Posted on Mar 21, 2007

Adam Grode '05, who last year went on a Watson Fellowship to study long-necked lutes in Central Asia, is getting another chance to expand his musical and cultural horizons, this time with an offered grant from the Fulbright Program to live and study in Chinese Central Asia.

“In the Chinese state of Xinjiang, longstanding state-censorship of musical compositions and public performances endangers the musical traditions of the Uyghurs, the area's largest Turkic Muslim minority,” Grode said. “Though the Uyghurs share several musical commonalities with Central Asia, it is the ustad–shagird (master-apprentice) tradition which today stands as the bedrock of their musical heritage.”

As a “Fulbrighter,” Grode will study the rawap, a highly prized Uyghur long-necked lute under an ustad and develop his linguistic proficiency in Uyghur and Mandarin.

Applying for a Fulbright was “a lot more intense,” than applying for a Watson, he said, but he was helped by Prof. Megan Ferry, who conducted his language interview for the Fulbright. Grode also cites encouragement from faculty in East Asian Studies.

Grode spoke last fall in a Perspectives at the Nott lecture on his Watson travels along the Silk Road in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The route he followed was important commercially, but also contributed to the development of musical styles and instruments.

Unlike the Watson, which had Grode moving to a new area every few weeks, the Fulbright will allow him a full year to settle in at Xinjiang Arts Institute in the Uygur Province of northwest China. “I'm really looking forward to having an apartment,” he said.

Grode plans to start the Fulbright in September, and to explore the desert and oasis features of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region during college breaks. The province this year celebrates its 50^th anniversary, and music of the region will be a major part of the celebration, Grode said.

Grode said he is hoping to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology of ethnomusicology, perhaps one day working for organizations like the Smithsonian Institution or UNESCO and “try to make a difference.”

“Soft politics makes a difference,” he said. “You can have all the armies you want, but unless there is understanding between cultures, it's never going to happen.”

A native of Philadelphia who created his own Eurasian Studies major at Union, Grode was the 44th Union student to receive the prestigious travel-study grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. The $22,000 fellowship funded his study, “Long-necked Lutes from Baku to Bishkek: A Musical Journey in Central Asia.”

The Fulbright Program, an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” The program was established in under legislation introduced by then Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas in 1946. Since then, nearly 280,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated. There are about 6,000 new grants annually.

Posted on Mar 21, 2007

Union College has landed a $2 million gift from an alumnus whose son attends the Schenectady school.

The unrestricted gift comes from David Breazzano, a 1978 graduate who co-founded a Waltham, Mass.-based investment management firm.

It's one of several multimillion dollar gifts Union has received in recent years. The biggest came in 2002, when geologist John Wold, a former Wyoming congressman, and his wife pledged $20 million for a variety of programs.

Others include more than $6.5 million from 1932 graduate William Dennison Williams and $1.5 million from brothers James Taylor, Class of '66, and John Taylor, '74, for a new music facility.

In gratitude for Breazzano's gift, announced Monday, Union will rename one of the houses in its Minerva system the Breazzano House.

Under the system, every Union student is assigned to one of seven “living and learning communities,” buildings where they hang out, study and interact with faculty.

Breazzano's son Jeremy is assigned to Orange House, which happens to be the one whose name will officially change to Breazzano House during “ReUnion” weekend from May 31 to June 3.

The senior, like most students, doesn't actually live in his Minerva house.

“He thinks it is kind of cool,” David Breazzano said of his son's membership in the soon-to-be Breazzano House, according to a news release Union put out Monday.

The gift from Breazzano, a Union trustee, is part of a fundraising campaign that has raised almost $120 million toward a goal of $200 million. A main focus of the “You Are Union” drive is revitalizing residential life.

During his years at Union, David Breazzano served as president and treasurer of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and got involved in the radio station WRUC, intramural sports and the Interfraternity Council. He went on to earn an M.B.A. from Cornell University.

He rose high in the world of finance, managing one of the country's largest high-yield funds, the Fidelity Capital & Income Fund, and serving as chief investment officer of a $107 million limited partnership investing in distressed securities, the T. Rowe Price Recovery Fund.

Breazzano and two partners founded DDJ Capital Management in 1996. The Massachusetts firm manages more than $3 billion on behalf of more than 80 institutional clients.

Posted on Mar 21, 2007

Union College has landed a $2 million gift from an alumnus whose son attends the Schenectady school.

The unrestricted gift comes from David Breazzano, a 1978 graduate who co-founded a Waltham, Mass.-based investment management firm.

It's one of several multimillion dollar gifts Union has received in recent years. The biggest came in 2002, when geologist John Wold, a former Wyoming congressman, and his wife pledged $20 million for a variety of programs.

Others include more than $6.5 million from 1932 graduate William Dennison Williams and $1.5 million from brothers James Taylor, Class of '66, and John Taylor, '74, for a new music facility.

In gratitude for Breazzano's gift, announced Monday, Union will rename one of the houses in its Minerva system the Breazzano House.

Under the system, every Union student is assigned to one of seven “living and learning communities,” buildings where they hang out, study and interact with faculty.

Breazzano's son Jeremy is assigned to Orange House, which happens to be the one whose name will officially change to Breazzano House during “ReUnion” weekend from May 31 to June 3.

The senior, like most students, doesn't actually live in his Minerva house.

“He thinks it is kind of cool,” David Breazzano said of his son's membership in the soon-to-be Breazzano House, according to a news release Union put out Monday.

The gift from Breazzano, a Union trustee, is part of a fundraising campaign that has raised almost $120 million toward a goal of $200 million. A main focus of the “You Are Union” drive is revitalizing residential life.

During his years at Union, David Breazzano served as president and treasurer of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and got involved in the radio station WRUC, intramural sports and the Interfraternity Council. He went on to earn an M.B.A. from Cornell University.

He rose high in the world of finance, managing one of the country's largest high-yield funds, the Fidelity Capital & Income Fund, and serving as chief investment officer of a $107 million limited partnership investing in distressed securities, the T. Rowe Price Recovery Fund.

Breazzano and two partners founded DDJ Capital Management in 1996. The Massachusetts firm manages more than $3 billion on behalf of more than 80 institutional clients.

Posted on Mar 21, 2007

Perennial favorites Musicians from Marlboro return to Memorial Chapel Sunday, March 23 at 3 p.m. for a concert of Brahms, Ravel, Stravinsky and more. Ensemble members include Radovan Vlatkovic, horn; Anna Polonsky, piano; Soovin Kim and Jessica Lee, violins; Jonathan Vinocur, viola; and Soo Bae, cello.

Selections will include Johannes Brahms' Trio in E flat Major, Op. 40; “Twilight Music” from John Harbison; Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F Major and Igor Stravinsky's Concertino for String Quartet.

Founded in 1951, the Marlboro Music Festival unites world-renowned musicians for two months each summer for an in-depth exploration of a vast repertoire of chamber music in the informal and intimate setting of the Vermont hill town.

“I came expecting a school and found instead a temple of music,” said the legendary Pablo Casals, a principal figure at the Festival for many years.

Musicians from Marlboro is the touring extension of the famous Vermont Festival with more than 25 artists taking time off from their regular performances and recording sessions to bring the exquisite chamber music concerts to cities around the country.

The concert is free for members of the Union community; $20 for general admission and $8 for area students. For tickets, contact (518) 388-6080; for more information, contact (518) 388-3651 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries/.

Posted on Mar 21, 2007

Soledad O'Brien, co-anchor of CNN's popular American Morning, will speak Monday, April 9 at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

O'Brien's talk, “Diversity: On television, behind the scenes and in our lives,” is part of the Presidential Forum on Diversity. The talk is free and open to the public.

O'Brien joined CNN in July 2003. That fall, she was the only broadcast journalist permitted to travel with First Lady Laura Bush on her trip to Moscow. In December 2004, she was among a handful of CNN anchors sent to Puhket, Thailand, to cover the tsunami that claimed more than 155,000 lives.

Prior to joining CNN, O'Brien had been at NBC News since 1991, where she contributed reports for the Today Show and weekend editions of NBC Nightly News. She was anchor of Weekend Today since July 1999. In 2003, she covered the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and she later anchored NBC's weekend coverage of the war in Iraq. In 1998, she covered Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba.

A graduate of Harvard University, O'Brien began her career as an associate producer and news writer at the then-NBC affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston. From there, she joined MSNBC, where she anchored the award-winning technology program, The Site and the cable network's weekend morning show. She also served three years as a local reporter and bureau chief for the NBC affiliate KRON in San Francisco.

O'Brien won a local Emmy for her work as a co-host on Discovery Channel's The Know Zone. She was named to People magazine's “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2001 and People en Espanol's “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2004. O'Brien was also included in Crain's Business Reports' “40 Under 40″ and Essence magazine's “40 Under 40,” both in 2004. O'Brien has also been named to Irish American Magazine's “Top 100 Irish Americans” on two occasions.

She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She also writes a bi-monthly column for USA Weekend magazine on parenting.