Christoph Wagner & Paula Corbin Swalin Faculty Features
Christoph Wagner always wanted to play the cello. The new assistant professor of cello at the University of New Mexico, Wagner started playing when he was six. Wagner says he watched his sister play the cello and never doubted that it was the instrument for him. What attracted him was the versatility of the instrument.
“You can do so many things with this instrument. You can play very low, you can play very high pitches. So you can mimic a huge spectrum of expressions, sounds, timbres and colors,” Wagner said. Wagner’s responsibilities will include growing the cello program at UNM, teaching courses related to strings and pedagogy and supporting the orchestra program. During the Fall 2023 semester, he co-lead the Sinfonia– the smaller orchestra.
Paula Corbin Swalin, soprano and Lecturer in Voice, was chosen as a classical singer participant to attend the Barcelona Festival of Song this summer. Each year the festival receives a select group of singers from around the world who immerse themselves in the art of song repertoire in Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese. Singers receive coaching, attend lectures and concerts, and participate in performances of Latin American and Iberian song, curated by the festival’s coordinator, Dr. Patricia Caicedo. Through her work at Mundo Arts and the Barcelona Festival of Song, Dr. Caicedo strives to preserve and promote Latin American and Iberian art song repertoire.
Clarence Cruz Leaves a Lasting Native Pottery Legacy at UNM
Clarence Cruz, who is Tewa from Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo), serves as the Professor of Ceramics in the Art Department. He has been a prominent and familiar figure on campus since his student days.
UNM Students Feed the Fun in “Little Shop of Horrors”
UNM Theatre and Dance brings the cult-classic Little Shop of Horrors to the stage this season. Part B-movie spoof and part social satire, Little Shop of Horrors follows a meek and shy flower-shop worker whose discovery of a mysterious plant changes his life forever....
From UNM to Texas: Raychel Stine continues to shine in “Falls and Springs and Stardust Things”
Raychael Stine, Professor of Painting and Drawing, recently created a show titled “Falls and Springs and Stardust Things” at the Cris Worley Fine Arts Gallery in Texas. Stine makes luscious, joyful paintings that integrate a variety of painterly languages and approaches to mark, texture, and levels of visual legibility, allowing for playful slippage between formal and material abstraction.