Lawrence University News

APPLETON, WIS. -- Budding opera star Heidi Stober, soprano, joins the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and Lawrence choirs as guest artist in their "Gloria" concert Friday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton.

Highlighting the concert will be performances of Poulenc's "Gloria," one of his most famous works, and Beethoven's "Choral Fantasy," the composer's first attempt to marry instrumental and choral music together and the early precursor to his revolutionary "Ninth Symphony."

Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, are available at the Lawrence box office in the Music-Drama Center or by phone at 920-832-6749. Any tickets still available will be sold at the box office beginning one hour before the concert.

Stober, a 2000 Lawrence graduate and winner of the 2004 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, has been hailed by Opera News as "the complete package: a winsome presence along with an instrument of stunning brilliance, proportion and beauty."

She has sung roles with the Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and Boston Lyric Opera. Earlier this year, she made her debut at New York City Opera and in December will perform works from Handel's "Messiah" and Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate" with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2005, she was recognized with Lawrence's Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award.

During the concert, the Lawrence Concert Choir will perform a short set of works by Sweelinck, Bach, Vittoria and Langlais, while Cantala, the women's choir, will present seasonal music for women's voices.

Senior Peter Raccuglia, winner of Lawrence's recent student piano competition, and several members of the Concert Choir will perform as soloists on "Choral Fantasy." Stober will be the featured soloist on "Gloria," which will be performed by the Concert Choir, Chorale and Cantala and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.

David E. Becker, director of orchestral studies, conducts the symphony orchestra. Richard Bjella, director of choral studies, leads the Concert Choir and Chorale. Phillip A. Swan, associate director of choral studies, directs Cantala.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Acclaimed harpist Alison Attar will accompany the Bel Canto choir's performance of Benjamin Britten's masterpiece "A Ceremony of Carols" in the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir's "Yuletide Carols" concert. Traditional and contemporary Christmas music will be staged in two performances Sunday, Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave.

Tickets, at $10 for adults and $7 for senior citizens/students, are available at the Lawrence Box Office or by phone at 920-832-6749. Any remaining tickets will be available at the box office beginning one hour before each performance.

Attar's interest in historical harps has led her to concert halls around the world. She has played with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Boston's Handel & Haydn Society, Scotland's Edinburgh Festival as well as a concert tour of Taiwan.

"The Girl Choir program is certainly honored to share the Lawrence stage with a musician of harpist Alison Attar's stature," said Karen Bruno, artistic director of the Girl Choir program.

The "Yuletide Carols" concert will include sacred music, a Spanish carol, an English wassail song, a contemporary composition modeled on 15th-century composition techniques, several traditional carols as well as an audience sing-along.

Amber Evey, a 2005 Lawrence graduate, makes her debut as the new conductor of the Intermezzo Choir (grades 5-7). She had previously worked with the program as a manager and student intern.

Other conductors for the concert include Bruno, Bel Canto (grades 9-12) and Cantabile (grades 7-9) choirs, Karrie Been, Primo Choir (grades 3-4), and Cheryl Meyer, Allegretto Choir (grades 4-5).

The Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir consists of 316 girls representing more than 50 public, private and home schools throughout northeast Wisconsin.

APPLETON, WIS. -- David Cook, professor of physics and the Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science at Lawrence University, has been elected vice president of the American Association of Physics Teachers by a vote of the organization's membership.

Starting with the association's national meeting in mid-January, Cook will begin a four-year appointment to the AAPT's executive board in which he will serve one year each as vice president, president-elect, president and past-president.

Looking ahead to 2010 when he assumes the AAPT presidency, Cook sees an opportunity to address what he considers "a growing crisis" facing the country.

"We are losing our competitive advantage because of the insufficient number of highly trained scientists and engineers we're producing," said Cook, the first Lawrence faculty member ever elected to the AAPT's executive board. "Science is not held in very high regard. We need to educate the public on the importance of science and increase the appreciation for science education."

Founded in 1930, the AAPT is the world's leading organization for physics educators with more than 12,000 members in 30 countries.

"David's election reflects his national standing as a leader in physics education," said Lawrence Provost David Burrows. "Lawrence is proud that one of its own has achieved this high honor."

Cook's primary responsibilities his first two years on the executive board will focus on organizing the association's two national meetings conducted each year. As the AAPT's president, Cook will serve as the organization's spokesperson to various constituencies, lead meetings of the executive board and plan the agenda of those meetings.

A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1965, Cook said he was humbled "in the face of the confidence the organization has placed in me" upon learning of his selection. "I'm a bit anxious over the responsibilities that lie ahead, but am firmly committed to living up to that confidence."

During his tenure at Lawrence, Cook has led the development and incorporation of computers into the physics curriculum. He is the author of two textbooks "The Theory of the Electromagnetic Field," which was one of the first books to introduce computer-based numerical approaches alongside traditional approaches, and "Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics."

With the support of more than $1 million worth of grants from the National Science Foundation, Research Corporation and the Keck Foundation, Cook built Lawrence's computational physics laboratory, which features 11 workstations equipped with sophisticated software for graphical visualization, numerical analysis and symbolic algebra.

Cook, the recipient of Lawrence's Outstanding Teacher Award in 1990, earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.