“Shakkei,” an oboe concerto by Hilary Tann, the John Howard Payne Professor Department of Music, has been selected for the opening concert of the 15th World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, July 8. Performing will be the Thailand Philharmonic with soprano saxophone soloist Susan Fancher. The following day, Tann's alto saxophone concerto, "In the First, Spinning Place," will be premiered by Debra Richtmeyer in a reduction for alto saxophone and piano. Richtmeyer, president of the North American Saxophone Alliance, was soloist for the original orchestral version of the concerto in Tucson, Ariz. at NASA 2000. Later this summer, she will record the work for CD with Kirk Trevor and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Cay Anderson-Hanley, assistant professor of psychology, recently presented research from her cybercycle study on videogame-enhanced exercise for older adults at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Montreal. She was joined by several Union students, Paul Arciero, associate professor of exercise science at Skidmore, and two Skidmore students. Anderson-Hanley, John Nimon ’07, Sarah Westen ’09, Lyndsay DeMatteo ’10 and Skidmore’s Naoko Okuma presented on neuropsychological effects of videogame-enhanced exercise. This same group, along with Skidmore’s R. Klein, presented on physiological effects. Nimon, Anderson-Hanley, Arciero, Westen, DeMatteo and Okuma discussed the theory of planned behavior, and Westen, Anderson-Hanley, Arciero and Nimon presented on mediating effects of BDNF and IGF-1 on cognitive outcomes from the study.
Katherine Lynes, assistant professor of English, will present a paper at the conference for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in Victoria, B.C., in June. The paper is titled, “‘Maybe, In Fact, It Is Especially for them’: Audience and Nature Poetry Anthologies.” She will participate in a seminar at the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., in late June. Recently, an article by Lynes, “The Ecologies of African-American Poetry Collections,” was accepted for publication and is forthcoming in “Comparative American Studies” (June 2009). In addition, Lynes participated in a seminar on “Remapping the Harlem Renaissance” at the Modernist Studies Association conference in Nashville.
The Edward Villella Fellowship was awarded to Lisa Crescenzo ’11, who will pursue a summer internship at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, N,Y. She will be an assistant for exhibit and research programs and also attend workshops with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The fellowship, created in honor of Edward Villella through the gifts of Charles D. Lothridge ’44, was designed to expand the experience of dance beyond Union. Villella, founder of Miami City Ballet, was a principal dancer with the New York City ballet.