Mt. SAC Groups Rock Reno Jazz Festival
After days of intense competition at the 2009 Reno Jazz Festival, two Mt. SAC groups – the Jazz Ensemble and Frontline – came home with top honors.
The prestigious Reno Jazz Festival is the largest jazz festival in the western United States and draws performing groups from around the country. Mt. SAC's instrumental Jazz Ensemble placed first in the two-year college band division, while vocal artists Frontline received second place in the college choir division for the second time.
Many individual members of the Jazz Band also received outstanding musicianship awards: Carlos Noriega (Trumpet), Ray Au Yenug (Piano), Miguel Martinez (Bass), Tim Talavera (Drums), and Christian Chico (Drums).
Click here for more information about Mt. SAC performing arts groups.
Forensics Team Shines Again!
The Mt. SAC Forensics Team recently traveled to Portland, Oregon to compete at the 75th annual Phi Rho Pi National Tournament. Competing against 67 schools from across the nation, the team garnered two School Sweepstakes awards: silver (3rd place) in the individual events division and silver (4th place) in the overall division.
Fourteen students represented Mt. SAC in a phenomenal manner throughout the course of the competition, with 12 of them advancing into elimination rounds. Standouts were Derod Taylor, who went home with five awards including second place in the Individual Sweepstakes, and Emiliano Bolado, Ginna Escobar, Rikiesha Pierce, and Maite Bruce who all earned three awards.
Phi Rho Pi is the national community college forensics association committed to increasing knowledge and appreciation of the forensics arts at the junior and community college level.
They Came "Fermata Nowhere"
... and won international honors on a high note!
Heartiest congratulations to Professor Bill McIntosh and Mt. SAC's male vocal group, Fermata Nowhere, for winning the coveted International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in New York April 18. These talented vocalists took command of the renowned stage of Lincoln Center and swept the competition, placing first over outstanding university ensembles from Oxford, Yale, Missouri State, Florida State, Ithaca, and a group from South Africa.
In addition to being judged best overall , Fermata Nowhere won awards for best choreography (Alex Fajardo), best vocal percussion (Kevin Shannon and Avi Kaplan), and best soloist (Ben Lee). This victory marked Fermata Nowhere's second trip to the finals after finishing second in 2004. The finals were taped live by MTV.
Click here to see more Fermata Nowhere performances on YouTube here.
Mt. SAC Student Among Nation's Top 20 Scholars
Adam Prohoroff continues the Mt. SAC legacy of being among the nation's top 20 community college scholars named to the All-U.S.A. Academic First Team, as chosen by Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the international community college honor society.
He was selected from a highly competitive pool of nearly 1,450 associate degree candidates nationwide. All 20 winners received a medal, a trophy, and a $2,500 scholarship at an awards ceremony April 6 in Phoenix. Prohoroff becomes the sixth Mt. SAC student scholar to win a place on the All-USA academic team in recent years.
Selection to the prestigious Academic First Team is the highest national honor a community college scholar can receive. The selection is based on grades, leadership, and community service.
"Adam is a very focused and caring young man," said Mt. SAC Honors Director Carolyn Kuykendall. "His selection to the Academic First Team is an extraordinary achievement, considering the rigorous criteria and the fierce national competition. Beyond his perfect GPA, Adam is involved on campus and in his community, and he is particularly concerned about the quality of life of others."
Prohoroff is a 4.0 accounting / economics major and plans to transfer to Claremont McKenna and go on to law school. On campus, he is involved with Mt. SAC's PTK chapter, student government, and the Accounting Club. He is also an English tutor, has organized a panel discussion on Islam and democracy, and promoted the benefits of securing bipartisan support for improving the citizen process for undocumented workers.
Singcopation is all that jazz!
Congratulations to Professor Bruce Rogers and Mt. SAC's award-winning vocal jazz ensemble, Singcopation, for placing second in the recent Monterey Jazz Festival behind Cal State Long Beach's outstanding vocal group, Pacific Standard Time. Mt. SAC outperformed some of the biggest names in the vocal jazz world, including many university competitors.
On the individual performance level, three of the four outstanding vocalist awards went to current or former Mt. SAC choral students, including Bethany Van Hofwegen and David Johnston (current) and Andrea Calderwood (a former Singcopation member and now a CSULB graduate student).
Under Rogers' masterful direction, Singcopation has amassed an impressive national reputation over the years, having achieved recognition several times by Downbeat magazine as the nation's best collegiate vocal jazz group.
Fermata Nowhere Wins A Cappella Semifinals
Mt. SAC is singing the praises of our award-winning a cappella men's group, Fermata Nowhere, which won the semifinal competition of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella last weekend.
These talented fellas outperformed university competitors from Berkeley, Cal State Northridge, Point Loma, UC Santa Barbara, Oregon State, University of Oregon, and UC Irvine. Now it's on to the finals on April 18 at New York's famous Lincoln Center, where the Mountie crooners will compete against other prestigious finalists from across the globe, including Yale, Florida State, Missouri State, Ithaca University, Oxford, and the University of the Free State (South Africa).
GO MOUNTIES!
Performing On a High Note!
Congratulations to Mt. SAC students Carlos Noriega (trumpeter) and Daniel Valadez (bassoonist) for being among the 60 talented musicians selected from a highly competitive nationwide pool of 300 university and two-year college applicants to perform in the Small College Intercollegiate Band in conjunction with the College Band Directors' National Association Conference.
Carlos earned additional distinction by performing as the principal trumpeter in the ensemble under the baton of Virginia Allen, faculty member at the Juilliard School in New York and former conductor of the U.S. Army Forces Command Band. The students performed at the University of Texas at Austin on March 28 before an audience of distinguished college band directors and composers.
