Three NSU Faculty in Creative and Performing Arts Receive Endowed Professorships
class=”alignleft wp-image-20066″ style=”margin: 4px;” alt=”Northwestern_State_University_of_Louisiana” src=”http://klax-tv.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Northwestern_State_University_of_Louisiana.png” width=”180″ height=”180″ />Three faculty members in the Mrs. H. D. Dear Sr. and Alice E. Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts at Northwestern State University have been awarded endowed professorships for the 2013-14 academic year, according to Greg Handel, acting director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts.
Associate Director of Choirs and Assistant Professor of Voice Dr. Patrick Dill will be the Clifton M. Alford Endowed Professor. Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music Dr. Jeff Mathews will be the Magale Endowed Professor. Associate Professor of Music Terrie Sanders is the recipient of the Donald F. Derby Professorship.
Each professorship was created with a private donation of $60,000 to the NSU Foundation, which was matched with $40,000 from the Board of Regents Support Fund to create a permanent $100,000 endowment. Interest generated from the endowment will funds faculty research and development along with needed equipment.
“Each professorship will allow members of our faculty to conduct research and do scholarly work they would not be able to do without this private support,” said Handel. “The opportunities which are created to meet and interact with other faculty representing institutions around the world enhance Northwestern State’s national and international reputation.”
Dill will make a presentation at the Benjamin Britten at 100: An American Centenary Symposium this fall at Illinois State University. The festival commemorates one of England’s foremost composers and will include performances of instrumental and vocal music, dance, theatre, visual arts, literature and scholarship. The joint scholarly meeting brings together many of the world’s leading Britten authorities and British Music researchers in one of America’s most extensive symposiums dedicated exclusively100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Dill will present his paper, “Moral and Musical Pedagogy in Benjamin Britten’s Works for Young Voices,” which examines the link between Britten’s goal to educate and foster artistry in his works for children’s choirs and the manner in which his choice of texts conveyed his personal ethics, especially his profound belief in pacifism.
Dill began his career as the assistant choir director at Alief Hastings High School in Houston. Two years later, he joined the fine arts faculty at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas, as director of choirs and coordinator of AP music theory and international baccalaureate music. During his tenure at Anderson, choirs under his direction performed at the 2004 and 2008 Southwest division conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the 2007 Music Educators National Conference (MENC) Southwest Symposium. As a clinician, Dill has conducted several honor choirs and presented interest sessions at both the Texas Music Educators Association and Southwest MENC conventions. In 2005, he was awarded the Silver Apple Award for excellence in teaching by KEYE-TV. Dill is chancel choir director at First United Methodist Church in Natchitoches, and recently served as the resident choral artist for the Arts District Chorale in Dallas.
Mathews will prepare and conduct the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra for a recording of “Cane River Murals” by Martin Ellerby by the Polyphonic label. Ellerby was commissioned to compose “Cane River Murals” in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Northwestern State University Marching Band in 2011. The work was inspired by the paintings of artist Clementine Hunter.
Mathews will prepare the ensemble for the recording during a week of rehearsals and conduct the group for the recording sessions. He will also assist in the editing process of the final product.
Studio Music Company in London has accepted the piece for publication.
Mathews has been at Northwestern State since 1998 as associate director of bands/associate professor of music, director of student activities and organizations and director of athletic bands/assistant professor of music. As associate director of bands and an associate professor of music since 2008, Mathews conducted the NSU Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band and served as director of summer music classes. He is part of a recruiting team that brings in 85 to 100 new band students annually.
Sanders has been selected to be a delegate/presenter at the Eighth International Congress of Voice Teachers in Brisbane, Australia, later this month. She will present two poster sessions, “Functional Efficiency of the Voice” and “Voice Disorders and The McClosky Approach” and a paper, “A New Look at The Work of David Blair McClosky.”
The event will gather international voice teachers in all styles. The program includes renowned international teachers and singers delivering performances, lectures, hands-on workshops, master classes, panel sessions and research presentations. Congress themes will include all aspects of learning and teaching singing, fine singing performance and access to recent research.
Sanders has been a full time member of the voice faculty at Northwestern State since 1996. She teaches private voice, German, Italian and French diction for singers, and vocal sedagogy. Sanders is also academic advisor for the bachelor of music degrees in performance and sacred music. She is an active lecturer for the McClosky Institute of Voice and a certified McClosky voice technician. In 2011, she earned the designation of master teacher for the McClosky Institute. Sanders is an active performer and most recently appeared on the NATS Southern Region Member Artist Recital in Baton Rouge.
