Performing Arts Center

Performing Arts Awards and Honors

There are many things of which Cal State Fullerton's College of the Arts is proud. Here is just a sample.

Theater and Dance

• The only public university in California offering a bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre arts with a concentration in musical theatre.

• Faculty consists of stage, television and film actors, professional directors, designers, playwrights, authors, editors and casting agents.

• Students have won various awards from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including the National Student Playwriting Award in 1993 (for "All That He Was," by Larry Johnson and Cindy O'Connor) and 1983 (for "The Bulldog and the Bear," by Richard Gordon); the John Cauble Short Play Award in 2000 (for "Supernova in Hamlet," by Kristina Leach) and 1993 (for "The Manager," by Darrin Shaughnessy); the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Musical Theater Award in 1993 (for "All That He Was"); and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award in 1983 (for "The Bulldog and the Bear").

• Cal State Fullerton is among the top 16 "Most Highly Recommended Undergraduate Programs" in the nation, according to Performing Arts Major's College Guide.

• Theater graduates have performed roles in many Broadway productions and national touring companies, including "Miss Saigon," "42nd Street," "Les Miserables" and "Ragtime."

• Two dance students were honored at the southwest regional competition of the 2004 American College Dance Festival for their work in performance and choreography. One student won the Best Performance award and the other's dance was selected to represent the region at a national showcase festival.

Music

• Several famous artists have performed and offered workshops on campus, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma; composers Aaron Copland, Richard Danielpour and John Duarte; the Turtle Island String Quartet; violinist Fredell Lack; L.A. Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta; Nexus Percussion Ensemble with conductor Joseph Silverstein, pianists Alicia de Larrocha, James Dick, Noriko Ogawa and the Contiguglia Brothers; conductors Keith Brion and Maxim Shostakovich; piccolist Jan Gippo; tuba player James Self; jazz trumpet player Claudio Roditi; jazz drummer Carl Allen; clarinet player Mitchell Lurie; jazz keyboardist and alumnus Tom Ranier; jazz saxophone player James Moody; guitarist Margarita Escarpa; and stage director Jonathan Eaton.

• The Jazz and Wind ensembles, University Symphony Orchestra and University Singers regularly perform, by invitation, throughout the world at such places as the Sistine Chapel, Hollywood Bowl, Avery Fischer Hall, New York's Riverside Church, and Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany. The University Singers also have performed in five holiday concert tours with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and conductor Keith Lockhart, who introduced them as "one of the finest collegiate choral ensembles in the United States."

• Cal State Fullerton was highlighted in Classical Singer Magazine as one of eight schools cited as doing the best job in training well-prepared singers in a national survey of opera directors.