News
Associate Dean to Retire
Edward Williams, associate dean for research
and graduate studies and professor of music,
will retire in August 2005
after 15 years at Penn
State. The author of The
Bells of Russia: History
and Technology (Princeton University
Press, 1985), Williams
previously served as director
of the Division of Music
History at the University
of Kansas and taught music history at the University
of California at Los Angeles.
Williams, who speaks Russian, French and Spanish, holds a doctorate in medieval studies and a master of arts in the history of music from Yale University, a master of music in musicology from Indiana University and a bachelor of music in piano from Florida State University. In addition to his book and other publications on bell ringing in Russian culture, he has written articles on Byzantine chant.
In support of his research, he has received grants from the Fulbright program, Dumbarton Oaks, the National Humanities Center, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among other organizations. An international traveler, Williams has taken intensive courses in French and Spanish in Martinique, Qu´ebec, Mexico, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and other locations.
While at Penn State, Williams has been on numerous university-wide committees related to graduate research, in addition to serving on the International Council, the advisory board of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and the steering committee for the Penn State United Way Campaign. He has also served as the College of Arts and Architecture’s commencement coordinator, and most recently chaired the search for the new director of the School of Music. A native of Florida, Williams plans to relocate to Sarasota. –AMM
Roy Retires after 26 Years
Suzanne Roy, associate professor of music in
voice, retired from the University in December
2004 after 26 years of service.
Before joining the
Penn State faculty in
1978, Roy had an active
and extensive career as a
solo recitalist, and performed
in opera and oratorio.
She has sung frequently
with the State College
Choral Society and
with Penn State vocal, choral and instrumental ensembles.
As a recitalist, she is especially well known
for singing the French repertoire and 20th-century vocal
music. Roy also gave the premiere performances of
a number of works by Penn State composers Burt
Fenner, professor emeritus of music, and Bruce
Trinkley, professor of music.
While at Penn State, Roy directed the Penn State
Opera Workshop and served for one year as interim
co-director of the School of Music, with Burt Fenner.
She has also been credited with building and developing
the school’s distinguished voice program that today
is recognized nationally.
Roy received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Before coming to Penn State, she served on the faculties of Radford University and the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. While teaching at the University of Wisconsin, she was director of a study abroad program in France. As a researcher and author, Roy has received grants from numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Humanities for her research on the relationship between words and music. She received a Wingspread grant for her creative work in developing music in general studies courses.
Roy serves as a regular reviewer of song-related books and electronic media for the American Library Association. She is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the College Music Society, and has held administrative positions in both organizations. In addition, she was chair of the committee to prepare standards, levels and actual content of the first Pennsylvania solo vocal list for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. In her retirement, Roy is serving as a docent at the Palmer Museum of Art an taking art history classes to support that work. She is also working with the Arts and Humanities Library at Penn State to strengthen its vocal collection, in addition to volunteering at Mount Nittany Medical Center and teaching private voice lessons. –AMM
Trinkley to Retire after 25 Years
Bruce Trinkley, professor of music and director
of the Penn State Glee Club, will retire in August
2005 after 35 years
at Penn State.
A native of Pittsburgh,
Trinkley received his undergraduate
and graduate
degrees in composition
from Columbia University.
He has conducted more
than 50 productions of musicals
and operas and
served as music director and conductor for Pennsylvania
Centre Stage (formerly Festival Theatre) for 25
years. At Penn State he has taught graduate and
undergraduate composition, conducting, orchestration,
music history and opera literature.
Director of the Glee Club since 1970, Trinkley has led the group in tours of Wales, France, Trinidad and Tobago, and throughout the United States. He has directed more than 600 performances and composed and arranged many pieces for the ensemble. Recordings under his baton include The Green Album (folk songs from the British Isles and the United States), The Blue and White Album (a diverse recording including traditional school spirit songs, African American spirituals and more) and P.S.–Happy Holidays. Trinkley’s music has been performed in the United States, Europe, Australia and China.
His Songs for the End of the Recital was premiered by mezzo-soprano Jan Wilson at Carnegie Hall in 1994. His works include Santa Rosalia, a cantata inspired by paintings by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero and filmed for PBS; Mountain Laurels, a choral symphony using texts by Pennsylvania poets; and York: The Voice of Freedom, a full-length opera about the life of the only African American on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was premiered by the Penn State Opera Theatre in 2002 and filmed for broadcast on PBS. Eve’s Odds, a comic chamber opera based on the book of Genesis, won the National Opera Association’s 1999 Chamber Opera Competition. Cleo won the same competition in 2001.
Trinkley’s most recent work includes Christopher Robin Songs, settings of poems by A. A. Milne, the British author and creator of Winnie the Pooh. The songs were premiered by the PALS Children’s Chorus of Boston in February 2005 at the New England Conservatory of Music. Trinkley’s opera for young people, The Prairie Dog Who Met the President, with text by Jason Charnesky, instructor in English at Penn State, was presented by the Penn State Opera Theatre in March. In retirement, Trinkley plans to continue writing operas with Charnesky. He has also been commissioned to write a choral piece for the dedication of the new organ in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center at University Park--KAH
