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Student Awards

2009

Voice students of Dr. Tracelyn Gesteland placed well in the South Dakota district NATS competition on April 4, 2009. Sixty students competed in the state competition: 

• Tom Emanuel won 1st place in the Freshman/Sophomore Men's Division    
• Devon Schreiner won 3rd place in the Freshman/Sophomore Men's Division    
• Kendra Giesey won 4th place (honorable mention) in the Freshman/Sophomore Women's Division
• Scott Arens won the Cherokee Symphony Concerto Competition. Scott is a piano student of Dr. Susan Gray.

Several music students gave presentations at USD's IDEAFest held on March 31 & April 1, 2009.    

•  David Earll presented a paper on The Potential for Interchangeable Parts in Early C.G. Conn Tubas
• Derick Rehurek presented a paper on The Lost American Orchestral Works Project
• Megan Benz presented a paper on An Analysis of Equal Temperament
• Laura Bertschinger presented a paper on Musical Impressionism in the Vocal Works of the Composer Ernest Chausson
• Kendra Roozing presented a paper on A Character Examination of Zerlina from Mozart's "Don Giovanni"
• Josh Rieck presented a paper on Serge Koussevitsky: Double Bass and the Fostering of Twentieth Century Music
• Rebecca McDowell presented a paper on Censorship of a Russian Nationalist: Shotakovich and Lady MacBeth
• Laura Schmitz presented a paper on Crossing Cultures: An Analysis of J.H. Kwabena Nketia's "Volta Fantasy"

2007

November 2007 SDMTA Conference and Competition:

• Conor Jensen, Alternate, MTNA Young Artist Brass (pianist Liz Hoarty, teacher Gary Reeves)
• Jon Brown, Honorable Mention, MTNA Young Artist Voice (pianist Jessica Mathison, teacher Paul Hindemith    
• Liz Hoarty, winner, SDMTA Collegiate Piano (teacher Susan Keith Gray)

Student Presentations:

• Graduate student Sarah Richardson, presented a paper titled When the Music Stopped: American Musical Manufacturing During World War II at the College Music Society Great Plains Chapter Conference.
• Graduate student Sarah Richardson, presented her paper Instruments of War: The Impact of World War II on the American Music Industry at the "Music and Crisis" Graduate Student Conference at Harvard University this spring. She will also present this paper at the AMIS conference at Yale University June 2007, and at the College Music Society Great Plains Chapter Conference April 2007.
• Graduate student Kevin Fullerton, presented a paper at the UJive Program 2007 Symposium held at the University of Minnesota March 23-25, 2007.
• Undergraduate students Evie Johnson and Elizabeth Hoarty, presented their research as part of a Student Research Poster Session in the Capitol Rotunda in Pierre, South Dakota February 14, 2007.
• Graduate student Logan Lindsey performed as a guest artist at the Hawkeye Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference March 17, 2007. He performed the world premiere of a work by Sean Beachy and a Capriccio for Tuba and Marimba by William Penn.
• Graduate student Arian Sheets presented her paper titled The 'Fruh' Stradivari Viola da Gamba: Time for a New Look at a Rare and Important Instrument at the AMIS conference at Yale University June 2007.
• Graduate student Tim Miller presented his paper The Lauthen-Concert: The Lute in Ensemble, ca. 1700 at the AMIS conference at Yale University June 2007.

2006

The following students participated in the South Dakota MTNA competition:

• Graduate student Amanda Vandezande, 1st place, MTNA Jane E. Snow Collegiate Artist Voice (Amanda received an honorable mention at the Divisional competition in Bismarck, ND in January 2007)
• Undergraduate student Erin Conlon, 1st place, SDMTA Collegiate Voice Category III (ages 24 and up)
• Undergraduate student Josh Cope, Honorable Mention, SDMTA Collegiate Voice Category II (ages 20-23)

The following are students who placed in the Lewis and Clark National Association of Teachers of Singing Audition event at Briar Cliff University on April 1, 2006:

• Jonathan Brown, winner, Freshman/Sophomore Men category
• Josh Cope, winner, Freshman/Sophomore Men category
• Jeremy Gamet, semifinalist, Freshman/Sophomore Men category
• Kjersten Ohrlund, semifinalist,  Freshman/Sophomore Women category
• Kim Weiser, semifinalist, Junior/Senior Women category
• John Erickson, winner, Beginning/Intermediate Adults category
• Erin Conlon, semifinalist, Advanced Adult category