April 26, 1999 Volume 21, No. 15

Music Student Awarded Fulbright Keir Neuringer, a senior composition major in the School of Music, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to study composition under Marek Stachowski at the Krakow Academy of Music in Poland. In addition to taking courses in composition, orchestration, and music history, Neuringer will spend his time composing and sharing his compositions with other musicians. Neuringer has been interested in the music of several contemporary Polish composers, particularly Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Gorecki. He is excited by the opportunity to study with Stachowski, who himself was a student of Penderecki. Neuringer already has some international experience, having studied with composition faculty at the Ithaca College London Center. This semester has been devoted to preparing for his senior recital, at which several of his works will be performed, and the premiere of his trombone concerto at Northwestern University. He also presented his works at the James J. Whalen Academic Symposium held on campus on March 18. A native of Mamaroneck, New York, he is a winner of the Smadbeck Composition Prize, awarded each year for the best student composition at the College. The U.S. Congress created the Fulbright program in 1946 in the wake of World War II to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Senator J. William Fulbright, sponsor of the legislation, saw it as a step toward building an alternative to armed conflict. Each year the program gives nearly 1,000 Americans the opportunity to study or conduct research in more than 100 nations. Professor of mathematics and computer science Martin Sternstein provides assistance to Ithaca College students interested in applying for Fulbright scholarships. He notes that while several Ithaca students and faculty have been awarded Fulbrights in the past half dozen years, Neuringer is the College’s first Fulbright recipient in the field of music.