Music professor named associate fine arts dean

A Kansas University professor of music education and music therapy has been named associate dean of research and graduate studies for KU’s School of Fine Arts.

Christopher Johnson will:

• Provide administrative leadership and coordination of all research efforts of the school.
• Administer school-wide programs that allocate research incentive funds.
• Collaborate with other administrators to supervise all graduate programs.
• Serve as liaison with other university offices.

Johnson earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Florida State University. He came to KU as an assistant professor in music education and music therapy in 1992.

KU has strong showing at music auditions

Kansas University students won a slew of awards at the Kansas Music Teachers Assn. Honors Auditions Nov. 14 at Wichita State University.

Auditions were offered in piano, strings and voice, at the freshman/sophomore, junior/senior and graduate levels.

KU students won first place in all three categories:

• Eunmee Song, a freshman piano major who studies with Richard Reber, professor of piano, won at the freshman/sophomore level.
• Hae-ju Choi, a junior who studies with Jack Winerock, professor of piano, won at the junior/senior level.
• Kai I Tien, another Reber student who is completing her doctoral degree in piano performance, won first place in the graduate division.

Michael Kirkendoll, a first-year doctoral student in piano performance who studies with Winerock, was the winner of the Music Teacher’s National Assn. Young Artist Piano Division.

Mary Fukushima, a first-year doctoral student in flute performance who studies with David Fedele, assistant professor of flute, was the winner of the MTNA Young Artist Woodwind Division.

KU Opera personalizes ‘Faust’ in adaptation

Kansas University Opera will perform “The Visions of Marguerite: A Faust Project,” an adaptation of “Faust” at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6-7 at the Robert Baustian Theatre (formerly known as The Black Box) in KU’s Murphy Hall.

The production, directed by Tim Ocel, associate professor and artistic director of KU Opera, is based on the Charles Gounod opera (and Goethe play) “Faust,” which tells the story of an old man who sells his soul to the devil in order to be young again. After Faust regains his youth, he meets a young girl named Marguerite, seduces her, and then abandons her and their illegitimate child. In the final scene of the opera, Marguerite awaits execution in prison for killing her child; she is demented, and her mind wanders.

The KU Opera bases its 80-minute one-act adaptation on this final scene. The story opens in the prison as Marguerite remembers bits and pieces of her past with the audience learning her story in flashback through her splintered sensibilities.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $7 for students and seniors and may be purchased by calling the KU Opera Ticket Line at 864-3000.