Posted on Nov 8, 2006

This is the last issue of Chronicle for the term. We will resume with the start of winter term. For news and events, please visit: http://www.union.edu/News/.

Posted on Nov 8, 2006

Pei-Yao Wang and Friends returns to Union's Memorial Chapel for a fourth Chamber Concert Series appearance on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 3 p.m. featuring Wang on piano; Soovim Kim and Jessica Lee, violins; Rebecca Albers, viola; and Sophie Shao, cello.

The performance celebrates the musical milestones of 2006 including the 250^th anniversary of Mozart's birth, the centennial of Shostakovich's birth and the 150^th anniversary of Schumann's death. Selections include Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1, K. 478; Shostakovich's Piano Quintet, Op. 57 and Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. 44.

Hailing from the famed Marlboro Chamber Music Festival, these Marlboro Virtuosi are also all alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Kim and Lee recently became members of the Johannes String Quartet, acknowledged by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “the highest level in quartet playing.”

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, pianist Pei-Yao Wang established herself as a prominent soloist and chamber musician making her official orchestral debut with the Taipei symphony Orchestra at age 8. That same year, she became the youngest pianist ever to receive the overall First Prize in the Taiwan National Piano Competition.

Wang has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia and is regularly invited to perform at festivals throughout the U.S. She is currently a member of Chamber Music Society Two at Lincoln Center, a program to promote emerging young artists.

American violinist Soovim Kim is increasingly sought after as concerto soloist, chamber musician and recitalist for his breadth of repertoire on everything from Bach to Paganini. Kim begins the 2006-07 season with a chamber music tour of Europe, with violinist Christian Tetzlaff, performing in Brussels, Hamburg, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and Vienna's Konzerthaus. He plays on a 1709 Antonio Stradivarius violin, the “ex-Kempner” and will release his second recording with Azica Records in early 2007.

A native of Virginia, violinist Jessica Lee began playing the violin at age three where she captured national attention with a feature article in LIFE magazine. In 1989, at the age of 6, she performed at the White House in Manila, Philippines for President Corazon Aquino and she later studied with Weigang Li of the Shanghai Quartet.

Since then, this Korean-American artist has been heard on four continents including such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall. Most recently, she garnered First Prize at the 2005 Concert Artist's Guild International Competition, along with the Victor and Sono Elmaleh prize, R.G. Niederhoffer Audience Prize, and numerous performance prize engagements throughout the US.

Violist Rebecca Albers has performed in seven countries on three continents and has appeared on national television in the United States and China. As the 2002-03 winner of the Juilliard School's Viola Competition, Rebecca made her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra performing the New York premiere of Samuel Adler's Viola Concerto in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

A native of Longmont, Colorado, Alders has won numerous competitions and awards and has performed throughout the U.S., France and Switzerland, including performances with such artists as Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman.

Cellist Sophie Shao is rapidly gaining international acclaim for her brilliant, mature interpretations of repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Crumb and Wilson. A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six, and made her first appearance with the Houston Symphony at the age of eleven, playing Boccherini's Cello Concerto.

Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant at the age of nineteen and won the 2001 Rostropovich Competition and the XII Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002. In great demand as an orchestral and chamber musician, she has performed recitals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She now resides in Manhattan, and teaches cello at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Vassar College, and Princeton University.

Concert tickets are free for the Union community, $20 for the general public and $10 for area students. For more information, call 388-6080 or 372-3651; or visit http://www.union.edu/concertseries/.

Posted on Nov 8, 2006

Peace to come

Posted on Nov 8, 2006

Laura MacManus-Spencer, assistant professor of Chemistry, presented two papers at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists (SETAC), North America, in Montreal. They were titled: “New Perspectives on Perfluorochemical Ecotoxicology: Inhibition and Induction of an Efflux Transporter in the Marine Mussel Mytilus Californianus,” and “Investigation of the Binding of Perfluoroalkyl Acids to Bovine Serum Albumin Through Spectroscopic and Surface Tension Measurements.”

Posted on Nov 8, 2006

Cheikh M. Ndiaye, assistant professor of French, is the author of the preface to Septième Printemps/Seventh Springtime, published  by Les Editions du Pangolin, Huy (Belgique), 2006:6-7. The book is a collection of poems by Ramonu Sanusi, who teaches French, African and Caribbean literatures at George Mason University in Fairfax (Virginia).

Cheikh also published “Remembrance and/or Oblivion: The Politics of Memory” in W.A.R.A. Newsletter: Spring 2006:15-16. The West African Research Association publishes its newsletter twice a year with the support of the Center for the African Studies and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida.