Portland Gay Men’s Chorus to Perform in Salem

The Portland Gay Men’s Chorus will perform Saturday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall at Willamette University. The concert will feature “Metamorphosis,” an expansive choral/orchestral song cycle that centers on the struggles of coming out within families and communities of faith. Admission is free.

The Salem performance follows the recent premiere of “Metamorphosis” in Portland, Boston and New York. The 2004 composition, by composer Robert Seeley and lyricist Robert Espindola, was written for the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, of Minnesota. The work consists of a series of soul-searching, thought-provoking songs about personal identity, relationships with loved ones and changes across the life span, and is accompanied by full orchestra. Also on the program are humorous works by Eric Lane Barnes of Seattle and the “AIDS Requiem” by Portland composer David York.

Under the direction of Artistic Director Bob Mensel, the 100-voice Portland Gay Men’s Chorus was founded in 1980 and is the fourth oldest gay-identified chorus in the United States. More than 700 men and women, some now deceased, have been members of the chorus during its history. The recipient of numerous awards for musical excellence and community service, the chorus aspires to redefine and perfect the choral art through eclectic performances that honor and uplift the gay community and affirm the worth of all people.

The group has commissioned more than 40 new choral works and has three CDs: “Breaking the Silence with Song” (1995), “Millennium Mosaic” (2000) and “Holiday Serenade” (2003).

Concerts by the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus frequently feature innovative choreography, creative staging and visual media. Performances are appropriate for youth, and the chorus welcomes families.

The concert is funded by Willamette University’s Lilly Project, which supports the study and pursuit of vocation.

[ email this story ]

Two New Exhibitions at Hallie Ford Museum

Two new exhibitions that introduce the work of artists from the Willamette University art department will open April 15 and continue through May 13 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. The work of senior art and art history majors and art faculty member Alexandra Opie will be featured.

The Senior Art Majors Exhibition is presented each spring. Characterized by a wide variety of styles and approaches, the exhibition includes work in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, ceramics and mixed media. The exhibition also features a section devoted to senior theses in art history.

From Oregon, the exhibition includes senior art and art history majors Benjamin Decherd, Allyson Dutko, Kasia Elerath, Chris Hochendoner, Julia Houha, Alex MacKenzie, Read McFaddin, Scott Randall, Rachael Sanders and Yen Tran. Students from nearby states include Morgan Bagge, Kirsten Erwin, Julie Hansmeier, Kristin Knutson, Ann Mitchell, Nicole Reed, Amber Revoir and Melissa Williams.

Alexandra Opie is a visiting professor at Willamette University. She holds a BA degree from Southern Oregon University and an MFA degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, in electronic media, installation art and performance. She has taught at the University of Massachusetts and the College of Holy Cross. Her exhibition will feature a new video installation.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call 503-370-6855.

[ email this story ]

Chinese Zither Concert Combines Old and New Traditions

Canadian musicians Mei Han and Randy Raine-Reusch will present a concert of music for the zheng, or Chinese long zither, Friday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall at Willamette University. They will also present a lecture-demonstration, “Zheng: The Chinese Zither,” at 4 p.m. that afternoon in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library. Both events are free.

Han and Raine-Reusch collaborate to take the zheng and Chinese music in radical new directions, combining 5,000 years of Chinese musical traditions with new music, world music and jazz. Their performances, which have been described as stunning and energetic, draw on two cultures: Chinese virtuoso Han’s deep roots in traditional music and the modern innovations of Raine-Reusch. Han is a rare blend of virtuoso performer and scholar, who has performed on five continents. Her performances have been broadcast nationally in China and Canada, and are included in CDs sold around the world. Raine-Reusch is a composer and performer who has collected more than 700 world musical instruments. Specializing in compositions that utilize instruments from around the globe, he has worked with some of the world’s most prominent artists in numerous genres, including Pauline Oliveros, Aerosmith, Yes and The Cranberries.

Han and Raine-Reusch’s recent CD, “Distant Wind,” reached the top spot on the Canadian College World Music charts, was nominated for a Juno (Best World) and for the West Coast Music Awards (Best Global, Best Instrumental.)

The zheng can be traced back to the 6th century B.C. The instrument has a wooden tube body, 21 plucked strings and movable bridges, and is usually tuned to a pentatonic scale. The zheng is the parent instrument of the Asian long zither family, which includes the koto of Japan. Its sound can be hauntingly melodic, as in much traditional Chinese music, but also expansively contemporary, well adapted to vigorous improvisation and modern soundscapes.

[ email this story ]

Journalist to Discuss U.S. Foreign Policy

Mark Danner, a nationally recognized politics and foreign policy journalist who focuses on war and conflict, will deliver two lectures at Willamette University in late April.
 
On Wednesday, April 26, Danner will discuss “Human Rights in a Dark Time: From Salvador to Iraq and the War on Terror” in Cone Chapel at 7:30 p.m. On Thursday, April 27, he will discuss “The Age of Frozen Scandal: Power and the Press After 9/11” also in Cone Chapel at 12:45 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
 
Danner is a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights, Democracy and Journalism at Bard College. In 1999 Danner was named a MacArthur Fellow.
 
He has covered Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, and Iraq and the Middle East. He is the author of The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War; The Road to Illegitimacy; Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror; and The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History.
 
Since 1990 Danner has been a staff writer at The New Yorker and is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, and Aperture among others.
 
He has co-written and helped produce two hour-long documentaries for the ABC News program Peter Jennings Reporting. He has received a National Magazine Award, three Overseas Press Awards and an Emmy.
 
His Willamette appearance is sponsored by the Lilly Project at Willamette and the departments of history, politics and Latin American studies.

[ email this story ]

Atkinson Lecture Series Welcomes Ira Glass

Ira Glass, host and producer of the National Public Radio program This American Life, will deliver the spring Atkinson Lecture Saturday, April 22, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m.

Tickets for Willamette University students, faculty and staff will be available at the Information Desk in University Center beginning April 10. The first ticket is free with a Willamette ID and subsequent tickets are $10. Tickets for the general public will be available beginning April 17 for $10 at University Center.

This American Life premiered on Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by an estimated 1.7 million listeners.

Glass began his career as an intern at NPR’s network headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1978 when he was 19 years old and held virtually every production job on site. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.

Under his direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Award.

Glass, one celebrity who prefers to be heard and not seen, is a 1982 graduate of Brown University.

The 2005-06 Atkinson Lecture series opened in November with a lecture by Dr. Azar Nafisi, the author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.” [learn more]

[ email this story ]

Ambassador Wilson at Willamette University

Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, author of "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity” and “What I Didn't Find in Africa,” a book that accuses the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq, will speak at Willamette University, Wednesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. in Smith Auditorium. The title of his talk is “Speaking Truth to Power: The War in Iraq and the WMD Lie.”

Wilson will also take questions from the audience after his presentation and will be available for book signing. The event is sponsored by the Willamette University Events Board and the Office of the President.

With a Willamette ID, the first ticket is free and subsequent tickets are $5 beginning March 27. Tickets for the general public are $5 beginning March 29. Tickets are available at the Information Desk in University Center.

Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998, Wilson was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He was one of the principal architects of President Clinton’s historic trip to Africa in March 1998.

Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger; Lome, Togo; the State Department Bureau of African Affairs and Pretoria, South Africa.
From 1988 to 1991, Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During “Desert Shield” he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of “Desert Storm.”

Wilson graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He is a graduate of the Senior Seminar (1972), the most advanced International Affairs training offered by the U.S. Government. He speaks fluent French.

He is married to the former undercover CIA operative, Valerie Plame, and has two sons and two daughters.

Please note: due to a scheduling conflict, Former Ambassador Joe Wilson will be unable to participate in the book signing noted above.

[ email this story ]

“Camels and Leopards and Bears, Oh My!” Workshop

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has planned a family workshop, “Camels and Leopards and Bears, Oh My!” The workshop has been scheduled for Saturday, March 18, from 12-4 p.m. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Under the guidance of art educators Sarah Mace and Julie Perko, children and their parents will create sculpture and wearable art inspired by the animals in the exhibition. In addition, storyteller Sarah Stein will offer colorful animal folktales from ancient Mongolia at 1 and 3 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to pick up a family guide and follow the clues to find other animals hidden in the exhibition and throughout the permanent galleries.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation has been supported by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, please call 503-370-6855.

[ email this story ]

Dean Porter: Taos Landscapes

A small exhibition of Dean Porter’s work will run March 18 to May 20 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. Dean Porter is a painter, printmaker, art historian and director emeritus of the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

For the past two decades, Porter has traveled to Taos, N.M., to paint. Guest curated by Associate Professor Ann Nicgorski, the exhibition will feature a range of watercolors and woodcuts created during the past few years.

Porter will also deliver the 2006 Hogue-Sponenburgh Lecture April 6 at Cone Chapel in Waller Hall on the Willamette campus. He will speak about “The Rise and Fall of the Taos Society of Artists.” This event is free and the public is invited.

Dean Porter holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Binghamton, in art history. A historian of medieval art, he took up painting and printmaking in the 1970s and has since participated in numerous one-person and group exhibitions around the country.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call 503-370-6855.

[ email this story ]

Celtic Pilgrimage with John Doan

John Doan, Northwest musician and recording artist for Hearts O’ Space Records, will present a concert Saturday, March 18, at 8 p.m. in Hudson Hall at Willamette University. The event will feature music from both his latest CD release, “Wayfarer — Ancient Paths to Sacred Places — A Celtic Pilgrimage” and his former release, “Eire — Isle of the Saints,” voted number one Celtic Album of the Year by the NAV Music Awards. Ticket prices are $12 for general admission and $10 for children and seniors. Seating is limited. A limited number of tickets are available without charge up to a week before the event to Willamette University students, faculty and staff at the Music Department. For more information call 503-325-6432.

Master harp guitarist, storyteller and historian Doan takes his audiences on a Celtic pilgrimage to the sites made famous by St. Patrick and others during the Golden Age of Ireland. A millennium ago these sites were imaginatively called “Thin Places,” where it was believed that the space between heaven and earth, and past and future, was thinly divided. The audience is transported back to the sites where the music was composed, enhanced by storytelling and a multimedia show. A new DVD project filmed on location, “A Celtic Pilgrimage,” will be available at the concert.

Doan traveled to the British Isles where he made these musical sketches that he expresses through his harp guitar. The version of the harp guitar that he plays is a rare, 20-string instrument created at the end of the last century in Europe and America. It supplements the standard guitar’s six fretted strings with six unfretted sub-bass strings, but its most distinctive sound is the crystalline harp tones of eight treble strings, which ring with bell-like clarity.

“It has almost the range of the piano but it is a lot easier to carry with you,” he said.

Doan has starred in two popular television specials produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and his music has been featured on numerous prime-time television and movie productions, including Walt Disney. He is an associate professor of music at Willamette University. For more information go to www.johndoan.com.

[ email this story ]

Gubernatorial Forum Held at Willamette University

Campaign Forum 2006, featuring six gubernatorial candidates, will be held at Willamette University in Salem Monday, March 13, at 1:30 p.m. in Smith Auditorium. The event, sponsored by the University and The Associated Press Newspaper Executives, is free and open to the public.

Participating candidates are: Jason Atkinson (R); Jim Hill (D); Kevin Mannix (R); Ron Saxton (R); Peter Sorenson (D), and Ben Westlund (I).

The forum panel will be headed by Brad Cain, chief correspondent, Associated Press Salem Bureau, who will be joined by three other political reporters from around the state.

Candidates will answer questions from the panel, from each other, and if time permits, they will also answer written questions from the audience.

[ email this story ]