Mario Martinez, coordinator of Vocal Studies at Nazareth College, will sing the role of “Slook” in Gaetano Rossini’s “La Camibiale di Matrimonio,” the premiere event of Empire State Lyric Theatre’s (ESLT) first annual Chamber Opera Festival, sponsored by Genesee Regional Bank, on Friday, March 2 at The German House in Rochester. 
“La Cambiale di Matrimonio” kicks off three days of opera performances in three different venues.  On Saturday, March 3, ESLT presents Vittorio Giannini’s “Beauty and the Beast” at the Strong’s National Museum of Play, and as well as an evening performance of “The Medium” and selected opera and operetta scenes at RAPA.  The latter repeats on Sunday at 2 p.m. For the performance, Martinez, who teaches applied voice, vocal pedagogy, song literature and performance technique courses at Nazareth, joins a cast made up of professionals from the greater Rochester region. Tickets to “La Cambiale di Matrimonio” are $25 for the performance alone or $50 for the performance and both pre- and post-performance receptions, and are available from www.empirestatelyrictheatre.org and from Genesee Regional Bank branches.
This performance marks Martinez’s performance debut with the Empire State Lyric Theater, but is a part of an on-going relationship with the opera company.  In 2010, Martinez and Nazareth College’s Department of Music invited Empire State Lyric Theatre to co-sponsor the Summer Institute of Vocal Arts and Musical Theatre, an intensive 2-week summer program for high school voice students.

Kristen Shiner McGuire, Coordinator of Percussion Studies, has released her own jazz standards album, Kristen Sings and Plays and Rings. Professor Shiner McGuire is the drummer, vocalist, and mallet percussionist on this mostly live album. Paul Smoker, Jazz Studies Director, is featured on trumpet. Available in the Nazareth College Bookstore and online at the Apple iTunes store. For more information about the album.

Chisato Eda Marling was featured at the Nazareth Concert Series at 3:00 pm on November 20, 2012. 

submitted July, 2010

Euridice Alvarez was invited by the University of Costa Rica to give an oboe recital, master classes and reed class the week of June 14-18. She  performed a recital on June 17th in San José, Costa Rica.

Chisato Eda Marling will be featured as a soloist in the Nazareth Concert Band concert at 4:00 pm on October 30, 2010.

Marjorie Roth gave a mid-concert talk on the love affair of Robert and Clara Schumann at the Feb. 14 concert that opened the department's series of "birth year" concerts dedicated to Schumann 3.  In May, she read a paper in Rome, Italy at a conference sponsored by the American Association of College and University Programs in Italy.  The subject of the conference is Early Modern Rome, and the title of her paper was "Opportunity Lost:  Christian Prophecy, Musical Magic, and the Road Not Taken in Counter-Reformation Rome". In May and June Dr. Roth team taught an upper level music history class for NAZ music majors (13 students) in Salzburg and Vienna, with my Austrian colleague Dr. Michael Malkiewicz.  The title of the course is "MUS 416:  Music & Culture in Austria", and it ran from May 16 till June 7th.  In November Dr. Roth will read a paper "The Song of the Prophets:  A Musical Model for Lasso's 'Carmina Chromatico" at the annual national meeting of the American Musicological Society, held in Indianapolis, Indiana this year. She has also been asked by the AMS Committee On Career-related Issues to be their guest "Master teacher" speaker this year (other Master Teacher speakers have included Peter Burkholder, Susan McClary, and Mary Natvig).  She will present a 40-minute talk on a music-history pedagogy topic of my choice, which will be followed by discussion with the audience. Dr. Roth have been invited to read  a paper at a conference being held at the Library in Alexandria Egypt, in June of 2011.  The paper will focus on the women important to Alexandria's long history.

submitted March, 2010

Mary C. Carlson, Associate Professor of Music Education has been appointed the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Music Educators Award Committee. The purpose of this committee is to select outstanding music educators in public and parochial schools from the city of Rochester and the nine-county surrounding area.

Bonnie Choi, Lecturer of piano has given several concerts with her Baroque Ensemble Group, Air de Cour. This includes the Arts Center Re-opening Gala Prism Concert, Brockport College Concert Series, Rochester Early Music Festival and the annual Messiah Concert with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. She has been invited to give another recital in Iowa City after her concert last April.
Mitzie Collins, Lecturer of world music was awarded the 2007 Artist Awards from the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester.  Mitzie is known as a recording artist, a performer of Celtic and traditional American folk music, a historian of the American hammered dulcimer, and an Arts- in- Education specialist in the public schools.  With her husband, she founded Sampler Records Ltd., a recording company specializing in the production of traditional music.

Liisa Ambegaokar Grigorov, Lecturer of flute performed in the William Walton "Facade," with members of the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra, on the "Music at St. Luke series on September 23, 2008 in Ithaca, New York.
 
Betsey King, Assistant Professor of Music Therapy and her student Bree Gordon (senior, music therapy) were both featured in the latest issue of Connections Magazine, in an article about the Nazareth Interdisciplinary clinics.

On March 26, pianist Kevin Nitsch and mixed media artist Kathleen Nicastro will present a concert at 3:30 p.m. in the Miller Center Atrium as part of their interactive “Labyrinth of Sound and Light” series. Titled “Water’s Edge: 200 Years of Women Composers,” the event also features soprano Amy Cochrane and pianist Beverley Smoker, Professor of Music. Individuals will be able to wander into the Atrium to listen, watch, and move around the artists to enhance the participatory experience; writing and drawing materials will be available so that audience members can express their own thoughts or impressions.
 
Kristen Shiner McGuire, Coordinator of Percussion Studies, performed an arrangement of the Rodrigo Guitar Concerto, Movement III. on marimba with the Greater Rochester Music Educators Wind Band; Al "Corky" Fabrizio, Conductor and arranger. Also playing, Nazareth alumni Keven Webber and Christine Voldan, Katherine Rudman '13 and Professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department, Timm A. Knoerzer.

Kristne spent the summer of 2008 travelling, performing, and teaching. In June, she and her husband travelled to Berlin to visit her co teacher, Mark Maynor, and his wife Jen; the latter of whom is studying for her doctorate in Musicology. Kristen and Mark played marimba on the streets for tips; and all attended concerts, art exhibits, and one of the world’s largest musical instrument museums.

Upon her return home, Kristen played percussion for the Merry Go Round Playhouse production of Les Miserables. The last week of July was spent teaching at Tritone Fantasy Jazz Camp held in our own Music Department. As Percussion Ensemble Editor for NYSSMA, Kristen reviewed and edited submissions to the manual for NYS teachers and students. Throughout the summer, Kristen can be heard performing with the RPO Marimba Band, Elle Jazz Trio, and Kind of Blue jazz and blues group.

Eric Rieger, Lecturer of voice will sing Count Almaviva in a new production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Zomeropera Alden Biesen in Belgium this spring and summer. He reprises this role which he has performed throughout Europe, including the Teatro Coccia in Novara, Italy and several others in Germany.

Robert Strauss, Lecturer of voice, has had a busy year in addition to his duties at Nazareth College. Last year, he premiered the programme Finding a Way Back, a telling of the story of two people who meet, fall in love, fall out of love, and back again through the songs of the contemporary music theatre repertoire. He reprised his role as King Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors for Mercury Opera Rochester last December, which also featured his voice student, Zach Ligas, as the page. In January, he appeared with Mercury Opera Rochester and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as Spoletta in a production of Tosca. That same month, he was appointed the Interim Artistic Director of the Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus, for which he prepared and conducted their March concert, Women of Song, which also featured the local all-woman ensemble Women of Note. In February, he was appointed the permanent Artistic Director of the Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus, and has since appeared with local artist Thomas Warfield, gay duo and contemporary Christian singers Jason and deMarco, helped to found the Ithaca Gay Men’s Chorus, and led the June concert, Play It Cool, which also featured comic/movie star/jazz singer Lea DeLaria.

This academic year proves to be just as busy and fulfilling for the part-time professor, as he will present a recital of the chamber works of Benjamin Britten in October, featuring also countertenor Lyndon England, horn player Jennifer Presar, and pianist Benton Hess. In November, he will present a benefit concert for the RGMC, which will be an evening of music theatre selections from the gay perspective, featuring local artists Chandra Downs, Matt Tappon, and Mark Brennan on piano. In November as well, he will appear with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in a Symphony 101 concert about Baroque Opera. In January, he will appear with Mercury Opera Rochester as Gastone in their production of La Traviata. Before jetting off to Illinois for another performance of Britten’s Seranade, opus 31, he will stage Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte for the Nazareth College Opera Workshop. He is also excited about the RGMC concerts this year, which will culminate in June with a performance of USS METAPHOR: A Lad Loved A Sailor, a retelling of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic.

Nancy Strelau, conductor of the Nazareth College Symphony Orchestra and Department of Music Instrumental Activities Coordinator, was presented in March with the Monroe County School Music Association 2008 Richard H. Snook Memorial Award for her work with the student musicians in Monroe County. She received her honor at the High School Area All-County concert, held in the Eastman Theatre. Recent Rochester-area conducting appearances for Nancy included one as guest conductor for the Greece Athena High School Orchestra in March, in their preparation for their upcoming music competition in Boston, Massachusetts in April. Nancy also conducted the Oswego County High School Area All-County Orchestra on March 28 & 29th.