of art & design
Dr. J. Mark Scearce, director of the Music Department, has been named an Outstanding Extension Service Award recipient and inducted into the Academy of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension. The award, presented through the Division of Extension, Engagement and Economic Development, is given in recognition of the recipient’s dedication and demonstrated achievements in serving the people of North Carolina.
“It is for his indefatigable, unflagging presence and his example that indeed art matters and can make a difference that we nominate him for this award,” stated the announcement. “Every composition Scearce creates is an economic engine unto itself,” Scearce’s nomination went on to write, “ delivering on an investment by the performing organization commissioning him.”
During his five-year tenure to date, Scearce has seen to the Music Department’s 25% increase in enrollment, doubling attendance at concert venues, tripling performance revenue, and quadrupling student attendance at departmental ensemble performances.
Scearce is the recipient of the 2009 International Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize for Music Composition. His commissioned fanfare, “Ceremonies”, will open the new North Carolina Museum of Art in late April 2010.