Student Profiles
Christina Diciantis, '07 Graduate Violin major
Chris Smith, Senior Trombone Performance and Music Education major
Erika Powell, Junior Vocal Performance major and Miss South Carolina, 2005
Ben Moore, Sophomore Vocal Performance major
Exploring the world of music…and the music of the world
She may be a native of Greenville. And she may not have strayed very far from home with her college choice. But Christina DeCiantis’ college experience opened up new cultures and countries and experiences she had never imagined.
As a student at the S.C. Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, Christina had her heart set on entering a conservatory. She explains, “It was beaten into my head that you had to go to a conservatory if you wanted to get a job.”
However, when the conservatories that she visited didn’t seem like a good fit, Christina decided to apply to the liberal arts university just up the road, sending a friend to drop her application off the night before Furman’s deadline. Christina’s decision has a certain suggestion of fate: at Furman, she studied under Professor Thomas Joiner whose wife Anna Joiner was Christina’s first violin teacher at the age of four.
Christina’s intensive performance experience at the Governor’s School prepared her for participation in the Furman Symphony Orchestra, the Gladden String Quartet, and a number of other groups on campus. As a senior, she attained the honor of concertmaster of the orchestra, a position that she says “pushed me out of my shell. I’m not very competitive and I’m not very outgoing. It stretched me as an individual. It was also a lot of fun.”
Performance excellence alone didn’t make Christina’s four years remarkable. Rather her completion of the entire Japanese language sequence, capped by a “phenomenal” foreign study in Japan, distinguished her from the typical music student. Christina credits Furman’s liberal arts emphasis for her newfound interest in the ethno-musicology of East Asian countries. “I’ve had multiple interests encouraged,” she says, “and I’ve developed new interests that I wasn’t aware of before.”
Christina intends to incorporate her love of Asian cultures into a doctorate in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she has been offered a full fellowship. She also hopes to continue playing in a local Celtic band named Selkie, which she joined a little over a year ago and credits with expanding her repertoire and versatility. She encourages other students to search out the variety of folk, jazz, and other bands that perform in Greenville. “There’s a lot more going on in Greenville than people realize,” she observes.
Ask Japanese language and literature professor Shusuke Yagi about Christine and he’ll show you the umbrella he carries. It was a gift from Christine after he broke his during a classroom demonstration of Kendô, or Japanese swordsmanship. The two of them have plans to co-author academic papers on Japanese ethnic music in the future. When describing Christina, he notes not only her intellectual curiosity but also her sincerity and kindness. “She is one of those students that makes me feel that my profession is my calling.”
Yagi is also a great fan of Christina’s music. Describing his reaction to her senior recital after three years without hearing her perform, he says, “I was delighted to hear a more mature, richer, and deeper sound from her violin that conveyed the warmth and musicality that came from her person.”
He explains that the appeal of Christina’s music arises from her familiarity with a broad range of styles: “Oftentimes in the past, western classical musicians were not knowledgeable or open to other music traditions in the world. [. . .] Christina seems to me a new type of musician in a way similar to Yo-Yo Ma, who has very solid footings and training in western classical music yet can play and interact freely with other musicians of different traditions.”
Joiner agrees that Christina is an exceptional student, who has “always followed her own distinctive path.” He adds, “Her quiet, strong personality and her persistent work ethic served as a model for her peers. She will no doubt enjoy success on whatever path her music study takes her.”
Whether that path leads where she expects or not, Christina will surely continue to break boundaries and discover new interests along the way.
When trombonist Chris Smith came to Furman in the fall of 2002 from Inman, South Carolina, it wasn’t exactly a new experience. As a member of the Carolina Youth Symphony in high school, he came to Furman almost every week and played under the baton of Les Hicken, Furman’s director of bands. All-State Band also brought him to campus. His senior year in high school, he studied trombone with Mark Britt, Furman’s low brass professor. When it came time to apply to college, it was an easy choice for Chris, but it wasn’t just for music.
“I applied early admission to Furman, and I chose to do so because Furman
offered a small conservatory atmosphere embedded within a larger university,” he
says. “Furman offered
me the opportunity to study music in depth while also catering to my interests
in other academic disciplines. After doing research, I found that other conservatories
offered a similar type of inter-disciplinary study, but it required travel
between the conservatory and university campuses.”
Chris never dreamed that the two professors from his high school experience would have such a profound influence on him. Mark Britt “has tried his best to push me in the right direction. His guidance and teaching have allowed me to grow as a musician and a trombonist.” And Les Hicken, says Chris, “not only sparked and fostered my interest in music education, but has also been one of my role models. He has been able to successfully combine my two music interests — education and performance — to create a successful career, and this is something I truly admire.”
It’s obvious when you talk with Hicken and Britt that they know Chris well and expect great things of him. Hicken calls Chris “the most intelligent and talented student that I have worked with in many years,” while Britt describes him as “a musician of depth, intuition and intelligence” with “a relentless work ethic.”
When he began to explore graduate schools, Chris met with Hicken and Britt. He decided on a group of eight to ten schools that he researched over the summer, then narrowed the list down to four before beginning the application process in the fall. “I decided to audition in person at every school rather than send in a recorded audition so that I could meet the faculties and see the facilities. So, for four weekends out of winter term I traveled to New York, Connecticut, Texas and Indiana, auditioning at four very different graduate schools. I must say that though the graduate school audition experience was very stressful, it was an extremely educational experience. It gave me great insight as to what is in store for me as a professional trombonist.”
It may have been stressful, and it may have been educational, but it was also extremely successful. He was offered (and accepted) a full-tuition fellowship to pursue his master of music in trombone performance at Indiana University.
And after that? Chris says his entire family has asked that question. But he’s not at a loss to talk about possibilities. Eventually he wants to pursue a doctorate in performance. In the meantime, there are other avenues to pursue. “I would love to play in one of the top military bands, such as the Army Field Band or the President’s Own Marine Band,” he says. “However, entry into these ensembles is very competitive. In short, directly after graduate school I would like to try my hand at performing professionally...which brings me to a wonderful problem,” says Smith, who completed his bachelor’s degree in music education.
“Though I obviously love to play, I also love to teach, particularly in public schools,” he said. He recently completed his teaching internship at Florence Chapel Middle School in Duncan, South Carolina, and loved the experience. Chris has fi gured out that eventually he can do both by teaching trombone at the university level, following in the footsteps of his two mentors at Furman.
Winner of Miss America Preliminary Talent Competition!
Most people wouldn't see the similarities between a Division I football player
and an aspiring opera diva, but for junior vocal performance major Erika Powell,
the comparison is an easy one to make. "Football players come in knowing they'll
be doing two-a-days to train and get in shape, physically and mentally," she
explains. "We have to get vocally and physically in shape to support this instrument
we carry around with us."
Erika has been working for years to get her "instrument" in shape. "My parents pulled out a blackmail video a couple weeks ago," she laughs "I had just turned three, and I was in this big green dress with a headband that wouldn't stay on my head, singing on Easter Sunday at my grandparents church-at the top of my lungs."
That little girl probably seems far removed from the poised, classically trained vocalist she has become today. In July, Erika's extraordinary vocal talent helped her win the coveted title of Miss South Carolina, 2005. "The Furman Singers would do skits on tour where they wore crowns and talked about scepters and made fun of me," she says, "but they've all been really encouraging since the win. We're all there to learn from one another, and the support has been amazing."
Erika's vocal focus is opera, which she refers to as her first love, and Furman's music department has given her plenty of opportunities to develop that technique, with starring roles in the department's operas and featured solos in its oratorios.
She will have the chance to demonstrate to the nation what Furman has helped her to cultivate when she competes for Miss America in January 2006. She says she hopes that the education and musical training she's had at Furman "is going to be recognized and rewarded in an even bigger way."
"You go through stages in your life," Erika explains, "In high school you're involved in absolutely everything." Attending Furman has helped her to narrow her focus to a vocal performance major, and then narrow it further what she calls her "true focus"-opera.
So what's next for this classical soprano/pageant winner? She's taking a year off from classes at Furman to fulfill her duties as Miss South Carolina. "Thankfully, there are going to be a lot of options for me," she says.
Ben Moore
Music for sophomore vocal performance major Ben Moore is, first and foremost, a joyful noise unto the Lord. "I grew up in church because my dad is a pastor," he explains "and now I'm the director of music at our church when I'm not at Furman." Benjamin credits the church for giving him his first exposure to music, and says he still loves Gospel music because "that's where my roots are."
Perhaps those church roots are what helped to inspire in him such a strong desire to give back. Ben is pursuing a Music Ed concentration, and says that while he hopes to pursue a career as a classical vocalist, he would also like to teach high school chorus.
"I did some student teaching when I was in high school, and I really enjoyed it," he says. "I've always loved kids. My mom ran a daycare center, so I've been around kids all my life." He believes in the importance of school music education programs, saying he views them not just as a way to plant music in a child's heart, but values and morals as well. "Some kids aren't lucky enough to get that growing up," he explains.
Since he's come to Furman, the music department has helped him to grow through a mixture of encouragement and discipline. "I came knowing that being a music major I was going to have a very rigorous schedule and have to learn to budget my time. Since I've been here it's been more of a hands-on learning experience seeing what it takes to develop my talent and my art, but it's all worth it."
So what makes it worthwhile? According to Ben, it's the support of the Furman faculty. "Sometimes you may be feeling down and feeling like you're not going anywhere or improving like you need to, but then you go and your voice teacher encourages you, it's a great feeling."
Not that it's all smooth sailing. The music department also has its share of hazards, which he says he's personally experienced. "I was in studio class for my voice lessons. There were 15-20 people there in Daniel Recital hall and one of the teachers was having me do something to help me with my singing. She had me running up and down the steps, and I tripped and fell in front of everyone," he laughs.
It's a small price to pay though, for all the opportunities the department has afforded him. Ben was selected for a solo in the annual Church Music Conference hosted by Furman when he was only a freshman, and one of his fondest memories was when he had the chance to meet Daniel Washington, a Furman alumnus who is now on the faculty at the University of Michigan. "He came back to Furman to teach a master class, and he worked with me. He told me I had a great voice, and encouraged me to consider Michigan for graduate school," he remembers.
When he does have downtime from the rigors of the music department, Ben says he spends it hanging out with his friends. He also plans to get involved with the Heller Service Corps in a further effort to give back to the community, and he adds "of course, there's always church on Sundays."