MIA BARINAGA, CONNIE TU, OLIVIA MELLO, and BROOKE HARMON - Semper International Music Festival, under the tutelage of Dr. Grace Fong, director of piano studies.

In January 2017, vocal performance students ERIN THEODORAKIS ’17, ALEXANDRA RUPP ’17, JEFFREY GOLDBERG ’17, JASMINE RODRIGUEZ ’18, and alumna ERIN

GONZALEZ (B.M. Vocal Performance ’08) were led by Chapman Operatic Studies Director Peter Atherton in the Pacifi c Symphony Family Musical Mornings production of Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. � is was Atherton’s fi � h season working with the symphony and Chapman students to bring opera to families. (Photo: Pacifi c Symphony)

ELLIOTT WULFF (B.M. Vocal Performance ’16) is currently attending Arizona State University (ASU) on scholarship to study for a master of music in voice. While at ASU, he has performed as Captain in HMS Pinafore, Speaker in � e Magic Flute, and will perform baritone solos in ASU’s Beethoven Mass in C this spring.

Soprano JULIA DWYER (B.M. Vocal Performance ’16) is currently studying on scholarship for her master of music at � e New England Conservatory. (Photo: Tim Agler)

SARAH BROWN (B.M. Vocal Performance ’16) is currently studying for her master’s degree in voice/speech pathology at Northwestern University, with an emphasis in “vocology.” She recently represented Northwestern at a seminar at the University of Southern California where she received hands-

on training in video scoping vocal cords. Sarah was also invited to sing the national anthem for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team.

In November, DANIEL EMMET(B.M. Vocal Performance ’15) performed a concert of popular, Broadway, and original songs at � e Smith Center’s 240-seat Cabaret Jazz showroom in Las Vegas with critically-acclaimed pianist, composer and recording

artist Philip Fortenberry and cellist Lindsey Springer. He also recently sang sold-out solo concerts for the American Cancer Society in Alabama, and has been asked to sing the national anthem at the largest Rugby international event in North America, held in Las Vegas on March 2 for the USA Rugby Sevens. (Photo: Killer Imaging)

DUKE KIM (B.M. Vocal Performance ’15) worked last summer for the Des Moines Metro Opera as an Apprentice Artist. He is currently attending Rice University on full scholarship working towards a master of music and has performed the role of Rinuccio in Rice’s production of Gianni Schicchi. � is coming summer Kim will attend the Aspen Music Festival on full scholarship. (Photo: Tim Agler)

TONY BAEK (B.M. Vocal Performance ’16) is currently attending the Cincinnati Conservatory on scholarship, working towards a master of music degree. He performed the role of Arbace in Mozart’s

Idomeneo; appeared as a tenor soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Bach’s Cantata 150; and served as Apprentice Artist for the Central City Opera in Colorado.

Technical theatre alum SARAH STAVICH (B.A. � eatre ’15) is now serving as a technician on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship � e Getaway for its new show Million Dollar Quartet. Professor Don Guy

Student & Alumni News

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� is summer theatre Professor THOMAS L. BRADAC travelled to England with theatre alumni (pictured, le� to right) Nicole Palumbo ’10, Brandon Force ’05, and Audrey Lane � ayer ’10 who are all working and studying theatre in London. Bradac met and introduced them to one another at brunch near Buckingham

Palace. A� erward they all went to see several theatre productions as part of the Collaborative Arts Development Experience (CADE) Program, a summer theatre tour organized by Cal State Fullerton, Chapman University, and the University of California, Irvine.

JEFF COGAN, associate professor of music and director of the classical guitar program in Chapman’s Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, recently completed a prestigious judging assignment, serving at the seventh biennial JoAnn Falletta International Guitar

Concerto Competition, held in Buff alo, N.Y. � e judges heard eight competitors representing France, Greece, the United States, Russia, Hungary, Romania and Finland, who faced off during the semi-fi nals held on June 8 and 9, 2016. Cogan has also produced the fi lm Daniel Friederich, Luthier d’Art which was accepted into the Woodstock Museum Film Festival, Woodstock, NY where it screened in late August 2016.

THERESA R. DUDECK, assistant professor of theatre, was invited to teach Impro & Comic Mask master classes in the Pacifi c Northwest last summer at Stanford University, University of Oregon, YesAnd Conspiracy (Olympia), Skagit Valley College (Mt. Vernon), and Unexpected Productions (Seattle). She also presented at the Association for � eatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conference in Chicago. In May, she will be co-chairing the Global Improvisation Initiative Symposium 2017, held at the UC Irvine and Chapman University campuses. globalimprovisation.com (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

Dance Professor ALICIA GUY served as rehearsal director/cleaner for Mama Africa the Musical in Cape Town, South Africa and taught jazz classes at the University of Cape Town in January 2017. Mama Africa chronicles the life of Miriam Makeba, the singer who popularized

African music in the U.S. in the 1960s and who campaigned against the South African system of apartheid.

� is past fall, CHRISTOPHER J. NICHOLAS published his book Paul Lavalle: Conductor, Composer, Visionary (Lambert Academic Publishing: Saarbrucken, Germany, 2016). In addition, he served in a week-long conducting residency in Guatemala City, Guatemala as part of the 2016 Seminario Internacional de Bandas. Dr. Nicholas is director of bands, woodwinds and brass studies and leads the Chapman University Wind Symphony. (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

REBECCA SHERBURN (far right), director of vocal studies, and LOUISE THOMAS (far le� ), director of keyboard collaborative arts, have combined forces to produce the CD recording Love,

the Fair Day, a compilation of vocal chamber music by composers of the New England School of Composition. � ey are joined on the album by Dr. Kimberly James (right middle), mezzo soprano, from the University of Montana and Chapman alumnus TOD FITZPATRICK (le� middle, B.M. Vocal Performance ’00), baritone, from the University of Nevada. � e album was recorded and mastered by Chapman music faculty member ADAM BORECKI (B.M. Composition ’12) and will be released by Albany Records in May/June 2017.

NICK TERRY (far le� ) performed to critical acclaim this January with LA Philharmonic’s New Music Group, celebrating the 80th birthday of American composer and Pulitzer Prize-winner

Steve Reich. Terry is director of percussion studies and associate professor in the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music. He is a member of LA Percussion Quartet and won a 2015 GRAMMY for his work with the PARTCH ensemble. (Photo: LA Philharmonic)

CoPA Associate Dean and Professor LOUISE THOMAS and World Languages and Culture Professor John Boitano of Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences were awarded a Co-Teaching Competition Award for their course FREN 356/FFC 100: � e Great Operas of the Western Tradition. � e course will be off ered during the upcoming 2017-18 academic year. � e prize, given by the Faculty Research and Development Council, will be presented at the Faculty Honors Convocation in May, where all faculty award recipients for the 2017-18 academic year will be announced.

Heather Kelly ’17, BFA Dance Performance (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

Giulio Ongaro, dean, College of Performing Arts

Student dancers rehearse in Musco Center for the Arts (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

Julianne Argyros Orchestra Hall, Musco Center for the Arts (Photo: Ema Peter, Pfeiff er Partners)

Musco Center for the Arts:

Inaugural Performance Season Underway� e Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Artsoffi cially opened its doors toOrange County on April 2, 2016,captivating Preview Season audiences with the intimacy of its concert hall and richness of its world-class acoustics. Los Angeles Times classical music critic and Pulitzer Prize criticism fi nalist Mark Swed declared that “Musco Center’s sound decisions might make it the best opera house in the West.”

Musco Center’s Inaugural Performance Season for 2016-17 has kicked off with an

exciting lineup of visiting artists, ensembles, celebrity guests, and entertainment events, including jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves,

astronaut Scott Kelly, Béla Fleck, Ahn Trio, Aaron Neville, Vince Gill, LA Opera Off Grand, and Masters of Illusion, to name just a few.

� e College of Performing Arts is performing many of its main concerts and productions on the Musco Center stage this season, including Fall and Spring Dance Concerts, � e Chapman Orchestra, the Chapman University Wind Symphony, Opera Chapman, the Annual Holiday Wassail Concert, the Chapman University Singers, the annual Sholund Scholarship Concert, and the rock musical � e Who’s Tommy.

For event and ticketing information for the College of Performing Arts and Musco Center for the Arts, visit chapman.edu/events or muscocenter.org.

saw her last summer while working on a production design job and said “it was great to catch up with Sarah and fi nd out she is doing a fabulous job!” (Photo: Don Guy)

BRETT GRAY (B.M. Vocal Performance ’15) is working on his master’s degree in music education with an emphasis in choral conducting at Rider University’s Westminster Choir College. He recently took part in the International Choral Festival in Spain and the chorale in residence for the Spoletto Festival.

Violin performance graduate and formerTemianka Violin Scholar, EMILYUEMATSU (B.M. Music Performance ’15) has been named the 2017 Parnassus Society Award Recipient. Emily will be presented by the Society in a solo recital at

Soka University in Irvine, CA on June 17, 2017.

CAMERON KELLY (BFA � eatre Performance ’15) had a role in the TV pilot Pearl (ABC), starring Candice Bergen, and has had recurring parts on the shows Masters of Sex (Showtime) and Rosewood (FOX). (Photo: Cameron Kelly)

Harpist LAUREN ARASIM (B.M. Music Performance ’15) performed last summer in Hermosillo, Mexico with Plácido Domingo, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Ana Maria Martínez, Plácido Domingo Jr., and the Sonora State

Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jordi Bernácer. (Photo: Lauren Arasim)

RYAN TAN (B.S. Business Administration, magna cum laude ’14) is now a full-time choir director at Isaac Sowers Middle School in Huntington Beach, CA.

HESTON HORWIN (BFA Screen Acting ’14) just completed work on the upcoming animated feature fi lm Rock Steady Row. He has appeared in several short fi lms and TV shows. (Photo: Heston Horwin)

ALEX WILLERT (B.M. Music Education ’14) is now serving as choral director for Brea-Olinda High School in Brea, CA.

JOHANNES LÖHNER (B.M. Instrumental Conducting, ’13) has been named Artistic Director of Das Nürnberger Salonprojekt, a non-profi t association established to “enrich the cultural life of the inner city” through salon-style acoustic concerts in Nuremberg, Germany. He has also recently guest-conducted the Nürnberger Symphoniker. (Photo: Johannes Löhner)

JORDAN BELLOW (BFA � eatre Performance ’13) performed this past fall at the award-winning South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA in the production of Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way, directed by Marc Masterson. (Photo: Jordan Bellow)

Soprano CHELSEA CHAVES (B.M. Vocal Performance ’13) earned her master’s degree from the USC � ornton School of Music. She recently performed the role of Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberfl öte at the Astoria Music Festival and in 2016 participated in the Oberaudorf, Germany vocal training program at Musiktheater Bavaria. Chaves is a member of the Pacifi c Chorale and involved with outreach programs for both the Long Beach Opera and Pacifi c Symphony. She has been invited to perform the National anthem at two Los Angeles Lakers basketball games. (Photo: Shawn Flint Blair Photography)

NEDA LAHIDJI (B.M. Vocal Performance ’13) earned her master of music in music theatre and an advanced certifi cate in vocal pedagogy from NYU Steinhardt where she worked as an adjunct faculty

member, teaching voice to non-voice majors. As part of her graduate preparation she was selected to work one-on-one with Tony Award-winner Victoria Clark during New York City Center’s Front and Center master class. She is currently teaching privately and continues to audition for TV, fi lm, and Broadway roles.

JARRETT THREADGILL(B.M. Music Performance ’12) is in his second year as a Viola Fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami under the baton of Michael Tilson � omas. � readgill earned his master of music degree from � e Cleveland Institute of Music and went on to complete an artist diploma from the University of Miami during which he was awarded a teaching assistantship and full-tuition scholarship. (Photo: New World Symphony)

HENRY ALLEN (B.M. Music Performance ’11) was recognized for several contributions to the recent GRAMMY-winning Beyoncé album Lemonade, which won the 2017 award for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Allen co-produced the album song

All Night, performing guitar and background vocals, and contributed drum programming for the track.

Oboist TAMER EDLEBI (B.M. Music Performance ’11) was among six Rice University students selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program. Edlebi will travel to New York in April 2017 to participate in a week of immersive activities in New York as a Zarin Mehta Fellow, including training and playing alongside Philharmonic musicians conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. � e program will culminate with a private chamber music concert featuring the fellows alongside Philharmonic musicians.

KALENA BOVELL (B.M. Music Education ’09) will be a returning Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow for 2016-17 Season with the Chicago Sinfonietta. Bovell has been appointed one of only two Assistant Conductors for the 2016-17 Season. (Photo: Kalena Bovell)

BEN BLISS (BFA Film Production ’09) performed as a tenor soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion at Carnegie Hall in February this year. In March, he will appear in � e Rake’s Progress with the Boston Lyric Opera; in April, he performs the role of Steuerman

in Wagner’s � e Flying Dutchman with the Metropolitan Opera. Last spring Bliss won the Met’s Emerging Young Artist Award at Lincoln Center. (Photo: Ben Bliss)

LEAH MCKENDRICK (BFA � eatre Performance ’08) wrote and produced the upcoming feature fi lm M.F.A. She has also appeared in several fi lms and TV shows, including Criminal Mindson CBS and the feature fi lm Bad Moms. (Photo: Dustin Walker Photography)

JENNI PUTNEY (BFA � eatre Performance ’08) opened in a new play at the Actors � eatre of Louisville in mid-November. Jenni has been working constantly as a member of Actors Equity Association since leaving grad school.

(Photo: Jenni Putney)

LAUREN MEYERS (BFA � eatre Performance ’08) has been writing, acting, producing, and winning awards for independent fi lms. Her fi lm Dead Billy recently won Best Drama at the 2016 New Mexico Independent Filmmakers Showcase, as well as an offi cial selection at the 2016 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. � is fall she appeared in the EPiX TV show Graves alongside Nick Nolte, the AMC series Better Call Saul, and was cast as Alice Myers in the 2017-released feature fi lm � e Space Between Us with Gary Oldman and Carla Gugino. (Photo: Kat Tuohy Photography)

DANIEL CURRAN (B.M. Vocal Performance ’08) recently performed in Florida Opera Tampa’s production of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette as Tybalt, and as Ernesto in Don Pasquale.He also performed at the Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium as the Don Pasquale Ernesto and Mozart’s Requiem. He will appear this spring in a new opera with the American Lyric � eater in New York City, performing the role of Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant, composed by Evan Meier.

MICHAEL MORENO (BFA � eatre Performance ’07) has created and manages the Actor CEO Podcast which helps educate actors on how to run their acting career like a business. His podcasts off er tips from industry professionals, and o� en feature

other Chapman alumni who share their experiences and knowledge acquired throughout the course of their acting careers. actorceo.com (Photo: Michael Moreno)

ERIC SATTERBERG (BFA � eatre Performance ’05) has a role in the upcoming feature fi lm � e Lovers, with actors Jessica Sula, Aidan Gillen, and Debra Winger, opening May 2017. He has also appeared recently on the TV shows Scandal (ABC), Days of Our Lives (NBC), Rosewood (FOX), Switched at Birth (NBC Family) and � is is Us (NBC). (Photo: Eric Satterberg)

Soprano STACEY TAPPAN (B.M. Vocal Performance ’95) just concluded a run as Stella in Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with the Hawaii Opera � eater. She also performed the role of Queen Tye in the Philip Glass opera Akhnaten at LA Opera in November. (Photo: Stacey Tappan)

Alumna and Chapman dance faculty member JENNIFER BACKHAUS (BFA Dance Performance ’94) premiered four new dance works with her company Backhausdance at the Irvine Barclay theater on February 3, 2017: Live Life Backward

by Jennifer Backhaus and Dale A. Merrill; Black Morning by Ido Tadmor (Israel); Breach by Yin Yue (China); and Hive by Jennifer Backhaus. Since its inception in 2003, the company has received 15 nominations and 10 Lester Horton Awards from the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles for achievements in choreography, design and performance. (Photo: Backhaus Dance)

� e College of Performing Arts continually seeks to provide opportunities for our students to learn from artistic masters from their respective fi elds of dance, music, and theatre through workshops, masterclasses, or training intensives held on and off campus.

� is year, CoPA students are enjoying specialized attention from a number of industry professionals:

In September, students from the Departments of � eatre and Dance heard from VICTORIA MORRIS,president and CEO of Lexikat Artists. Ms. Morris currently manages and develops theater directors, writers, and choreographers and was one of the entertainment industry’s fi rst dance agents during the commercial dance market explosion in Los Angeles and the advent of MTV. She created the fi rst live

theater department at a commercial talent agency devoted solely to the development of young theater performers in Los Angeles, and went on to augment that by opening a New York theater division, which continues to represent actors for television and fi lm, as well as Broadway and regional theaters. Professor Nanci Carol Ruby invited Morris to speak to Chapman students about her belief in the power of the imagination and the creative process.

Internationally acclaimed choreographer and ballet artist IDO TADMOR came to Chapman in November to work with dance students and introduce “Z-Ra,” an original work he choreographed for Chapman’s Fall Dance Concert which was performed December 2-3 in Musco Center for the Arts. An Israeli native and former member of Batsheva Dance Company, Tadmor is one of that country’s most celebrated artists, winning its Landau Prize for

life achievement in the arts and serving as a judge on the television program Born to Dance, similar to the American hit So You � ink You Can Dance? . His visit to Chapman was helped by a connection made with Jennifer Backhaus ’94, an instructor in the Department of Dance and founder and artistic director of Backhausdance.

Also in November, PHELIM MCDERMOTT, the renowned award-winning British theatre director, spent nearly two hours with Dr. � eresa Dudeck and her theatre students in the Waltmar � eatre, talking about his range of work over the last 30 years as a theatre and opera director, creator, collaborator, and improvisationalist. McDermott was in town to direct the all-new production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at LA Opera (November 5–27, 2016), in which, coincidentally, CoPA music alumna Stacey Tappan performed the role of Queen Tye.

Violinist RAY CHEN gave an exciting master class for students from Chapman’s Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music the day a� er his on-campus November 18 concert with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker: “Made in Berlin” in Musco Center for the Arts. Top-performing high school students from Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), Arnold O. Beckman High School, and Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra (OCYSO) were also invited to

attend this free public event, which was fi lled with Chen’s music and insights into the preparation of violin repertoire. Chen’s visit was sponsored by Philharmonic On Campus at Chapman University, supported by Bette and Wylie Aitken.

� e spring 2017 semester also brings special artists to share their expertise with Conservatory instrumental and vocal performance students. In late January, the award-winning Los Angeles-based KRONOS QUARTET brought a sample of their contemporary music repertoire for strings in a concert in Musco Center, followed by four concurrent master classes attended by students from Chapman, OCSA, Beckman High School, and OCYSO.

Later this semester, mezzo-soprano MILENA KITICconducted an on-stage public master class with Chapman vocalists immediately following her concert in Musco Center on March 9. A star of the Belgrade Opera, Serbia (former Yugoslavia), Ms. Kitic made her debut in 1989 as Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She has performed in her signature role as Carmen and as other heroines at opera houses around the world. Milena is currently artist-in-residence of voice in Chapman’s Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music.

Chapman’s Department of � eatre has continued to grow in size and diversity over the past several years, allowing it to signifi cantly expand the repertory available to its students. In December, the department produced Intimate Apparel, Lynn Nottage’s award-winning study of six turn-of-the-20th-century characters navigating a rapidly changing world. Some of these people, like protagonist Esther, played by Chelsea Davis ’17, are the descendants of slaves. Others are immigrants. One is privileged. � e one thing they all have in common is that the yearnings of their hearts go unfulfi lled.

“� is is a devastating play,” says visiting director Jaye Austin Williams, Ph.D., an assistant professor of theatre arts at Cal State Long Beach. “� ere’s a lot of terrible beauty in the play, a lot of compelling human complexity. And the play opens a space, which is what Nottage does all the time, to contemplate the implications of being human.”

� e production marks the fi rst time Chapman has staged the work of Nottage, an acclaimed playwright who has won not only a Pulitzer Prize for drama but also a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and a Guggenheim Fellowship. It also served as a celebration of the publication earlier this year of A Critical Companion to Lynn Nottage, an anthology edited by Jocelyn L. Buckner, Ph.D., an assistant professor in Chapman’s Department of � eatre.

“My research is in representations of gender, race, class and sexuality in performance,” says Buckner, who was attending another of Nottage’s plays when she identifi ed the lack of

Vocal and instrumental musicians from the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music and seniors from the Department of Dance embarked on several performance tours during the January 2017 Interterm, visiting dozens of schools and performance venues throughout California and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The dance ensemble, led by Professor Alicia Guy, was comprised of soon-to-be-graduates Hannah Beddow, Spencer Biggs, Parker Blakely, Cristina Escobar, Ellie Espinosa, Nicole Hagen, Heather Kelly, Ashleigh Kluge, Matthew Kubitz, Christopher Marks, Jason Martin, Cristina McKeever, Lily Ontiveros, and Lauren Steele. Performances were held at 16 schools and other venues throughout Southern California and Las Vegas, and included seven works created specifically for this year’s touring ensemble; all original work by current students, alumni, and professional guest choreographer Kim Hale, representing a variety of genres and styles of dance, followed up with an audience Q&A.

Woodwind and strings instrumentalists from the Conservatory of Music also toured Northern California, led by Professors Robert Becker and Christopher J. Nicholas, performing dozens of concerts for enthusiastic audiences at eight diff erent area schools.

Meanwhile, the 30-voice Chapman University Singers, led by Professor Stephen Coker, presented a concert program ranging from 16th-century church music to 18th and

19th-century classical music to folk or folk-infl uenced contemporary compositions. Representing Chapman and the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, the group travelled throughout the Bay Area, wrapping up the trip with a concert in Las Vegas. Upon their return, the Singers performed selections from this tour in a concert in Musco Center for the Arts.

Carlos Hernandez (B.M. Music Performance, B.M. Music Education ’17) is the historic fi rst recipient of the Jerry � omas Memorial Award. � e newly established annual award in the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music is made possible through a generous donation by CoPA parent Lexie Ek in honor her father, Jerry � omas, a Bay Area big band and jazz musician active in the 1930s and ’40s. Recipients are selected by the Dean and Conservatory of Music faculty who evaluate junior- and senior-year candidates active in the big band or jazz genres and who demonstrate good citizenship and outstanding talent within the Conservatory. � e award was presented at the Chapman Big Band & Jazz concert in the Chapman Auditorium of Memorial Hall in late November. Carlos will receive $5,000 to use towards auditions, professional travel or other related expenses.

Visiting Artists and Master Classes

Keith Hancock ’02 (M.A. ’04) named GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year

INTERPLAY 2017: Golden Dreams

Edward Lapine joins Chapman as new Assistant Professor of Theatre Production

Gender and Race Explored in Nottage’s Intimate Apparel

Student Ensembles on Tour

Inaugural Jerry � omas Memorial Award

New Chairs for Departments of Dance and TheatreJulianne O’Brien Pedersen joins Chapman University as associate professor and chair for the Department of Dance, replacing Professor Nancy Dickson-Lewis who retired from the University last May.

O’Brien Pedersen holds a master of fi ne arts degree in choreography from � e Ohio State University and earned her bachelor of arts degree

in dance from Connecticut College. She is a certifi ed

yoga instructor and a certifi ed movement analyst through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York.

Prior to joining Chapman University, Professor O’Brien Pedersen served as dean of the Palladino School of Dance at Dean College in Franklin, MA. During her tenure at Dean College, she updated curriculum that received recognition in Dance Magazine; spearheaded new performance opportunities for students at prestigious venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Joyce � eatre, and Alvin Ailey American Dance � eater; developed new summer programming that brought master teachers to the college; and built internships for students with a number

A Chapman University alumnus who transformed a high school’s chorus from a single class into an award-winning program with more than 200 singers has been named the 2017 GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year.

Keith Hancock ’02 (M.A. ’04) was chosen from among 10 semifi nalists and more than 3,300 nominees from all 50

states. � e award is given by the GRAMMY organization to recognize teachers who inspire students and make a lasting impact in the fi eld of music education and the communities where they teach. � is was Hancock’s second consecutive year as a nominee and fi nalist for this award.

“It is an incredible honor to be chosen among the fi nest music educators in the country. It’s a proud moment to have my hard work in the classroom validated and respected,” said Hancock, who is the choir director at Tesoro High School in South Orange County, Calif. “I share this award with the amazing music educators and colleagues I’ve had in my life, most of them from Chapman, including my chief musical mentor, Bill Hall, as well as my amazing students that inspire me each day.”

Clearly, the inspiration fl ows both ways. When Hancock arrived at Tesoro in 2002, there were about 35 students participating in choir. Now there are more than 200. Last year Tesoro’s music program was honored as one of fi ve national GRAMMY Signature Schools, earning a $2,500 award spent in part on sheet music and equipment.

Under Hancock’s leadership, Tesoro choirs have toured in Europe and performed at Carnegie Hall, and in 2012 and 2016 performed at American Choral Directors Conventions, an honor he considers their highest.

Hancock has also served as director of Chapman’s summer Choral Music Camp off ered to high school students and has taught undergraduate courses in the College of Performing Arts, where he himself studied.

His high school students may or may not enter music careers, but he believes the lessons they learn in choir will stay with them all their lives.

“Students learn personal accountability in a group situation, how to deal with setbacks, and how to live their lives with empathy and love. My students know that when we reach a goal, there is always a new goal to set or higher levels of excellence to attain, and this is something they can apply to many facets of their life,” he said.

Hancock received his award and a $10,000 honorarium at the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, February 12, 2017.

Chapman University and Pacific Symphony come together each year for Interplay – a collaborative festival of music, culture, and ideas that takes place in the spring. This innovative partnership engages Chapman students, faculty, and symphony staff and musicians in jointly supported public events that include performances and lectures, as well as curricular projects. The 2017 Festival is titled “Golden Dreams,” and celebrates California’s role as a unique cultural crossroads, bringing together our state’s indigenous populations with immigrants from all directions to create a rich and diverse human landscape. “Golden Dreams” will explore those who were here, those who came, and how their interactions changed the world.

At Chapman, the festival kicks off in January with a special “Golden Dreams” exhibition in the Leatherby Libraries on the main f loor through April 2017. Continuing in February and each month through May, there will be several related vocal, instrumental, and dramatic performances and lectures taking place on the Chapman University campus and at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall with Pacific Symphony. All events are open to the public, and some are free.

One of the festival highlights at Chapman is the April 6 Chapman University Wind Symphony concert in Musco Center. � e program includes Los Angeles composer Frank Ticheli’s Wild Nights!, Australian émigré composer Percy Grainger’s monumental Lincolnshire Posy, Alfred Reed’s El Camino Real: A Latin Fantasy, and the powerful Lincoln Portrait of Aaron Copland. � e performance will also feature the premiere of Chapman student composer Sam Ek’s recent chamber work entitled Morning Rain.

Visit chapman.edu/interplay for information about the entire calendar of 2017 Interplay Festival events.

� e Department of � eatre welcomes Edward Lapine who is the new assistant professor of theatre production. Professor Lapine holds a master of fi ne arts in technical design and production with an emphasis in production management from Yale University. He earned his bachelor of arts degree from Williams College in Williamstown, MA.

Lapine joins the Chapman faculty with an extensive

background in professional theatre and opera production, as well as production support for arts and special events presentations. Prior to Chapman, he served on the staff of

the Yale School of Drama Technical Design and Production Department as associate head of production and student labor supervisor where he managed the student work-study program, supported the head of the Technical Design and Production Department, and managed technical support for events held in School of Drama venues by Yale and outside organizations.

“Ed will be a tremendous asset to the Technical � eatre program at Chapman and we welcome him to our faculty,” said Dr. Giulio Ongaro, dean of the College of Performing Arts. “His extensive professional production management experience will allow us to expand our course off erings for technical theatre, and enhance our student mentoring as we help them prepare for their careers.”

Lapine has also worked in a variety of production management roles, including eight years as director of production for the Denver Center Theater Company, and ten years as production manager for San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. In both organizations,

he served as a member of senior staff, helping set company policy, direct annual planning and operation, and conduct strategic planning. He managed design and technical support of a wide range of professional productions, including classical work, premieres and co-productions.

His other professional work includes positions in technical management at the Santa Fe Opera, South Coast Repertory, and the Metropolitan Opera, as well as management of presented companies (American Ballet Theatre, the Berlin Ballet, English National Opera). He has worked in film production, and has also worked outside of the arts where he was a partner in a company developing nanotechnology products. He began his professional career teaching theatre design at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut.

of prestigious organizations including the Boston Ballet. Additionally, she served as an academic leader for a decade at Eastern Michigan University where she helped the dance program double in size, aligned curriculum with National Association of Schools of Dance standards, partnered with national presenting organizations, and cultivated donors in the creation of a new studio.

“We are very excited to have Julianne join us at Chapman University,” said Dr. Giulio Ongaro, dean of the College of Performing Arts. “She brings a wealth of experience in leadership, dance pedagogy, and choreography and will undoubtedly be a force for innovation and growth in the Department of Dance. Our students have much to gain by her addition to the faculty.”

O’Brien Pedersen’s teaching interests focus on modern dance techniques, Bartenieff Fundamentals and other somatic practices, history, choreography, improvisation, and pedagogy. In 2015 she presented on composition pedagogy at the Dance and the Child International Festival in Denmark. She presented her work on modern dance pedagogy at the National Dance Education Organization 2016 conference held in Washington D.C. in October.

In the Department of � eatre, Professor John Benitz now serves as chair a� er co-chairing the department last year with Professor Don Guy. Professor Guy will begin focus on a major revision of the � eatre Technology program,

Julianne O’Brien Pedersen, chair, Department of Dance

John Benitz, chair, Department of � eatre

Director Phelim McDermott (le� ) speaks to Prof. � eresa Dudeck’s (right) theatre students. (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

Chapman students Lisa Yoshida, violin; Safi eh Moshir-Fatemi, violin; Preston Yamasaki, viola; and Haley Hedegard, cello receive feedback on their master class performance by Kronos Quartet violist Hank Dutt (right).

Victoria Morris, president and CEO, Lexikat Artists

Ido Tadmor, choreographer

Assistant Professor Edward Lapine

For the latest news and performance information, or to invest in our next generation of artists with a donation to the Fund for Excellence, visit chapman.edu/copa.

taking advantage of both faculty resources and the new Musco Center for the Arts. He will continue to build on the program’s progress to develop it into a program of distinction for Chapman.

“� is is a very exciting time for our � eatre Department,” said Benitz. “Building on the work of my predecessor Professor Lenoir and my shared chairship with Professor Guy last year, I think we are poised for great things in the coming years. Of particular interest to me are bolstering and managing our already strong admissions record and continuing to move our department solidly into becoming one of the top training programs in the country. We have innovative programs populated by talented students and taught by superior faculty who are professionals in their fi eld. Also, with the new Musco Center for the Arts and our other great performing spaces, I’m very focused as artistic director of the production season on making each season as exciting, challenging and entertaining as possible. With all this said, I am really jazzed about our future.”

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CoPA Going GreenIn an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, the College of Performing Arts intends to use electronic media more often to stay connected to our students and their families, our patrons

and supporters.

Ray Chen, violin

Chapman dance students on tour.

Senior saxophonist Carlos Hernandez (right) is presented with the inaugural Jerry � omas Memorial Award by CoPA Dean Giulio Ongaro.

� e cast of Intimate Apparel with director Jaye Austin Williams: (L to R) Tommie Russell ’18, Chelsea Davis ’17, Regina Bryant ’20, Arianna Behrens ’20, Rachel Gallagher ’19, Jeremy Howard ’17, Jaye Austin Williams. (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

Keith Hancock ’02 (M.A. ’04)

Chapman University Wind Symphony (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

53rd Annual Wassail Concert Makes Musco Center Debut A beloved Chapman University holiday tradition, the annual Holiday Wassail Concert staged its 53rd production for the very first time on the Musco Center stage this year. The sold-out crowd on December 10, 2016 enjoyed a delightful evening of seasonal music and works from around the world that were performed by 168 students from the College of Performing Arts.

The performance ensembles included The Chapman Orchestra, directed by Daniel Alfred Wachs; the Chapman University Singers and University Choir, led by Stephen Coker; the University Women’s Choir led by Chelsea Dehn; and the Chapman Percussion Ensemble, directed by Nick Terry. The concert was later broadcast on Media Sponsor KCET at various times on December 23-25, 2016. Dates for the 2017 concert and the limited-seating pre-concert banquet will be announced in early fall 2017.

53rd Annual Holiday Wassail Concert (Photo: Dale Dudeck)

scholarship about the playwright’s works. “Lynn Nottage is one of the leading voices of American theatre today, and it is time to honor and celebrate her by expanding the critical conversation surrounding her contributions to the dramatic canon,” Buckner says.

“� is is the fi rst time we’ve produced her work at Chapman, and that’s in part because the department has really recommitted itself in the past fi ve years to telling diverse stories. We have a growing diverse student population in the department, so we’re very excited to be able to tell a story in a way that we haven’t really before.” With four black characters, “this is not a play you could cast without African-American actors,” Buckner says.

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Ray Chen, violin

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and supporters.

Ray Chen, violin

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