Janis McKay (Music) has just published a book with the University of Nevada Press,  Played Out on the Strip: The Rise and Fall of Las Vegas Casino Bands. From 1940 to 1989, nearly every hotel on the Las Vegas Strip employed a full-time band or orchestra. After the late 1980s, when control of the casinos changed hands from independent…

Susanna Newbury (Art) and Maria del C Vera (Architecture) recently published their joint study "Arbitrage Las Vegas: A Portrait of Urban Games" in Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and Extraurban Studies. The article considers the roles of arbitrage, risk, and theories of gaming in the redevelopment of downtown Las Vegas.

Brett Caroline Levner (Film) won the 2015 Charles Vanda Award for Excellence in the Arts for her work on The Track, a feature film about underage sex trafficking in Las Vegas.  It stars Missy Yager (Mad Men), Sam Trammell (True Blood, The Fault in Our Stars), Michael Muhney (Veronica Mars, The Young and the Restless), Clarence Gilyard (Die…

Margot Mink Colbert (Dance) was honored to have been invited to participate in UNLV’s first annual Summer Proposal Writing Institute, which took place in June. Five workshop sessions culminated in a grant submission to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a project in the dance department. “100 Years and Beyond: Contemporary Ballet in the…

Margot Mink Colbert and Dolly Kelepecz Momot (both Dance) toured “Echoes and Tales,” a program of original dance works performed in Copenhagen, Denmark,  at the Dansekapellet Theatre in June.  The performing company included UNLV Dance major graduates Kaileigh O’Neill, Shannon Redfield, and Hailey Wood; New York  choreographer…

Paul Bordenkircher (Music) recently contributed an article to Music Connection, a leading monthly national publication related to music industry. Titled "Top 12 Mobile Apps for Music Businesses," the article was published in the magazine's monthly Tip Jar column in the July issue. A 30-year veteran of the music industry, focusing the last 18 years…

Hannah Fluitt (Architecture) was named student chapter Leader of the Year for 2015 by the American Society of Interior Designers. She is president of UNLV's student chapter.

The UNLV Jazz Program took home several awards at the 2015 Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival in March. UNLV Jazz Ensemble I, conducted by Dave Loeb and Nathan Tanouye, received second place in the College Big Band Division, competing among some of the finest university jazz ensembles in the nation. The UNLV Latin Jazz Ensemble, directed by…

David Schmoeller (Film) is the 2015 recipient of the Charles Vanda Award for Excellence in the Arts from UNLV's College of Education. Additionally, he has received promotion to full professor, effective July 1, 2015. A feature film he wrote, produced, and directed, 2 Little Monsters, was licensed to the Lifetime Movie Network for three years. Its…

Nicole Thomas (Music) has been accepted to the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Academy for summer 2015. A mezzo-soprano, she was accepted from a highly completive field of more than 1,000 singers. Singers are chosen by videotaped audition and recommendation only. The first UNLV student to be accepted into this program, she also was Nevada's first…

UNLV Jazz Studies (Music) saw its performing groups invited to compete at the 58th annual Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival -- the sixth consecutive year that UNLV groups have received an invitation. The festival, which draws top student musicians from around the world, will take place this month in Monterey, Calif. UNLV's students will…

Linda Lister, Stephanie Weiss, Lillian Roberts, Xavier Brown, and Cheyna Alexander (all Music) of UNLV Opera won in two categories at the National Opera Association Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition, which took place at the national convention in Greensboro, N.C. in January. UNLV Opera won in both the graduate and musical theatre divisions.