Posted on Oct 25, 2007

Three bright, young virtuosos known as Trio Cavatina make their Chamber Concert Series debut Friday, Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. at Memorial Chapel with a concert of all-Beethoven piano trios.

Selections for include Op. 1, No.1; Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost” and Op. 97 “Archduke.”

Formed in 2005, Trio Cavatina is composed of Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, violinist Harumi Rhodes and cellist Priscilla Lee. All three completed the New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program in 2006-07.

Last season marked their first performing together, with debuts at the New School in New York and Jordan Hall in Boston. Additional appearances included the Merkin Hall’s Young Artist Series, the Brattleboro Music Center and the Performers of Westchester Concert Series.

In addition to the classical and romantic trio repertoire, Trio Cavatina is committed to performing 20th century and newly composed works and has worked with American composer Leon Kirchner.

Jokubaviciute earned degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Mannes College of Music. Her principal teachers have been Seymour Lipkin and Richard Goode, who opened the season for Union’s 36th International Festival of Chamber Music this month. Jokubaviciute has appeared in chamber music concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as a guest artist on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, in Panama City, Panama, and on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. 

Rhodes, a graduate of the Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, has performed extensively with prestigious musicians worldwide. Upon completing her residency at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II, she joined the Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota and Seattle chamber music societies. She has performed at the 2007 Vermont Mozart Festival and several Musicians from Marlboro tours. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Rhodes had a solo violin piece dedicated to her by composer Benjamin Lees. 

California native Lee began studying the cello at age 5. She studied with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School of Performing Arts and in 1998 went to the Curtis Institute of Music to study with David Soyer, making her solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic later that year. In 2005, she received a master’s of music degree from the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Timothy Eddy and received the 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was selected as a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two for the 2006-2009 seasons.

Next week’s concert is free for the Union College community; $20 for general admission and $8 for area students. For tickets, call ext. 6080; for more information on the series, call 372-3651 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.

Posted on Oct 25, 2007

Maya Angelou, the award-winning poet, civil rights activist and playwright, captivated an overflow crowd of more than 900 in Memorial Chapel Monday night. People began lining up at least an an hour before the event, hoping to get inside to hear the 79-year-old icon speak. For the people who packed the Chapel, Angelou did not disappoint.

Displaying her wide range of talents, Angelou sang, recited poetry, told jokes and offered words of wisdom to the audience, who responded with two standing ovations during the night.

She also recounted her difficult childhood growing up black and poor in Arkansas, which included being molested at the age of seven by her mother’s boyfriend. Traumatized by the incident and the subsequent news that an uncle had killed her attacker, Angelou lost the ability to speak for five years.

Instead, she turned to reading for salvation. She was especially attracted to the words of Shakespeare, who seemed to understand her troubles.

"At one point I was sure that Shakespeare was probably a black girl," she told the crowd.

Angelou is the recipient of dozens of honorary degrees, and she became one of only two poets to read an original work at a presidential inauguration when she was invited by President Bill Clinton to speak in 1993. Her work, “On the Pulse of Morning,” earned Angelou a Grammy award. Her best-known book is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” the first of six volumes of her memoirs. The 1970 autobiography was nominated for a National Book Award.

Angelou’s visit was part of the College’s President’s Forum on Diversity.

Posted on Oct 25, 2007

Friday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. / Messa Rink / Women’s hockey vs. Brown

Friday, Oct. 26, 10 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Hypnotist Steve Taubman

Friday, Oct. 26 – Monday, Oct. 29, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: Harry Potter

Saturday, Oct. 27, 1 p.m. / Alumni Gymnasium / Men’s and women’s swimming relays

Saturday, Oct. 27, 4 p.m. / Messa Rink / Women’s hockey vs. Yale

Monday, Oct, 29, 12:50 p.m. / Olin Room 110 / Learning and Teaching with Technology presents Engineering Professor Ashraf Ghaly on “Savor the Flavor of an Arts and Engineering Cocktail”

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 6 p.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Volleyball vs. Oneonta

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 6 – 9 p.m. / F.W. Olin Rotunda / Photographs of filmmaker Christopher Moore’s time in Venezuela

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m. / Residence Hall / A 30-day series, hosted by RA leaders, presents, “Straight Man in a Gay World.” A 24-year old straight man moves to San Francisco to live in what is known to have the largest gay community in the country. Followed by a discussion in Richmond basement lounge

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m. / Olin Auditorium / Filmmaker Christopher Moore presents the documentary which he produced and co-directed “Puedo Hablar” about Hugo Chavez and his campaign for re-election in Venezuela

Tuesday, Oct. 30 – Saturday Nov. 3, 8 p.m. / Yulman Theatre / Department of Theatre & Dance Presents “Dracula”

Thursday, Nov. 1, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. / Old Chapel / Annual walk-in flu clinic for students; $27 vaccine

Thursday, Nov. 1, 12:40 p.m. / Science & Engineering Building Room N304 / Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Series presents Sabrina Stierwalt of Cornell University “The ALFALFA Survey: A Hunt for Low-mass and Starless Galaxies”

Thursday, Nov. 1, 12:45 p.m. / F.W.Olin, Room 106 / R. David Crouch, assistant professor of chemistry, Dickinson College presents “Selective Monodeprotection of Bis-Silyl Ethers”

Thursday, Nov. 1, 12:45 p.m. / F.W.Olin, Room 115 / Thomas Schultz of Denison University presents “Reflections on Damselfly Colors and Intraspecific Aposematism”

Thursday, Nov. 1 and Thursday, Nov. 8, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. / Old Chapel / Flu Clinic

Thursday, Nov. 1, 4:30 p.m. / Fred L. Emerson Foundation Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center / Emerson Concert Series presents Young Kim, Madalyn Parnas and Cicely Parnas

Thursday, Nov. 1, 4:30 p.m. / Schaffer Library, Phi Beta Kappa Room / Philosophy Speaker Series presents Sharon Street of NYU on “Objectivity and Truth: You’d Better Rethink It”

Friday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m. / Messa Rink / Men’s hockey vs. Brown

Friday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / International Festival of Chamber Music Presents Trio Cavatina

Friday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m. / Proctor’s Theater / Proctor’s presents, “The Whirling Deverishes of Turkey.” Tickets are free through Sorum and the Religious Studies Department. Talk by Professor Peter Bedford in Sorum House preceding the event. Contact Ariel Sincoff-Yedid at sincoffa@union.edu by Saturday, Oct. 20 

Friday, Nov. 2 – Monday, Nov. 5, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: Hairspray

Saturday, Nov. 3, noon / Frank Bailey Field / Athletics Hall of Fame Day Football Game vs. Hobart

Saturday, Nov. 3, 6 p.m. / Old Chapel / Shakti Fall Show

Saturday, Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. / Messa Rink / Men’s hockey vs. Yale

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2 p.m. / Yulman Theatre / Department of Theatre & Dance Presents “Dracula”

Posted on Oct 25, 2007

President Stephen Ainlay will host the first "fireside" chat with students this term Monday, Oct. 29, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the pit at Reamer Campus Center.

Topics to be discussed include the College’s relationship with the city of Schenectady, and sustainability. Ainlay recently signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), which formally commits the College to reducing and eventually eliminating its global warming emissions. Union also promises to provide critical research and education that will help eliminate global warming.

Ainlay will be joined by Diane Blake, vice president for Finance.

The discussion will mark the official debut of the Class of 2007 fireplace, which was added over the summer near the exit into Jackson’s Garden.

Ainlay started the fireside chats last January during his first year as president and plans to host one each term.

The informal talks are sponsored by Student Forum.

Posted on Oct 25, 2007

Guest filmmaker Christopher Moorewill screen “¿Puedo Hablar? / May I Speak,” the  2007 documentary he produced and co-directed about Hugo Chavez and his campaign for re-election in Venezuela, Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in F.W. Olin Auditorium.

His talk will be followed by a Q&A discussion, and photographs of his time in Venezuela will be on view in the Olin Rotunda 6-9 p.m.  

After graduating from Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn., in 2006, Moore and two other graduates formed an independent documentary film company, Sol Productions. He spent two months in Venezuela filming “Puedo Hablar?,” following both candidates as they raced toward the Dec. 3 elections. 

The film offers its audience a snapshot portrait of a Venezuelan society at a crossroads; a re-elected president, challenged by a mounting opposition; a country torn between two definitions of “democracy.”  His team filmed in six regions of the country, from the notorious barrios of Caracas to the oil-rich Lake Maracaibo, traveling in everything from Chavista motocicletas to dug-out canoes to a private boat.

The trailer for the film is available at: http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=932890796

Over the last year, Moore also produced and directed “Democracy in Dakar,” which chronicles the role of hip-hop music in Senegalese politics.

Moore’s campus visit is sponsored by the Latin American & Caribbean Studies Program and the departments of Visual Arts, History and Political Science. Lorraine Morales Cox, assistant professor of Contemporary Art and Theory, is also organizing a group of students interested in filmmaking to meet with Moore earlier in the day.