Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:01:42 +0000

The Detroit Medical Center and the Wayne State University School of Medicine have inked a new contract that will give the Midtown health system full sponsorship of 50 residency programs and allow it to reduce payments to the university over the next three years.The five-year contract replaces one set to expire in June and gives the DMC sole responsibility for hiring doctors to teach in its residency programs, officials with the two institutions said Wednesday. In turn, the DMC has agreed to hire Wayne State faculty doctors for the teaching positions.Under the current contract, signed in November 2006, Wayne State doctors and medical school residents are allowed to use DMC facilities as a teaching hospital, in exchange for payment from the DMC for the services the doctors provide.In addition to the teaching contract, the DMC and Wayne State have also signed a three-year agreement that would require the DMC to contract with university doctors at 10 Wayne State physician groups to work at the health system's eight hospitals.For Wayne State, the new agreements ensure the university will be able to continue its mission of caring for Detroit's underserved population by supplying faculty physicians to DMC hospitals, said Dr. Valerie Parisi, the medical school's interim dean.The contracts come as the two institutions seek to move beyond a lengthy financial dispute that culminated in 2008 when the DMC halted payments to Wayne State of about $1 million a month. DMC officials said at the time a new state program was providing university physicians with $17 million a year in new money and continued funding would result in a double payment that would violate federal law.

Full Story
Mark Laycock, WSU director of orchestras, will lead the program, which includes music by Mozart, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams and Gershwin.

Five student soloists, selected by audition, will be featured in concert with the orchestra.

Violinist Marta Prugar, a graduate student from Warsaw, Poland, and a member of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, will perform the first movement of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major. Jordan Voth will play the finale from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in Eb Major ("The Emperor"); he is a junior from Hesston, Kan.

Senior violinist Amy Schumann will be featured on Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending." Soprano Krystal Nelson, a senior from Overland Park, will sing "Parto, parto" from Mozart's opera "La Clemenza di Tito." Sarah Johnson will play the final movement of Jacques Ibert's Flute Concerto; she is a graduate student in flute performance and is from Bentonville, Ark.

The orchestra will also perform the "Porgy and Bess" Symphonic Picture, a medley of musical highlights from George Gershwin's groundbreaking 1935 opera. Featuring such timeless melodies as "It Ain't Necessarily So," "Bess, You Is My Woman" and "Summertime," "Porgy and Bess" is considered by many to be the quintessential American opera.

The concert will begin with Aaron Copland's "Our Town," a haunting, lyrical overture based on his incidental music for the Thornton Wilder play.

Marta Prugar began her violin studies at age 7. She earned a Master of Music in violin performance and Violin Teacher Certification from the Bacewicz Academy of Music in Lodz, Poland. She also holds a Master of Music from Oklahoma City University, where she was on full scholarship and first violinist in the Polish String Quartet. Since 2005, she has performed with the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra in Texas.

While earning a music education degree at WSU, Marta has been performing with the WSU Symphony Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra (WSO) and the Wichita Grand Opera.

As a member of the Bloomfield Graduate String Quartet she participates in a WSO program that brings classical chamber music to the public schools, performing 40 concerts yearly. Marta's teachers include Krystyna Jurecka, Anna Wodka-Janikowska, John Arnold, John Harrison, Richard Young and Catherine Consiglio.

Jordan Voth is a piano performance and pedagogy major; he is a student of Andrew Trechak. A 2007 graduate of Hesston High School, he earned First Prize in the Andersen Concerto Series in 2006, followed by a performance with the Hutchinson Symphony Orchestra, and the 2009 Stephen V. Imbler piano scholarship.

A music education major, Krystal Nelson has been seen in multiple WSU opera productions, including "Les Dialogues des Carmelites," "Little Women," "Tamerlano" and "Street Scene." She will also be in WSU's March production of "L'enfant et les sortilèges." She is a student of Deborah Baxter.

Flutist Sarah Johnson is a first-year graduate student pursuing a master's degree in flute performance. A student of Frances Shelly, she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree from WSU in May 2009. She has been involved in many different chamber ensembles at WSU, including the Graduate Woodwind Quintet. She is a graduate teaching assistant for WSU and has an extensive private studio of flute students in the area. In July 2009, Sarah worked with Eastman professor Bonita Boyd at the Masterworks Festival in Indiana.

Amy Schumann is a senior violin performance major studying with Nancy Luttrell. She regularly performs with the Walenta String Quartet and the Vistamente Trio. Amy has attended such summer music institutes as the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians, the Brevard Music Center and the Eastern Music Festival (where she served as Principal Second Violin).

A native of Wichita, Amy graduated from Maize High School in 2005. An accomplished trombonist, she studied with Russell Widener and served as Principal Trombonist in the KMEA All-State Orchestra.

Laycock is an associate professor of music at WSU, where he holds the Ann Walenta Faculty of Distinction Endowed Professorship. In 2007, he was recognized with the College of Fine Arts Excellence in Teaching Award.

This season, he appears as conductor with the Wichita Grand Opera, Opera Kansas and the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra. Laycock's work as guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator spans 20 states, including the leadership of all-state orchestras in Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska and Washington.

For ticket information, call the Fine Arts Box Office at (316) 978-3233. The concert will also be simulcast on WSU Internet Radio (http://wsuir.wichita.edu).