UW-Green Bay Faculty To C.H.I.M.E In At Annual Concert

Members of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay faculty will step out of their classroom and directorial roles and onto the stage for the seventh annual Concert Hour Involving Music Educators (C.H.I.M.E.) Concert in UW-Green Bay, Sheboygan's Fine Arts Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 at 7 p.m. Anticipated performances will come from music faculty, Assistant Prof. Luis Fernandez, Assistant Prof. Michael Rector, Associate Prof. Adam Gaines, Assistant Prof. Bill Salak and Sheboygan Campus Associate Lecturer Paul Sucherman. The concert is coordinated by Sheboygan Campus Associate Prof. Christy Talbott.

"This concert provides an opportunity for these educators to showcase their own musical talents to audiences who might never have seen them on this side of the baton," Talbott says. "Each of these individuals has spent years training on a specific instrument, but it can be difficult to find the time to put together a program alone," she said. "This concert allows them to share the spotlight with other talented teachers in the area. We especially encourage area high school and college students to come and hear these wonderful teachers and directors perform."

Admission is $10 for all community guests and free to all students with a school ID. Tickets will be available at the door one hour before the event. Faculty profiles:

Luis Fernandez, violinist, teacher, chamber musician, concertmaster, and conductor, was born in Caracas, Venezuela, where he began violin studies through the El Sistema music program and the Latin-American Violin Academy. After immigrating to the United States, he earned his Master of Music degree at the University of Florida, where he served as first violin of the Nuevo Mundo quartet-in-residence. The quartet opened the Hot Springs Summer Music Festival to critical acclaim, and it was one of three ensembles selected to participate in the Aspen Music Festival's prestigious Center for Advanced Quartet Studies. In addition, the ensemble toured Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Spain, France, England, Germany and Japan. He continued his studies at the University of Miami, where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental performance. Fernandez was a member of the South Beach Chamber Ensemble, which has received grants from The City of Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Program, the Florida Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has performed with many orchestras such as Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Gran Mariscal of Ayacucho Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, Naples Philharmonic, Amarillo Symphony and Lubbock Symphony (as associate concertmaster). He currently performs with Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra, Oshkosh Symphony, and is concertmaster of the Weidner Philharmonic Orchestra.

Active as a teacher as well as a performer, Luis has been on the faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Michigan) since 2008 and has been invited to implement the teaching techniques of Venezuela's renowned El Sistema in Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia and Mexico. He was previously director of the violin program at St. Philip's School (Coral Gables, FL), and served on the faculty of the Community Arts Program and of Greater Miami Youth Symphony. In 2013, he served as assistant professor of violin at the University of Florida. He has taught general music at Valencia Elementary (Portales, NM), where he instituted an after-school strings program and general music and strings at Badger Elementary School (Appleton, WI). He was also previously on the faculty at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music (Milwaukee, WI). He presently holds the endowed Robert and Joan Bauer Endowed professorship in Strings at UW-Green Bay.

Michael Rector is committed to making the language of classical music vivid for people of all ages and backgrounds. As a pianist, he invigorates and expands the repertoire through innovative programming that re-contextualizes familiar pieces and makes vivid new and neglected works. His repertoire ranges from Haydn to Harbison and from Couperin to Carter. He is also a dedicated teacher, researcher and advocate for the arts.

Rector has performed in seventeen American states and two Canadian provinces in venues like Steinway Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C. In 2012, Rector and his wife, pianist Sylvia Hong, began performing together as a duo. They have since toured extensively in the United States, Korea and Europe. At the 2013 NFMC Ellis Duo Competition, Sylvia and Michael won the second prize and Abild award for the best performance of American music. In February 2018, they performed with the Gangneung Philharmonic as part of the celebration of the Winter Olympics.

Rector holds the doctoral degree from Manhattan School of Music. For his dissertation, he investigated Chopin's harmonic practice as influenced by the music of Louis Spohr and Romantic philosophy. He also earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College, where he majored in comparative literature. He enjoys presenting lecture-recitals and masterclasses both at home and abroad, including at prestigious music schools in the United States and in Asia. His articles on piano pedagogy and performance practice have appeared in the journals American Music Teacher, Clavier Companion and the MTNA e-Journal. More information at michaelrector.net

Associate Prof. Adam Gaines teaches trumpet studio, directs jazz ensembles, teaches jazz history courses and works with music technology. He has performed as a soloist in his native Kentucky, as well as throughout Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals. In the Green Bay area, he can frequently be heard performing with Gypsy Trip, a Django Reinhardt-inspired jazz combo made up of UW-Green Bay faculty and friends, and with Brass Differential, a New Orleans-style funk band. He holds degrees from the University of Louisville (Bachelor of Music, 1999) and Ball State University (Master of Music, 2001 and Doctor of Arts, 2005). Adam frequently travels to Slovakia and the Czech Republic to perform in jazz and classical idioms and to spend time with his wife's, Ladislava, family.

Bill Sallak, performer, conductor, composer, technologist and researcher, has had his work appear at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Fifth International Conference on Minimalist Music (Turku and Helsinki, Finland), the Blurred Edges Festival (Hamburg, Germany), Cultura UNAM (Mexico City), the Jeonju (South Korea) International Film Festival, the World Congress on Dance Research (Athens, Greece), the Transplanted Roots Symposium (Montreal, QC), the International Deep Listening Art/Science Conference, the InterMedia Festival, the National Dance Education Organization Conference, the Northern California Performance Platform, the John Donald Robb Composers Symposium, Aspen Dance Connection, the Phoenix Experimental Arts Festival, le poisson rouge and numerous Percussive Arts Society International Conferences.

The assistant professor of music teaches percussion, recording technology and world music. A member of the Akros Percussion Collective, he has worked closely with such composers as Stuart Saunders Smith, Tom DeLio, John Luther Adams and Chris Shultis, and he has performed with the Phoenix Symphony, Akron Symphony, and numerous regional musical theatre productions. As a recording engineer, he has served on the staff of the Interlochen Arts Center and KBAQ-FM (Phoenix, AZ), and has worked with the Pacifica String Quartet, Sharon Isbin, Paul Winter, Gerard Schwarz, Jung Ho Pak and David Lockington. Prior to his appointment at UW-Green Bay, Bill served on the faculties of Kent State University, Ohio University, the Nief-Norf Summer Festival, and the Maricopa County (AZ) Community Colleges. He holds degrees from SUNY-Fredonia, The University of Akron and Arizona State University.

Paul Sucherman, the son of two popular entertainers, began playing piano as soon as he could walk, and was reading music before he could read sentences. Studying with world renowned pianist George Rosenberg and later Bob Acri, he was one of the youngest musicians to ever join the Chicago local of the musician's union. He studied at Northwestern University and DePaul University and has performed in Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and various places in the US including Las Vegas. He has shared the stage with Count Basie, Maynard Ferguson, Reba McIntyre, Tim Allen, Eddie Rabbit, Pete Barbutti and many other stars. His band hosted the Home State Ball in D.C. for the first Obama Inaugural, as well as other State pre-inaugural functions. He continues to compose and arrange music and has written more than 20 musical reviews. Sucherman directs the Sheboygan Campus Jazz Ensemble, Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the Manitowoc Campus Jazz Ensemble.

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