1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Events

Alt-folk group Vandaveer to visit Transylvania on Sept. 19

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LEXINGTON, Ky—Nationally known alt-folk rocker and 2000 Transylvania University graduate Mark Heidinger returns to campus Thursday, Sept. 19, for a free concert and lecture. Heidinger performs under the name Vandaveer with a cycling cast of band members, the latest being co-vocalist Rose Guerin, whose voice has been compared to Emmylou Harris’. Currently on a national tour, the duo will perform murder ballads from the CD Oh, Willie, Please. Last year, the web-based 78 Project asked Heidinger to select public domain songs and record them with a single microphone and a 1930s Presto direct-to-acetate disk recorder. Originally the plan was to record the well-known murder ballad “Pretty Polly.” Although the band ended up covering another ballad, Heidinger was attracted by the “darker side of the human condition” and went on to record 11 murder ballads for this new release. Reflecting on his time as an English major at Transylvania, Heidinger says, “I began to learn how to read and think critically, as an adult. You apply that to your artistic trade almost inherently at that point. You become a chief and strident critic of your own writing. Beyond exposing me to important writers and great writing, the English department taught me how to think.” Transylvania art professor Kurt Gohde created the album artwork for Vandaveer’s 2007 release Grace and Speed. Heidinger will talk about the formation of the band and sources of inspiration for Oh, Willie Please during a lecture Thursday,

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Transylvania kicks off “Still Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness,” a year-long celebration of racial and ethnic diversity

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—The year 1963 was a watershed for race relations—both nationally and at Transylvania University. Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. Around the same time, Lula Morton Drewes ‘67 became the first African-American student to enroll in the regular B.A. degree program at Transylvania, an act that heralded the beginning of desegregation at the university.   Drewes will soon mark the 50th anniversary of her enrollment with a return to campus. She’ll speak at Transylvania’s fall convocation, which formally opens the academic year, at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 in Haggin Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. The convocation will kick off a year-long celebration and discussion at Transylvania titled “Still Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness.” The program will focus on the advent of a more enlightened attitude toward racial and ethnic diversity, which Drewes’s arrival on campus has come to symbolize, and on other events that have furthered this purpose over the years. Additional speakers, scholarly presentations, panel discussions, film screenings, and music and artistic programs are among the other activities being considered for Still Overcoming. It will center not only on Transylvania’s experiences, but also on related issues in America both past and present. “Race is obviously still an issue in this country, and we want it to be the starting point for our conversation at Transylvania as we celebrate 50 years of desegregation,” said

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Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery opens 2013-14 with large-scale video installations

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—An exhibition incorporating video and sound waves to evoke the sights and sounds of moving water kicks off the Morlan Gallery season. “Waves & Currents: An Exploration of Sound, Light, and Time” opens Friday, Sept. 6, and runs through Friday, Oct. 11. The exhibition features two video installations: Dark Swell by Boston artist Georgie Friedman and River by Montreal artist Lenka Novakova. The title “Waves & Currents” references not only the ocean waves and river currents visually represented in the video installations, but also the media in which the artists are working: sound waves and electrical current. “The combination of water and electricity is normally a cause for alarm, but in this case, the results are electrifying in the most positive sense,” says Morlan Gallery director Andrea Fisher. Novakova’s multi-channel video installation “River” transforms the entire gallery space by simulating the experience of being caught up in a river current. The installation consists of multiple conical screens suspended from the ceiling leaving space in-between for participants to walk comfortably. Multiple projectors display river images on the screens. Meanwhile, Friedman’s “Dark Swell” depicts an ocean wave rumbling on a 9-foot-tall and 14-foot-wide wave-like form. The two-channel video installation is projected in various wave frequencies so it moves around the viewer, while a pulsating audio-scape emanates from speakers. Georgie Friedman is an interdisciplinary artist whose projects include large-scale video installations, single and multi-channel videos and several photographic series. She has lived,

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Jazz pianist Alex Bugnon will perform with special guests at the Smooth Jazz Fest August 10 on Old Morrison lawn; tickets on sale now

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Jazz pianist and composer Alex Bugnon will perform at Transylvania University Saturday, August 10, at 7:30 p.m., for the sixth annual Lexus Smooth Jazz Fest. This is the second year Transylvania has hosted the event, which is presented by the African American Forum. Bugnon will be joined by special guests Cindy Bradley and Nelson Rangell. The festival will be held outdoors on Old Morrison front lawn on Third Street between Broadway and Mill. Bugnon is from Montreux, Switzerland and studied at the Paris Conservatory and the Mozart Academy in Salzburg. At age 19, he moved to the U.S. and attended the Berklee School of Music. His recording career began with his 1989 debut album “Love Season,” which breached the pop charts and the Top 40 of the R&B charts as did his follow-up “Head Over Heels.” He toured with Gospel Leviticus in the Deep South. He has won two Soul Train Music Awards. By age 12, Bradley was performing professionally on the trumpet with Sugar and Jazz, a Buffalo, N.Y., area group of young musicians. She has toured with legendary urban jazz group Pieces of a Dream, performed in New York with The Sly Geralds Band and has played such renowned events as the Big Bear Lake Jazz Festival, Omaha’s Riverfront Jazz and Blues Festival, the Balcones Heights Jazz Festival in San Antonio and the North Carolina Wine and Jazz Festival. Jazziz magazine writes that Rangell is “an artist

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Newest class of Governor’s School for Arts graduates July 13

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LEXINGTON, Ky.— The Governor’s School for the Arts 2013 summer session comes to a close Saturday, July 13 at Transylvania University, highlighted by final student performances around campus, special speakers and a graduation ceremony at 5:15 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. Final performances, including those in instrumental and vocal music, musical theater, visual arts, drama, new media and architecture, will begin at various campus locations at noon. All final day events are open to GSA parents, friends and relatives as well as the public and media. Previous final day performances have attracted more than 1,200 people to campus. Refreshments will be available at various locations near Old Morrison, Transylvania’s administration building on Third Street. Author and Kentucky GSA alumnus Jonathan M. Katz will receive the Marlene M. Helm Alumni Achievement Award, an award that is given out on Final Day graduation each summer in honor of Marlene Helm who served as Secretary of the Education, Arts and Humanities Cabinet under the Patton Administration. Katz, who grew up in Louisville, is a journalist and author who wrote the critically acclaimed new release “The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster.” Katz attended GSA for Creative Writing in 1996 and will be one of several speakers during the graduation ceremony. Final performances will be held at the Mitchell Fine Arts Center, the Little Theater, the Shearer Art

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