Lawrence University News

APPLETON, WIS. — Award-winning novelist Jane Hamilton will read excerpts from her latest book “When Madeline Was Young” Thursday, January 11 at Lawrence University. The reading, at 7:30 p.m. in Harper Hall in the Lawrence Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, is free and open to the public. Hamilton will conduct a book signing following the reading.

Published by Doubleday in September, 2006, “When Madeline Was Young,” weaves a richly-textured story of a tragic accident and the profound effect human kindness has on two generations of a family. Hamilton’s fifth novel, the Washington Post hailed it as her “most distinguished work so far, a story in which tragedy is balanced brilliantly against the consolations and pleasures of ordinary life.”

Hamilton, 49, received the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Award for her first novel, “The Book of Ruth.” Her second novel, “A Map of the World,” published in 1994, was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was included on the top 10 books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, the Miami Herald and People magazine.

Her third book, “The Short Story of a Prince,” received the Chicago Tribune’s 1998 Heartland Prize, an award that reinforces and perpetuates the values of heartland America and earned a Best Book citation from Publishers Weekly. In 2000, Hamilton released her fourth novel, “Disobedience,” which joined “The Book of Ruth” and “A Map of the World” as a best-seller after all three were named to Oprah Winfrey’s book club.

The daughter and granddaughter of writers, Hamilton was born in Oak Park, Ill., and today makes her home in Rochester, Wis. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Carleton College and spent time after graduation working at an apple orchard in Wisconsin before pursuing a writing career in 1982.

Hamilton’s appearance is sponsored by the Gordon R. Clapp Lectureship in American Studies.

APPLETON, WIS. — Pianist Ka Man (Melody) Ng edged three of her Lawrence University classmates to earn first-place honors at the 21st annual Concord Chamber Orchestra’s concerto competition Dec. 16 in Glendale.

Ng, a senior from Hong Kong, received a $500 scholarship for her winning audition and will perform Franz Liszt’s “Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major” with the Concord Chamber Orchestra on Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 8 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa.

Sophomore pianist Scott Englund earned second-place honors at the competition for his performance of Bohuslav Martinu’s “Piano Concerto No. 4.” Senior Amanda Gessler, piano, and senior Megan Karls, violin, each received honorable mention honors. Ng, Englund and Gessler all study in the piano studio of Associate Professor of Music Anthony Padilla, while Karls is a student of Assistant Professor of Music Stephane Tran Ngoc.

Ng is the fifth Lawrence student in the past six years to win the CCO competition, joining saxophonist Sara Kind (2005), violinist Burcu Goker (2004), violinist Julien Poncet (2002) and violinst Charlotte Maclet (2001). Violinist Leslie Boulin-Raulet was the CCO competition runner-up in 2003.

The 2006 competition featured 13 performers in string, woodwind, brass and percussion categories. It is open to musicians 25 years of age or younger who are residents of Wisconsin or attend a Wisconsin high school, college or university.

Jamin Hoffman, music director of the Concord Chamber Orchestra, Ralph Lane, founder and music director of Philharmonia Racine and Milwaukee Summer Philharmonia, Shelby Keith Dixon, senior associate conductor of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and Brian Volkman, CCO board president and principal horn with the orchestra served as judges for the competition.

The Concord Chamber Orchestra, featuring volunteer adult players from various professions and age groups, was founded in 1975.

APPLETON, WIS. — Michael Cisler, former president and CEO of JanSport, Inc., and Margy Upton Trumbull, an arts patron and community leader in Toledo, Ohio, were recently elected to the Lawrence University Board of Trustees. They will join the board in January and serve three-year terms.

Cisler, who lives in Neenah, began his career with JanSport in 1977. During his tenure with the company, he held senior positions in operations, information systems, marketing, finance and strategic planning. In 2000, Cisler spearheaded the company’s acquisition of its largest rival, Eastpak. He was appointed executive vice president the following year and was named company president in 2002. He retired two years later when JanSport’s headquarters relocated from Greenville to California.

A 1978 graduate of Lawrence, Cisler is member of the corporate board of directors for the YMCA of the Fox Cities and served seven years (1989-96) on the Lawrence University Alumni Association Board of Directors. He also was appointed to two committees established by the college’s board of trustees: the Task Force on Residential Life and the Presidential Search Committee that nominated Jill Beck as Lawrence’s 15th president.

He chaired the Class of 1978’s 25th Reunion Gift Committee and was recognized in 2003 with the Alumni Association’s Outstanding Service to Lawrence Award. Cisler’s daughter, Caitlin, graduated from Lawrence in 2006.

A silversmith who earned a degree in studio art from Lawrence in 1972, Trumbull is the current president of the board of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. She began her arts career working at the Toledo Museum of Art as part of a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and ran a fine arts jewelry business for several years.

She has served on the Design Review Board for several projects in the Toledo area, including the Vietnam Memorial Plaza and the public art project for Fifth Third Field, home of the Toledo Mud Hens AAA minor league baseball team. In addition, she has served as co-chair of Lucas County’s Art in the Park festival.

APPLETON, WIS. — Eric Jenkins has long dreamed about a music career that some day might take him around the world. He just didn’t know it would get a kick start before he even finished college.

For the second year in a row, Jenkins, a pianist, and his playing partner, violinist Burcu Goker, will be spending part of their Christmas recess abroad in Turkey.

Thanks to an invitation from the Austrian government, the two Lawrence University musicians will perform Monday, Dec. 18 in a 250-year old, 300-seat concert hall in the Austrian Embassy in Istanbul for an invited audience of diplomats, ambassadors and other special guests and dignitaries.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Jenkins said of his improbable term break destination.

Jenkins’ and Goker’s upcoming concert at the Austrian embassy is an “encore” of sorts for a performance they gave last December as part of one of Turkey’s most celebrated national events — the annual memorial tribute to Ismet Inönü, who served as that country’s first prime minister (1923-38) and second president (1938-50).

For the first time in its history, last year’s service included an hour-long musical component that Jenkins and Goker had the unprecedented privilege of performing.

Talent conspired with serendipity for Jenkins, who studies in the piano studio of Michael Kim, and Goker, a student of violinist Stephane Tran Ngoc, to get invited to Inönü’s memorial a year ago, but it was their musical prowess alone that earned them a return engagement. Their performance in Ankara, which was nationally televised live throughout the country, left such an impression that other concert offers soon followed. Although several opportunities had to be politely declined because of school conflicts, the Austrian embassy invitation fit nicely into their Christmas recess from classes.

“It’s amazing how many doors can be opened from one concert, how many people you can meet from one concert,” said Jenkins. “The last time we performed, we were just part of a larger program. But this time, we are the concert and people will be coming specifically to hear us play.”

Since their performance for Inönü’s memorial, Goker, a native of Turkey whose parents live in Istanbul, has seen the trajectory on her star continue to rise. She was the subject of a story in the May edition of “Butun Dunya,” the Turkish edition of “Reader’s Digest.” In September, she was profiled in the national Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, that country’s equivalent of The New York Times. And most recently, was spotlighted with a full-page story in the November/December edition of “Andante,” an international classical music magazine.

While Goker is looking forward to showcasing her talents in her hometown, Jenkins sees the opportunity to perform in one of Europe’s most culturally diverse cities as an adrendaline rush.

“Playing in Istanbul is going to be such a thrill,” said Jenkins. “There’s such an amazing atmosphere to the city. There is so much culture all around you everywhere you go. Just to be a small part of it is going to be very exciting.”

Location aside, the duo are equally excited about the music they will be performing. Taking advantage of the end of a year-long celebration commemorating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s Austrian birth, the duo will perform his “Sonata for violin and piano in E minor.” They also will play “Sonata Posthume,” a piece written by Maurice Ravel when he was relatively young, and five pieces from Prokofiev’s Opus 35. Russian composer Nicholas Medtner’s “3 Nocturnes, Opus 16,” a work that hasn’t been published for decades and is virtually unknown, also will be featured. Goker’s own composition, “L’Anatolie” will be part of the program as well.

“We’re going to be doing some very rare repertoire,” said Jenkins. “It’s really great music, some of the best violin-piano music of the Romantic realm, but it’s all been largely unplayed. It will be exciting exposing an audience to some music they likely have never heard before. “I hope we can fill the hall to capacity and have as many people come to hear us as possible.”

An international embassy seems a most appropriate concert setting for Goker, who sees her life as a musician through diplomatic eyes.

“A musician must not only be a soloist or a performer, but an ambassador to the culture of the arts,” said Goker, who performed a concert as a teenager at the United Nations before enrolling at Lawrence. “I believe that I could make a difference in the lives of many people by bringing them the message of music, not only as a musician, but as an enlightened artist who is well aware of the environment and surroundings that we all face today.”

APPLETON, WIS. — The Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir presents “Songs of Travel” at 2:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. December 9 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The concert includes songs of actual travel along with songs about other countries and cultures, songs about the journey of the spirit, and songs about our own personal life journeys.

On the program are works by Eric H. Thiman, Charles Collins, Nick Page, Gustav Holst, along with a Norwegian folk song, an African-American spiritual, a Cajun French folk song, American folk songs, a French folk song, and a Taiwanese folk song.

In addition to celebrating travel, the Girl Choir will celebrate its 15th anniversary and the introduction of two new conductors, Karrie Been and Dan Van Sickle, at the concerts.

Been, the new conductor for the Primo choir, has been teaching general music for 16 years. She is currently teaching at Woodland School in Kimberly. She graduated from Carroll College with a degree in music education and earned her Master’s degree in music education from Silver Lake College. Girls in third and fourth grade make up the Primo choir. Van Sickle is the new conductor for the Intermezzo choir, which consists of girls in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Van Sickle graduated from the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in 2004 with degrees in choral and general music education and piano performance. He has been the choral director at Xavier High School in Appleton for two years.

Other conductors for the performances are Karen L. Bruno, conductor of the Cantabile and Bel Canto choirs and the artistic director of the Girl Choir program; and Cheryl Meyer, conductor of the Allegretto choir. Girls in grades seventh, eighth, and ninth make up the Cantabile choir, while the Bel Canto choir is for girls in grades nine through 12. The Allegretto choir consists of girls in grades four and five.

About 275 girls from over 50 public, private, and home schools in the Fox River Valley participate in the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for senior citizens and students. Tickets are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, located in the Music-Drama Center or by phone at 920-832-6749. Tickets, if available, will also be sold at the box office beginning one hour before each performance.

APPLETON, WIS. — For the second year in a row, Lawrence University student cellists placed second and third at the 2006 Wisconsin Cello Society Solo Competition conducted at UW- Platteville.

Sophomore Lindsey Crabb of Columbia, Mo., received first honorable mention (second place) honors, while junior Elise Butler-Pinkham of Ferndale, Mich., received second honorable mention (third place) honors.

Crabb also received the competition’s special “Concerto Award” and will be invited to perform a solo with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville University Orchestra next season. She played “Bourees” from Bach’s Fourth Suite and the third movement of the Dvorak Cello Concerto for the competition. Crabb was awarded a new bow from the Coda Bow Company for her performance.

Butler-Pinkham performed “Lo How a Rose” by Mark Summer, cellist of the Turtle Island Quartet and the fourth movement of the Elgar Cello Concerto. Both students study in the cello studio of professor of music Janet Anthony.

Students in the competition performed 15-20 minutes of music of their own choosing. This year’s competition, the Wisconsin Cello Society’s second, featured 11 cellists from around the state. It is open to all Wisconsin students aged 14-22 who have studied privately for more than one year.

Founded in April, 2000, the Wisconsin Cello Society is a state-wide organization that promotes the art and appreciation of cello playing, furthers the musical development of its members and provides performance opportunities for professional, amateur and student cellists.

APPLETON, WIS. — The evolution of the “Baby Doe regulations” and the current status of decisions involving handicapped infants with life-threatening conditions will be the focus of the opening address in Lawrence University’s annual Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.

Dr. Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presents “Whatever Happened To Baby Doe?: The Transformation From Undertreatment To Overtreatment” Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Fost will review the history of the Baby Doe controversy and the lessons learned from the national response, beginning in the 1970’s, when parents and physicians commonly agreed to withhold standard life-saving treatment from handicapped infants. The celebrated “Hopkins Mongol Case,” involving an infant with Down Syndrome and duodenal atresia who was allowed to die of dehydration, sparked a film and symposium that attracted widespread national attention and played a pivotal role in the emerging field of bioethics.

Physicians, hospitals, legislatures and courts consistently allowed these practices until the 1980s when the Reagan administration issued “Baby Doe regulations” in response to a Bloomington, Ind., infant with a reparable birth defect who died. The new regulations resolved the problem of inappropriate undertreatment of infants who had excellent prospects for meaningful lives, but also resulted in the overtreatment of infants with limited prospects for meaningful life.

According to Fost, both the initial undertreatment and subsequent overtreatment were driven by concerns other than the best interests of the patient and by misunderstandings about the law.

A practicing pediatrician, Fost is the director of the UW’s program in medical ethics, which he founded in 1973. He also serves as head of the child protection team, chairman of the UW Hospital ethics committee and vice chair of the department of medical history and bioethics.

He was written widely on issues ranging from euthanasia of handicapped newborns and genetic screening to human subjects research and the use of performance enhancing drugs. He served on President Clinton’s Health Care Task Force, the National Academy of Science Committee on Guidelines for Stem Cell Research, whose report was published in 2005 and is currently a member of the FDA’s Pediatric Advisory Committee on Children’s Drugs.

Fost has appeared frequently on national television shows, including “Nightline,” “Frontline,” “Crossfire,” “Good Morning, America,” “The News Hour,” “Oprah,” and HBO’s “Real Sports.” He was awarded the 2004 Nellie Westermann Prize for Research Ethics and received the William G. Bartholome Award for Excellence in Ethics from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2003.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, his medical degree from Yale University and master’s degree of public health from Harvard University. He completed residency training in pediatrics and two years as Chief Resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and spent 1972-73 as a fellow in the Harvard Program in Law, Medicine and Ethics.

Joining Fost on this year’s series will be Jonathan Moreno, professor of biomedical ethics at the University of Virginia, who will deliver the address “Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense” on March 30, 2007.

Fost’s appearance is supported by the Edward F. Mielke Lectureship in Ethics in Medicine, Science and Society. The lectureship was established in 1985 by the Mielke Family Foundation in memory of Dr. Edward F. Mielke, a leading member of the Appleton medical community and the founder of the Appleton Medical Center.

APPLETON, WIS. — The Lawrence Academy of Music is busy getting ready for its annual winter concerts, scheduled for December 3 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The Academy String Orchestra and String Groups present a concert at 3:00 p.m. While the Academy Honors Band and Wind Ensemble perform at 7:00 p.m.

The Academy String Orchestra and String Groups concert includes a variety of works that will appeal to young and old alike. Opening the concert is the Academy String Groups, which includes string students from a variety of Academy programs. Most notably are the String Repertoire Class students who range in age from three to 13 years old. These students will perform several selections during the concert. The String Groups will conclude their portion of the concert with works by Seitz, Bach, and Vivaldi. The String Orchestra, which includes violin, viola, cello, and string bass, performs Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace), three American fiddle tunes, Cripple Creek, Haste to the Wedding, and Bile Them Cabbage Down, along with The Barber of Seville (Overture), Night Shift, and more.

The Academy String Orchestra is an auditioned ensemble for talented and very motivated string players in grades four through eight. There are currently 63 members in the orchestra, which is conducted by Linda Calhan. Students performing in the String Groups are from the studios of Arden Lambert, Barbara Beechey, Caroline Brandenberger, and Yuliya Smead. Most of these students are currently continuing their ensemble playing in the Academy String Orchestra, the local Fox Valley Symphony Youth Symphonies, or other smaller chamber ensembles.

The Honors Band and Wind Ensemble perform several pieces during their evening performance. Works on the program for the Honors Band include Ballade by Darren Jenkins, Cavata by Francis McBeth, Mountain View Portrait by Jared Spears, and The Black Knight by Clare Grundman. The Wind Ensemble performs Folk Dances by Dmitri Shostakovich and arranged by James Curnow, Whatsoever Things… by Mark Camphouse, and Irish Tunes From County Derry and Shepherd’s Hey by Percy Aldridge Grainger. The concert will close with an Honors Band and Wind Ensemble combined performance of Fidelity March by K.L. King.

The Honors Band provides experience with advanced music for middle school band students. Jon Meyer conducts the 49-member band. The Wind Ensemble provides advanced high school band students with the opportunity to become acquainted with music specifically composed and arranged for wind ensembles. Conductor Michael Ross currently has 63 members in the ensemble.

Tickets for each concert are $6 and are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, located in the Music-Drama Center or by phone at 920-832-6749. Tickets, if available, will also be sold at the box office beginning one hour before each show.

APPLETON, WIS. — The Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra and Choirs present “The British Are Coming” at 8:00 p.m. December 1 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Under the direction of Richard Bjella and Phillip A. Swan, the concert will feature works by British composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Benjamin Britten, and more.

The Viking Chorale will sing several selections including Rejoice in the Lord arranged by Jeffrey Rickard and Joy to the World by G.F. Handel. The Concert Choir will perform Salvator mundi by Tallis, O Beatum et sacrosanctum diem by Peter Phillips, and Jubilate Deo in D by Henry Purcell, among other selections. The Cantala women’s choir will perform Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten. The combined choirs and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra will perform two selections by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dona nobis pacem, which includes a solo by Melissa Kelly ’00, soprano, and Let All the World in Ev’ry Corner Sing from Five Mystical Songs, which includes a solo by Keith Harris ’98, baritone.

Before the concert, James DeCorsey, associate professor of music, will deliver a talk discussing the works on the “British Are Coming” program at 7:15 p.m. in Harper Hall.

Bjella is the director of choral studies and leads the Concert Choir, Chorale, and Collegium Musicum. Swan is the associate director of choral studies. He is responsible for directing the Women’s Choir.

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

APPLETON, WIS. — Even our own solar system isn’t immune to downsizing, as unlucky Pluto discovered earlier this year when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded its status from planet to “dwarf planet.”

Lawrence University astrophysicist Megan Pickett sorts through the controversy surrounding Pluto’s status, why its new designation makes sense and ultimately why it doesn’t really matter in the Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium “Confessions of a Pluto Hater.” The address, Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102, is free and open to the public.

On August 24, amid much fanfare and after decades of contenious debate, the IAU — the governing body of astronomers and astrophysicists responsible for classifying and naming celestial objects — officially removed Pluto from the list of nine planets in our solar system. The announcement was met with mixed reaction among astronomers and astrophysicists. Some hailed the reclassification as a “triumph of rationality over sentimentality,” while others argued that the new designation made little sense, was too vague or was just plain mean.

A self-proclaimed “Pluto hater” who has long argued against planetary status for the tiny sphere of rock and ice, Pickett joined the Lawrence physics department in the fall of 2006 after six years on the faculty at Purdue University Calumet. A specialist in the origins of solar systems and star formation, she has served on several NASA review panels as well as on the 2006 National Science Foundation Review Panel on exoplanets.

Pickett earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Cornell University, a master’s degree in astronomy from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Indiana University.