Dance instructor Jan Woodward received the President's Award from the South Carolina
Dance Association. She is currently the Upstate Coordinator and has
previously served as the Chair for Honors and Awards with SCDA.
FAC Composer in Residence Jon Jeffrey Grier visited Salem, Va., on Jan.
26 for the premiere performance of "Hap-kan-py-twenty-din-fifth-sky,"
commissioned by the Kandinsky Trio in celebration of their 25 years of
performing together. The trio (violin, cello and piano) Ensemble in
Residence at Roanoke College have been guest artists at the FAC several
times.
Jon has two more performances later this spring. "Museum Pieces," a
song cycle commissioned for the 30th anniversary of the Emrys
Foundation, will premiere on Sunday, April 7, at 2 p.m. in the
Greenville County Museum of Art. Each of the six brief songs evokes a
poem written by an Emrys member, including one by former FAC creative
writing instructor Claire Bateman. The poems were inspired by the
whimsical paintings now on exhibit in the museum by Spartanburg native
Helen Dupré Moseley (1887-1984). Performers will include Greenville
mezzo-soprano Mary Freeman, University of Georgia alto saxophone
professor Connie Frigo, and a string quartet from John Ravnan's chamber
music class (Reagan Bachour and Paul Aguilar on violin, Shannon Elliott
on viola, and Maria Parrini on cello).
On Thursday, April 11, at 8 p.m., the Clemson Symphony Chamber
Orchestra, under the direction of Andrew Levin, will perform "After Long
Ventures," composed in 2005 and premiered by the Greenville County
Youth Orchestra under the direction of the FAC's Gary Robinson. The
work is loosely based on a Walt Whitman poem, "The Beauty of the Ship,"
included in the 1876 edition of "Leaves of Grass," and is scored for
solo clarinet, piano and chamber orchestra.
In October, violist John Ravnan performed in recital at the FAC with voice instructor Dr. Brittnee Siemon and pianist Sherry
Parrini. The concert featured the world premiere of "Waka Songs, On Love
Poems of the Hyakunin Isshu" by Dr. Jon Grier. Also on the program were
works by Brahms, Lillian Fuchs, and two recent works by James Grant.
In April, John will perform Erwin Schulhoff's "Concertino for Flute,
Viola, and Double Bass" and other works with the North Carolina-based
chamber music ensemble, Pan Harmonia. The ensemble will perform concerts
at UNC-Asheville and in Greenville, S.C. John will also join Pan
Harmonia with the Asheville Ballet for four performances of the original
chamber version of "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copland. The Asheville
performances will be held in the Diana Wortham Theatre.
Creative writing instructor Sarah Blackman has a story forthcoming in "Western
Humanities Review" and poetry forthcoming in "American Poetry Review" and "The Kenyon Review Online." This year her essay "The Girl Is a Fiction,"
was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Metals teacher Katy Bergman Cassell is busy planning her visit to England this June as part of an Artist Teacher Fellowship grant funded by the SURDNA Foundation. She will study with enamelists Elizabeth and Jessica Turrell in their Bristol studio and then travel to London, where she will have a small exhibition of her enamel work at Studio Fusion, a gallery on the XO wharf that focuses on the art of enameling. She'll then have a behind-the-scenes look at enamel badges and portraits from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum with Ms. Turrell and her colleagues and will finish her trip with a visit to the British Museum. The goal of the grant is to reinvigorate the art practice of teachers. To that end, Ms. Cassell will also find time to sketch ancient inland rock art and fossils along the southern English "Jurassic" coast.
