MSU's Sinder and Ordman to Give Joint Recital and Masterclasses

Two Michigan State University professors of music, Philip Sinder (tuba and euphonium) and Ava Ordman (trombone), will give a guest artist recital in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. Sinder and Ordman will be joined by MSU piano professor Derek Polischuk on piano. The concert is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2. The concert will include works by Raum, Galliard, Bernofsky, Finzi, York, Prokofiev and Verhelst. The concert is free and open to the public.

Sinder and Ordman will also give free masterclasses for students at the University of Arkansas. Sinder will work with tuba and euphonium students in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall and Ordman will work with trombone students in MUSC 115. Both masterclasses are open to the public and start promptly at 6:00pm.

About the Artists

Philip Sinder is Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the Michigan State University College of Music. His students are found in performance and teaching positions throughout the United States, and have won awards in numerous performance competitions. Sinder has performed with many leading ensembles, including the Detroit Symphony, Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, and Houston Symphony. He is a founding member of the Brass Band of Battle Creek, and also performs frequently with the Lansing Symphony, Michigan Opera Theatre, and the Beaumont Brass Quintet of MSU. His solo tuba recording, "Aerodynamics," has received strong critical acclaim, and he has performed on over 20 large ensemble and brass quintet recordings. In 2009, Sinder was the recipient of the Withrow Excellence in Teaching Award at Michigan State University, and in 2017 he received the International Tuba Euphonium Association Excellence in Teaching Award. He currently serves as chairman for the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival, and since 2005 has been a Valade Teaching Fellow at the Interlochen Arts Camp. Sinder earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and a Master of Music degree from Wichita State University.

Ava Ordman has been the professor of trombone at Michigan State University since August 2002. Shortly after joining the faculty at MSU, she was appointed to the principal trombone position of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. Ordman is also the principal trombonist of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Orchestra that performs in Santa Cruz, California, every summer and is a member of the Beaumont Brass, the faculty brass quintet at MSU. Prior to her appointment at MSU, Ordman had been principal trombone of the Grand Rapids Symphony for 24 years. She then relocated to the Detroit area where she worked as a psychotherapist at the Guidance Center in Southgate, taught low brass at Oakland University, and freelanced as a trombonist. 

Ordman has been a featured soloist with many orchestras throughout the United States, including her solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony performing Donald Erb's "Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra." She has been a featured artist at four International Trombone Festivals, the International Brassfest in Bloomington, Indiana; the Eastern Trombone Workshop in Washington, D.C.; and many International Women's Brass Conferences held throughout the United States. Ordman also performed the world premiers of Steven Smith's "Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra" with the Eugene (Oregon) Symphony Orchestra and Libby Larsen's "Mary Cassatt for Mezzo-Soprano, Trombone, and Orchestra" with the Grand Rapids Symphony. Both of these works were written for Ordman and, along with Donald Erb's "Concerto," have been performed by her throughout the United States. 

Ordman was a finalist in the Concert Artist Guild Competition in New York City in 1991, the Louise D. MacMahon International Solo Competition in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1993, and a semi-finalist at the International Trombone Competition in Toulon, France in 1983. She is the featured trombone soloist on a Koss Classics' CD of concertos by Donald Erb and on the CD etitled Simple Gifts: the Music of Frank Ticheli. In January 2017, Ordman released her first solo CD titled It's About Time works for solo trombone by women composers. She earned her B.M. and M.M. in trombone performance from the University of Michigan in 1975 and a M.A. in counseling psychology from Western Michigan University in 1998. Ordman's primary teachers were Frank Crisafulli and Arnold Jacobs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Glen Dodson of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Glenn P. Smith Professor from University of Michigan, and Mark McDunn from DePaul University.

Derek Kealii Polischuk is associate professor of piano and director of piano pedagogy at the Michigan State University College of Music. Originally from San Diego, Polischuk studied with Krzysztof Brzuza before attending the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree with distinction under the tutelage of renowned piano pedagogue Daniel Pollack. On graduating from the Thornton School in 2006, Polischuk was named Most Outstanding Graduate.

Polischuk's 2013 solo piano recording "Terra Incognita" for the Blue Griffin label has received international critical acclaim. Colin Clarke of Fanfare Magazine wrote, "The Schubert receives an excellent performance from Polischuk. Shadings are perfectly judged, and Schubert's sense of timelessness is superbly judged, finding the pianist testing the boundaries of what constitutes too much without actually transgressing. The playful F-Minor offers pure joy." Lawrence Consentino wrote, "Polischuk hits every chord with a sweet weight. Every now and then, a set of notes tumbles down like flecks of snow breezed from a crow's nest, with no evident human touch.  With a warm but not ingratiating touch, he lets the music resound as if it were coming from inside your mind. … 'Terra Incognita' is a thought-provoking mix of sensual pleasure and deep reflection."

An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians at every age, ability and background, Polischuk has presented at meetings of piano teachers in the United States and Canada, including the Music Teachers National Association, the National Group Piano and Pedagogy Conference, and the Multidisciplinary Research in Music Pedagogy Conference. He has adjudicated piano competitions across the United States and teaches a studio a prizewinning pianists at the undergraduate, graduate and pre-college levels. He has published articles in Clavier Magazine and in the MTNA e-jounal on the topics of improvisation, outreach, and piano instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders. Polischuk is the founder and director of the "Celebrating the Spectrum" Piano Festival for advanced pianists on the Autism Spectrum. At Michigan State University, Polischuk has been the recipient of the Curricular Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Award, and the Teacher-Scholar Award, given in recognition of exceptional skill in teaching.