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Photos Reclaim Student’s Childhood in Vietnam

Posted on Mar 31, 2000

In between the weekly headaches, Khang Vodinh '00 has rich childhood memories, snapshots of his first 19 years in Nha Trang, a picturesque coastal community of white sand beaches in south central Vietnam.

It is this childhood – much of it lost during the
imprisonment and torture that causes the headaches — that the visual
arts major has captured in photographs taken during his homecoming last
fall.

His project “Return to Nha Trang, Vietnam” is
a photo documentary of some 50 works. The exhibition runs through April 8
in the Arts Atrium Gallery. The opening reception is Friday, March 31,
from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Khang spent last fall in his homeland, fearful at first
that his project might not happen at all. He describes the terror of
seeing uniformed personnel upon arriving at the Saigon airport:
“Since my failed escape attempt and subsequent imprisonment, I have
always feared people in uniform.” Some civilians, knowing he had fled
Vietnam, assumed he was a spy and threatened him physically. Others
threatened to call the police.

But he found ways to get his photos, hiding his camera
and taking shots surreptitiously or impersonating an English-speaking
Chinese tourist.

The black and whites show a range of experiences: his
grandparents in their garden, children riding their bikes through a flood
to school, a barber awaiting customers at his outdoor shop. Khang, born
after the Vietnam War, also uncovers vestiges of the conflict: gunnery
turrets now converted to parks, disabled people selling lottery tickets.
One photo shows a homeless mother holding a severely deformed infant (a
consequence, Khang says, of chemicals used in the war). “There is no
shelter for people like us,” the mother said.

Khang, 26, is older than most of his classmates, owing
mainly to having been imprisoned after two failed escape attempts. The
first time, in 1978, his parents and three siblings were held for four
months. (His father, a pilot for South Vietnam, was imprisoned a total of
eight years.)

A decade later, Khang and his brother were intercepted
by soldiers who shot and killed a number of their fellow boat passengers.
This time, Khang's two-month imprisonment included torture, beatings and
solitary confinement. The recurring headaches, he says, are from the
injuries his captors inflicted when they beat him in the head with a rock.
With the headaches come a flood of painful memories from a time that was
“like nothing on earth.”

Khang's family was finally allowed to leave in 1992,
eventually settling in Albany, where Khang finished high school. While
volunteering at an Albany nursing home that the idea for the project was
born. “I met an elderly woman whose family had mostly left her,”
he recalls. “We talked about life and the idea that you can preserve
the memories of happier times. It touched my heart.

“I do this in the hope that my American friends can
learn about the people and culture of Vietnam,” he says. “I have
met some students who don't even know where Vietnam is. I hope that one
day we can talk about culture and interests and ideas and we can be
closer.

“Prof. (Martin) Benjamin (Khang's advisor) has
shown me all the technical aspects of taking a good picture,” Khang
says, “but he also has taught me how to take a picture that reflects
and relates what I feel.”

“Although I am happy here, memories of my
birthplace often arise,” Khang wrote in the introduction to his
exhibition. “Frequently, I reminisce about what I left behind,
friends and relatives, the culture and the environment. (My) return to my
homeland created pictures that explore and reveal my former life.”

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Borromeo String Quartet concludes series with last of All-Beethoven programs

Posted on Mar 29, 2000

Schenectady, N.Y. (March 29, 2000) – The critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet will perform its All-Beethoven Program VI, the final concert in a six-part series of the complete Beethoven string quartets on Friday, April 7, at 8 p.m. in Union College's Memorial Chapel. This is the final concert of the Schenectady Museum-Union College 1999-2000 season.

The All-Beethoven program includes Op. 18, No. 1 in F; Op. 130 in B-flat with the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, and will be performed, following the Union concert, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston as part of the Gardner's Sunday Concert Series.

The Quartet is comprised of violinists Nicholas Kitchen, Hsin-Yun Huang and Ruggero Allifranchini, and cellist Yeesun Kim, all of whom are faculty members at the New England Conservatory; the group is also the Quartet-in-Residence there. It became the first ensemble accepted for the prestigious Artist Diploma program. Boston Globe critics praised the musicians by saying, “Since arriving at the New England Conservatory in 1990, the Borromeo has established itself as an ensemble of the very first rank, a quartet that matches elegance and refinement with a fire in the belly.”

The internationally renowned Borromeo, a series favorite at Union, has performed at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Opera Bastille in Paris and Wigmore Hall in London, Italy's Spoleto Festival, the Stavenger Festival in Norway and the Orlando Festival in The Netherlands. Last year the Quartet performed in Prague, with the illustrious violinist Josef Suk in celebration of his 70th birthday.

American engagements have included performances at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Karannert Center in Champaign-Urbana, Meany Hall in Seattle, Duke University, UC Berkeley, and the Chamber Music Societies of Buffalo, Kansas City and La Jolla among many others.

Tickets at $15 ($7 for students) are available in advance at the Schenectady Museum (518) 382-7890 and at the door at 7 p.m. For more information, call 372-3651.

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Pianist Dubravka Tomsic to perform at Union College on Fri., March 24

Posted on Mar 24, 2000

Internationally acclaimed pianist Dubravka Tomsic will return to the Schenectady Museum – Union College Concert Series for her third appearance on Friday, March 24 at 8 p.m. in Union College's Memorial Chapel.

The program will include Bach/Busoni's Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV 532; Prokofiev's Sonata No. 4 in C, Op. 29; and Liszt's Sonata in b; Mephisto Waltz.

Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe raved, “The pleasure she gives is pure and deep; only the greatest artists are completely satisfying in this way. Tomsic is a pianist of historic stature, a supreme virtuoso and unique.” New York Times critics described her style: “Ms. Tomsic, untroubled by the difficulties of the Brahms Paganini variations, made music of it, revealing the whimsy, playfulness and elegance that are there but seldom heard.”

The brilliant Slovenian pianist gave her first public recital at age five and has given more than 3,500 performances to date. Ms. Tomsic studied at the Julliard School and, in 1954, gave a recital in Carnegie Hall, which was attended by Arthur Rubenstein who gave a glowing account of the occasion in his memoirs. She studied with Rubenstein for two years and then returned home to Ljubljana, Slovenia. After a hiatus of almost thirty years, during which time she raised her child, taught music in a local conservatory and gave local recitals, she returned to the United States in 1989 for the Newport Music Festival. This performance began her triumphant return to stages and audiences from San Francisco to Boston with stops in Baltimore, Kansas City and Chicago.

Over 40 recordings released since 1987 have brought Dubravka Tomsic world-wide acclaim and renewed attention from American audiences. She has recorded numerous concerti and can be heard on Vox Classics, Stradavari Classics, Critic's Choice, Pilz International, Pentagon Classics and Koch International.

Memorial Chapel is located near the center of the Union campus. Parking is available on campus and on nearby side streets. Free shuttle service is available on the Union College trolley from the Nott St./Seward Place parking lot to the Chapel and back.

Tickets at $20 ($8 students) are available in advance at the Schenectady Museum and at the door at 7 p.m. For more information, call 372-3651.

The Schenectady-Museum-Union College concert series is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council of the Arts, a State Agency. Memorial Chapel is located near the center of the Union campus. Parking is available on campus and on nearby side streets.

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Artists Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason plan rare joint show at Union College

Posted on Mar 23, 2000

Internationally-acclaimed artist Wolf Kahn and his wife, Emily Mason, are planning a rare joint exhibition – “Separate & Together” – from March 23 through May 21 at Union College's Mandeville Gallery, located in the Nott Memorial at the center of campus.

The opening is April 11 at 4:30 p.m. with a lecture at 6 p.m. by Kahn titled “Ten Prejudices About Art and Artists and an Attempt at their Correction.”

The exhibition explores the artistic relationship between two artists who are connected by an intimate personal relationship. Through the works selected for the show, the audience will be presented with a series of questions and connections – about creativity, relationships, inspiration and artistic vision.

Kahn has received a Fulbright Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an award in art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He recently completed an appointment to the New York City Art Commission. His works are part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.

Mason's recent solo exhibitions include MB Modern in New York, Thomas Babeor Gallery in San Diego, Virginia Lynch Gallery in Tiverton, R.I., and the Brattleboro (Vt.) Museum of Art.

“When I start a picture I like to use the medium as directly as I can,” says Mason. “This makes possible a state of mind which avoids pictorial constraints. I try to use paint for its brilliance, transparency, opacity, liquidity, weight, warmth and coolness. These qualities guide me in a process which will determine the climate of the picture. All the while I work to define spatial relationships, resulting in certain kinds of places. I cannot name them but know intuitively when they appear.”

Works in the show date from the last 10 years. A four-color catalog includes an introduction and interview by curator Rachel Seligman, director of the Mandeville Gallery.

The show, organized by the Mandeville Gallery, is to travel to the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont, and the Akus Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The show is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.

For more information, call (518) 388-2232

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AAC Minutes Listed

Posted on Mar 10, 2000

Feb. 28, 2000

1. The minutes of Feb. 21 meeting were corrected and approved.

2.The AAC discussed a memo from Joanne Tobiessen (Career Development
Center) on non-graded internships.

3. The Subcouncil on Courses and Programs reported on the following
courses granted permanent approval:

a. HST 86 – The Nuclear and Space Age; BIO 50 – Conservation
Biology; BIO 121 – Herpetology; HST 111 – Frontiers in the Americas

b. Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science request
for change in course credits for 197/198/199 Capstone Design – approved.

c. The Scholars Program Senior Colloquium has been granted one-time
approval by the Dean of Arts and Sciences. The course will be graded on a
pass/fail basis.

d. PS 86 – “Politics in Film: Images of Political Conflict”
has been granted one-time approval by the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

The committee approved the above course changes.

4. New business: the committee discussed course availability for the
spring term pre-registration. The committee also talked about sophomore
advising. Dean Sorum introduced the concept of a “Dead Week,” a
period when there are no scheduled activities. It will be discussed in the
future

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