A group of three music professors from Indiana Wesleyan University have been awarded one of only two three-year initiative grants as part of the Council for Christian Colleges and University's 2015 Network Grants.
The professors, Dr. Lisa Dawson, Dr. Tammie Huntington and Dr. Phoenix Park-Kim, will direct a project entitled "Soprani Compagni: Portraits of Women in Contemporary Soprano Duet." The project will feature soprano duets that highlight significant women and their valuable contributions to society from Biblical times to present day. The duets will be anthologized, recorded and performed in a variety of countries.
"Soprano repertoire often depicts limited portraits of women, themed around love for her man, external beauty and unfulfilled dreams," wrote Dawson, Huntington and Park-Kim in the grant. "This initiative will result in an expansion of soprano duet repertoire with messages of encouragement for more women to embrace their true worth, value and calling... connecting our hearts and lives across generations."
According to a CCCU press release, "The Networking Grants program... mobilizes faculty to create and disseminate high quality scholarship that brings Christian voices into contemporary academic conversations." The selection committee received a total of 36 planning grant proposals and 13 initiative grant proposals from 69 CCCU institutions. The proposals represented 192 faculty members in 22 disciplinary fields including education, psychology, English, music, theology, business, sociology, medicine, politics, history and engineering. Two one-year planning grants, two three-year grants and one supplemental grant were awarded.
Work on the Soprani Compagni project will begin immediately and lead to a "New Works Symposium" on Nov. 13-14, 2015 on IWU's Marion campus where Soprani Compagni will perform and premiere their soprano duet pieces in recitals. By summer 2017, all works will be recorded and published in an anthology; however, tours will continue through 2018.