Dr. Mila Parrish, Associate Professor, Head of the Dance Education gave the Keynote address at the Taiwan Dance Research Association annual conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The theme of the conference was a New Epoch of Dance Education.  Her presentation addressed the use of technology in the dance performance, choreography and instruction. Parrish also offered four practical workshops, to undergraduate dance majors and community dance artists and teachers.  In the fall, she will conduct research using videoconferencing in dance instruction called “iDance SC."

Associate Professor of Art Laura Kissel's documentary film "Beyond the Classroom:  China" has been nominated for a Southeast regional Emmy Award in the category of Television Programming Excellence/Documentary.  The film aired on SCETV's Southern Lens in August, 2008.    

Associate Professor of Music Wendy Valerio presided as convener for Sharing a Social Music Learning Framework in Six Countries and as a participant in Many Paths, One Destination: Active Music-making Approaches in Music Education at the 28^th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education, July 20-25, 2008 in Bologna, Italy.   Dr. Valerio also visited the Gordon Institute for Early Childhood Music Learning at the University of Freiburg, where she presented Music Learning Theory in Action with Young Children and Movement for Creative Music-Making. 

Professor of Music Robert Pruzin appeared at the 40^th International Horn Symposium at the University of Denver in Colorado in July 2008, where he conducted a group performing his octet arrangement of Mahler’s Third Symphony and performed a world premiere of Bill Holcombe’s Blues for Four Horns.  Pruzin also began his 31^st season with the South Carolina Philharmonic and the Augusta Symphony.  In March, at the International Horn Society’s Southeast Regional Horn Workshop at Western Carolina University, Pruzin performed a solo and conducted the USC Horn Studio.  He will appear as lecturer/clinician at the 41^st International Horn Symposium at Western Illinois University in June.

Professor of Music Scott Price has been named as the recipient of the 2008 SCMTA Foundation Fellow Award.  He was nominated by CMTA (Columbia Music Teachers Association) in recognition of his 2008 MNTA Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award for his development of the on-line resource, “Piano Pedagogy Forum.”  He was formally recognized at the SCMTA Conference in November 2008 and the MTNA National Conference in Atlanta in March 2009.

Professor of Music Robert Jesselson gave recitals and workshops in Vermont, Georgia, New Jersey, Nebraska, California and throughout South Carolina this past year.  Jesselson’s article “Don’t Lose the Arts in Charleston Public Schools” was published in the Charleston Post and Courier and helped to save the string programs from budget cuts in that city.  He also wrote and received about $120,000 in grants for the National String Project Consortium and helped grow the NSPC to 35 sites throughout the United States.  This summer he will teach at the Green Mountain Festival and in festivals in Argentina and Brazil.

Assistant Professor of Music Craig Butterfield traveled with a jazz trio to South Korea and Japan for three weeks in July and August of 2008.  Highlights of this trip included three concerts at EBS Space, the South Korean public television studio, that were broadcast throughout South Korea; masterclasses at the Applied Music Academy of Seoul, Korea; and concerts and masterclasses at Miles’ Café, Tokyo, Japan.  Accompanying Dr. Butterfield on this trip were Rodrigo Villanueva, professor of jazz drumset and arranging at Northern Illinois University, and pianist Jangeun Bae, a resident of Seoul, South Korea. 

Associate Professor of Music James Ackley has been elected to the Board of Directory for the International Trumpet Guild.

William H. Bates, Professor of Organ, has seen the publication of four settings of English hymn tunes (Down Ampney, Dunedin, Sine Nomine, and Thaxted), all printed in one volume by Concordia Publishing House (97-7299). His article "J. S. Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor (BWV 542): A Source Study for Organists" was the featured study in the 2008/2 issue of the internationally renowned scholarly journal BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.

Gary Beckman, visiting assistant professor and research associate for the Carolina Institute for Leadership and Engagement in Music, is chairing the College Music Society’s” Committee on Careers and Entrepreneurship” the Society’s Inaugural “Summit, Jan. 16-17, 2010”; is vice-chair for the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s “Arts Entrepreneurship Interest Group”; and is a member of the Arts Enterprise advisory group. Gary is also a steering committee member of the South Carolina Arts Commission’s LINC initiative and is completing an essay collection titled “Disciplining Arts Entrepreneurship Education”.

Elise Blackwell completed her fourth novel, An Unfinished Score, which will come out next spring. Her short story “Polk County” appeared in Five Chapters, and “Writing Freely” (an essay on the state of U.S. literature) was published both English and Farsi translation by Maana: A Bilingual Journal of Art, Literature, and Culture. Blackwell served as a correspondent at the PEN World Voices Festival and gave readings at New York is Book Country, Louisiana State University, and the Literary Orange (held at the University of California-Irvine). Blackwell also received a Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award this year.

Susan Anderson, professor of dance and artistic director of the USC dance program, received the 2009 Michael J. Mungo Distinguished Professor Award, which is the university's highest teaching honor. Anderson received several glowing recommendations for the award from both students and faculty in the dance program.

Assistant Professor of Art Dawn Hunter has been named a finalist for the 2009 Brunswick Street Gallery Works on Paper Prize.  She is the only American to be so honored.  Her work is on exhibit at the Brunswick Street Gallery, in Melbourne, Australia, from May 8-May 21.