Ten students studying in the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts have been awarded scholarships from the Valerie Canady Charitable Trust Foundation, one of the most prestigious awards given in the college.
The scholarships are named for Valerie Canady, a Morgantown native and WVU summa cum laude graduate, who was among the 270 people who died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in Dec. 1988. Canady, who worked for H.J. Heinz Co. in their London office, was an accomplished linguist and artist in different media of expression, especially in piano.
Loulie and William Canady, Valerie’s parents, and long-time residents of the Morgantown community, present the awards annually in December. Loulie Canady is a long-time supporter of the WVU School of Music and Dr. William Canady is professor emeritus of the Department of Biochemistry in the WVU School of Medicine. The Canadys are also the major patrons of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performances at WVU—a series that is named in memory of Valerie.
This year’s Canady scholars include:
Vlad Constantin Basarab, originally from Romania and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, is studying for a Master of Fine Arts degree in the areas of multimedia, sculpture, performance and video. He speaks fluent English as his second language and is also fluent in Spanish and his native Romanian. Over the course of the last year, he has traveled to New York, Paris, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, China, and Romania to visit major museums and galleries; to participate in conferences, film festivals and performance art events; and to realize his own performances. He is also dedicated to the craft of teaching.
Daniela Londono-Bernal is a transfer student from Medellin, Colombia, and is currently a senior in the intermedia and photography program. She has a passion for art and came to WVU after beginning a law degree in Colombia. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has studied French as well. She is also an outstanding artist and her work was recently accepted into a juried art exhibition in New York. In 2012 she won the Director’s Choice Award in the first Student Juried Exhibition in the School of Art & Design.
Szilvia Kadas, originally from Budapest, Hungary, is in her first year as a graduate student in the master’s program in art history at WVU. She speaks three languages fluently—Hebrew, Hungarian and English—and is currently pursuing a fourth language, German. She has already earned a Master of Fine Arts in studio art and graphic design from the University of Arkansas and her bachelor’s degree in design and visual communication from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Her future plan for her thesis topic is to research the effect of the Bauhaus School on American art and architecture.
Codi Renee Lamb, a native of Philippi, W.Va., is currently a senior studying for a bachelor’s degree in art history, with minors in Italian studies and history. She is fluent in Italian and also reads Hebrew. In the summer of 2010, she volunteered with an art museum in South Carolina in order to get hands-on experience in working with art in the public sphere. She has been a volunteer intern with the Art Museum of WVU for the past year and a half and also participated in an internship program at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. In the summer of 2012 she was an Elizabeth Perkins Fellow at the Museums of Old York in York, Maine.
Sora Lee, of Korea, received WVU’s first Master of Music degree in collaborative piano last year and is currently studying for a doctorate in collaborative piano, as the first student to enter this exciting new program. She has eagerly worked with wind, string, voice and other piano students in the School of Music and continues to develop her collaborative playing experiences with the choir and other ensembles. She is fluent in Korean and English. She became an organ student of Dr. William Haller last year and after beginning organ for only a few months, she auditioned and was hired as organist at First Baptist Church, Waynesburg, Pa.
Alejandro Pinzon is in his last year of a doctoral program in orchestra conducting. He is originally from Yucatan, Mexico, and has been active professionally in both his native country and the United States. He is also conductor of the String Studio and Chamber Orchestra at Waynesburg University in Waynesburg, Pa., and is former conductor of the Latin American Choir of Pittsburgh. At WVU he is the conductor of the Community Music Program’s Morgantown Community Orchestra and assistant conductor of the WVU Symphony Orchestra. Last summer, he made his debut in South America as guest conductor for a concert at Buenos Aires University.
Danielle Sensabaugh is a senior from Charleston, W.Va., who transferred to WVU in the fall of 2010 to study art history, with a minor in French, after a year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is a skilled painter, is bilingual, and she has selected courses and research topics that enable her to deepen her understanding of other cultures, as her future plans include travel and research. She participated in a study abroad program during summer 2012 to study the work of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence. This year she intends to go on a spring study trip to look at stained glass in the cathedrals in France.
Mollie Talada, from Morgantown, W.Va., is studying for a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and plays the oboe. She has been a member of the World Music Ensembles for three years, participating in the Steel Band, the African Music and Dance Ensemble, and the Brazilian Ensemble. She is fluent in Portuguese and regularly volunteers to assist with hosting the School of Music’s Brazilian exchange students. She also spent a semester in Brazil as part of the School’s Music Alive! exchange program. She is a member of the Oboe Studio and also plays in the WVU Symphony Orchestra, the WVU Wind Ensemble and the WVU Chamber Winds.
Joyce Chiao Su Wang is a doctoral piano performance major from Hattieville, Belize, who was born in Taiwan. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from WVU in 2008 and graduated in December 2010 with a master’s degree in piano pedagogy. She is also a cellist and teaches private lessons for students of piano and cello, as well as working at the University Advising Center, where she is a mentor for incoming freshmen and at-risk students. She performs in the WVU Orchestra and was recently appointed to a position in the University Resident Faculty Leader Program.
Maria Crystalia is a doctoral student from Indonesia who came to WVU from Sedaya University in Malaysia and is studying for a doctorate in piano performance. She is very active in volunteer work at the Indonesian/Malaysian Student Association and is also an academic advisor at the Undergraduate Advising Services Center. She speaks Indonesian, Malaysian, and several Chinese dialects, in addition to English. She studies harpsichord with Dr. William Haller at WVU and also plays the organ.
