02/26/15
Four Fort Hays State University Music and Theatre faculty have been selected to present their research at the International College Music Society conference in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden, in June 2015.

Pianist Dr. Irena Ravitskaya, associate professor, composer Dr. Timothy Rolls, assistant professor, tenor Dr. Joseph Perniciaro, associate professor, and cellist Benjamin Cline, associate professor and chair of the department, were independently selected by a juried panel of peers to present their research.

All four will present work in their respective areas of specialization as part of a symposium on Scandinavian music.

Ravitskaya's research focuses on the piano sonatas of a Russian composer of German and Scandinavian descent, Nikolai Medtner, whose musical imagery and language are influenced by Nordic culture and its mythology.

Perniciaro will present a lecture recital on Swedish composer Hilding Rosenberg and his "Fourteen Chinese Poems" for voice and piano drawn on the verses of poems from the Tang dynasty translated into Swedish.

Rolls' recent composition "Sonata for Cello and Electronics," will be performed at the conference by Cline. Cline premiered this work in 2014 by Cline in a series of recitals in Colorado, New Hampshire and Kansas. Cline and Rolls will also present a lecture-recital on Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's "Pres" for cello and electronics, focusing on her innovative use of electronic processing to extend and transform acoustic music as part of the compositional school known as "post-spectral."

The College Music Society is a consortium of college, conservatory, university and independent musicians and scholars interested in all disciplines of music. It promotes music teaching and learning, musical creativity and expression, research and dialogue, and diversity and interdisciplinary interaction.

Rolls and Cline will also perform at different venues during the spring 2015 semester. The first recital will be in late February at the Great Plains College Music Society Regional Conference at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion.

In March, Rolls and Cline will present a session at the National American String Teacher Association National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The presentation will be a demonstration and performance for string teachers, focusing on the incorporation of live electronics in music performance.