Bemidji State University’s student electronic music ensemble will spend a month in China as part of a new series of international exchange opportunities between the University and several Chinese universities.

Beginning in late May of 2013, Dr. Del Lyren, professor of music, and five members of the student ensemble known as Voltage, will spend between three and four weeks at Weifang University in Weifang, China, to serve as ambassadors from Bemidji State and to share expertise in electronic music.

“We will be doing a concert series at Weifang and at other universities, and will work with their students and teach them about electronic music,” Lyren said. “From what I understand, the Chinese mainly focus music education on traditional Western instruments – like piano and violin. They don’t have electronic-based instruments, so we’re going to be bringing them a completely new slant on music.”

Dr. Colleen Greer, interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said the Voltage trip is just the first of many opportunities for groups of BSU students from a variety of majors and programs to extensively travel and study abroad.

“We are hoping to see some more of these opportunities,” Greer said. “And we hope to see this expand to student groups from any other program.”

The trip is part of a broader effort to build relationships between BSU and universities in China. A group of Bemidji State administrators and faculty, led by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Martin Tadlock, recently returned from a five-day fact-finding trip to China, where they visited Taiyuan University of Technology in Shanxi; Weifang University in Weifang; Guangzhou University in Guangzhou; and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian.

In addition to Tadlock, Bemidji State’s travel party included Greer; Dr. Patricia L. Rogers, dean of the College of Health Sciences and Human Ecology; Elizabeth Rave and Mike Hamann from biology; Bonnie Higgins and Steve Sundahl from technology, art and design; and Sanjeev Phukan from business.

Tadlock and other members of the travel party discussed the results of the trip during a Dec. 6 presentation to campus. The presentation has been archived on Livestream.com and is available for replay (account required) at: http://bit.ly/Ujr9HF

The presentation illustrated the broad variety of opportunities that the partnerships with the Chinese universities will make available to BSU’s campus and to faculty and staff. Through a partnership with Canadian company CIBT, Bemidji State will be expanding its number of international students by bringing in additional students from China, and also will have exchange opportunities that will allow BSU students and faculty to study or teach abroad at little to no cost.

“Academic affairs would like to have 300 international students on campus within two to three years,” Tadlock said at the Dec. 6 presentation. He also said the University had a goal of seeing as many as 120 Bemidji State students studying internationally every semester.

These exchange opportunities could soon expand beyond China, with BSU also exploring international exchange agreements with universities in Norway, Switzerland, Argentina and Viet Nam.