June 3, 2010
"Stations of Tokyo" by Doug Barrett. Download image.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Arts faculty from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) College of Arts and Sciences are refining their skills, honing their craft and researching their methods here in the United States and around the globe this summer.
From the UAB Department of Music:
• Yakov Kasman, D.M.A., associate professor, will teach piano in Kiev, Ukraine at the Horowitz International Summer Music Academy June 29-July 12. This will be Kasman's third summer teaching there.
• William Price, D.M.A., assistant professor, will present a paper, "Temporal Disruption and Formal Coherence in John Zorn's 'Cat O' Nine Tails'" at the "Beyond the Centres" International Music Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece. Hosted by the Department of Music Studies at Aristotle University, the conference, to be held July 1-5, will focus on the musical avant garde since 1950.
• Kristine Hurst-Wajsczcuk, D.M.A., assistant professor, will be a featured presenter at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) conference July 2-6 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She will offer a session on using technology and electronic media in the university voice studio to aid teaching. Hurst-Wajsczcuk will then perform July 25-August 7 in British Columbia, Canada, at the Vancouver Early Music Festival. Through competitive auditions, she was selected for the festival's Baroque Vocal Programme, "The Compleat Singer," and will study with renowned performers in the early music world. This intensive course is designed for advanced-level participants and focuses on 17th- and 18th-century vocal repertoire. Hurst-Wajsczcuk won a Dean's Grant to aid in her study.
From the UAB Department of Theatre:
• Marlene Johnson, M.F.A., assistant professor, is traveling to Serbia and Greece. In addition to Belgrade and Athens, she will travel to Epidaurus, Argos, Myceanae, Naplion, Delphi and Stoupa. For the last seven years Johnson has explored voicing archetypes of world myths as an aid in expanding an actor's range, in order to handle a wide variety of styles and roles. She regularly leads workshops nationally in "Voicing the Archetypes." Her goal this trip is to develop a piece of Greek text from "Iphigenia in Aulis." In Belgrade, she will work with the Dah Theatre (Dah means "Breath"). There she will observe the actor-training process of the theater. In the evenings she will attend lectures, demonstrations and performances. Johnson will then explore four ancient Greek theater sites, testing the performance acoustics for the size of breath and the athleticism of rib work in vocal support required in these spaces while performing the Greek-based texts devised in Belgrade. In August, Johnson will present a workshop in Los Angeles and one in Mexico City on voicing and embodying archetypes.
From the UAB Department of Art and Art History:
• Doug Baulos, M.F.A., assistant professor, just returned from Puebla, Mexico, where he shot images for books he will have on display next year in various shows. The images interweave his interests in hope and shelter. Baulos will be putting the books/sculptures together in July and August. Baulos is using the images as part of a research project funded by a Dean's Grant he won last fall.
• Doug Barrett, M.F.A., assistant professor, is in Tokyo, Japan, working on a series called "Stations of Tokyo." The series of works "explores the mingling of the religious and consumer experience of Tokyoites in the context of the Yamanote rail line that circles the city of Tokyo," Barrett said. Each piece explores a particular station that serves an area of Tokyo and that area's local lore and identity. He also is working on new pieces of art while in Tokyo. Barrett and Baulos also are having a collaborative show at the Design Festa Gallery in Harajuku June 14-19. The show, "Southern Migrations + Strange Sanctuary," looks at visual culture and images created in public and personal spaces and how those spaces are physically and mentally mapped in everyday life. The show features a large collaborative piece plus other works from both artists.
About the UAB College of Arts and Sciences
The UAB College of Arts and Sciences is home to academic disciplines that include the arts, humanities, sciences and the School of Education. The college's unique structure advances research and learning in both K-12 and higher education, and its courses are taught by a world-class faculty. Committed to the UAB spirit of independence and innovation, the college enables students to design their own majors, participate in undergraduate research or complete graduate degrees on a five-year fast track. Through productive partnerships, flexible curricula and a bold, interdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching, the college is preparing students for success in the ever-changing global marketplace of commerce and ideas.