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Furman alumna, Sigal Music Museum featured on local news
Madeleine Wiggs, a 2022 Furman University art history and English literature and language alumna, offered FOX Carolina viewers a sneak peak of a new exhibition, “Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred,” on display at Greenville’s Sigal Music Museum through May 2024. Wiggs, who interned for the museum while at Furman, explained the collection of vintage instruments to Ava Braatz, reporter for “Access Carolina.” Wiggs serves as communications and exhibits manager for Sigal Music Museum.
As a student at Furman, Madeleine was a member of Belle Voci, the treble voiced choir, for 6 semesters.
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Frances Pollock's new composition "Love Story" premiered by the Furman Percussion Ensemble
Frances Pollock ’12 composed a new piece entitled “Love Story,” which was commissioned and premiered by the Furman University Percussion Ensemble at their 2022 PASIC show. Frances earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Vocal Performance and has written numerous musical theater and opera scores. She most notably received press for her opera “Stinney,” which was first performed in 2015.
Frances earned her Master’s in Music (Voice) in 2015 from Peabody and in February of 2024 she was named an Emerging Creative Leader in the State of Connecticut by the Connecticut Arts Awards for her work as CEO of the Midnight Oil Collective, a “venture studio that incubates, accelerates, and invests in art and entertainment.”
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Alumna named Director of Fine Arts at Tomball Independent School District in Northwest Houston
Paulette Tomlinson (Torchia) ’09 was named the Director of Fine Arts at Tomball Independent School District in Northwest Houston where she oversees the fine arts education of 23,000 K-12 students and directs over 130 fine arts teachers. Tomball ISD offers a robust fine arts course catalog including opportunities in music, visual art, theatre, and dance. Before this appointment, she served as the Director of Fine Arts in both the Flour Bluff and Nacogdoches Independent School Districts. In addition to this role, Paulette serves the state of Texas by leading the Texas Arts Education Campaign, which recently made history by passing a state funded Fine Arts Allotment through the TX House of Representatives in May 2023. Final ruling on the allotment is still pending due to special session. With this campaign, Paulette organized the first ever TX Capitol Fine Arts Summit, bringing over 150 teachers and students to Austin to perform, share artwork, and visit legislators to advocate for Fine Arts Education.
Paulette has presented on arts advocacy and her work with TAEC at several conferences this year, including TMEA (Music), TAEA (Art), TxETA (theatre), Texas Thespians, and TDEA (dance). She has also been asked to serve on two “Women in Leadership” panels at TMEA.
Here are some articles about Paulette’s recent appointment:
https://www.tomballisd.net/about-tisd/departments/communications/news-releases/news-details/~board/staff-recognition/post/paulette-tomlinson-set-to-become-newtomball-isd-director-of-fine-arts
Alumna’s string project reverberates throughout central Texas
Violist Dr. Ames Asbell began a three-year term as President of the American Viola Society in July 2023. Prior to this national leadership role, she was elected to the AVS Board in 2016 and President-Elect in 2020. She is currently Associate Professor of Viola at Texas State University, Principal Viola of the Austin Opera, and violist in the Austin Symphony Orchestra. Each spring, Ames performs with fellow Furman alum (and her colleague in the Gladden String Quartet) conductor Robert Moody (BM, ’89) in the Arizona MusicFest Orchestra.
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Class E Podcast: Performance Pathfinders: On Stage Collective's Artistic Odyssey
In January 2024, for the Class E Podcast, Mary Sturgill, Media Specialist/Instructor in the Communication Studies Department and Sr. Faculty Fellow in the The Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship | Producer & Host Class E Podcast, interviewed two music alumnae, Heather McKenzie Patterson ’04 and Katherine Sandoval Taylor ’04 who are co-founders of On Stage Collective.
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