![\"All-Steinway](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/steinway-645.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nSteinway and Sons representatives from New York City and Washington, D.C., officially presented the All-Steinway School plaque to President Gray, Board of Trustees Chair Tom Barron, and Professor of Music Judith Cline (left to right). Hollins joins George Mason University, James Madison University, Radford University, and Episcopal High School in Alexandria as Virginia’s only All-Steinway Schools.<\/p>\n
Music\u2014most notably, piano music\u2014was this year\u2019s Founder\u2019s Day theme. The All-Steinway celebration began with the late-afternoon campus convocation. The huge, glossy-black grand piano that dominated the altar area of duPont Chapel was put through its paces throughout the ceremony, with piano performances by Naomi Fukuda \u201915 and Jessica Newberne \u201914 and by choir director Shelbie Wahl-Fouts, accompanied by Liz Valvano \u201915 (bassoon) and Birdie Trotter \u201915 (flute). Professor of Music Judith Cline sang Richard Strauss\u2019s \u201cMorgen!,\u201d<\/i> accompanied by pianist Barbara Mackin, and pianists Kerry Morgiewicz and Melia Garber accompanied the Concert Choir. T. J. Anderson III, associate professor of English, read his jazz poem \u201cPrelude to a Kiss\u201d to an accompaniment by Morgiewicz.<\/p>\n
![\"Alexander](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/alexander_schimpf__180.jpg\")
The celebration continued that evening with a spectacular performance by pianist Alexander Schimpf, who has won a series of competitions, most recently the Cleveland International Piano Competition. His performance showed both his personal range\u2014he played pieces by Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Chopin, Grieg, and Kapustin\u2014and the marvelous capacities of the Steinway on which he performed.<\/p>\n
Becoming an All-Steinway School was a 10-year journey, which reached its destination last summer with the purchase of seven new pianos. To receive the designation, 90 percent of an institution\u2019s pianos must be Steinway or Boston instruments (Boston is a Steinway brand that responds well to the rigors of the institutional setting). Hollins\u2019 instrument collection contains nine Steinway grand pianos, four Boston grand pianos, and seven Boston upright pianos. The effort was funded by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.<\/p>\n
![\"divider\"](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/wave.png\")
<\/b><\/b><\/h3>\nFebruary 20, 2014<\/p>\n
Note, solitary.<\/em> So let these words weave their way across<\/em> May this sounding womb<\/em> This piano is a reflecting pond.<\/em> I offer you this:<\/em> Emma Sperka ’12 and Susanna Young ’09 returned to Hollins to reprise their roles in Decision Height<\/em> during February’s theatre festival.<\/p>\n Hollins more than doubled its population in February when it cohosted with Mill Mountain Theatre the Region Four festival of the 56th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). Some 900 students and faculty from colleges and universities in the Southeast met to share ideas and showcase their work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Founder’s Day, the campus community celebrated Hollins’ designation as an All-Steinway School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,6],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-4925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-in_the_loop","tag-spring-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4925"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5425,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions\/5425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOrnamentally hung<\/em>
\naloft in the wooden brocade<\/em>
\nof this sacred space.<\/em>
\nA chord perhaps,<\/em>
\nplaintive and pianissimo.<\/em>
\nThe manner in which a piano unravels<\/em>
\nthis prelude<\/em>
\nthis prelude to a kiss.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthe vast savannah of air that separates us.<\/em>
\nMay this song arabesque inside<\/em>
\nthe sacred curve of your ear.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nonce sculpted from a tree<\/em>
\ninvite a mosaic of fingers to play<\/em>
\nto touch us inside with the music of the cosmos.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe keys are brightly colored koi<\/em>
\nlazily darting among a solitary lotus,<\/em>
\npedals oxygenating the murk.<\/em>
\nOr see it as a bison, the last of its kind<\/em>
\nwagging her massive head,<\/em>
\nmoaning to a rhythm we intuitively know.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThis piano, the prelude,<\/em>
\nthis poem, this kiss.<\/em>
\nSo tell me now what is it?<\/em>
\nWhat is it?<\/em>
\nWhat is it<\/em>
\nthat rises up into<\/em>
\nthe rafters to lift you<\/em>
\nto give birth to your own<\/em>
\nhauntingly beautiful song?<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Decision](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/decision-height-645.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nDecision Height<\/i> reaches new level<\/h3>\n
Student\u2019s play wins national honors<\/h4>\n
![\"Meredith](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/meredith-levy-144px1.jpg\")
The play Decision Height<\/i>, by Meredith Dayna Levy \u201912, a current student in Hollins\u2019 M.F.A. program in playwriting, had been previously selected by KCACTF to be shown during the festival. The play earned four more citations from KCACTF: Outstanding Production of a New Work; Distinguished Director of a New Work (presented to Associate Professor of Theatre Ernie Zulia); Distinguished Achievement, Performance and Production Ensembles; and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award for Levy. \u201cI could not have asked for a more beautifully supportive and constructive development process than that which Todd Ristau [director of the M.F.A. program in playwriting], Ernie Zulia, Bob Moss [a member of the M.F.A. faculty], and my undergraduate and graduate peers have so generously provided,\u201d said Levy.\u00a0\u201cIn addition, this play has had some really incredible opportunities because of the support and trust that the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival had in the script, and I feel really lucky to have had that support so early in my playwriting career.\u201d<\/p>\n