by Kelly Dean | Apr 4, 2012 | News Slider
As a musician, playing in New York is a mindboggling dream many strive for. However, three young Lipscomb students fulfilled this dream when the Avalon Trio was named third best in the nation as a chamber ensemble on Mar. 24 in New York City. After the Avalon Trio’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Trio No. 2 in C minor and Paul Schoenfield’s “Café Music”, the group placed third at the Music Teacher National Association’s chamber competition at the 2012 national conference in New York City. “What speaks more than our ability as musicians, I think, is the ability that us three have together to just play music,” said cellist Kenneth Coca. “I don’t think we could have done it with another group or with other musicians.” The three-year-old trio consists of Joel Campbell on violin, Coca on cello and Julian Calvin on piano. The group is coached by Jerome Reed, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Piano at Lipscomb University. Not only did the group walk away with the accomplishment of becoming one of the top three ensembles in the nation, but the process of getting there for the Avalon Trio continues to leave the group astonished and grateful. And the term ‘getting there’ is meant in a literal sense. Rodes Hart, benefactor for the Patricia and Rodes Hart Endowed Chair for Piano, sponsored the group’s trip to New York. The Avalon Trio never expected to travel to the big and beautiful NYC in high style, but Dr. Hart made sure to do just that by providing a private jet just for the trio to fly to New York City in....
by Emily Snell | Sep 20, 2011 | News Slider
The latest episode of Tokens, a theological variety show created by Lipscomb’s Dr. Lee Camp, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22 at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. Lipscomb SGA announced Monday that it would sell tickets for a discounted price of $5. The show, “Singing Down the Pain: The Civil War,” includes special guests Odessa Settles, The Whites, Buddy Greene, a combined male chorus from The Nashville Choir and The Greater Nashville Community Gospel Choir, along with the Most Outstanding Horeb Mountain Boys comprising celebrated Nashville musicians Jeff Taylor, Aubrey Haynie, Pete Huttlinger, Byron House and Chris Brown. Kenneth Coca, a senior biochemistry major and cello performance minor, performed in last year’s show and is a musician again this year. “I’m not one of the big wigs,” Coca said. “I’m just doing this for my own fun and to help out a good cause.” Coca is playing cello in a quartet Thursday night with Joel Campbell, a junior music major, and two students from Belmont. He said he thinks Tokens is a good way to share the gospel message in a non-church setting. “I really believe in the message,” he said. “They’re spreading the gospel of Christ through music. I think that’s something that a community needs.” Thursday’s production serves as a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War and will feature themes from that era including “the longing for justice and peace, the slaves’ longing for freedom and the triumph over the auction block and the parents’ grief that their sons will no longer return from war.” The show will take place at Downtown Presbyterian...
