1. Are you nationally accredited with the National
Association of Schools of Music (NASM)?
Morningside College is and has been accredited through NASM
since 1936. Morningside is one of approximately 610 schools
who choose to meet NASM standards for what should be offered
at college music departments. It is a voluntary process that
is reviewed on a multi-year cycle. Institutions who meet NASM
standards are considered leaders in the field of music and
must adhere to strict standards to maintain their standing
with the association. Many schools do not meet these standards;
Morningside exceeds these standards.
2. How many voice professors do you have on
staff and what are their qualifications?
Morningside has four voice professors on staff. Dr.
Gail Dooley is the head of our voice faculty and
an accomplished teacher and performer. Dr. Dooley, soprano,
joined the music faculty at Morningside College in 1995 and
teaches applied voice and related courses and directs the
Morningside College Opera Theater. Dr. Dooley received her
doctorate in vocal performance from Florida State University.
Her bachelor's and master's degrees in performance are from
the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Dr. Dooley is an active performer in the Siouxland community.
She has appeared as soloist with the Sioux City Symphony, the
Morningside College Choir, the Siouxland Master Chorale, the
St. Thomas' Episcopal Church choir, and at Congregation Beth
Shalom. She also presents a solo recital each year on campus.
Other faculty include Kate Saulsbury (adjunct
voice), Steve Lundberg (adjunct voice), and Jill
Wilson (adjunct voice). Wilson is also an ensemble
conductor and director of Morningside's Leo Kucinski Academy
of Music.
Mrs. Saulsbury is an accomplished vocal coach with a broad
experience in opera performance. Steve Lundberg has years of
experience in professional and amateur musical theater. Jill
Wilson's most recent position was at Dowling High School in
West Des Moines, Iowa, where she headed a program of nearly
300 singers in five curricular and three extra-curricular choirs.
She currently directs the youth choirs at Augustana Lutheran
Church and is serving as the Women's Choir Repertoire and Standards
Chair for the Iowa Choral Directors Association.
3. How active are your voice studios?
Each year, singers at Morningside compete in National Association
of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition. They are consistently
selected to perform in the Honors Recital of that
college-level competition.
Every other year the Morningside voice faculty and singers
produce an opera theater performance. A musical theater performance
is produced on the opposite years. This year music students
performed Little Shop of Horrors .
4. What specifically makes Morningside a quality
school for music education?
Tim Watson is the director of choral activities
at Morningside. He has years of teaching experience at the
elementary, middle school, high school, and collegiate levels.
He has conducted choirs that have traveled through Europe and
the United States. He has conducted numerous festivals and
honor choirs and has been a clinician at music conventions
at the state, regional and national levels.
Watson is currently the president of the Iowa Choral Director's
Association (ICDA). ICDA has more than 1,000 members throughout
the state involved in all levels of music education. ICDA is
responsible for the Opus Honor Choir Festival and the Iowa
Performers Showcase and sponsors numerous honor choirs throughout
the state of Iowa. ICDA is a national leader in choral music
education.
5. Do your music education graduates find employment?
Morningside College has numerous teaching professionals currently
working at all levels, among which are:
• Matt Huth, director of Choral Activities at Lewis
Central High School and president-elect for the Iowa Choral
Director's Association.
• Julie Drees, elementary music teacher at Le Mars
Schools
• Adam Orban, director of choral activities at
Shenandoah High School
• Tom Gerking, choral director at Sloan High School
• Lisa Crosby, high school vocal at Sac City
• Jill Orban, elementary teacher in Farragut.
These are just a few of the Morningside graduates currently
teaching. In the last 10 years, Morningside College
has placed 100 percent of its music education graduates into
teaching positions.
6. What is unique about your ensembles, performances,
and facilities?
In existence for more than 100 years, the Morningside College
Choir plays a major role on campus and in the community as
it performs at convocations, celebrations, special services,
and concerts throughout the academic year. The select, 45-voice
ensemble is comprised of the finest vocalists on the Morningside
campus, nearly half of whom come from majors other than music.
The Morningside College Choir tours every year with tours
to Europe at least once every four years. These tours have
taken the choir across the United States and to the great concert
halls and cathedrals of Europe. In May of 2000 the Choir toured
Spain, France, and England and presented the United Kingdom
premier of Eleanor Daley's Requiem at the Chard Festival in
southwest England. Critics praised the choir, saying "the
balance, control and concentration of the Morningside Choir
were superb; their commitment to the music, phenomenal." The
choir returned to Europe in May 2005 with concert appearances
in Prague, Czech Republic; Budapest, Hungary; and Vienna, Austria.
The choir is recognized throughout the region for performing
excellence and innovative and creative concert presentations.
Morningside presents a religious concert each year called "Christmas
at Morningside." The concert is designed to provide a unique
themed musical event with sounds coming from different areas
of the auditorium in a seamless production. An original 40-foot-wide
mural is commissioned each year that is hung behind the performers.
Last year the president of the college facilitated presenting
the concert at an historic concert hall in Omaha, Neb. After
the concert, the president treated well over 100 performers
to a late supper at the Spaghetti Works in Omaha. In 2006, "Christmas
at Morningside" will be presented one night in Eppley Auditorium,
one night in Omaha, and one night in Shenandoah, Iowa.
In addition to its demanding schedule of a cappella concerts, the
Morningside College Choir regularly performs major choral/orchestral
works with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and as part
of the Morningside Choral Union . Recent performances
have included the premier of John Cheetham's Gloria ,
Brahms' Schicksalslied , The Creation by
Franz Joseph Haydn, and Benjamin Britten's War Requiem .
In April 2006 the choir performed Verdi's Requiem .
The Eclectix Jazz Choir, Bel Canto Women's Chorus and the
Singing Men Men's Chorus are an integral part of the music
department as well. All of these ensembles perform in at least
three concerts throughout the year. Bel Canto and Singing Men
also provide opportunities for music education students to
work with ensembles as a conductor. Music education students
are also tapped as section leaders for the college choir. These
opportunities provide those students interested in teaching
valuable and practical conducting experience with a variety
of ensembles.
Eppley Auditorium is one of the finest acoustical
auditoriums in the state and Morningside's main performance
venue. Eppley is a beautiful 1,400-seat concert
hall crowned with a 48-rank Holtkamp organ. It is the setting
for weekly student recitals, faculty performances, ensemble
concerts, and larger events such as the annual Morningside
College Jazz Festival and Vocal Festival. The auditorium
is also the home of the Siouxland Youth Symphony and the
Sioux City Concert Course, which programs regularly bring
in such renowned artists as The Canadian Brass, Itzhak Perlman,
Doc Severinsen, The Dallas Brass, the Count Basie Orchestra,
and The American Boys Choir.
