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MTD's June 2012 newsletter Volume 16

The Performance Season in Review

With the busy and diverse 2011/2012 performance season over, we wondered what you felt had been the highlights. Mike Moreno,(B.Mus. '00) alum and choir teacher at H. Frank Carey High School in New York City wrote, "Oakland Chorale's tour of NYC! They were awesome and generous with their time to bring some culture to my school!" Mike posted several video links of the chorale's performance on MTD's Facebook page, for all to enjoy, but many of you probably saw one of their performances in person. Their regular season recitals at University Presbyterian Church, along with the University Chorus, played to packed audiences, as they do every year. Read more.

MTD June News

Department chair Jackie Wiggins has been chosen as a Regional Arts and Culture Award Winner. She is one of eight individuals being honored for their work in fostering arts and culture in their local communities. As we all know, Professor Wiggins' work in music education has had impact well beyond our local area. She is a scholar of international renown. Nevertheless, we are delighted that her leadership in promoting cultural education and performance right in our own backyard of Rochester Hills has also been recognized. Paint Creek Center for the Arts (PCCA), a nonprofit regional art center, will host the Regional Arts and Culture Awards at the Royal Park Hotel, in Rochester, Michigan on Thursday, June 7 at 6 p.m. Read more.

Educating the Dramatic Voice

The summer after my first year of college, the faculty of the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, who are some of the top performers and instructors in their fields, told me to pack my bags and go to Oakland University. I had traveled from Boston to San Francisco to San Diego in search of the perfect voice teacher, and now, ironically, they were sending me back to Edie Diggory, the teacher I had studied with before any of these adventures. I looked to each of my parents, who appeared to be engulfed by the same fog of confusion I was experiencing. We were so stunned we left the hotel suite without my brother, who was watching TV in the next room. Read more.

Michael Medvinsky: A Life in Music

"I'm a very percussive person," says Michael Medvinsky, (B.Mus. '05) and indeed, conversation with the 2012 Oakland County Elementary School Teacher of the Year proceeds at a brisk and steady rhythm, as he expounds on life as a music teacher. "I want to lay the groundwork for loving and understanding music," he says. "They can take that into life with them." "They" are students in the elementary, intermediary and alternative high schools of the Brandon School District. Mike also teaches marching band and African drums after school. He's a busy guy. And a successful one, as his recent honor attests.