What a conference! The music of Nicole Chamberlain, Owen Elton, and Robert Martin! A performance of music and photography/videography to present the topic of dreams! A retrospective on Philip Glass at 80! Those are just a few of the presentations given at the Westbrook Music Building of the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. And it all occurred March 11-March 12, 2017. Wow, the composers' concert! Thomas Dempster (Claflin University) said of his work the bunyip, “The fixed media accompaniment serves as both atmosphere and commentary..., and enters into repartee with the (alto) saxophone extensively,” and Jodi Goble (Iowa State University) said that in her song cycle Valentines from Amherst she “sought to reference and synthesize--in a more updated, modern harmonic palette--elements of vocal art music genres that might have been heard and performed in upper-middle-class American homes...in the mid-1800s..." I know what most presenters/composers thought of their own work, but visit their opinion of my own presentation. Nora Lee Garcia (University of Central Florida) says she was fascinated by the parallels between triadic post-tonality and common-practice tonality. Tony Bushard (University of Nebraska, Lincoln), President of the Great Plains chapter, thought it was brilliant. Robert J. Martin (Truman State University), composer, licensed psychologist, Secretary of the American Society of Cybernetics, and Professor Emeritus, thought I should have used more audio excerpts. Other people thought it was a great way to educate CMS audiences about this particular instance of evolution in contemporary art music. Nevertheless, it is a bit of a tug-of-war between my interdisciplinary approach, which aims to engage CMS audiences on a deeper, music theoretical level, and presentations that are more conventional to a society that promotes, in more general terms, music teaching and learning in higher education. Being outnumbered 16:1 in this regard, Paul Lombardi (University of South Dakota), Composition Chair of the 2017 Program Committee, encouraged me to participate in dedicated theory conferences. But it will not take a miracle for me to do that. The only question is: Will I be lucky enough to actually travel to Strasbourg, France for Le neuvième congrès Européen d'analyse musicale?
COLLEGE MUSIC SOCIETY: GREAT PLAINS CHAPTER 2017 Regional Conference
ZANE GILLESPIE
After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.