Lawrence University News

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University's venerable Memorial Chapel is slated for a month-long technical "makeover."

The 89-year old venue will undergo a total renovation of its existing sound system and receive an upgraded lighting system. The project is scheduled to begin this week (8/6) and be completed in early September.

A new $125,000 sound system will replace the current equipment with a fully digital 40-channel audio distribution system capable of splitting all signals and sending them to the house mix position, stage monitor system and the recording studio control room.

Each split will be totally independent, allowing for simultaneous live sound mixing, stage monitoring and recording. The system will be precisely tuned for the chapel's acoustics, reducing the need to hire outside sound companies to provide amplification for the larger Artist and Jazz Series concerts.

"The sound system renovation is a project that should yield significant improvement for the audience in terms of audio quality for musical performances and better speech intelligibility for speaking events," said Larry Darling, director of recording at Lawrence. "When the upgrade is complete, the sound will be more evenly distributed throughout the hall. There also will be balcony sound reinforcement on the sides and the rear."

The speaker cabinets will be painted to match the existing colors and preserve the chapel's interior aesthetics.

The enhanced lighting system will feature more fixtures to better illuminate the stage area. In addition to providing more "even" lighting, the new fixtures will be more energy efficient and generate less ambient heat.

"The new lights will eliminate some of the 'dark pockets' we had on stage and do a much better job of illuminating the performance area," said Darling.

Arrow Audio Inc. of Kimberly is overseeing the sound upgrade while the $70,000 lighting system is being installed by Lighthouse Productions of Green Bay.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University musician Bethany Wiese earned second-place honors Monday, Aug. 13 in the finals of the Tuba Artist Division of the 22nd annual Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival held at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Mich.

A senior from Davenport, Iowa, and a student in the tuba studio of Marty Erickson, Wiese was one of 150 musicians from around the world participating in the competition. She was selected from among 10 semifinalists for the finals, where she performed French composer Eugene Bozza's "Sonatina for Tuba and Wind Ensemble." Wiese received $900 for her silver medal performance.

Earlier this year, Wiese won Lawrence's wind ensemble concerto competition and performed as featured soloist at the ensemble's May concert. In June, 2006, Wiese was selected by national audition to perform with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra during a month-long summer concert tour. She was the only tuba player in the 40-member AWSO during last year's performances.

Founded in 1986, the festival honors the legacy of long-time Michigan State University music teacher and band director Leonard Falcone (1899-1985). The festival is considered one of the premiere international euphonium and tuba competitions in the country and is the only annual festival of its kind.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University's academic excellence earned it a spot among the top quarter of the nation's best liberal arts colleges for the ninth consective year in U.S. News & World Report's 2008 "America's Best Colleges" report released Friday (8/17).

Lawrence was ranked 56th among 248 national colleges and universities in U.S. News' "Best Liberal Arts Colleges" category in the magazine's annual guide. Lawrence was the top-ranked institution in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan in the national category. For the first time, the U.S. service academies were included in the rankings. Two of them, the U.S. Naval Academy (no. 20) at Annapolis, Md., and the U.S. Military Academy (no. 22) at West Point, N.Y., were included in the national liberal arts category.

Among the factors used in determining the rankings, Lawrence showed improvement from last year's rankings in more than half of them, among them graduation rate, acceptance rate, percent of classes with less than 20 students and alumni giving rate.

"We obviously are pleased to have the overall strength of our academic program recognized among the top quartile of a very distinguished group of colleges," said Steve Syverson, vice president of enrollment management at Lawrence. "At the same time, we continue to encourage students as they search for an appropriate college to focus on the best personal match for themselves. The statistical information collected by U.S. News can be of value, but students should determine which pieces of it are of most importance to them in identifying colleges that will best suit their needs."

The top three ranked institutions in the national liberal arts college category remained unchanged from the previous year, with Williams College earning the no. 1 designation for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Amherst College and Swarthmore College.

In compiling its annual "America's Best Colleges"guide, U.S. News & World Report evaluates nearly 1,400 of the nation's public and private four-year schools, using data from 15 separate indicators of academic excellence such as peer assessment, selectivity, graduation rates, student retention, faculty resources and alumni satisfaction. Each factor is assigned a "weight" that reflects the magazine editor's judgment as to how much that measure matters. Each school's composite weighted score is then compared to peer institutions to determine final rankings.

Institutions are divided into several distinct categories. In addition to the best liberal arts college category that measures national institutions like Lawrence, other rankings are based on universities that grant master and doctorate degrees and colleges that are considered "regional" institutions.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Fred Sturm's latest composition, "Migrations," is about to receive a high-profile, international premiere.

The commissioned work, which showcases 23 indigenous songs from 21 countries worldwide, will be performed for the first time Thursday, Aug. 30 by 10-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin and the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Big Band at the 22nd annual Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

Sturm, director of jazz and improvisational music at Lawrence University as well as guest composer/conductor for numerous professional ensembles in the United States and Europe, has served as McFerrin's arranger and conductor on three previous occasions.

"It's the realization of a dream for me," Sturm said. "Bobby is the most diversely talented artist I've met during my career and I'm honored to be collaborating with him."

Sturm will spend a week rehearsing with HDR Big Band in Hamburg and then conduct the first performance of "Migrations" with McFerrin at Salzau Castle Konzertscheune. The 13th-century castle is the regional cultural center in Salzau.

The 18-piece NDR Big Band serves public radio for Northern Germany and is regarded as one of the world's finest professional jazz ensembles. The group has performed and recorded the music of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, among others.

Sturm had been compiling ideas for a world music project for several years. Collaborating with a former student of his, 1986 Lawrence graduate Brian Pertl, an ethnomusicologist and manager of Microsoft's Media Acquisitions Group, Sturm researched recordings from around the globe.

"We knew we had some great raw material to work with and we were simply waiting for the ideal opportunity to develop and showcase it," Sturm explained.

That opportunity presented itself last fall when McFerrin's management engaged Sturm as the composer for the Hamburg performance with the NDR Big Band.

"When we discussed repertoire for the program, I suggested the 'Migrations' concept, never expecting them to bite on it. They bit -- enthusiastically," said Sturm.

"When I hung up the phone, I blocked out November to August on my calendar and wrote 'No social life for you!,'" he added with a laugh.

Sturm and Pertl eventually winnowed more than 2,000 indigenous recordings down to the final list of 23 source recordings. Sturm then transcribed, arranged, orchestrated and "re-composed" the material to create a two-hour concert showcase for McFerrin.

"The music we selected for 'Migrations' is typically centuries old," Sturm said. "It's pure, innocent, beautiful and powerful. Though the character and styles are as varied as the world's people who created this music, there is a prevalent common linkage between the selections. Bobby's improvisations and interpretations of the material I've scored are intended to illustrate the musical unity of the world's people."

Among the pieces in the work is an aboriginal chant from Australia, a Mbuti Pygmy tribal song from the Ituri rain forest region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an Inuit chant from Greenland.

During the creation of "Migrations," Sturm would send McFerrin a score and a computer realization as he finished each segment. After receiving the 23rd and final score, McFerrin told Sturm the work was "absolutely brilliant."

"Bobby has two hours of new music to prepare for this premiere concert and he's studying this new material all the while he's continuing to perform complete programs of music with symphony orchestras, choirs and jazz artists around the world," said Sturm. "He's incredible!"

Perhaps best known for his infectious 1989 Grammy Award-winning hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy," the first a capella song ever to reach no. 1 on the U.S. pop singles chart, McFerrin has appeared around the world as a jazz vocalist, composer and orchestral conductor. He has collaborated on recordings with musical legends Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and cellist Yo-Yo Ma and has served as conductor/creative chair of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1994. He has scored several films and is the recipient of numerous vocal jazz performance awards.

Sturm's conservatory of music colleague, Professor of Music Dane Richeson, served as ethnic percussion consultant for the project and will appear as drummer/percussionist at the premiere.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University has been recognized again for its outstanding undergraduate education by The Princeton Review in its 2008 edition of the annual book "The Best 366 Colleges," which was released today (8/20).

Only about 15% of the four-year colleges and universities in America, as well as two Canadian universities, are included in the book, which features student survey based ranking lists of top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories, ranging from best professors, administration and campus food to student body political leanings, interest in sports and other aspects of campus life. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book 1 to 366 in any single category.

"We chose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics," says Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's vice president of publishing. "We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them and our visits to schools over the years. We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents we hear from year-long."

In its profile of the college, The Princeton Review said Lawrence "attracts bright, motivated, overachievers who are also creative and innovative." The profile also quotes extensively from students surveyed for the book, who describe Lawrence as a "very tough school academically...but Lawrence teaches you the skills to communicate effectively with the world." Others lauded Lawrence professors as "amazing, and that's an understatement....each is excited about his or her field in a way that inspires you to go above and beyond the class assignments."

Lawrence was cited among the top 20 institutions in the nation in two of the book's student-survey categories: 17th in how popular college theatre productions are on campus and 17th in how accepting the campus is to the gay community.

The various ranking lists in the 2008 edition of "The Best 366 Colleges" are based on The Princeton Review's survey of 120,000 students -- approximately 325 per campus on average -- attending the 366 colleges profiled in the book.

A college's appearance on one of the 60 lists is a result of a high consensus among the surveyed students about that subject. The 80-question survey asked students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them.