Belmont University piano instructor and graduate student Tiange (Tina) Wu was recently announced as the winner of the 2017 Composition Competition hosted by the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra for her work titled, “Abduction.” As a result of her placement, Wu’s piece will be performed on stage at the 2nd Annual W. Ovid Collins, Jr. Concert Series on May 7 and 9. The May 7 performance will take place in Belmont’s McAfee Concert Hall and the May 9 show will be held at Brentwood United Methodist Church on Franklin Rd.
“Abduction” was inspired by an urban legend originating in Guangxi, China that told the story of an intelligent and beautiful young lady referred to as sister Liu. Sister Liu was a folk singer from a minority ethnic group called Zhuang. Wu’s orchestral piece portrays a scene from the story in which the leader of a corrupt organization referred to as the “Huairen Mo” abducted sister Liu to force her into marriage. Wu uses a folk tune to represent sister Liu and a strong and dissonant sound to portray the Huairen Mo whom abducted her. The piece has been performed live onstage in Beijing, China, but this event will be the first time it has been played live in the United States.
Wu’s professional orchestration training began in 2006. In 2008, she entered the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a full scholarship to pursue her passion for multimedia composition. After graduating from Oberlin College, she performed as the principal keyboardist for the Firelands Symphony Orchestra in Sandusky, Ohio. She currently works for RocketPunch Game,Inc. creating music and soundscapes for the video game industry. Additionally, she is completing her master’s degree in music for commercial composition and arranging at Belmont.
The event was held at the Bellevue Branch of the Nashville Public Library and began with an opening ceremony that featured a panel discussion led by local community members on matters of diversity and inclusion. Panelists included Belmont’s Chief of Staff and Vice President Dr. Susan West, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Vanderbilt Dr. George Hill, Education and Street Chaplaincy Coordinator for Open Table Nashville Lindsey Krinks, Community Relations Manager at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Leah Hashinger, Belmont student Jasmine Niazi and a representative from Conexión Américas.
h planning,” Patterson said. “The panel discussion at the opening event was powerful to hear how organizations across Nashville value working together with various populations for a common goal of promoting the rights of humans. Throughout the weekend, I was blessed to meet many amazing individuals who reflected on their identities and had dreams of carrying the event to other locations around Nashville and to other cities. It was refreshing to meet so many people who worked together to create unity in the collaborative art piece as well as in their lives.”
Belmont University junior Joe LaMartina was recently spotlighted in a national weekly email update sent out by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for his work with their collegiate program “Up ‘Til Dawn.” The program involves students raising funds for St. Jude by seeking pledges for staying up all night. LaMartina is a member of Belmont’s Up ‘Til Dawn executive board and has been involved with the event for the last two years. The program was started on Belmont’s campus only three years ago, but students have already raised more than $243,000, placeing Belmont among the top five campuses involved in the program out of 60 colleges across the country.
Additionally, junior social entrepreneurship major Emily Waddell was invited to join The National Association of Women Business Owners by the Nashville chapter in February for her work with her start-up 
Dr. Mike Pinter, mathematics professor and director of the Teaching Center, recently published a chapter in Using the Philosophy of Mathematics in Teaching Undergraduate Mathematics. The book, published in early 2017, is Volume 86 of the Mathematical Association of America Notes Series. The chapter is entitled “Helping Students See Philosophical Elements in a Mathematics Course” and briefly develops ways Pinter invites Honors students to explore philosophical issues in their Analytics: Math Models course. This course fulfills the mathematics and quantitative reasoning requirement in the Honors Program general education curriculum.
Dr. Steve Murphree, biology, served as a judge at 
On April 3, Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business hosted a seminar event featuring Warner/Chappell Production Music’s President and CEO Randy Wachtler. Wachtler discussed what career opportunities exist under the umbrella of production and shared his advice on how students could seek out employment with Warner/Chappell.
