Maine Perspective Front Page
First of UMaine's Liberace Scholars to Graduate
University of Maine studio art major Carol Ann Livingstone of Winthrop graduates next month and is bound for Scotland to study at the world-class Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop.
Master's student Sandra Howard of Windham is pursuing a career in vocal performance and teaching.
Cristin O'Brien of Glenburn, a third-year student, plans to be a scientific illustrator or landscape sculptor.
Second-year voice performance student Christine St. Pierre of Fort Fairfield already has a goal of graduate school in New York City. Then, she says, it's on to the Met.
The four young women are among UMaine's most promising students, destined for careers in the visual and performing arts. At the University, they found their talents championed. With the help of the Liberace Scholarship Fund, which provides grants exclusively for scholarship assistance to gifted students in the arts disciplines, they found their dreams that much closer to becoming reality.
"The Liberace Scholarship in my first year made it easier to pay for school," says St. Pierre. "But more important, it made me strive to work even harder."
St. Pierre, who received a Liberace Scholarship last year, came to UMaine to study music education. It was here that she had her first voice lesson.
O'Brien also received a Liberace Scholarship in her first year at UMaine as a studio art major. Tapping into the University's comprehensive academic offerings, O'Brien took a landscaping course in her sophomore year and discovered her fascination with horticulture.
"I was in class for two weeks and knew that this also is what I want to do," says O'Brien, whose out-of-class activities range from helping design a display at the Bangor Garden Show to being a volunteer usher at the Maine Center for the Arts and exhibiting in the Department of Art Juried Student Exhibition.
"I came to UMaine because it is affordable and close to home," says O'Brien. "The University has such a good horticulture program and the professors in art are great."
O'Brien was one of three art students in a sculpture class who created prototypes of University of Maine medallions, one of which was presented to UMaine President Peter Hoff during his Investiture last fall. The design selected was created by Livingstone, UMaine's first Liberace Scholar.
Livingstone had been accepted by such institutions as the Rochester Institute of Technology by the time she graduated from Winthrop High School in 1990. She chose UMaine for its broad liberal arts education.
Here she has worked with such respected artists as professor Michael Lewis, who encouraged her to explore expression in her artwork. It was artist and professor Susan Groce who introduced her to printmaking, a pursuit that will take Livingstone to Scotland to study with artists at the forefront of the artform.
While Livingstone made history as the first UMaine Liberace Scholar, Howard has set a precedent by receiving a Liberace Scholarship for two consecutive years. The recipient of a $4,000 scholarship this year, she will receive $5,000 next year.
A first-generation college student, Howard completed her undergraduate coursework at UMaine last May to receive a bachelor's degree in music education, with a concentration in voice and a minor in French.
As a graduate student, Howard is studying voice performance. It was the Liberace Scholarship and a teaching assistantship that made graduate school a financial reality, says Howard.
For the past four years, Howard has been studying voice under Associate Professor of Music and internationally recognized soprano Nancy Ogle. While Howard admits that she could have attended a different school for her graduate work, it was the opportunity to continue her studies with Ogle that kept her at UMaine.
Howard will complete her master's degree next year. She hopes to blend a career in vocal performance and teaching. "The more I learn about how to perform, the more I can pass on to my students," she says.