MARKER AND PIONEER International Culture Exchange

11/27/2024

08/02/2024

MAP 2024 Jury Panel: Colin McKenzie, DMA

Dr. Colin McKenzie is an educator, conductor, and music administrator, currently serving as Director of the School of Music and Conductor of the Symphonic Winds at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS. The USM School of Music has an international reputation for excellence in performance and in training teachers. With over 400 students and more than 40 full time faculty, the School of Music is a vibrant and diverse community of music makers, preparing future professionals and serving our local, regional, and national communities.

Prior to moving into his current administrative role, McKenzie served as Associate Director of Bands, Associate Professor of Music, and Director of the Pride of Mississippi at the University of Southern Mississippi. He conducted the Symphonic Winds, administered all facets of the comprehensive athletic band program, taught course work in conducting, and assisted in student teacher preparation and observation.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. McKenzie served as Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at Georgia Southern University. At Georgia Southern, he directed and administered all facets of the Southern Pride Marching Band and Hoop Troop Athletic Bands. He also served as conductor of the Georgia Southern University Wind Symphony, founding conductor of the University Band, and taught graduate conducting and marching band techniques within the Department of Music.

Before teaching at Georgia Southern, McKenzie was on the faculty at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he was assistant director and, later, acting director of the Golden Wave Band, conducted the concert band, co-conducted the symphonic band, and taught undergraduate courses in music education and conducting. In addition to his duties within the University Bands, McKenzie also served as Associate Conductor of the Waco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

More competition info & application form at: map-icec.com.

08/02/2024

MAP 2024 Jury Panel: Meredith Johnson, DMA

In her career, Mississippi native Dr. Meredith Melvin Johnson has coached singers of all ages in multiple genres as well as trained future music educators in diction, pedagogy, and literature. She specializes in both classical and belt techniques and is an active adjudicator and vocal clinician, offering workshops for choral groups, show choirs, musical theatre students, and church ensembles. She maintains a thriving private studio catering to a wide variety of musical styles and is the creator of the online courses “Virtual Vocal Academy” and “Audition Bootcamp” at VirtualVocalAcademy.com.

Maintaining an active performing career is a vital part of Dr. Johnson’s teaching philosophy. She has graced the stage in numerous musicals, operas, operettas, and concerts across the region.
In her current role as a voice professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, Johnson teaches applied voice and vocal pedagogy courses and serves as vocal coach to the musical production.

Dr. Johnson holds a master of music and a doctor of musical arts in vocal performance from The University of Southern Mississippi. She resides in Laurel with her husband, Tony, and their cute little dog, GusGus.

More competition info & application form at: map-icec.com.

08/01/2024

MAP-IMC 2024 Jury Panel: Renate Falkner, DMA

Praised for her versatility and creativity, American violist Renate Falkner leads an active career as an educator, recitalist, and orchestral and chamber musician, performing across the U.S. and abroad. Equally at home on both modern and baroque viola, she performs regularly with groups such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Artis-Naples, and is a former member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As a baroque violist, she has performed with Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, the Yale Collegium Players, and Baltimore’s Pro Musica Rara.
A frequent chamber music collaborator, Dr. Falkner is the Artistic Director of the Charm City Chamber Players, an ensemble designed to highlight original repertoire and transcriptions featuring the rich, dark sound of multiple violas and cellos. Having a keen interest in chamber music featuring the viola in more prominent roles, she has been a guest artist with the Fontenay Chamber Players and also frequently collaborates with colleagues in trios for flute, viola, and harp or guitar. She has shared the stage alongside such artists as violinist Erick Friedman, violist Jesse Levine, harpists Rita Costanzi and Kayo Ishimaru, oboist Joe Robinson, flutists Sergio Pallottelli and Rhonda Cassano, and guitarist Jose Lezcano. She has been heard in venues as diverse as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book Library, and in orchestras at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and across the country.
Summer appearances abroad have included the Verbier Festival, Switzerland, the Spoleto Festival, Italy, international tours with the BSO, and a faculty appointment at the Carvalho Festival of Music in Fortaleza, Brazil. She also performs annually at the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington. She has recorded for the Chandos, Nimbus, and Rezound music labels.

More competition info and application form at: map-icec.com

08/01/2024

MAP-IMC 2024 Jury Panel: Michael Bunchman, DMA

Pianist Dr. Michael Bunchman maintains a fulfilling schedule as a collaborative pianist throughout the United States.  He is currently on faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi as the director of the Collaborative Piano Program and is the Director of Music and Collaborative Piano at the International Performing Arts institute in Bavaria, Germany. Dr. Bunchman has performed collaborative recitals with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony and soloist from the Metropolitan Opera, to name a few. Companies he has worked with include the Utah Festival Opera, Natchez Festival of Music, Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, Santa Barbara Opera, Opera Saratoga, the Princeton Festival and El Paso Opera.  Active as a concerto soloist, Dr. Bunchman has performed with the University of Southern Mississippi Orchestra, the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra, the Ridgefield Symphony, the Breckenridge Music Festival, the Antara Ensemble in New York City, the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra.

More competition info and application form at: map-icec.com.

07/31/2024

MAP-IMC 2024 Jury Panel: Jackie Tso .tso
Violinist Jackie Tso has been heard as a soloist with orchestras around the world such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Concert Association Orchestra, and the Beijing Broadcasting Orchestra. Ms. Tso has also played in many of the world’s most prestigious competitions including the Premio Paganini, Yehudi Menuhin, Shanghai Isaac Stern, Zhuhai Mozart, and Cooper. She was a semifinalist in the International Jascha Heifetz Competition as well as the Irving M. Klein.

Jackie studied with Li Lin at The Juilliard School. Past principal teachers include Glenn Dicterow, Kurt Sassmannshaus, and Almita and Roland Vamos.

Tso started playing the violin when she was four and was part of Cincinnati’s Starling String Program as well as the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program. She has served as Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and MasterWorks Festival Orchestra. When she was fifteen, Jackie had the pleasure of collaborating with acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley on National Public Radio’s from the Top.

Jackie has spent summers at the Great Wall International Music Academy, National Arts Center Young Artists Program, Meadowmount School of Music, Bowdoin Music Festival, Salzburg’s Mozarteum Summer Academy, MasterWorks Festival, Aspen Music Festival as an orchestral fellow, and the Heifetz Institute of Music.

She joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s violin section for their 2022-2023 season and is currently the Concertmaster of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra. Aside from music, Tso enjoys time with her family, puppy, and friends as well as being outdoors.

More competition info and application form at: map-icec.com

07/31/2024

MAP-IMC 2024 Jury Panel: Chip Hill, DMA

Chip Hill is on the music faculty at Limestone University and has served as principal
clarinetist with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra in Asheville, NC since 1986. He has performed extensively with orchestras throughout the southeastern U.S., including the Atlanta, Charlotte, Savannah, Charleston, Tallahassee, Greenville, Knoxville, and North Carolina Symphony Orchestras, the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra, and the Atlanta Opera. He has also conducted master classes and performed in Europe, Asia, and Central America.

As a solo artist, Dr. Hill has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra, the
Asheville and Hendersonville Symphony Orchestras, the Western North Carolina
Chamber Orchestra, the MasterWorks Festival Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the
Hunan Province in Changsha, China. In 2012, Dr. Hill was the featured soloist at the
first International Music Festival at SIAS in Xinzheng, China.

Chip has been an active member of the MasterWorks Festival faculty since its
beginning in 1997. He also served on the Board of Directors from 2004-2018 and
is currently the Executive Director.

Dr. Hill holds clarinet performance degrees from Georgia State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of South Carolina. His teachers include David Shifrin, Fred Ormand, and Doug Graham.

07/31/2024

Special Call: Have your orchestra be heard on the world-class stage; Bring your students to the borderless music community.

The MAP International Music Competition is calling the school’s orchestra directors. This will be a special opportunity to have your orchestra be heard on the world-class stage, meanwhile, bring your students to the borderless music community.

Through you and your students’ hard work in the previous school years and especially this summer, we believe that all of you have collected great video recordings of your performances. This will be the perfect time to submit your performances to MAP-IMC. Not only will the world be able to listen to you, but also elevate your experience in participating in real international events through music, the universal language!

The MAP-IMC has been praised by world-renowned artists, musicians, teachers, and students through the vision it established (https://markerandpioneer.com/testimony/).

The database built from the information of previous competitions has become a tracking service in the field of music education to provide teachers and students with improved teaching and learning levels.

In 2024, the MAP-IMC opened the orchestra section to provide a bigger stage for more school orchestras and students to have the opportunity to be involved in an international atmosphere.

There are a bunch of benefits for orchestras once it has individual students participate in solo or chamber sections.

The application deadline has been extended to August 15, 2024. Quickly check the detailed information at: https://markerandpioneer.com/2024-map-imc/.

07/28/2024

Please visit https://markerandpioneer.com/2024-map-imc/ for more details