“I try to go off the beaten track when I choose where to take my students,” said George, director of bands, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and string orchestra, and chair of the St. Thomas Music Department. “I want to take them out of their comfort zone and be pushed into a different atmosphere that they wouldn’t be able to experience here.”

This wasn’t George’s first time traveling abroad to work with international composers and music ensembles. His music exchange started 19 years ago when he was invited to Mexico City to lead a weeklong seminar at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His charge was to discuss wind band music, form an experiment ensemble and give a concert.

The trip was such a success that they invited George back and asked him to direct and form what is now the Banda Sinfonica at the Escuela Nacional de Musica of UNAM. George returned to Mexico City two to three times a year to help develop the program until they finally hired a full-time conductor. People heard of the work he did there, and George began to receive invitations to work with other international ensembles.

Listen to the fourth movement of Roger Cichy’s Bugs, a piece commissioned by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble in 1999.

George’s research has taken him around the world to learn about the different ways countries make and perform music. As a conductor, clinician and lecturer he has traveled across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, continental Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and India. He has worked with professional groups such as the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and the Band of the People’s Liberation Army in  China. He also has conducted in prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai and the National Theatre of Performing Arts as well as the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.

Perhaps the most meaningful benefit of these shared experiences is that they have allowed George to bring international composers back to St. Thomas to write original music for his students to perform.

“I think the most unique thing we do that most other music programs don’t is to commission new works of composers, particularly from other countries,” George said. In the last 22 years they have commissioned 80 new works for the symphonic wind ensemble, and at least half of those come from international composers.

Students learn more than they anticipate from the international pieces they have performed. Philip Smithley ’15 said that the band members were challenged last fall when they were given a piece of music titled “Desi Jhalak,” meaning “A Peek Into India,” written by Bollywood composer Shamir Tandon. Smithley said there is a “vast difference in the way music is rehearsed and performed in India, where it is not notated but rather improvised after years of studying, compared to Western music where all of our music is written out.”

George smiles as he ends a performance of the String Orchestra in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. (Photo by Mark Brown)

Alexandra Gobell ’13 explains that the band members are often out of their “comfort zone” when performing international pieces, but that bringing the composers to St. Thomas allows them to learn about the story behind the pieces and teaches them about the composers’ native countries. Then, when possible, George takes the students to the countries where they perform such pieces as “Desi Jhalak.” Going to India was a way for the students to experience the culture of the music that they perform.

“A very important part of our touring process is the exchange of experiences. I want the students to be able to serve the culture through their music. Instead of going somewhere passively like a tourist, I want them to be immersed in the culture by meeting with their peers and trading stories and experiences of what it’s like to make music in our country, what it’s like in their country and what the differences are,” George said.

This exchange happened between Amber Neid ’14 and composer Tandon. The song was originally sent to the band in an electronic audio format without any sheet music. Neid worked with Tandon to put the song on paper so that the band could read, rehearse and perform the piece.

“That gave us a lot of practice on aural skills rather than just reading music off a piece of paper,” Neid said. “I think that made all of us better musicians. Seeing the composer light up when he heard a ‘western ensemble’ play his traditional Indian music was worth all of the work we put into it. Then, when we played it in India, it was a huge hit because it was music the audiences could relate to, but with instruments they had never seen or heard before.”

George and the students are challenged musically when working with groups of different countries, and because they are working in a new culture.

“Whenever I’m asked to conduct national music of the country I go to, it’s really intimidating because I know everyone knows it, and I’m just now learning it,” George said. “It takes a lot of study, a lot of asking questions, a lot of listening to styles of music so I approach it and seem competent.”

George has experienced many differences between how cultures approach music and rehearse. In Latin America, he learned how musicians approach rhythm differently; “What’s popular to them is highly rhythmic dances. Instead of our Top 40 music, they listen to samba and all kinds of art and dance forms. They feel these rhythms rather than read the music on the printed page.”

There are similar challenges in China where communicating meanings of the same word is expressed by tone, and George says that their music approach also is that way with bending and inflection that our language – and music – do not possess. In England or Australia, learning new terms for familiar musical functions is the challenge. “I have to think about how I’m going to say certain things and as I speak, I have to translate the terms in my brain,” George said. The same translation process happens when he must speak Spanish in Latin America. In countries where George does not know the language, however, a translator is needed, which presents numerous challenges.

Listen to a selection form Chen Qian’s Ambush! From All Sides as played by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

“My rehearsals are very fast-paced and to the point,” George said. “When I can’t just deliver what I want to say and I have to use a translator, I must adjust to still make it efficient. And you just hope that what the translator is saying is exactly the message that you’re trying to get across.”

In order to adapt to these situations, a certain kind of personality is needed to not only travel but also to work with people of different cultures. “If you try to force your preconceived notions onto what you’re going to experience, you’re going to be miserable. You have to have a personality that is adaptive,” George said. When he worked in Mexico, he had to get used to starting later; “When we started rehearsals at 10 a.m., we wouldn’t actually start until 11:30 a.m. At first I got upset, but then I just went with it. So, the next time we started at 11:10 a.m., then at 10:30 a.m. and then finally we started at 10 a.m. If I just tried to force it, it wouldn’t have worked.”

Traveling as part of his career was not something George expected. His first time on a plane wasn’t until he was 18 years old. Now his children, who he and his wife often bring on these trips, have seen more of the world than most adults.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate. When I started at St. Thomas I never thought my life would take me in the direction it has taken me in terms of international experiences,” George said. “The best part for me is that when I go places, people native to the culture will take me to where they go, not to where tourists go. It’s a tremendous opportunity and I feel very blessed.”

Though his interest in traveling came later in life, George’s love for music started when he was a young boy in Geneva, N.Y. “It all goes back to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass,” George said. His uncle used to have eight-track  tapes that he and his older cousin would listen to, and the sounds of Herb Alpert’s trumpet playing fascinated him.

When his cousin began to play trumpet, George was inspired to learn to play as well. He played trumpet from elementary school through high school, and then played professionally. But it was in high school when George’s interest in conducting began.

During study hall, George went to the band room to practice. When no one was watching, he stood on the podium and pretended that he was conducting a full band. Without knowing it, George was being watched by his band director. To encourage George’s interest in conducting, the band director let him rehearse a piece that George later conducted at a high school band concert.

“My life ambition was to become a high school band director,” George said. After receiving a B.M. in music education and trumpet performance from Ithaca College, he began teaching high school band in New York.

“I realized that there was more than just teaching music in high school; there’s also hall monitoring and cafeteria duty. I wasn’t interested in doing those things,” George said. So, he earned an M.M. degree in music education from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a D.M.A. degree in conducting from the University of North Texas. During that time he also performed as a professional trumpet player and taught at the university and privately. George then came to St. Thomas in 1991.

Once a solo conductor in an empty band room, George has conducted some of the best bands and orchestras in the world, and his students are greatly benefiting from his passion and ambition. “Dr. George has been a huge inspiration for me as a future director, teacher and conductor,” Neid said. “Watching him conduct during our rehearsals has taught me a lot that I can’t learn at a desk,” Neid said.

The student musicians in Brady Educational Center practice and rehearse for perfection. But George gives them something more than notes on paper – he introduces them to the world through the music they play.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

Free and open to the public, the concert is part of Library Week events at the university. Refreshments will be served.

Thomas Schönberg and Christopher Kachian.

The duo will perform the “French Suite No. 6 in E” by J.S. Bach, “Chinese Suite” arranged by Schönberg, “Duo for Guitar and Cello” by W. A. Mozart and jazz duets by Joe Pass and Herb Ellis.

The evening’s program is the same one the duo will perform on a concert tour throughout China later this year.

This marks the first time the library’s Great Hall, noted for its stained-glass windows and vaulted ceiling, will be used for a concert. Kachian did a sound check there recently and said the acoustics are excellent.

Schönberg and Kachian, who are educators as well as performers, formed the Arpeggione Duo after meeting at the Guitar Festival of Sollentuna, Sweden, in 2004. They tour annually and have recorded three albums. Samples can be heard here.

Schönberg is a native of Sweden and was accepted to the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm at age 13. He received his doctorate at the University of Hartford, Conn., and is dean of the Lidingo School of Music in Sweden. He performs throughout Europe, Asia and the United States on a Giovanni Grancino cello built in 1704.

The Arpeggione Duo.

Kachian, whose doctorate is from the University of Minnesota, heads the Guitar Studies Program at St. Thomas and in 2011 was inducted into the renowned Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. A champion of new music, he has commissioned and premiered more than 30 works for guitar. He has given more than 500 performances in Japan, China, Africa, Cuba, Costa Rica, Peru and throughout Europe and North America.

Kachian is a founding member of the Society for the Affectation of Baroque Music and also plays the blues harmonica.

The duo’s name reflects the musicians’ blend of guitar and cello. Invented in 1823 by Viennese guitar maker Johann Stauffer, the arpeggione has six strings and frets like a guitar, but it is similar in size to a cello and played with a bow. Only one major work was written for the instrument, the “Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano” by Franz Schubert.

For more information call (651) 962-5014. More details about the program can be found on the library’s website here.

The festival, which began at St. Thomas in 1980, traditionally presents a broad range of artistic forms. All of this year’s events are free and open to the public and will be held on the university’s St. Paul campus. They are:

Robin Hemley

Robin Hemley will give a lecture on his book Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the auditorium of O’Shaughnessy Educational Center.

Nola recounts the life of the author’s sister, who died at age 25 after several years of treatment for schizophrenia.

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Hemley has published seven books; his stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and many literary magazines and anthologies. He is the editor of Defunct magazine.

Quvenzhane Wallis

Beasts of the Southern Wild, nominated for four Academy Awards and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, will be shown from 8 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, in Scooter’s, located on the first floor of Anderson Student Center.

The film, a drama with fantasy elements, is set in the Louisiana bayou and stars 6-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis. The film will be introduced by Dr. David Penchansky of the St. Thomas Theology Department. More information about the film can be found here.

St. Thomas Alumni Choir, a mixed vocal ensemble of young and old alumni, will present a concert from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 21, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The choir is directed by alumni Sean Barker, Josh Bauder and Casey Johnson.

The choir will perform sacred and secular music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Elizabeth Alexander, Josh Bauder, Jonathan Tschiggfrie, Stephen Paulus, Felix Mendelssohn, Alice Parker, Z. Randall Stroope and Keith Hampton.

The Gabriel Kney organ.

An Organ and Choir Concert, part of a series marking the 25^th anniversary of the dedication of the university’s Gabriel Kney organ, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. Host will be Merritt Nequette, retired professor and former chair on the St. Thomas Music Department.

The program will feature the university’s Liturgical Choir and guest alumni singers directed by Aaron Brown and retired Liturgical Choir founder Robert Strusinski; Orchestra directed by Matthew George; and organists James Callahan, David Jenkins, Kevin Seal and Robert Vickery.

They will perform Noel Goemanne’s “Song of Praise” for choir and organ, which was commissioned for the Gabriel Kney organ dedication in 1987; the Franz Schubert Mass in G; the Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani by Francis Poulenc; and the new Concerto for Organ, Strings and Percussion, featuring its composer, organist and professor emeritus of music James Callahan.

Joyce Lyon

The art exhibit “Passaggio/Passage,” featuring works by Joyce Lyon, is on permanent display on the Campus Way, located on the second floor of the Anderson Student Center.

An associate professor of art at the University of Minnesota, Lyon’s works are in public and private collections nationally, including Georgetown University Law Library, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center and the Weisman Art Museum.

Her work focuses on the intersections of place and memory. “I work from observation with an acute sense of the layering of time,” she said. “In ‘Passagio/Passage,’ I consider pilgrimage as it relates to a physical and spiritual journey and as a meditation on here and there and the passages in between.”

“Passaggio/Passage” by Joyce Lyon

A schedule of this year’s Sacred Arts Festival events can be found here.

The program, free and open to the public, is the next in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

Han, a native of Seoul, Korea, has performed throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. David Jenkins, organ instructor at St. Thomas and liturgical music director at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, described her as an imaginative and powerful performer.

Han will perform works by Carl Maria von Weber, J.S. Bach, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Thomas Heywood, Camille Saint-Saens, Louis Vierne, Guy Bovet and Max Reger.

Han’s family immigrated to Atlanta when she was 16. She earned a bachelor’s in organ from Westminster Choir College, a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master’s from Yale School of Music. She is principal organist and artist-in-residence at First Presbyterian Church in Davenport, Iowa, and teaches organ at Iowa State University.

Han was a featured soloist last year at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Nashville.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

Remaining programs in the 25th anniversary series include:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17 – French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28 – St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

More information about the Gabriel Kney instrument can be seen here. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

He will be joined by St. Thomas’ Schola Cantorum, directed by Aaron Brown.

Kraig Windschitl

The program, free and open to the public, is the second in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

The program will include settings by Bach of the chorales “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” (three settings), “Meine Seele erhebet den Herren” (two settings) and “Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit.” The Schola will sing the Latin chants upon which the chorales are based.

Windschitl earned his bachelor’s from St. John’s University in Collegeville with majors in organ performance and theology. His graduate study was at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he earned a master’s in organ performance with a cognate in sacred music.

He currently serves as co-principal organist at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and Victoria. With more than 13,000 members, Mount Olivet is the largest Lutheran congregation in North America. Most recently, Windschitl accepted the position of chapel organist and carillonneur at Breck School in Minneapolis. He is a member of the North American Guild of Carillonneurs and serves on the Program Committee of the Twin Cities chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Brown is director of liturgy and chapel music in St. Thomas’ Campus Ministry Department and directs the university’s Liturgical Choir and Schola Cantorum. His graduate degree is in liturgical music from St. John’s University.

The Gabriel Kney pipe organ in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured many times on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

Remaining programs in the 25th anniversary series include:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17, 2013, French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28, 2013, St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

For more information about the Gabriel Kney instrument, visit here. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

“For some reason or another, [Menssen] thought I would make a good editor,” Clemenson said with a chuckle. After some consideration, he said yes. The department applied for the opportunity, and by October 2008 the journal was under Clemenson’s guidance. While considering the editorship, Clemenson said he reflected on one of the key responsibilities of any professor: service. “Every faculty member is expected to not only do research and teaching, but also service. That can take a variety of forms. I thought this was one of the best fits for me. I’ve always been research oriented, and [editing] involves something very close to research.”

A commitment to service and scholarly endeavors is deeply rooted in the College of Arts and Sciences, which encourages faculty to enrich the community through “discovery, artistic activity, integration and pedagogy.” This mission gives Clemenson and other faculty members the encouragement to put in extra hours every week editing academic journals that become dear to them.

Clemenson is one of several College of Arts and Sciences professors who were nudged toward or sought positions as editors or publishers of scholarly journals. (See a list of journals on Page 17.) Philosophy professors W. Matthews Grant, Christopher Toner, Gloria Frost, Timothy Pawl, Mark Spencer and Joshua Stuchlik are part of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly’s faculty editing team, which is supported by department staff member Ann Hale, who is the quarterly’s managing editor. Sociology and Criminal Justice professor Lisa Waldner co-edits Sociological Quarterly, while Art History professor Mark Stansbury-O’Donnell publishes Pacific Arts Journal, and English professor Alexis Easley edits Victorian Periodicals Review.

Increasing Expertise and Personal Growth

For Easley, the most exciting part of her editing work is the development of a deeper understanding of her subject. Easley is a scholar of Victorian journalism. When she began editing Victorian Periodicals Review in spring 2012 she did not expect to develop a new and strong connection to her research.

“It’s giving me insight into [Victorian] editors,” Easley said. “It’s giving me solidarity with these individuals.”

Easley has been a member of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals since 1998. She credits the society for mentoring her throughout graduate school. The society was founded in 1968 by scholars who were interested in Victorian journalism and studied the magazines, newspapers and journals of “every stripe” from about the 1780s until World War I, she said.

“It’s an international group of scholars. It’s pretty amazing and wonderful that we (St. Thomas) have this journal,” Easley said. “It’s quite a plum.”

Most of Easley’s work is concerned with editing the submissions, much as the philosophy faculty editing team members have their hands full with the editing and extensive review process behind the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly.

The quarterly was founded in 1920 under the title New Scholasticism as a response to a call from Pope Leo XIII for a renewal of Catholic philosophy and theology. While the journal’s name has changed since then, its spirit of bringing reason and faith together in the area of philosophy has remained.

This mission is constantly on the editors’ minds as they process submissions to the journal. As do all academic journal editors, the St. Thomas editors seek experts in the subfields of their disciplines to act as referees who determine if each submission is worthy of publication. But before that process can begin, Clemenson and Toner dig through the submissions and determine each one’s level of appropriateness for the journal.

“Part of the beauty of philosophy as a discipline, because you’re dealing with fundamental questions, is that you can’t afford to limit yourself to a narrow specialization,” Clemenson said. The greatest benefit of editing the journal, he said, is the countless chances he is given to enrich his intellectual life by reading submissions and interacting with authors and referees.

“It’s important not to put the blinders on, but to keep perspective,” Clemenson said. He sees this branching out to learn about subfields in philosophy as a wonderful scholarly opportunity.

When Waldner was seeking new scholarly opportunities, she never dreamed of applying to a journal as prominent as Sociological Quarterly. That is, until her doctoral adviser and mentor, professor Betty Dobratz of Iowa State University, asked her to apply jointly to the Midwest Sociological Society’s call for a new editor in 2011.

After a rigorous application process, the pair was chosen. They began editing the journal in March 2012.

“Sociology is so broad, and there are some things that I know more about or that she knows more about,” Waldner said. “We thought a team made sense.” The pair’s broad knowledge base is very important for a journal such as Sociological Quarterly, which focuses on “a whole gamut” of things that sociologists study, including family, crime, politics and gender topics, Waldner said.

Waldner and her co-editor face the challenge of working together across a physical distance. Video chatting plays a big role in the editorial process, with weekly Skype appointments to discuss papers submitted to the quarterly that deserve a second look. Editing is a challenging and time-consuming process after which only about 10 percent of submitted articles are published. But to Waldner, the outcome and personal growth attached to the process make it well worth the challenge.

Waldner said the most exciting part of the editing process is when a paper goes out for review. A referee is generally at the top of his or her field and an expert on the submitted paper’s topic. “I really enjoy that it has given me an excuse to contact fairly prominent sociologists and say I’m the editor of The Sociological Quarterly,” Waldner said. “It’s providing [me] an opportunity to learn.”

It gives her the opportunity to read about almost every subfield of sociology and to identify additional topics she and Dobratz believe will be of interest to readers. Waldner said they identified Occupy Wall Street and the 2012 elections as special section topics for upcoming issues, and they regard the special topics as the perfect way to increase readership while keeping the journal, and themselves, current in sociology.

Mentoring the Next Generation

Professors are not alone in receiving new opportunities with the presence of scholarly journals on campus. Students benefit, too. They gain from the increased knowledge shared by professors in their classes.

Clemenson said he brings new articles from American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly into the classroom and finds his expanded knowledge of the field a benefit when it comes time for his students to write papers, because he can direct them to the best scholarship in the field.

“Being an editor of this journal broadens my perspectives, and keeps me from being narrowly focused on my own set of interests,” Clemenson said.

Waldner noted that expanding her knowledge outside her specialty in sociology helps her in the classroom. She believes working with the journal increases her critical-thinking skills, which she can then pass on to her students. “Folks that are involved in creating knowledge are the best to impart knowledge,” Waldner said.

The more insight the professor has, the more easily students are able to access information. Easley sees editing as a natural extension of her research and teaching. “The big picture is to bring the richness of Victorian culture to the next generation,” she said.

Some of the journals, including Victorian Periodicals Review, also provide tangible opportunities for students. English graduate student Rachel MacDonald is the first of an expected long line of students to receive an editorial assistantship with Easley.

“The experience [has] confirmed my belief in the revision process as the place where good writing becomes great writing,” MacDonald said. She was surprised at how much work goes into each issue, she said. The editing is extensive, but much of the work has “nothing to do with editing, but marketing, branding and business.”

The position allows MacDonald to be integrated in every part of this editorial process.

Pacific Arts Journal also provides a graduate student position, which is currently filled by Rachel Simmons. The journal is published and produced by members of the Art History Department under the leadership of department chair Mark Stansbury-O’Donnell. Simmons hopes to make her career working with Pacific art in some way, and Stansbury-O’Donnell believes work on the journal is an excellent opportunity for her to network in the art community.

The journal publishes articles on the art of Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines and the Pacific islands. This focus may seem very far away from Summit Avenue, but with the recent establishment of the American Museum of Asmat Art on campus, the Art History Department is showing itself as an impressive resource for Pacific art.

“She’s been brilliant,” Stansbury-O’Donnell said of Simmons. “Not everybody wants to or can teach in a classroom or curate in a museum. A publication is another place. Copy editing is not specifically an art history skill, but you could get a job editing art history journals.”

As a strong advocate for mentorship of students and recent graduates, Waldner seeks to pull her former students into Sociological Quarterly.

“I reach out to my [former] students and provide them with opportunities,” Waldner said. The newest member of the journal’s editorial board is 2004 St. Thomas graduate Valerie Clark. Clark is a research scientist for the Minnesota Department of Corrections. “It gets her professionally engaged, and it’s something she can put on her résumé,” Waldner said. “I look forward to inviting more [students] in the future to give them experience.”

Providing Visibility

Each of the scholarly journals edited or published in the College of Arts and Sciences provides new information and exciting opportunities to the faculty who work on them. Editing a journal also brings recognition among other scholars. Clemenson describes the responsibility of housing a scholarly journal at St. Thomas as a true “vote of confidence” by a scholarly discipline.

“Our institution was entrusted with this responsibility,” Clemenson said. “That speaks well of our department.”

Read more from CAS Spotlight.

Listeners may come and go as needed, and refreshments will be served at these informal performances:

• Tuesday, Nov. 20
  3:30-4:30 p.m. in the library coffee shop lobby: Guitarist Joan Griffith, UST Music Department, and Twin Cities pianist Laura Caviani will perform an acoustical concert of jazz and Latin music.

• Wednesday, Nov. 28
  1:45-2:30 p.m. in the O’Shaughnessy (“leather”) Room (108): The UST Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of Joan Griffith, will play an informal concert of guitar music. Selections will include classical music, jazz, Latin and original works.

• Tuesday, Dec. 4
  Noon-12:30 p.m. in the library rotunda: The UST Women’s Choir, under the direction of Dr. Robert Vickery, will sing holiday music (an annual St. Thomas tradition). The concert will include some audience singalongs.

• Thursday, Dec. 6
  2-3 p.m. in the O’Shaughnessy (“leather”) Room (108): The UST String Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Matthew George, returns to the library for a concert of classical music. Selections will be chosen from: “Sinfonia in G-dur,” Albinoni; “Hungarian Dances from the 17th Century,” Ference; “Capriol,” Warlock; “Sinfonietta,” Genzmer; and “Mourão,” Guerra-Peixe.

St. Thomas will present its 25th annual Christmas concert, Venite Adoremus, at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2. This year’s theme is taken from “O Come All Ye Faithful,” which has been sung at each concert by the audience and student ensembles.

Tickets are available online through the Minnesota Orchestra Box Office or by phone at (612) 371-5656. All seats are $15 plus a nominal Orchestra Hall transaction fee. There is no limit to the number of tickets that may be purchased. Please note: The concert is open to adults and children over 6.

A total of 200 $5-tickets, courtesy of STAR, will be available to undergraduate students at Tommie Central, located on the first floor of Anderson Student Center. Free bus transportation for undergraduate students also will be provided to the Minneapolis Convention Center by Undergraduate Student Government.

The concert, with a program of choral and instrumental music for the Advent and Christmas seasons, features more than 300 student performers in eight of the university’s vocal and instrumental ensembles: Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, Festival Choir, Liturgical Choir, Women’s Choir, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Brass Choir and Handbell Choir.

Dr. Angela Broeker, director of choral activities, noted a unique addition to this year’s concert: “Our choirs welcome Sowah Mensah, master drummer from Ghana, to our concert this year. Choirs will sing two of Sowah’s compositions as he and his students accompany us on indigenous instruments.”

Broeker said concert-goers also will be treated to the best in sacred music for the season, “including ‘Silent Night,’ ‘Lo’ How a Rose E’er Blooming,’ ‘In the Bleak Midwinter,’ ‘O Come All Ye Faithful,’ as well as new compositions for the Advent and Christmas season.”

All concert proceeds will benefit St. Thomas music ensembles’ international performance tours.

History of the concert: St. Thomas’ Christmas concert quickly became tradition after its first performance on Dec. 11, 1988, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas on the university’s main campus in St. Paul. St. Thomas’ president at the time, the late Monsignor Terrence Murphy, envisioned a campus concert of Christmas music featuring ensembles from the coordinate departments of music from St. Thomas and St. Catherine. By 1993 the growing Music Department at St. Thomas had become independent, and the university’s Alumni Association began to note the concert in its mailings. An extraordinary number of alumni and their families responded, necessitating an additional performance.

By 1997, four performances were held on campus, but still, some 2,000 ticket requests could not be honored. In 2007, the concert was moved to Orchestra Hall to accommodate the many for whom the concert has become a Christmas calendar fixture: university students, faculty, staff and alumni of St. Thomas and their families and friends. And the public is welcome, too.

Published by the University of St. Thomas in conjunction with Graduate Programs in Music Education, RIME is an international online music education research journal that advances scholarly thought by publishing articles promoting research, dialogue, practice and policy in music education. RIME publishes quantitative, qualitative, philosophical, historical, speculative and bibliographic articles that are peer-reviewed and contribute to an understanding of any focus and level of music education.

Gleason also serves as interim director of the International Education Center.

The quartet received the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music. Its residency activities will include a full-length public concert, musicianship seminars and lecture demonstrations for music students, All Hearts Listen Lectures (a series of pre-concert discussions), chamber music coaching, and master classes for string students and composition students.

The quartet’s first public performance will take place at 8:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The first of the All Hears Listen Lectures will take place at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. Future lectures in the series are scheduled for March 7 and May 27.

According to Dr. Matthew George, chair of the Music Department, the appointment of the Parker Quartet as the 2012-13 Artists-in-Residence came about from an informal relationship the quartet had with members of the music faculty.

“We look forward to providing the Twin Cities community and beyond with high-quality music programming with the Parker Quartet,” George said. “We are especially excited for our students and university community for having the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with this incredible group of young, yet critically acclaimed musicians.”

For more information visit the Music Department website.

Dr. Bruce Gleason

Dr. Bruce Gleason has been appointed by Dr. Susan Huber, executive vice president and chief academic officer, interim director for the International Education Center. He is a tenured faculty member of the Department of Music and has taught at the university since 1999.

“Dr. Bruce Gleason communicates clearly and thinks systemically; he will bring needed stability to the center as they move forward with plans for comprehensive internationalization,” Huber said.

Gleason holds a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Iowa. He was formerly the director of Graduate Programs in Music Education at St. Thomas and the associate chair of the Department of Music at Gordon College.

Along with leading concert tours of New England and Europe, Gleason has been involved in ongoing music history research with several government and military agencies, museums, universities, libraries, art galleries and independent historians in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, which has resulted in a great deal of correspondence and travel. He has visited 30 countries.

“I had an early start with international travel as a high school student, and I know the impact that it can have on a person,” said Gleason. “Staff members of the UST International Education Center have a strong commitment to providing these kinds of life changes for our present and future students, and I’m excited and pleased to now be a part of the process.”

The Sunday afternoon recitals, free and open to the public, are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry.

The first recital will feature David Jenkins at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16.  He will perform works of Nord Johnson, Rachel Laurin, Richard Voorhaar and the complete sixth organ symphony of Widor.

David Jenkins.

An organ instructor at St. Thomas, Jenkins earned the D.M.A. in organ performance and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied organ with Russell Saunders and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. He also holds degrees from the University of Iowa and Oberlin Conservatory.

The organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from St. Thomas alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott. These concert performances have been featured many times on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

The remaining four programs in the 25^th anniversary series are:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, German artist Almut Roessler of Düsseldorf will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, organist Kraig Windschitl and the St. Thomas Schola Cantorum, directed by Aaron Brown, will perform organ music of J.S. Bach with Gregorian chant.
• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17, 2013, French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28, 2013, St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

For more information about the Gabriel Kney instrument, visit this website. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

His singing is melodious and booming, and his body language is expressive, almost like he is on stage, were it not for the radiator, fluorescent light and walls of music books crowding the office. He drowns out the old building’s noises, and finally the piano seems to have meaning.

Glass has arrived for his voice lesson fresh off the Ordway Musical Theater stage, where he finished his second performance in the Minnesota Opera’s production of “Silent Night,” in which he played a named role as a French soldier.

With encouragement from his voice teacher, music professor Alan Bryan, Glass auditioned for the opera last May. He was cast in three productions for the season but due to scheduling conflicts with his St. Thomas choir commitments, he only could perform in two: September’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” and December’s “Silent Night.”

“I was the youngest one in both productions,” he said. “There are people who have master’s degrees working toward doctorate degrees, and I haven’t finished my undergraduate (degree), but I’m here.”

Glass found himself working beside well-known performers, which made singing onstage “nerve wracking” but also gratifying and fun. “It was an incredible experience to be in a professional setting where this is (my) job,” he said. “I’m getting paid to be inrehearsal.”

December 2011 graduate Mark Thomas also was contracted for three operas and agrees with Glass that the experience was an exciting opportunity.

“It’s hard to call it work,” he said.

Thomas, a liturgical music major from Texarkana, Texas, performed in “Silent Night” with Glass, had a small named role in January’s “Werther” and will perform in “Madame Butterfly” in April.

“The first couple of rehearsals, I was in heaven,” Thomas said. “You all sing with your full voice because that’s the sound that they’re going for. It’s just a loud chorus of male voices and gorgeous music, so it’s amazing.”

Auditioning for the Minnesota Opera According to Bryan, the Minnesota Opera is a well-respected musical organization, and a few St. Thomas undergraduate students have participated previously. However, he said he cannot remember anyone as young as Glass being cast in a named role.

Glass and Thomas were among 88 people cast from the 178 people who auditioned, said Floyd Anderson, Minnesota Opera artistic relations and planning director. What he looks for at auditions varies from season to season. “I am mostly looking for vibrant solo singers,” he said. Glass and Thomas fit that profile.

Undergraduate students are cast every season, Anderson said, but the Minnesota Opera has not had too many St. Thomas students in the past. Glass and Thomas came “highly recommended,” he said. “It was a pleasure to work with them.”

Music Department Chair Matthew George said, “For our undergraduates to be involved in a professional production is a great thing for them [because] we’re trying to prepare students to become professionals.”

Thomas participated in Liturgical Choir and Chamber Singers while at St. Thomas, but he said performing on the Ordway stage is a different sort of experience. “The performance is more alive because you get reactions and realize that what you’re doing is affecting people for whatever end – if they’re laughing or getting caught up in the story,” he said.

“It’s fun to get caught up in what you’re doing. Even though there’s an audience, it doesn’t change how you’re going to act or how you’re going to sing,” he added. “You are trying to sing in your purest form.”

“Silent Night” was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and was based on the true story of World War I soldiers from France, Germany and Scotland who called a truce on Christmas Eve 1914. The men came out of the trenches in France to celebrate together and developed friendships with their supposed enemies.

Glass said “Silent Night” rehearsals were more exacting than those for “Cosi Fan Tutte” because the world premiere opera’s librettist, composer, director and conductor were at every rehearsal. “Rehearsals got pretty intense,” he said. “It was war. We were running around shooting each other [on stage].”

Glass and Thomas felt an emotional connection to their roles.

“It’s amazing that people our age went off to fight some king’s war,” Thomas said. Thomas was a Scottish solider in the chorus and thought he could understand the reality of the situation.

“It wasn’t difficult at all to really catch yourself in this situation and think, ‘Wow, that is what I would be thinking (in that situation),’ and then transfer it vocally,” he said.

Thomas learned some of this technique from Bryan, his voice teacher since fall 2007.

Learning From an Opera Expert Bryan could be considered an opera expert, because he has sung more than 50 lead roles professionally. He has been challenged to exude many different emotions while singing.

“It’s a privilege to explore the human spirit in yourself in this totally safe environment called the stage,” Bryan said. “You can pull out all the stops and really explore grief or really explore anger or passion.”

He said opera, like ballet, requires a lot of “training, technique and technical ability.” One might start at a young age, but it takes serious practice, dedication and maturation.

For almost 30 years, Bryan has taught vocal lessons to St. Thomas students such as Glass and Thomas. He passes on his knowledge and draws from his experiences when teaching. St. Thomas no longer has a musical theater or opera program, so for students to acquire a contract with the Minnesota Opera is similar to an internship. Thomas and Glass are gaining performance experience in a professional setting while still in school,Bryan said.

Back in Loras Hall, Bryan’s opera experience is evident. While Glass sings the aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from “Die Zauberflöte,” the “Magic Flute” opera, Bryan sits with his hand close to his mouth, singing silently. He listens intently and seems to have a performance of his own while sitting at his desk.

“I really love coming to work every day,” he said. “It’s (because of) the wonderful young people I get to meet with one-on-one and get to know well and kind of live with them for four years.”

Abruptly, he stops Glass, who smiles and listens to constructive criticism. The two work on vocal and facial adjustments before continuing.

“Singing is like the Goldilocks story. It can be too hot or too cold,” Bryan says with a laugh. “We want it just right.”

He shows Glass how opening his mouth a certain way can affect the sound. Bryan then asks Glass to translate the German piece. Bryan said most opera singers need to be proficient in at least three languages, usually German, French and Italian.

Glass, a German minor, studiously tries to decipher the foreign text. Together the professor and student sift through the pronunciation, meaning and emotions for the song. Bryan becomes a director as he starts blocking the scene, telling Glass where tostand, how to hold his hands and cock his head. Glass absorbs the comments gracefully and enthusiastically returns to singing with Bryan standing nearby. Glass applies the minor adjustments to his technique and resonates an even purer sound.

The teacher and student continue to work on this process, which seems more like an opera rehearsal than a vocal lesson.

Backstage at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts, Mark Thomas ’11 prepares for his role in the opera, “Werther.”

Practice, Practice, Practice While Glass and Thomas have only one lesson a week, they practice several hours each week.

Glass said during a normal rehearsal week, he could put in 20 hours of singing: 12 hours of rehearsal, four and a half hours of choir rehearsal and his own three and a half hours of practice. With opera performances added, that’s 30 to 35 hours of singing.

“Singers are like sprinters,” Bryan said. Training prepares them to sing for short, intense periods of time, but it can be strenuous, even damaging, without proper training or care.

Thomas said he had three performances in December followed by rehearsals on Sunday and Monday for his senior recital.

“[I] was quite worried that my voice would not be at full strength in time for Tuesday’s recital due to so much rigorous singing and a very difficult recital,” he said.

Glass had a similar weekend in November with three opera performances and a dress rehearsal with the Chamber Singers where he performed two arias. “After [it] was done, my voice was exhausted,” he said. “I took vocal rest, no serious singing, for about a week and a half after that, and only started singing again because we hadthe St. Thomas Christmas concert.”

But Glass thinks all the hard work is worth it. He said music always has been a part of his life. His father, Tom ’84, is the director of planned giving at St. Thomas, and his mother attended St. Catherine University. Both were in Liturgical Choir, and Glasssaid he cannot remember a time when they did not share music at home.

Glass, from Edina, Minn., came to St. Thomas interested in the music business program or journalism. “I talked to some people in the Music Department, and I was sold,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking of [majoring in] music anywhere.” But after taking amusic theory class, Glass said he knew music was what he wanted to do.

A vocal music education and music performance double major, Glass had hoped to go into teaching after graduation, but his time with the opera has made him think about new possibilities. He is looking at graduate programs and wants to continue performing.

Thomas said he started to get serious about music when his voice cracked. It wasn’t until he started auditioning for colleges while in high school that he started to consider studying music.

He had a connection to St. Thomas through St. Kate’s “Music Ministry Alive” summer program, which he participated in for three summers. At the camp he met Rob Strusinski, the former St. Thomas Liturgical Choir director who retired in 2010.

“He gave me a tour of the campus after my final there, and I had to choose between a very Catholic-oriented music school and a more performance-oriented school,” Thomas said. St. Thomas offered more spirituality and theological education, which he felt was important.

“You can get music training anywhere, but I wanted to get something more,” he said. “I wanted to continue my faith life, so a Catholic college is where that happened for me easily.”

Thomas has applied to four graduate schools, two in performance and two for sacred music. Before that, he will have performed in two additional Minnesota Opera productions and appeared as Frederick in the St. Kate’s spring production, “Pirates of Penzance.”

Music Faculty Are the Key Glass and Thomas are only two distinguished majors of a music program that continues to grow.

Department Chair George said, “A lot of students play professionally in various venues and may not be as high profile as the Minnesota Opera.” The department has seen “fairly consistent” enrollment numbers and “steady growth” in the past few years. About 120 minors and majors are enrolled, and a combined total of about 400 students participate in the various ensembles. Between 280 and 300 of those students are non-majors, George estimated.

He attributes the growth to “very active recruitment, improved quality of the programs that we offer, and mostly … the dedication and excellence of our staff.”

George said he is proud of his music students’ accomplishments. Thomas and Glass are also proud of their accomplishments and those of their fellow music students, despite the challenges posed by limited practice spaces.

Glass calls the Music Department a “hidden gem,” and noted that students keep enrolling in the program. “People are drawn to excellence,” George said.

George and Bryan said students mostly are attracted by the professors and quality of the liberal arts education that other music performance programs may not offer.

“I think when students come to visit, they have to meet faculty and staff here who give the impression to students that this is a very favorable place to come to,” George said. “It’s one thing to have that impression, but it’s another thing to be able to sustain that. We’re able to do both.”

Bryan said, “I think we have strong, ambitious people on the faculty, and they just don’t settle for mediocrity or being set back by limited facilities.”

Thomas and Glass agree that professors make the program stand out. Both said they have developed close relationships with their professors and consider this a high point of their experience with the Music Department. The professors “all genuinely care about you as a person, as a musician, as an individual, about your growing,” Glass added. “You’re not a number here.”

Bryan said he is able to develop a close relationship with his students because he works with some students for their whole undergraduate career.

“It’s an interesting journey,” he said. “That’s just part of being a young person and developing. You see their ups and downs.”

Back in Loras Hall, Bryan starts the lesson by asking Glass how he’s doing and what’s new in his life. After a short discussion, Bryan asks Glass, “What can I help you with?” Glass says he would like some feedback on pieces he is preparing for an audition.

The student helps drive the lesson. Glass announces the name of each piece before starting and nods to his accompanist when he’s ready to start. Bryan’s full attention remains on Glass throughout the lesson. After the final aria is sung, amended with Bryan’s suggestions, Glass receives warm applause from his teacher.

Glass said if he knew where he would be today when he was a freshman, he would have been “very surprised.” In the past six months, he said his experiences have totally changed his outlook. He wants to continue performing and learn more about the history of music and musicology.

Reflecting, Glass said, “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of the operas without the incredible support I received from my professors. I am forever grateful to them for allowing me to step up to the big leagues for a little bit.”

Click here to listen to Mark Thomas sing “Ach so fromm” from the opera “Martha,” accompanied by Kevin Seal.

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What made you want to major in Communication (now part of the Communication and Journalism Department)? How did your communication training prepare you for professional life?

I came to St. Thomas dead-set on pursuing a career in journalism. However, sometime during my first year I learned that although I was interested in stories about people, what really intrigued me was the interaction between people. When I took courses in rhetoric, persuasion and small-group communication, I became fascinated by how people craft messages to build relationships and influence others in productive ways. Majoring in communication was the logical next step. I also double minored in quantitative methods and computer science, and theology, so you might say that I had the quintessential liberal arts education: something for the right brain, something for the left brain and something for the soul. I received a wonderfully well-rounded education that has helped me succeed in so many areas of my life.

The skills I acquired in my communication major are a vital part of my daily life. As director of development for MacPhail, my main objective is to inspire everyday people to donate some of their personal funds to the organization. My team and I try to frameMacPhail in a way that motivates potential donors and, hopefully, convinces them of the value of giving a gift of their own money to a nonprofit organization like ours. Of course, I also rely upon the skills I learned in Small Group Communication every day, whether I am managing my development team or balancing group dynamics whenworking with the many volunteers who make up MacPhail’s board of directors.

What are the three most meaningful things you’ve done since graduating?

On the academic side, I continued the liberal arts training I received at St. Thomas by earning a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at Hamline University. I specialized in fiction writing and wrote a screenplay under the direction of playwright John Fenn.

Professionally, I am fortunate to be living my dream of being involved in the arts as development director at the MacPhail Center for Music. It’s been very rewarding to be in a position to move the organization forward and develop new programs that provide music education to students throughout the Twin Cities who otherwise might not have such opportunities.

As for my personal life, I married my college sweetheart, B.J. Nodzon ’99, so I believe it’s safe to say that St. Thomas has been good to me in more ways than one. I’m also proud of the many friendships I made while at St. Thomas. I was involved in a lot of campus activities such as student government (vice president of my class), Liturgical Choir (president), Student Alumni Council, Communication Club and Campus Ministry. It was terrific to be involved in so many things because I met a lot of great people whom I still keep in touch with today. I’m proud that I’ve been able to maintain so many of the relationships that began when I was at St. Thomas. As you can see, St. Thomas is near and dear to my heart, which is also why I enjoy giving back to the university by serving on the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors andthe Alumni Board of Directors.

The Communication and Journalism Department is offering a new course in social media that reflects the rising importance of Internet sites such as Twitter and Facebook. I hear you’ve also been putting your social media skills to use with a Twitter feed, @TrueStPaulite, which reflects your love of the city of St. Paul. What prompted you to create it?

I realized the important role social media sites could play in advancing the fundraising goals on behalf of MacPhail. I decided to first start a Twitter feed about a non-work-related interest and then apply my newfound skills to my fundraising objectives at MacPhail. I created the @TrueStPaulite feed to share my love of all things St. Paul, such as Grand Old Day, the Winter Carnival and all the other great things the city has to offer. I also wanted to draw attention to the gems hidden throughout the city that some people might not know about. It started very humbly with me just posting things Ithought others might be interested in, but it now has over 350 followers who share my love of St. Paul.

What’s the most valuable piece of advice you would give to St. Thomas students?

My best advice is to study rigorously but also get involved and build relationships. Some of the best things have happened for me both personally and professionally because of the relationships I built while at St. Thomas and the experiences I sought outside of theclassroom. The combination of academic rigor and extracurricular involvement really helped me develop into a well-rounded person. So, study hard but get involved and really get to know other students and faculty members. Only good things can happen. I had the best time in college because I embraced my four years at St. Thomas andrecognized at the time what an amazing experience it was to be able to attend a private, four-year university. And I had a lot of fun. I had a ridiculous amount of fun.

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Leandra, can you tell us a bit about your life after graduation from St. Thomas? What have you done and where are you headed?

I graduated from St. Thomas with a B.A. in Catholic Studies and music. My original plan was to attend graduate school (in classical guitar performance) immediately upon graduation, but I decided during my senior year to first take a year off from school.

I lived in the Twin Cities last year while working as a freelance musician. My primary job was directing a Lutheran church’s vocal choir and handbell choir. I also taught private guitar lessons and gave various performances. A good portion of my time was spent applying to graduate programs, and I traveled to four schools to audition. I was accepted at all of those places and in the end I chose to attend the University of Arizona in Tucson. This fall, I began pursuing a master of music degree in guitar performance, which is a two-year program.

I am seriously considering getting a doctorate in music, with the intention of one day teaching at the university level while also having a private guitar studio; however, it is all in God’s hands and I will have to see where He leads me.

Many students in Catholic Studies at St. Thomas are double majors. You combined Catholic Studies and music majors. Can you tell us a bit about why you chose these majors and how they shaped your undergraduate experience?

When I was visiting colleges during my junior year of high school, two of my criteria were that I could study guitar and Catholic theology/religious studies.

At St. Thomas, I majored in music because it had been part of my life for so long that I couldn’t imagine dropping it in college. I chose Catholic Studies because I had begun to delve into and examine the Catholic faith in high school and I had a strong desire to have a more structured look at Catholicism. I also was very intrigued by the Catholic Studies’ Rome program, which I participated in during the fall of 2008. Both of my major departments were relatively small, which enabled me to develop close relationships with professors and fellow students. These communities were influential in shaping me as a person.

My Catholic Studies experience particularly showed me how faith permeates all facets of life. My classes went beyond academic knowledge and ingrained in me a deeper understanding of the vitality of Catholic thought and culture. The interdisciplinary nature of Catholic Studies helped me form a more holistic view of the world, where faith is grounded not only in academic studies but in every aspect of life. Faith became no longer an abstract concept, but a concrete reality that I could, and should, live out.

What were highlights of your Catholic Studies academic experience and student life?

One of my best Catholic Studies experiences was the time I lived and studied in Rome. It was there that I formed some of my closest friendships, and that semester was the most steeped I had ever been in Catholic culture. I was surrounded by classmates who shared my faith, and we not only lived near Vatican City, but also in a country where the life and culture are closely intertwined with Catholicism. Those four months were an amazing experience, and I am incredibly thankful for my time there.

Another highlight of the Catholic Studies program for me was taking the course, Woman and Man. I find the topics of masculinity and femininity fascinating, and this was my favorite class in the program. The course covered some of the most controversial issues our culture is facing today, including sexual equality, the role of women in the Church, sexual ethics, and feminism, and it explored and explained the reasons behind the Church’s teachings on these and similar issues. The readings and in-class discussions were eye-opening and engaging, making me eager to delve into the issues at hand.

Along with perhaps any liberal arts degree, one often hears students ask what they can “do” with a Catholic Studies major. Perhaps, in the long run, it is less a matter of “doing” than “living.” How has your Catholic Studies major been influential in your life?

I think that the distinction between “doing” and “living” is excellent to note and is, in fact, the difference between my music and Catholic Studies majors. Of my two majors, music is definitely the most “practical” in terms of what I can “do.” I love music and with my music major I am equipped with the tools to accomplish my music goals, such as teaching, performing and attending graduate school. But my Catholic Studies degree taught me how to live.

Through my many Catholic Studies experiences and the examples of my professors, I learned that the meaning of life is found in doing God’s particular will for me, and that I can only fully thrive by genuinely living out my faith. For me, the value of my Catholic Studies degree cannot be measured necessarily in terms of money or practicality. Instead, its value is in how it has taught me to live an authentic Catholic life. My Catholic Studies major has been instrumental in forming me and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

You can hear Leandra play classical guitar by searching “Hubka” at www.tommiemedia.com.

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Members of the Show’d Up Band, accompanists for one of the choir’s numbers, welcomed the delay for a last-minute tuning. No one really remembers how it started, but a little innocent instrument tuning among the Showed-Ups turned into a familiar fiddle tune. Within a handful of measures, members of the choir began moving to the music. Rocking, bobbing and smiling soon bubbled into some tentative dancing. The first song flowed into another, and then another, and soon the entire room had morphed from nervous energy into joyful energy.

Bob Douglas, mandolin player for the Show’d Up Band, began calling some simple square-dance steps and the classroom became a joyful barn dance with young men in tuxedos and young women in long black dresses. After a few minutes of fun, choir director Angela Broeker collected the attention of her talented young men and women, took them on stage, and brought down the house.

This unique collaboration came about because Broeker was looking for a dynamic closing piece for this important gig. Declining any cliché way to end the concert, the choir wanted something fresh and unexpected. Having heard the Show’d Up Band on Thursdays on campus, Broeker asked her husband, Jay, if he could write a piece that combined her two favorite sounds: bluegrass band and choir. The result was an arrangement of “Down in the River,” a folk song with text that speaks to the importance of community – an apt message for the choir and its audiences.

The Show’d Up Band is a group of St. Thomas faculty and staff who gather every Thursday at noon to play a mix of fiddle tunes, American folk music, and just about anything that grabs their interest. With a core group of seven members, the number of players on any given Thursday varies depending upon who “shows up” for rehearsal. The arrangement of “Down in the River” was written for four players: mandolin, guitar, hammer dulcimer and bass. Bob Douglas, Physical Plant; Tom Hodgson, swim coach; Joe Kreitzer, associate vice-president for Academic Affairs; and bass player Dave Tousley came to the experience with varied backgrounds. This caused some trial-and-error learning while memorizing the fairly complex arrangement mostly by ear. But Broeker and the choir were patient, and soon the band and choir were making music together in both a joyful and professional way.

The synergy between the band and choir was immediately apparent despite a significant age gap! Members of the band instantly recognized the polish and discipline of the choir and practiced their parts diligently to reach the desired level of performance. For Kreitzer, the connection was especially close: his son, Tom, sings in the choir.

Reflecting on the experience, Tom said, “I got to sing with my dad, and that makes me pretty proud.”

The collaboration was such a success that the piece was revived for a performance at the Minnesota Collegiate Choral Festival in the fall of 2009. Once again, the performance was preceded by a mini square-dance festival in the warm-up room. Senior Kathleen Geraghty summed up the experience this way:

“Having the Show’d Up Band with us after warm-ups helped me relax and remember why I was there. I couldn’t help but let my nerves calm down as I watched them play and dance with all the other Chamber Singers. Sharing those moments with the Show’d Up Band and my fellow choir members reminded me that we were there because we love music and we know what kind of joy and beauty it brings to our lives. Since then, I have always looked forward to any collaboration with the Show’d Up Band, and I thank them for always supporting us and for being willing to create memorable musical experiences with us.”

The Chamber Singers hit a high note in March when they performed at the American Choral Directors Association national convention in Chicago. Performing at this venue – with more than 4,000 choral directors from across the country in attendance – is the highest national honor a choral group can receive. St. Thomas is one of only five college or university mixed choirs that performed. The selection came after a blind audition process that included recordings submitted from 75 college and university choirs across the United States. St. Thomas’ Chamber Singers, directed by Broeker, performed historic works by Claude LeJeune and Claudio Monteverdi, as well as contemporary pieces from Lithuania, Canada and Cuba. They ended their program with “Down in the River,” accompanied by – who else – the Show’d Up Band.

Broeker plans to twist her husband’s arm to write more arrangements for this combination of musical forces. The Show’d Up Band and UST Chamber Singers continue to be in tune with each other.

You can listen to their rendition of “Down in the River” by clicking below.

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Two years ago, I launched the Life and Livelihood Study with Jean Giebenhain, Ph.D., St. Thomas Psychology Department; and two medical colleagues at St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic: Charles Gessert, M.D., M.P.H.; and Lisa Starr, M.S.N., C.N.P. Our research was funded through grants from the University of St. Thomas, the Miller Dwan Foundation, St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic Foundation and the SMDC Research Committee. We have been collecting both quantitative and qualitative data on how breast cancer affects the occupational, medical and overall well-being of women musicians across the country.

The catalyst for our inquiry admittedly was personal: Three years after my successful cancer treatment, increasing chronic pain and weakness on my left side, and a diminishing capacity to pull in a full breath rendered me nearly useless as a musician. During a concert with a chamber orchestra in Duluth (in which I am the principal chair), I nearly passed out from pain and breathlessness after playing an easy solo passage. I have been playing the French horn since seventh grade, and my career as a hornist began long before I became a musicologist. My doctors and I searched in vain for information or research on cancer and occupational health; thus, when my oncologist encouraged, “We’ll learn along with you,” I knew I was on to something.

Musicians: A special category of athletes

Breast cancer affects a significant portion of the population in our country, but fortunately this cancer has a high rate of survivorship. Along with the rising number of survivors is a growing realization that treatments can cause severe and often chronic disabling conditions. Women in athletic professions – sports, of course, but also dance and music or really any career that depends on physical performance – must plan beyond survival if treatments impede their ability to return to work. For musicians, nearly all of the procedures necessary to eradicate breast cancer target parts of the body most crucial to producing music. The intensely physical nature of their work ranks them as athletes, and yet this goes largely unacknowledged by the medical practitioners who treat them. Musicians rarely think about this when they receive the diagnosis, because they just want the cancer gone.

Musicians comprise a special category of athletes. Our athletic development focuses on finely tuning small muscle groups in the torso, arms and hands – all of which can be weakened or injured from surgical incisions, intravenous punctures and chemicals, and irradiated tissue. Like any athlete, it takes years of preparation to build and tone the body as a career professional in music. Our vocational training mirrors that of sports in terms of the long-term investment from childhood onward into private instruction, specialized equipment, travels to competitions, higher education, etc. As one woman described it, “I don’t even know how many years I’ve been a musician. … That’s what Ido; it’s in my blood. And you know, to suddenly not have that, it’s … that … I don’t know who I am without it.”

Injuries are the bane of all athletic-based careers. It isn’t easy to take time off, nor is it a simple matter to launch a new career if injury jeopardizes a livelihood built upon years of training. Not surprisingly, sports medicine served as the foundation of performing arts medicine, which has revolutionized the pedagogy of musical training to include healthy mind and body conditioning. However, the repeated traumas to the body from breast cancer treatments (and the resulting emotional trauma) are far more invasive and potentially debilitating than what any specialization in occupational medicine covers in its current practices.

The Life and Livelihood Study

Toward linking the physicality of music and breast cancer, the first phase of the Life and Livelihood Study is documenting how specific medical treatments affect a woman’s ability to make music. More than 300 women musicians have logged onto the study Web site to report their symptoms by means of an anonymous online survey; those who finished treatment one-to five-years ago with no recurrence are eligible to fill out an extensive questionnaire, all others may contribute whatever comments they wish at the end of the survey. In all, 172 either completed the questionnaire or contributed comments at the end. In the second phase of the study, nearly 50 women who completed the questionnaire volunteered for a telephone interview with us, and we have conducted 38. Here are a few examples of their common, ongoing afflictions:

Lymph node removal under the arm can cause lymphedema, an often irreversible condition that makes the arm swell. Several of our study subjects reported that using a compression sleeve to restrain the swelling became constricting or painful after a couple hours of playing music.

Chemotherapy, surgery or radiation can cause neuropathy: sensations of numbness or pain at surgical sites or in the fingers, arms or toes. If your fingers hurt or feel numb, you can’t work your instrument keys or strings. You also are apt to develop compensatory movements to shield yourself from feeling pain while you perform, which creates an added layer of motor dysfunction (if not also psychic numbing to suppress pain).

Contracture and fibrosis from surgery and/or radiation often progress after treatment is finished. If your breathing is constricted, you can’t play a wind instrument or sing. If your arms don’t extend fully, you can’t pull a bow across your string instrument or reach across your piano, timpani or marimba, or raise your arms to conduct.

Survey and interview respondents reveal both musicians and doctors are unprepared for long-term problems. Nearly all of the musicians in our study felt extremely confident that their doctors could treat their breast cancer. But afterward, they felt frustrated that their health care system provided only limited rehabilitative services, most commonly lymphedema prevention and massage therapy. One of the violinists in our study had the foresight to bring her instrument to help the surgeon insert a chemo port away from instrument contact points at the collarbone. My surgeon was careful during my lymph node biopsy to avoid cutting nerves in the upper arm that would damage my horn-playing left hand. But we could not have anticipated the cumulative effects of surgery and radiation on my ribs, shoulder and arm.

The ‘new normal’ after breast cancer

It is impossible to predict who will sustain ongoing symptoms that disable them, or whose coping skills will be sufficient if they encounter problems. The dearth of strategic planning for occupational well-being seems especially glaring in the area of mental health. All survivors struggle to define the “new normal” after breast cancer, and there are social work and psychotherapy resources to help patients address a life-threatening illness. Nevertheless, surviving (or feeling gratitude for having survived) is not a panacea for chronic conditions that undermine the quality of life. Returning to work or life as it was before cancer is not always a straightforward process of simply taking up where you left off.

Survey and interview participants have expressed appreciation for the chance to disclose their struggles to us. Interviewees often register surprise, then relief, to learn that others have occupational problems similar to theirs. Although I am pleased that our project provides a forum for these women, I also am troubled that so many feel that they are on their own in confronting the challenges of survivorship. I suspect that this experience is not unique tomusicians.

Despite the challenges musicians have described to us, very few have abandoned music. Their resilience and creativity in finding their way back are critical components of our research goal to describe and understand the experience of a specific survivor population. In fact, results from the interviews have taken us way beyond our original hope to identify a few salient themes of survivorship.

Conventional uses of music therapy – for example, playing recorded music to facilitate calm feelings during medical treatments – do not seem effective for this patient group. Musicians generally have a hard time shutting off their ingrained tendency to analyze and classify whatever they are hearing. Listening to music can be deeply distressing for a musician who is out of commission, because they are reminded of what they cannot do (or might not ever do again). Musicians must choose carefully how they engage with music during treatment and afterward. Performing and listening may elicit pain (physical and otherwise), but avoiding music altogether may not provide relief either.

Motivated to take greater musical risks

The musicians who participated in our study have described eloquently this conundrum. Some were determined to continue performing, claiming it helped them confront both the physical and existential changes wrought by breast cancer. Others felt compelled to challenge their workaholic attitude and resolved to lighten up on their perfectionism and develop healthier work and lifestyle habits. Several reported a budding interest to learn new repertoire that, previous to having breast cancer, seemed too challenging or elusive. Their capacities for taking greater risks was heightened as they explored new works or a new facet of their musical voices. Those profoundly incapacitated are grieving the loss of their musical selves, and often are angry and fearful, sometimes reaching gingerly toward hope to engage with music again someday.

Many musician survivors shared with us that, upon deep reflection, they became aware of a sense of legacy they felt to their audience, children or students. One study participant recorded an album of cello duets with her daughters who also are musicians. She realized that she had no recordings of music from her own mother, who had died from breast cancer. A vocalist-guitarist embraced her physical changes as marking a new era of her artistic persona: She recorded an album of original songs with an accompanying booklet of her watercolors and writings, chronicling her breast cancer experience as a healing spiritual journey.

Some musician survivors give voice to their breast cancer experiences through service to their communities. The daughter of two Holocaust survivors emerged from breast cancer so transformed that she founded a community choir of fellow survivors and their loved ones. This ensemble is celebrating its fifth year of providing an annual concert series in a major metropolitan area. Another survivor, a rock guitarist, puts on a “Cancer Stinks Road Show.” Many bring a new entrepreneurial spirit to their freelance work, as with the oboist who lobbied orchestral musicians from three eastern coastal states to volunteer for a concert benefiting local hospitals and research. Invoking the shared gallows-humor among cancer patients, a retired music professor and pianist recorded an album of “Chemo-Karaoke” sing-along songs. Her new role in rousting chemotherapy patients to sing with her “Glory, glory, radiation!” brings laughter to an otherwise gloomy treatment room.

A rehabilitation plan for musicians

As we begin to process the ocean of data collected over two years, I can share a solid take-away message so far: The quality of life for people who lead active physical lives is a vital factor in treating them for breast cancer. For musician patients, health care practitioners must help them approach their use of an altered physical body in new ways, so that they can function in a manner healthy and appropriate to their occupations. At the Piper Breast Center in Minneapolis, patients can receive a pre-surgical assessment of how they move so their doctors can design a rehabilitation plan for them. Therapists and physiatrists at the Sister Kenney Institute routinely treat musician survivors from Piper and elsewhere. They note that musician patients know what they need to do to perform, but often are at a loss as to how to restore their peak physical condition after breast cancer. Appropriate mental-health counseling also can help patients navigate effectively through post-treatment challenges, including career rehabilitation.

My own diligence to thrive as a musician cured of breast cancer led me to various practitioners, not only those at Sister Kenny but also to a hospice doctor in Duluth who concocted a topical cream to deaden neuropathic pain. In addition, Rolf and other massage therapists have untangled, slowly and carefully, the mass of hardened muscle fibers, scars and myofascial tissue around my rib cage. I am working with a teacher of Alexander Technique to restore my balance and poise so that I may move and play the horn with ease again. I never really stopped performing; it was just so painful to play. I was determined not to let my chronic symptoms prevent me from continuing to perform with two chamber orchestras in Duluth, but constant pain made me reluctant to cultivate new performing opportunities here in the Twin Cities.

Although the occupational needs of musician survivors launched our research project, my colleagues and I designed our study to generate hypotheses for additional inquiry, including topics beyond the exclusive concerns of performers. Within these musicians’ stories are themes relevant to a much wider constituency of patients and their doctors. From the insightful perspectives into the healing role of music, for example, we can affirm the creative spirit that can be nurtured within all patients. We hope that our findings will engage the medical community in new research initiatives that will improve the quality of life for all cancer patients and survivors, regardless of their level of activity.

In facing cancer and other life-altering circumstances, people need support to preserve their physical, emotional, mental, creative and spiritual health. Musicians who thrive beyond their own times of crises can, in turn, “make a joyful noise” as they share their experiences, strengths and hopes with others. Such returns are possible to cultivate in all walks of life and livelihoods.

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And there is magic in those concerts, he maintains. “The audience or congregational hymns and carols have a stirring power and participation that in some magical way surpass the meticulously rehearsed and exquisitely performed choral pieces. The traditional opening Advent hymn used for many, many years – ‘Veni, Veni Emmanuel’ with brass choir, full organ and packed chapel – was a remarkable acclamation of Gregorian chant, and the thrilling traditional closing, ‘Hark the Herald,’ was goose-bump inducing.”

Now they pack the Chapel of St. Thomas for four concerts on a weekend early in December – nightly audiences of more than 500 alumni, friends and neighbors, about 200 singers from four choirs (Liturgical, Concert, Women’s and Chamber Singers) and up to 40 musicians (Handbell Choir, Brass and Guitar  Ensembles), and sometimes professional musicians hired for specific instrumental needs.

Actually, the concerts began much more quietly in the early 1980s as Advent Vespers, Lessons and Carols. The vespers were a Liturgical Choir tradition that included Scripture readings of the season, Psalms, the Magnificat and the Lord’s Prayer alternated with choir and congregation hymns. Around 1990, the late Monsignor Terrence Murphy (president of St. Thomas from 1966 to 1991) requested that the Music Department produce its own Christmas concerts in the tradition of other area colleges.

Each concert has a theme, usually inspired by a single piece with additional music selected to reflect that theme and to focus on the intent of the concerts – being in Advent, preparing for the coming of Christmas. Themes have included Morning Star, Magnificat, Pacem in Terris, Voices of Angels, Voices of Hope, Jesu et Maria and Brilliant Light, Holy Night.

The music ranges from the classical sacred music of Bach, Mendelssohn and Mozart to music commissioned from contemporary composers such as St. Thomas’ Father Michael Joncas, to world music in native languages; some have featured African languages and African drums.

One of Strusinski’s favorites was the premiere of Dan Kantor’s “Night of Silence” at a concert in “two-part harmony, with simple piano, guitar, oboe and soprano solo. Later it was fully arranged for string orchestra and full choir, but somehow the simplicity of the original could not be matched.”

The theme for the 2005 concerts will be “All the Bells on Earth Shall Ring,” said Dr. Angela Broeker, Music Depart-ment, artistic director for the past four concerts who also directs the Concert Choir.

“In addition to the theme, we try to choose pieces that take our audiences from Advent to the Nativity and the Epiphany, so there is a story order in the way we arrange the pieces. Each concert also includes a Marian text that we sing during the Advent section,” Broeker said. “And there are always at least three congregational hymns.

“The choirs begin work on the repertoire in the regular rehearsals in September and October and often combine in November to rehearse numbers sung by the entire group. Dress rehearsals are only on the Wednesday and Thursday nights before the performances and often are open to the public.

“The students regard the concerts as a gift to the UST community. Though it is a tremendous amount of work in the week preceding finals, students give freely of their time. Upon graduation, it is participation in the Christmas concerts that choir alumni remember most fondly.”

And they laugh about the problems that sometime occur. Dr. Merritt Nequette, retired Music Department chair and associate academic dean, produced the concerts from 1994 to 2001. He recalls “enough snow one Friday to close the school and cancel the performance with theoretically every ticket good for the next sold-out night. Luckily, there was enough snow left to hold down Saturday’s crowd.”

Strusinski recalls the lovely effect of flickering candles and “one of the soprano’s hair briefly catching fire during a procession. She got a pretty good whack in the back of the head from the kid behind her.” His personal embarrassment was “marching to the podium to conduct, gesturing to the choirs to stand, and no one would get up. I thought it was mass mutiny, but I was out of order and it wasn’t my turn to conduct. The students always know what’s going on.”

“The concerts have become something special – the biggest event of the year for the performers,” Nequette said. “We always give them a free dinner Saturday for giving up their weekend.

“The concerts present a different, professional face of St. Thomas – the arts that are very much a part of the institution. They are well done. We do more composed music than most other schools and, yes, we are as good as St. Olaf, on which the concerts were somewhat modeled. We did move the concerts to St. Luke’s Church in St. Paul one year because of the crowds, but there was a definite feeling they should be on campus, in the chapel.”

A crowded chapel is a difficult aspect of the highly popular performances, explained Dr. Douglas Orzolek, Music Department, who now produces the concerts. “The members of our ensembles have reached such a size that we are not able to fit in any more performers. The concerts are tremendously popular and we prefer not to turn down ticket requests. More performances are not possible because of the hours our students are already putting in. We need a larger on-campus venue for the concerts as well as for our large performing bands and choirs that now often have to perform off campus.”

The concerts mean different things to different people. “Some view a concert as a spiritual event that reminds them of the reason for the season. Others perhaps attend to gather themselves before finals and the rush of the season. For many, it is their own tradition – the holidays begin when they attend the concerts,” Orzolek said.

“Music seems to say things that words alone cannot. Many people would argue that the greatest music is that traditionally heard at holidays. It’s not hard to imagine why. The music is filled with such joy, expectation, rebirth and heightened expression.”

The showcase of talent for the Music Department is a campus-wide activity supported by the entire community, from Campus Ministry to campus carpenters, said Nadine Friederichs, associate director of the Alumni Association, which coordinates concert details. “They are an annual tradition, and many alumni feel this is one of the greatest spiritual events sponsored by the university.”

And sometimes the music is very personal. “One year, we were snowbound and I contacted some Liturgical Choir kids and they called everyone living on campus,” Strusinski recalled. “We met in the chapel at the time the concert was supposed to start, just to get a chance at another rehearsal.

“I’ll always remember that there was one elderly man, a neighbor, who walked over from Goodrich Avenue, “I’ll always remember that there was one elderly man, a neighbor, who walked over from Goodrich Avenue, not knowing the concert was canceled. We gave him a command performance. I’ll never forget him sitting in the front row, crying. It was very moving.”