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Wednesday, March 29: The Innocents

More on The Innocents can be found here.

Those planning on attending the 2023 conference virtually will be invited to an online screening of Wojciech Lorenc’s forthcoming full-length documentary film, The Innocents. Those who attend in-person will see the Lane and Otte’s performance live.

John Lane

John Lane is an artist whose creative work and collaborations extend through percussion to poetry/spoken word and theater. As a performer, he has appeared on stages throughout the Americas, Australia, and Japan. Recent credits include performances at the Hokuto International Music Festival in Japan, Percusión en Escena International Percussion Festival in Bogotâ, Colombia, as concerto soloist with the National Symphony of Panama, and as a featured international guest artist at the Antarctica Music Festival at the Australian National University

John is a Yamaha performing artist, and endorses Innovative Percussion, Zildjian Cymbals, and Evans Drumheads. Currently, John is the Director of Percussion Studies and Professor of Percussion at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. He taught previously at the University of Wyoming and held fellowships at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of North Texas.

Allen Otte

Allen Otte was, in 1972, a founding member of a group whose premise was that percussionists should be able to behave in our time just as string quartets had done since the time of Beethoven. He came to the University of Cincinnati in 1977 with the Blackearth Percussion Group and in 1979 founded the world-renowned ensemble, Percussion Group Cincinnati. Professor Otte teaches classical and contemporary percussion, eurhythmics, various literature seminars, and coaches and conducts traditional and contemporary chamber music. In addition to his now Emeritus position at the University of Cincinnati, he has also been adjunct professor of eurhythmics at the Oberlin Conservatory. His students are members of major symphony orchestras and service bands, contemporary ensembles, and hold positions at universities throughout the country.

His broad percussion expertise is reflected in frequent guest artist appearances such as the 2012 Carnegie Hall Tour of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Amongst many regular invitations as soloist to the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention, in 2000 he appeared as marimba soloist for their Focus Day on the Marimba. He is percussionist with the early music quartet Trobar Medieval; with the improvisation trio Vaster Than Empires (sound sculptures, plus Erica Dicker, violin, Paul Schuette, electronics) he has appeared in university venues, but also in clubs and various alternative spaces in major centers including Chicago and New York City. 

Wojciech Lorenc

Polish-born filmmaker and professor currently residing and working in the US. Wojciech has taught filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago, University of Hawaii West O’ahu, Columbus State University, and currently Sam Houston State University where he serves as the Chair of the Department of Mass Communication, and coordinates the BFA in Film and Television Production.Wojciech is a film director whose works span a variety of genres and media types and include short and feature-length narratives and documentaries, as well as online media, and emerging media such as interactive and virtual reality projects.

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Friday, March 31: An Evening of Romantic Guitar Music

Lina Morita, piano

Brazilian-Japanese pianist LINA MORITA made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013. Her international career has taken her throughout the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, France, and the Czech Republic. Most recently, she has been invited to present solo recitals at Salão Leopoldo Miguez in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Mexico City at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera and at La Escuela de Musica “Vida y Movimiento” del Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli. Other venues in which she has performed include II Festival Eleazar de Carvalho, IX Festival de Música de Santa Catarina in Brazil, the Music Center at Strathmore in Maryland, Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington DC, the prestigious concert series at the National City Christian Church, the Church of the Epiphany in Washington DC, the Vienna Presbyterian Church in Virginia, and the Bertramka House in Prague.

As a performer and pedagogue, Lina Morita has performed recitals and taught master classes at colleges and universities throughout the United States and has collaborated with renowned musicians such as flutists Susan Milan, Ransom Wilson, Ian Clarke, Jim Walker, clarinetists Mark Nuccio, Robert Spring and cellist Dennis Parker. As a concerto soloist, Morita performed Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” Concerto and the Chopin’s F Minor Concerto with the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra in Washington D.C. and Virginia. Other soloist appearances include Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 with the Lake Charles Symphony in Louisiana and the Washington Sinfonietta in Washington DC.

Lina Morita received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music; the Master of Music degree from Rice University; and the Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University. Her primary studies have been with Nelita True, Robert Roux, Edmund Battersby, and Michel Block. Morita is currently an Associate Professor of Piano at McNeese State University in Louisiana.

Jay Kacherski, guitar

"Virtuosismo" and "technical dominance" are the words used by the press to describe American guitarist and Fulbright Scholar Dr. Jay Kacherski. A native of New York, Kacherski has performed around the world as a soloist, member of the Texas Guitar Quartet and other chamber ensembles. He is currently on the guitar faculty at Loyola University of New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, and McNeese State University, as well as NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He is also the Artistic Director of the Houston Classical Guitar Festival and Competition and the Loyola Guitar Festival. Jay holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Florida Southern College, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Jay Kacherski spent two years living in Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar and member of the guitar faculty at the Escuela Nacional de Música, the music conservatory for the National University of Mexico (UNAM) researching, performing, and promoting contemporary classical guitar music of Mexico. His debut solo album Synthesis: 20th & 21st Century Guitar Music from Mexico was the culmination of this work and has been hailed as a “…brilliant album” and “one of the finest guitar solo recordings of recent years” by Soundboard magazine. His latest recording Landscapes is a duo recording with pianist Lina Morita, and is comprised of all new works for the piano and guitar duo.

Jay Kacherski is currently on the guitar faculty at Loyola University of New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, and McNeese State University, as well as NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He has presented at music conventions and festivals throughout the U.S. and is often invited to adjudicate at national and international competitions. As a teacher, his students have been finalists and winners of international solo and chamber music competitions and recipients of scholarships for continued study. He is the Artistic Director of the Houston Classical Guitar Festival and Competition and his academic studies include a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Music degree in Guitar Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, and undergraduate degrees from Florida Southern College where he graduated with honors.

The Kacherski/Morita Duo has been playing together for over fifteen years and has performed throughout the United States and Mexico and have premiered several new works for the idiom. Their debut recording Landscapes is available on the Frameworks Records label and is comprised of all new works for the piano and guitar duo and includes compositions from Italy, Spain, Mexico, and the United States.

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Saturday, April 1: The Song Cycles of Beachy Head

More on The Song Cycles of Beachy Head can be found here.

Amanda Jacobs

Amanda Jacobs (Composer) is recognized most for Austen’s Pride (5th Avenue Theatre NextFext, ACT-CT, FLMTF, LaMirada, NYMF 2011-Stage Entertainment Award, Most Promising Musical). An avid Jane-ite, JASNA chose her as their 2014 International Visitor, and she lived in Chawton, UK, Austen’s home, composing, performing/producing concerts. Other works: Learning How to Drown (FLMTF, Goodspeed); The Up Side of Down (with Y York—Phoenix Theatre). Other collaborative works: Daniel, Lily, and Truth in Beauty. Also recognized for her concert & sacred music compositions—most recently Charlotte Smith’s The Song Cycles of Beachy Head (Carnegie Hall, Boulanger Initiative, BWWC, Chawton Library, UK/Britten-Pears Foundation, University of Melbourne, Ucross), Jacobs holds a PhD in Educational Psychology specializing in learning environments in the Arts. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia. Love and gratitude to Elibba and Doug.

Emily Howes Heilman

Dr. Emily Howes Heilman, mezzo-soprano, has a great passion for performing works by living composers. She covered the role of Hannah After in Laura Kaminsky’s As One with Chautauqua Opera in 2018 and the mezzo role in Phillip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox in 2017. She performed works by Timothy Hoekman at Carnegie Hall along with members of the Parlance Vocal Ensemble and premiered Quinn Dizon’s 12 Haiku for mezzo and orchestra at the University of Louisville’s New Music Festival. She has also premiered several roles with Thompson Street Opera, including the Executioner (Chris Kincaid’s Cephalophore), Wingtip (Yvonne Freckman’s Rootabaga Stories), and the U.S. premiere of Whiskers (Robin Haigh’s The Man Who Woke Up). In fact, it is her passion for new works that inspired her doctoral thesis, which centered on Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and Rilke Songs.

Dr. Emily Howes Heilman, mezzo-soprano, joined the SHSU music faculty in fall of 2018. She recently received her DM in voice performance from Florida State University where she was the recipient of the Edith S. Joel Opera scholarship as well as the Glenys Gallaher Award and the Hannah J. Beaulieu Competition. She studied with Shirley Close and Marcy Stonikas and graduated summa cum laude in 2018. She completed both her MM and BM in voice performance at the University of Louisville where she studied with Edith Davis Tidwell. She was the 2014 winner of the concerto competition (Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen), and she graduated with highest honors in both degrees.

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