Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • SUMMER 2017 • PAN PIPES 27 of Music in music education and conducting at the University of Victoria. Touring with her ensembles inspired her master's thesis on the musical and personal transformations that occur on tours, and her D.M.A. thesis at the Eastman School of Music centered on the music of William Kraft, one of this generation's leading composers. At Eastman, Dr. Turner was the recipient of the prestigious teaching award in conducting. She received the National Leadership in Education Award (Canada), the Excellence in Education Award (Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation), and the Marion Drysdale Leadership Award (also from OSSTF). She is also the recipient of the Donald A. Reick Memorial Award for research with wearable technologies and music pedagogy, and the American Prize for innovative programming with wind bands. Dr. Turner has commissioned numerous new works for wind band and orchestra, and she continues to actively promote commissions by today's leading and emerging composers around the world. Under her direction, the Cornell Wind Ensemble was invited to perform at the College Band Directors National Association's Eastern Division Conference in 2007 and 2012. In 2008, the Merrill Presidential Scholars at Cornell recognized her as an outstanding educator, and in 2009, she was awarded the Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship. Her performances have been praised by such composers as Steven Stucky, William Kraft, Steven Bryant, Marc Mellits, Eddie Mora, Dana Wilson, Roberto Sierra, Jesse Jones, and Karel Husa. Dr. Nicholaus B. Cummins Dr. Nicholaus B. Cummins was initiated as a Friend of the Arts by the Beta Iota Chapter at Northwestern State University in April. Dr. Cummins is director of choral activities at Northwestern State University. Cummins joins Northwestern State's faculty after four years as director of choral activities at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. In that role, he was responsible for conducting all choral ensembles, teaching beginning and advanced choral conducting, choral literature, and choral methods courses. He handled all recruiting activities related to the vocal-choral area at Delta State. In collaboration with the vocal faculty, Cummins quadrupled the number of entering music majors and tripled the number of non-majors in the choral area over four years. Cummins was the coordinator and administrator for the Delta State University Honor Choir, which comprised 150 students from a three state region each February and worked with a nationally renowned conductor. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Cummins earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at Louisiana State University. While completing his doctorate at LSU, Cummins was a graduate teaching fellow where he was instructor of voice and conductor of the LSU Women's Chorale and Chamber Singers. He was an instructor of music at UAB and served as conductor of the Women's Chorale and assistant conductor of the Concert Choir. Cummins also taught public school music for five years in Texas and Alabama, and has been involved with church music for nearly 20 years. Trevor Davis Trevor Davis was initiated as a Friend of the Arts by the Epsilon Kappa Chapter at Louisiana Technical University in March. Originally from Delaware, Trevor has a Bachelors of Arts from Kutztown University, a Masters in Jazz Studies from Indiana University, and a Masters in Multiple Woodwinds from UNC Greensboro. He continued at UNC Greensboro and has recently completed a DMA in Clarinet Performance. Trevor joined the music faculty at Louisiana Tech University in the fall of 2016 as Assistant Professor of Single Reeds and Jazz Ensemble. Since joining the university he has assumed the position of Advisor for both the Sigma Alpha Iota and the Phi Mu Alpha chapters. He has also created the Runet B. Davis Saxophone Quartet at the university. Dr. Michelle Fiertek Dr. Michelle Fiertek was initiated as a Friend of the Arts by the Eta Mu Chapter at The Hartt School in April. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Hartford's Hartt School and at Manchester Community College, director of the Community Division's Summer Musical Theatre Intensive, adjunct Community Division voice faulty member, and a prominent member of the Hartford Opera Theater Company. She makes each of her students feel cared for on an individual level and provides a holistic musical experience for everyone she teaches. Dr. Fiertek has provided musical, academic, and emotional support for many SAI members, along with the support she has given as the chapter's Social Faculty Advisor. A lyric soprano, Dr. Fiertek has been a faculty and guest recital artist at venues including California State University, San Bernardino; Arizona State University; California State University, Long Beach; California Baptist University; Georgia Southern University; and The Hartt School, University of Hartford. She has also been featured throughout the United States as a soloist in many large-scale choral works, including Fauré's Requiem, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Mass in C Minor, Vivaldi's Gloria, Bach's B Minor Mass and Handel's Dettingen Te Deum and Messiah. Martha Frantz Martha Frantz was initiated as a Friend of the Arts by the Rockford Alumnae Chapter in February. Marti is the Director of the Music Academy and has been in this position since 1987. Prior to assuming that responsibility, she taught cello with a loosely allied group of Suzuki teachers who collaboratively offered Suzuki group classes in loaned space. From that group, the Music Academy of Rockford College was formed in 1985. The Music Academy became an independent community school of music in 2011 under Frantz's direction. Marti began piano lessons at age 5 and cello lessons at age 10, and she began to perform with the Rockford Symphony at age 13. She holds a bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University and a master's DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS FRIEND OF THE ARTS a man or woman who is supportive of and actively involved in the arts at a local or regional level Cummins Davis Fiertek Frantz

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