Liz Downing to Receive 2011 Hartgen Award
Contact: Danny Williams, 947-4801; Liz Downing, 581-1558
ORONO — The University of Maine Patrons of the Arts board members have selected Elizabeth Liz Downing, senior associate director of New Student Programs and a member of the university’s music faculty, as the 2011 Vincent A. Hartgen Award recipient.
The awards ceremony will be Friday, April 29 at 6 p.m. at the Buchanan Alumni House. The public is invited to join UMaine faculty, staff, friends and students in paying tribute to Downing. The Hartgen award is given each year in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of the arts at the university. Vincent Hartgen was a famous Maine artist and founding member of the University of Maine Department of Art and what is now the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor.
Downing, a flutist, is an instructor of flute and performs as a soloist, chamber musician and is a member of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. She has served on its board of directors and the boards of the American Folk Festival and the Arcady Music Society. She also has taught classes in innovative engineering and has served in multiple capacities in the Admissions Office, including admissions counseling, the Visitors Center, Telecounseling and enrollment management events like open house programs and new student orientation.
She has performed as a soloist with members of the New York Philharmonic in the Arcady Music Festival, the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra and with the Haydn Festival Orchestra under Claude Monteux. Downing has appeared on Boston’s WGBH pubic radio program “Morning Pro Musica” and on several Maine Public Broadcasting Network programs. She also has held master classes or performed with popular recording artists James Galway, Paul Sullivan and Phish. She has organized and served as an adjudicator for many youth music competitions and festivals throughout New England.
Downing has taught music at several Maine high Schools and the Northern Conservatory of Music in Bangor, among other places. The range of nearly 50 boards or committees she has served on while at UMaine runs from multiple music and arts groups to volunteer initiatives, student life and several university facilities planning panels.
She holds a master of music in flute performance from the University of Colorado, and bachelor of arts in German and a bachelor of music in flute performance from the University of Maine. Downing also has studied German and music in Salzburg, Austria.
Daniel Williams, chair of the Patrons for the Arts, says this year’s selection of Downing for the Hartgen award was a unanimous choice. Downing’s diverse interests all converge to more than meet the criteria for the prestigious award, he says.
Fourth-year music education major and flute player Joshua Bosse says Downing has been a great flute teacher and friend.
“From the first time I met Liz, I knew my life would be better because of her ability as a teacher and mentor,” he says. “After 4 years of lessons, she continues to inspire me to be a better person and player. When I leave UMaine, Liz will be a part of my heart and my flute playing, for I know I have made a friend for life.”
Downing is married to music professor and director of choral music programs Dennis Cox, who received the Vincent A. Hartgen Award in 2000, a year after the inception of the Hartgen award.