By Michelle M. Falck

It is no small reflection on the quality of Old Dominion’s music program that three of the annual faculty awards given by the College of Arts and Letters went to members of the music department this year: Professor James Kosnik received the Robert L. Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching; Eminent Scholar Adolphus Hailstork was recognized with the Charles O. and Elisabeth C. Burgess Faculty Research and Creativity Award; and Associate Professor Nancy Klein was the first recipient of the Joel S. Lewis Faculty Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring.

ODU’s music faculty also are past winners of teaching awards from the State Council of Higher Education and the Virginia Music Educators Association, and recipients of innumerable other honors recognizing them as educators, performers and conductors. In addition to training students to be highly skilled music professionals and developing future music educators, these talented faculty members are committed to teaching as well as pursuing their individual passions for living creatively.

Dennis Zeisler, who recently stepped down as department chair after 12 years, has witnessed the program’s growth in both size and quality during his two decades at the university. “The department has grown significantly. We’ve added young, new faculty – eager with great credentials – that energize the department. I would like to see ODU’s music program continue to be competitive with other schools and become the finest program in the region, if not the state.”

Presented here are brief profiles of nine members from the department.

Adolphus Hailstork
World-renowned composer Adolphus Hailstork, an Old Dominion faculty member since 2000 and music teacher for 37 years, studied piano and organ as a youngster, and by his teenage years was composing.

“Back in those days, all entertainment was on the radio and the background music was classical. I fell in love with the stuff. The music went along with the adventure of the story and I discovered I wanted to write that,” he recalls.

Hailstork, designated an ODU eminent scholar, describes his musical style as having three different approaches: standard modern, avant-garde and roots. “Set Me on a Rock (Songs of Sanctuary from the Great Flood),” written for the Houston Choral Society and debuted in May 2007, is an example of the latter. The commissioned work tells of the plight of New Orleanians who were evacuated from the Superdome in the aftermath of Katrina and arrived in Houston to find compassion and hope.

He is currently working on two commissioned pieces, one of which, a children’s choir ballet based on O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” will be performed in Hampton Roads in December 2009.

Selected as Cultural Laureate for Virginia in 1992, Hailstork received the 2006 Ray Charles Award, given by Wilberforce University to honor musical excellence.

Andrey Kasparov
Born to a family of Armenian descent in the city of Baku, Azerbaijan, Andrey Kasparov began his study of music at age 6. An associate professor who joined the music department in 1997, he is both an accomplished composer and pianist.

He describes himself as a person who likes to be productive. Kasparov serves as the artistic director of the Norfolk Chamber Consort and regularly performs with Oksana Lutsyshyn as part of Invencia Piano Duo. He also is the founder and artistic director of Creo, a contemporary-music ensemble in residence at ODU. In March 2008, the ensemble premiered his composition, “Tsitsernakabert,” inspired by the memorial of the same name in Yerevan, Armenia, to commemorate the 1915 Armenian genocide.

Kasparov’s many awards and achievements include the Albert Roussel prize at the 1998 Orléans (France) International Piano Competition for 20th-century music and a solo performance in 1994 with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic in a world premiere of a newly discovered edition of Béla Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto.

Although Kasparov has performed, and his compositions have been performed, at numerous international festivals and venues – in such culturally rich cities as Moscow, Paris and New York – he expresses little need to leave the vicinity to seek artistic fulfillment.

Nancy Klein
Nancy Klein was the youngest faculty member in the music department when she arrived at Old Dominion in 1986, but 22 years later she has not lost her high energy level nor her enthusiasm for the program.

An associate professor and graduate program director, Klein directs the Concert Choir, consisting of 60 auditioned singers at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The choir has performed at the National Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Carnegie Hall.

In May 2005, the group recorded an album with the Japanese Air Self Defense Force Central Band, honoring heroism during World War II. One piece, “Kakehashi: That We Might Live,” written by Stephen Melillo, was inspired by and dedicated to the survivors of the Bataan Death March. Next May, Klein will conduct the choir in a performance on the USS Bataan at the Norfolk Naval Base. The program is expected to air on PBS.

Klein was the first recipient of the ODU Joel S. Lewis Faculty Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring, designed to reward faculty members who help Arts and Letters students bridge the gap between the academic world and “real world.” She proudly notes that all three music supervisors for the Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach public school systems are ODU alumni.

James Kosnik
Having learned to play the piano in elementary school, it was at the age of 13 that James Kosnik was introduced to the organ. His pastor hired him as parish organist, a role which brought “a lot of reinforcement and satisfaction” – and something more tangible. His earnings as the church musician enabled him to buy his first Mustang as a young man, he recalled with a laugh.

Kosnik, a member of the university faculty since 1982, has performed solo concerts in San Francisco and at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but cites his greatest achievement as the recipient of ODU’s 2008 Robert L. Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching, based on peer reviews of his teaching portfolio and student reviews.Teaching isn’t his only passion, however. Kosnik serves as church musician at Norfolk’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal and is on the board of the Virginia Opera. As a member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, he has toured every summer since the late 1980s. He also is the series editor of Laudate, a multivolume anthology of organ repertoire based on hymnody.

Kosnik has a number of CDs to his credit, among them, “The Sacred Legacy of Paris,” which won the Golden Ear Award from The Absolute Sound, America’s premiere audiophile magazine.

Harold Protsman
Harold Protsman can easily claim the longest-running relationship with the music department. He joined the school as an adjunct professor of piano and music history in 1957, and taught full time from 1970 until his retirement in 1995. A professor emeritus of music, he continues to teach piano on an adjunct basis.

In recognition of his professionalism and service, the department’s annual classical period piano competition, which Protsman directed for 18 years, was named in his honor last year.

Protsman’s love for the piano began in fourth grade, and his mother encouraged his interest by paying for lessons. Although his family did not own a piano, he practiced on a length of cardboard to learn the mechanics and rhythm.

“I loved the sound of the piano,” recalled Protsman, who grew up on a farm. And since he was not able to play football – there was no one else to milk the cows after school when the team practiced – he continued with the piano through high school.

“What really tilted the scale was when my wonderful music teacher challenged me to accompany the choir. She gave me remarkable encouragement.”

Even now, Protsman says, it is the “special relationship that a piano teacher has with a piano student” that motivates him.

John Toomey
Since joining Old Dominion in 1990, Professor John Toomey has worn many hats. He is director of the jazz studies program, writes the arrangements for the university’s nascent Jazz Choir and last year was named chair of the music department.

“They are great faculty who not only teach, but are living and doing what they teach,” Toomey said.

He is no exception. In the early 1990s, Toomey was designated a cultural specialist in jazz by the U.S. Information Agency, which led to a trip to Botswana to lecture and perform. A keyboardist, he has also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival and Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, as well as at clubs such as Blues Alley, the Blue Note and Birdland.

Formerly the music director and pianist for jazz trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson, with whom he recorded two CDs, Toomey has performed in concert with such artists as Clark Terry, Milt Hinton and Frank Foster. He performs locally with the John Toomey Trio.

His talents extend beyond the stage, however. A past winner of the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education, Toomey has written the soundtracks for documentaries that have aired on PBS, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel.

Alfred Townsend
Alfred Townsend, who joined the faculty in 2006 as the first F. Ludwig Diehn Endowed Chair in Instrumental Music Education, passionately believes that music enriches our lives. “Music chronicles the development of humankind and offers what cannot be expressed visually or in words,” he said. “It speaks to the human soul.”

It is this belief that drives his research. Townsend, who teaches graduate and undergraduate music education, has written many articles for national journals such as The Instrumentalist, Band and Orchestra, and the National Band Association Journal, among others.

His article, “Driving Music Education: Who’s at the Wheel,” appeared in the August edition of the national Teaching Music journal. Currently he is working on a textbook for exploring instrumental music.

This summer Townsend was invited to deliver an address to the International Society for Music Education at its biennial world conference in Italy. His topic, “Connecting Parents with Learning,” explored ways to strengthen ties between families and educational institutions, based on research that demonstrates how parental involvement has positive effects on student success.

His research includes creating a curriculum for teaching instruments in the elementary music classroom. “There is no greater satisfaction than to see a young person be successful in creating music,” Townsend said.

Alex Treviño
A new addition to the music faculty, Alexander Treviño has wasted no time immersing himself in the spirit and activities of Old Dominion over the past year. As director of athletic bands, he is tasked with forming the Marching Monarchs and preparing them for their debut next fall with the start of ODU football.

“Now that all the preparatory steps are in place, we can start doing all the other things,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better starting group. They are good musicians and they are working very hard.”

Approximately 240 students initially expressed interest in joining the band, but only 130 auditioned in August, once they discovered the time commitment and the skill level required. The current membership stands at 95 musicians.

In recent months, the band has worked hard to learn drills and develop the necessary skills to execute complicated maneuvers while playing an instrument. The band is scheduled to perform in full uniform in the Homecoming parade and football scrimmage on Nov. 22.

Treviño served as assistant director of the University of Washington, Seattle, marching band from 2004-07 and, as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, introduced the “Zipper-T” maneuver, now a highlight of the Volunteer football team’s pregame show.

Dennis Zeisler
Dennis Zeisler joined Old Dominion in 1979, where he has served as director of bands, professor of clarinet and saxophone and department chair. Among his many honors, he received the Virginia Music Educator of the Year Award in 1999.

Under his direction, the university’s Wind Ensemble has developed into a critically acclaimed group, with several recordings to its credit. The ensemble has performed at Carnegie Hall and is scheduled to play at the Kennedy Center in April.

Zeisler’s interest in music began at age 6 with the clarinet, an instrument his father also played, and he credits his parents for encouraging his musical bent. “You never know where your talents are going to take you,” he said, reflecting on how his ability to play the clarinet developed into a career.

Zeisler is also the founder and conductor of the Virginia Wind Symphony, a professional group primarily composed of music educators from southeastern Virginia.

As one who has witnessed positive changes in the music department over the years, Zeisler is rightfully proud of the program’s growth and quality. He also takes pride in his family’s ties to the university: seven members of his immediate and extended family are ODU alumni, including his daughter, Sarah, who is currently a sophomore.