Three faculty members from the College of Musical Arts reached out to an international audience this month during the College’s first faculty exchange with Ionian University in Corfu, Greece.
Maxim Mogilevsky, assistant professor of piano, John Sampen, professor of saxophone, and Marilyn Shrude, professor of musicology/composition/theory, presented workshops, lectures and concerts to students at the University as part of the exchange.
Richard Kennell, dean of the College of Musical Arts, and Svetlana Smolina, a second-year graduate student at the College and the wife of Mogilevsky, also joined the group.
“This was sort of a trial run for us,” Sampen said. “We taught all the students from Greece and presented faculty recitals. Marilyn and I played the saxophone and the piano at the recitals, which consisted of all-American music.”
Sampen also performed Shrude’s compositions “Renewing the Myth” and “The Postcards” including a new work entitled “Kantada.” “This one, ‘Kantada,’ was a world premiere and was specifically written for this trip,” Sampen said.
Moglivesky and his wife also performed a duo piano recital, which covered works of famous Russian composers.
The universities began the exchange last December when three Greek students visited Bowling Green for a week. In May, three University students participated in the exchange and went to Ionian University for a week.
The exchange was implemented in hopes to develop, strengthen and diversify the college’s academic linkages with institutions abroad says Kennell.
“We have started taking just the very preliminary steps in creating a growing relationship with, I think, a very special University,” Kennell said. “This represents an opportunity to our faculty and students to experience a different culture, to contribute and grow from the people that are at a formative stage in their music program.”
According to Kennell, the Ionian University is fairly young and quite unique. It was started 12 years ago and fashions its music program after more of an American- based- system rather than that of a European conservatory.
“They are in a very young stage of development, and what I think they are looking for from us is not only experience with our faculty but also looking at our ways of doing things, which will help them grow in their own professional realm,” Kennell said.
This fall Ionian University faculty members will come to the University. Lambis Vassiliadis, professor of piano; Andreas Georgotas, applied viola: Sypros Gikontis applied violin; Jannis Toulis, applied cello and viola da gamba, and Katerina Micholpoulou, applied harpsichord and early music performance, will participate in the return exchange.
“They will come in early October,” Shrude said. “Five of their faculty will be doing two programs: one here and one at the Toledo Museum of Art. So, it really is an exchange of sorts, what we did over there they will be doing here.”
