Michael Braz **

Professor of Music at Georgia Southern University, SAI Friend of the Arts Michael Braz is a member of the Graduate and Honors faculties teaching theory, composition, orchestration, and choral arranging classes, as well as occasional courses on Finale music software and Wagner's Ring. He is the faculty advisor for the Zeta Omicron chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Braz's arrangement of the Korean folk song The Hills of Arirang (2-part treble voices, piano) was favorably reviewed in the May 2003 Choral Journal. More recently, Braz received the Statesboro Herald "Humanitarian of the Year" award for service to the Statesboro, GA, community. Additionally, he was honored by Georgia Southern's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences with the Ruffin Cup, a senior faculty award recognizing teaching, scholarly achievement/creative activity, and service. Braz has 16 compositions and arrangements in print, published by Hinshaw and Colla Voce. Having recently completed a set of incidental pieces for the Georgia Southern Theatre production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, his current projects include composing original music for a play commemorating the Statesboro Bicentennial celebration, as well as work on a piano sonata. He can be contacted at (912) 681-5397 (school) or at mbraz@georgiasouthern.edu

Premieres

Incidental Music from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, (ten songs, dances, and incidental pieces) was introduced in a new production by Georgia Southern University Theatre.

Performances

A Pandean Pilgrimage, for band and optional women's chorus, was conducted by the composer at the August 2003 SAI Centennial Convention in Dearborn, MI. The 55-member wind ensemble drawn from throughout the U.S. was joined by a chorus of approximately 900 members during the fraternity's Welcome Luncheon. The internationally known folk group Schooner Fare performed their composition Quebecois with an orchestration by Braz, who has orchestrated many of their earlier works, including the album Classic Schooner Fare.

Publications

A new arrangement of Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (SATB, brass quintet, handbells, congregation), utilizing both the "Nettleton" and "Warrenton" melodies, is scheduled for publication in 2004 by Hinshaw Music. Originally written for First United Methodist Church, Columbus, MS, this was one of six pieces created under an American Composers Forum/Rockefeller Brothers Fund "Faith Partners" grant.

**Sigma Alpha Iota Friend of the Arts

Further Information

• 2001-2002 American Composers Update
• 2000-2001 American Composers Update
• 1999-2000 American Composers Update
• 1998-1999 American Composers Update
• 1997-1998 American Composers Update