Faculty News
Jon Hurty (Music) presented a session "Improvisation for Choirs" at the Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Conference on January 31 in Peoria. The session included a presentation of various techniques of improvisation for large choirs along with performance and demonstration by the Augustana Choir.
Paul Lewellan's (Business Administration and Speech Communication) latest work, "School Call Number Eleven," was published January 31st in Volume 6, Issue 23 of Flash Me Magazine, an on-line journal of flash fiction (http://www.wingedhalo.com ). One of his earlier works, "The Queen of Bass Fishing in America," (published last August in Timber Creek Review) was just nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize. Another of his stories, "The Samaritan," has been anthologized in the Underground Voices publication Drugs, Guns, and Crazy Detectives (available from Amazon books).
Heather Mattern (Biology) recently had research published in the inaugural issue of the International Journal of Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Pharmacology (Int J Physio Pathophysio Pharmacol 2009;1:1-14). The article is still in press, but can be found online at http://www.ijppp.org/files/IJPPP810001.pdf
Music education alum Kim Holland '07 presented a paper co-authored by Michael Zemek (Music) at the conference "Learning from Young Children: Research in Early Childhood Music" in Newark, Delaware. This conference was sponsored by the Special Research Interest Group of MENC: The National Association for Music Education. The research was an extension of Kim's honors capstone project working with music students at the Quad Cities Montessori School in Davenport. It considered ways in which music teachers learn about the cognitive processes of children through melodic reconstruction and improvisation.
On January 24, the Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Michael Zemek traveled to Indianapolis to sing at the North Central Division Convention of MENC. The choir was one of only 7 choral ensembles selected from throughout the midwest and sang in a concert for an audience of music educators participating in professional development opportunities led by master teachers and conductors from throughout the country. Following the concert, the choir headed to Shabbona, IL, to sing at the United Church of Christ in an evening concert attended by the community and college alumni.
Michael Zemek and Bob Haak collaborated on a presentation titled, "Engaging Music Education Majors in Research" at the Illinois Music Educators All-State Conference on January 30. With the assistance of six junior and senior music educator majors, they shared Augustana's Senior Inquiry program and led a discussion on ways in which undergraduate music education majors can engage in meaningful inquiry practices.