News
Blue Band Earns National Recognition
Band Awarded Prestigious Sudler Trophy
The Penn State Blue Band received one of the highest recognitions bestowed upon collegiate marching bands when it was awarded the Sudler Trophy during the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago in December 2004. The trophy was officially presented to the Blue Band during the Homecoming football game against Purdue on October 29, 2005.
The Sudler Trophy, sponsored by the John Phillip Sousa Foundation through an endowment from the late philanthropist Louis Sudler and his wife Virginia, has been presented annually since 1982 to recognize an outstanding college marching band with a long history and reputation for excellence. Not a contest prize, the award recognizes ongoing achievement.
“The significance of this for myself, the Blue Band and Penn State is that it is a confirmation of our tradition and history,” said Richard Bundy, Blue Band director since 1996. “It is not a recognition for any one particular director or Blue Band, but rather an acknowledgement of our 106-year history. It is an acknowledgement of and tribute to years of effort by many people.”
Each fall every NCAA marching band director submits nominations for the recognition. Those nominations are tabulated and the top two, along with the top two choices of the members of the Sudler Trophy Committee, produce a group of four finalists. The committee then selects the recipient.
The Blue Band keeps the traveling trophy for one year and receives a plaque for permanent display at Penn State.
From the Football Field to the Catwalk
The Blue Band received national recognition of a different kind when 99 members of the band strutted the catwalk to open Marc Jacobs’ 2006 spring/summer fashion show on September 12, 2005, in New York City. The band had been contacted just a couple weeks earlier, when organizers discovered the Blue Band’s Web site while searching for a college marching band within relatively close proximity to the event.
Jacobs’ spring/summer 2006 collection incorporates school uniform-inspired nostalgia and a palette of blue, silver and white, so the Blue Band members in their clean-lined uniforms were a perfect fit to open the show. Feature twirler P.J. Maierhofer led the dancing students down the catwalk, where they played their rendition of Nirvana’s 1991 hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Following the show—and while still wearing their uniforms—the band members briefly attended an invitation-only gathering, where they mingled with celebrities like actresses Kirsten Dunst and Lindsey Lohan.
“The students put on a great show and represented themselves, the band and Penn State in exemplary fashion,” says band director Dick Bundy. “The feedback from the professional production staff of the event was glowing. The producer told me she had not worked with a more professional group in her years of producing Marc Jacobs’ events. I am very proud of the students and their efforts.”
Coverage of the Penn State performance was included in national publications such as The New York Times and USA TODAY.
Tacconi Appointed Executive Director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities
Marica S. Tacconi, associate professor of musicology, has been appointed executive director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH). Her three-year term began July 1, 2005. The IAH, jointly administered by the College of Arts and Architecture and the College of the Liberal Arts, fosters excellence by stimulating and supporting innovative, interdisciplinary work across the boundaries of departments, schools and colleges.
Tacconi previously served for two years as the institute’s associate director and for one semester as its acting director. She says she is most excited about her new position because she will have a direct role in fostering the arts and humanities at Penn State and in the community. Over the next three years, she plans to build on the solid foundations laid by former director Laura Knoppers. Together with Dennis Schmidt, professor of philosophy and comparative literature and the institute’s director of special projects and symposia, she also plans on leading the institute to a higher level of national and international visibility.
Tacconi joined the School of Music faculty in 1998 and teaches undergraduate and graduate music history. A native of central Italy, she holds a B.A. from Williams College and a Ph.D. in musicology from Yale University. Tacconi’s dissertation, “Liturgy and Chant at the Cathedral of Florence: A Survey of the Pre-Tridentine Sources (10th–16th Centuries),” is a broadly interdisciplinary study of more than 70 liturgical manuscripts. Based on two years of research in Florence and supported by Yale University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, her dissertation received a 1997–98 AMS 50 Award from the American Musicological Society.
Her interdisciplinary research interests extend beyond music history to include the art, culture and politics of medieval and Renaissance Italy. In 1997, Tacconi co-organized a manuscript exhibition at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana of Florence, for which she was also the co-editor of the catalogue. She has presented papers at conferences in the United States, Italy, England, Denmark and Belgium and is the author of numerous articles, essays and catalogue entries.
Tacconi was the recipient of a 2002–03 Villa I Tatti post-doctoral fellowship from the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. During her year in residence in Florence, she worked toward the completion of the monograph Cathedral and Civic Ritual in Late Medieval and Renaissance Florence: The Service Books of Santa Maria del Fiore (Cambridge University Press, 2005). In 2001, she received a College of Arts and Architecture Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching. Also a performer, she has appeared as both pianist and harpsichordist and as director of several early music ensembles.
To learn more about the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, visit www.research.psu.edu/iah
New Core Curriculum
The College of Arts and Architecture’s Core Curriculum, developed to give entering students a broader understanding of the arts and design disciplines offered by the college, was launched at the beginning of the fall 2005 semester. As part of the new curriculum, all first-year students in architecture, integrative arts, landscape architecture and visual arts take two linked courses: an interdisciplinary theory course and a studio course. The classes are mixed with students from all the arts and design majors. Beginning in fall 2006, theatre majors will also be included in the Core Curriculum.
According to Yvonne Gaudelius, associate dean for undergraduate studies and outreach in the College of Arts and Architecture, the Core Curriculum should better prepare students for the professional world. “More and more areas are doing interdisciplinary work,” she explains. “Over the last 100 years, schools segregated disciplines, but on a professional level the arts and design disciplines have been collaborating. That’s why we want to expose our students to all these areas.”
The theory course introduces students to a broad range of critical practices and intellectual platforms with long- and short-term implications on art, design and culture. It includes panel presentations by invited speakers with varied ideas and perspectives, plus workshops on topics such as design software and research methodology.
The studio course emphasizes both process and product, so students understand that theory is not separate from creating art and design. It introduces students to the studio teaching model in preparation for the upper-level courses in their majors.
In addition to their classroom and studio work, students in the Core Curriculum attend performances, exhibitions and related events to gain more varied exposure to the arts and design. On a practical level, attendance at these events introduces students to the arts and culture opportunities available on campus.
Peter Aeschbacher, assistant professor of architecture and landscape architecture, is coordinator of the Core Curriculum, which was developed by an interdisciplinary group of College of Arts and Architecture faculty. Both Core courses are taught by faculty from all the arts and design disciplines. Gaudelius says development of this curriculum has allowed faculty to discuss collaboration among their areas at both the academic and professional levels, and that the initiative may lead to other collaborative ventures.
Core Curriculum coordinator Peter Aeschbacher describes the Core as an opportunity to provide students with:
- Familiarity with the disciplines of art and design offered within the College of Arts and Architecture
- The opportunity to develop critical thinking skills grounded in the history, theory and practice of art and design
- The experience of the process of creating works of art and design in a studio environment
- A broad range of experiences in and out of class/studio intended to enrich their development
- The opportunity to engage in the scholarly community
