WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (May 23, 2012) – The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) announces the first recipients of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) in Aspen, Colo.  

Michael Alan Pearce, from Pineville, N.C., graduated May 6 from UNCSA, where he studied Violin Performance in the School of Music, with a Bachelor of Music.  While at AMFS this summer, he will study with Espen Lilleslatten.

John Coulter Parker, from High Point, N.C., is studying trumpet in the Department of Music at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  At AMFS, he will study with Raymond Mase, Kevin Cobb, and Thomas Hooten.

Both Kenan Fellows will attend Aspen Music Festival and School from June 20 through Aug. 19.

“All of us at UNCSA, along with our colleagues at UNC-Chapel Hill, are thrilled to have this great opportunity for our students to attend the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival and School,” said Wade Weast, Dean of the UNCSA School of Music.  “Students who participate in this inspiring program will experience an extraordinary musical world that will enrich and transform their lives in so many ways.”

In addition to the Kenan Fellows, two other UNCSA School of Music students will also be attending the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer: Jonathan Johnson from Macon, GA will study voice with Vinson Cole and Jessie Snoke from Lexington, NC will study violin with Cornelia Heard.

The Aspen Music Festival and School is the country's premier orchestral and operatic summer music festival, offering a combination of intensive one-on-one instruction and professional performance experience. The AMFS brings together the finest music students, artist faculty, and performers to create transformative educational experiences within a community of artistic integrity and innovation.  Through the combination of study, listening, performance, artistic renewal, and reflection, they advance the appreciation and understanding of the joys and complexities of musical expression.  For more information about the Aspen Music Festival and School, visit www.aspenmusicfestival.com.

The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts (www.uncsa.edu/kenan) is a privately funded program of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts that incubates projects that sustain artists at every point in their creative development through strategic partnerships that capitalize on visionary thinking in the arts.

As America’s first state-supported arts school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a unique stand-alone public university of arts conservatories. With a high school component, UNCSA is a degree-granting institution that trains young people of talent in music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

The Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was founded in 1919 and offers graduate and undergraduate curricula in music theory, performance, and musicology, offering a wide variety of academic instruction, performance opportunities, and applied lessons for undergraduate students, both music majors and non-majors.  For more information, visit http://music.unc.edu/

 

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