Kudos from Lesotho

I just read the Spring 2009 issue; it was a pleasure. I’m writing from the Kingdom of Lesotho in Southern Africa where I work as a Peace Corps education volunteer teaching secondary math and science. I also work with the African Library Project setting up school libraries and am involved in HIV/AIDS education. Lesotho has the world’s third-highest adult HIV prevalence, so all volunteers in country incorporate HIV education into whatever we do.

As a transfer to Bates my sophomore year, I became quite close with this year’s graduating class. Unable to attend Commencement, I and my students sought a way to congratulate the grads. The students decided to make a poster and send photographs to our friends. This helped to meet the Peace Corps’ central goal of promoting amity between Americans and host country nationals. Take a look.

Jack Murphy ’08, Bela-Bela, Lesotho

Staying Home

Four years ago, I was a Bates senior about to graduate. I had spent my college days as a happy resident, swimming in all the resources and opportunities that Bates had to offer. Bates helped me discover and define my own values, and Lewiston for a time was home. But on the day of my graduation, when faced with that inevitable question of “What now?” I decided to leave. I wasn’t alone in this decision. Lewiston had few professional opportunities for newly minted bachelors of arts.

Please Write!
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This letter is to commend my dear friends Craig Saddlemire ’05 and Ari Rosenberg ’06, who stayed. Not only did they stay in Lewiston but became involved with the Visible Community (“Tents Situation,” Spring 2005), a grassroots community organization comprising downtown Lewiston residents taking it upon themselves to chart a positive future for their neighborhood and to become collaborators in the process of downtown redevelopment.

Craig had an unusual interest while he was a student at Bates: making movies. I, for one, did not know where that interest would take him. Since 2004 he has recorded and documented the history of the Visible Community. He has now created a documentary movie about Lewiston and its people, Neighbor by Neighbor: Mobilizing an Invisible Community in Lewiston, Maine, that humanizes the often-stereotyped and makes visible the most invisible among us. I hope this movie will open eyes and hearts alike.

Over the years, many Bates alumni have decided to stay in Lewiston. These Batesies have taken what they learned at Bates and are applying it to their adopted community, fulfilling a circle of mutual opportunity and responsibility shared by Bates and the city.

Gregory Rosenthal ’05, Catskill, N.Y.

Going Away

Recently I faced the bittersweet reality of graduating from Bates College. During the past four years, Bates and the entire Lewiston-Auburn community became my home. As a lifelong resident of a small town in Aroostook County, I was somewhat nervous, four years ago, about moving down to such a big city. However, I was happy to find that my fellow Mainers here are characterized by the same qualities that I have always appreciated about people in the County. I want to thank the people of Lewiston-Auburn for being so kind and welcoming to me and my fellow classmates throughout our time at Bates. While I have committed to teaching for two years in Boston through Teach for America, long-term I am looking to move back to this part of Maine. The lessons learned inside the classroom at Bates are very valuable, but Bates’ location here in Lewiston is one of the things that make the institution so special.

Paul Suitter ’09, Oakfield, Maine

Paul Suitter’s letter originally appeared in the Lewiston Sun Journal shortly after Commencement. — Editor

In Memoriam

Readers remember three Bates people who have died. — Editor

As an alumna of the library audio room — I worked there all four years at Bates — I was saddened to hear of the loss of Jan Lee, the College’s audio librarian from 1982 to 1994 (“[intlink id="10325" type="post"]Turning Points[/intlink],” Spring 2009). Always with a smile, Jan taught me more than just how to catalogue music. She taught me to listen to music, to learn its history, and to share it with others as part of my job. Many days I would arrive at work to find Jan with headphones on, listening. She’d pull me over, plug in another set, and share what she was listening to, and why.

Melissa Storm ’93, Washington, D.C.

With a heavy heart and tremendous sadness, I read of the passing of Robert Paul Martin ’57 (“[intlink id="10291" type="post"]Deaths[/intlink],” Spring 2009). As a native ’Header and Bobcat football player, “Spinner” impacted my life on multiple levels. My only regret is that I never shared this with him during his life.

My first encounter with Mr. Martin was in a sophomore-year American history class at Marblehead High School. He taught using the Socratic method, so rather than lecturing from behind a desk he questioned and challenged the class from our first day of high school. He encouraged dialogue, debate, and dissenting opinions while also branding meaningful dates in the formation of our country onto uncluttered brains of willing students. As a senior, I again partook of his offerings, this time in a post–World War II American history class. I remember writing a position paper on Sen. Joe McCarthy that was so controversial that all of my classmates attacked my thesis. Meanwhile, Mr. Martin orchestrated the debate with a smile on his face, supporting my outrageous musings.

At no point was I aware of Mr. Martin’s Bates connection, even though he knew of my interest in the school as I had asked him to write college references for me. I was accepted to Bates. Soon thereafter, Mr. Martin commented on my acceptance and alluded to his having attended the school. He said that he hoped I enjoyed competing on the gridiron against the hated rivals from Brunswick and Waterville but never mentioned his exploits while in Lewiston. Mr. Martin never even mentioned he played football!

Arriving on campus for practice my freshman year, I walked through the trophy room upstairs in Alumni Gym. I saw the jerseys of a few (very few) decorated Bobcat football players. Then I came upon Spinner’s jersey, in the glass case, retired. It was the first time Mr. Martin’s Bobcat greatness became known to me.

In his humble and understated way, Mr. Martin kept his football prowess a complete secret. If I juxtapose his approach against all the underachieving chest pumpers among today’s athletes, his legend grows even greater. I feel blessed to have known you, Mr. Martin.

Bob Lieberson ’85, Marblehead, Mass.

You’ve probably already received news of the death of Nelson Boies Doak ’70 (page 57 of this issue).  As the long-time program director for WKTJ-FM 99.3 in Farmington, Maine, Nelson was my boss when I worked as a part-time radio announcer in high school. He gave me the station keys when I was 14 so I could run the control booth for my Sunday morning shift, 6 o’clock to noon. About a year later, I added the Saturday sign-on shift, which required waking at 4:15 a.m. to power up the station’s highly unreliable Korean War–surplus broadcast equipment by 5 o’clock. By the time I was a junior, I worked nearly every day during school break weeks and summers, filling in for anyone on vacation. With that job, Nelson gave me instant hallway cred at Mount Blue High School.

I consider Nelson to have been the best music teacher I ever had. Although he kind of looked like Jerry Garcia, he much preferred Grand Funk Railroad. At 14, I didn’t know what anyone in Grand Funk looked like, but I always pictured Nelson belting out “We’re an American Band.” He thought the artist formerly known as John Cougar was reprising (ripping off?) the early work of Neil Diamond. And he adored, for reasons unknown to me, The Archies. All the other grown-up full-time DJs gave him no end of grief for that. As a teen, I couldn’t bring myself to cue up an Archies track. Today, “Sugar Sugar” sounds sweeter.

Marc Glass ’88, Wilton, Maine

The Internet and digital music’s portability have transformed radio stations like Bates’ WRBC–FM, celebrating its 50th year of FCC-approved existence.

“People don’t listen to hear a specific song,” says publicity director Doug Ray ’10 of Pittsburgh. “They listen to find something new.” In that spirit, 10 WRBC jocks offer their suggestions, below.

Anamanaguchi “A high-energy mix of rock and hacked Nintendo game systems.” — Doug Ray ’11 of Pittsburgh

Animal Collective “Electronic group with a sharp ear for heavy pop beats, looping, magical sounds, and Beach Boys-esque harmonies all translating to incredible live performances.” — Peter Senzamici ’10 of Rockport, Mass.

Autechre “A beautiful sound spectrum ranging from robots taking lithium on one side to dissociative paranoia on the other.” — Bradley McGraw ’10 of Charleston, S.C.

Beach House “Baltimore indie duo with soft vocals and delicate instrumentation.” — Ali Vingiano ’11 of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.

The Broken Beats “A Danish band that produces a wonderful rock-pop sound from the ’60s: like The Small Faces but faster with more modern sensibilities.” — Senzamici ’10

El Perro del Mar “Unique acoustic sound that is full-bodied and intriguing. One of the best female songwriters I know of.” — Griffin Peterson ’09 of Fairfield, Conn.

FM Belfast “Icelandic four-piece electro band that is impossible not to dance to.” — Peterson ’09

Good Night, States “Five Pittsburghers getting together with guitars, drums, and synthesizers to produce indie pop.” — Ray ’11

Health “A four-piece band combining genres of noise-rock with dance and electronica to make eccentric, original sounds.” — Vingiano ’11

Matt & Kim “A power pop-rock duo out of Brooklyn comprising only a synth keyboard and vocals (Matt) and drums (Kim).” — Vingiano ’11

Noah and the Whale “Hopelessly romantic and charming folk-pop with a feel-good sound beyond belief.” — Liz Rowley ’11 of Evanston, Ill.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin “A poppy Midwestern folk group that lifts you up on a cloudy day.” — Joe Cauteruccio ’10 of Boston

The Soul of John Black “Masterful combination of soul, gospel, funk, and hip hop with amazing vocals and slide guitar.” — Dan LaCasse, community DJ, of Auburn

Surkin “Parisian boy-wonder with a ’90s approach to electronic dance music.” — Rob Lindon ’11 of London

Yelle “1980s-style dance hits made for 21st-century French discotheques.” — Nelson Harris ’10 of Zurich, Switzerland

Frank Glazer

At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, 94-year-old pianist Frank Glazer reprises the program that he played in his Carnegie Hall debut, 60 years ago to the day. The concert takes place at Bates College in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

It is open to the public at no cost, but tickets are required. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

An artist in residence at Bates since 1980, Glazer is a musician of international renown, still vital and active after decades of touring, composing, recording and teaching. The program that he revisits on March 4 spans four centuries, from the seldom-heard Chaconne in G major by 18th-century composer George Frideric Handel to a set of variations by Glazer’s near-contemporary Aaron Copland.

• Hear music by, and an interview with, Frank Glazer.

Glazer, of Topsham, has enjoyed a career distinguished by numerous recordings, a television program in the 1950s and countless solo recitals and performances with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the New England Piano Quartette, of which he was a founder.

He taught at the Eastman School of Music for 15 years before coming to Maine in 1980. With his wife, the late Ruth Glazer, he founded the long-running Saco River Festival in Cornish.

Music lovers might find themselves wanting to camp out at Bates College this weekend, as three concerts in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall add up to a critical mass of great listening.

William Matthews, a composer and the Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music at Bates, leads the Bates College Orchestra in a program that includes the premiere of one of his own compositions at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30.

At 8 p.m. the following night, the 2008–09 Bates College Concert Series resumes with a performance by Sérgio and Odair Assad, Brazilian-born brothers who have set new standards of guitar innovation, ingenuity and expression.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, renowned Maine pianist and Bates artist-in-residence Frank Glazer joins forces with musicians from the Portland Chamber Music Festival for a program commemorating Glazer’s first performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto — a debut that took place in 1929, when Glazer was 14.

The Olin Arts Center Concert Hall is located at 75 Russell St. The Bates orchestra and Glazer concerts are open to the public at no cost, but tickets are required. Admission to the Assad Brothers is $10 general admission and $4 for students and seniors. All tickets are available here. For more information, please call 207-786-6135 or or e-mail olinarts@batesedu.

Pianists Shiau-Uen Ding and Jacob Rhodebeck perform a program including music by Christopher Bailey, visiting assistant professor of music at Bates College, at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, in the college’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The pair will play Bailey’s Sonata and his “Balladei,” as well as works by Christopher Fox and Morritz Eggert. The concert is open to the public at no charge. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Ding and Rhodebeck recorded the 2007 album “Christopher Bailey — Music for Piano” (Electric Music Collective, 2007), which includes the two works slated for the Bates concert.

Born near Philadelphia, Bailey began composing in his late teens. His works cover a wide range of instruments, styles and musical formats, from such “musique concrete” works as “Ow, My Head” to “Meditation by the Lake,” a work for string orchestra.

He earned degrees in composition at the Eastman School of Music and Columbia University. Learn more at his Web site.

A native of Taiwan, Ding is a rising presence on the new and electro-acoustic music scenes. She is the founding director of NeXT Ens, an ensemble dedicated to commissioning and performing music for ensemble and electronics, as well as an original and energetic performer of standard solo and chamber repertoire. She has collaborated with numerous internationally renowned musicians and has recorded for Capstone Records.

Rhodebeck is known for his facile technique and his enthusiasm for new and unknown music. He has collaborated with and premiered works by Shinuh Lee and Lukas Ligeti, among many others, and has championed works by composers including Thomas Ades, Pascal Dusapin, Per Norgaard and Frederic Rzewski.

He has a performed as a soloist with the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Symphony Band and as a member of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players. He is finishing a doctoral degree at Stony Brook University, studying with the renowned Gilbert Kalish.

Josh Fix '99

The waning days of 2008 yielded a growing consensus that Free at Last, the debut CD from Josh Fix ’99, is quite download-worthy. Focusing on the production aspect of the CD, Electronic Musician noted “lush recordings and prominent use of piano and stacked vocals” reminiscent of the studio style of Supertramp and others. In placing the CD on one of its top album-lists for 2008, Time Out New York called Fix a “post-Radiohead Elton John” who has “obliterated slacker chic with a virtuosically glossy piano-pop opus.” That keyboard sound, reported Keyboard Magazine, comes from an old Emerson upright that Fix chose to use, even though he had access to a Yamaha C7 grand in the studio. “I was in this anti-establishment state of mind,” he says. “I wanted a grungy feel…. We got a huge sound out of it and we were only using one mic.” [More...]

So I am the Girl Talk of the thesis world.  I do mash-ups.  That’s my thing.  I make my living off of taking other people’s work and smushing it together into something on which I put my name (not without giving due credit of course).  But really, I am taking the thought of a 13th century Japanese Zen philosopher and comparing it with a contemporary feminist thinker of technoscience.  That’s like combining “The Hallelujah Chorus” with Missy Elliott.  And, I can groove to it.  Without getting hit in the head or knocked on the ground like the recent Girl Talk show here at Bates.

But the most interesting thing about the comparison of my thesis to mash-up music is that the critiques of both ventures are the same.  Concerning mash-up music, debates have been circulating concerning the question of whether a mash-up song should be considered new or not.  Is a mash-up song authentic?  Is it “real” music?  Or is it simply two previously written songs placed together into something that is less novel than it is a rip-off.  And what does it mean that computers are so fancy these days that any Joe-shmo can take two of his favorite songs and layer them together?  Does that count as authentic?  Or does one need to have a certain knowledge about music, about both the songs, about how sounds and beats and rhythms work together?

I face some of those similar questions in my thesis writing process.  Can what I produce be considered “original” or “new”?  What about authentic?  Am I just taking from others?

Unfortunately, because Girl Talk just needs a record deal and I need not to be torn limb from limb by feminists, I have to make sure my methods in this process are unassailable.  While thinking two songs are awesome and then having the artists approve their use works for Girl Talk I can’t exactly put that same approach into my methods: I think Dogen and Donna Haraway are awesome and their works are published so I’ll make sure to cite them properly.  That won’t fly.  I need to contextualize these authors’ thoughts in their specific historical times.  Which means I’ve read A LOT about 13th century Japan and A LOT about America post-WWII.  And what have I learned so far?  I have learned what makes what I’m doing so difficult and GirlTalk has no idea.

The problem with what I am attempting to do is that I am alive.  Yes, I’ve discussed this with my advisor, this is actually real.  The problem is that I’m alive.  How do I fix that problem and still finish my thesis?  However, this is a problem that all historians supposedly face- we’re alive and the people we’re talking about often aren’t.  So we can’t ask the Coolios for permission to use track 13.  I cant ask Dogen if he’s okay with what I’m doing because he’s dead.  And I can ask Donna Haraway- and maybe I will once I get a more solidified thesis idea but the fact of the matter is- I’m alive and Haraway’s alive and Dogen’s not and we make an odd threesome.

But I’m optimistic.  I’m learning a lot about both thinkers and the times in which they existed.  I also learned that I hate Ronald Regan.  So here I am: the mash-up philosopher who’s making friends and influencing people.  And hating on Ronald Regan.  Only with thesis.

Shhhh,
Steph

Jeff Coffin

A concert featuring a saxophonist known for his work with banjoist Bela Fleck and a performance by pianist Frank Glazer and violinist Curtis Macomber highlight the Bates College calendar in the coming days.

Jazz saxophonist Jeff Coffin, with the Thomas Snow Trio, performs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. Coffin also leads a masterclass earlier in the day, at 4:15 p.m., for amateur jazz saxophonists.

Former members of the New England Piano Quartette, Glazer and Macomber perform Beethoven’s Sonata in A major, No. 9 (Op. 47; “Kreutzer”) and works by Mozart and Schubert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, also in the Olin auditorium.

The concerts and masterclass are open to the public and free of charge, but tickets are required. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

A member of the two-time Grammy Award winning Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Coffin has shared the stage with such diverse and renowned acts as the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Van Morrison, the Dixie Chicks, Umphrey’s McGee and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Known for his ability to play alto and tenor sax simultaneously, Coffin defies labels in favor of the pure essence of musical creativity. “Whether it be New Orleans ‘second line,’ African music, Indian ragas, folk songs, Alan Lomax field recordings, jazz or funk,” he writes on the Web site for one of his bands, The Mu’tet, “the spirit and breath of the music is what I take away from listening and playing. It’s what decides for me whether I like it or not.”

The Thomas Snow Trio consists of pianist Snow, a lecturer in music at Bates and director of the college jazz band; bassist Tim Webb; and drummer Steve Grover, a member of Bates’ applied music faculty.

Glazer, of Topsham, has been a resident artist at Bates since 1980. He is a musician of international stature whose long career includes numerous recordings and premieres of contemporary music, his own television program in the 1950s and countless solo recitals and performances with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the New England Piano Quartette, of which he was a founder.

“Just to be in the room while Frank Glazer shares his tremendous musical wisdom and experience with artists like Macomber and the Parker quartet will be a treat,” says Seth Warner, manager of the Olin concert hall.

In the 1930s Glazer studied with both Artur Schnabel, a leading interpreter of the Viennese masters, and with Arnold Schoenberg, whose atonal compositions were the antithesis of Viennese lyricism.

Glazer was 21 when he made his New York debut at Town Hall on Oct. 20, 1936. That event (recreated at Bates on its 70th anniversary in 2006) marked the start of a performing career that finds this artist creatively robust in his 90s.

Macomber is a musician whose playing was praised by Fanfare magazine as “remarkable for its depth of feeling as well as for technical excellence.” He is considered one of the most versatile soloists and chamber musicians before the public today, with a range spanning Bach and Babbitt and a discography ranging from the complete Brahms string quartets to the Roger Sessions solo sonata.

Click here to view the embedded video.