School of Performing Arts Director Elected to National Board
January 05, 2016 Jeffrey M. Moore, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) to serve a one-year term as a regional chair. The NASM is an organization of schools, conservatories, colleges and universities with approximately 653 accredited institutional members. It establishes national standards...
UCF Piano Professor Performs in Havana, Cuba
January 05, 2016 Piano Professor Yun-Ling Hsu was invited to perform a cultural exchange piano recital at the magnificent historical Sala Ignacio Cervantes Concert Hall in Havana, Cuba in November 2015. Invited by Dr. Miriam Escudero, the Cuban Director of Musical Heritage Cabinet Esteban Salas (from Office of the Historian of Havana), Hsu...
Theatre Star Takes Stage for Last Time at UCF Graduation
December 17, 2015 When Nicky Wood walks onto the stage at the CFE Arena to collect his degree on Friday, he may be one of the few University of Central Florida graduates who won’t be nervous. Wood, a 20-year-old theatre studies major, is more at home on stage than anywhere. And after commencement,...
Former Theatre UCF Actors Find Fame in Hollywood
November 20, 2015 by Deanna Ferrante, Central Florida Future Almost every performer has dreams of stardom, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s hottest and appearing on television and movie screens across the country. For some former Theatre UCF performers, those dreams have become realities. Working in entertainment fields nationwide, some former students have gone on...
New York Times: Mace-wielding women crash the halftime show
October 28, 2015 Just as men have been, women drum majors have been making both waves and soundwaves through their leadership skills across America for almost 40 years. Since 2014, UCF’s Nicole Nowotny has been bringing passion on and off the field through her conducting style. Currently majoring in Psychology, it is clear...
Garcia Celebrates Latin Heritage Month with Recital
September 30, 2015 On Saturday, October 3, flutist Nora Lee Garcia will perform a recital entitled “Music of the Americas” with guitarist Rene Izquierdo at the University of Central Florida Rehearsal Hall at 8:00 p.m. The recital celebrates Latin heritage and includes music from Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina. Garcia, who is of Puerto...
UCF Flute Professor Performs at Two Festivals this Summer 2015
August 26, 2015 Nora Lee García was recently invited to perform with Keith Koons and George Weremchuk at the ClarinetFest Madrid, Spain in July 2015. Recently García presented and performed at the National Flute Convention 2015 held in Washington, D.C. August 2015. Her graduate senior student Ariana Stark was the Assistant Coordinator at...
UCF Marching Knights Recognized in the Orlando Sentinel
August 26, 2015 This summer, members of the UCF Marching Knights went through vigorous training to be physically ready for the season while braving the scorching heat, even training during a downpour. There’s nothing that can stop the UCF Marching Knights from performing at the first half-time show of the season on September...
New UCF Music Director of Orchestras
June 16, 2015 Chung Park joins the University of Central Florida Music faculty as the new Director of Orchestras, where he will be conducting the orchestra and teaching string music education. Park is no stranger to higher education, having worked at Appalachian State University, Idaho State University and the University of Miami. His...
Shafer Cast in Lifetime's Devious Maids
June 05, 2015 John Shafer has been cast in the third season of Lifetime’s critically-acclaimed hit series “Devious Maids.” Executive produced by Marc Cherry and Eva Longoria, Devious Maids follows five maids with ambitions and dreams of their own while working for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills. Shafer will play the...
Yonetani Performs at Košice Music Festival
June 04, 2015 Last month, Ayako Yonetani performed the Brahms violin concerto with the Slovak State Filharmonia of Košice, conducted by Maestro Leos Svarovsky, during the 60th Košice Music Festival. Yonetani first performed with the Košice Filharmonia twenty years ago during the 40th Košice Music Festival and has been invited to perform once...
Flying Horse Big Band to Perform at UCF Celebrates the Arts 2015
April 08, 2015 On April 11, the Flying Horse Big Band will perform “Shakespeare Swings!” a cabaret-style production giving Shakespeare’s works a jazzy twist with vocals coordinated by the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. The performance is part of the 5-day UCF Celebrates the Arts 2015 festival. The festival will showcase studio art, music, theatre,...
UCF Music Student Competing at the Chicago Brass Festival
March 02, 2015 UCF Sophomore, Joshua Toler (Music Performance, Trumpet), has been accepted to the final round of the Chicago Brass Festival Solo Competition held March 13-14 at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago. Solo finalists were selected from an international recorded preliminary round and will compete in a live final round performance on Saturday...
UCF Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band to Feature at the UCF Celebrates the Arts 2015 Festival
March 02, 2015 The UCF Wind Ensemble and UCF Symphonic Band will be featured April 12 in the UCF Celebrates the Arts 2015 festival. The bands’ 3 p.m. program is called Light & Space, and will include stellar songs in keeping with the theme of the festival’s opening night music and narrative of...
Boyd Receives Kennedy Center Medallion
February 06, 2015 Each year, the eight Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival regions honor individuals or organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to the teaching and producing of theatre and who have significantly dedicated their time, artistry and enthusiasm to the development of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Most importantly,...
A Concert Abroad: Professors Perform in Denmark
January 27, 2015 On February 18, Dr. Yun-Ling Hsu, Assistant Professor in Piano, and Dr. JoAnne Stephenson, Associate Professor, present a collaborative recital of all-American music at the SMKS Concert Series in Odense, Denmark. Dr. Hsu will be performing the seldomly heard Gershwin Piano Solos by Earl Wild, the legendary American pianist. Dr....
Jazz Professors Perform Nationally
January 22, 2015 On January 19, The Jazz Professors performed with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra for a tribute to Stan Getz at the Plaza ‘LIVE’ Orlando, including the rarely performed album Focus. The performance included original music and classics recorded and performed by Stan Getz. In December, Jeff Rupert, Director of Jazz Studies...
Theatre Alumna Reprises Off-Broadway Role
December 09, 2014 Michelle Knight, ’02, stars as Snow White in the Off-Broadway production of “DISENCHANTED!” — a not-for-the-kiddies musical comedy that’s anything but Grimm. Forget the princesses you think you know. Fairy tales will never be the same! The show runs for a limited engagement Nov. 26 through Jan. 25 at the...
Percussion Professor Tours with Intercollegiate Quartet
September 29, 2014 Thad Anderson recently toured the Midwest with a piano and percussion quartet called Ensemble P4. The group is made up of faculty from Stetson University, Bethune-Cookman University, and UCF. The quartet made stops at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Joliet College,...
St. Claire's Work Published in Contemporary Play Anthology
September 16, 2014 A new anthology, Scenes and Monologues of Spiritual Experience from the Best Contemporary Plays, features the work of Sybil St. Claire. Her contribution, Wake Me When It’s Over, was inspired by her idiosyncratic Irish Catholic upbringing and the practice of three-day wakes. The play humorously and tenderly explores spirituality through...