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Fulbright scholars

Having one Fulbright Scholar from your school is marvelous. Two is simply outstanding.

There are 1,115 student grantees studying abroad this year as Fulbright Scholars, but only 38 are musicians. And only three are from Texas. Two are TCU music majors.

The music of life is playing out beautifully for Sandra Doan '04. The December grad is packing up her notes and heading for Hungary on a Fulbright Scholarship.

"I wanted to go to the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, because of its stellar international reputation for producing great musicians -- obviously, with great teaching -- and because I absolutely fell in love with Budapest when I went with TCU's summer-in-Budapest program in 2002," she said.

Doan credits School of Music's Piano Professor Tamas Ungar for encouraging her along the way and English Professor Bob Frye for looking over her application and essays "with a fine-tooth comb." The one-year scholarship covers travel, tuition and living expenses.
Part of the legacy Doan leaves is the TCU Recital Series at the Trinity Terrace retirement community, which she started with Victoria Vermilye '04.

Paul Sanchez '05 guessed he was just "lucky" to be chosen as a Fulbright student grantee. Guess again, and try extremely talented. Sanchez will be studying classical Spanish piano music at the Academia Marshall in Barcelona under the legendary Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha. But he's played for her before.

"Last year I auditioned to play in the master class, but I had to go to Barcelona to audition, so I got to play for her," he remembered.

While in Spain, Sanchez hopes to analyze all aspects of Spanish music and uncover the under-publicized piano pieces written by the Spanish guitarist Rodrigo. He also hopes to visit Budapest, the temporary home of his long-time girlfriend Sandra Doan, TCU's other Fulbright scholar.

Comment at tcumagazine@tcu.edu.