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The Southeast Kansas Symphony is getting a new conductor, and the Pittsburg State University music department is getting a new professor of voice and vocal performance.
Stella Hastings, who has conducted the symphony for nearly 10 years in addition to teaching several music classes, has accepted a full-time professorship. Selim Giray, PSU associate music professor in violin and viola, will step in as new symphony conductor.
Hastings said that the decision to step down from the symphony was a hard one for her, motivated by budget cuts and the desire to see that young singers will receive the best possible education at PSU.
“The university previously had two full-time voice instructors, as well as adjunct staff,” she said. “One of those full-time positions became open last spring, and then the word came down that there would be no new hires because of budget cuts.”
That meant the position, if not filled, might be eliminated, leaving PSU with only one full-time voice instructor and adjunct staff.
“I did not want to see that happen for our students,” Hastings said. “The age from 17 to 23 is such a crucial time in development if someone is to become a good singer. The exposure to good technique is so important.”
Hastings has degrees in both conducting and voice. “Not only do I have the training, but even more important, I have kept up with singing,” she said.
She is a member of the Grammy-nominated choral ensemble Conspirare, most recently performing in the group’s Christmas concert series. She also occasionally sings solos around the area.
She and husband Todd Hastings, also a PSU music faculty member, came to Pittsburg in 1996, and she started with the symphony in 2001, alongside former conductor and retired PSU music professor Carolann Martin.
“It’s been quite an adventure, and I’m very proud of how far we’ve come,” Hastings said. “I’m excited to see where the symphony will go in years to come.”
Giray spends his summers as concert master and assistant conductor of the Ohio Light Opera, and leads the PSU Chamber Orchestra, which was recently invited to perform for the Kansas Music Educators Association. He has played in the SEK Symphony for years, and has served as a guest conductor.
“Selim and I have been great colleagues and work together so well,” Hastings said. “It gives me a great deal of confidence to know that I’m handing the symphony over to my colleague.”
Giray, who also directed a community orchestra at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, said that he and Hastings had always had the same vision of the symphony. He said his goal is for the students to have as smooth a transition as possible.
Hastings began teaching private voice lessons last fall, after seven years of not teaching singing, and realized just how much she had missed it. “I had put my big-girl voice on the back burner,” she said.
Now she hopes to be doing more singing. “I had been saying no to Conspirare more often than I said yes when they’d call asking me to perform,” she said. “Now I hope to say yes more often. Maybe I’ll even be on one of their next Grammy-nominated recordings.”
She still has two more concerts to conduct. The next, at 3 p.m. Sunday in McCray Recital Hall, will have a “past, present and future” theme, and will feature all works by Mozart.
“I’ve asked Carolann Martin to conduct the ‘Overture to Cosi fan tutte’,” Hastings said. “Selim will conduct his student, Ramiro Miranda, in ‘Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major’, and I will conduct ‘Symphony No. 40 in G minor.’ I also conducted that piece in my very first concert with the SEK Symphony on Oct. 7, 2001, so I’ve come full circle.”
Her final appearance as conductor with the symphony will be on April 18. But that won’t end her association with it. “I plan on joining the ranks of the Friends of the SEK Symphony,” Hastings said, “and being a financial supporter for the symphony.”
The Southeast Kansas Symphony is getting a new conductor, and the Pittsburg State University music department is getting a new professor of voice and vocal performance.
Stella Hastings, who has conducted the symphony for nearly 10 years in addition to teaching several music classes, has accepted a full-time professorship. Selim Giray, PSU associate music professor in violin and viola, will step in as new symphony conductor.
Hastings said that the decision to step down from the symphony was a hard one for her, motivated by budget cuts and the desire to see that young singers will receive the best possible education at PSU.
“The university previously had two full-time voice instructors, as well as adjunct staff,” she said. “One of those full-time positions became open last spring, and then the word came down that there would be no new hires because of budget cuts.”
That meant the position, if not filled, might be eliminated, leaving PSU with only one full-time voice instructor and adjunct staff.
“I did not want to see that happen for our students,” Hastings said. “The age from 17 to 23 is such a crucial time in development if someone is to become a good singer. The exposure to good technique is so important.”
Hastings has degrees in both conducting and voice. “Not only do I have the training, but even more important, I have kept up with singing,” she said.
She is a member of the Grammy-nominated choral ensemble Conspirare, most recently performing in the group’s Christmas concert series. She also occasionally sings solos around the area.
She and husband Todd Hastings, also a PSU music faculty member, came to Pittsburg in 1996, and she started with the symphony in 2001, alongside former conductor and retired PSU music professor Carolann Martin.
“It’s been quite an adventure, and I’m very proud of how far we’ve come,” Hastings said. “I’m excited to see where the symphony will go in years to come.”
Giray spends his summers as concert master and assistant conductor of the Ohio Light Opera, and leads the PSU Chamber Orchestra, which was recently invited to perform for the Kansas Music Educators Association. He has played in the SEK Symphony for years, and has served as a guest conductor.
“Selim and I have been great colleagues and work together so well,” Hastings said. “It gives me a great deal of confidence to know that I’m handing the symphony over to my colleague.”
Giray, who also directed a community orchestra at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, said that he and Hastings had always had the same vision of the symphony. He said his goal is for the students to have as smooth a transition as possible.
Hastings began teaching private voice lessons last fall, after seven years of not teaching singing, and realized just how much she had missed it. “I had put my big-girl voice on the back burner,” she said.
Now she hopes to be doing more singing. “I had been saying no to Conspirare more often than I said yes when they’d call asking me to perform,” she said. “Now I hope to say yes more often. Maybe I’ll even be on one of their next Grammy-nominated recordings.”
She still has two more concerts to conduct. The next, at 3 p.m. Sunday in McCray Recital Hall, will have a “past, present and future” theme, and will feature all works by Mozart.
“I’ve asked Carolann Martin to conduct the ‘Overture to Cosi fan tutte’,” Hastings said. “Selim will conduct his student, Ramiro Miranda, in ‘Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major’, and I will conduct ‘Symphony No. 40 in G minor.’ I also conducted that piece in my very first concert with the SEK Symphony on Oct. 7, 2001, so I’ve come full circle.”
Her final appearance as conductor with the symphony will be on April 18. But that won’t end her association with it. “I plan on joining the ranks of the Friends of the SEK Symphony,” Hastings said, “and being a financial supporter for the symphony.”
