Early Music Ensemble is Accepting New Members! 

New this year we are offering 3 10-week sessions for all types of string, wind and percussion adults and teens who would like to learn more about playing the styles and repertoire of the Renaissance. Classes meet Thursday evenings from 6:00-7:30pm and are led by Laura Mazza-Dixon, viola da gamba player and early music professional.
Ideal for adults and teens with experience on their instrument, this ensemble will focus on music composed prior to 1700.  Presented in 3 10-week sessions for multiple levels of ability, participants will study music of the Baroque and Renaissance periods primarily, learn the performance styles appropriate for that period, and gain tremendous exposure and study of a wide variety of early music while enjoying social and musical interaction with others of similar interest.

Session 1: October 1 – December 10, 2009
Introduction to Early Music of the Renaissance:  An open, non-auditioned class for beginning to intermediate players with functional music reading ability and basic facility on their instrument. Repertoire will include music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. 

Session 2:  January 7 – March 25, 2010 (excluding 2 weeks in February)
Music of the Shakespearean Era: Open by audition and geared toward a performance at the close of the sessions, this ensemble will study and perform music from the Shakespearean Era for plucked and bowed strings, recorder and voice.

Session 3:  April 1 – June 10, 2010
Henry Purcell and English Country Dance Music: Open by audition and geared toward a performance at the close of the sessions, this ensemble will study music from the Playford Collections of English County Dance tunes, and Purcell's music for the theatre.  Our final performance will include dancers.


Thursdays                     $100 per 10-week session
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Min. 10 students
The Hartt School, University of Hartford
Laura Mazza-Dixon, Instructor
Viola da Gamba & Guitar

Brochure & Registration Form

2009-2010 Sight Reading Party Dates Announced!

Hartt Suzuki String News!

Save the dates!

Halloween Play Out, October 31

DOWNLOAD THE FLYER!

Fall Group Class Concert, December 12
 
     Guitars, 12:00
     Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses 3:00

Suzuki Orchestra Concert, December 19

      2:00 pm
      Dress rehearsal schedule TBA

HCD Piano Faculty Marie Gummer has placed as runner up in the Clavier Companion Magazine Collegiate Writing Contest! 



HCD Piano Faculty Marie Gummer has placed as runner up in the Clavier Companion Magazine Collegiate Writing Contest.   This contest was open to all college students enrolled in an accredited program of music study. Undergraduate and graduate students from any country in the world are eligible.  Contestants were required to submit a short essay on any topic of their choosing that relates to the field of piano pedagogy.  Ms. Gummer submitted an article about teaching piano to students with Autism, and it will be published in the November/December issue as well as going on their website.
http://claviercompanion.com/

Congratulations to Marie!

Hartt Names New Interim Dance Division Director
Dancer, Teacher, and Choreographer Stephen Pier Tapped to Lead Dance Division

Photo credit:  John Deane  
Pictured:  Stephen Pier

The Hartt School, the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford, is pleased to announce the appointment of Stephen Pier as Interim Director of the Dance Division. Pier has a distinguished career as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer with some of the world’s finest companies and schools, and has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1996. Pier succeeds Dennis Price, whose contributions enhanced Hartt’s dance program significantly during his four-year tenure. 

Stephen Pier has achieved a uniquely rich and varied career. His credits as a performer include many years with the Jose Limon Company, where the New York press hailed him as “…one of the most gifted dancers on the modern dance scene today.” He went on to become a leading soloist with the Hamburg Ballet in Germany, performing the title roles in John Neumeier’s "Othello” and “Saint Matthew’s Passion” and creating numerous other major roles during his nine years with the company. As a member of the Royal Danish Ballet for six years, Mr. Pier had the privilege of dancing leading roles in works of Bournonville, Balanchine, MacMillan, Bejart, and collaborating with many of Europe’s finest contemporary choreographers.
Mr. Pier was invited to teach both the company and the school of the Royal Danish Ballet and served as ballet master for the company from 1992 to 1996. He has taught on the faculty of the Alvin Ailey School, the Martha Graham Center, Regional Dance America, New York International Ballet Competition, and for many notable companies in Europe, America, and Asia, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Atlanta Ballet, Bat Dor, Introdans, Scapino Ballet Cedar Lake Dance Ensemble, and the New National Theater, Tokyo. He has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1996. His students have danced in companies around the world including The Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theater, Martha Graham Company, Lar Lubovitch Co., Mark Morris Dance Co., Doug Varone Dancers, Cullberg Ballet, Cedar Lake Ensemble, Alvin Ailey, and Bat Sheva.
In 2002 Mr. Pier began PierGroupDance (www.piergrp.org) to explore and collaborate with dancers and artists in various art forms. He has created more than 30 works for the concert stage, opera, theatre, and film. His work has been presented by The Hamburg Ballet (Germany), Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Danish Theater, Royal Danish Opera, Bat Dor (Israel), The New National Theater (Japan), The Juilliard Dance Ensemble, The Di Capo Opera Company (New York City), Nilas Martins Dance Company, and the Dance on Film Festival at Lincoln Center. He was selected to be part of Jacob’s Pillow Choreographer’s Project in 1998. He co-founded and directed the emerging choreographer’s workshop “Danses” at the Royal Danish Ballet from 1990 through 1996.

Pier has been the Artistic Director of Juilliard’s innovative Mentoring Program since 2007, and in September 2008 he began a 3-year tenure as director of the new Visions and Voices: Altria/ABT Women’s Choreography Project at American Ballet Theater.
           
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a year, performance is central to Hartt’s curriculum. For more information on The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.  

Music Adventure Reunion Concert
SATURDAY, October 3rd at 7:30
Berkman Recital Hall

A Music Adventure Reunion Concert will reprise repertoire from the 2009 season in Tuscany, Italy performed by students and faculty. This August, Music Adventure was in residence at Tenuta di Spannocchia, an organic agricultural estate near Siena. Participants, including students and faculty from the community division, spent two weeks rehearsing and performing chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire in this historic setting. The group took trips to Florence, Siena, San Gimignano and Volterra.

Music Adventure Reunion Concert
SATURDAY, October 3rd at 7:30
Berkman Recital Hall


Students playing Haydn on the Villa lawn

Music Adventure Family 2009

Tenuta di Spannocchia, Music Adventure's home


Chamber music coaching at Spannocchia

Trombone Students Take Note: 
Hartt Contemporary Players Ensemble Opens Featuring the Trombone!
 Concert incorporates repertoire featuring the trombone in solo roles

The Hartt School’s Contemporary Players Ensemble opens its season on Wednesday, October 7, at 7:30 PM, in Millard Auditorium on the University of Hartford’s West Hartford campus.  The concert is free and open to the public.  For information, call the University of Hartford Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 800.274.8587 or visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

Curated by Hartt trombone professor Ronald Borror, this concert features compositions from the latter third of the twentieth century and nascent years of the twenty-first, which helped lay the ground work for and spawn a plethora of trombone concerti and other solo repertoire written since.  The pieces include a wide range of compositional styles and schools, and feature composers such as Milhaud, Reynolds, and Wuorinen.

Soloists who bring these works to fruition include Julie Josephson of the professional Prisma Trombone Quartet and Bang on a Can; Benjamin Herrington of the Meriden Arts Ensemble; and current Hartt students Ronald Edwards and Matthew Russo.    

The Hartt School Presents The Hartt Symphony Orchestra
Symphony opens season with works by Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Hartt faculty member Stephen Gryc

The Hartt School presents the Hartt Symphony Orchestra on Friday, October 2, at 7:30 PM in Millard Auditorium, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford. Christopher Zimmerman leads the orchestra with works by Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Hartt faculty member Stephen Gryc.  Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups.  Please call the University Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 800.274.8587 or visit www.hartford.edu/hartt for more information.

The group will perform Ravel’s Alborado del Gracioso, conducted by Pierre Alain Chevalier.  Alborado del Gracioso is a virtuoso tour de force for the orchestra.  The work exhibits the mastery of Ravel's orchestral craftsmanship.  The composer was at the height of his powers and the orchestration is at once opulent and subtle.

Also in the repertoire is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, which is regarded as one of the greatest symphonies of the late romantic era and arguable his greatest, alongside his Symphony No. 6.  Zimmerman describes the symphony as covering “the entire spectrum of emotions and each movement is immensely satisfying in itself and as a part of the whole.  It is a highly dramatic, beautifully paced work with moments of both exhilaration and poignancy.  The balance between the tragic and the uplifting is exquisite.”

The Symphony also will perform Trombone Concerto, written by Hartt Composition faculty member, Stephen Gryc. Gryc's expertise in composing instrumental music has brought him commissions from a diverse group of the world's leading soloists including New York Philharmonic members Philip Smith (principal trumpet) and Joseph Alessi (principal trombone). His works for large ensembles have been performed nationally and internationally by such groups as the Minnesota Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the United States Marine Band, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. Gryc is the composer of the University of Hartford's alma mater and fight song.

HCD Ensemble Schedules

Please check your ensemble’s web calendar to any last minute changes or cancellations:  http://hcd.hartford.edu/music/instrumental_ensembles.htm

FYI and About our Newsletter

This Hartt Community Division Newsletter is distributed via e-mail to all faculty, staff, and families of the Community Division, who request the newsletter, weekly from September through June.  It is also posted on our website: www.hcd.hartford.edu   

Mark George, Director (george@hartford.edu ) – new program ideas, fundraising, general issues and concerns.

Alana Seddon, Associate Director (aseddon@hartford.edu ) – new program ideas, school-wide issues and concerns, current programming ideas or issues, and operational concerns.

Dawn Zumbroski, Deputy Registrar (zumbroski@hartford.edu ) -- registration issues, billing concerns and payments.

Jill Burnham, Administrative Secretary (jburnham@hartford.edu ) -- new student referrals and registration.
Judy Chestnut, Budget Administrator (chestnut@hartford.edu ) -- budget and payroll issues.

Jill Vasbinder, Assistant Director of Dance and Off-Campus Programs (jvasbinde@hartford.edu ) -- responsible for managing administrative details for the Simsbury Branch and the Dance Department.

Amanda Kilpatrick, Dance Administrator (kilpatric@hartford.edu ) -- dance department

Emmett Drake, Scheduling Coordinator (hcdevents@hartford.edu ) -- recital programs and room scheduling
Noah Glynn, Office Coordinator (glynn@hartford.edu ) – managing ensembles and coordinating special events

HCD Main Office Receptionists (harttcomm@hartford.edu ) - part-time receptionists at the main campus

HCD Simsbury Receptionists (simsmore@hartford.edu ) – part-time receptionists at the Simsbury location

HCD Dance Department Receptionists (dancedesk@hartford.edu ) – part-time receptionists at the Hartford Dance Center

To submit an article, email jburnham@hartford.edu no later than the Wednesday of the week you would like it to appear.  We encourage our faculty, students and staff to submit articles.  Articles will appear once.  The staff of the Hartt Community Division reserves the right to edit articles for content, grammar and length.

Please visit our website at http://www.hartford.edu/hartt/community

To pay your bills online: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/bursar/payment.html

To find out about Hartt news, activities, and events, please read the News from the Dean, which is published every other week: http://www.hartford.edu/hartth/Hartt_News/NewsfromtheDean.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE:  If you do not want to receive the Hartt Community Division’s Email Newsletter, please email jburnham@hartford.edu with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body or subject of the email.