Press Releases

APPLETON, WIS. — The American Brass Quintet, one of the country’s oldest and most distinguished brass chamber ensembles, brings its breathtaking sound to the stage of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton, Saturday, April 19 at 8 p.m. in the final concert of the 2007-08 Lawrence University Artist Series.

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.

In addition to their concert, members of the quintet will conduct a pair of master classes on Saturday from 12:30 -1:40 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. – 12 noon. Both will be held in the Chapel and are free and open to the public.

Hailed as the “Rolls Royce of brass quintets” by the Baltimore Sun, the American Brass Quintet has commissioned a prolific number of chamber brass works, premiered more than 100 pieces and recorded more than 50 albums since its founding in 1960. Their latest CD, “Jewels,” is a compilation of the ensemble’s favorite repertoire from earlier decades to more recent compositions.

“For nearly five decades, the American Brass Quintet has been famous for their unparalleled virtuosity and incredible musicianship,” said Jeff Stannard, associate dean of the Lawrence conservatory of music and trumpet player with the Lawrence Brass. “They have commissioned, performed and recorded more music than any brass quintet in the world. This concert is sure to showcase their immense talents and range.”

Internationally recognized as one of the premiere chamber music ensembles of this generation, the American Brass Quintet has performed in all 50 states as well as throughout the world, filling concert halls in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. The ensemble maintains a residency at both The Julliard School and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

APPLETON, WIS. — Award winning American poet Lyn Hejinian and Russian poet Ilya Kutik will give a reading of their respective works Tuesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

Prior to their reading, Hejinian and Kutik will conduct a question-and-answer session Monday, April 14 at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall 216. Both events are free and open to the public.

Hejinian is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including her autobiographical collection “My Life,” “The Fatalist,” “A Border Comedy” and “The Cold of Poetry” as well as numerous books of essays and two volumes of translations of works by Russian poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko.

A professor of English at the University of California-Berkeley, Hejinian is a fellow of the Academy of American Poets and was elected a chancellor of the academy in 2006. Her numerous honors and awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship.

Kutik, one of the founders of the Russian poetic movement known as “meta-realism,” teaches Russian literature at Northwestern University. He has published five volumes of poetry and translations, including “The Death of Tragedy,” “Odysseus’ Bow” and the “Pentathlon of the Senses.” He also has written three books of essays and criticism. His most recent book, “Epic,” is scheduled for publication this spring in Moscow.

Hejinian’s and Kutik’s appearance are supported by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund and the Stevens Lectureship Fund.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University freshman Greg Peterson knows his history. And his literature, science and fine arts.

Peterson has put all that knowledge to good use as the driving force behind a revival of Lawrence’s once-dominant college quizbowl team.

Looking to return Lawrence to national prominence in the world of questions-and-answers competition, Peterson is off to a great start. After organizing a team last fall, he already has Lawrence heading to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ (NAQT) Intercollegiate Championship, the nation’s largest, most prestigious quizbowl event for college students.

Lawrence will be among 32 teams from around the country competing April 11-12 at the national tournament hosted by Washington University in St. Louis. Lawrence’s four-person team will match wits against teams from such Ivy League powerhouses as Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth universities, as well as brainiacs from Swarthmore and MIT.

As a fledgling program, Peterson and his teammates will participate in NAQT’s Division II tournament, which is reserved for undergraduate students on teams in either their first or second year of existence and who have not previously qualified for the national tournament.

“We won’t be considered ‘national champions’ if we win because we’re competing in Division II,” said Peterson of Park Ridge, Ill. “But we could say we’re the best ‘new’ quizbowl team in the country.”

The current NAQT competition is a stepchild of the once-popular television program known as the “GE College Bowl,” which was sponsored by General Electric and ran on national television from 1959-70. Originally hosted by Allen Ludden, the show was televised weekly on Saturdays and Sundays, pitting college teams from around the country. During the 1964-65 season, Lawrence was a five-time winner on the program — the maximum number of appearances allowed — returning to campus from New York City to a hero’s welcome after earning a silver trophy, $10,500 in scholarship money and national recognition.

“I knew that Lawrence had done well on the old GE College Bowl program, but I couldn’t figure out why no one had competed since then,” said Peterson. “There was a buzzer system in place to practice and there was talent available on campus, but for some reason they just weren’t being put together. Liberal arts colleges like Lawrence are perfect for quizbowl. The game covers so many different categories that you need well-rounded players who can answer questions on everything from biochemistry to Russian literature to prime-time TV.”

Peterson was an obvious choice to restart Lawrence’s efforts on the college quizbowl circuit. He participated in Illinois’ “Scholastic Bowl” for two years in high school and last summer reached the finals of the teen tournament on the popular television show “Jeopardy!.” Despite racking up an impressive two-day total of $38,600, he missed winning the teen tournament title by an agonizing $1.

Shortly after arriving on campus last September, he went searching for fellow students who shared his passion for the game. In October, Peterson represented Lawrence as a team of one at a tournament in Chicago, placing sixth all by himself out of 24 teams.

With the subsequent additions of fellow freshmen Richard Wanerman, Emily Koenig and Catherine Albright, Lawrence competed in four more tournaments between November and early March, finishing first in three of them. A five-way tie for first among 14 teams at a sectional tournament in early February at the University of Chicago earned Lawrence a ticket to the nationals in St. Louis.

Due to a conflict, Albright won’t be able to participate at the national tournament. Sophomore Michael Schreiber will join Peterson, Wanerman and Koenig in representing Lawrence.

At nationals, the 32-team field will be divided into four pools of eight teams. The top two finishing teams in each pool will advance to the championship bracket.

“Some of the really strong schools from our region you would expect to be there, like Northwestern and the University of Chicago, won’t be there because Lawrence took their spot,” Peterson said with just a hint of gloating.

Quizbowl tournaments typically feature head-to-head competitions between two teams of four members each. “A 10-point “toss-up” question opens play, with the first team to answer correctly given the opportunity to answer a 30-point, multiple-part bonus question. A total of 20 toss-up questions are asked per game.

“My goal for the national tournament is to get into the championship bracket,” said Peterson. “Knowing that we’ll be competing against teams from Stanford, Cornell and Dartmouth, it will be tough, but I think we can do it.”

APPLETON, WIS. — Harvey Kushner, professor of criminal justice and security administration at Long Island University, delivers the address “Radical Islam and What To Do About It” Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Youngchild Hall, 121. The event is free and open to the public.

An internationally recognized authority on terrorism and security matters, Kushner has lectured throughout the world, addressing governmental agencies, corporate entities and university think tanks, among them the FBI Academy’s Behavioral Science Unit, the United Nations Congress in Vienna, Austria, and the U.S. Naval War College. He also has served as an trainer and advisor to the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Customs and Borders agency.

During a 30-year career, Kushner has served as an expert witness in several high-profile court cases involving international terrorism, including a civil litigation suit arising from the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He is the author of the 2004 book “Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Islamist Terrorist Network in the United States” and the “Encyclopedia of Terrorism,” which was recognized with the American Library Association’s Best Reference Award.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Queens College and a Ph.D. in political science from New York University.

Kushner’s appearance is sponsored by the Viking Conservatives student organization.

APPLETON, WIS. — For the first time in its history, members of Lawrence International will stage two performances of its annual cabaret show celebrating music, dance and cuisine from around the world.

“Mosaic of Cultures,” the theme for this year’s event, will be performed Saturday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. with an encore performance Sunday, April 13 at 3 p.m. Both will be staged in Stansbury Theatre, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton. Following Sunday’s performance, a dinner featuring native dishes from Africa and the sub-continent will be served in Lucinda’s in Colman Hall.

Tickets, at $10 for the performance and $15 for the performance and dinner, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749. Children six and under are free.

“The cabaret is a wonderful opportunity for our international students to share a piece of their native culture with the Lawrence and Fox Valley communities. They always perform with great passion and enthusiasm,” said Tim Schmidt, coordinator of international student services.

More than 80 students from nearly 50 countries will entertain with a variety of performances. Cabaret favorites such as traditional African dances, the Dominican Republic’s merengue and the Middle East’s belly dance return. Also scheduled are two violin performances, Chinese singing and dancing, steel pan percussion from Jamaica and a fashion show showcasing traditional dress from around the world.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University student musicians accounted for four of the five winners at the 13th annual Neale-Silva Young Artists competition held March 16 in Madison.

Pianists Amy Lauters, Will Martin and Michael Smith along with the string quartet of Danielle Simandl, violin, Katie Ekberg, violin, Sarah Bellmore, viola, and Max Hero, cello, shared top honors with clarinetist Brian Viliunas of Milwaukee in the state competition sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio. Simandl also advanced to the finals as a soloist.

This was the eighth time in the past 10 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. This year’s competition attracted 26 soloists and ensembles, with 14 of those (11 soloists and three ensembles) advancing to the finals.

Lauters, Martin, Smith and the members of the string quartet will reprise their winning performances Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. The concert will be broadcast live statewide on the NPR News and Classical Music Network of WPR. In addition to the radio broadcast, all seven winners received $400 for their first-place performances.

For the April 30 concert, Lauters, a freshman from Manhattan, Kan., will perform Haydn’s “Piano Sonata in C major, no. 60,” Chopin’s “Nocturne” and Ravel’s “Jeux D’eau.” Smith, a sophomore from Davis, Calif., will play Schumann’s “Sonata no. 3 in f minor, op. 14” and “Fantasia” from J.S. Bach’s “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.” Martin, a sophomore from Floosmoor, Ill., will perform Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Bellmore, a senior from Appleton, Ekberg, a junior from New Hope, Minn., Hero, a freshman from Wauwatosa and Simandl, a junior from Marquette, Mich., will perform Shostakovich’s “String Quartet no. 8.”

Lauters and Martin are students in the piano studio of Associate Professor of Music Anthony Padilla. Smith studies with Associate Professor of Music Michael Kim. Assistant Professor of Music Wen-Lei Gu serves as chamber coach of the string quartet.

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.

APPLETON, WIS. — Growing up in Lima, Peru, Lawrence University senior Valeria Rojas experienced the sting of discrimination firsthand. Even though she was born and raised there, she was a “mestiza” — a person of mixed ethnicity — and her darker skin made her a target of childhood taunts.

“I grew up in a society where open discrimination against the indigenous people or anyone without European features was more the rule than the exception,” says Rojas.

Her childhood experiences have motivated her as an adult to combat stereotypes and discrimination. As one of the 50 national recipients of a $25,000 fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation announced March 14 by the Rhode Island-based foundation, Rojas will have an opportunity to pursue her passion. She will embark on a year-long examination of ethnic discrimination and social exclusion throughout South America.

Rojas was one of 50 seniors from 23 states and five foreign countries awarded a Watson Fellowship, which supports a year of independent travel and exploration outside the United States on a topic of the student’s choosing. Nearly 1,000 students from up to 50 selective private liberal arts colleges and universities apply for the Watson Fellowship each year. This year’s award-winners were selected from among 175 finalists.

“The awards are long-term investments in people, not research,” said Rosemary Macedo, the executive director of the Watson Fellowship Program. “We look for people likely to lead or innovate in the future and give them extraordinary independence in pursuing their interests. They must have passion, creativity and a feasible plan. The Watson Fellowship affords an unequalled opportunity for global experiential learning.”

Beginning in August, Rojas’ project will take her to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador to study the historically prominent indigenous communities of the Mapuches, Aymaras and Quechuas, spending approximately four months living in each community. She intends to explore the issue of discrimination and social exclusion from three perspectives: the indigenous people themselves, the government and civil society.

“I want to learn more about these native communities by immersing myself in them and experiencing their cultures every day,” said Rojas, 22, who is majoring in economics and government with a minor in anthropology at Lawrence. “I want to learn more about their rich, cultural past, the current social situation and their future aspirations. I want to know what they think about the ethnic discrimination and social exclusion they face. By living with them, I will be able to observe how discrimination affects their self-esteem and attitude toward the rest of society.”

Part of her stay in each community also will involve working as a volunteer with local and regional non-governmental organizations and government institutions dedicated to promoting the development of the indigenous communities. She already has made arrangements to work with the Chilean National Commission for Indigenous Development (CONADI) and the Bilingual Intercultural Education Training for the Andean Countries Program (PROEIB) in Bolivia.

At the end of her “wanderjahr,” Rojas hopes to share her experiences with as many people as possible, especially other mestizos like herself.

“The ethnic discrimination and social exclusion experienced daily in Latin America is something I cannot tolerate and I feel like it has become my duty to help in a struggle that divides entire populations,” said Rojas, who intends to pursue graduate studies in international development following her fellowship. “I want to promote a change in attitude among Latin Americans. I’m not trying to be a savior, but someone has to start breaking down the stereotypes and make people stop to think about their opinions and what those opinions are based on. The Watson fellowship offers me the unique opportunity to help make that happen.”

“Vale’s project grows out of her academic work at Lawrence, her personal experiences and her passionate devotion to social justice,” said Tim Spurgin, associate professor and Bonnie Glidden Buchanan Professor of English, who serves as Lawrence’s campus liaison to the Watson program. “Her project will definitely be challenging, but there’s no doubt of her ability to succeed with it.”

Rojas is the 66th Lawrence student awarded a Watson Fellowship since the program’s inception in 1969. It was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of International Business Machines Corp., and his wife, Jeannette, to honor their parents’ long- standing interest in education and world affairs.

Watson Fellows are selected on the basis of the nominee’s character, academic record, leadership potential, willingness to delve into another culture and the personal significance of the project proposal. Since its founding, nearly 2,500 fellowships have been awarded.

APPLETON, WIS. — Art found in natural and everyday objects and the history of art education at Lawrence University will be explored in a new exhibition at Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center Galleries. The exhibition runs March 21 – May 4.

Chicago artist Brad Killam will deliver the exhibition’s opening lecture Friday, April 4 at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the address, which is free and open to the public.

Killam’s installation of sculptures made from objects found outside the art studio will be exhibited in both the Hoffmaster and Kohler galleries. His works focus on finding the aesthetic qualities of art in ordinary materials and studying the transformation of a functional object into something that causes viewers to regard it as artistically interesting.

A graduate of Illinois State University and the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he earned his master’s of fine arts degree, Killam has exhibited internationally and been the recipient of grants from several art foundations, including the Danish Contemporary Art Foundation. He currently is an assistant professor of art at the College of DuPage in suburban Chicago.

The Leech Gallery will feature a research presentation by senior Katherine Elchert that traces the history and development of Lawrence’s art education program from the time of the Milwaukee Downer College art program to the present. An art history and history double major, Elchert’s exhibition is her senior project for the history department.

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 Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6621 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston/.