Austin Peay music graduate student wins Fulbright to study Irish and classical music in Dublin

by Brian Dunn

Clarksville, TN (06/29/2023) — For the second time in Austin Peay State University history, one of its students - Bernadette John, a graduate student in the Department of Music - has won a Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowship. The Fulbright is one of the world's most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships.

John, who studies music performance and clarinet at Austin Peay, learned she had won the award on Friday, April 14. The award will send her to the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland, to work with Dr. Paul Roe, professor of clarinet at the academy and one of Ireland's most creative and versatile musicians.

"When I found out, I was panicking and shaking," said John, who is based in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Bowling Green State University. "I called my mom and dad. I was running around telling everybody."

John will head to Ireland during the 2023-2024 academic year to explore the liminal space between the established classical tradition and its interaction with Irish traditional music. Her work will focus on using the clarinet to examine this space.

"This is a new frontier," she said. "I know of only two clarinetists doing this, and Dr. Roe is one. He's experimenting with playing Irish traditional music, and this is not something clarinet players are doing, so it's a whole new world."

John's goal is to "create a space for the two genres to interact in an authentic manner with a professional approach and present the findings as a fusion of the two worlds," as she noted in her Fulbright project proposal.

"She could well be at the forefront of a major event in folk cultural music in this country," said Dr. Tim Winters, director of the Honors Program at Austin Peay, who helped her with her Fulbright application. "She's doing something that's going to make a significant change and open up this music to audiences in ways it has not been before."

Second Fulbright student in Austin Peay history

The last Austin Peay student to win the Fulbright student award was Edith Ramona Lumpkin in 1967. She traveled to the United Kingdom to research literature and later won Austin Peay's Outstanding Alumna Award in 2003.

"We are happy and excited for Bernadette to receive this prestigious recognition," said Dr. William "Buzz" Hoon, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, which houses the Department of Music. "She is a talented and gifted student who has grown thanks to learning opportunities and the guidance of faculty and staff in the Department of Music and Austin Peay. Bernadette exemplifies what it means to be a Governor."

John studies clarinet with Dr. Spencer Prewitt and is pursuing a master's degree in music performance, which she'll earn in May. She plans to pursue doctoral studies after she returns from Ireland next year.

"Bernadette's passion for music and desire to explore new frontiers is truly inspiring," said Austin Peay President Dr. Mike Licari. "Her Fulbright award is a well-deserved recognition of her talent and hard work, and I have no doubt that she will make a significant contribution to the world of music."

Three Austin Peay professors have also won Fulbright Scholar awards: Dr. Christophe Konkobo, who traveled to Burkina Faso in 2019 for literature research; Dr. Ann Silverberg, who traveled to China in 2015 for music studies research; and Malcolm Glass, who traveled to Slovenia in 1992 for writing research.

Austin Peay has at least three current professors who won Fulbright awards at other institutions, including Winters, who won in 1986 as a student at Ohio State University, Dr. John Steinberg, who won in 1994 as a professor at Georgia Southern University, and Dr. Greg Wolynec, who won in at Michigan State University in 2001.

John is the second Austin Peay student to win this year's significant scholarship award. Austin Peay sophomore Yuriy Holovchak - double majoring in engineering physics and computer science, was one of about 410 students nationwide to win the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship. He's the first Austin Peay student since 2013 to win that award.

John also plays the fiddle.

'Love of family, friends, Ireland'

John heard stories about her great-grandparents - Michael and Nora Faherty - growing up in Ireland before sailing to America as young adults with few possessions.

In her statement in the Fulbright application, she discussed the "one prevalent theme in every story" - love.

"Love of family, love of friends, love of Ireland," she wrote. "For me, this Fulbright opportunity represents the ability to return my family history to Ireland.

"In addition, it would provide the opportunity to bring my experiences in Ireland back to America and share them, just as [they] did 100 years ago," she added.

Specifically, John wants to "bring that Irish influence into a new area of contemporary performance Clarinets add a new unique voice that has not been present, but that fits well because they're versatile in sound."

Working with Roe will give John the best opportunity to do this.

Roe has been instrumental in creating many new contemporary works composed for clarinet and bass clarinet over the past 30 years. And in recent years, he has explored Irish traditional music on the clarinet from a classical musician's perspective while performing with some of Ireland's outstanding traditional musicians.

John said that Irish music has a "depth of emotion" that sets it apart.

"In Ireland, it's used to tell stories in every aspect, whether it's the fiddle player, whether it's the singer, it's telling a story," she said. "It's how history is passed down. Irish music is an oral tradition. The stories are passed through their music from teacher to student, from father to son."

In his letter of affiliation for John, Roe said her proposal is thought-provoking and ambitious and that he was eager "to explore with Bernadette the connections between these areas to discover insights that will inform her artistic praxis."

John hopes that her work will open contemporary clarinet performances to larger audiences.

"Currently, we don't have a lot of contemporary clarinet music with this sound," she said. "It's not something I think that's accessible to a lot of audiences, especially if they're non-musicians."

About the Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected in an open, merit-based competition that considers leadership potential, academic and/or professional achievement and record of service. Their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of Fulbright alumni, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Notable Fulbright alumni include 62 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, 78 MacArthur Fellows and 41 who have served as a head of state or government. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 participants from over 160 countries the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

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