MC alumna receives Fulbright Grant

Aug. 9, 2010
Contact: Chloe Kennedy, News and New Media Writer
865.981.8209; chloe.kennedy@maryvillecollege.edu

Maryville College alumna Laura Atkinson has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to study at the Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre in Leipzig, Germany.

Under the guidance of Professor Jeanette Favaro-Reuter, Atkinson will work on a project based on the music of German composer Robert Schumann.  She and her husband, Jason Steigerwalt, will move to Germany in August for the 2010-11 academic year.

 “I am so very honored and grateful to have been awarded a Fulbright Grant,” Atkinson said. “I know that this is an opportunity that will have an immense impact on my development as a musician and on my career.”

As a scholar, Atkinson has also been awarded a six-week intensive language course. Atkinson proposed to study in Leipzig because the city was home for Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara Wieck.

“I will be studying his relationship with Clara Wieck, mostly through their well-documented correspondence, and the time period that led to their marriage and his subsequent Liederjahr of 1840,” Atkinson said. “This was an incredibly important period of musical output for Schumann, namely of his vocal music.”

A Louisville, Ky., native, Atkinson graduated in 2005 from Maryville College, where she majored in music education and minored in voice. She was a member of the College’s concert choir and vocal ensemble, Off Kilter. Atkinson, a mezzo-soprano, earned her master of music degree in vocal performance at Yale University, at the Institute of Sacred Music. At Yale, she studied with the American lyric tenor, James R. Taylor. She was also a member of Schola Cantorum, a vocal ensemble led by Simon Carrington. As a soloist in this ensemble, she toured Bach’s B-Minor Mass throughout China and Korea. Upon graduation, she was awarded the inaugural Margot Fassler Award for the Excellence in Performance of Sacred Music. With the Yale Baroque Opera Project, she sang the lead role of Medea in Cavalli’s Il Giasone, for which she received favorable review in The New Yorker.

 "Everyone in the Music Department at Maryville College is very proud of Laura, her hard work and level of achievement,” said Stacey Wilner, coordinator of choral music at Maryville College. “Laura took advantage of all the educational opportunities that came her way at Maryville College – she participated in master classes, sang with all the choral ensembles as soloist and chorus member, worked as an assistant director for the choir and became a leader among her peers. Her initiative has served her well as she went on to pursue her degree at Yale and now begins her adventure as a Fulbright recipient.”

Wilner said she remembers the day Atkinson auditioned for a choral scholarship as a senior in high school in 2001.

“I remember thinking, ‘What a beautiful voice, this young singer really has potential,’” Wilner said. “But it takes more than talent, it takes hard work, perseverance and tenacity to truly be successful in this competitive field.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. It is a very competitive program: in 2009, out of 2,209 applications, 403 grants were awarded. From that number, 82 grantees were sent to Germany, and only eight of these scholars were musicians, Atkinson said.

Atkinson said she is looking forward to working with other musicians and scholars in Germany.

“I am preparing for committed and focused work on my project, my music and my German language study,” Atkinson said. “Germany has served and continues to serve as one of the great epicenters for classical music, and I am so excited to be immersed in this culture and country.”

Maryville College is ideally situated in Maryville, Tenn., between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Knoxville, the state‘s third largest city. Founded in 1819, it is the 12th oldest institution of higher learning in the South and maintains an affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Known for its academic rigor and its focus on the liberal arts, Maryville is where students come to stretch their minds, stretch themselves and learn how to make a difference in the world. Total enrollment for the fall 2011 semester was 1,078.