| Chemist-Pianist |  |
Victoria (Vicki) Bragin
First Music Artist-in-Residence |
| Music Bio |
VICTORIA BRAGIN was first-prize co-winner in the third Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, a competition for pianists 35 years or older who do not earn their principal living from piano performance or piano teaching. She had just finished serving a stint as Program Director with the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC at that time and was on leave from her chemistry faculty position at Pasadena City College in California. Bragin also won the Audience Award and the awards for Best Performance of a Work from the Romantic Era and Best Performance of a Modern Work in that competition held in June 2002, in Fort Worth, Texas. Shortly after the competition, she was appointed Music Artist-in-Residence at the Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia, a position specifically created for her by the enterprising and then new Executive Director, Margaret Mary Layne. In that capacity she performed as well as organized and produced concerts in conjunction with Museum exhibits. Among the concerts she has produced were "Women for All Seasons," a concert featuring works by women composers in conjunction with an exhibition of works by women artists; a concert of works by twentieth-century composers; another concert featuring American composers; and the first ever West Virginia Composersí Festival in which composers from the entire state were invited to present a work of their own choice. Except for a brief appointment as piano and music theory instructor at the University of South Carolina, most of Ms. Bragin's professional life has been in science education. She was chemistry professor at Pasadena City College (PCC) in California, where she taught for nine years. She also served a two-year stint (while on leave from PCC) as Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, managing projects involving digital libraries, curriculum development and lab improvements, and advanced technological education, among others. Despite her long professional involvement in science, Bragin's interest in music has never wavered. "A balance between my musical and scientific interests as well as my family is important to me," Bragin says. After receiving a music degree at age 16 from the Centro Escolar Conservatory of Music in Manila, she obtained a baccalaureate degree in chemistry (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines. She came to the United States as a Fulbright-Smith-Mundt Scholar at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she earned a master's degree in chemistry. Bragin also received a master's degree in music education from the University of South Carolina, then pursued doctoral studies in piano performance at the University of Southern California, completing all courses and all performance requirements for a Doctor of Musical Arts. With the birth of two children she "stopped working" and became very involved in volunteer work for a number of years, organizing cultural activities in music and the arts and presenting science demonstrations for the school system attended by her children. For this, she was honored, along with 5 other volunteers, with a "Heart of Gold" award. When she later resumed her career in science education, she maintained her piano skills by being a member of such groups as the Tuesday Musicale of Southern California and the Friday Morning Music Club in Washington, DC which presented a wealth of opportunities for her opportunity to give solo performances as well as play with chamber music groups and accompany art songs. Her principal piano teacher in the Philippines was Prof. Leoncia Conchu of the Centro Escolar University Conservatory of Music. In the United States, she has studied with well-known piano pedagogues, including Aiko Onishi, Frank Mannheimer, Lillian Steuber, John Kenneth Adams, James Bonn, John Perry, and Rosinna Lhevinne. She has performed at various venues across the United States, including in Washington, DC area, where she gave a concert to a sold-out audience at the Hirshhorn Museum. Her performances have been featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today and West Virginia Public Broadcasting's In Touch with the Arts. Ms. Bragin was the recipient of the 2002 Herald-Dispatch Citizen Award for the Arts for her music accomplishments and her advocacy of the arts. As a chemical educator she was director of several projects exploring the use of discovery-based and active-learning methods in the teaching of chemistry. At Pasadena City College, she championed the use of technology as a tool for visualizing difficult chemistry concepts, developed a number of programs now used at various colleges and universities here and abroad to facilitate concept comprehension by students, and was the recipient of a Presidential Excellence in Learning Award in recognition of her innovative projects. . Instrumental in establishing the chemistry computer lab at Pasadena City College, she was honored in the spring of 2002 by her colleagues, who dedicated the lab to her. Ms. Bragin and her husband, Joseph Bragin have two grown children, Michael and Naomi. They currently make their home in St. Joseph, Missouri. |