SHSU Update for Week of February 18

• Beverly Sills to Speak Wednesday
• Faculty to Perform Schroeder Pieces
• Euphonium Performer to Appear
• Career Services is Job Hunt Central
• 'Rabbit Hole' is Multi-Media Event
• Old Main Exhibit Extended
• Alpha Chi Accepts 41
• Scouts Earn Chemistry Badges
• Briefs

Beverly Sills to Speak Wednesday

The Sills presentation-"A Conversation With Beverly Sills"--is open to the public and free of admission charge. A book and CD signing session is scheduled from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m., and a reception will follow.

Sills has delighted audiences around the world with her talent, charisma, and dedication. A member of the New York Opera from 1955 to 1980, she performed in the world's leading opera houses, recorded 18 full-length operas and numerous solo collections, and appeared in hundreds of television programs including "Live from Lincoln Center," "Young Peoples' Concerts," and "In Performance at the White House."

She is considered the leading spokesperson for the arts in America today. She is recognized as a diligent and vocal advocate for insuring that the arts are available to everyone. She pioneered the use of English surtitles--the translation of lyrics projected above the stage during opera performances. This method has since been adopted in opera houses around the world.

Throughout her career she has cultivated young talent and reached out to young audiences. She has worked to reduce opera ticket prices by asking supporters to underwrite the cost of tickets. The reduced ticket prices are then passed along to student groups.

Sills has received numerous awards for her work, and her biography, "Bubbles: A Self-Portrait," was a bestseller.

Faculty to Perform Schroeder Pieces

Schroeder's "Spirits of the Dead" will be performed by Best and Schroeder, who will be joined by Daniel for Schroeder's "An Offering."

Also on the program are George Butterworth's "Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'," Gerald Finzi's "Let Us Garlands Bring," and Marc Blitzstein's "Monday Morning Blues," "Emily," "Stay in My Arms," and "The New Suit."

Best, a member of the SHSU music faculty since 1996, has been a featured soloist with many symphony orchestras including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and National Repertory Orchestra. He has participated in many programs and festivals throughout the United States.

Daniel served as principal flutist, section leader, and soloist with the United States Navy Band, was a soloist with the Boston Pops and has performed at Carnegie Hall. She has completed several seasons with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, and has served as an adjudicator at the Houston Flute Club's Flute Festival and the Texas Flute Society Festival.

Schroeder has composed works for orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber ensembles, live electronics, choir and soloists. In addition to teaching music theory and composition, and his composition work, he has appeared as a guest composer and lecturer at music festivals and universities.

Whatley, visiting lecturer in keyboard studies, is a doctoral student at the University of Texas in Austin and has maintained a busy schedule as a performer and collaborator in solo recitals, chamber music performances and ensemble performances. During his studies at the University of North Texas he was awarded the Helen Hewitt Award for Outstanding Organ Performers.

Euphonium Performer to Appear

Corwell also spent seven years as an adjunct faculty member at two colleges (Frostburg State University and Shepherd College) teaching low brass and electronic music. He is currently a freelance composer and euphonium soloist/clinician with a doctoral degree from the University of Maryland in euphonium performance and pedagogy.

Corwell is also a member of Symphonia, a professional tuba-euphonium ensemble chosen from our nation's finest low brass performers. He has served as a member of the Tubist's Universal Brotherhood Association executive committee and on the board of directors for the International Women's Brass Conference.

Corwell has appeared in Europe, Asia, and all across the United States as a guest euphonium artist, and is featured as both soloist and composer at numerous international music events every year. He was the composer-in-residence for the Symphony at Deep Creek (McHenry, Maryland) from 1994 to 1999, was chosen as one of the featured composers for the 1997 Bowling Green (Ohio) International Music and Arts Festival, and in 1999 won a Maryland State Arts Council award and grant for his excellence in classical music composition.

In 2000 he won the equivalent Maryland State Arts Council award for excellence in solo instrumental performance. He has also been chosen as a featured performer for Maryland's Arts in Education program.

In addition to the many live premieres and performances of his works worldwide, some of his compositions have been included on recent compact disc recordings released by Mark Records, Crystal Records, RJR Digital, TRYFAN, HRS, and Nicolai Music.

He composed and performed all the music for his first solo euphonium/trombone CD titled Distant Images (1994), and recently released a new euphonium/tuba recording, Heart of a Wolf (2000), which also features his original compositions.

For this most recent recording project, Velvet Brown is the tuba soloist, and Corwell performs on euphonium, guitar, and various electronic instruments.

Career Services is Job Hunt Central

The events at which students may meet with potential employers include Tuesday's (Feb. 20) summer camp job fair, a teacher job fair scheduled March 7 and a business and government career fair April 4. Each will be held from 12:30 - 4 p.m. in Johnson Coliseum.

More than 27 camps and several businesses seeking summer interns are expected for this week's fair. Students are advised to bring several copies of their résumé. Career Services also offers help with writing résumés.

BearkatTrak is an online job listing service that is free to all students and alumni, and offers the opportunity to search for full-time, part-time, temporary, and internship positions on-line.

To access this database, students must fill-out a registration form, found at the "Résumé Disc Window" of the Career Services offices at 919 16th St. Upon completion of the form, students are given a school password, which allows them initial access into JobTrak.com. From there, students can search through the thousands of on-line job listings.

Other features of JobTrak.com include an on-line Career Fair, Career Contact and Alumni Network, JobTalk, Employer Showcase, and Job Search Tips, which includes assistance in interviewing and résumé writing. Students can also post their résumés on-line where potential employers can access them.

Approximately 1000 schools across the nation take advantage of the services offered by JobTrak.com. In the past year, more than 100,000 employers have utilized JobTrak.com to target qualified candidates for employment.

Computers are available in the Career Services building and staff members will assist with any questions.

For more information on BearkatTrak, the job fairs, or to schedule and appointment to get help writing a résumé, stop by Career Services at 919 16th Street or call 936.294.1713.

'Rabbit Hole' is Multi-Media Event

The concert is directed and choreographed by Amy Cantrell, a dance major at SHSU and treasurer of the Dance Honor Society. Admission is free.

"Ingressio Amiculus" is one among many powerful pieces in Down the Rabbit Hole. This modern-based dance will be performed in conjunction with "Metropolis," a 1927 silent film, shown across the backdrop of the stage. It will also be featured at The American College Dance Festival in Little Rock, Ark.

"Really Big Shew" is an exploration of petite women empowering themselves to achieve independence.

The question "If a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, what happens after butterfly?" is the focus of a contemporary jazz piece, set to Pat Metheny's "First Circle." The dancers will be clad in costumes accented with delicate butterfly wings.

"The Skirt Dance" takes an intriguing look at different manipulations of a skirt on and around the body.

Originality and chance is the essence of "They Decide," a piece which is never the same twice, set to Terry Reiley's "In C." Both music and movement in this piece are simply a list of phrases repeated at the discretion of the performers.

Down the Rabbit Hole will also feature an upbeat, modern piece choreographed by guest artist Shara Armstrong. The piece, entitled "Responda," portrays a jungle scene with a medley of playful lifts and dancer interaction.

"Spark" will bring the evening to a close with an ensemble of brass, percussion, and dancers in a visual and musical rendition of "Maleguena," with music arranged by Chris Cantrell. For further information, call 936.294.1875.

Old Main Exhibit Extended

"Historic photographs, more recent photographs, views of the stained glass windows that perished in the fire, a look at the only surviving stained glass from Old Main, and various memorabilia pertaining to Old Main and its history, are all on display, " said Barbara Kievit-Mason, Peabody archivist.

Of special interest is a recently discovered video of the Old Main fire and news report clips from the various local stations covering the story.

Kievit-Mason said the exhibit carries out a tradition begun a year after the fire in February, 1983, by then Mayor of Huntsville, William V. Nash. He signed a proclamation saying, "Therefore Be It Resolved that on February 12 of each year be established as a day to recall with a combination of pride and nostalgia the beauty and inspiration of her noble spires, rising in stately dignity on her tall hill, to exemplify to generations of students the virtues of seeking truth through study and knowledge."

The Old Main cornerstone was laid on Sept. 23, 1889, just 10 years after the founding of Sam Houston Normal Institute as the first teacher-training institution in the southwestern United States. At the time it was known as the Main Building. The older Austin Hall, first occupied by Austin College in 1852, was heavily damaged in the Old Main fire but it was restored.

A smaller collection of Old Main items will be displayed in the glass cases in front of the circulation desk at the Newton Gresham Library.

The Peabody Memorial Library houses the archives of Sam Houston State University. It is located at the north end of the university's historic quadrangle, near Austin Hall and the Old Main Memorial.

The Peabody Memorial Library is open to the public Monday-Friday from 1-5 p.m. For more information call Kievit-Mason at 936.294.3699.

Alpha Chi Accepts 41

The new members are Scott Atnip, Cherryl Bagwell, Jonathan Birkholz, Laura Bowers, Sheryl Burkeen, Atoya Corley, Heather Cook, David Allen Corley, Michelle Cusick, Lois Ann Dangerfield, Jenifer Lee Dodd, Heather Drewry, Kari Lyn Freevol, Amber Denise Fussel.

Also, Jessica Lee Girala, Jeremy Hanson, Aimee Henry, Heather Lynn Hope, Cassandra Jannsen, James Johnson, Kaori Koyama, Elizabeth Knobeloch, Heather Michelle Krotofil, Bradley Land, Laurel Ludwick, Carolyn Lumpkin and Annette May.

Also, Tiffany Montegut, Rian Patek, Ross Pilcik, Courtney Lynn Poe, Joshua Robbins, Carrie Lynn Rundberg, Sarah Satabia, Shannon Seaton, Destiny Sheridan, Sarah Virginia Simmons, Joshua Paul Smith, Brian Starr, Christie Jo Stupak and Michael Charles Towler.

Founded in 1922, Alpha Chi is opposed to bigotry, narrowness, and distinctions between people on any basis, and seeks to promote the genuine personal worth of each individual. The motto of the society is "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32.

Scouts Earn Chemistry Badges

The training was conducted by Benny Arney, Tom Chasteen and Janet Bius.

The scouts spent nearly 10 hours Saturday going through chemistry lectures, laboratory exercises and individualized instruction, and all completed their work for this merit badge, said Rick White, who chairs the chemistry department.

Scouts from Willis, Montgomery, the Woodlands and Huntsville participated in the chemistry training.

Briefs

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SHSU Media Contacts: Frank Krystyniak, Julia May
Feb.18, 2001
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