Summer Memories: Music Education Students Study Abroad in Europe

As part of the first music education study abroad trip, a group of 20 adventurous CCM students traveled to Europe to study in the countries where Western art music was born last summer.

Associate Professor of Music Education Eva Floyd hopes to organize a second study abroad trip in spring 2018. The first trip led the students to Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg and Paris on the 12-day adventure to deepen their appreciation and understanding of music. Students participated in master classes, performed in historic venues, attended concerts and visited cities in which some of classical music’s greatest composers lived and worked.

“When you see the places where Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were born, lived or worked, it makes the music seem more human,” Floyd said, adding that half of the students had previously never travelled internationally.

Supported by grants from UC International and the Tangeman Sacred Music Center, this was the first study abroad trip for a CCM music education class, according to Floyd.

Traveling to the cities in which these great composers created masterpieces gave new life to their art and added personal dimension to music beyond what can be taught in a classroom.

Similar to learning a foreign language, music literacy is strengthened through studies as well as experience. The act of engaging with a culture first hand is a crucial step towards fluency. Likewise, studying and experiencing music in the countries of its origin encourages a broader understanding of music and music education.

Program participant Taylor Limbert, a junior in vocal music education, reflected on his experience with the program:

“Actually talking with and learning from and performing for people from other cultures was so enriching and I’m so glad I had that opportunity. I had been to Europe before last summer’s trip but this trip was by far the most important in my personal journey as an educator and a person.”

Students in front of Esterhazy Palace in Austria, home one of Haydn’s most important patrons.

Students observed music classes of a variety of grades and levels and participated in workshops at the Kodaly Institute in Hungary and the Orff Institute in Salzburg. They had previously studied the famous “Kodaly approach” to music education“seeing it in person made them realize the full potential of music education,” Floyd said.

As part of the program students were able to walk in the figurative footsteps of classical giants. They visited Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria — home to one of Haydn’s most important patrons. Students also toured Liszt’s and Kodaly’s residences in Budapest, Beethoven’s and Haydn’s residences in Vienna and Mozart’s birth home and family residence in Salzburg. Participants also heard concerts while traveling through these historic cities, including the famous Vienna Boys Choir.

Not only did the students visit cultural landmarks, they also had the opportunity to perform in some of the most historically significant and recognizable venues such as the Kodaly Institute in Hungary, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Mondsee Cathedral outside Salzburg and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

“It is a privilege to see and walk through historic cathedrals,” Floyd said. “To make music in such a space allows you to take a piece of it home in your heart.”

Floyd prepared the group’s choral repertoire and organized a choral conducting master class with Peter Erdei, professor at the Liszt Academy and Kodaly Institute, for both CCM and Kodaly Institute students.

“The interchange between students from all corners of the globe was very exciting and proved to be a rich experience for all,” said Floyd, who studied in Hungary for two years before joining CCM faculty.

“The experience is so much more than just learning content and traveling. It helps you learn about yourself. It is very beneficial to get out of your comfort zone, and to be an outsider with language and culture. This helps you empathize with others and find confidence within yourself.”

____________________

Story by CCM graduate student Charlotte Kies

CCM Alumnus in France creates online harpsichord training method for beginners of all ages

As a Professor Emeritus of harpsichord at Paris’ Conservatory of the 18^th precinct and Organist Emeritus at Saint-Jean de Montmartre Church, Frank Mento (MM Organ, 1974) has helped numerous students develop their skills and abilities in keyboard music. Now, the CCM alumnus has ventured into helping newcomers to the harpsichord get off to a strong start — regardless of whether they are six or 60 years old.

Frank Mento

Mento, who studied at CCM under organ professor Wayne Fisher, has created a comprehensive online training method for the instrument that is meant as a surrogate for 10 years of training. The first nine volumes covering nine years are currently available for purchase. The tenth and final volume is expected to become available soon.

“I teach beginners having no previous musical knowledge by a method that [encompasses] education by the eye, ear, muscle, and drawing,” Mento stated of his pedagogical approach. “This is learning based on relative reading, singing, motor skills, and three-dimensional geometry transferred to two dimensions. It is a realistic and living approach. Pupils learn how to read music like a design or drawing.”

Part of his motivation came from observing and experimenting for the better part of 12 years in areas where accessible education on harpsichord is extremely limited due to economic, social and other factors. Students of any age receive training that ranges from learning the most commonly played notes to advanced improvisational techniques involving the variation of melodies, Baroque-style ornamentation and creating musical lines based upon basso continuo. For Mento, this improvisation is key to the success of his approach.

“A long time ago, in order to ornate and vary the music, musicians had a habit of inventing little melodies, which made the piece more joyous, expressive, and prettier,” Mento wrote. “This tradition of ornamentation and improvisation based on a melody died in the early 19th century as far as ‘classical’ music is concerned. Now, only Jazz musicians and musicians of traditional music practice it fluently.”

He also provides free downloadable copies of public domain scores from famed Renaissance and Baroque composers including Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, William Byrd and others. These scores also feature notes on them that inform the musician to which volume of the method each is applicable. Owing to his stated desire for accessibility regardless of age, he readily encourages redistributing the scores to others to further his pedagogical goals.

____________________

Story by CCM graduate Kevin Norton (DMA Saxophone, 2015)

CCM Slideshows: Boeing Boeing

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This weekend is your final chance to see CCM Drama‘s co-production of the Tony Award-winning comedy Boeing Boeing with the Carnegie in Covington, Ky. Directed by CCM’s new Assistant Professor of Drama Brant Russell, this production runs through Sunday, Nov. 24.

In her CityBeat review, Stacy Sims declares, “This winning partnership brings an abundance of talent, youth, energy and physical comedy to the Carnegie’s Otto M. Budig Theater.”

Cincy Whimsy calls the show, “Quite possibly the most humorous play you will see all year” and the Adventure Mom Blog calls Boeing Boeing, “the perfect play to see after a stressful week.” Tickets are on sale now!

CCM and the Carnegie in Stitches Over Tony Award-Winning Comedy ‘Boeing Boeing’

CCM Drama majors Sarah Vargo, Fabiola Rodriguez and Megan Marshall in the Carnegie’s co-production of ‘Boeing Boeing.’

How does one man stay secretly engaged to three sexy flight attendant fiancées at the same time? Make sure they work for different international airlines. Make sure to know the flight timetables. And make sure it’s the ’60s.

This fall, the Department of Drama at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM Drama) and the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center proudly present the Tony Award-winning comedy Boeing Boeing, playing weekends Nov. 8-24 at the Carnegie in Covington, Ky. The production is directed by CCM’s new Assistant Professor of Drama Brant Russell in his Greater Cincinnati debut.

The comedy has Bernard engaged to Gloria. And to Gabriella. And to Gretchen. Three beautiful flight attendants kept secret from each other only by Bernard’s precise timetables of flights in and out of Paris. But when Boeing invents a faster engine, Bernard’s three foxy fiancées converge on his flat at the same time, igniting a mad dash of hidden women and nick-of-time maneuvers as Bernard tries desperately to save his perfect bachelor fantasy.

Throw in a surprise visit by Bernard’s amorous old school chum, Robert, and the reluctant housekeeper Berthe, and the New York Times writes that Boeing Boeing “soars right out of its time zone and into some unpolluted stratosphere of classic physical comedy.”

CCM Welcomes Internationally Renowned Trombonist Jörgen van Rijen For Feb. 21 Master Class and Recital

Guest artist Jörgen van Rijen comes to CCM on Feb. 21, 2013.

The CCM Trombone Studio is proud to present acclaimed trombonist Jörgen van Rijen in a 4 p.m. master class and 8 p.m. recital on Thursday, Feb. 21 in UC’s Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.

Principal trombone of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Van Rijen’s commitment to promoting his instrument, developing new repertoire, and bringing existing repertoire to a broader audience has taken him throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia as a soloist and teacher.

According to Luister Magazine, “Van Rijen is a real ambassador of his instrument, which is still not often used as a virtuoso brass instrument among composers. But there are not that many trombonists who reach the brilliant level of Van Rijen. In sound, dynamic colour, musical understanding and expressiveness, Van Rijen is unequalled…”