Artists in Residence Program 2011-2012

Applicants for the Polish Studies Center Artists in Residence Program must submit by 12pm. on Sunday, April 17th the following, to polish@indiana.edu:

1. A letter of application, which should include some discussion of knowledge of or interest in the Polish repertoire.
2. A letter of recommendation from a School of Music faculty member.
3. A current c.v.

Qualified applicants will be invited to audition on April 23-24; they will be asked to perform a short selection from the Polish repertoire, and to discuss with the jury their knowledge of or interest in that repertoire.

Selection as Artist in Residence obligates the recipient to perform with the other artists at several occasions in Bloomington, in Chicago, and possibly elsewhere during the 2011-12 academic year. The artists take an active role in planning and executing the performances, and so the jury seeks performers who are independent, reliable, and easily reachable.

Full Information

The Polish Studies Center is pleased to announce its 2010-2011 Artists in Residence. These three talented musicians were chosen from among their peers on the basis of their interest in and knowledge of the rich Polish musical repertoire, recommendations from their professors at the Jacobs School of Music, and a competitive audition. We are honored that they will be joining us. The PSC Artists in Residence each receive a small stipend, and will present several concerts in Bloomington and elsewhere over the course of this academic year. Halina Goldberg, Chair, Artists in Residence Committee Padraic Kenney, Director, Polish Studies Center.

Alyssa Cox

A native of the Eastern Shore Maryland, soprano Alyssa Cox recently completed a five year program with a Bachelor of Music in Voice and a Master of Music in Opera at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In Fall 2009 she began post-graduate studies at Indiana University, where she currently studies with Carol Vaness. Alyssa has been seen as Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte with Tomer Zvulun, Cendrillon in Cendrillon, and recently sang Die Säterinne in Grieg’s Peer Gynt with the Cleveland Orchestra and Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 2009, Alyssa debuted at Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall, and at the Jumeirah Essex House with the Schuyler Foundation. Alyssa has also worked closely with masters Marilyn Horne, Ruth Golden, Mikhail Hallak, Warren Jones, Martin Katz, and Joan Patenaude-Yarnell.

Jinhee Han, a cellist and a native of South Korea. She was a principal cellist of the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra at IU under the batons of Leonard Slatkin, David Effron, and Cliff Colnot. She was served as a collaborative cellist, a chamber music coach, and a member of the festival orchestras for many summers at different music festivals, such as RUMF, the Hartwick College Music Festival, the Great Mountain Music Festival, and the Colorado College Musi c Festival. She is enthusiastic about teaching as well. In Summer 2010, she taught cello and piano at the Huree University in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia through a Christian mission program.
Jinhee is currently pursuing her D.M with Emilio Colon as his Assistant Instructor, and she holds a M.M at IU and a B.M from the University of Texas at Austin.

Michael Pecak

Michael Pecak was born in Chicago, IL and began playing the piano at the age of five. In 2008, Michael graduated from Northwestern University where he earned his Bachelor of Music degree specializing in both Piano Performance and Orchestral Conducting. As a scholarship student at Northwestern, he studied piano with Professor Alan Chow, conducting with Professor Victor Yampolsky, and chamber music/accompaniment with Professor Elizabeth Buccheri. Michael has performed in numerous masterclasses with such distinguished pianist-pedagogues as Arnaldo Cohen, Norma Fisher, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Janusz Olejniczak, Lee Kum-Sing, Andrzej Dutkiewicz, and Emilio del Rosario. In the past several years, Michael has performed to great acclaim in solo recitals as part of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Unity Temple” Young Artists Series, “Parisian Salon Concerts” series, and at the General Consulates of Poland and Japan. Michael has performed as soloist with the Polish-American Symphony Orchestra and has also received the orchestra’s “Youth Music Award.” He is the recipient of several awards from such organizations as the ISMTA (Illinois State Music Teachers Association), the North Shore Musicians Club Scholarship, the Polish Arts Club Scholarship, the Chicago Chopin Society and the Kosciuszko Foundation. He is a laureate of the prestigious Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition in New York, NY where he earned special recognition for his performance of Szymanowski’s music. In addition to his numerous Chicago area performances, Michael has performed at and attended the Warsaw Piano Workshop in Warsaw, Poland and the Gold Country Piano Institute in Nevada City, CA. An active collaborator, Michael has performed chamber music with various ensembles and accompanied in numerous vocal recitals. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Michael studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw as a Fulbright Scholar. The focus of his studies was the music of 20th and 21st Century Polish composers. Currently, Michael is pursuing a Masters Degree in Piano Performance with Andre Watts at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.