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.