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Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Brings her “Dreamy Lyricism” to Lawrence Memorial Chapel

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, hailed as “a phenomenon in the world of classical music” by The Washington Post, performs Friday, April 30 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel as part of the college’s annual Artist Series.

The concert will include works by Bach, Copland, Lasser, Schubert and Webern. Tickets, at $20-22 for adults, $17-19 for seniors and $15-17 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

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Simone Dinnerstein

Best known for her intelligent but emotive performances of Bach, Dinnerstein jumped into the international spotlight with her acclaimed 2007 recording of Bach’s challenging “Goldberg Variations.”

Since a triumphant recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2005, she has earned widespread acclaim, including consecutive Classical Recording Foundation Awards in 2006 and 2007 for her recording of Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello with Zuill Bailey.  She recently signed an exclusive recording agreement with Sony Classical, which will release an all-Bach disc this fall.

Dinnerstein has performed solo and with symphonies at renowned concert halls and festivals across the U.S. and Europe.  The New Yorker described her as “the pianists’ pianist of Generation X.”

Pianist Catherine Kautsky, professor of music at Lawrence, says it is Dinnerstein’s individual voice that places her among the best pianists of her time.

“Simone has a dreamy lyricism that makes you feel she’s communing very personally and privately with her audience, whether she’s playing a slow movement of Bach, a Schubert Impromptu or a difficult 20th-century work,” said Kautsky.  “Her sound is unfailingly lush and beautiful.  She’s not afraid to take time to make a musical line, to establish her own space and make her own statements. She draws you in to her universe.”

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Dinnerstein performs regularly for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization that brings classical music to non-traditional venues such as nursing homes, schools, community centers and correctional institutions.

She also founded P.S. 321 Neighborhood Concerts, an evening concert series at the Brooklyn elementary school where her husband teaches. The concerts raise funds for the school’s Parent Teacher Association and features musicians Dinnerstein has admired and collaborated with during her career.

DownBeat Magazine Honors Fred Sturm, Student Band Fatbook with Music Awards

For more than 30 years, Fred Sturm has devoted his life to enthusiastically sharing his love of jazz with aspiring musicians.

That dedication was not lost on the editors of DownBeat magazine, who have named Sturm a recipient of its 2010 Jazz Education Achievement Award as part of its annual Student Music Awards.

And for the second straight year, the magazine also recognized the Lawrence student band Fatbook with its blues/pop/rock category as the nation’s best college band, sharing the honor with Compendium from Western Michigan University.

The awards were announced in DownBeat’s June edition, which hit newsstands April 27. Known as “DBs” and presented in 15 categories in four separate divisions (junior high, high school, performing high school and college) the DownBeat awards are considered among the highest music honors in the field of jazz education.

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Fred Sturm

As a 19-year-old student at Lawrence in the early 1970s, Sturm formed the conservatory’s first-ever jazz ensemble, which in turn became a catalyst for the creation of the jazz studies department at Lawrence. Four years after earning his degree from Lawrence, Sturm returned to Lawrence to direct the college’s jazz program, which he has done for 22 years (1977-91, 2002-10).

“The award certainly means a great deal to me,” said Sturm. “DownBeat is the jazz world’s bible and the mere fact that its editorial staff even knows who I am, let alone selected me for the award, is humbling.”

The Jazz Education Achievement Award honors jazz instructors who have made significant contributions toward the development of future jazz artists and positively impacted their school’s jazz programs through their commitment to jazz education. Winners are chosen by a panel of educators/artists.

Sturm shares the 2010 award with Bob Lark of DePaul University and Bob Sinicrope of the Milton Academy in Massachusetts.

DownBeat editor Ed Enright said Sturm was recognized as “the perfect example of a teacher who goes the extra mile” for his students and ensembles.

“Fred’s influence can be seen and heard throughout the jazz education community,” said Enright. “We recognize him for the many DownBeat Student Music Awards his students and ensembles have brought home over the years, the high quality of his compositions and arrangements, the effectiveness and popularity of his own published texts and teaching methods, his high-profile gigs as guest conductor for major jazz orchestras in Europe, and his tireless work as a clinician and ensemble coach at educational festivals throughout the United States.

“DownBeat is very proud of its long association with Fred and we encourage him to continue his tireless efforts,” Enright added. “The very future of jazz itself depends on the work of top educators like him.”

Sturm’s student jazz ensembles at Lawrence and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where he spent 11 years, have won nine Downbeat awards during his career.

“DownBeat has applauded our jazz efforts at Lawrence over the years with numerous awards for LUJE (jazz ensemble), Jazz Singers, combos, composers, arrangers and recording” said Sturm. “Receiving recognition as a teacher in DownBeat’s awards process has special significance for me.”

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Fatbook

Last year, Fatbook became a footnote in Lawrence history as the college’s first non-curricular ensemble to be recognized by DownBeat. This year they add to that footnote by becoming Lawrence’s first-ever back-to-back DB recipient.

“The musicians in Fatbook deserve major kudos,” said Sturm, a mentor to the band. “Consecutive DownBeat awards is not only unprecedented for Lawrence ensembles and individual students, but it’s a rarity for any university in the Student Music Awards.  The Fatbook performers and composers have demonstrated a uniquely creative collective voice as an ensemble. I’m extremely proud of them.”

Formed in 2007, the seven-member band was recognized for its CD “No Time to Lose,” an all-original 10-track disc of songs written by members of the band.

Senior Harjinder Bedi, the “instigator” behind the creation of Fatbook, said there was a moment of “slight disbelief” in hearing the news the band had won for the second year in a row.

“But then I felt a sense of validation,” said Bedi, who plays guitar and sings lead vocals. “The award tells me that what we have going on with this project is worth investing our efforts in.”

Bedi is one of three Appleton students in the band along with founding members senior saxophonist Jake Crowe and trumpet player Ted Toussaint, a 2009 Lawrence graduate. Other original band members include bassist Nick Anderson, drummer Kyle Traska and trombonist Evan Jacobson, all 2009 graduates, along with keyboardist Dario LaPoma, a senior from Eugene, Ore.

With several members no longer on campus, Bedi said the band has been able to experiment with other talented musicians.

“In having some time with a fluid line-up, we’ve had the opportunity to grow and play with a number of different musicians from Lawrence and the Chicago area.”

Last year’s DownBeat award was a springboard to club dates throughout the Fox Cities and Wisconsin, with future concerts in Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Chicago in the works. Fatbook also has applied for the 2010 Jazz Aspen Snowmass Academy Summer Sessions June 23-July 4.

“If we got accepted, it would be a great, if not humbling, experience for us,” said Bedi, a music education and anthropology major at Lawrence. “We’d be doing workshops with some of the greatest jazz musicians in the United States.”

With graduation on the horizon and a student-teaching position in Chicago scheduled this fall, Bedi is hoping to establish a base for the band in the Windy City.

“When we started this group, I had no expectations of how well things would go, but I said as long as we’re doing it, I’m going to push it as hard as I can and learn as much as I can,” said Bedi. “Ideally it would be great to be able to make music full time, but we’re all still kids and I’m trying to keep things in perspective.”

Sturm’s and Fatbook’s awards push Lawrence’s DB total to 17 since the competition was launched in 1978, and the college’s seventh DB since 2005.

This year’s DownBeat competition drew a total of 856 ensemble and individual entries for all categories in all four divisions.

Visiting Artist Series Lecture Address Features Milwaukee Photographer Sonja Thomsen

Photographer Sonja Thomsen discusses her work, its evolution and her influences Wednesday, April 28 in the Lawrence University Visiting Artist Lecture Series address “Sonja Thomsen Exposed…”

The talk, at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium, will be followed by a question-and-answer session and reception. The event is free and open to the public.

Using the flatness of photography to highlight the subtlety of perception, Thomsen’s work is experiential and evocative. Her photographs, focusing on natural elements such as the surfaces of water and oil, have been featured throughout the U.S., including exhibits in New York City, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Madison.

Mary Louise Schumacher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described Thomsen’s images as “acts of devotion.”

“They are evidence of a humane artist developing a new visual vocabulary,” wrote Schumacher. “Charged with quiet metaphor, they betray a set of treasured beliefs about youth and sensuality, about nature and wonder, about aging and loss.”

In 2006, Thomsen was one among more than 40 photographers who founded the Coalition of Photographic Arts, a non-profit Milwaukee group devoted to promoting the growth, appreciation and creation of contemporary photography. Thomsen teaches at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

Her visit is sponsored by Lawrence University department of art and art history and the Photography Club.

Vocalist Derrell Acon Wins Chicago’s Bel Canto Foundation Contest

Lawrence University senior Derrell Acon took top honors in the Student Division of Chicago’s recent Bel Canto Foundation contest.

He received a $2,500 prize for his winning performance for which he sang “Come dal ciel precipita” from Verdi’s “Macbeth” and “Serenata” by Enrico Toselli in the finals.

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Derrell Acon

Acon also shared the Grand Prize from the competition’s young artists’ division with soprano Seihee Lee. Acon and Lee each received $5,000 to support their education and operatic pursuits.

A student in the voice studio of Professor Patrice Micheals, Acon will spend the upcoming summer as a studio artist with Opera North in Lebanon, N.H.

Since 1973, the Bel Canto Foundation has promoted Italian repertoire through contests, seminars and concerts, providing young American singers with financial support, vocal training and performance opportunities.

The Bel Canto Foundation contest combines a passion for Italian opera and fine dining. Held as a series of three opera evenings, contestants perform for guests during a banquet dinner, competing for more than $50,000 in prizes.

Video and photos from Ralph Nader’s visit to Lawrence

Ralph Nader, America’s most renowned consumer rights crusader, closed Lawrence University’s celebration of Earth Week with the address “The Great Conversion: Environmentalism over Corporatism.”   The Appleton Post-Crescent wrote a nice story about the visit and posted a video of Maureen Wallenfang’s interview with Nader.

Student Musicians Sweep Top Two Spots in Regional Organ Competition

Lawrence University sophomore Daniel O’Connor and senior Susanna Valleau earned first-and second-place honors, respectively, at the recent Young Artists Organ Competition conducted at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minn.

The competition was co-sponsored by the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the Schubert Club of St. Paul.

O’Connor, an organ performance and economics major from Dallas, Texas, received $1,500 for his winning performance, that included a 40-minute audition of five works. His repertoire featured the Bach works “Toccata in D minor ‘Dorian’” and “Chorale Prelude on Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele,” Gaston Litaize’s “Prelude et Danse Fuguee,” “Organ Sonata No. 11 in D minor” by Joseph Rheinberger and the hymn “Were you there?”

Valleau, an organ performance major from Andover, Mass., was awarded $900 for her second-place honor. Her program also included Bach’s “Dorian,” as well as his “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,” Felix Mendelssohn’s “Sonata in A Major,” “Joies” by Jehan Alain and the hymn “Cwm Rhondda” by John Hughes.

O’Connor and Valleau are students of university organist Kathrine Handford.

Best of Show: The Warch Campus Center

awardLawrence University received one of the state’s most coveted construction honors last night (April 21, 2010) when The Daily Reporter and Wisconsin Builder magazine named the Warch Campus Center “Best of Show” at the magazine’s annual Top Projects awards ceremony in Pewaukee.  One of 31 construction projects in the state selected to compete for the award, Wisconsin Builder’s highest honor was a closely guarded secret until it was announced.

Joining Lawrence’s Lynn Hagee for the “Best of Show” recognition were representatives from The Boldt Co., the Appleton-based general contractor for the campus center, and Uihlein/Wilson Architects Inc., Milwaukee, one of the architectural firms working on the project.

A panel of independent judges were asked to consider the challenges the project overcame during construction, the benefit the project had on the community and any advancement it provided to the state’s commercial construction industry.  The project’s team members were praised for constructing a stunning building on a challenging site. Built into a bluff over the Fox River, the judges said the Warch Campus Center presented “every challenge regarding earth-retention, limited space and support systems.”

Here’s  video from the Top Projects Awards.

Visiting Artist Lecture Series Features New York Artist Jerilea Zempel

Artist Jerilea Zempel, who has created sculptures using dung, discusses her work in the address “Art and the Environment” Thursday, April 22 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium as part of Lawrence University’s 2009-2010 Visiting Artist Series.

The presentation, part of Green Roots’ celebration of Earth Week, is free and open to the public.

Jerilea-Zempel-The-Tank_webZempel is known for uniquely integrating objects she has found in the U.S. and Europe into her art. In an attempt to alter their identities, Zempel covers ordinary objects such as cars or guns with unusual materials such as knit or crocheted yarn. One of her art pieces features a Russian tank covered with crocheted webbing and crocheted flowers.

Her installation “Laws of Nature” includes more than 35 guns covered with domestic materials such as lipstick or cornmeal. Incorporating the environment into her artwork, Zempel created outdoor replicas of master sculptors by using a more natural material — horse manure. The works were constructed with the hope that they would eventually decompose into the ground.

Along with her site-specific projects, Zempel has exhibited her work in New York galleries and museums. The recipient of numerous grants for her work, Zempel teaches at New York City’s Fordham University.

EPA Official Opens Lawrence University International Lecture Series on Climate Change

Governmental policy-making processes — national and global — will be examined in Lawrence University’s 2010 Povolny Lecture Series in International Studies “The Climate for Climate Change.”

George Wyeth, director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Policy and Program Change Division, opens the three-part series Tuesday, April 20 at 7 p.m. in Thomas Steitz Science Hall 102 with the address “Change Isn’t Easy: An Inside Perspective.”

The presentation, part of Green Roots’ celebration of Earth Week, is free and open to the public.

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George Wyeth

A 1973 Lawrence graduate, Wyeth is spending Term III as Lawrence’s Stephen Edward Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor in the government department, where he is team-teaching the class “Environmental Politics” with professor emeritus Chong-do Hah.

The Scarff Memorial Visiting Professorship was established in 1989 by Edward and Nancy Scarff in memory of their son, Stephen, a member of the Lawrence class of 1975, who died in an automobile accident in 1984. It brings civic leaders and scholars to Lawrence to provide broad perspectives on the central issues of the day.

Swept into office on the promise of change, President Obama has found that promise difficult to fulfill, even with the advantage of Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Wyeth offers first-hand perspective from inside the EPA on how change efforts have progressed under President Obama, where change has or hasn’t occurred and what barriers have stifled change.

He also will discuss the gradual decay of the process for orderly transition from one administration to the next and its consequences for effective government.

At the EPA, Wyeth tests and promotes innovative approaches to environmental protection within the EPA, states and business as the county transitions to a “green economy.” He has played a lead role in overseeing the use of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma strategies to achieve environmental improvement, streamlined EPA’s administrative processes and developed agency strategies to promote the use of sustainable products.

After graduating from Lawrence with a bachelor’s degree in government, Wyeth earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a law degree from Yale Law School.

Prior to joining the EPA in 1989, Wyeth spent three years as a staff member in the Wisconsin State legislature working with the Joint Finance Committee and practiced law from 1982-89 with a Minneapolis law firm.

Joining Wyeth on this year’s series are:

• Yoram Bauman, professor of economics at the University of Washington and a touring “stand-up” economist, “Comedy, Economics and Climate Change,” Monday, April 26, 7 p.m.

• Lee Paddock, associate dean for environmental studies and professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University Law School, “Environmental Change: A Legal Perspective” Monday, May 10, 7 p.m.

“The Climate for Climate Change” lecture series is sponsored by the Mojmir Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Named in honor of long-time Lawrence government professor Mojmir Povolny, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.

Writer Rebecca Solnit Discusses “Hope, Disaster and Utopia” in Lawrence University Convocation

In collaboration with Green Roots’ Earth Week celebration, award-winning author and cultural historian Rebecca Solnit presents “Swimming Upstream in History: Hope, Disaster, Utopia” April 20 at 11:10 a.m. as part of Lawrence University’s 2009-10 convocation series.

Solnit’s address in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 520 E. College Ave., will be followed by a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema. Both events are free and open to the public.

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Rebecca Solnit

An activist for ecological and human rights issues, Solnit is the author of 12 books, among them “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities,” “Wanderlust: A History of Walking” and 2004’s “River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West,” a historical tour de force that has been hailed as one of the best books of the past decade.

In her most recent book, 2009’s “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster,” Solnit offers an investigation of human emotion in the face of catastrophe. She explore the common citizen responses of empathy, spontaneous altruism and mutual aid, which turn out to be more typical than the conventional perception of violence and selfishness, in the face of such disasters as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

A contributing editor at Orion Magazine, the San Francisco-based Solnit has been recognized with two National Book Critics Circle Awards and the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction. She has been awarded grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Solnit serves as contributing editor to Harper’s magazine and writes for the “London Review of Books” and the political website Tomdispatch.com.