Appleton

APPLETON, WIS. — New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich shares his view of the nation’s political and cultural landscape in the wake of the recent historic presidential election Tuesday, Dec. 2 in a Lawrence University convocation.

Rich presents “The Post-Bush Era Begins” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton. The address is free and open to the public.

Since 2005, Rich has penned essays for the New York Times‘ Sunday Week in Review section, drawing upon his 13 years as the paper’s former drama critic to provide a culturally-tinged view of politics.

Following Barack Obama’s barrier-breaking election as the United States’ first African-American president, Rich noted that the country had clearly turned a page.

“If there were any doubts the 1960s are over, they were put to rest when our new first family won the hearts of the world as it emerged to join the celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park,” Rich wrote in his Nov. 9 column. “The bloody skirmishes that took place on that same spot during the Democratic convention 40 years ago seemed as remote as the moon. This is another America, hardly a perfect or prejudice-free America, but a union that can change and does, aspiring to perfection even if it can never achieve it.”

A native of Washington, D.C. and a 1971 graduate of Harvard University, Rich spent time writing for the New York Post and Time magazine before joining the New York Times in 1980 as the paper’s theatre critic. He earned the nickname “The Butcher of Broadway” from those who didn’t incur favor in his influential production reviews.

He moved to the Op-Ed page in 1994 and later spent four years also writing for The New York Times Magazine, becoming the first person to handle both roles. In 2005, he was recognized with Long Island University’s George Polk Awards in Journalism for commentary.

Rich is the author of four books, including the 2006 bestseller “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina,” which took a critical view of the Bush administration and the methods it used to pursue the president’s agenda. In his autobiographical “Ghost Light: A Memoir,” published in 2000, he discusses his fascination with the theatre growing up as child in the nation’s capital.

Earlier this year, Rich joined HBO as a creative consultant to help develop new programming for the pay-TV network.

APPLETON, WIS. — A benefit concert supporting hurricane relief as well as music and education programs in Haiti will be presented by Lawrence University students and community musicians Saturday, Nov. 22 at 5:30 p.m. in Harper Hall of the Music-Drama Center.

Featuring all Haitian music, the program will include folk tunes performed by students of the Lawrence Academy String Project, choral rounds performed by the Son Shine Children’s Choir of Appleton’s First United Methodist Church, folkloric dances performed by Fox Valley Technical College CASS (Cooperative Association of States for Scholarship) students from Haiti, orchestral works performed by the “Friends of Haiti Chamber Orchestra” and a performance of “Plainte Nocturne” by the Kaukauna High School Orchestra.

The concert also will include one of the first U.S. performances of “Premiere Suite de Menuets En Symfonies” for two flutes, bassoon and strings by the 18th-century Haitian born composer Atys.

Jean R. Perrault, director of orchestras and professor of violin at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, will serve as the concert’s guest conductor.

Lawrence students who have participated in volunteer activities as educators at Haitian music camps also will make a presentation on their outreach activities there.

Suggested donations are $5 for students, $10 for adults and $25 for families. Checks can be made payable to Lawrence University, with “Haiti Benefit Concert” on the memo line. The concert is open to the public whether a financial contribution is made or not.

APPLETON, WIS. – The Lawrence University theatre arts department stages four performances of the rags-to-riches fairy tale “Cinderella.” Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein television classic, the musical will be performed in Stansbury Theatre at 8 p.m. Nov. 20, 21 and 23, with a 3 p.m. matinee on Nov. 22.

Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students, are available at the Lawrence University Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, 920-832-6749.

The story follows poor Cinderella, who works as a servant for her evil stepsisters and stepmother. With the help of her magical fairy godmother, she meets Prince Charming and overcomes great obstacles to eventually find true love.

“Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Cinderella’ is such a delightful musical, filled with melody and lyrics familiar to us all,” said Timothy X. Troy, associate professor of theatre and drama who will direct the production. “While the story is uncomplicated, Cinderella’s willingness to believe in a better future can inspire young and old alike to imagine that our dearest dreams are possible.”

The production features the full orchestration from the original musical version, which was broadcast live to 107 million television viewers in 1957. It includes such memorable songs such as “Ten Minutes Ago,” “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?” and “In My Own Little Corner.” Assistant Professor of Music Phillip Swan is the show’s music director.

Double-cast, the production features junior Amanda Ketchpaw and senior Michael Axtell appearing as Cinderella and the Prince Thursday and Saturday, while juniors Maura Cook and Evan Bravos sing the respective roles Friday and Sunday. Senior Emily Shankman plays the fairy godmother Thursday and Saturday and junior Lara Wasserman takes the role Friday and Sunday.

Set design by Professor of Theatre and Drama Rich Frielund and costume design by 2001 Lawrence graduate Emily Rohm-Gilmore, is inspired by the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite tradition of bright colors, lavish fabrics, and playful staging.

APPLETON, WIS. — Highlighted by Lacey Benter’s fourth consecutive state title, five Lawrence University students earned first-place honors at the 2008 Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition held Nov. 7-8 at UW-Whitewater.

Benter, Southport, Fla., earned top honors in the senior women’s division after having won the lower college women’s musical theatre division, the freshman and junior women division in previous NATS competitions. She is student of Associate Professor Karen Leigh Post.

Four other Lawrence students and a Lawrence graduate also won their respective divisions. A total of 53 Lawrence students participated, with 13 advancing to the finals.

Other Lawrence first-place finishers included Alex Johnson, Shelburne, Vt., in the freshman men’s division; Cassie Glaeser, Manitowoc, in the sophomore women’s division; Derrell Acon, St. Louis, Mo., in the junior men’s division; and Christopher Besch, Woodbury, Minn., in the senior men’s division.

Andrew Lovato, a 2008 Lawrence graduate, won the continuing senior men’s division, while Ariana Douglas, a senior at Appleton North High School, earned first-place honors in the high school women’s division.

Johnson and Glaeser are both students of Leigh-Post. Acon studies with Professor Patrice Michaels. Besch studies with Assistant Professor Steven Spears and Lovato is a student of Professor Ken Bozeman. Douglas studies with Bryan Post, a private voice coach who also teaches at the Lawrence Academy of Music.

All first-place finishers were awarded $150 for their winning efforts, while second- and third-place finishers received $125 and $100, respectively.

A total of 395 singers from around the state competed in 20 separate divisions by gender and level in this year’s auditions. 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.

APPLETON, WIS. — The holidays are still several weeks away, but eight Lawrence University students will get a head start on them by unwrapping a unique and important gift.

Four student soloists and members of the Viridian String Quartet will debut four new instruments commissioned for the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in a celebratory concert Friday, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. in Lawrence’s Harper Hall.

Built by master luthier Douglas Cox of West Brattleboro, Vt., the four instruments — two violins, a viola and a cello — were generously commissioned by Allen Greenberg, a music lover from Chevy Chase, Md. Greenberg visited Lawrence in 2006 with his son, a prospective student and string musician. While his son wound up attending another college, Greenberg was so impressed with Lawrence, he decided to fund the instruments construction and donate them to the college.

“These instruments are a fantastic gift and will become a valuable resource for the conservatory,” said Matthew Michelic, associate professor of music who teaches viola at Lawrence. “Douglas Cox is a very well known and accomplished violin maker, and there are prominent musicians endorsing and performing on his instruments. The instruments he made for Lawrence will be well used and well loved for generations to come.”

The Cox instruments join a small collection of other outstanding string instruments owned by the college, including a 1686 Guarnerius violin, which are used by faculty and students on special occasions.

Friday’s concert will feature the instruments individually and as a quartet. Willie McClellan and David Rubin will open the concert with violin pieces by Bach and Bloch, respectively. Violist Sarah Vosper will perform Alexander Glazunov’s “Elegy, Opus 44” and Lindsey Crabb will play a Brahms’ cello sonata.

The Viridian String Quartet — Danielle Simandl, violin, Katie Ekberg, violin, Sarah Bellmore, viola and Max Hero, cello — winners of last March’s WPR-sponsored Neale-Silva Young Artists competition in Madison, close the concert with movements of masterworks for quartet by Haydn and Beethoven.

On Wednesday, Nov. 12, Cox will conduct a string instrument making presentation at 6 p.m. in Harper Hall, discussing the techniques and materials he uses in building violins, violas and cellos to best suit the unique requirements of each musician. Both the presentation and concert are free and open to the public.

APPLETON, WIS. — In honor of the centennial of the birth of French composer and organist Olivier Messiaen, Lawrence University will host a screening of the award-winning film “Apparition of the Eternal Church” Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

The film’s director, Paul Festa, will be on hand to introduce the film and answer questions afterward. The event is free and open to the public.

Hailed by The New Yorker as “mesmerizing…remarkable…intensely personal,” the hour-long “Apparition of the Eternal Church” examines the contradictory reactions of 31 mostly nonreligious artists who listen through headphones to a 10-minute piece of Messiaen’s monumental organ work of the same name, which he wrote in 1931 at the age of 24.

In interviews with the director, the listeners describe what they’ve heard, putting the violent contradictions of Messiaen’s music into words. For some, the music produces spiritual and erotic ecstasy, for others a trip through Dante’s inferno. The music and its interpreters produce something akin to what William Blake once called “the marriage of heaven and hell.”

The screening, which is co-sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, will feature live organ performances by Dan O’Connor and Susanna Valleau playing Lawrence’s Brombaugh organ.

The film, which had its premiere showing at the Library of Congress this past Halloween and will make its debut in the United Kingdom at the Barbican Centre in London on Dec. 8, was named the Best North American Independent Feature Film at the 2006 Indianapolis International Film Festival and earned the Special Director’s Award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival that same year.

Lawrence has been celebrating the centennial of Messiaen’s birth with a variety of events this fall. The composer’s “Quartet for the End of Time” is one of the works on this year’s Freshman Studies list.

APPLETON, WIS. – Mixed-media artist Gretchen Beck, professor of art at Concordia University in California, delivers the opening lecture Friday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. for the newest exhibition at Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center galleries. A reception with the artist follows the address. The exhibition runs Nov. 14 – Dec. 21.

Beck’s work deals with the Djarma and Fulani cultures of Niger, West Africa, where she lived for three years. Her abstract imagery portrays concepts of ritual and tradition within the social structure of Nigerien culture. Beck’s drawings and paintings will be shown in the Kohler gallery.

Milwaukee-based artist Lynn Tomaszewski, a faculty member at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, will have prints, paintings and video exhibited in the Hoffmaster gallery. Often working with large quantities of information or objects, Tomaszewski mixes media and converges art and science with the concept of nature. Her most recent work combines patterns of information — DNA sequence data, maps of the universe — with video captures of everyday events.

The Leech gallery will feature the show “CUTE!,” a selection of small, charming images from Lawrence’s own permanent collection. The works were chosen specifically for their potential to elicit an “aaw, isn’t that cute” viewer response.

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/.

APPLETON, WIS. — Author and poet Katy Lederer, best known for her 2003 memoir “Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers,” will conduct a reading from her latest collection of poems Monday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Science Hall 102. Prior to her reading, Lederer will hold a question-and-answer session at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall 105. A book signing and reception with the author will follow the reading. Both events are free and open to the public.

The current poetry editor at Fence magazine, Lederer is the author of a pair of poetry collections, 2002’s “Winter Sex” and the just-published “The Heaven-Sent Leaf,” a collection of 45 poems which draws on her experiences working at a Manhattan hedge fund to explore the world of money and commerce.

Her memoir “Poker Face” was included on Publishers Weekly’s list of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2003 and Esquire magazine named it one of its eight Best Books of the Year in 2003. Lederer, the younger sister of professional poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, earned a bachelor’s degree the University of California at Berkeley and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa.

Lederer’s appearance is sponsored by the Mia Paul Poetry Fund and the Marguerite Schumann Memorial Lectureship Fund.

APPLETON, WIS. – The Grammy Award-winning ensemble New York Voices and acclaimed trumpet soloist Ingrid Jensen highlight Lawrence University’s 28th annual Jazz Celebration Weekend Nov. 7-8.

New York Voices kicks off the two-concert weekend Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Opening the concert will be the Lawrence University’s Jazz Singers, directed by Phillip Swan, accompanied by vocalist/visiting clinician Kelly Eisenhour and Lawrence faculty jazz pianist Lee Tomboulian.

Jensen headlines the Saturday, Nov. 8 concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Memorial Chapel. She perform with the Lawrence Faculty Jazz Quartet and the award-winning Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble. LUJE was the recipient of Down Beat’s 2007 big band “outstanding performance” award in the magazine’s annual student music competition.

Tickets for both concerts are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749. Ticket prices are $20-22 for adults, $17-19 for seniors, and $15-17 for students.

New York Voices, renowned for its excellence in jazz and the art of group singing, is celebrating its 20th year of performing. The group’s vocals reflect its jazz, Brazilian, rhythm and blues, classical and pop music influences, earning a reputation as “the most exciting vocal ensemble in current jazz,” according to the Boston Herald.

Swan, who directs the Lawrence Jazz Singers, calls New York Voices the “platinum standard” for vocal jazz groups. “Their attention to detail is unparalleled and witnessed through their tight harmonies, interesting arrangements, creative improvisation and ability to communicate and inspire an audience.”

The group has released six albums, including their latest, “A Day Like This,” in 2007. They have recorded and performed with many jazz luminaries, including the Count Basie Orchestra, Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, the Boston Pops and Jon Hendricks and they count Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and The Blue Note in both New York and Japan among their numerous concert venues.

Jensen, a 1989 graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has established herself as one of the top jazz artists in New York City and one of the premier trumpet soloists in the world. In addition to leading her own Ingrid Jensen Quartet, she has recorded and performed with the Grammy Award-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, Kenny Garrett, Billy Taylor and the DIVA Big Band. She accompanied British soul star Corrine Bailey Rae in an appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

“Ingrid’s got it all as an improvising artist — artful melodic, harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities, seemingly limitless technique, and a sound of unparalleled beauty,” said Fred Sturm, Lawrence’s director of jazz studies and improvisational music, who created Jazz Weekend in 1981.

Four of Jensen’s seven CDs have been nominated for Juno Awards, Canada’s version of the Grammy, including her latest, 2006’s “At Sea.”

In addition to the New York Voices and Jensen concerts, Lawrence’s Jazz Celebration Weekend involves more than 50 ensembles and 700 instrumental and vocal jazz students from schools throughout the Midwest performing and participating on Saturday in workshop sessions and clinics led by a distinguished team of jazz educators from around the country.

“It’s our mission to promote excellence in teaching, learning, and performing jazz, and we do it without trophies, ratings, or competition,” said Sturm. “It’s all about the joy of making jazz music.”

The weekend also showcases Lawrence’s own jazz talent, with six small jazz groups and the Lawrence Jazz Workshop performing in the Lawrence Memorial Union from 8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“Jazz weekend is a 24-hour snapshot of the jazz activity at Lawrence and our surrounding community schools,” said Sturm. “We want our Lawrence student musicians to experience the magic of sharing the stage and interacting with renowned jazz artists.”

All of the Saturday daytime performances are free and open to the public.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University Associate Professor of Classics Randall McNeill has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the Arete Initiative at the University of Chicago for the Defining Wisdom Project.

McNeill was one of 23 scholars in the United States and Europe — and one of only two from a liberal arts college — selected for a grant from a field of more than 600 researchers in fields ranging from neuroscience to philosophy.

The two-year grant will support research McNeill is conducting for the book project entitled “The Price of Wisdom: Community and the Individual in Greek and Roman Poetry.” He will investigate the way wisdom influences how an individual interacts with society, exploring ancient Greek and Roman conceptions of “civic wisdom.”

His study will explore specific literary representations of individuals who struggle to achieve civic wisdom to shed new light on broader Greek and Roman cultural attitudes concerning the relationship of the individual to society.

A specialist in Latin poetry and Greek and Roman history, McNeill’s research will focus on four characters from classical poetry whose personal travails exemplify the tensions that often exist between individual interest and the common good: Achilles in the “Iliad” of Homer; Oedipus in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”; Roman poet Catullus’ self portrayals; and Aeneas in the “Aeneid” of Vergil. Each character represents the ethical and psychological challenges of balancing conflicting demands of civic duty and personal identity.

“My research is intended to encourage members of the Defining Wisdom Project and others to consider those issues of individuality and society that must play a role in any discussion of the nature and role of wisdom in the contemporary world,” said McNeill. “By exploring the cultural attitudes of the ancient Greeks and Romans regarding the proper relationship of the individual to society, we may gain valuable perspective on what could be required of each of us as we move forward in the 21st- century.”

Launched earlier this year and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the Defining Wisdom Project is a $2 million research program on the nature and benefits of wisdom. McNeill and other grant recipients will become part of a Wisdom Research Network that will meet periodically to share research and results.