The School of Music will hold its annual Faculty Collage Concert Sept.12 to showcase faculty talents to students, staff and the public. Credit: Katie Good | Assistant Photo Editor
The School of Music will hold its annual Faculty Collage Concert Sept.12 to showcase faculty talents to students, staff and the public.
Susan Powell, professor of percussion and the concert’s coordinator, said the free concert is a great way for new students to see what the School of Music has to offer and bring a sense of community to not only to students, but faculty members as well. The concert has been a School of Music tradition for over two decades.
“It’s a time for not only for the students to get to know the performing faculty, but even as faculty colleagues, we often get so entrenched in our own roles and our own jobs, and we don’t have time to appreciate what we do as colleagues,” Powell said.
The School of Music’s Collage Concert returns fully in-person and without required masking this year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Powell said it’s called a “collage concert” because the different performances are strung together continuously like a collage.
“It’s called the collage concert because it’s set up like a musical collage, so there’s no applause between pieces, and it’s highly produced with lighting,” Powell said.
Powell said when she was in graduate school at Northwestern University, they offered a faculty collage concert. She said she decided to bring it to Ohio State during her second year as an assistant professor, and it has now become an annual event.
“We had done this where I went to grad school, and I thought it was a great way for the student body to have a chance to see all of the faculty perform just short pieces, kind of a snapshot of what we offer,” Powell said.
Powell said performances are still being organized, and it is a different experience every year. It is open to all faculty members per their request.
“Our woodwind faculty will play solos, brass faculty, there will be a jazz group, probably, our jazz faculty usually play a piece together,” Powell said. “But it’s different every year, it’s very eclectic.”
Bruce Henniss, professor of horn, said he has performed annually at past Faculty Collage Concerts with the exception of the last two years. He said he enjoys hearing his colleagues play, which is one of his favorite aspect of the concert.
“Our teaching schedules are so busy that it’s rare that we get to hear the art that our other colleagues are making, so I think that probably my most favorite aspect of it is, in addition to contributing myself, is getting to hear my other colleagues do their art thing for the students,” Henniss said.
Henniss said he hopes that the audience will gain a sense of the different opportunities that each faculty member performance has to offer.
“The ones that we are hoping benefit the most are our audience which is mostly comprised of students,” Henniss said. “Students in the School of Music can hear how the other professors perform, and create art, and the level of artistry and stuff like that.”
The event is free, open to the public and will be held at the Weigel Hall Auditorium from 8-9:30 p.m.
