Greetings from Dr. Stephen Runge, Head, Department of Music
Happy spring from Sackville! Another busy academic year has concluded at Mount Allison, one in which we enjoyed a full season of in-person music-making. The winter term featured the return of the Elmer Iseler Singers, directed by Lydia Adams (’75, ’76, ’03) and accompanied by pianist Shawn Grenke (’00), and joined by members of the Mount Allison Elliot Chorale. Below, you can view the EIS’s performance of A Celtic Prayer, composed by Mount Allison Music alumnus Barry Peters (’81). This was as a tribute to the late Gloria Jollymore (’77), who worked at Mount Allison for 25 years as Director of Alumni and then Vice President, University Advancement until her retirement in 2021.
In February, we presented an exciting collaborative concert that saw members of the Tutta Musica Orchestra joined by Mount Allison music faculty in a concert of music written under the influence of 1920s Germany. Other faculty recitals featured flautist Karin Aurell, percussionist Joël Cormier, violinist Nadia Francavilla, and soprano Christina Raphaëlle Haldane. Linda Pearse also led students in her Introduction to Music, Culture, and Context course on an exciting weekend field trip to Montreal, about which you can read more below.
Student performances are always a focus of the Winter term. Kiera Galway led the Mount Allison Choral Society and Elliott Chorale in music inspired by the elements and fables. Mark Kleyn led the Chamber Orchestra in a concert that included Haydn’s final “London” symphony, and James Kalyn directed the Symphonic Band in new and lesser-known music. Nine upper-year students also presented recitals in fulfillment of degree requirements.
As we approach the 2023-24 academic year, we look forward to welcoming a strong group of new students to the conservatory in September. At the same time, we have said farewell to the Class of 2023, who graduated this month. You can read about the accomplishments of some of these students below, and we wish all the best to our graduates in their future musical endeavours. Congratulations to the following graduates:
BACHELOR OF MUSIC
Archibald, David Charles (Minor English), with distinction - Kentville, NS
Batten, Noah Alexander (Certificate in Arts Administration), with distinction - Moncton, NB
DeNuke, KatieAnne Rose (Certificate in Music Education) - Annapolis Royal, NS
Dorey, Jeffrey Alan – October 2022 graduate - Edmonton, AB
Keenlyside, Magnus Kristmanson - Indian River, PE
Lee, Ga Young - Riverview, NB
Lynch, Morgan Janet - Kingsport, NS
(Bachelor of Arts, Major French, Certificate in Music Education), with distinction
Ogilvie, Halliday Grace - Wolfville, NS
Perrault, Sarah Elizabeth Marina - Cole Harbour, NS
Snell, Jonathan – October 2022 graduate - Fredericton, NB
Stepaniak, Isaac Joseph (Minor History), with distinction - Dartmouth, NS
Theriault, Gabriel William Simpson (Minor French) - Spa Springs, NS
Williams, Annika Rose, with distinction - Midgic, NB
Workman, Sarah Beatrice - Halifax, NS
(Minor Biochemistry, Certificate in Music Education), with distinction
BACHELOR OF ARTS, MUSIC MAJOR
Hiramoto, Ryu (Major Music, Minors Drama & English), with distinction - Tokyo, JAPAN
MacAloney, Alexander Wade Clark (Major Music, Minor English) - Amherst, NS
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, MUSIC MINOR
Gogan, Abigail Rebecca - Saint John, NB
(Major Mathematics, Minors Computer Science & Music), with distinction
Congratulations to our graduates, Class of 2023!
The Department of Music appreciates the continued support of its alumni. Please stay in touch with us, and keep us posted on your news and accomplishments. We also have a presence on social media, and hope you will follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Sincerely,
2023 J.E.A. Crake Performance Award in Music awarded to David Archibald (BMus ’23)
A native of Kentville, Nova Scotia, David Archibald is the 2023 recipient of the J.E.A. Crake Performance Award. This award is given to the graduating student who, in the opinion of the faculty of the Department of Music, has excelled in performance, and who has maintained high academic standing and contributed to the cultural life of the university community.
Throughout his four years of study at Mount Allison University, David has distinguished himself as an extremely conscientious and high-achieving student, on the Dean’s list for each of the four years and graduating with a GPA of 4.2. Though nominated for this prestigious performance award, David pursued music composition and English literature with equal passion. He committed long hours to the study of music — to his academic course work, to composition, and to the piano — and is universally admired by the students and faculty for his dedication. The caliber of his work won him acceptance into three graduate programs — at McGill University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Ottawa — and warranted a SSHRC graduate award of $17,500 to pursue a Master’s degree at the latter two institutions.
Over the course of his Mount Allison studies David has been awarded several significant prizes covering his outstanding academic success, his piano performances and compositions, and his English literature and poetry achievements. In addition to his classical solo piano performances, David distinguished himself in a two-piano ensemble, was recognized as a sensitive and sought-after collaborative pianist, and took part in a harpsichord master class given by Mélisande McNabney. Outside the classical piano domain, David also played in the Mount Allison Jazz Ensemble as a guitarist, and was a member of the Mount Allison Choral Society.
David was engaged in the life of the students, the department, and the community; he was a model citizen in every respect. He will be continuing his studies at the University of Toronto in the fall as a composition student of Dr. Norbert Palej.
Annika Williams (BMus ’23) is awarded the Mount Allison Music Scholar Prize
The Mount Allison Music Scholar Prize is presented to a graduating student who has made an outstanding contribution to the intellectual life of the Department of Music through excellence in music education, music history, music theory, composition, music technology, and/or Canadian music. Annika Williams’ work has been recognized for its outstanding level through both external and internal processes. Most recently, she has been accepted to three high-level Canadian institutions: Dalhousie University, as a Fountain Fellow, as well as McGill University and the University of Victoria. She received prestigious SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) CGS-M funding and has chosen to pursue graduate studies at McGill’s Music Research program in Fall 2023.
Annika’s work brims with intellectual curiosity, creativity, and brightness. For example, she composed a paper on musical responses to pandemics for the Proseminar in Music History class (Winter 2021, Dr. Pearse), presented it at the UNB Arts Matters conference (Spring 2021), and was recognized with an honourable mention.
Annika has explored research from a museum and archives perspective through a variety of paid positions with local history institutions. In the Fall 2021 semester, Annika completed an experiential learning project “Methods in Community Archives” (L. Pearse) in which she explored women’s agency and labour in the Sackville Paper Box Company, highlighting the role of Florence Davis in the success of this local company during the early decades of the 20th century. Annika published her paper “The Case of Florence Cook: Uncovering Local Women’s History” in the local history newsletter The White Fence (2022).
Supported by a university-wide competitive Independent Student Research Grant (ISRG), Annika worked with Dr. Pearse to combine historical musicology with her growing interest in philosophical frameworks of vulnerability that have developed out of exciting courses engaging feminist and disability studies (with J. Dryden). Her ISRG project “The Wicked Weeping Woman: A Reconsideration of Women’s Agency in Lament” considers witches’ laments in La Liberazione di Ruggiero by Francesca Caccini (1587–1640) and Alcina by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) as expressions of vulnerability that allowed the women who sang them to clarify their own positions and act with agency. Concurrently, she was awarded Bragg Funding to pursue vocal studies with the Halifax Summer Opera Festival where she gained a performer’s perspective on opera’s witchy women (in this instance Gluck’s sorceress Armide). The paper resulting from her research was presented to the Music department at this year’s Celebration of Student Research and has since been accepted for publication in the upcoming issue of Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology. We look forward to following Annika’s success as she moves forward on what promises to be an exciting trajectory!
Congratulations to Dr. Kiera Galway
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kiera Galway will continue on faculty in the Department of Music in a tenure-track position as Music Education specialist and Choral Director.
Born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Kiera completed Bachelor’s degrees in Bassoon Performance and Music History/Literature and Music Education, followed by a Master’s in Choral Conducting at Memorial University. Kiera then relocated to Toronto, Ontario, where she was active in the music community as a choral conductor and educator. While there, Kiera founded and directed the choral ensemble Toronto Chamber Voices and conducted the Massey College Choir. She also directed choirs and taught musicianship at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Dixon Hall Music School, and University Settlement House. She completed a Master’s degree in Musicology and a PhD in Music Education at the University of Toronto.
Kiera returned to St. John’s in 2015, teaching at Memorial University and serving as the Director of Music at the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. She also played bassoon with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and worked as an administrator in the St. John’s music community, acting as the Executive Director of the Calos Youth Orchestras, Vice-Chair of provincial choral organization Choral NL, and project manager for Podium 2018, Choral Canada’s national choral conference and festival.
Dr. Galway joined the faculty at Mount Allison University as Assistant Professor of Music Education and Choral Conducting in 2020. Her research interests centre on place-informed approaches to music and music education. Her PhD dissertation focused on cultural and musical geographies in Canada, mapping the intersections of space, identity, and music. She has developed two new courses in Music Education: Music, School, and Society and Ensemble Leadership. Both of these are included in Mount Allison's new Certificate in Music Education.
Dr. Linda Pearse is awarded the Tucker Teaching Award
Dr. Linda Pearse has been awarded the University’s prestigious Tucker Teaching Award for 2023 — Mount Allison’s highest recognition of teaching excellence. Pearse has taught with the Music Department at Mount Allison since 2011 and has been particularly active in breaking down traditional barriers of the classroom and immersing students in her research, teaching, and community outreach.
Most recently, Pearse’s Introduction to Music, Culture, and Context course traveled to Montreal to create audio documentaries about the lives of musicians who will perform at the Sackville Festival of Early Music in Fall 2023 (see CEWIL Trip Project discussion below). For those students who spent their high school years in front of a computer screen during the pandemic, such a trip opportunity, which included exquisite concert, cultural, and research experiences, was transformative and deeply meaningful.
In addition to a focus on experiential learning, Pearse cultivates multi-directional mentorship opportunities for students who work within her SUMR (Sackville Undergraduate Music Research) Diversity Lab for six weeks every summer. Students not only work in the lab but are paid to create their own research which they, in turn, integrate within Pearse’s classrooms to enable their mentorship of fellow students.
Pearse says “it is, of course, both humbling and an immense honour to be recognized with the Tucker Teaching Award, yet it is perhaps more important to emphasize the vibrant community of learning and mentorship sustained by my Mount Allison colleagues across the university. This is not a recognition of the achievement of one, but the achievement of many. This community of learning lifts up and enables us all to improve our teaching and stay engaged and focused on student learning.”
In 1980, Edmund, Harold, and William Tucker established the Herbert and Leota Tucker Teaching Award at Mount Allison in honour of their parents. This prize has been awarded annually to a member of the faculty, judged to have made the most significant contribution in the previous five years, with particular emphasis on excellence in teaching.
Music Student Emma Yee Wins Independent Student Research Grant
Emma Yee’s Independent Student Research Grant project, “Liberatory Praxis in Operatic Rehearsal Processes,” has been accepted by the Mount Allison Research and Creative Activities Committee and will be funded by the J.E.A Crake Foundation. Emma will work under the supervision of Dr. Linda Pearse.
Music, Culture, and Context’s CEWIL Trip to Montreal!
With the support of CEWIL (Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada) and Mount Allison University, approximately 45 students in Dr. Linda Pearse’s new Intro to Music, Culture, and Context (MUSC 1221) course traveled to Montreal as part of a curricular trip in early March. Students engaged with community and industry partners through pre-project discussions and in-person interviews, namely the Sackville Festival of Early Music, renowned harpsichord maker Yves Beaupré, and two award-winning professional music ensembles in Montreal: L’Harmonie des saisons and Constantinople (both groups will perform next Fall at the Sackville Festival of Early Music). The course has been added to our core curriculum to engage perspectives on music’s role in culture and the various meanings it can hold beyond the performance stage.
In small teams, and guided by professional CBC audio producer Matt Tunnacliffe, Mount A students created audio documentaries that tell stories about the artists, revealing the intersections of their professional lives, businesses, and creative processes. The documentaries will serve the marketing or artistic purposes of the partners and will be shared within the Sackville community and beyond (Click here to listen to the documentaries on Soundcloud)! The students learned real-world skills nourished beyond the classroom; they benefitted from the varied perspectives, complementing experiences within Mount Allison with those in an exciting urban setting in Montreal, Québec.
In preparation for the CEWIL experience, students considered how different types of music (e.g., Indigenous resurgence music, hip-hop, opera, orchestral music, and pow-wow music) unfold within culture by applying various theoretical lenses (e.g., gender, colonialism, and power). While in Montreal, in addition to conducting their interviews, they attended a variety of performance events and music research activities including a performance by the Orchestre Métropolitain, a Hip-Hop concert by Zach Zoya, jazz concerts, a tour of the McGill CIRMMT tech lab, and visits to the rare books and music manuscript collections at McGill University and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
The trip was particularly meaningful for many of our first-year students who had spent their high school years without trip opportunities. Students voiced the transformative and life-changing experiences of the trip in terms of filling a void in their experiences after spending their teenage years in front of computer screens. A weary but deeply satisfied group of students returned to Sackville brimming with fresh insights, a heightened curiosity, and vibrant reflections!
Composition Program Updates
Our New Music Creation Lab, under the direction of Dr. Kevin Morse (’02), has seen a lot of activity this year, with students using it for our two new composition-related courses: MUSC 2171 Sound Recording Techniques (taught in the fall by Ben Creelman) and MUSC 3171 Introduction to Electronic Music Creation (taught in the winter by Morse). There is a palpable excitement among students about these courses and the new creative resources they have access to, from high-end microphones, interfaces, and iMacs, to new audio editing and production software. Both courses will be offered again next year and we look forward to continuing to develop our New Music Creation Lab and its resources in the years to come. The new courses and our new BA Joint Major in Computer Science and Music were featured this term in the Alumni Record magazine, which you can read here.
This term saw several concerts of student music, including our New Music @ Mount Allison student composition concert (April 10) and credited half-recitals by graduating composers Noah Batten and David Archibald. Noah will be continuing his studies in composition at the University of Ottawa this fall and also intends to complete their new graduate micro-program in Composing for Media. David will be attending the MMus program in Composition at the University of Toronto, and his choral composition, Low Tide on Grand Pré, with poetry by Bliss Carman, will be premiered by the Stratford Concert Choir in May 2023.
Student News
Mezzo-soprano Emma Yee (’24) will be singing the title role in Halifax Summer Opera Festival’s production of Handel’s Serse. Soprano Clare Lowe (’25) will be playing the role of Romilda and acting as a chorus member. Rehearsals and performances will take place July 22 to August 20, 2023, under the supervision of Melissa Doiron (music director) and Nina Scott-Stoddart (stage director).
Noah Batten (’23) has been offered admission into the Bachelor of Music Education program at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Masters of Composition program at the University of Ottawa. He accepted the offer from the University of Ottawa and has been awarded a Special Merit Scholarship.
Annika Williams (’23) and MtA Music graduate Skylar Cameron (BMus ’17) collaborated on a conference paper entitled “Dreaming a Rubatic World: An Embodied Resistance to Chrononormativity in Music Education” presented at the 3rd Biennial Disability Studies and Music Education Symposium, April 27-29, 2023.
Morgan Lynch (’23) has been accepted into the Bachelor of Music Education program at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Sarah Workman (’23) has been accepted into the Bachelor of Music Education program at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Ottawa.
Congratulations to our Bragg Fund 2023 Summer Program winners — Michaela Cabot (’25), Amanda Godin (’24), Jackson Higgins (’24), Amelia Hurst (’24), Jude Taylor Bourque (’26), and Emma Yee (’24) — who will be receiving funds to pursue some exciting musical studies this summer!
Amanda Godin is also the recipient of a Laetitia-Cyr 2023 scholarship, awarded by Jeunesses Musicales NB to support participation in a professional development activity in classical music. Amanda will be attending the Breno Italy International Music Academy, July 17-31, 2023. (MtA Music professor Dr. Christina Haldane will be taking part in the BIIMA program as a voice instructor!)
Sarah Perrault (’23) will be studying nursing at Dalhousie University, in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program.
KatieAnne DeNuke (’23) has been accepted into the Bachelor of Music Education program at Acadia University.
Lydie-Anne Ruest Belliveau (’24) will be pursuing an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at UNB.
Third-year BMus students Charles Gagné (’24) and Kiran Steele (’24) will be working as summer interns to assist Dr. Alan Dodson (BMus ’95) with the analysis and transcription of world music recordings. These internships are funded by a research grant that Dr. Dodson was recently awarded.
Fourth-year BSc (Mathematics & Music) student Anna Gordon (’24) has been awarded a summer internship through the Experiential Learning and Career Development office at MtA, funded by a Future NB grant. She will assist Dr. Alan Dodson with his research and with the development of instructional materials for a future course on music and mathematics. Anna has just completed a semester at the University of Texas at Austin, where she took advanced courses on topology and popular music analysis (among other subjects) as a Killam Undergraduate Fellow.
Faculty News
Dr. Christina Haldane, soprano, was pleased to work with talented singers from Natasha Sider’s voice studio in Halifax in April. May saw Dr. Haldane and pianist Carl Philippe Gionet perform in Halifax at the Classical Showcase of the East Coast Music Awards, where their new album Tu me voyais was nominated for Classical Recording of the Year.
Dr. David Rogosin was the guest adjudicator for Western University’s 2023 Fred Pattison Piano Competition, held January 20-21 in London, ON. This year’s competition was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Kyung Kim, pianist and faculty member. Dr. Michael Kim, Dean of the Don Wright Faculty of Music, introduced Dr. Rogosin and was present throughout the competition. The three competitors in the final round, Kai Melconian, Terrence Wu, and Boxuan Zhang, each demonstrated a high degree of musicality and virtuosity, and offered a splendid evening of pianism to the enthusiastic audience in the spectacular von Kuster Hall. All three pianists participated in a master class with Dr. Rogosin the morning after the competition. Additionally, Dr. Rogosin adjudicated at the Moncton and Fredericton music festivals, and a juried graduation recital at the Université de Moncton.
After a pandemic hiatus, Dr. Rogosin is back to an active concert schedule. In February he performed Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 at Mount Allison with the Tutta Musica orchestra under the baton of Antonio Delgado, and will be performing a solo recital program in Brandon, MB in May and for the Classics by the Bay series in Parrsboro, NS in June. He will also be playing the Brahms Horn Trio, Op. 40 in a chamber concert for the same series. Concerts lined up for next season include a two-piano program with colleague Dr. Stephen Runge, and a new Rogosin Piano Trio concert.
Perhaps the most exciting professional news for Dr. Rogosin was the March 3rd Leaf Music release of his third solo CD entitled Theme: Variation. It has received good reviews (see Zenith Wolfe’s review in the April-May 2023 edition of La Scena Musicale), and is available to stream on all major platforms. Leaf Music also took over Rogosin’s previous albums Incandescence and Evocation, so all three can now be readily accessed. If you would like a physical CD, you can contact Leaf Music or Dr. Rogosin personally. Professor Emeritus Dr. Gary Tucker is to thank for the beautiful photo on the new CD cover. You can see more of Dr. Tucker's photography on his website.
Dr. Alan Dodson offered two new courses during the 2022-23 academic year: a core theory course on Post-Tonal Analysis and a Special Topics course on the transcription and analysis of world music. He has received a President’s Research and Creative Activities grant to hire students from the latter course as interns for a related research project, entitled “Representing Musical Time in Flexible Solo Recordings,” beginning this month. This summer, he also plans to write an article on Schubert’s early sonata forms and develop a new Special Topics course, for Fall 2023, on inclusive theory pedagogy in pre-university settings.
Oboe instructor Christie Goodwin has completed a Master’s of Arts Management and Leadership from Queen’s University. Congratulations to another member of the Class of 2023!
In January, MtA Music was pleased to participate in the first Together Time On Campus session – a day of engaging, hands-on, interdisciplinary learning for local kindergarten and first-grade students. This event marked a new phase of the intergenerational literacies program Together Time, developed by MtA researchers Dr. Carla VanBeselaere and Dr. Susie Andrews. As part of the day’s activities, MtA Music’s Dr. Kiera Galway led the young participants in a series of sensory explorations designed around musical elements such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and texture, with Music students facilitating each learning station. A great experience for everyone, with more sessions to come!
Professor Emerita Dr. Janet Hammock was among 21 local Sackville recipients of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. Read the full list of recipients in this article.
Alumni News
MtA Alumni sing in Elijah
Several Mount Allison alumni sang with the symphony chorus in a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Symphony Nova Scotia on April 1, 2023 at Dalhousie University. The group is joined here by Mount Allison’s Dean of Arts Dr. Vicki St. Pierre, who performed as alto soloist.
Dylan Rook Maddix (’14) has completed his DMA in Conducting at Arizona State University. In the fall, he will be joining the faculty of Memorial University as the new Assistant Professor of Instrumental Conducting and Community Engagement. He is looking forward to returning to Atlantic Canada and sends his best wishes to all of his friends at MtA!
Stephen Muise (’94) was the recipient of an honorary degree from Cape Breton University, conferred at the Spring 2023 Convocation. Stephen has been a full-time educator for over 25 years and holds degrees in both music and education, with a Master of Education Administration. In January 2017, Stephen accepted the role of Conductor for the world-famous Men of the Deeps, North America’s only coal miners’ chorus. Stephen strives to connect the world of professional entertainment to his students, providing unlikely opportunities by pairing them with performing artists. In recognition of his many collaborations, in December 2022, Stephen was the recipient of the Canadian Band Association Community Builders Award, a national honour for his community work with students and professional musicians.
Beverly Lewis (’81) is thrilled to announce that her song cycle for SSA a cappella choir, Five Shakespeare Songs, was performed at Roy Thomson Hall on May 25 by Cantala Choir (Nancy Singla, Artistic Director). This performance was first planned for May 1, 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. The work was also performed on May 27 at Forest Hill United Church, Toronto.
In Memoriam: Ruth Boswell Schiller (1931-2023)
Known for her contributions to music and music education, February 27, 2023 saw the passing of Ruth Schiller, who held an Honorary Doctor of Music from Mount Allison (’97), was Member of the Order of Canada, and mother of two MtA Music graduates, Dr. Carolyn Schiller (’86) and Leanne (Schiller) Delaney (’86). Ruth Schiller had an enormous impact on New Brunswick’s musical life over her long career as a teacher, as founder and conductor of the Hillsborough Girls Choir, and as a forceful advocate for and generous supporter of music and music education. Among many awards and distinctions, Ruth was the inaugural recipient of the New Brunswick Choral Federation’s Distinguished Service Award. A music education fund has been established in her honour. Details may be found in her obituary, available here.
Brunton Lighting Upgrade
Brunton Auditorium is finally undergoing an upgrade to its lighting system. The lighting refurbishment involves replacing all of the older style incandescent fixtures with LED lights as well as an upgrade to the lighting console. In addition to being far more energy efficient, the new system will allow for some creative lighting scenes when called for by performers or event producers. Don’t be surprised if the upcoming season’s concert program is a little more colourful! This project has been in the works for several years and will be by the end of this month.
2023 Summer Academy of Music
We will be very happy to welcome talented young musicians to campus for the tenth annual Summer Academy of Music, to be held July 9 to 15. Participants ages 14 to 19 will enjoy an intensive program of lessons, courses, chamber music, master classes, and performances, culminating in a showcase recital at the end of the week. This year’s Academy faculty include Prof. Karin Aurell (flute), Dr. Olivier Blakney (brass), Dr. Adam Cicchillitti (guitar), Dr. Joël Cormier (percussion), Prof. Jennie Del Motte (’02)(aural skills), Prof. Nadia Francavilla (strings), Dr. Christina Haldane (voice), Prof. James Kalyn (winds), and Dr. Stephen Runge (piano). Late applications may still be accepted for this summer’s Academy, space permitting. More information can be found at our Summer Academy of Music webpage.
On behalf of MtA Music faculty and staff, we wish you all a wonderful spring and summer season!