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Arts Briefs

April 7, 2011, 4:43 pm

The film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor Mimmo Calopresti will be among participants in a four-day symposium on Italian cinema April 13-16 at Indiana University at Bloomington. “New Trends in Modern and Contemporary Italian Cinema,” organized by the university’s department of French and Italian, will include several feature, documentary, and short films and more than 50 presentations.

Calopresti has directed 17 films since 1987. At the conference, he will show and discuss four, including his latest, La Maglietta Rossa (The Red T-Shirt), a documentary which focuses on the historic 1976 Davis Cup tennis final between Italy and Chile. The victory was marked by political controversy, as many both inside and outside Italy felt their nation’s success in the tournament resulted from other national teams refusing to play against a team representing a military government ruled by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

He also will present his first feature film, the 1995 drama, La seconda volta (The Second Time), which centers on a professor and a former terrorist who had participated in a plot to kill him 12 years earlier. Other Calopresti films being screened are La fabbrica dei tedeschi (The ThyssenKrupp Factory) and Preferisco il rumore del mare (I Prefer the Sound of the Sea).

For more information, visit the symposium Web site or contact Antonio Vitti, the cinema professor who has headed the symposia for the last two years, at 812-855-2508 or ancvitti@indiana.edu.

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The conductor Simon Carrington will be in residence at Grinnell College April 10-17, and will direct the Grinnell Singers on Sun., Apr. 17 at 2 p.m. in Sebring-Lewis Hall in a program including selections from the 16th to the 21st century, among them works by Carrington and the Grinnell music professor John Rommereim, who directs the choir. Choir members and student conductors Mark Mercier, Sarah Goff, and Kathleen Murphy-Geiss will also conduct selections. The Singers recently completed a spring break tour in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas with performances in Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Austin, and Houston.

English-born Carrington is a renowned singer, double bass player, and conductor. From 2003 to 2009, he was professor of choral conducting at Yale University and director of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a 24-voice chamber choir. Now a Yale professor emeritus, he is a freelance conductor and choral clinician, leading workshops and master classes around the world, and he performs and conducts with his own ensemble, the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers.

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Cornell University is preparing for the Cornell Fashion Collective’s 27th Annual Fashion Show on Saturday, April 16, at Barton Hall in Ithaca, N.Y. With an expected audience of 2,500 people, 65 student designers will showcase more than 200 original fashion pieces. While most of the designers study fiber science and apparel design, a wide range of academic disciplines assist in planning every detail of the event, including runway design, seating arrangements, marketing and publicity, and ticket sales.

Expected highlights:

•    The Pendleton Scholarship Team, a group of 10 students from FSAD and the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management who have created a young men’s line with materials donated by Pendleton Woolen Mills.
•    Presentation of the 2011 Cornell Fashion Design Award, a national high school competition for aspiring designers, to Tiffany Zhang from Piedmont, Calif. Zhang will look on as her winning dress, created by a team of FSAD students, appears on the runway.
•    Eight ensembles fashioned from Spectra Elegance fabric—a patented technology that uses embedded LED lights and optical fibers to light up detail areas of traditional garments with the push of a button.

Cornell offers the only fashion design program in the Ivy League, and the nation’s only Ph.D. in apparel design. The Cornell Fashion Collective, formerly the Cornell Design League, was established in 1984 to provide a forum for apparel students to showcase their creativity outside the classroom.

For more information, visit this site.

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Wynton Marsalis will launch a two-year performance and lecture series at Harvard University on April 28, with an appearance at Sanders Theatre. The artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis is an accomplished trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and educator who has made the promotion of jazz and cultural literacy his hallmark causes.

Marsalis will visit campus several times, for two to three days at a time, over the next two years, lecturing on a variety of topics to illuminate the relationship between American music and the American identity. His talks will be punctuated with performances by dancers, Marsalis’s quintet, and other ensembles, including a New Orleans parade band and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

His lecture/performance on April 28 is titled “Music as Metaphor” and will feature Ali Jackson (drums), Dan Nimmer (piano), Walter Blanding Jr. (tenor sax), Carlos Henriquez (bass), James Chirillo (guitar and banjo), and Mark O’Connor (violin). The following day, Marsalis will teach a master class to high-school musicians at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

In 2008, a Harvard presidential task force called for a concerted effort to increase the presence of the arts on campus, and the appointment of Marsalis is part of that effort, the university says. Also part of that initiative, large-scale artist Krzysztof Wodiczko is teaching at at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; this semester Tony-nominated Diane Paulus, artistic director for the Harvard University American Repertory Theater, is teaching “Porgy and Bess: Performance in Context”; last year, Harvard announced that the Silk Road Project, founded by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, would move its headquarters to the university; and this fall, the choreographer Liz Lerman, MacArthur grant recipient, and founder of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, will be a visiting lecturer in residence.

Tickets for Marsalis’ lecture performance at Sanders Theatre will be free of charge, and will become available for the Harvard community on Tuesday, April 12, and to the general public on Thursday, April 14. For more information, visit this site.

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Paul K. Kreider, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Western Illinois University, has been named dean of the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University.

Before serving as dean at Western Illinois, he was the chair of the music department at Northern Kentucky University; associate dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas; chair and assistant chair, coordinator of vocal studies, and director of opera theater at the department of music at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas; and instructor at West Chester University.

Kreider earned his bachelor’s in music from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and his master’s and doctoral degrees in music from the University of Arizona. He also studied music and theater at Mankato State University. He co-founded the Southern Nevada Opera Association, won a Teacher of the Year award at UNLV and is a distinguished alumnus from the University of Arizona School of Music. His many performing credits include roles with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for six seasons, and as principal baritone with the Landestheater Salzburg for three years. His most recent recordings feature the works of composer Daron Hagen.

Arts briefs are compiled from news releases. Please send items to alexander.kafka@chronicle.com.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. _ Paul K. Kreider,dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Western Illinois University, has been named dean of the College of Creative Artsat West Virginia University.

“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Kreider to the Mountaineer family,” said Michele Wheatly, WVU provost and vice president for academic affairs. “His reputation as a top-rate performer, professor and administrator will serve the College of Creative Arts well. We are excited to have him lead several important projects within Creative Arts, such as the design and construction of the art museum and initiatives to increase enrollment.”

Kreider has served as a professor and administrator in multiple universities and has performed across the world in famous operas.

“I am honored to be offered the position of dean in the College of Creative Arts at WVU,” Kreider said. “I am looking forward to working inclusively with the excellent faculty and administration in this vibrant college to expand undergraduate and graduate program offerings and to elevate the national stature of its programs.

“I also look forward to working with the community to strengthen the role of the CCA throughout the state and region with regard to arts programming.”

He said his wife, Rebecca, and daughters, Jenna, 15, and Ally, 11, look forward to living in Morgantown.

Kreider is expected to start as dean on June 30.

Prior to serving as dean at Western Illinois, he was the chair of the Department of Music at Northern Kentucky University; associate dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; chair and assistant chair, coordinator of Vocal Studies and director of Opera Theater at the department of music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and instructor at West Chester University.

Kreider earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and received his master’s degree in music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona. He also studied music and theater at Mankato State University.

Krieder co-founded the Southern Nevada Opera Association, won a Teacher of the Year award at UNLV and is a Distinguished Alumnus from the University of Arizona School of Music.

He served as a board member of the Illinois Arts Alliance and the International Council of Fine Arts Deans. Kreider has also been a member of the music and Partner’s in Excellence panels for the Illinois Arts Council.

Kreider’s many performing credits include numerous roles with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for six seasons, and as principal baritone with the Landestheater Salzburg for three years. In addition, Kreider has also appeared throughout the world with world-renowned singers, conductors, and stage directors at the Vienna State Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Atlanta Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, National Opera of Slovenia, and in Rome, Santa Fe, and Tokyo, Japan. Symphonic credits include the Great Woods Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Austria’s Mozarteum Orchestra, Tucson Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the New Mexico Symphony in performances of Off’s “Carmina Burana,” the Illinois Symphony in Brahms’ “Requiem,” and most recently with the Kentucky Symphony.

Kreider’s most recent recordings feature the works of composer Daron Hagen. Kreider sings three Hagen song cycles on a CD entitled “Love in A Life,” released by Arsis Audio. He also recorded another project for Arsis as a guest with the Baylor University Wind Ensemble production of Hagen’s “Heart of the Stranger.” CRI Records released Hagen’s “Vera of Las Vegas” in 2002, which features Kreider. His most recent release is an American art song recording through Arsis entitled “Four Composers and One Voice” and is accompanied by composers Ned Rorem, David Del Tredici, Daron Hagen, and Virko Baley, each on one of their song cycles.

The College of Creative Arts, one of 13 colleges within WVU, is noted for offering the state’s premiere education and training in the performing and visual arts to approximately 675 majors with 120 faculty and professional staff. The college comprises three nationally accredited (NASAD, NASM and NAST) divisions of Art & Design, Music, and Theatre & Dance. Through creative activity and research, the college provides an educational environment for the exploration, advancement and understanding of the Arts and serves the University community and the people of the State with rigorously high levels of intellectual, creative and cultural experiences.

Dana Brooks,dean of WVU’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences,led the search committee that chose three candidates from a pool of applicants to visit campus in February and March.

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  • 22108469

    From a different perspective, one professor I know considers it a sort of “duty” to introduce new college students to the concept of the “real world,” i.e., the “indifferent world.” This professor teaches, in addition to the curriculum, concepts like “the world won’t care why you didn’t get this done, only that you didn’t.” He’s run into former students who, a decade later, have thanked him for introducing them to reality rather than spoonfeeding them another educational meal consisting of great sticky gobs of “self-esteem.”

  • carissamay

    Interesting ideas. But I don’t think walking a student through the university website is really about building self-esteem. I think the idea is to give them the tools to help themselves, in a non-scary way. At a new job people are usually trained by someone for the same reasons. I don’t see anything wrong with helping new students, especially immigrants or first generation students, adjust to college.
    thestudentsuccessblog.com

  • ssaulvolk

    Really good points; I would just add that there’s no reason why the same doesn’t apply to 4-year colleges. It’s not hard to find students who could use that extra welcoming help.

  • goodeyes

    As a parent, you should know the K-12 education of your children.  This author needs to be more engaged in the education of her child.  I find this sad. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Eliana-Osborn/572634960 Eliana Osborn

    That’s my point–we are just starting the k-12 world and I am looking forward to being part of it, recognizing that I need to learn a lot.

  • tiredofgarbage

    Glad you’re finally getting involved in your child’s “little people” education.
    But……
    What have you been doing for the last 5 years?  Have you taught this child to walk? talk? use the bathroom? go to bed?  get up?  feed themself? put their clothes away?  hang up their coat? pour water?  Propertly eat in a restaurant?  Going to Sunday School? 

    Presumably so. 

    That’s the problem with K-12 eduction today.  The parents should always be the first and best teacher, formal school is just a support. If you don’t know how to teach reading/math – from naturally interacting with your child and reading, talking, and doing coloring/workbooks with them – then you haven’t been doing your job in the first place.

    While the idea of your baby growing up may be scary – to you – it certainly shouldn’t be to your child.  Especially if you are an educator.  He should already have an understanding of his role and expectations, and be familiar with the concept of “school” and “work.”  You know you’ve done your job properly when they walk (run) into the building without a backwards look or tear.

  • activelylearningtolearn

    Great post! High-school students leave a very top-down structure for, especially in the university system, its inverse. Not only are students responsible for their own learning, but when it comes to the bureaucracy itself, students can’t expect faculty or most administrators to know — let alone inform them — of the various resources available to them, including the policies that can help them overcome bad grades that hurt their GPA’s. I don’t know about community colleges, but most universities now offer orientation courses, learning communities that enable students to share the learning process, enhanced advising programs, academic alert systems, and remediation study-skills courses. Still, many students have problems processing the nebulous cloud of even what they have to do, until it’s too late. In my freshman composition courses, I try to outline available resources, grade-replacement policies, and study-skills strategies as much as possible in class. Although I don’t have evidence that what I do helps, I imagine that the more students encounter that information, the more opportunities they’ll have to process it.

  • missoularedhead

    I do some handholding, in the sense that I show them how to use the library website to find scholarly articles, talk about the differences (and subtle ones, at that) between primary and secondary sources, give them a lesson in how to read for college, and discuss deadlines. And I stress that in college, effort doesn’t count for much — only the end result matters.

  • big_giant_head

    I have found that my first-semester students don’t know what Final Exam Week is at all.  They don’t understand that classes have ended.  Every semester, at least one person from each section will be shocked that (for instance), if our Final is on Monday, they don’t actually have to come to class on Wednesday.  Even though our college posts the Final Exam schedule in an area of the web portal called “Student Quick Clicks” no later than mid-August of a fall semester, these students have no idea that such a thing (not just the schedule, but Student Quick Clicks) exists.  When I show them the schedule, I also show them how to read it; a significant minority always has trouble making sense of the thing.

    I spend some time with every group explaining to them “how to do college,” because they just don’t know.  Most of them did not have parents or older siblings who went to college, after all. 

    There are always some who think our classroom is also my office.

    There are always some who can’t or won’t read a building map to find out where my actual office is, so I take them there on a “field trip” at the beginning of the semester.

    There are many who don’t know that they can appeal an unfair grade or complain about ineffective faculty, and I tell them not only how to do these things, but that they must do these things if a situation really is unfair (and that they must not if it isn’t–narcissistic whining never made made friends or influenced anyone in a good way).

    I remind them to keep a file of their work, both on a flash drive and on a secure hard drive someplace other than the athletic training room (I’m not kidding about that; I’ve seen it happen).  I explain that this is a CYA policy: you can’t appeal an unfair grade if you can’t prove it was unfair.  And as we all know, sometimes even conscientious faculty like me can lose student assignments.  If they have a copy saved, everyone can leave the room smiling.

    I show them the way I how I organize my email and document folders, so they can see why I never lose a student email or an assignment I created 8 years ago–and why I can gain access to these things in less than 30 seconds without fail.

    And…no.  No professor ever did any of these things when I was a 25-year-old freshman, nor would I have expected them to.  But this is a different generation.  They’re mostly good people, but a whole huge chunk of them has never been taught how to do things on their own, and without a significant amount of initial hand-holding, a great many of them would just disappear–not because they don’t belong in college, but because it is an unfamiliar culture.

    We do, by the way, have a sort of orientation program, but the students universally despise it.  I’m not sure why.  I know it tries to impart some good information, but I think the students are so resistant to it that they consider it all useless, until the time comes that they need to know something, and then…well, it’s nice to have an Instructor who doesn’t treat them like morons when they don’t know how to do or find something.

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