Music professor's work to premiere this month
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| Robert Aldridge |
Montclair State faculty and staff are invited to a backstage reception
following the 3 p.m. performance of music professor Robert Aldridge's
"Leda and the Swan," a commission by the New Jersey Symphony
Orchestra, on Sunday, Feb. 2 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
(NJPAC) in Newark.
Discounted tickets for the performance are available for faculty and staff,
and can be reserved by calling 1-800-ALLEGRO. Tickets for students are
$5 and can be reserved by phone or picked up at the door by showing a
valid MSU ID.
Aldridge said "Leda and the Swan" is a tone poem based on the Greek myth of the relationships between Zeus and Leda. "The NJSO rapidly is becoming one of the best orchestras in the country," Aldridge said. "I am tremendously excited about this opportunity."
Other performances of Aldridge's "Leda and the Swan" are Thursday, Jan. 30, at 8 p.m. at the John Harms Center in Englewood; Friday, Jan. 21, at 8 p.m. at NJPAC; and Saturday, Feb. 1, at 8 p.m. at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank.
Montclair State Chorus, musicians to perform with
NJSO
The Montclair State Chamber Singers will make its debut at the
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's (NJSO) Winter Festival, "The American
Roots Festival," from Jan. 17 to 19 at the New Jersey Performing
Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark.
The newly formed ensemble also will be featured Jan. 18 in a symposium performance of "The Americanists" at the Newark Museum and will perform for the Prokofiev Festival in the spring. NJPAC has invited the Chamber Singers to return in 2004 as a featured ensemble for the Dvorak Festival and Symposium.
This year's NJSO Winter Festival will focus on the influences of the black slaves of the South, the American Indians of the West and the Transcendentalist writers of the Northeast on the development of American music. Also as part of the festival, Newband will perform works by Harry Partch and Dean Drummond of Music at a Jan. 19 concert in Memorial Auditorium. (Click here to read this week's Q&A with Drummond.)
Guest performers with the NJSO will be on campus Wednesday, Jan. 15,
from 9 to 11 a.m. to perform for Montclair State students in McEachern
Music Hall. Faculty and staff are invited to attend.
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The Montclair State Chamber
Singers
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Department expands and changes name
Effective this semester, the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary
Education has been expanded to include faculty, programs and courses formerly
associated with the Department of Literacy and Educational Media. The
name has been changed to Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education.
The department code ECEL remains, and the Department of Literacy and Educational
Media has been disbanded.
The following programs, formerly in Literacy and Educational Media, are
now in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education:
* Reading major, M.A.
* Reading minor
* Reading specialist graduate educational services certification
* Reading graduate instructional certification
The following programs are now housed in the Department of Curriculum
and Teaching:
* Associate educational media specialist graduate educational services
certification
* Educational media specialist graduate educational services certification
All reading (READ) courses are now housed in the Department of Early Childhood,
Elementary and Literacy Education, and all educational media (MEDI) courses
are now housed in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching.
Great Events presents 'The Mouse
and the Motorcycle'
The Great Events Series will present "The Mouse and the Motorcycle"
on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 3 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium. The show is recommended
for children ages 7-12. Tickets are $15.
Presented by the Omaha Theatre Company for Young People, the performance
relates the adventurous story of friendship between a mouse and a young
boy. Living in a piney knothole in a hotel room, Ralph the mouse has seen
plenty of families come and go, some more generous with their crumbs than
others.
But when young Keith and his parents check in, Ralph becomes captivated
with Keith's toy motorcycle. Keith soon lets Ralph ride it. However, the
talkative mouse seems to only get deeper and deeper into trouble. And
when Keith becomes sick it is up to Ralph to help him
get better in this delightful story of friendship and adventure.
The production, directed by Artistic Director James Larson, is based on
the book by Beverly Cleary, who has written such favorites as "Ramona
Quimby" and "Henry Huggins," the Omaha Theater Company
is the first theater to adapt and perform it. Larson acknowledges that
most playwrights have probably frowned upon the task of putting a boy,
a mouse and a motorcycle together on stage, but he finds reward in the
process. He was particularly excited about working with Cleary during
the adaptation process.
"Before we got permission to adapt her book, we had to let Cleary
read every single word of the adaptation," Larson said. "She
did a lot of rewriting to make Ralph sound more boyish. The show you will
see is completely the way Beverly Cleary feels it ought to be."
Larson says it's a must-see show: "The story is timeless and wonderful.
It's about how kids are so eager to grow up, to learn things, to take
on responsibility, to earn the respect and confidence of grownups."
For further information, to order tickets, or to request a brochure, call the Box Office at 973-655-5112 or visit www.montclair.edu/pages/greatevents.
Board News
At its Dec. 13 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved eight professional/managerial
staff appointments, 39 faculty reappointments, 17 faculty reappointments
with tenure, 23 professional staff reappointments, and professors emerita/emeritus
status to Ree Arnold and Leonard Lucenko of Health Professions, Physical
Education, Recreation and Leisure Studies; Peter Macaluso of History;
and Agnes O'Connell of Psychology.
The Board also approved the naming of the four residence halls in the
student apartment complex on Clove Road--Count Basie Hall, Israel Crane
Hall, Alice Paul Hall, Williams Carlos Williams Hall--and naming the recreation
center in that complex, the Abbott and Costello Center.
In Memoriam
Ernest M. May, a former member and chair of the Montclair State Board
of Trustees, passed away Dec. 6 at age 89. May served on the BOT from
1974 to 1985, serving three years as chair. An advocate for early childhood
development, May was involved with Youth Consultation Services (YCS),
which, in 1991, named its special education center in Union City the Ernest
M. May Academy. He had recently received the Thea Bry Award from YCS for
"A lifetime of giving to others, giving a voice for those who have
none."
He is survived by Betty, his wife of 62 years, two sons, a daughter, 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.