Rick Peterson

Author: Rick Peterson

Values, Customs, Beliefs Explored in Academy of Music Girl Choir Concert

This year’s Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir’s annual December concert will have a personalized meaning for the more than 300 young voices in the program.

Two performances of “I Believe” will be staged Saturday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Tickets, at $12 for adults and $8 for students/seniors, are available through the Academy, 100 W. Water St., Appleton or 920-832-6632.

Using choral music as the lens through which to explore individual and community values, beliefs or customs, five choirs will sing a variety of sacred and secular repertoire. Program notes will explain how each selection was used within the rehearsal process to explore the concert’s “I Believe” theme.

“As we move into the darker months of the year, people tend to be more reflective and introspective,” said Karen Bruno, director of the Academy of Music and conductor of the Bel Canto choir. “Preparing for this concert gave the girls an opportunity to explore what they stand for, what they hold dear and how the compositions they sing connect to those ideas.

“We look forward to sharing the emotions, ideas, and values expressed within the repertoire and within our community of singers with our audience,” Bruno added.

The concert features girls in grades 3-12 in five different choirs, including the high school component Bel Canto Girl Choir (grades 9-12), which earned second-place honors in the 2012 national American Prize in Choral Performance competition and the Cantabile Choir (grades 7-9) which performed at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 2011 as part of the National Youth Choir.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 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 1,450 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

Sustainable China: Lawrence University Interdisciplinary Initiative Awarded $400,000 Grant

Few places on the planet offer the complexity of environmental and economic governance as does China. Competing and overlapping bureaucracies with environmental officials at the prefecture, county and township levels often answering to local officials rather than superiors in the central environmental bureaucracy, create opposing perspectives on the balance between economic development and environmental sustainability.

A $400,000 grant from the New York City-based Henry Luce Foundation will support Lawrence University’s long-standing commitment to engaging students with East Asia through the college’s distinctively integrated, multi-disciplinary initiative “Sustainable China: Integrating Culture, Conservation and Commerce.”

The four-year implementation grant builds on two previous Luce Foundation planning grants for $50,000 and $30,000 that helped Lawrence lay the groundwork for the development of courses, study-abroad opportunities and collaborative research projects examining critical issues in sustainability.

Awarded through the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE), the grant also will enable Lawrence to expand partnerships with two Chinese institutions. Guizhou Normal University, located in the provincial capital city of Guiyang, is home to the Institute of China South Karst. Lawrence and the Karst Institute have successfully collaborated previously to improve understanding of how culture, conservation and commerce must be integrated for true sustainability. The award-winning Linden Centre in Yunnan province serves as a retreat for those studying how traditional Chinese culture meshes with modern economic development in an ecologically responsible way.

The Linden Center was created by Brian and Jeanee Linden, who also operate the Linden Gallery in Ellison Bay, which specializes in Asian art. The gallery is not far from Lawrence’s Door County Bjorklunden estate.

A Three-Prong Approach

Associate Professor of Chinese Jane Parish Yang

Lawrence’s “Sustainable China” initiative is a multi-disciplinary collaboration among the college’s East Asian Studies and Environmental Studies programs, including faculty in biology, Chinese and Japanese language and culture, economics, government and history. As China and its environmental concerns loom larger on the world stage, the program provides opportunities for student engagement with issues of economic growth, environmental sustainability and a shifting cultural landscape.

The program’s mission is threefold:

• broaden and deepen Lawrence student engagement with China through the curriculum

• diversify and expand opportunities for students to gain first-hand experience with China

• promote mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations in China.

“This grant offers our students first-hand experiences in China with study tours to both rural and urban sites as well as research opportunities on environmental and cultural issues, such as ethnic minorities and economic development, ” said Jane Parish Yang, associate professor of Chinese at Lawrence, who will co-direct the “Sustainable China” program for the first year. “Our students also will be able to study at Guizhou Normal University and receive internships, including post-graduate positions. We hope these opportunities encourage students to pursue Chinese language study in conjunction with coursework related to China in environmental science and the social sciences.”

Three “Cs” of Sustainability

The program approaches China’s competing and conflicting perspectives on development and the environment by focusing on three ” Cs” of sustainability:
• Culture — language, history and the roles of ethnic minorities.

• Conservation — the importance of establishing governance systems and social institutions that encourage both public and private actors to be good stewards of natural resources.

• Commerce — an alliterative substitute for economic vitality, reflecting the perspective that environmental sustainability should be pursued in ways that also drive broader prosperity and economic sustainability.

“In today’s world it is vitally important students grapple with the complexity of sustainability, transcending the purely scientific and environmental issues to encompass economic, political and cultural factors as well and China offers an ideal context for such study,” said Merton Finkler, professor of economics and John R. Kimberly Distinguished Professor in the American Economic System who will co-direct the program its first year. “The interdisciplinary nature of our program offers a distinctive lens through which our students will study China, one based on the assertion that sustainability must address various perspectives for how scarce resources are allocated and managed.”

Last November, a Luce Foundation grant supported a 19-day study tour to China for 13 students and four faculty members for an investigation of water resource management issues.

The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., to honor his parents who were missionary educators in China. The Foundation builds upon the vision and values of four generations of the Luce family: broadening knowledge and encouraging the highest standards of service and leadership. It seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities.

Five Lawrence University Students Win State Titles at Annual NATS Competition

Tory Wood won her third consecutive state title and Ian Koziara won his second straight as Lawrence University claimed five first-place finishers at the 2012 Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition held Nov. 2-3 at UW-Whitewater.

Wood, of Escanaba, Mich., shared first-place honors with classmate Anna Valcour, Burr Ridge, Ill., in the senior women’s division. Both are students of Joanne Bozeman. Koziara, Wheaton, Ill., won the junior men’s division. He studies in the voice studio of Steven Spears.

Also earning first-place awards in their respective divisions were Garrett Medlock, Bloomington, Ill., freshman men and Luke Randall, Edina, Minn., senior men. Medlock and Randall are students of Spears and Kenneth Bozeman, respectively.

Forty-seven Lawrence students participated in the competition with 16 of them advancing to the finals. In addition to the five winners, five Lawrence students earned second-place honors and five were awarded third place. The first-place finishers each received $150 for their winning efforts, while second- and third-place finishers received $125 and $100, respectively.

The 2012 auditions drew nearly 400 singers from around the state. The competition features 20 separate divisions grouped by gender and level. Depending upon the category, NATS competitors are required to sing two, three or four classical pieces from different time periods with at least one selection sung in a foreign language.

Other Lawrence finalists with their place finish, category and (teacher) include:

Second–Place Honors
• Brian Acker, upper college music theatre (Karen Leigh-Post)
• Alex York, junior men (Steven Spears)
• Graycen Gardner, junior women (Joanne Bozeman)
• Martin Kulstad, sophomore men (Steven Spears)
• Elizabeth Vaughan, sophomore women (Joanne Bozeman)

Third–Place Honors
• John Canfield, junior men (John Gates)
• Zoie Reams, junior women (John Gates)
• Joshua Eidem, sophomore men (Steven Spears)
• Kirsten O’Donnell, sophomore women (Teresa Seidl)
• Paul Gutmann, freshman men (Steven Spears)

Election Night: College Democrats, Republicans Host Returns Viewing Party

In a display of true bipartisanship, members of the Lawrence University College Democrats and College Republicans will co-host a “Rock the Results” event Tuesday, Nov. 6 on the second floor of the Warch Campus Center beginning at 8 p.m.

The entire campus community is invited to this “working together across the aisle” event to watch the election returns as they’re announced. In addition to a large map to track vote tallies, red/blue states and electoral college tote boards, the evening will feature live music, food and prizes.

“Rock the Results is designed for the entire Lawrence community and is an example of great collaboration between the Lawrence University Community Council, the LU College Democrats and the LU College Republicans,” said Curt Lauderdale, assistant dean of students for campus life. “Everyone involved with organizing this event hopes that the Rock the Results party can be an opportunity to celebrate not only the act of voting, but also demonstrate what it means to be part of a respectful and engaged community.

“Everyone who is eligible to vote is encouraged to participate in this critical election by casting their ballot,” Lauderdale added. “And everyone is invited to come and rock the results.”

Jazz Celebration Weekend Welcomes Kurt Elling Quartet, Maria Schneider Orchestra

It’s encore time for two multi-award winning artists making return appearances at Lawrence University for the college’s 32nd annual Jazz Celebration Weekend.

The Grammy Award-winning Kurt Elling Quartet opens the two-concert weekend Friday, Nov. 2 with the world-renowned Maria Schneider Orchestra closing the weekend Saturday, Nov. 3. Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

Tickets, at $22-20 for adults, $19-17 for seniors and $17-15 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, 920-832-6749.

13-Time Male Vocalist of the Year Winner

No less an authority than the New York Times has hailed Elling as “the standout male vocalist of our time.” He will combine his vocal virtuosity with the talents of the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble. In addition to a 2009 Grammy Award for his “Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane And Hartman” CD, Elling has won the DownBeat Critics Poll “Male Vocalist of the Year” Award an unprecedented 13 years in a row (2000-2012). He holds the distinction of having each of his first nine albums earn a Grammy Award nomination.

This will be Elling’s second Jazz Celebration Weekend appearance, having first performed here in 2003.

“I’m thrilled that one of my vocal jazz heroes will be making another visit to Lawrence,” said Phillip Swan, associate professor of music and co-director of choral studies at Lawrence. “Kurt’s improvisational skill and musical creativity continues to draw me to his recordings and live performances. I’m really looking forward to hearing him collaborate with the LU Jazz Ensemble. The combination of those two forces will create a memorable musical experience.”

Elling’s latest release, 2012’s “1619 Broadway – The Brill Building Project,” pays tribute to the New York workplace where dozens of composers and lyricists generated some of America’s most popular music over the course of four decades.

His prolific career includes collaborations with diverse artists ranging from Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy, seven-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Al Jarreau and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. He has written multi-disciplinary works for The Steppenwolf Theatre and the City of Chicago and was the featured performer at the Obama administration’s first state dinner.

Composer and conductor Maria Schneider’s ascent to international jazz acclaim began shortly after forming her 17-member orchestra in 1993. A weekly performer at Visiones in Greenwich Village early on, the orchestra has since become a staple at concert venues around the world, earning 2005’s “Large Jazz Ensemble of the Year” award from the Jazz Journalists Association.

The 21st Century’s Premier Composer for Large Jazz Ensemble

Schneider, who closed out Lawrence’s 2006-07 Jazz Series with a June concert, scored an awards trifecta in 2005 for “Concert in the Garden,” earning composer of the year, arranger of the year and best jazz recording honors from the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalist Association.

An unabashed fan, Fred Sturm, Lawrence’s own award-winning composer and conductor who collaborated with Schneider in the creation of “Maria Schneider: Evanescence,” a 1995 Universal Edition text featuring her original scores, calls Schneider, “the premier composer of music for the large jazz ensemble in the 21st century, and her Jazz Orchestra is among the finest big bands in the world today.”

“Maria’s original works contain the most artistic renderings of melody, harmony, orchestration, and structure created by composers in all jazz-related genres over the past decade,” said Sturm, director of jazz studies and improvisation music at Lawrence and founder of Jazz Celebration Weekend. “Her scores and recordings have dramatically impacted the evolution of the jazz composition art form worldwide.”

Schneider’s extensive list of compositions includes commissions by the Danish Radio Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, Stuttgart Jazz Orchestra, Orchestre National de Jazz, Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.

In addition to the two headline concerts, Lawrence will host more than 30 university, high school and middle school ensembles on Saturday that will participate in daytime performances, educational clinics and master classes with some of the finest jazz educators from across the country. All Saturday daytime events are free and open to the public.

Lawrence University Students Earn Musical Accolades

Lawrence University student saxophonist Joe Connor won first-place honors Oct. 20 in the college division at the Green Bay Civic Orchestra’s 2012 Miroslav Pansky Memorial Concerto Competition. A sophomore from Oregon, Wis., and the only saxophonist in the competition, Connor received a $500 cash award.

He will reprise his winning performance of Darius Mihoud’s “Scaramouche” in a Feb. 16, 2013 concert with the Green Bay Civic Orchestra. The Pansky competition is open to vocalists and orchestral instrumentalists through the age of 21 from Northeast Wisconsin.

Earlier this year, Connor performed as guest artist with the Lakeshore Wind Ensemble after earning second-place honors in the 24th annual Lakeshore Wind Ensemble Young Artist Competition held last November in Manitowoc. He is a student of Professor of Music Steven Jordheim.

Tubist Trevor Litsey, a junior from Birmingham, Ala., earned second-place honors in the Pansky competition for his performance of Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “Concerto in F minor for Tuba.” He is a student of Instructor of Music Marty Erickson.

The Pansky competition is open to vocalists and orchestral instrumentalists through the age of 21 from Northeast Wisconsin.

Daniel O’Connor, a senior from Dallas, Texas, has been awarded $3,000 for winning the 2012 Ruth and Paul Manz Organ Scholarship. The national competition is conducted via submitted recorded audition.

Conducted annually since 1992, the Manz scholarship was established by Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minn., to honor 37 years of service of Paul and Ruth Manz to the congregation.

The Manz scholarship is the latest among numerous awards O’Connor has earned for his musicianship, including:

• first-place honors in the 2009 American Guild of Organists’ regional competition for young organists in Albuquerque, N.M.

• first-place honors in the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists’ 2010 young artists organ regional competition in Minneapolis, Minn.

• first-place honors in the 2011 Wisconsin National Federation of Music Clubs’ Biennial Student/Collegiate Competition.

He is a student of university organist Kathrine Handford.

“This is Lawrence” Videos Recognized with Two CASE Awards

A pair of Lawrence University videos have been recognized with a 2012 “Pride of CASE V Award.”

Web content and new media coordinator Rachel Crowl earned a Silver Award in the Teresa Du Bois Exline Award for Best Practices in Communications and Marketing category for her “This is Lawrence” video series installment “A Place Transformed,” which showcased the successes of Lawrence’s $160 million “More Light!” campaign that concluded in October 2011.

Crowl and video editor Anna Ryndova, also earned Bronze Award honors in the Best Video Features category for “Glamour Gals,” which documented the efforts of Lawrence student volunteers who provide manicures and listening ears to local senior citizens.

This is the second year in a row Crowl was cited by CASE for her video work. She received a Gold Award in 2011 in the Best Video Features category for her video on Lawrence’s “compassionate manhole covers” art department project.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) honors institutions and individuals for outstanding achievement in the concept and execution of advancement programs and communications.

Crowl and other winners of the Pride of CASE V Awards will be recognized Dec. 10 at the 38th annual CASE V conference in Chicago. District V includes institutions in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio.

Lawrence University Orchestral Studies Director Named Conductor-in-Residence of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival

Lawrence University’s new director of orchestral studies Octavio Mas-Arocas has been appointed conductor-in-residence of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

Mas-Arocas, who joined the Lawrence Conservatory of Music faculty this fall as conductor of the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra and opera productions, will direct the education, programming and performance of the Cumberland Orchestra — a 90-member youth ensemble — during next summer’s month-long festival (June 22- July 21).

“It is wonderful to see Octavio selected for this prestigious position,” said Brian Pertl, dean of the conservatory. “Sewanee clearly saw in Octavio all the outstanding qualities — musicianship, leadership and commitment to education — that we at Lawrence saw when we made him our director of orchestral studies. High visibility appointments such as this are great for both Octavio and Lawrence.”

Prior to joining the Lawrence faculty, Mas-Arocas spent four years as music director and conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra in Michigan.

Established in 1957, the internationally acclaimed Sewanee Summer Music Festival combines a month-long program for advanced music students with a professional concert series.

Composer Claude Debussy’s 150th Birthday Celebrated with Day-long “Carnival”

From colonialism to issues of racism, the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music piano department commemorates the 150thbirthday of French composer Claude Debussy Sunday, Oct. 28 with a day-long, multimedia examination of the social and cultural history of Paris that influenced Debussy’s work.

Music, art, theatrical readings, a dance competition, a gamelan demonstration and even a circus act will be featured in the “Debussy Carnival.” The celebration begins at 11 a.m. and continues throughout the day in Harper Hall of the Music-Drama Center. All events are free and open to the public.

In conjunction with various presentations (“Humor in Debussy,” “Race and the Cakewalk”) and demonstrations of early Parisian courtly dances, the Lawrence student piano majors will perform nearly all of Debussy’s works for piano, many of which are short (2-3 minutes) pieces.

“This celebration promises to be fascinating on every front,” said Professor of Music and keyboard department chair Catherine Kautsky, who will perform a 1 p.m. faculty recital as part of the day’s activities with conservatory colleagues Joanne Bozeman (soprano), Wen-Lei Gu (violin) and Steven Spears (tenor). “No composer absorbed more from his surroundings than did Claude Debussy. We will be transported to his Paris of 1880-1918, complete with its circus acts, gamelan performances, as well as the political ambiguities arising from new colonies, visiting minstrel shows and a constant simmering resentment against the Germans.

“Debussy’s music is by turns funny and infinitely evocative— my hope is that the slides, readings and dances with which we surround it will well communicate all that imagination!”

An exhibition of art works that inspired Debussy’s compositions will be on display in the Harper Hall lobby from 11-7 p.m. Following the celebration, the works will be exhibited Oct. 29 – Nov. 2, Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. in the Quirk Print Gallery in the Wriston Art Center.

A cakewalk dance competition will be held at 3 p.m. with a fresh-baked cake awarded as a first-place prize to the winning couple. The competition is open to all interested campus and community participants. Interested dancers are invited to a cakewalk instruction/practice session from 10-11 a.m.

For a complete schedule of events, visit http://go.lawrence.edu/debussy.

Tony Award-Winning Musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” Performed at Lawrence University

Four performances of Lawrence University’s production of the Tony Award-winning musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” will be staged Oct. 25-27 in Stansbury Theatre of the Music-Drama Center.

Curtain time is 8 p.m. each night with an additional 3 p.m. matinee performance Saturday, Oct. 27. Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

A “musical within a comedy,” “The Drowsy Chaperone” parodies 1920s musicals with a show-within-a-show plot device. The show begins in the apartment of a character known only to the audience as Man in Chair, an agoraphobic Broadway fanatic who has acquired a recording of a fictional 1928 musical titled “The Drowsy Chaperone.” As he listens to the record, the musical’s characters appear in his apartment to tell the farcical story of fiancés Janet Van de Graaf, a Broadway chorus girl giving up show business for married life, and Robert Martin, an oil tycoon.

“This piece echoes the 1920s, the decade that developed our shared definition of Broadway, and through those references lets us explore our own ideas about entertainment and escape,” said Kathy Privatt, associate professor of theatre arts and the production’s director.

Associate Professor of Music Phillip Swan serves as the music director for the production, which is based on a book by Bob Martin and Don McKeller.

Among the 1920s-era musical clichés “The Drowsy Chaperone” spoofs are stock characters — a ditzy chorus girl, comic gangsters and a stiff English butler, among others — impromptu tap-dancing numbers and mistaken identities.

Freshman David Pecsi plays the Man in Chair, with juniors Madeline Bunke and Alex York portraying Janet Van de Graaf and Robert Martin. Junior Gabriella Guilfoil plays the titular character, the drowsy chaperone, an alcoholic stage diva tasked with keeping Janet away from Robert until the wedding.

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