- Good afternoon and welcome to the 53rd Annual Showcase of the Arts presented by the Bloomington Chapter
- of the National Society of Arts and Letters. My name is Drew Bratton and I will be your emcee today.
- The mission of the National Society of Arts and Letters is to identify, encourage, and assist young
- people talented in art, dance, drama, literature, music, and musical theater.
- The Bloomington Chapter, one of 18 in the United States, does that through a series of eight competitions
- each spring. The winners of those competitions will receive awards of almost $34,000 today, and the
- top winners will perform for you this afternoon. We'd like to start everything off with Bloomington
- native Felix Mirbach. He is just finishing up his junior year at IU, where he is studying theater and drama.
- Last fall, he performed the role of Morris Townsend in The Heiress at IU. For IU Theater, he has also
- been seen in The Duchess of Malfi, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Machinon. For Ivy Tech, he performed
- the role of Luke in Coffee Break. And for the Bloomington Playwrights Project, he was Jacob in Apropos
- of Nothing. He is in rehearsals now for Waiting for Godot in late April. Felix will perform the role
- of Ford from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Flick.
- from Lanford Wilson's Balm and Gilead.
- is ready to crack with impatience. Who says that this is improvident jealousy? My wife hath sent to
- him, the hour is fixed, the match is set. See the hell of having a false woman? My bed shall be abused,
- my coffers ransacked, my reputation non-acted.
- and I shall not only receive this villain's throne, but stand under the adoption of abominable terms,
- and by him who does meet this wrong. Terms. Names. A name on sounds well. Barbason, well. Lucifer,
- well yet. These are the devil's additions. The names of fiends. What, Cuckold? Whittle? Cuckold?
- I am not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass. He shall trust his wife. He shall not be jealous.
- I would rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hughes the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman
- with my aqua vitae a lot, or a thief to walk my England gelding than my wife with herself.
- and then she talks, and then she ruminates, and then she divides. Eleven o'clock the hour. I shall detect
- this, prevent my wife, get my revenge on Falstaff, and laugh at Page. I'll be bound.
- It's too late. Five, five, five. Cutthole, cutthole, cutthole.
- down the street and they come up on me like they're important or something, you know? And then they
- just start pushing me down this alley, but it's not like an alley, it's like a dark hallway, you know?
- And then they just start punching and kicking, you know? So I curl up on the floor so they can't hurt
- me or nothing, you know?
- to start fighting one or two guys there, you know? Some fighters, some friends, doesn't have to be you.
- I mean, I mean just a couple of buddies, you know? Just a couple of guys, you know? Just a couple of
- big guys and some fighters, you know, just to show my good buddies too, you know? And I'm on H right
- now and I'm flying high and I got a doctor, but I'm serious about this, you know?
- of guys, you know, just a couple of big guys, some fighters, you know, and maybe they'd leave me alone
- because they'd see I've got guys looking out for me too, you know. Because they kicked me up pretty
- bad, you know.
- And as if I weren't high, I need some, you know.
- big guys, some fighters you know, some guys that if you were walking around with them, you could do anything.
- Savannah Lewis is currently a sophomore at Indiana University, where she is dual majoring in contemporary
- dance and media production. She grew up in Los Angeles and started dancing at the age of three at Carousel
- Dance Studios. Her studies focused on ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop. She spent six years as part of
- the competitive team at her studio, which gave her the opportunity to perform and compete across the country.
- She has been seen in works entitled Home, set by Rene Harris, and Five Pillars, set by Dr. Naya McCarthy
- Brown. Today she performs Back Masking, which she choreographed.
- Jananne Alexandra Scott is a Lebanese-American poet and first-year MFA in creative writing at IU. She
- was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her writing is informed by a determined belief in the radical and liberatory
- work of paying attention through both language and rigorous imagination. She has a BA in African-American
- studies and poetry from Smith College and was a 2013 resident.
- the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets. Her work can be found in the Adroit Journal, Misna, Plowshares,
- and Rusted Radishes, a literary journal coming out of Beirut, Lebanon. She will read We Walk in Weather
- and Swan Tells a Story.
- Everybody, can you hear me okay? Yes? This is such a pleasure. I have not been backstage with dancers
- and musicians and actors and actresses in a really long time, probably not since middle school.
- So as a poet, it's really wonderful to see and be in conversation with all these different art forms.
- Deep thanks also to Ruth Albright and Carolyn Emmert and all of the good people who make this event
- happen. And special, special thanks to Rick and Lois Hall. So I'm going to read two poems. This first poem,
- I wrote a couple of years ago when I was still living in Maine, and at the time I was working on a farm,
- and we were experiencing a major drought that summer. And I wrote this after the first rain in months.
- And funnily enough, it's after Ross Gay, who I now have the deep pleasure of working with at Indiana
- University. And it's also after Natasha Trethewey,
- who wrote a poem about the word please a few years ago, and I decided to sort of write a companion piece,
- which is in honor of thank you, which I think is one of the kindest things we can say to each other.
- We walk in weather, after Roske and also Natasha Trethewey.
- Today after rain, my feet pad across valleys of mud, sinking here and here, heels new as a bar of soap.
- These months have been too yellow and we have all been thirsty, especially the bees. Summer, you stiffened
- us with your bad sun. But last night we woke half drenched and in our throats whispered and sang and
- sang, thank you.
- For the water we had forgotten somehow and so missed those thousand liquid needles dropping, forgot
- how July had turned us thankless and hoarse from heat, forgot even how to say those two words that love
- and need each other, thank and you. For the clean towels tightly rolled on the bathroom shelf,
- for the wooden house with its one red wall, for the violin with her cracked and glued again scroll.
- And still, thank you for the way this wind scatters my skin.
- how it slips through the roof like a spell. I'm telling you, the wind is my best and baddest prayer.
- A long-legged woman who dances with her eyebrows and her elbows, ankles clicking to the high brass notes,
- eyes wrapped shut to the very last beat. Thank you for the rain. The gestating cabbages are violet and
- gleeful again.
- The bees have gone back to making order out of chaos and no longer hover loudly around the sweet August
- reds. The dogs are napping in all the places I try to spread mulch, and the mulch is soaked black from
- rain. The sun has folded. Night has come. We still walk in weather. We still thank you.
- This next piece is part of a bigger sequence that I've just started working on, which is still somewhat
- mysterious to me, but involves a character called Swan. And it seems like Swan is kind of a myth maker
- or a storyteller. She comes into the poems and conjures a story. That's as much that I can say about it.
- So this is called Swan Tells a Story. Swan sits on my ribs. On the porch is a morning dark. She dips
- her head and lifts her feathers, sings a lost call even when I am here. In the windows, the sky climbs
- rose gold. In my hands, I squeeze two oranges fresh. A clump of pulp I drop to drink it whole.
- Swan begins to sing. She tells a story. Last night with your mother and father, a kind of family house,
- a notion of home and of being crowded there with many of you sitting at once in chairs. And both the
- mother and father were younger and thinner in their faces and middles.
- Even your one grandmother with strong calves and sleek black stockings that stretched over her ankles
- like stones she loved and blessed to her wrists blue-green rivers and her teeth and lips that loved
- poems. And your father cried and cried in his chair, which in the French would mean in his flesh.
- But his face was smooth as new fruit, with eyes like honey sweetly bright, a liquid strange and low
- pooled in the throat of your father, who crouched there in his chair, which rocked
- and so in this way made him brave and soft, made a sound of wooden hooves on the floor with his chair,
- and the thousand clocks of time measured in hooves and the rockings of chair, and here you saw the pleasure
- of your father's neck grown silken with new grass, and what was broken of the skin had been softly re-sewn,
- and here was now meant to last and last.
- Thank you. Sarah Benson began her ballet training at Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet in 2015.
- She then continued her ballet education, joining the Cincinnati Ballet as a trainee in 2017. She trained
- for two summers at Pacific Northwest Ballet before coming to IU. She has enjoyed performing in Paquita,
- Ramonda, Valspergesnacht, Beauty and the Beast, and the Cincinnati Ballet's Nutcracker. Sarah will be
- performing a variation from Act Two of Ramonda.
- Max P. Fowler is a senior musical theater student from Rockville, Maryland. He is currently making his
- final appearance on the IU theater stage as Bob Baker in Wonderful Town. After graduation, Max will
- spend his summer performing with the Utah Festival Opera before moving to New York City to pursue a
- career as an actor and director. Today, he will perform a monologue from This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan.
- and sing Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid. Max will be accompanied by Ray Feldman. This
- is so typical of you, man. I mean, this is like
- This is like the proto-type moronic move we've all come to expect from your corner. You drive a guy
- crazy because you're such a sniveling little obnoxious punk. You grate on the guy until he finally throws
- you out and then you steal his money and bring it to my house and expect me to like, what, hide you
- or something? No, no, see, this is why nobody likes you, man, because you're always provoking people.
- Yeah, okay.
- Now everybody's provoked, but only you're the one that they all fricking hate. Would you listen to me?
- I'm trying to tell you something. No, this is good for you. No, it is. Answer me, listen. You're an
- agent. You never have any money. Nobody can stand to have you around. Man, you can't get laid. Like,
- you cannot get laid. Like, you would never get laid. Like, the last girl you had was in what,
- ninth grade? And it lasted for two weeks, and that girl still hasn't recovered.
- I'd like to leave now. I'll admit that in the past I've been nasty. They weren't kidding when they called
- me well, a witch. But you'll find that nowadays I've mended all my ways, repented, seen the light, and
- made a switch. True, yes. And I've always been a little,
- It's a talent that I always have possessed. And to your lately peaceful laugh, I use it on behalf of
- the miserable, lonely, and depressed.
- Brano Haley Lipke is a native of Racine, Wisconsin, who is pursuing a performance diploma under the
- tutelage of Jane Dutton and Gary Arvin at the Jacobs School of Music. At IU, Haley has performed as
- Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Gertrude Mutter in Hansel and Gretel, Rosalba Montalban in Florencia in
- El Amazonas, Alma Hicks in The Music Man, and Gertie Cummings in Oklahoma.
- Haley looks forward to singing as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Louisville
- Orchestra in May. Today, she will be singing Du Prix du Jour from Louis and Dick Turhal from Tannhauser.
- She will be accompanied by Soyeon Park.
- Sun Choi is a 26-year-old pianist from South Korea. She graduated summa cum laude from Seoul National
- University with a degree in piano and musicology. She's won top prizes in numerous competitions, including
- the Lion International Piano Competition, Milady Virtuosi International Competition, and in Charles
- Eisman International Young
- Artist Competition, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Award, and Dong A Music Competition. Yongsan
- is currently pursuing a master's degree with Arnaldo Cohen at Jacobs School of Music, where she serves
- as an associate instructor in piano. She will play Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 3.
- Before we take our intermission break, we are going to present two awards to IU Jazz students who have
- to get back to IU for a 4 p.m. rehearsal. Excuse me, a recital, not just a rehearsal. The awards will
- be presented by Tom Walsh, Chair of IU Jazz Studies Department.
- Thank you very much. It's that time of year. We've got many concerts every day of the week from now
- to the end of the semester. Last year, Harlan Lewis approached me about establishing a National Society
- of Arts and Letters Award for jazz students. And he and Doris Wittenberg have very graciously funded
- an award for two students. And he specified that he would like us to choose juniors. And we've expanded
- that to mean people who have maybe one more year to go.
- this year. And so the jazz faculty have selected two very fine young musicians who we'll recognize here
- today. We have Jimmy Farace. Jimmy is a baritone saxophonist. And we have vocalist April Farner.
- Thank you very much. And I've meant to say the official name of this award is the National Society of
- Arts and Letters, Harlan Lewis and Doris Wittenberg Jazz Scholarship. So much gratitude. Harlan and
- Doris could not be with us today, so he asked me to present the award. So thank you very much.
- Now we will take a brief intermission. Thank you very much. Places, everyone, places. A reference for
- very few people that were old enough to remember Fantasy Island. Welcome back. It's my pleasure to introduce
- Noah Davis. Noah is an MFA candidate in poetry at Indiana University. His poetry has been published
- in North American Review, the Holland's Critics,
- Atlantic Review, Waterstone Review, and Chautauqua, among others. Noah has received Pushcart
- Prize nominations for poetry from both Poet Lore and Natural Bridge. His prose is published in So Wester,
- Kestrel, and Chariton Review, I hope, American Angler, The Fly Fish Journal, Angler's Journal, The Drake,
- Fly Fishing and Tying Journal, and Southern Culture on the Fly.
- This afternoon, he will read his poems, Oil and Small Histories. Good afternoon, everyone. Can everyone
- hear me? I'm enunciating. OK.
- Oh, a little bit closer, okay, there we go. A lot of fishing in those locations. Thank you very much,
- first of all, to Ruth Albright and Carolyn Emmert. Carolyn, for letting all of us send our poems to
- you and stories and we inundate your mailbox, so thank you very much for pointing out with that.
- And then, all the members of the NSAL here, very appreciative.
- I wish I could do a lot of the things that everyone who is performing here, I wanted to be a ballet
- dancer so badly, and then I got these big legs, and so I played basketball instead. But to sing and
- to act and to play beautiful, beautiful music is just an absolute joy. And so to be here and to listen
- to this and hopefully perform a little bit myself is
- really wonderful. So thank you to all the performers and thank you to all of you who are here today.
- I grew up in central Pennsylvania in Appalachia. Appalachia is just, it's the same region, just
- pronounced differently. Appalachia, though, is a little bit more northern pronunciation along the border
- of New York and Pennsylvania, but so I'm in that southern Appalachia. And my poems and a lot about what
- I write is focused on how we learn, how the actions and the landscaped impact, how we learn, and how
- we continue on with that. Small histories.
- At the bridge above the town, boys dare each other to dive into the green water and swim inside the
- fossil of a refrigerator dumped in this river so long ago that stone has grown around the open door.
- Carp shadows quiver the white metal while boys try to judge light's refraction, current's path,
- They bring rocks flecked with mica, rusted railroad spikes, elk antlers, offerings with weight to take
- the boys down to where they can swim below the river's flow and exchange their gifts with ones boys
- before them have left. The teeth of so many dogs, a bag of brass rifle shells, a crow's wing,
- wrapped in bike chain and tied to a horse's jaw. And another way we learn things is through food, and
- how we get that food, and just the nourishment, how land and different places provide that different
- nourishment. Oil.
- Graham kept snapping turtles and oil drums by the garage. Barrels full of spring water, not oil. We
- fed the turtles watermelon until shit petals covered the water's surface. My brother and I skimmed off
- the flakes like oil.
- When Graham was ready, we turned the barrels over in the yard and she shot the turtles in the head with
- the .22 Pap gave her. He loved her and believed you gave guns to the people you loved. She used a hatchet
- to splinter shells. The shards in the grass were sharp and cut into our feet. The meat simmered in vinegar
- for an hour on the stove.
- My brother and I watched Graham blow hell-breaths of cigarette out the window. She stared at the pump
- jack in the backfield that brought oil to the surface from beneath the hooves of grazing sheep. Graham's
- thumbnail was orange from tar, and my brother asked why it wasn't black. That's why turtle meat was
- pink, because watermelon meat was pink.
- Graham laughed and said if we peeled her far enough, she'd be dark as oil. My brother dipped the meat
- into the yellow egg wash, and I forked together flour, cornmeal, cayenne. Graham heated lard that turned
- to oil, the pink meat disappearing into bubbles. We waited for the meat to float to the surface so we
- could pick out what looked like golden tongues with tongs.
- Graham dabbed a piece on a paper towel. She kept an ashtray by the sink and with her left hand stubbed
- out a cigarette while she held out the meat. My lips curled back from the heat and I tore the muscle
- away with my teeth. How much oil was in me? How much oil was in her? Someday, when we both become the ground,
- Would a pump jack find the oil that pooled in the places our bodies had been? Meredith Johnson is from
- Arlington, Virginia.
- and is a senior at IU pursuing a BFA in contemporary dance. At IU, she has had the privilege of performing
- many professional works as well as original works choreographed by IU faculty members and students.
- Meredith spent last spring studying contemporary dance at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in
- Israel. And last summer, she worked with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago faculty at their pre-professional
- summer intensive.
- After graduation, she hopes to dance professionally with a contemporary dance company. She will be performing
- her own work, Antithesis.
- Kaylee Howland is studying theater and journalism. She was just on stage as Susan in Vinegar Tom for
- IU Theater, and she plans to move to Los Angeles in the fall to pursue her acting and writing career.
- Since she's graduating next month, she's increasingly grateful for the chances she's had to tell women's
- stories honestly. She hopes you continue to listen to those women when they speak.
- This afternoon, she will be performing the role of Ashby in Am I Blue by Beth Henley and Constance in
- King John by William Shakespeare. You know, we're alive because I don't like dances either.
- Well, I like dancing. I just don't like dances. At least, I know that our school was throwing tonight.
- They're so corny. All they serve is potato chips and fruit punch and then this stupid baby band plays
- and they all dance around like they're so hot. I frankly would not dance there. I would prefer to wait
- until I am invited to an exclusive ball. Doesn't really matter which ball.
- There's just one where they have golden chandeliers and silver fountains and these were done in season
- all sorts and will all arrive in a pink silk cape. I'm gonna dance in pink. I don't live in a fantasy
- world. I accept reality as well as anyone. Anyway, you can talk to me, remember? Well, I know what you
- mean by the kind of girls it's hard to talk to.
- There are girls a lot that way in the small clique at my school. Really tacky and mean. Well, they expect
- everyone to be as stylish as they are, and they won't even speak to you in the hall. Well, I don't care
- if they don't speak to me, but I really love the orphans, and it hurts my feelings when they're so mean to them.
- They sometimes snicker at the orphans' dresses, like the orphans usually are like drab hand-me-down
- ugly dresses. Once, Shelley Maxwell wouldn't let Linda bar her pencil even though she had to. It hurt
- her feelings. I hardly know them. They're really shy.
- I'm not mad. This hair I tear is mine. My name is Constance. I am Jeffrey's wife. Young Arthur is my son.
- Anderson De Silva is a 19-year-old sophomore from Tampa, Florida, where he received his ballet training
- at America's Ballet School. He has performed leading roles in The Nutcracker, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote,
- Coppelia, and Diana and Estone. He has also performed many leading roles for IU Ballet Theater, including
- this spring's Vals Purgastante. Today, he will perform a variation from Paquita.
- in Spain received early instruction on the violin from her mother. At a very young age, she began playing
- concerts in Spain, Bulgaria, and Germany. When she was only nine, she won the San Andrew de la
- Barca competition in Barcelona, and has since won many other international competitions. She pursued
- her master's degree with the prestigious violinist Ilya Kaller at DePaul University in Chicago. Currently,
- she is doing her artist diploma under the guidance of Professor Mauricio Fuchs at Indiana University.
- Elina plays an 1862 JB volume violin, generously loaned to her by Mr. and
- Mrs. Ullman from Switzerland. This afternoon, she will play Eugenia Say's Sonata for solo violin, parts
- three and four.
- soprano Michelle Zink-Munoz is a senior at Indiana University. In May, she will graduate with her BFA
- in musical theater with a minor in media and creative advertising. She is originally from Wyckoff, New
- Jersey and plans to move to New York City in the next year. This summer, she will be joining the company
- at Weathervane Theater in New Hampshire. This is her second year as the NSAL Chapter Career Award recipient
- for musical theater. She will be singing Life
- Harold from The Full Monty by David Yazbek, and The Man I Love from Strike Up the Band by George and
- Ira Gershwin. Michelle will be accompanied by Ray Feldman.
- soprano Avery Butcher has performed a wide array of roles in both the United States and abroad, ranging
- from Susanna and Mozart's La Noce di Figaro, Corlinda and Rossini's La Senratola, and Le Leiter Apparetta
- musical theater roles. In February, Avery debuted the role of Adina in Donizetti's El Istiada Amor with
- Indiana University Opera Theater. This year, she was named the third place winner in the central region
- Appalachian Opera National Council auditions. In the fall, Avery will join Michigan Opera Theater's
- roster as the company's resident soprano, where she will begin the season debuting the role of Zerlina
- in Don Giovanni. This afternoon, she will perform Forse Lui Sempre Libre from Verdes La Traviata. Avery
- will be accompanied by Pietro Wisniewski.
- Thank you to all of our wonderful performers and congratulations to all the young artists on the awards
- you are receiving from the National Society of Arts and Letters. I now turn over the program to Ruth
- Albright, President of the Bloomington Chapter, who will handle the awards presentation. Ruth.
- If Avery could have a mysterious tenor in the wings, I could have a mysterious handsome man escort me
- to the podium. Falling flat on this floor is not how I wanted to start. Anyway, what a wonderful, wonderful
- show of talent. I hope you all enjoyed the performances as much as I did. It takes a lot of work from
- a lot of people to make this happen each year.
- gives me a greater understanding of the world that these young artists live in and look forward to succeeding
- in. I know we all wish them well. We are honoring a record number of award winners today, 63. I mean,
- we make our own audience. And presenting a record amount of money, a total of $32,750 in cash, $1,000
- from Pygmalion's Art Supplies gift certificates,
- will be awarded. Plus, three high school students will receive another 250 each at awards ceremony this
- spring for a record 34,500. Thanks so much to our members and other donors who have made this possible.
- It's been a fun year to ask for money. It's such a pleasure for the National Society of Arts and Letters
- to be able to help outstanding young artists as they pursue their dreams. Their dreams become our dreams for them.
- We hope that our support will carry them forward to wonderfully successful lives. And now to give out
- the cash. Almost a hundred, I'm going to do visual arts first, almost a hundred pieces of art were submitted
- this year from around the state. The visual arts judges chose about 38 of those for our NSAL Emerging
- Artists exhibit in the gallery downstairs in the month of January.
- Presenting the awards today will be Suzanne Halverson. We had planned to show the slides of the top
- of the winners, but unfortunately Robert Kingsley, our other visual arts chair, has had a health emergency
- and the rest of us were not smart enough to figure out how to do that. So anyway, I apologize for that,
- but Suzanne will be presenting the awards.
- My name is Suzanne Halverson, and I am the co-chair along with Bob Kingsley, who unfortunately could
- not be here today. As Ruth said, this year's showcase exhibition was held in the Ivy Tech John Waldron
- Arts Center Rosemary P. Miller Gallery in January. We had 95 submissions this year, and our jurors had
- the difficult task of selecting only 35 pieces for the show.
- All of the artists who showed in this exhibition are winners, whether or not they won awards. Being
- in this competition is excellent for their resumes and for their encouragement for the future. I would
- also like to thank the jurors for this year. They are Martha Uppdahl, who is a fiber artist,
- Bob Pulley, who is a ceramic artist, and treat yourself to see his exhibition that is downstairs across
- from where our reception will be today. David Moore, who is a photographer and the owner of Pictura
- Gallery slash VAR, which is a photography gallery on 4th and Rogers. And Tina Newberry, who is a professor
- at Indiana University and is a painter.
- The person without whom the installation would have been possible is Julie Roberts. Julie is the director
- of the Ivy Tech Waldron Art Center, and she met individually with each of the artists to determine how
- their pieces would be installed. So she did a brilliant job as always. I would also like to thank our
- generous donors. Their names will be read when the awards are given.
- At this time, I would like to ask those artists who are present to come down on the stage and they will
- receive their awards. Are there any present?
- The first award is for Lacy Doerr, a Pygmalion Art Supply Award. Is she here? Nope. Okay. Kristen Hughes
- is not here today. We will make sure they get their money. Yinghe Puffy Zhao is going to have the award
- accepted by Gabriel
- Petty Dean Lepley III. Kira Easley. Yilun Huang. No. Remember, this happened back in January.
- So Jenny Reed, I know she's not here today. She's one of my students. Andy Bullard. Yay, Andy!
- Rachel DeCubo was here earlier, but she's seven months pregnant and needed to leave, so I will make
- sure she gets this. She was not feeling well, so... Clarissa Pizone? No? Caroline Zerbrick, I do know
- you. What? Oh, I'm sorry, yes, okay. Emily Yurkovich?
- The Alma Eichermann Memorial Award goes to Gabriel Noh. Our top prize and the Career Chapter Award in
- Visual Arts goes to Gabriel O'Brien.
- Before I let them leave the stage, I do want to list the names of the donors. I forgot to do that. There
- was the Klein Merit Award, the Reeva Shiner Memorial Award, and then several Pygmalions Art Supply Awards.
- So thank you so much.
- Thank you, Suzanne. Sarah Roth, Chair of the IU Ballet Theater Department. Is that, yes, ballet theater,
- that's right. And Chair of the NSAL Ballet Competition will present the awards. Sarah won the top NSAL
- award in 2003 and danced right here on this very stage in the showcase. So it's wonderful to have her
- back in Bloomington.
- Many years she danced with the Boston Ballet, but now she's back and training tomorrow's professional
- dancers. One thing that one of our audience members asked me to do was mention that we no longer are
- putting down a Marley floor, which is what ballet dancers dance on normally. And so this floor is slick
- for them. So that's why Sarah Benson was not able to dance on point.
- We also mopped the floor and they put a little water on their shoes and they did just fine.
- But you know, it would break our hearts if any of them got hurt. So Sarah, where are you? Okay.
- I feel very privileged to be here today. This is my first year as the chair of the National Society
- of Arts and Letters Ballet Competition. I was very privileged to win this in 2003. And the process that
- these students go to to win these awards, and I'm sure the same is true in other art forms, is very
- similar to the rigorous process that they have to go through when they audition for a company, when
- they go to get a job, when they go to train themselves to perform under pressure
- in front of a panel of judges deciding their fate. I'd love to bring the beautiful group of dancers
- that won the awards this year down to the stage so they can stand awkwardly while I announce their awards.
- We don't stand still well in pedestrian clothing. Please come, Andy, come. Is Sarah here still? Sarah's
- here still too.
- of these students prepared a variation much like the one you saw Andy and Sarah perform. And they performed
- that variation for three wonderful judges that we were very lucky to have. Oljan Barova drove from Cincinnati
- Ballet. He's artistic staff. And will someday be one of those deciders of their fate looking at them
- for company positions someday. So it was good to have him as a judge. Roberta Wong also came to us as
- a judge. And then we had Michael Johnson from our
- fellow university for ballet, Butler University in Indianapolis. So my first award that I'd like to
- present is the Marina Svetlova Memorial Award in Ballet for 2019 to Andrew Rossi. And I'm going to hug
- all of them. The next award is to Daisy Yee, again, the Marina Svetlova Memorial Award in Ballet, 2019.
- For those of you who don't know, Marina Svetlova was a pillar of the Jacobs School of Music
- Ballet Department, where I now work, where these dancers now train. And she left a legacy through the
- National Society of Arts and Letters. So she's really still with us, still present. Jack Roman, the
- Marina Svetlova Memorial Award in Ballet. The Marina Svetlova Memorial Award in Ballet for 2019, Marie
- McCormick.
- And the final Marina Svetlova Memorial Award this year is for Sarah Benson, who performed so beautifully
- for you today. And this last award, the Superstar of the World Award, is the Joanne Athanas Memorial
- Award in ballet for 2019. And that was by Lila and Stephen Hughes. And this is presented to Anderson De Silva.
- My gosh, I love ballet people. They are huggers. And I'm going to get a big button that says, hug me,
- just in case people wonder.
- The next awards will be in Contemporary Dance, and Celine Carter, who was expecting to be out of town
- and drove all the way back from Ohio because the person she had gotten to present awards got sick, and
- she came all the way back, so she's going to present awards. She's our chair in Contemporary Dance.
- And I'm giving you a hug. And a hug, okay.
- Because contemporary dancers are huckers, too. Could I please invite the awardees to come down and join
- me on the stage? Zadie Smith, the writer, recently wrote an editorial about the 65th anniversary of
- the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the New York Times.
- And she wrote about a really galvanizing experience as a 12-year-old being taken to see the Alvin Ailey
- American Dance Company and how transformative that was for her. And just wanting to note that Alvin
- Ailey's vision for dance, his dance company, was that it was dance was for everybody. And when the company
- came to the IU Auditorium, the stipulation of the contract was they would do the performance for the
- evening, but that
- the community had to come. That's part of their stipulation in the contract. So the day after the concert,
- the IU Auditorium arranged to have every middle schooler in Monroe County bust to the auditorium. And
- I just was really moved by that, and also by all of you for supporting the arts. So Zadie Smith said
- that all dance is a discourse on freedom. And I would argue that all arts are a discourse on freedom.
- So I'm so grateful to everyone here for supporting the arts.
- to the young artists for being artists in this time, and also to every supporter, certainly financially,
- but parents who drive your children to dance classes and trust them to major in dance or ballet or music
- in college, and for taking kids to libraries and just supporting the arts. So thank you, it's such a gift.
- I'm now going to present the awards, and I will be hugging Chelsea Cummeth for the Marina Svetlova Memorial
- Award in Contemporary Dance. Corey Boatner is not here. I'll make sure he gets the award. Kaia Hunter,
- the Koronek Merit Award in Contemporary Dance, who is a high school student.
- The Marina Svetlova Memorial Award goes to Megan Kudla. The Reva Shiner Memorial Award goes to Savannah
- Lewis. And finally, the Chapter Career Award in Contemporary Dance goes to Meredith Johnson.
- Thank you. The drama competition chair, Paul Daly, who's the artistic director here at Ivy Tech,
- for Ivy Tech, is not able to be with us today. So he asked Ray Feldman, who's the musical theater chair,
- to present the Drama Awards, too.
- The National Society of Arts and Letters Competition is in drama this year, and Kaylee Howland, our
- top winner, will be representing the Bloomington Chapter in Washington, D.C. in late May. She will be
- competing for a top award of $12,000. Ray, while you're up here, do you want to do musical theater,
- too? Sure. I mean, hey. Why not? Right. Great. Hi, everyone.
- I'm Ray Feldman, professor of musical theater from the IU Department of Theater, Drama, and Contemporary
- Dance. And yes, Paul Daly was the chair, as Ruth just said, so I'm here in his stead. Let's start by
- inviting the winners down, the drama winners. Let's applaud them now.
- So the Katherine P. Borkenstein Memorial Award and Shakespeare Merit Award goes to Courtney Relias-Bivak.
- Not you. The family von Trapp. Okay, great. The Dr. Frank Hestermalos Memorial Award goes to Allison
- Marshall. The Helen and Linton Caldwell Memorial Award
- goes to Caleb Curtis. Not here. It's OK. They're working very hard. The Dennis Organ Tribute Award and
- Hegarty Merritt Award goes to Julia Kleinensteiber. The Laura Scheiner Memorial Award goes to Felix Murbach.
- And the Lenneth Brockett, Carol Moody, and Fran Snig Memorial Award goes to Kaylee Howland. Good. Moving
- right along, you may all go back to your seats. Let's have those musical theater kids up here.
- Get up there. Look at them.
- all young and musical theater-y. Fantastic. So, the Robinson Merritt Award goes to Katie Swaney. Scott
- Burgess Jones Tribute Award goes to Lisa Paducah.
- The Nelson Merit Award goes to Jake McCutcheon. The Bob Shettle Row Memorial Award goes to Maya McQueen.
- The Carolyn Covener Memorial Award goes to Cole Winston.
- The Robinson Merritt Award goes to Max Fowler. And the Chapter Career Award in Musical Theater for 2019
- goes to Michelle Zink Munoz. Thank you, Ruth.
- I've just found out today that all arts people are huggers, which is the reason I dedicate most of my
- time to working with young artists in Bloomington. Literature is next, and Carolyn Emmert, our literature
- chair, is in her second year as literature chair, and she'll be presenting the awards today. She was
- a judge this year, and I think she really enjoyed that. Carolyn?
- I did enjoy it very much. I feel a real privilege to be able to see these young performers and I think
- that we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. I look at a writer who often goes does his work or her work
- alone at a desk or somewhere very quiet who puts his or her heart and soul on paper for us to look at and then
- very trustingly puts it out there. I'm not that brave, but I think our world needs you folks who are
- willing to do that kind of work. All of you who are here today, it doesn't always know how badly it
- needs it, but it does. And I am very happy to be part of this program. Would the Literature Award winners
- please come down?
- who all is here. Irene Zhao, short story writer. Carrie Compton, Carrie. Wins the Hull Merit Award and
- Bailey Merit Award for 2019. John Leonard and Elijah Babcock both live in
- Northern Indiana, and John had to work and Elijah lost his ride down here, so they will get their awards
- by mail. Janann Scott, the Howe Merit Award in Literature for 2019.
- And finally, the Chapter Career Award for 2019 and a second time NSAL winner, Noah Davis.
- Okay, the next category is an interesting one because NSAL member Alan Barker, who's the director of
- the Jacobs School of Music Entrepreneurship Program and is obviously a very busy man, he is the presumed
- chair of this competition with the help of his graduate students, whom I think did most of the work.
- So I'm just delighted to have Juliana Idle, who's a graduate student in flute performance, and guitarist
- Carlo Fearens, who's a PhD candidate, present these awards today. They both did just a terrific job,
- and it was so wonderful to work with them. I'm hoping that some of what they did can go with them into
- their careers as different experiences that they've had and will help them in their careers. Anyway,
- Juliana and Carlo.
- Yeah, so Carlo and I helped coordinate this year's instrumental music competition. It was, I think,
- a real joy for us to put together and hear some incredible artists. Yeah, the competition took place
- in early February, and we heard around 27 performers that played various selections.
- It's a really wonderful competition. And I'd like to thank our jurors, Chi-Yi Chen, professor of piano
- at the Jacobs School, Lawrence Hurst, emeritus professor at the Jacobs School, and Catherine Marchese,
- member of the Bloomington Symphony and an international bassoon soloist. So I guess at this time, if
- all the instrumental music competition award winners could come down, that would be great.
- So the Catherine MacDonald Memorial Award and the Lyndon Stroman Tribute Award, donated by Susan MacDonald
- and Ellen Stroman, goes to Mark Levesque, piano. The Hagerty Award, donated by Harv and Connie Hagerty,
- goes to Boyong Kim, piano.
- The Spence Merit Award, donated by Dr. Craig Spence, goes to John Wen Liang. No. The Bloomington Chapter
- Merit Award goes to Mingyuan Yang. It's not here. Yeah. A bassoon, for those who are interested.
- The Dennis Organ Tribute Award, donated by Ling Organ, goes to Yunjie Lin. Let me get the name of the
- donors. OK, the Ham Merit Award and O'Meara Merit Award, donated by Joe Allen and Steve Ham and Patrick O'Meara.
- goes to Young-Sung Choi, piano. Finally, the Mrs. Granville Wells Memorial Award, donated by the Wells
- Endowment, goes to Elinor Rubio, violin.
- lovely to have a presenter from Italy. The next awards are in voice, and Mary Alice Cox, our longtime
- voice chair, will be presenting those awards. I love the voice competition. It lasts from about 1 o'clock
- to 5.30 or so, and I
- get there. And I think how can I ever sit through this? And I mean, I want 27 more to listen to after
- I've heard the first 27. So anyway, thank you, Mary Alice, for a wonderful afternoon. No one loves the
- voice competition more than I do. I don't say that. Could the voice winners please come forward?
- I actually... Hello? I actually have two voice awards to talk a little bit about. As a chapter, we,
- along with every other NSAL chapter in the country, also submit two applications electronically to a
- national competition called the Shirley Rabe Winston Competition.
- That's for generally younger singers than our Bloomington chapter other people. But our two applications
- then go against all of the national chapters for a series of awards to be used to further education.
- And luckily, one of our winners that we submitted did win an award, and he was able to join us today.
- So I wanted to mention
- Bo Shimon is his name. He is just finishing his undergraduate degree in music and voice at DePaul University
- in Green Castle. Actually, last night he had a senior recital, and I wish I could have been there. He
- has a wonderful tenor voice. I know that. And he is going to use his award to go to Savannah, Georgia
- to study in the Cheryl Mills Voice Academy.
- So Bo, to commemorate this, we have a certificate for you. On to the Bloomington chapter. We had 27
- people enter the competition this year with a long waiting list. We did. We did. We had a waiting list.
- Everyone came on the day of the competition, which is always a little bit of a unknown in February if
- you're a singer, but everyone survived. And you were able to hear two of them this afternoon. I wish
- you could have heard all 27. They're amazing. So I will start with the awards with one person who could
- not be here today. His name is Young Jung Long Lee. And he is the winner of the Kubler and Evans Merit
- Award. He is actually at an audition in Ohio today.
- The next award winner also is not here. His name is Sungjin Kim, and he is the Pock and Bloomberg Merit
- Award winner. He is competing today for a scholarship. The winner of the Helen and Linton Caldwell Memorial
- Award in voice is Nicholas Santoro.
- The next person also is not here. Liz Culpepper is the winner of the David Albright Memorial Award donated
- by Ruth. The Helen and Linton Caldwell Memorial Award is the winner is Tabang Masango. The Donald Traub
- Memorial Award was won by Gretchen Krepp.
- The Cox and Cook Merit Award was won by Haley Lipke. The Chapter Career Award winner this year was won
- by Scarlett's mama, Avery Betcher. Thank you, everyone.
- We have very much enjoyed having Scarlett with us for the last couple of years, and I know she helps
- mom very much in her voice training. Let's give these young artists another round of applause. I'd like
- to thank our behind the scenes crew. If any of them can hear me, they might come out and take a bow.
- That's Molly and Connor and Deborah Alex are our stage managers and Brennan Edwards, who's up running
- the lights, is our lighting technician. All of these students are studying in the IU Department of Theater,
- Drama and Contemporary Dance. And it's wonderful to be able to help these young artists too. And they
- do a terrific job. Also big thanks to Drew Bratton, who's our MC today.
- And to Tina Jernigan, our treasurer, who made all the certificates and wrote all the checks, and of
- course she made sure that we had money in the bank to cover them. I'm so grateful to be able to use
- this wonderful auditorium every year. Thanks to Ivy Tech Community College, an educational partner with
- the Bloomington Arts Community for partnering with the National Society of Arts and Letters. My last
- thanks of the day go to our audience, to you.
- Thanks so much for coming to support these young artists. Your support means the world to them. Now
- please join us one flight down where we're going to have a reception. If you're interested in learning
- more about NSAO membership, I have some brand new brochures that Tina created, which I would be happy
- to share with anyone who would be interested in membership. I think we do a wonderful job of helping
- young artists in our community and actually throughout Indiana. So thanks so much for coming.
- and I hope to meet you all at the reception. Thank you.