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UT Tyler to Hold Faculty Composition Recital featuring Local Poet Anne McCrady

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February 4, 2015

Media Contact:  Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

February 4, 2015

The University of Texas at Tyler Music Department will hold a faculty composition recital featuring local poet Anne McCrady, Dr. Michael Thrasher, UT Tyler School of Performing Arts director, announced.

The public event will be 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5 in the UT Tyler Braithwaite Recital Hall.

The recital will feature an hour of original art songs composed by Dr. Kyle Gullings, UT Tyler assistant professor of music composition and theory. Performers include UT Tyler music faculty Dr. Sooah Park, Dr. Yoonsang Lee and Vicki Conway.

“One of the scheduled compositions is a world premiere of my new 15-minute song cycle ‘Letting Myself In (Selections),’ which is a setting of five poems by local poet Anne McCrady. McCrady will be present during the recital to perform a reading of the selected poems, which are taken from her book, ‘Letting Myself In,’” Gullings said.

Serving UT Tyler since 2011, Gullings has been actively engaged in post-secondary music education since 2006. An active member of College Music Society, Society of Composers, Inc. and New Music USA, he is continually developing new pedagogical materials and techniques for use in undergraduate theory and ear training courses.

Gullings holds a D.M.A. in composition from the Catholic University of America, where he was also the first recipient of their unique stage music emphasis master’s degree. He also holds a bachelor of music degree in theory/composition from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.

McCrady’s writing appears in literary journals, international anthologies and arts magazines. Her book of poems, Along Greathouse Road, won the 2003 Edwin M. Eakin Memorial Manuscript Award from the Poetry Society of Texas, and her collection, “Under a Blameless Moon,” won the 2007 Pudding House Chapbook Prize.

Her most recent poetry collection is Letting Myself In, published by Dos Gatos Press in 2013. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a frequent poetry judge, editor and critic. An inspirational speaker and peace advocate, Anne offers readings, workshops, worship messages and other presentations through her company, InSpiritry – Putting Words to Work for a Better World. She is a cofounder of the Art of Peace Festival – Tyler and cosponsor of the Young Audiences of Northeast Texas Poetry in Schools contest.

For more information, contact Gullings, 903.566.7478 or kgullings@uttyler.edu.

One of the 15 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler features excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service. More than 80 undergraduate and graduate degrees are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of more than 8,000 high-ability students. UT Tyler offers courses at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine as well as a location in Houston.