ASU a top producer of Teach for America teachers for 2017

October 4, 2017

Teach for America (TFA) recently released its annual ranking of the colleges and universities contributing the highest number of graduating college seniors to its 2017 teaching corps, and for the third consecutive year, Arizona State University ranks among the top five producers in the U.S.

With 50 Sun Devils joining the corps in 2017, ASU is the third among large universities contributing volunteers to TFA. Last year, ASU ranked fourth on the list with 41 graduates committing to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools across the U.S. Kids in a classroom Recent ASU graduate Clare Santos is among the newest Sun Devils to become a Teach for America corps member. She is pictured here in here in her Memphis, Tennessee, classroom surrounded by future Sun Devils. Download Full Image

“We are extremely excited that ASU has moved up another place on the list of top TFA producers to take the number 3 spot — the highest ranking we have ever achieved with TFA,” said Cindy Parnell, executive director of Career and Professional Development Services at ASU.

“We’re thrilled to continue our longstanding partnership with TFA, which has resulted in a consistent pool of talented, diverse and service-minded college graduates committed to expanding educational opportunities for children in low-income communities.”

Nationally, the 2017 TFA corps members come from more than 720 colleges and universities and represent one of the most diverse corps in the organization’s history, TFA officials said.

“Nearly half of our incoming corps members identify as people of color; 43 percent come from low-income backgrounds; and one in three are the first in their family to attend college,” said Veronica Aguilar, TFA recruitment director at ASU.

“As corps members, ASU graduates are joining a powerful network shaping the political, economic and social future of our country across a wide range of career sectors,” Aguilar said. “Their decision to choose a career of impact is often rooted in their own college experiences, and we are proud to have so many Sun Devil alumni committed to working toward educational equity,” she added.

Nicolas Parra, a recent ASU graduate and current TFA corps member, credits his broad academic and leadership experiences at ASU for attracting him to the TFA opportunity.

“I taught WPC 101: Student Success in Business three times as an undergraduate, and fell in love with teaching,” said Parra who currently teaches in the Tucson Unified School District, where he completed his K-12 education. “When I started to research TFA, more and more, I found how aligned it was with my values as a citizen of the community in which I was embedded,” he said.

As an undergraduate, Parra took full advantage of all that ASU has to offer in and outside the classroom, participating in Undergraduate Student Government, Devils’ Advocates, Greek life, the Medallion of Merit Scholarship Program and more. In each of these experiences, Parra said he often found himself in a leadership role.

“By being able to join multiple clubs, meet hundreds of different people, showcase my talents and build my leadership toolbox, I believe that I became an ideal candidate for Teach for America,” Parra said. “I never would have received this plurality of opportunities at any other university.”

After completing his two-year commitment to TFA, Parra looks forward to attending law school.

Joan M. Sherwood

Executive Director, Strategic Marketing & Communication, Educational Outreach & Student Services

480-965-3277 joan.sherwood@asu.edu

Explore time at the Prisms Contemporary Music Festival in ASU’s School of Music

The exploration of temporality in Eastern and Western music is the focus of “Out of Time,” this year’s Prisms Contemporary Music Festival at the Arizona State University School of Music, Nov. 8–12.In the world of music, “time, timing, time keeping and being in time together” are often considered crucial aspects of performance. But some musicians have been skeptical. Legendary jazz comp...

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Explore time at the Prisms Contemporary Music Festival in ASU’s School of Music

October 4, 2017

In the world of music, “time, timing, time keeping and being in time together” are often considered crucial aspects of performance. But some musicians have been skeptical. Legendary jazz composer Sun Ra declared “time has officially ended,” and physicist and amateur violinist Albert Einstein once said “time is an illusion.” The eighth edition of the Prisms Contemporary Music Festival at the ASU School of Music in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts foregrounds unusual musical treatments of time and presents compelling works from artists in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States. Prisms cymbal Download Full Image

“The Prisms Contemporary Music Festival theme allows us to present live performances of such iconic, yet rarely heard works as Iannis Xenakis’s ‘Epicycles’ for cello solo and chamber ensemble and Toshi Ichiyanagi’s ‘Still Time’ for flute solo,” said Sabine Feisst, professor of musicology. “The festival programs span works composed in the last 50 years, with the majority of the repertoire created after 1980.”

Offering the highest-quality performances of experimental music in the Phoenix metropolitan area, the annual Prisms Contemporary Music Festival is comprised of themed concerts including world and U.S. premieres. The festival showcases great music that is rarely performed, along with pre-concert talks, round tables, film screenings, installations and workshops. The goal of the festival, which was founded by Simone Mancuso and Glenn Hackbarth in 2009, is to promote the view that music is a living tradition — an exciting and vibrant part of modern life — and to pass on that belief by combining performances with informative lectures and discussions for ASU students, faculty and the local community.

“Out of Time” takes place on ASU’s Tempe campus and complements the events of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference at ASU, which coincides with the festival. The festival is organized by Simone Mancuso, faculty associate of percussion; Sabine Feisst, professor of musicology; and Garth Paine, associate professor of music composition and digital sound.

“Each year we offer a wide range of events and pioneering works from inventors of a trend to representatives of the latest and most innovative tendency,” Mancuso said. “This year’s theme embraces, among other pieces, ‘Uversa,’ for basset horn and electronics from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s last unfinished work, ‘Klang,’ which was inspired by the 24-hour cycle of the day. A special treat is the performance of Italian clarinetist and longtime Stockhausen collaborator Michele Marelli, who performed the world premiere of ‘Uversa.’ Marelli will present the work’s first performance in the United States during the Prisms Festival.”

The first concert of the festival features Marelli, bassett horn, and Thomas Landschoot, cello, presenting Arizona and U.S. premieres of Xenakis’s “Epicycles” and Stockhausen’s “Uversa,” respectively. The concert also includes the world premiere of Garth Paine’s “Surface, Texture,” which explores Western and Eastern concepts of musical time.

The second concert showcases internationally renowned composer and sound designer Carla Scaletti’s own music using the Kyma system. “We are thrilled that she is performing a concert of live electronic and electroacoustic works,” Paine said, “including pieces created during her artist residency at the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) in Switzerland.”

“This year’s festival also features a workshop directed by Scaletti, computer music wizard and inventor of the Kyma system,” Paine said. This free two-day workshop, “Kyma, Live Interaction, Sound Design,” takes place Nov. 8–9 and allows students to learn how to use the Kyma environment as a creative tool for electronic music making.

Scaletti also provides a guest lecture,“Mu-Psi: Making the Invisible Audible” on Nov. 9 as part of the School of Arts, Media and Engineering’s Digital Culture Speaker series. This talk is free and open to the public.

This year, the Phoenix-based interdisciplinary ensemble Crossing32nd Street rounds off the festival with the world premiere of a new large-scale work, “Opus Claviblasticum,” by ASU alumni composer-performer and faculty associate Jacob Adler. In the course of one hour, this work explores different modes of time perception.

Numerous students in the School of Music and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering are participating in the festival, including members of the Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Laptop Orchestra of Arizona State University (LORKAS) and graduate students in composition and musicology.

“I hope that the participants in this festival are inspired by the spectrum of music and discussions offered,” Feisst said. “And hopefully they can explore these musical directions further, as performers, composers or as listeners.”

Festival highlights

“Kyma” Workshop
9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Nov. 8–9
ASU School of Arts, Media and Engineering
Carla Scaletti and Kurt Hebel, directors
Admission: Free
This workshop focuses on Kyma, an environment for creating, manipulating, combining and interacting with high-quality audio signals and emphasizes live interaction and sound design. This workshop is co-sponsored by LORKAS, the Laptop Orchestra of Arizona State. Several Kyma systems are available for use.

Guest Lecture: “Mu-Psi: Making the Invisible Audible”
3–4 p.m. Nov. 9
B125, Stauffer B-wing, first floor, ASU School of Arts, Media and Engineering
Carla Scaletti, guest speaker
Admission: Free

Concert 1: “Musical Time: East vs West”
7:30 p.m. Nov. 8
Katzin Concert Hall, ASU School of Music
Simone Mancuso, director
Tickets: $5–9
Purchase tickets at: ASU Events
Featuring internationally renowned clarinetist Michele Marelli; ASU School of Music faculty Thomas Landschoot, cello; and ASU alumni Joseph Millea, percussion, this concert includes works by Toshi Ichiyanagi and Minoru Miki. The concert showcases the Arizona premiere of Iannis Xenakis’s “Epicycles” for solo cello and ensemble, the U.S. premieres of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Uversa” for bassett horn and electronics and Kotoka Suzuki’s “Orison” (2017) as well as the world premiere of Garth Paine’s “Surface, Texture” for ensemble and electronics (2017).

Concert 2: “Mu-Psi: Making the Invisible Audible”
7:30 p.m. Nov. 9
Katzin Concert Hall, School of Music
Tickets: $5–9
Purchase tickets at: ASU Events
Enjoy an evening of live experimental music inspired by science and performed by internationally acclaimed and award-winning composer and sound designer Carla Scaletti, who designed the Kyma system and co-founded Symbolic Sound Corporation.

Concert 3: “Time in Tree – Clock Time – Time in Sports”
7:30 p.m. Nov. 11
Simone Mancuso, Director
Katzin Concert Hall, ASU School of Music
Admission: Free
The Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble presents pieces composed by Annie Gosfield, Toshi Ichiyanagi and ASU student composers Cameron Robello and JP Lemke.

Concert 4: “In Time vs Out of Time”
7:30 p.m. Nov. 12
Organ Hall, ASU School of Music
Admission: Free
Crossing 32nd Street presents the world premiere of one large-scale work for three pianos, percussion quartet, organ and open ensemble: “Opus Claviblasticum,” composed by Phoenix-based ASU alumni, composer-performer and faculty associate Jacob Adler. The work juxtaposes sections “in time” featuring periodic rhythms and sections “out of time” marked by drone-like sustained sounds.

Pre-concert lectures and roundtable
Presented by Madison Heying, musicologist from the University of California, Santa Cruz; Sabine Feisst, professor of musicology; Kristina Knowles and Christopher Stover, both assistant professors of music theory; and by ASU graduate students in musicology.

For more information on the Contemporary Music Festival, go to: www.musicprisms.org.