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Deen Entsminger |
The Randolph-Macon College Department of Arts is pleased to welcome Deen Entsminger as a composer-in-residence for the spring 2010 semester. Entsminger is teaching a course for music majors in composition, and the college has commissioned him to compose an original work for the R-MC Concert Choir. This new work will be premiered at the Choir’s spring concert on May 1, 2010.
Entsminger is currently on sabbatical from the faculty of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has taught in the School of Music since 1988. He has over 25 published compositions with Colla Voce and Musical Source Publishing and he has been a guest conductor for festivals in Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia. In March of 1998, he conducted the West Virginia All-State Chorus. Since 1995, he has served as choral director for the Shenandoah Performing Arts camp at his Alma Mater in Winchester, Virginia. Entsminger is also a visiting professor at Shenandoah University, teaching advanced conducting for students in their master’s and doctoral programs.
“I have enjoyed being engaged with young musicians and music learners who accept the premise that what we are undertaking is a noble enterprise, the outcome of which is not defined at the outset,” says Entsminger. “The creative process requires a deposit of faith in one’s ability to locate and nurture the pitches, rhythms and harmonies that ultimately produce a finished composition. There are few other disciplines that would allow such a journey without perceivable conclusions before initiating a plan of action. I am excited to be a part of something that may have not occurred before at Randolph- Macon. The students are certainly pioneers of the future of musical composition at this institution. It is my privilege to be among them, collectively searching for the means to a compositional end.”
Entsminger’s R-MC residency and the commissioned work for the choir are supported by the Jean and Ladell Payne Fund for Visiting Artists. Dr. Payne was the president of Randolph-Macon College from 1979-1997.
R-MC Choral Alumni Reunion On Saturday, May 1, 2010, the R-MC Concert Choir, Chamber Singers and Jazz Ensemble will perform Entsminger’s commissioned work at their annual concert as they welcome former members of R-MC choral ensembles (including the former R-MC Glee Club) for a reunion. The choir and singers are under the direction of Professor Chris Ryder and the jazz ensemble is directed by Professor Kevin Harding.
The concert will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Blackwell Auditorium, R-MC Center for the Performing Arts. This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Professor Chris Ryder at
cryder@rmc.edu or (804) 752-3798.