Page 35 - The Bell Tower - Fall 2014

FACULTYHIGHLIGHTS ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS
Trustee Professorship
The University of Maine System Chancellor, Dr. James H. Page, has appointed UMFK Professor of Music and Education Dr. Scott T. Brickman to Trustee Professorship for the 2014-2015 academic year.
Dr. Brickman will oversee the recording of a compact disc of his original contempo- rary classical music.
Parma Recordings of North Hampton, New Hampshire, has agreed to release the CD. The instrumental music will be performed primarily by the ensemble Eight Strings and a Whistle, which includes flautist Suzanne Gilchrist, violist Ina Litera, and ‘cellist Matt Goeke. On this recording, Eight Strings and a Whistle will be accompanied by pianist Beth Levin, a concert artist from New York City. Four of the five compositions (French Suite, Partita for viola and piano; Divertimento for ‘cello and piano; and 96 Strings and Two Whistles for flute/alto flute, viol, ‘cello and piano) on this upcoming release were written specifically for the artists, and Dr. Brickman has been collaborat- ing with them since the summer of 2011.
The projected release date is June 2015. A few CDs that Dr. Brickman has had his compositions on during his tenure at UMFK are Sketches of Maine on the compilation CDs “Contemporary American Eclectic Music for the Piano” (1999), Signature: Peace on “60x60” (2003), Bon Fete on SEAMUS 20th Anniversary CD (2007), and Symphony #1 on Masterworks of the New Millennium (2008).
Eight Strings and a Whistle has been featuring Brickman’s French Suite at perfor- mances they have given this past year. In January 2014, they performed the work in New York City as part of a private fundraiser; in March they played the piece on their New England tour, and subsequently performed the piece at a concert sponsored by the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA) in April and at the Queen’s New Music Festival in May.
Dr. Brickman has had his CDs “Winter and Construction” (2012), which included compositions performed by the Strung Out Trio (violin, guitar and piano), and “Dear Darwin” (2014), a song cycle set to the poetry of Kathleen Ellis and performed by UMO faculty members Ginger Yang Hwalek and Nancy Ellen Ogle, previously released by Parma Recordings. Pianist Beth Levin is a Parma recording artist and Eight Strings and a Whistle recently signed a contract with Parma records to become Parma artists. This concert season Dr. Brickman will be the featured composer on Eight Strings and a Whistle’s website (http://eightstringsandawhistle.com).
Dr. Brickman has taught at UMFK since the fall of 1997. He teaches courses in Music, First Year Experience, and Education.
GERALDINE CANNON BECKER EARNS DEGREE
Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing Geraldine Cannon Becker recently earned a master of
arts degree in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute (Carpinteria, California). She also published two peer- reviewed articles. The first issue of a brand new online journal, Chrysalis: The Journal of Transformative Language Arts includes her article, “A Transformative Experience of Soulful Gardening: Cultivating with Mind, Body, and Soul”; and the oldest Jungian journal in the world, Spring Journal: Women’s Voices (vol.91) published “Flying by Words – From the Front Porch to the Podium”. WE LEARN (Women, Expanding: Literacy, Education, Action, Resource, Network),
a community promoting women’s lit- eracy as a tool that fosters empower- ment and equity for women, recently invited Prof. Cannon Becker to serve on the board of directors. Cannon Becker co-chaired WE LEARN’s ninth confer- ence, “Women’s Literacy Gardens,” that occurred this past March. She has been an active WE LEARN member since 2004, presenting workshops, serving on vari- ous conference committees, and reading for the selection committee of Women’s Perspectives, their annual publication. In fact, an article on the theme of voice and rape culture that Cannon Becker wrote for a WE LEARN newsletter has become assigned reading in the classrooms of Dr. Susan Conradsen, associate professor of psychology, and director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Berry College, Georgia. Readers may find more information on Cannon Becker and her publications: http://www.umfk.edu/library/faculty/ scholarship/.
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