What is the best way to honor a faculty member who has given much to a department on campus? Materialistic things, like a bench or a light pole on the quad, could be named in their honor. However, there can only be so many benches and lights poles before the quad becomes too cluttered.
The department of music decided to take a different approach on the normal idea of giving honor to a professor emeritus. The music department has created the Allison Nelson Guest Artist Series to honor Dr. Allison Nelson.
Nelson is a UTM Professor Emeritus of music, because of her contributions to the department of music and to UTM as a whole.
Dr. Julie Hill, chair of the Department of Music, says, “This series was created in an effort to really generate resources to bring in world class artists that could be seen as more prestigious, perhaps, by our students, faculty and community, to further enrich the West Tennessee Community.”
The groups invited to perform in the series include Hypercube, an electric chamber music ensemble; Seksion Maloya, a Paris-based ensemble performing in the Maloya style from Réunion, Madagascar; Khemia, a contemporary-concert-music ensemble; Gaudete Brass, a brass chamber music quintet; Dan Miller, a jazz trumpet player; and Break of Reality, an alt-classical chamber ensemble.
“Really (the series) is just to continue to present UTM as the cultural hub for our campus and our community,” Hill said.
When choosing a name for the series, Hill said she wanted it to be named after someone special in the community and within UTM.
“I started thinking about the professors that have retired in the past and have taught at UTM for a long time… and I thought of Allison Nelson,” she said.
Nelson found her way to UTM through a lifetime of playing the piano.
She was a prodigy at seven years old in her home town of Adelaide, Australia. By age 10, she was performing in public and on Australian radio.
Later in her life, she moved to the United States where she studied piano at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she met her first husband, Harry Neal.
Neal was a local from Paris, Tennessee, and together the couple performed more than 1,500 concerts from 1950-1968 on a world tour including the United States, Canada, Switzerland, India, Hong Kong, Fiji and more.
In 1968, Neal died of a heart attack at age 40.
The following year, Nelson began her second career as a professor at UTM. She has since become a prominent member of the Department of Music.
Nelson helped establish the Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and founded the UT Martin Piano Ensemble. She also started the University Trio alongside flutist Robert Fleming and clarinetist Gilbert Carp.
In 1989, Nelson retired from UTM with 20 years of service to the university under her belt.
The UTM Piano Ensemble and the University Trio that she helped establish are now under the direction of Dr. Elaine Harriss, professor of piano and a colleague of Nelson’s for many years.
This series is helping the department of music with its students, as well.
Hill explains that, “We try to bring (the groups) in primarily on Mondays, and that’s the time when we have dedicated time in the afternoon for our students to interact with these musicians in a very personal way. So they get some extra time with them to do a master class or ask questions about professional development.”
She continues by saying the series is not directly correlated with recruitment for new students, but to help our current students and the community be enriched in the culture.
Hypercube performed on Sept. 24, as the first artists in this series.
They are an electronic chamber music ensemble, which means they bring classical music to life with both an electronic and acoustic mix. The saxophone, guitar, piano and percussion quartet are from New York.
On Hypercube’s website, Sequenza 21, an online Contemporary Classical Music Community, says, “The members… played with a sense of ensemble that is not to be rivaled. The performance was fearless and flawless, with some of the most exciting playing I have ever heard.”
Hypercube has been featured at a plethora of musical events including, Music on the Edge (Pittsburgh), Equilibrium Concert Series (Boston), Acadia University (Nova Scotia), among many other places across North America.
Seksion Maloya, an internationally touring music group, performed as the second artist on the program. Their concert occurred on Nov. 19, 2018.
Seksion Maloya is based in Paris, France, and perform maloya, a form of music that originated on a French island off the eastern coast of Madagascar called Réunion.
They are a part of an association for the enhancement of Reunionese culture, especially through traditional music.
Maloya is both song and dance specific to the island of Réunion. It was created by slaves of Malagasy and African Origin. Today, it owes its vitality to some 300 identified groups, including some world-famous artists and to a specialized musical education at the Conservatoire de la Réunion.
The third performance of the series features the Khemia Ensemble, a contemporary chamber ensemble, on Jan. 14.
Khemia is derived from the Ancient Greek word khēmeia and means cast together.
This group focuses on championing the works of living composers. They work closely with designers, visual artists and interactive elements in developing performances.
Khemia Ensemble includes 10 members, two of whom are currently faculty members at UTM, the husband-and-wife duo, Dr. Shane Jones and Chelsea Jones, who both play percussion in the ensemble. Members are derived from Argentina, Brazil, China and the United States.
Gaudete Brass, who is performing on March 18 in the Fine Arts building, Blankenship Recital Hall, is a brass chamber music ensemble. The quintet encourages world wide appreciation of brass chamber music by presenting educational programs and concerts at prominent institutions including The Juilliard School and Eastman School of Music. Gaudete is Latin for “joy.”
The next artist to perform, almost closing out this semester’s performances, is Dan Miller.
He is a jazz trumpeter who will be performing on April 16. Miller began playing trumpet when he was in grade school with his father’s encouragement.
He would listen to records of Miles, Dizzy, Chet, Maynard, Basie and Sinatra, with his father, which helped him form the idea of what jazz trumpet should sound like.
The last artist of the Allison Nelson Guest Artist Series is Break of Reality, and they will come to Blankenship Recital Hall on Sept. 23.
Break of Reality is regarded as one of the world’s premiere alt-classical chamber ensembles. They were formed in 2003 at the Eastman School of Music and are now touring the world and are dedicated to musical education.
Hill links company sponsorships with sponsorships from people who care about arts in Northwest Tennessee. She lets the sponsors pick who they would like to see, but in most cases, they trust her judgement.
The price for admission to these concerts largely depends on the notoriety of the group and on sponsorships received. In some cases, UTM Music has received multiple sponsors for one event, which helps lower the cost for attendance.
Some of the sponsors for this series have included, The Paul Meek Library, Savant Learning Systems, The Martin Philharmonic Music Guild, Phil Blankenship and other individuals from the Martin community.
If you are interested in watching these performances, tickets are $10 for general admissions, $5 for non-UTM students with a student ID and are free for UTM students. You can reserve your tickets online on the UTM Department of Music webpage. For more information contact Chelsea Jones at chelseajones@utm.edu.
So next time you pass a light pole in the quad or see a bench in honor of someone, know that they’ve done much, but also know that there are other, more lasting ways to honor faculty, ways that give constant attribution to who they were and what they stood for.
Dr. Allison Nelson plays at UTM in 1978. |File Photo/ University Relations
