The pursuit of a passion inspires a legacy gift

Although Susan Metzger grew up in a piano-playing family, it was four decades before her latent musical aspirations found expression and eventually led her to Colorado State University. To help students realize their dreams, she recently made a $2 million planned gift to create two scholarships for undergraduate or graduate students studying viola or piano.

CSU Theatre Students Win USITT24 Awards

Colorado State University Theatre proudly announces USITT student awards. The United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT) connects performing arts design and technology communities to ensure a vibrant dialog among practitioners, educators, and students. The USITT24 award winners, Annie Hennen and Dani Ranisate will be celebrated at the “Awards, Awards, Awards” ceremony in Seattle, Washington, on March 21, 2024.

Dr. Nathan Payant makes his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall

Dr. Nathan Payant will make his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, as one of MidAmerica Productions featured conductors on Saturday, April 13, 2024.

Carnegie Hall’s mission is to “present extraordinary music and musicians on the three stages of this legendary hall, to bring the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience, to provide visionary education programs, and to foster the future of music through the cultivation of new works, artists, and audiences. Since it opened in 1891, Carnegie Hall has set the international standard for musical excellence as the aspirational destination for the world’s finest artists.”

Music’s Impact on Community Spaces: CSU Students’ Ethnographic Studies

A new School of Music, Theatre, and Dance course, Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries (MU 430), offers music majors the opportunity to produce original ethnographic research, which includes observing or interacting with people moving through their chosen environments. The research took place online and in the Fort Collins community – settings where the students found music and/or sound to be an aspect of the human experience – including a local record store, The R Bar, a YouTube channel, and the Harbinger coffee houses.

Interspecies Journey: A residency with unlikely partners

The Colorado State University Dance and Equine Sciences programs collaborated for a week in the Fall of 2023 to find connections and intersections between dance/arts and work with horses to enhance each other’s practices, learning, and research. These unlikely partners came together to find new ways of listening and discovery across disciplines.

Guest artist JoAnna Mendl Shaw and The Equus Projects were invited to work with students and faculty in residence. In the studio and the arena, they explored a common language, physical dialogue, and ways to honor and give voice to humans and equines.

Body/Speak builds an inclusive dance community

Body/Speak is a community concert featuring guests from colleges, universities, and dance companies across the region who join CSU Dance for an evening of diverse dance genres. The aim is to support artists and build networks within the Colorado and Wyoming dance communities.

At the end of the showcase, participants are invited to collaboratively create an ‘Instant Dance’ together as an opportunity to truly dance together, in the same piece instead of simply on the same stage!

Erin Carignan, CSU Costume Design Professor, Releases Dyeing for Entertainment

Erin Carignan, Colorado State University assistant professor of Costume Design, is a versatile costume designer and textile artist whose research centers around her most passionate subjects: costume design, textile surface, modification, and wearable art. She intentionally pushes the boundaries of design and technology using unusual mediums and unlikely intersections.

This research culminates in her book, Dyeing for Entertainment: Dyeing, Painting, Breakdown, and Special Effects for Costumes from Routledge Press.