June 2014

Month: June 2014

Percussion Power: Eight Concerts Highlight Zeltsman Marimba Festival June 29-July 12

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Michael Tilson Thomas’ “Island Music,” featuring four marimbists and two percussionists, will be performed Saturday, July 5 in Stansbury Theatre as one of the festival’s eight concerts. (Photo by Michael Ptacin.)

For two weeks, Lawrence University will be the center of all things marimba.

Lawrence welcomes nearly 60 musicians — world-class, international performers as well as dedicated up-and-coming artists — to campus June 29-July 12 for the 12th annual Zeltsman Marimba Festival, an educational forum and concert series celebrating percussion. This will be the sixth time in the festival’s history Lawrence has served as host.

One of the largest gatherings of marimba students and professionals in the world, the festival features a series of eight public concerts by an impressive slate of performers from around the world. With a diverse array of styles, the concerts offer an unparalleled opportunity to experience the marimba’s versatility.

Percussionist Dane Richeson, professor of music at Lawrence, is one of the festival’s faculty members and guest performers. He says the festival provides an uncommon treat for music lovers.

“It is an honor to have the Zeltsman Marimba Festival back at Lawrence. This is an exciting event that provides the Fox Cities the chance to experience music they have never heard before on an instrument with an ancient history,” said Richeson. “Audiences will have the rare opportunity to see some of the greatest marimba artists, many of whom rarely come to the Midwest, perform solo and chamber music works. Since many of these works have not been released on CD, this will likely be the only chance to hear this music.”

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Jack Van Geem (left) and Nancy Zeltsman will be among the performers at this year’s mirimba festival June 29-July 12 on the Lawrence campus. (Photo by Claudia Hansen.)

In addition to Richeson, Lawrence faculty members Mark Urness (bass) and Anthony Padilla (piano) and 2007 Lawrence graduate Michael Truesdell, also will be among the performers.

The concert series schedule:

• Sunday, June 29 — Dane Richeson / Mike Truesdell, percussion virtuosi; 7:30 p.m., Harper Hall.

• Wednesday, July 2 — Jack Van Geem, “The Dance / Jonathan Singer, marimba explorations of dance music, ragtime and more; 7:30 p.m. Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Free pre-concert talk: “Introduction to the Marimba,” 6:30 – 7 p.m.

• Thursday, July 3 — Nanae Mimura (Japan) / Alejandro Ruiz (Colombia), cross-cultural marimba virtuosi; 7:30 p.m., Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Free pre-concert fun: Xylopholks, 6:30 – 7 p.m.

• Saturday, July 5 — Stars of Zeltsman Marimba Festival, “Island Music,” a rare performance of Michael Tilson Thomas’ sensational work for four marimbists and two percussionists, and other extravagant adventures with mallets; 7:30 p.m., Stansbury Theatre.

• Monday, July 7 — Nancy Zeltsman, sotto voce / various artists, multi-media marimba and more; 7:30 p.m., Harper Hall.

• Wednesday, July 9 — Jean Geoffroy (France) / Joint Venture Percussion Duo (China/Luxembourg), great artists from abroad; 7:30 p.m., Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

• Friday, July 11 — Anders Åstrand (Sweden) / Mark Urness, bass / Dane Richeson, drums, an evening of jazz and more; 7:30 p.m., Harper Hall.

• Saturday, July 12 — Participants Marathon Concert; Noon – 5 p.m., Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

Tickets for the concert are available at the door at $15 for adults, $10 for students/seniors (cash only). Tickets can also be ordered in advance with a credit card at ZMFconcerts.evenbrite.com.

Five free concerts also will be conducted:

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The plaza outside the Warch Campus Center will be the site for two, free, lunch-time concerts on July 2 and July 9 during the Zeltsman Mirimba Festival.

• Wednesday, July 2 — 11:30 a.m – 1:30 p.m., Griff’s Grill, Boldt Plaza (outside Warch Campus Center).

• Wednesday, July 2 — Pre-concert talk: “Introduction to the Marimba,” 6:30 -7 p.m. Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

• Thursday, July 3 — Pre-concert fun: Xylopholks, 6:30 -7 p.m., Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

• Friday, July 4 — “Island Music” open rehearsal; 11:30 a.m. — 1:30 p.m., Cloak Theatre, Music-Drama Center.

• Wednesday, July 9 — Lunchtime Marimba Concert, 11:30 a.m -1:30 p.m., Griff’s Grill, Boldt Plaza.

Zeltsman, who teaches marimba at Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory, where she is chair of the percussion department, launched the festival in 2001 to bring people together “to share unforgettable, stimulating musical experiences in an atmosphere of support and camaraderie.”

“I’m thrilled that ZMF will bring together so many acclaimed artists and talented young musicians to share their music and collaborate with each other,” says Zeltsman. “Marimbists aren’t ‘household names,’ but we hope people will take a leap of faith and experience some remarkable performances and exciting, thought-provoking, moving music.”

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Reunion Recognition: Lawrence Salutes Seven Alumni for Achievement, Service

Just imagine if Garth Neustadter had decided to pursue a major in music composition instead of performance majors in violin and voice while a student at Lawrence University.

At the tender age of 28, the multi-talented Neustadter already has racked up an armful of honors for writing film scores — including a 2011 Emmy Award — since graduating in 2010.

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Garth Neustadter ’10

Neustatder will be among seven alumni recognized for career achievements, contributions to the betterment of society or volunteer service to Lawrence during the college’s annual alumni reunion celebration June 19-22.

With more than 1,000 alumni and guests from 43 states and two countries (Canada and India) expected to attend, it will be Lawrence’s largest reunion event in the past 10 years and one of the college’s largest ever.

The alumni awards will be presented Saturday, June 21 at the Reunion Convocation at 10:30 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public. A live webcast of the Reunion Convocation ceremony will be available at http://www.livestream.com/lawrenceuniversity.

Members of the Lawrence 50-Year Connection, a growing cohort of alumni who graduated at least 50 years ago, get reunion activities started Thursday, June 19 with a series of panel presentations and small-group discussions.

The 2014 alumni awards and the recipients.

• Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award — Garth Neustadter, Class of 2010, Pasadena, Calif.  The award recognizes Lawrence alumni of 15 years or less for significant contributions to, and achievements in, a career field.  The award honors the 10th and youngest president of Lawrence and an exemplary figure in higher education in the 20th century.

A native of Manitowoc, Neustadter has been racking up music awards since his high school days, when he won the first of his five Downbeat awards in the magazine’s annual student music competition.

“Lawrence continually challenged me to broaden the diversity
of my interests both musically and intellectually.”
       — Garth Neustadter ’10

While at Lawrence, he earned first-prize honors (second place behind the grand prize winner) in the 2007 Young Film Composers Competition sponsored by Turner Classic Movies. A year later, TCM commissioned him to write an original score for a restored version of the 1923 silent film “The White Sister.” In 2011, he became one of the youngest composers to receive an Emmy Award for his score for the PBS American Masters documentary “John Muir in the New World,” a work he also wrote while at Lawrence.

In addition to TCM and PBS, he has composed feature-length scores for Warner Bros. and China’s CCTV. Most recently, some of his compositions were selected for upcoming performance seasons by Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn.

His work has been recognized several times by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), including the Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Jazz Composers Award and a film scoring fellowship. He was was the recipient of the prestigious Rappaport Prize for Music Composition.

“Lawrence continually challenged me to broaden the diversity of my interests both musically and intellectually,” said Neustadter, who earned a master of music degree in composition summa cum laude from Yale School of Music in 2012. “In addition to providing world-class training in my chosen disciplines, they encouraged me to develop the ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘thinking’ skills necessary for continued self-discovery and reinvention.”

• Lucia Russell Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award — Peter Betzer, Class of 1964, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Dr. Richard Fessler, Class of 1974, Winnetka, Ill.  The award recognizes a Lawrence or Milwaukee-Downer graduate of more than 15 years for outstanding career achievement. The award honors the second president of Milwaukee-Downer College, one of the most beloved and influential figures in that college’s history.

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Peter Betzer ’64

Betzer is the current president of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, for which he is leading efforts to turn the city into an internationally recognized center for marine research. During a near 40-year career in higher education at the University of South Florida, Betzer served as dean and professor of USF’s College of Marine Science, helping to transform it into a world-renowned research center that today includes 10 agencies employing more than 1,500 people.

An oceanographer, Betzer has participated in expeditions in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. He has served on the Ocean Sciences Advisory Panel for the National Science Foundation and the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System Council, among others.

The author of more than 60 scientific publications, Betzer was a co-recipient of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Distinguished Authorship Award in 1985 and has delivered invited lectures in the Soviet Union, Australia, China and at England’s Oxford University.

Betzer says his time as a Lawrence student was “for exploring many new ideas and expanding horizons that began a life-long transformation.”

“The active involvement and genuine interest of Lawrence faculty were especially pivotal to my growth, just as they have always been to generations of Lawrentians,” said Betzer, a geology major at Lawrence who went on to earn a Ph.D. in chemical oceanography from the University of Rhode Island’s School of Oceanography. “The advice and encouragement of faculty and the enduring friendships I made at Lawrence underscore the substantive advantage of a liberal education; one that propelled me forward over 50 years ago and thankfully continues inspiring undergraduates today.”

Fessler, an internationally acclaimed researcher and surgeon, has dedicated his career to finding innovative methods to repair spinal cord injuries. A professor of neurosurgery at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, Fessler is widely considered the “father” of minimally invasive spine surgery and is credited with developing many of the surgical techniques being used today.

“The active involvement and genuine interest of Lawrence faculty were especially pivotal to my growth, just as they have always been to generations of Lawrentians.”
       – Peter Betzer ’64

He was the first surgeon in the United States to perform human embryonic spinal cord transplantation and among the first to perform minimally invasive scoliosis surgery. He twice performed microdiscectomy surgery on NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. He’s also served as a medical specialist and flight surgeon for NASA’s Space Shuttle missions.

Prior to joining Rush Medical Center, Fessler was professor and vice chair of neurosurgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He also held the John Harper Seeley Professorship and was chief of neurosurgery at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics.

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Dr. Richard Fessler ’74

Routinely listed in “Best Doctors of America,” Fessler founded and directed the Institute for Spine Care at the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch. Other positions include director of clinical services and education at the University of Florida Brain Institute.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lawrence, Fessler pursued a master’s degree in experimental psychology at North Dakota State University. He credits a chance encounter with former Lawrence clinical psychologist Edwin Olson for changing the direction of his career.

“I attended the Midwest Psychology Conference to interview for jobs, but no one was interested in a person with just a master’s degree,” said Fessler. “As I was running out of prospects, I bumped into Ed Olson, literally, in an elevator. He knew someone who was looking for a person with exactly my background and set up an interview. That led to a job at the University of Chicago, followed by my Ph.D. and M.D. and ultimately, my career.

“What’s amazing is I never actually had a course with Dr. Olson. He only knew me through some independent studies at the Winnebago State Mental Health Institute. And yet he went out of his way to help me even after I had left Lawrence.”

• The George B. Walter ’36 Service to Society Award — Renee (Goral) Boldt, Class of 1985, Appleton, and Judy Frater, Class of 1974, Kutch, India. The award recognizes an alumnus or alumna of Lawrence or Milwaukee-Downer who best exemplifies the ideals of a liberal education through its application to socially useful ends in the community, the nation or the world. This award honors George B. Walter ’36, faculty member, coach and dean of men, whose work at the college and beyond was guided by his conviction that every individual can and should make a positive difference in the world.

Boldt has shared her time, talents and expertise to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations throughout Wisconsin. A member of the Lawrence University Board of Trustees, Boldt also plays key roles on the boards of the American Players Theater, the Appleton Education Initiative Foundation, the Wisconsin Historical Society Foundation, Friends of the Appleton Public Library and the Fox Valley Symphony.

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Renee Boldt ’85

She previously held board positions with the Circus World Museum Foundation, the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Harbor House Domestic Abuse Programs, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the Center for Applied Research and Services at UW–Oshkosh, LEAVEN and the Wisconsin Women’s Council.

Last month, Boldt and her husband, Tom, were honored with the Walter L. Rugland Community Service Award as part of the Fox Cites’ annual “Celebrating Our Volunteers” event.

As a local resident, Boldt says she’s reminded of “the incredible work being accomplished by students, faculty and administration” every time she drives past campus.

“I think about how my professors helped me define who I am and gave me the confidence to not only examine my values, ideas and actions, but also question them,” said Boldt. “Because of the residential nature of Lawrence, interaction between students and the Appleton community encourages a critical examination of values, ideas and actions. I couldn’t be prouder of my alma mater. Since its founding, it has been transforming lives by equipping its graduates to be problem solvers, confident of who they are, but comfortable deriving solutions from diverse populations and multiple view points.”

“Going to Lawrence provided some special opportunities.
Above all, I appreciated the chance to explore…the
liberal arts education encouraged me to experiment.”
         – Judy Frater, ’74

Frater has been a leader in preserving and protecting traditional textile arts in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. Working with local Indian embroiderers, she founded Kala Raksha Trust in 1993, a grassroots social enterprise devoted to preserving their traditional arts of exquisite hand-embroidered and patch-worked products. The enterprise has since grown to a collection of nearly 1,000 artisans.

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Judy Frater ’74

She later guided the Kala Raksha Trust in establishing the Kala Raksha Museum, which houses a collection of heirloom textiles. Through the power of the Internet, people from around the world can view precious textiles and learn more about the tradition.

In 2005, with the support of an Ashoka Foundation Fellowship, Frater established Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya, the first design institution for traditional artisans, who learn skills relevant to their craft and innovative ways to bring their pieces to market. Since its founding, Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya has graduated 124 artisan designers.

Frater is currently working with Somaiya Kala Vidya, a new institution she founded for the education of artisans to expand the original program into a three-year institute that includes a graduate course in management and business for artisans and courses in craft traditions taught by artisan designers.

“Going to Lawrence provided some special opportunities. Above all, I appreciated the chance to explore,” said Frater, who grew up in the craft village of New Hope, Pa. “I did not know that anthropology existed before coming to Lawrence. The liberal arts education encouraged me to experiment. I benefited from a particularly experimental era, when I could travel to India to do independent research.

“With Lawrence’s small, intimate environment, students can interact with faculty on a personal basis and are nurtured in directions that seem beneficial to them,” Frater added. “I also benefited from a diverse student body. I learned from my colleagues by experiencing their diverse backgrounds and views. I am thankful for my Lawrence experience. It surely contributed to who I am today.”

• The Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp M-D’18 Outstanding Service Award — Ruth (Legler) Qualich, Milwaukee-Downer Class of 1955, Pewaukee, and Cynthia (Liebich) Reff, Class of 1963, Appleton. The award recognizes an alumnus or alumna of Lawrence or Milwaukee-Downer after his/her 15th Cluster Reunion who has provided outstanding service to Lawrence University. This award honors Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp, voted Milwaukee-Downer alumna of the year in 1964 for her long-standing service to the college as president of the alumnae association board, class secretary and public relations officer.

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Ruth Qualich M-D ’55

Ever the proud “Downerite at Lawrence,” Qualich is the co-chair of the committee planning this year’s 50th anniversary celebration of the consolidation between Milwaukee Downer College and Lawrence. She also is a member of the 50-Year Connection planning committee and has served as a moderator and panel member at 50YC events.

Qualich previously has served as a member of the Lawrence University Alumni Association board and on the 40th and 50th Reunion planning committees for her class. She is also a member of the Founder’s Club and Lawrence-Downer Legacy Circle.

“The experience at Milwaukee-Downer College was a time of growing both academically and socially. The traditions that we observed there helped to bring us together in relationships that last to this day,” said Qualich, who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from M-D and Wellesley College, respectively, then returned to Milwaukee-Downer and taught chemistry there from 1957-59.

“Coming to Lawrence for reunions and getting to know the staff and Lawrence alumni, I am pleased to be more and more a part of Lawrence University, to be Downer at Lawrence. The more I become involved the more I feel that both Milwaukee-Downer College and Lawrence University are my alma mater.”

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Cynthia Reff ’63

Reff’s license plate says it all: LU FANS. She, along with her husband, Chuck, are legendary for their support of Lawrence athletics and athletes. Beyond loyal attendance at home and sometimes road games — they both rode the fan bus eight-plus hours to Storm Lake, Iowa in 2004 to cheer on the men’s basketball team in the NCAA tournament — Reff routinely provides home-baked treats for teams before road trips and hosts dinners for the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Hers and Chuck’s dedication was recognized with the 2007 Bob “Dinger” Wurdinger Athletic Service Award, which has been presented annually since 2006 to individuals who have throughout the years shown great support to Lawrence athletics. She is a member of the Lawrence Athletics Advisory Committee and is assisting with the Banta Bowl renovation efforts.

A former class secretary, Reff also has served as a reunion steering committee member for her 45th cluster reunion and as a reunion committee member and reprise coordinator for her 50th Reunion. During the most recent presidential search, she served on one of the candidate interview committees and is a member of the Boynton Society.

“If I had to point to one thing, other than family and friends,
that makes me extremely proud, it is my relationship with
Lawrence for the last 55 years.”
           — “Cinny” Reff ’63

“It is hard not to be an avid fan and proud alum when your mom, sister, brother and son all graduated from Lawrence,” said Reff. “The biggest reward for us has been getting to know students as freshmen and watching them mature and go on to graduate. We then have the opportunity to follow them as young alumni. They know we are there for them in the good times and the trying ones. If I had to point to one thing, other than family and friends, that makes me extremely proud, it is my relationship with Lawrence for the last 55 years.”

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Lawrence Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Consolidation with Milwaukee-Downer College

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Colors Day at Milwaukee-Downer College in 1946.

The 50th anniversary of one of the seminal moments in the college’s history will be commemorated June 19-22 as part of Lawrence University’s annual alumni reunion celebration.

A consolidation between Lawrence and Milwaukee-Downer College, one of the first all-women’s colleges in the Midwest, was finalized on July 1, 1964, ending an era for a pioneering institution that traced its roots to the mid-1800s.

That fall, Lawrence welcomed 21 former Milwaukee-Downer faculty and 49 of its  continuing female students to Appleton.  Forty-four of the original 49 Milwaukee-Downer students went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence while 11 of the faculty members remained at Lawrence until their retirement.

Marjory Irvin, one of the faculty members who made the transition to Lawrence, recalled the 1963-64 academic year at Milwaukee-Downer as a very trying one for all parties involved.

“For those (students) who chose to come to Lawrence, mostly upperclassman, the future was straightforward. There would be no stumbling blocks on the road toward graduation,” said Irvin, who taught piano and music theory. “The problem arose with those students who charged us, the faculty, with finding them a college just like Milwaukee-Downer. That wasn’t just difficult, it proved to be impossible.”

Irvin, who began a 40-year teaching career at Milwaukee-Downer in 1947 and ended it at Lawrence with her retirement in 1987, said one of the challenges she faced at Lawrence was dealing with a set of student questions completely foreign to her.

“In 50 years we have come from tears to cheers. Milwaukee-Downer
is alive and well as an integral part of Lawrence University.”
     — Marlene Crupi Widen, M-D ’55

“In my 16 years at Milwaukee-Downer, I dealt with all manner of problems facing young women, but those were very different from the ones that came knocking on my door once I got to Lawrence,” said Irvin, who will participate in a discussion on the consolidation Thursday (6/19) morning in the Warch Campus Center. “Because of gender, there were all these new problems with which I had no experience.”

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Some of the 21 Milwaukee-Downer faculty and 49 students who transferred to Lawrence in the fall of 1964.

In looking back on the transition, Irvin recalls fondly the welcome she received from her colleagues.

“The Lawrence faculty members were incredibly hospitable. It seemed everyone invited me for dinner and entertained me royally with gourmet cuisine and fine wines. My career at Lawrence grew from an inauspicious beginning to a tenure of pure joy. I’ll always treasure the memories of my 23 years at Lawrence as well as my 16 years at Milwaukee-Downer.”

Lee (Dodds) Chemel was a junior from Stamford, Conn., at Milwaukee-Downer when the word came out the college would be closing.

“It was quite a shock,” said Chemel, a television and film director now living in Los Angeles. “There were a lot of women on campus for whom it was a very negative experience. They had chosen a women’s college, and a small one at that, for the kind of intimate and even protective environment that was offered there.

“But for me, though I loved my years at Downer, I was ready to expand, to be on a larger campus with many more opportunities. And I was really excited that I was going to be with guys.”

Before the end of her last year at Downer, Chemel visited Lawrence and was invited to participate in what was then an academic encampment weekend.

“I got to meet and know some of the most involved students at Lawrence, some of whom would become life-long friends,” said Chemel, who graduated from Lawrence in 1965 with a major in English. “I also had a chance to see a great production of ‘Macbeth’ and knew that the theatre department was going to be a place where I wanted to work and learn. By the time my visit to Lawrence was over, I was locked and loaded and ready to leap. I’m so glad I had the chance.”

Even though she had graduated from Milwaukee-Downer nine years earlier, Marlene (Crupi) Widen was still directly affected by the consolidation announcement: she was the incoming M-D alumnae president at the time.

“I was unsure of my new role, but my husband wisely told me, ‘you need to stay involved. Milwaukee-Downer is bringing much to this merger and you need to help make it happen,’” said Widen, who was recognized at 2013’s reunion with the college’s Presidential Award. “I’m so glad I did. We all can be so proud of an educational legacy of which we all share. In 50 years we have come from tears to cheers. Milwaukee-Downer is alive and well as an integral part of Lawrence University.”

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In 1965, some former Milwaukee-Downer students planted a hawthorn tree in front of Main Hall.

A series of events during the weekend will highlight the Milwaukee-Downer and Lawrence connection. They include:

•  a discussion on the consolidation moderated by Ruth Legler Qualich and Ted Katzoff, 1955 Milwaukee-Downer and 1965 Lawrence graduates, respectively.

•  a presentation by Lawrence archivist Erin Dix, examining the historic context of how and why the consolidation took place and its impact today.

• an art exhibition featuring works of three Milwaukee-Downer studio art faculty — Dane Purdo, Carl Riter and Arthur Thrall — who joined the Lawrence faculty at the time of the consolidation.

•  a presentation on Catharine Beecher, a renowned 19th-century educator and champion of higher education for women, “founding spirit” for Milwaukee College and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, by Carolyn King Stephens, a 1962 Milwaukee-Downer graduate.

•  a ceremony commemorating the new Jason Downer Common on campus, including the addition of historical signage of the consolidation, followed by a tour that will include numerous Milwaukee-Downer treasures, including the exquisite Teakwood Room.

“We are very much looking forward to this weekend’s celebration,” said Mark Breseman, associate vice president of alumni and constituency engagement at Lawrence. “It is a wonderful opportunity to commemorate the joining of two special colleges. It has been a particular thrill for me to work with many wonderful Milwaukee-Downer alumnae to plan this exciting and historical series of events. Lawrence takes pride in the many ways it has kept the true Milwaukee-Downer spirit alive on campus.”

Fifty years after the consolidation, Lawrence counts nearly 1,000 living Milwaukee-Downer graduates among its alumni.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Three LU Faculty Honored at Commencement for Teaching Excellence, Creative Activity

 Amid the pomp and circumstance of Lawrence University’s 165th commencement Sunday, June 15, three members of the faculty were recognized for teaching excellence and creative activity.
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Timothy Spurgin

Timothy Spurgin, associate professor of English and Bonnie Glidden Buchanan Professor of English Literature, received the Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes outstanding performance in the teaching process, including the quest to ensure students reach their full development as individuals, human beings and future leaders of society.

A member of the faculty since 1990, Spurgin previously was recognized with Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award (1993) and the college’s Freshman Studies Teaching Award (1994). He is one of only four faculty members in the history of the awards to receive all three teaching honors.

Spurgin’s scholarly interests focus on 19th-century English literature, especially the novel and works of Charles Dickens, as well as literary criticism and theory.  His scholarship has been published in the academic journals Dickens Quarterly, Dickens Studies Annual and the Minnesota Review.

In presenting Spurgin his award, Provost and Dean of the Faculty David Burrows cited him for his teaching that extends “well beyond the confines of our classrooms.”

“You help students and faculty learn in countless ways; through individual conferences in your office, presentations at Freshman Studies symposia, discussion group sessions on new ideas about our educational mission, and private advisory sessions that help colleagues develop their own teaching abilities,” said Burrows. “Your firm but calm approach is a form of teaching that makes the entire campus a place where learning flourishes.”

Spurgin also has been a four-time recipient of Lawrence’s Babcock Award, most recently in 2009, for “giving generously of his time and energy to assist students.” After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Carleton College, Spurgin earned his doctorate in English at the University of Virginia.

“You help students and faculty learn in countless ways…your firm but calm approach is a form of teaching that makes the entire campus a place where learning flourishes.”
           — Provost David Burrows on Timothy Spurgin

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Monica Rico

Monica Rico, associate professor of history, received the award for Excellence in Creative Activity. Established in 2006, the award recognizes outstanding creative work for advancing Lawrence’s mission.

Rico joined the faculty in 2001 and served as the college’s Pieper Family Professor of Servant Leadership and director of engaged learning from 2010-2013.

Her scholarship focuses on gender and cultural history, especially of the American West. She is the author of the 2013 book “Nature’s Noblemen: Masculinities on the Nineteenth-century Transatlantic Frontier” (Yale University Press), which explores how British and American men performed and constructed masculinity in their encounters with the 19th-century American West and with each other.

Burrows praised Rico for her “consistent excellence and brilliance as a scholar” in presenting her the award.

“Your devotion to history and its power to understand the human condition has led you to study many other topics, notably the history of travel to Africa,” said Burrows. “You have used your knowledge to provide support for colleagues in a variety of areas. You also delved deeply into the scholarship of community-based engagement while serving as the Pieper Family Chair of Servant-Leadership. It is clear that you are a person of great intelligence and thoroughness who will continue to devote yourself to insightful scholarship for many years to come.”

In January, Rico was recognized as one of the winners of the 4th Annual Fox Cities Future 15 Young Professionals awards, which honors young business and community leaders for their efforts in work, civic and charitable causes.

She attended the University of California-Berkeley, earning a bachelor’s degree with majors in history and political science as well as a master’s and a doctoral degree.

“It is clear that you are a person of great intelligence and thoroughness who will continue to devote yourself to insightful scholarship for many years to come.”
               — Provost David Burrows on Monica Rico

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Stephen Sieck

Stephen Sieck, assistant professor of music and co-director of choral studies, received the Young Teacher Award in recognition of demonstrated excellence in the classroom and the promise of continued growth.

A member of the faculty since 2010, Sieck directs Lawrence’s 110-voice Viking Chorale and co-directs Cantala women’s choir and Concert Choir. His research interests include diction pedagogy and he has published articles on British composer/conductor Benjamin Britten and renowned American composer Aaron Copland.

In presenting him his award, Burrows said his success could be attributed to “a wonderful combination of passion, an insistence on high standards of achievement and care for your students.”

“Colleagues also praise your generosity and admire you for the culture of artistic accomplishment you help create,” Burrows added. “You clearly are a part of making the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music a world-class musical institution.”

In March, Sieck co-directed the Concert Choir and Cantala at the 2014 American Choral Directors Association North Central Regional Conference in Des Moines, Iowa.

“You clearly are a part of making the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music a world-class musical institution.”
               — Provost David Burrows on Stephen Sieck

Sieck, who also serves as the music director at Neenah’s First Presbyterian Church, earned a bachelor of arts degree with a major in music from the University of Chicago and a master’s and a doctoral degree in choral conducting from the University of Illinois.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Broadcast Journalist Charles Gibson to Deliver Commencement Address to Record Number of Graduates

Award-winning broadcast journalist Charles Gibson will deliver Lawrence University’s principal commencement address to a school-record number of graduates Sunday, June 15 at the college’s 165th commencement ceremony.

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Charles Gibson spent 33 years of his 40-year broadcast career with ABC News.

Lawrence will award an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Gibson, whose distinguished television career spanned more than 40 years, including 33 at ABC News, where he was anchor of “World News” and co-anchor of “Good Morning, America,.”

Commencement exercises for the largest graduating class in school history begin at 10:30 a.m. on Main Hall green. Lawrence is expected to award a school record 387 bachelor degrees to 370 students from 35 states and 20 countries. A live webcast of the commencement ceremony will be available at http://www.livestream.com/lawrenceuniversity.

President Mark Burstein, who will preside over his first commencement, along with Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair Terry Franke and senior Fanny Lau from Chicago, will join Gibson in addressing the graduates.

Prior to commencement, Lawrence will hold a baccalaureate service Saturday, June 14 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Stephen Sieck, assistant professor of music and co-director of choral studies, presents “The Wonder of Unfairness: Why You Can Be Happier than My Dogs.” The baccalaureate service and commencement exercise are both free and open to the public.

Two retiring faculty members, Richmond Frielund, associate professor of theatre arts, and Richard Yatzeck, professor of Russian, will be recognized for their 34 and 48 years of service, respectively, with honorary master of arts degrees, ad eundem, as part of the graduation ceremonies.

Gibson joined ABC News in 1975 and held all of the network’s highest profile anchor positions during his three-plus decade career there, including 18 years at “Good Morning, America,” (1987-98; 1999-2006), six at “Primetime” (1998-2004) and three-and-a-half (2006-09) at the anchor desk of “World News.”

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Lawrence will award broadcaster Charles Gibson his third honorary degree as part of the college’s 165th commencement.

Upon Gibson’s retirement in December, 2009, ABC News President David Westin said, “The first rough draft of history over this generation has been seen by an entire nation through the eyes of Charlie Gibson.”

Among Gibson’s many career highlights were interviews with seven sitting presidents, serving as moderator for two presidential debates and investigating the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, for which he earned an Emmy Award.

Other noteworthy career reporting assignments include the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building and the execution of convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh six years later, the 2005 death and funeral of Pope John Paul II from Vatican City, the shooting tragedy on the campus of Virginia Tech and interviews with world leaders ranging from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the late Yasir Arafat and Nelson Mandela, among others.

A native of Evanston, Ill., Gibson grew up in Washington, D.C. and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1965 from Princeton University, where he launched his journalism career as the news director for the university’s campus radio station.

“The first rough draft of history over this generation has been seen by an entire nation through the eyes of Charlie Gibson.”
      – David Westin, President, ABC News

In addition to his 2004 Emmy Award, Gibson was recognized by the New York State Broadcasters Association with its 2010 Broadcaster of the Year award. He received a National Journalism Fellowship in 1973 from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the 2006 Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors of America. Quinnipiac University honored him with the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award in 2008.

A member of the Board of Trustees at Princeton, Gibson has previously delivered commencement speeches at New York’s Vassar (1989) and Union (2007) colleges and New Jersey’s Monmouth University (2006).

Lawrence is the third college to award Gibson and honorary degree, joining Union and Monmouth.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Lawrence Honoring Retiring Faculty Members Richmond Frielund, Richard Yatzeck at June 15 Commencement

It’s easy to understand why Richmond Frielund is a fan of “do-overs.” Early in his career he was the beneficiary of one.

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Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Richmond Frielund

Frielund, who has helped stage more than 100 Lawrence University productions, and Richard Yatzeck, who led Lawrence students on a dozen summer-long treks through Eastern Europe, will be honored Sunday, June 15 as retiring faculty members for their combined 82 years of teaching at the college’s 165th commencement.

Frielund, associate professor of theatre arts, and Yatzeck, professor of Russian, will be recognized with professor emeritus status and awarded honorary master of arts degrees, ad eundem, as part of the graduation ceremonies on Main Hall green.

Five years after joining the Lawrence theatre arts department as technical director in 1979, Frielund left for what he thought was a better opportunity at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. It turned out to be a less-than-ideal fit.

“I was thankful I saw my job listing and I reapplied for my old job and wound up getting hired back,” said Frielund, who rejoined the college in the fall of 1985.

In a largely behind-the-scenes career spanning a total of 44 years, including 10 before coming to Lawrence, Frielund has directed set and lighting design for more than 100 Lawrence play, opera, musical and dance productions and has assisted with more than 200 others outside the college, including concerts for Elvis Presley, Bon Jovi and Kenny Chesney, several touring Broadway musicals, including “Phantom of the Opera” and “Wicked” and a visit by then President George W. Bush to Appleton, for which he received a White House citation of thanks. Unfortunately his name was misspelled on it.

“I have found fulfillment in doing some shepherding,” said Frielund, a native of Duluth, Minn. “You’re in the back and you just keep things going. I take great pleasure in coming up with something and seeing how other people can use it well.”

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Backstage is where Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Richmond Frielund has made his mark as Lawrence’s technical director for 34 years.

Among all the productions he’s had a hand in, three in particular still stand out in Frielund’s mind: A 1980 performance of “The Crucible,” 1998’s “Sweeney Todd” and a 1999 staging of “Translations,” which was selected to go to the American College Theatre Festival.

“For the production of ‘The Crucible,’ Campbell Scott (’83) played John Proctor when he was 19 years old. That was the first big part he’d had, but that’s not the only reason I remember that show,” said Frielund. “I had built this ceiling piece. It was sitting on the floor and as we hoisted it up, part of it stayed in the air and the other part flopped back down on the floor. It wasn’t quite back to square one, but it certainly was a teaching moment for us all.

“The single, salient most significant memory of my career at Lawrence was in 1998,” Frielund added. “We did a production of ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and this was the first time we did a rehearsal at Bjorklunden. There were all of these really good singers rehearsing and I walked in the door and heard ‘Swing your razor high, Sweeney,’ and this huge, huge beautiful, glorious sound hit me. I thought to myself, ‘This is what Lawrence can really do well.’”

Frielund says it’s the beginnings and endings of a term or academic year that turn him reflective.

“I can’t tell you how many times on a day when a term is starting or its the end of the year, I will have a very warm feeling for this place. I just stop and think, ‘Thank God I’m here.’ This place doesn’t operate like a lot of institutions and for that I’m thankful.”

“The times I’ve spent working with students in the shop, painting scenery, showing kids how to build things, how to focus lights, those are my fondest memories.”
       — Associate Professor Richmond Frielund

Prior to Lawrence, Frielund taught for two years at the University of Michigan, where he once had a freshman in a dance class by the name of Madonna Louise Ciccone, who “weighed 85 pounds soaking wet, but she was a really good dancer, to what extent she bothered showing up.” He wound up giving her a ‘C.’

“She had other interests,” recalled Frielund, 64. “She didn’t come back to school and I heard she’d gone off to New York. I had no idea that the Madonna on the radio was the same person I had in class until I read a magazine article about her.”

Brushes with celebrity aside, thoughts of working with students in the theatre department’s back corners are what make Frielund smile.

“The times I’ve spent working with students in the shop, painting scenery, showing kids how to build things, how to focus lights, those are my fondest memories.”

Professor of theatre arts Timothy X. Troy and Frielund’s department colleague the past 17 years, said Frielund believed the study of theatre in performance and design anchored a student’s engagement in the liberal arts generally.

“Rich’s tradition of a fully integrated approach to production and curious exploration of each play’s themes and social context will mark our department well into the future,” said Troy. “Rich taught us all to respect a developmental model of theatre education: let success build upon success until students integrate an ever-widening understanding of the richness and complexity of the theatre tradition.”

In retirement, Frielund will be involved in December performance of “The Nutcracker” at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. He also hopes to do some teaching at Appleton’s Renaissance School.

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Professor of Russian Richard Yatzeck

Yatzeck, 81, began organizing every-other-year trips to Russia and Eastern Europe with former professor George Smalley shortly after he joined the faculty in 1966. Traveling in seven Volkswagen buses, as many as 35 students would participate in the trips throughout the continent.

“The (Lawrence) authorities at that time thought it would be a good idea. I’m not sure why they did because everybody else asked us if we’d get back alive,” said Yatzeck, who calls the biennial trips the highlight of his teaching career. “They were certainly good for my oral Russian.”

Those trips — as well as two stints (1991, 1997) as director of the ACM’s study-abroad program in Krasnodar — inspired him to chronicle his experiences in the 2012 book “Russia in Private,” a collection of his observations of Russian life.

During one of the longest teaching tenures in Lawrence history — 48 years — Yatzeck taught the finer points of Tolstoy, Pushkin and Dostoevsky. A self-proclaimed non-fan of the modern world, Yatzeck says he would have preferred living in the time of the writers he now teaches.

“Basically, the only way to amuse yourself was to read and that’s what I’ve done all my life and so in some ways I feel as if I still live in the 19th century,” said Yatzeck, who has never owned what most would consider a present-day necessity — a television. “Part of being happy teaching at Lawrence is a lot of my work is spent reading and preparing for classes and the thinking that goes along with it. When you read a book you have to make your own pictures so that you’re exercising your imagination. What is this guy saying, what would it look like.”

A close second to his passion for Russian literature is his love of the outdoors. An avid hunter and fisherman, early in his teaching career Yatzeck was known to occasionally wear his hunting boots to class for a quick jaunt to the woods or the lake in the fall afternoon’s fading light with his Main Hall colleagues Peter Fritzell and Michael Hittle of the English and history departments, respectively. The three were dubbed “The Rod and Gun Club” by former Lawrence historian Anne Schutte.

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Long-time colleague and hunting partner Professor Emeritus of English Peter Fritzell described Professor of Russian Richard Yatzeck, seen here in his Main Hall office, as “one of the greatest readers among the faculty.”

Fritzell said the three friends “came to know each other as only outdoorsmen can.”

“Sleeping in tents together, discussing poems, novels and historical events around campfires, in boats and duckblinds, we   engaged in fairly high-drawer philosophical arguments, enjoying gourmet lunches on tailgates of trucks with our bird dogs or ice-fishing on Lake Winnebago,” said Fritzell. “Dick would often pull from his scholar’s shoulder-bag a bottle of the very best Slivovitz and we’d toast the end of the day, the placing of the last tipup, or, if we were lucky, the first fish on the ice.”

Yatzeck has always maintained his perspective and never considered teaching as merely paying for the time that he could go hunting or fishing.

“They are quite different things. The business about hunting is you switch off your intellect and you listen to your senses. Something smells or you hear or taste something and your intellectual powers are in abeyance and that’s a nice rest. But that isn’t how you teach.”

“What I like best is when one of the students teaches me something I’ve never noticed. That, I feel, is the height of teaching, when you can learn from your students.”
            — Professor Richard Yatzeck

Yatzeck’s scholarly work includes a dozen published poems, but he also has written extensively about the outdoors, including 11 articles for Gray’s Sporting Journal, the New Yorker of outdoor literature. His first book, 1999’s “Hunting the Edges,” is a collection of his musings about the philosophical, not the practical, aspects of the outdoors.

In a career spanning nearly five decades, Yatzeck says he never counted the days or the years, they “just added up by themselves.”

“Monday has never seemed a time to curse to me. I never felt I was going to a job,” said Yatzeck, who got hooked on Russian as a German-speaking Fulbright Fellow in 1955 after meeting a red-headed Russian woman in Hamburg, Germany. “What I like best is when one of the students teaches me something I’ve never noticed. That, I feel, is the height of teaching, when you can learn from your students.”

In addition to more trips to the lake and woods and visits with children in Chicago, St. Louis and London, Yatzeck hopes to pen a third book in retirement about his youth in the rural village of Genesee, Wis.

“I have always looked back at that as a model. I’ve written a couple of short pieces about individuals who lived in that village but I’d like to write some kind of account of life at that time. In 80 years a great deal has changed.”

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Memorial Service June 21 Celebrates the Life of Professor Emeritus Dorrit Friedlander

A memorial service commemorating the life of Lawrence University Professor Emeritus of German Dorrit Friedlander will be conducted Saturday, June 21 from 9-10 a.m. in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Room of the Warch Campus Center.

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Professor Emeritus of German Dorrit Friedlander, 1925-2013.

The service will include remarks from Dave Burrows, provost and dean of the faculty, Brian Pertl, dean of the conservatory, and Friedlander’s niece Rabbi Ariel Friedlander. Several alumni will share stories from their time with her in Germany. It will also feature music from her favorite composers and a slideshow. The room will remain open until noon for faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends to spend time celebrating her special life.

One of the college’s most beloved teachers and, with 61 years, the longest-serving faculty member in the college’s history, Friedlander died peacefully Nov. 14 at her Appleton home at the age of 88 after a battle with liver cancer.

Friedlander  joined the faculty in 1951 for what was supposed to be a one-year appointment and never left.  She taught both German and Spanish for her first seven years before focusing solely on her primary passion, German. Although she officially retired in 1993, she continued to teach at least one course each year up through the fall of 2012.

A dedicated but demanding teacher, Friedlander always held her students to high standards, both in the mastery of good German as well as the manners of good living and she insisted that civility and kindness prevail. Known affectionately to generations of students as “Tante Dorrit” or “Frau Friedlander,” she won the admiration and affection of students through the personal interest she showed each of them as well as the delicious cheesecakes she made.

Her teaching prowess was honored in 1980 when she was recognized with Lawrence’s Excellent Teaching Award. In presenting her the award, then President Richard Warch praised Friedlander for her “commitment to teaching and devotion to the university, qualities that make Lawrence a place of distinction.”

Friedlander’s love of teaching extended beyond the campus borders as well. She was instrumental in establishing Lawrence’s first foreign language study program in 1967, a venture in Bönnigheim, Germany, and was a frequent and popular director of the college’s study-abroad programs in Eningen and Munich, Germany.

She proudly embraced the role of university matriarch in various forms, overseeing faculty office assignments in Main Hall for many years and making sure the receiving line at the annual year-opening reception for new faculty moved along at an acceptable pace. Each fall, Friedlander organized the Main Hall holiday collection, providing a year-end bonus for the building’s staff in appreciation of their efforts throughout the year.

She also served as a “house mother,” first at Sage Cottage, a former women’s dormitory (now the International House) and later at Ormsby Hall. Long after the practice of house mothers ended, Friedlander continued to regularly reserve a lunch table in Lucinda’s for Ormsby students so she could stay connected. She diligently supported her students outside of the classroom as well, often attending their recitals, theatre performances and art exhibitions.

During her life, Freidlander’s genuine affection for people helped her cultivate a large and very diverse group of friends from around the world and from all walks of life.

Born in 1925 in Berlin, Germany, Friedlander and her family fled the Nazis in the late 1930s, catching one of the last boats leaving Germany and winding up in Havana, Cuba as a young teenager. She emigrated to the United States in 1940, resettling with her family in Mississippi.

She attended the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages and a master’s degree in German. She spent a year teaching German and Spanish at the University of Oklahoma before coming to Lawrence.

At her request, memorial contributions can be made to Lawrence’s Dorrit Friedlander Scholarship Fund.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Senior Elizabeth Perry Awarded Fulbright Commission Teaching Appointment in Austria

Hiking boots may seem a bit nontraditional as a college graduation present, but Elizabeth Perry can’t imagine anything she’d appreciate more.

The Lawrence University senior voice performance major from Portage, Mich., will spend the coming year in the midst of the hike-friendly Austrian Alps as the recipient of a United States Teaching Assistantship through the Fulbright Commission in Austria.

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Elizabeth Perry ’14

Beginning in October, Perry will begin an eight-month appointment as an English teaching assistant at two secondary schools in Reutte, a small town in the Tirol region of western Austria.

“I plan to spend plenty of time outdoors in the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived,” said Perry. “My parents have already told me they bought me a pair of hiking boots for graduation. I’ll be completely surrounded by mountains and I’m from the flatlands of the United States, so I plan to put those boots to good use.”

Perry’s teaching appointment will send her back to Austria. She spent the fall term of 2012 in Vienna on an off-campus study program there.

“I went specifically because Vienna’s such a fantastic city for music, art, culture and especially opera, which is what I study,” said Perry, who performed in Lawrence’s 2012 production of Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen.”  “I sort of came back with German. I went in for music and I came back and changed my whole degree to fit German in somehow.”

Although a bit late in her college career, Perry decided to add a minor in German, the official language of Austria, in her fourth year at Lawrence.

“It was the last addition to my degree and the first of it that I completed,” she says proudly.

Perry is no stranger to traveling abroad. She went to Italy for a summer voice program, participated in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and spent time before her off-campus study program in Vienna began as an au pair in Switzerland.

With no prior formal teaching experience, she sees her appointment as an ideal launching pad to what she hopes will be a career in music education.

“I’ve done a lot of one-on-one teaching and am currently working with three Lawrence students. They don’t study voice, they are just interested in singing. But this will actually be my first official classroom teaching experience,” said Perry, who has sung with one of Lawrence’s three different choirs — concert choir, Cantala women’s choir and Viking Chorale — each of the past five years.

“I definitely model my pedagogy on what I’ve learned from my professors here, and I’d love to teach within a liberal arts environment.”
— Elizabeth Perry

Joanne Bozeman, Perry’s vocal teacher and academic advisor, calls her “a remarkably well-rounded singer.”

“She is truly immersed in the liberal arts with two minors (German and English) in addition to her voice performance degree and interest in singing pedagogy,” said Bozeman.

“With her previous sojourns in Vienna, Italy and Switzerland, she is primed to be an effective English teacher through the Fulbright program.”

The news of her acceptance in the program did put on Perry’s original post-graduation plans on hold. She had been admitted to the vocal pedagogy program at Ohio State University.

“I’ve worked it out and have deferred my admission so that when I return to the United States I’ll study at OSU in the fall of 2015,” said Perry, who will receive her bachelor of music degree Sunday, June 15 at Lawrence’s 165th commencement.

“Someday I would love to teach at Lawrence or a school like Lawrence. I definitely model my pedagogy on what I’ve learned from my professors here. I’d love to teach within a liberal arts environment. I have a feeling I won’t be able to help myself but to bring a little bit of my liberal arts experience into the classroom next year. It’s a tradition I hope to continue throughout my teaching.”

Perry is one of approximately 140 college graduates from the United States selected to  teach in Austria under the auspices of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Women’s Affairs Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship Program, which brings talented young people from abroad into the classrooms of secondary schools in communities large and small throughout Austria.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.