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“Trip Around the World” Goal of Lawrence International’s 34th Annual Cabaret

With a theme of “Around the World in 90 Minutes,” more than 80 Lawrence University students promise a whirlwind global tour in two performances of Lawrence International’s 34th annual Cabaret Saturday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday April 11 at 3 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre of the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave. A buffet dinner featuring international dishes will be served in the Warch Campus Center following the Sunday performance.

Tickets, at $8 for the show and $15 for the show and dinner, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749. Children four and under are free.

“Cabaret is a unique and entertaining way to experience the music, dance, food and fashion of cultures from around the world,” said Tim Schmidt, Lawrence International advisor. “The students put so much of themselves into this every year and are so proud to share part of their culture. I encourage the Lawrence and Fox Valley community to join us and see first-hand all that Cabaret has to offer.”

Students will showcase traditional fashion from their native countries as well as perform a wide range of entertainment, including native dances from China, Japan, Latin America, the Subcontinent, Africa and Vietnam, music from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Korea and Brazil and a group didjeridu performance .

Food Presentation Examines Local Sourcing, Sustainability Issues

Dayna Burtness, a Sustainability Fellow with Bon Appétit, the management company that oversees Lawrence University’s dining services, presents “The Story Behind the Food” Tuesday, April 6 at 7 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Burtness is one of three recent college graduates serving as fellows for Bon Appétit who are studying best labor and sustainability practices on the farms that supply the company’s 400 cafés in 30 states across the country. The presentation will examine several Bon Appétit initiatives, including Farm to Fork, a local sourcing program and Low Carbon Diet.

Burtness is a graduate of St. Olaf College, where she was co-founder of the college’s student-run farm and served as an intern with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and later became a program associate for the Institute’s Local Foods Program.

The mission of the Bon Appétit Fellows program is to gather information that will lead to better partnerships with farms of all sizes that supply the company’s kitchens. Bon Appétit wants to help farmers build and improve on existing relationships with all their buyers to regionalize and strengthen the country’s food supply chain and improve food security and sustainability for the future.

Bon Appétit began buying direct from farmers through its Farm to Fork local sourcing program 10 years ago as a way to address the loss of flavor in food as a result of industrial agricultural practices and long shipping distances.

Following a spring 2009 visit to Florida’s tomato fields and talks with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Bon Appétit expanded the program, addressing labor issues throughout its entire supply chain. The fellows’ work is the company’s next step toward justice and fairness for farm workers.

Stage Reading Features New Play by Lawrence University Professor Tim Troy

A staged reading of a new play written by Lawrence University Professor of Theatre Arts and J. Thomas and Julie Esch Hurvis Professor of Theatre and Drama Timothy X. Troy will be held Tuesday, April 6 at 7 p.m. in Harper Hall. The reading is free and open to the public.

“Radio and Juliet” is a cautionary tale that incorporates Shakespearean themes with shades of George Orwell and 1950’s science fiction amid the workings of an elusive crime spree only Juliet can solve.

It centers around an environmental crisis that forces the government to create two classes of citizens: the resettled Arids, who occupy the recently exposed lake bed of the Great Lakes and the Old Shores, who protect what remains of the fresh water supply. Juliet is on the eve of reaching adulthood when she falls in love with an Arid pirate broadcaster who challenges the assumptions upon which her culture depends.

The three-character reading features Lawrence junior Erika Thiede as Juliet and professional actors from the American Players Theatre and the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

The reading, a preliminary step before being staged as a full production, will feature actors reading from music stands with minimal props. Following the reading, the audience will be invited to participate in a group discussion to offer feedback on the plot or characters.

Troy began working on the project in 2006 and completed it earlier this year while on sabbatical. Last December he participated in a Lawrence-sponsored study tour of China that examined environmental and water policy issues with 12 students and colleagues from the economics and geology departments. Many of the themes explored in “Radio and Juliet” grew out of his China trip experiences.

Grammy-Winning Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey Performs April 9 in Lawrence Artist Series Concert

Four-time Grammy award-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey brings his powerful, lyric voice to the stage of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel Friday, April 9 at 8 p.m.  Accompanied by pianist Warren Jones, Griffey performs in concert as part of Lawrence’s 2009-10 Artist Series.

Tickets, at $22-20 for adults, $19-17 for seniors and $17-15 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, 920-832-6749.

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Anthony Dean Griffey

Best known for his “achingly vulnerable and alarming interpretation” of the title character in Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes,” Griffey has performed with leading symphonies and at prestigious opera houses around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera and the Opera Nationale de Paris.  Among his other starring roles, Griffey has performed as Mitch in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Lennie Small in “Of Mice and Men.”

Steven Spears, assistant professor of music at Lawrence, says Griffey boasts three outstanding qualities that make him a bona fide star.

“First and foremost he has a sweet tone, which is not usual for a tenor voice of its size,” said Spears, who sang with Griffey at the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 1994.  “He also possesses a keen intellect and musicianship, which is necessary for more difficult repertoire, both vocally and musically.  And thirdly, he brings sensitive insight into the text and his character comes from a beautiful soul.”

A North Carolina native, Griffey added a pair of Grammy Awards to his collection in 2010 as the principal soloist on a live recording of the San Francisco Symphony’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and the Adagio from Symphony no. 10.  The recording earned Grammys for best classical album and best choral performance.

Griffey appeared on DVD in the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Opera production of “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” which also aired on PBS and has been featured as Artist of the Week on A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts.”

Jones, who accompanies many of today’s prominent singers, performing nearly all his music from memory, was recently named “Collaborative Pianist of the Year” for 2010 by Musical America.

A member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, Jones leads a graduate degree program in collaborative piano and conducts frequent master classes around the country.  He also performs as principal pianist for the West Coast chamber music group Camerata Pacifica.

$23,000 Grant Boosts Lawrence University Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

A $23,000 grant will support Lawrence University’s growing innovation and entrepreneurship program, a university-wide initiative launched in 2008 that engages students, faculty and alumni.

The two-year grant from the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance will target the program’s flagship course “In Pursuit of Innovation.”  Cross-taught through Lawrence’s economics and physics departments, the course incorporates the use of guest experts from various fields, intertwines innovation with entrepreneurship and employs a project-driven, hands-on component designed to develop a learning community eager to pursue innovative and entrepreneurial ventures.

Since its launch, 41 students have taken the “Innovation” course.  Operating in three-person teams and in conjunction with the FabLab, a prototyping facility at Fox Valley Technical College, students have worked on projects ranging from the development of a multi-directional split-field camera and an ergonomic student desk to a hand sanitizing system for hospitals and schools and a personal identification system that allows health records to be retrieved automatically in the event of an accident.

“From its inception, our course has focused on diverse teams creating innovative products or processes, leading to functioning prototypes,” said Adam Galambos, assistant professor of economics and one of the program’s originators, along with John Brandenberger, professor emeritus of physics and Marty Finkler, professor of economics.  “This grant will enable us to take the Innovation course to a whole new level with student ‘E-teams,’ which will translate ideas into new products or services that benefit society.

“With its long-standing commitment to the liberal arts and sciences, Lawrence is the ideal setting for a program that inspires students and faculty to create innovative new ventures that combine ideas from diverse backgrounds, fields and perspectives,” Galambos added.

The “Innovation” course is designed to prepare Lawrence students to become major contributors to a globally competitive American economy through an immersion in innovation and entrepreneurship.  Students in the course develop their own innovative ideas to lay the groundwork for entrepreneurial ventures, examine how innovation and entrepreneurship invigorate businesses and industries and their roles in creating new ones, study the innovation and entrepreneurship literature and interact with active, successful innovators and entrepreneurs.

“Our students learn to connect theory with the real-world experiences described by our visiting experts and to apply this learning to their own projects,” said Brandenberger.

The impetus for Lawrence’s “In Pursuit of Innovation” course was a highly-influential national publication entitled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” and a bipartisan piece of legislation leading to the 2007 America Competes Act, both of which warned of slippage in American competitiveness worldwide. The studies pointed toward increased emphasis on innovative and entrepreneurial effectiveness, especially in scientific, technological and engineering pursuits, as one solution to reverse the trend.

In addition to “In Pursuit of Innovation,” courses such as “Entrepreneurship and Financial Markets ” and “Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Society” also are part of the effort to build an innovation and entrepreneurship program at Lawrence.

Based in Massachusetts, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance supports technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education to create experiential learning opportunities for students and socially beneficial businesses.

Pianists, Saxophonist Share Top Honors in State Music Competition

Lawrence University student musicians accounted for three of the five winners at the 15th annual Neale-Silva Young Artists competition held March 27 in Madison.

Pianists Marshall Cuffe and David Keep and saxophonist Sumner Truax shared top honors with trumpet player Ansel Norris, a senior at Madison East High School and clarinetist Matthew Griffith, a senior at Sheboygan North High School, in the state competition sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio.   Each received $400 for their winning performances.

This was the fifth straight year and 10th time in the past 12 years that Lawrence students have won or shared top honors in the Neale-Silva event.

The competition is open to instrumentalists and vocal performers 17-26 years of age who are either from Wisconsin or attend a Wisconsin college.  Lawrence musicians accounted for seven of the competition’s 13 finalists, who were selected from 15 entrants. In addition to the three winners, also advancing to the finals were pianists Laura Hauer, Dario LaPoma and Karly Stern, and oboist Cayden Milton.

Cuff, Keep and Truax will reprise their winning performances Sunday, April 11 at 12:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater in Madison.  The concert will be broadcast live statewide on the Classical Music Network of WPR and can be heard locally at 89.3 FM.

For the April 11 concert, Cuffe, a sophomore from Salem, Ore., will perform Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy” and “Fantasy on Themes from Wizard of Oz” by William Hirtz while Keep, a junior from Traverse City, Mich., will play three movements from Alberto Ginastera’s“Sonata No. 1.” Both are students in the studio of Anthony Padilla.

Truax, a junior from Chicago, Ill., will perform “Buku”by Jacob Ter Veldhuis and “Tableaux De Provence I, II & III”by Paule Maurice.  He studies with Steven Jordheim and Sara Kind, a 2004 and 2006 Neale-Silva Young Artist winner herself.

The Neale-Silva Young Artists’ Competition was established to recognize young Wisconsin performers of classical music who demonstrate an exceptionally high level of artistry.  It is supported by a grant from the estate of the late University of Wisconsin Madison professor Eduardo Neale-Silva, a classical music enthusiast who was born in Talca, Chile and came to the United States in 1925.

Chicago Painter Delivers Opening Address in New Wriston Art Center Exhibition

Chicago painter Karen Lebergott’s “The Last Ten Years” will be one of two shows in the latest exhibition opening Monday, March 29 at Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center galleries.  Lebergott’s work will featured in the Hoffmaster and Kohler galleries. “Art Out of Conflict,” featuring works from the Wriston’s permanent collection, will be shown in the Leech gallery.

Lebergott delivers the opening lecture of the  exhibition Friday, April 2 at 6 p.m.  A reception with the artist follows her address.  The exhibition runs through May 9.

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Cast-Off, oil on canvas (2005)

Lebergott’s work explores the parallels between the processes of mapping and mark-making, the practice of applying pencil strokes and paint to a surface.  She uses obscured layers of paint, thick-stenciled patterns and pentimenti – alterations in a painting showing how the artist changed his or her mind in process about the composition – to layer form and color as a record of the decision-making of each piece of art.  Tactile and rich in color, her works demand an archeology-like approach on the part of her viewers.

An associate professor of art at Lake Forest College, Lebergott specializes in 20th– and 21st-century art as well as art in Chicago.  Her work has been exhibited at national and international galleries in Chicago, New York City and Berlin, Germany.

“Art Out of Conflict,” showcases work that express and portray a variety of the conditions leading to World War II.  The social and political unrest that accompanied Hitler’s rise to power played a significant role in influencing the development of a new bold, expressive style that emerged.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday from noon – 4 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays.  For more information, call 920-832-6621 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston/.

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Six-Time Oscar Winner Headlines Lawrence University Term III Independent Film Series

The gripping Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker,” winner of six 2010 Academy Awards, including best picture, headlines Lawrence University’s 10-week-long independent film series beginning March 31.

All films are shown on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema, 711 E. Boldt Way, Appleton.  Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 920-832-6837.

The series schedule is as follows:

• March 31 — “500 Days of Summer” (2009): Nonlinear story of boy meets girl…boy falls in love…girl doesn’t.  Winner of two 2010 Golden Globe awards, including best picture.

• April 7 — “Amreeka” (2009):  Chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with her teenage son, Fadi, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small-town Illinois.

• April 14 — “A Serious Man” (2009): A black comedy by the Coen brothers set in 1967 and centered on a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house.

• April 21 — “Earth Days” (2009):  Traces the origins of the modern environmental movement through the eyes of nine Americans who propelled the movement from its beginnings in the 1950s to its moment of triumph in 1970 with the original Earth Day, and to its status as a major political force in America.

• April 28 — “The Hurt Locker” (2009) : An intense portrayal of elite U.S. soldiers in Iraq who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the world:  disarming bombs in the heat of combat. Winner of six Oscars, including best picture and best director.

• May 5 — “Paranormal Activity” (2009): After a young couple moves into a suburban house, they become increasingly disturbed by a demonic presence that is active in the middle of the night – especially when they sleep – where the horrific presence is captured on their video camera.

• May 12 — “Blue Gold” (Documentary, 2008): Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena.

• May 19 — “An Education” (2009): A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.  Nominated for three Academy Awards in 2010, including best picture.

• May 26 — “Man on Wire” (Documentary, 2008): A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City’s World Trade Center’s twin towers in 1974, what some consider, “the artistic crime of the century.” Winner of 2009 Academy Award for best documentary.

• June 2 — “The Visitor”(2008): A college professor travels to New York for a conference where he discovers a Syrian musician and his Senegalese girlfriend living in his apartment.  The illegal immigrants have nowhere to go so he reluctantly allows them to stay with him.  Earned Oscar nomination for lead actor Richard Jenkins and Independent Spirit Award for best director.

Warch Campus Center Earns Facility Design Award of Excellence

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Warch Campus Center

The accolades for Lawrence University’s Warch Campus Center continue to roll in.

The most recent honor comes courtesy of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI ), which presented KSS Architects one of its 2010 Facility Design Awards of Excellence March 15 in New York City for its work on the Warch Campus Center.

The ACUI award recognizes excellence in design of college unions as well as other student-centered campus buildings.  Winners are selected on the basis of the facilities’ appearance as well as the process used to arrive at the building’s design and how the new or renovated facility affected the campus.

Nearly 20 years in the making, the $35 million, 107,000-square-foot Warch Campus Center opened last September.  It was awarded LEED-certified Gold status in November by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Greg Griffin, director of the Warch Campus Center, said the building “has greatly enhanced the overall experience” on campus.  With beautiful views of the adjacent Fox River, the building features several outdoor decks and patios, dining options on three of its four levels, student programming space, 24-hour student lounges and a 134-seat cinema with surround sound and state-of-the-art projection.

KSS Architects partner Pamela Lucas Rew said enhancing the campus experience was the goal of the project.

“We set out to create a project that would fulfill Lawrence’s mission and long-term and day-to-day expectations,” said Rew.  “From this, we developed architectural goals to knit together the campus, the site and the adjacent river into a building that communicates these ideas as well as serves the institution’s functional needs.  The ACUI Facility Design Award is about more than design.  It shows us that our client loves their building.”

The Warch Campus Center has been recognized previously with Appleton Downtown, Inc.’s Dreamers and Doers Award, a Top Project designation by Wisconsin Builder magazine and a Concrete Design Award from the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association.  It was named winner in the 2009 “Best New Construction” category in FOX CITIES Magazine’s annual “Great Spaces Great Places” contest.

Other buildings cited by the ACUI for design excellence were the Student Success Center, Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville; Interactive Learning Center, Boise State University; The Commons, Bates College; Smith Campus Center, Pomona College; and the Joe Crowley Student Union, University of Nevada–Reno.

Lawrence University Pianist Qualifies for National Competition

Leonard Hayes, a junior from Dallas, Texas, qualified for the national finals of the 2010 National Association of Negro Musicians Scholarship Competition in Piano after winning the NANM regional competition March 20 at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock, Ark.

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Leonard Hayes

For winning the regional event, Hayes received an all-expense paid trip to the national competition July 25-28 in Colorado Springs, Colo. He will be of five regional winners competing in the national finals. Hayes advanced to the NANM regional as the winner of the local Dallas competition.

For both the local and regional auditions, Hayes performed movements from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 7, George Walker’s Piano Sonata No. 2 and Cesar Franck Poco’s Allegro and Fugue. He is a student in the piano studio of Catherine Kautsky.

Founded in 1919 and based in Chicago, the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. is the country’s oldest organization dedicated to the preservation, encouragement and advocacy of all genres of the music of African Americans. During its 90-year history, NANM has provided encouragement and support to thousands of African American musicians, many of whom have become widely respected figures in music and have contributed significantly to American culture and music history.