When they come together Aug. 27 for the 18th Annual Faculty Gala, however, they only will have to pack their instruments, not suitcases. The ticketed show will be in the School of Music’s Margaret Comstock Concert Hall.
The faculty artists will perform a diverse program featuring music for horns, keyboards, winds, vocals and strings, and will showcase talents to Louisville concert goers that audiences around the world already know.
Featured artists at international festivals, workshops and concerts, the world is their stage –literally. Here are a few examples.
Bruce Heim, horn professor and master of the French horn, returns from the Bournem Cultural Centre in Belgium where he served as a master for brass classes this summer. He regularly performs as a concerto soloist and member of Sonus Brass at music festivals in Italy, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Venezuela.
Trumpet professor Mike Tunnell and trombone professor Brett Shuster, also members of Sonus Brass, returned from Sydney, Australia, as part of an International Trumpet Guild annual conference in July.
Dror Biran, assistant professor of piano, performs widely as a soloist with such major orchestras as the Lithuanian Philharmonic Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra of Spain, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Edith Davis Tidwell, soprano and voice professor, has charmed audiences in lead roles with the Edmonton Opera of Alberta and the Welsh National Opera – not to mention the New York City Opera. Her professional travels include a tour of Great Britain.
Add Dallas Tidwell, associate professor of clarinet, to the list of travelers. He recently was on tour as part of the University of Hirosaki Chamber Music Festival.
Then there are Paul York, associate professor of cello, who has performed recitals throughout Japan and Costa Rica, and the veritable Ambassador of Jazz Mike Tracy, director of jazz studies and jazz saxophone, who has taught and performed in countries from Argentina to Wales.
Most UofL faculty members know the back stages of Carnegie Hall in New York as well as they know that of the Margaret Comstock Concert Hall at the School of Music. Associate dean Naomi Oliphant debuted at Carnegie this year and has earned an international reputation as a piano soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada and Europe. Oliphant joined faculty tenor Daniel Weeks, as featured guest artists of the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland.
Also debuting at the prestigious New York venue this year was Stephen Mattingly, guitar instructor. He coordinates North America’s largest guitar events for the Guitar Foundation of America and has been a participant at the Iserlohn Guitar Symposium in Germany and the Acadia International Guitar Festival in Canada.
At the inaugural School of Music performance for the academic year, they and other accomplished UofL colleagues will perform in a variety of ensemble configurations to present chamber music by Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Puccini, Schubert and others.
It is not often they get to play together in the same time zone.