<h2>June 29, 2004</h2>
<p></p>
<h2>SIUE's Myer Arboretum Designated A Shaw's Garden East Site<br /></h2>
<p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The Donal G. Myer Arboretum, a 30-acre garden and forested area on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has been designated a Shaw's Garden East site by the Missouri Botanical Garden.</p>
<p>The Garden's designation will help further develop the Myer Arboretum not only as an aesthetically pleasing site for the general public but also as a natural laboratory for students. The SIUE Foundation will guide further development of the arboretum with private donations.</p>
<p>The arboretum was officially established in 1990 and named in honor of the late Donal G. Myer who was a biologist and dean of the former SIUE School of Sciences. However, plans for an arboretum were included when the university was first conceived.</p>
<p>"Thanks to the hard work and generosity of many of our supporters over the years, the Myer Arboretum has grown to become a lovely spot on our campus," SIUE Chancellor David Werner said. "With this new designation from the Missouri Botanical Garden, we can further develop the arboretum to become a significant landmark in Southwestern Illinois, as we continue our vision to become a premier metropolitan university.</p>
<p>"We are very pleased with the Missouri Botanical Garden's recognition of the Myer Arboretum and look forward to continuing our partnership with Garden director Peter Raven and his staff."</p>
<p>Under Raven's leadership and the leadership of Ralph Korte, a Missouri Botanical Garden trustee and an SIUE Foundation board member, an initiative was created in 2000 to establish a greater presence for the Garden in Southwestern Illinois. That effort led to the creation of the Shaw's Garden East Advisory Council, made up of community and business leaders including several members of the SIUE Foundation.</p>
<p>Raven said the university's efforts are to be commended. "I am delighted that our collaboration over the last several years is now resulting in the further development of SIUE's spectacular campus," Raven said. "The purpose of this designation is to develop an appreciation for gardens and green space and thus the importance of plants in our lives," Raven said.</p>
<p>"It also will provide opportunities to enhance educational and horticultural benefits to communities in the region," he said. "We are confident the Myer Arboretum will be an excellent Shaw's Garden East site."</p>
<p>G. Patrick Williams, SIUE's vice chancellor for Development and Public Affairs and CEO of the SIUE Foundation, said the designation will help open doors for further opportunities to develop the Myer Arboretum. "With the help of university resources we have been able to provide a garden spot that the campus and the region can be proud of.</p>
<p>"However, more needs to be done to enhance the site. We look forward to unveiling plans in the near future for important additional plantings, for new pathways, a gazebo, and for construction of a welcome center that will include classroom space," he said. "It's an exciting plan that will benefit not only our students but also provide a green space to be enjoyed by communities throughout the region."</p>
<h2>June 28, 2004</h2>
<p></p>
<h2>SIUE’s Melser Among 25 In North America To Attend Academy<br /></h2>
<p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Harold Melser, executive director of University Development and also director of Planned Giving for the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Foundation, was among 25 professionals from throughout North America chosen to attend the third Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Faculty Training Academy recently at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta.</p>
<p>He joined colleagues from the United States and Canada to study instructional concepts, from adult learning styles to lesson planning and presentation techniques, as well as controlling classroom behavior. The AFP represents more than 26,000 members throughout the world who are working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education, and certification programs.</p>
<p>Melser said instructors explained and modeled a variety of planning and classroom management skills. “There were many opportunities to share ideas for teaching activities that meet the needs of adult learners,” Melser said. “On the final day of the academy participants presented a short lesson that was videotaped and critiqued.”</p>
<p>Individuals selected to attend the Academy had to meet several criteria including extensive success in the nonprofit field and demonstrated success in teaching adult students during the three years prior to their application to the Academy. “In addition, we had to have been granted a professional designation such as ACFRE (Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive), or FAHP, Fellow-Association for Health Care Philanthropy, which I have,” Melser explained.</p>
<p>Academy graduates will use what they learned not only in teaching AFP courses but also in training others to be better teachers in their AFP chapters and in the nonprofit organizations for which they work.</p>
<p>“My primary objective in completing the AFP Faculty Training Academy,” Melser said, “was to create opportunities for me to make presentations and teaching as part of meeting the SIUE goal of achieving national recognition through the participation of faculty and staff in regional as well as national forums and seminars.”</p>
<h2>June 28, 2004</h2>
<p></p>
<h2>SIUE String Program To Sponsor Suzuki Camp July 14-17<br /></h2>
<p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville String Development Program is sponsoring a string camp for children ages 5-14 who will gather at the university for four days of music making July 14-17.</p>
<p>The four-day camp will be conducted in SIUE's Katherine Dunham Hall and will involve Suzuki and traditional teachers, parents, observers, and students who play violin, viola, and cello. In the past, an average of 60-70 students from Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Tennessee have attended.</p>
<p>Classes will be offered from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Each Suzuki student will take part in a small technique class, a larger Suzuki repertory class, and a pre-music reading class. The reading class levels are: music and movement, beginning music reading, elementary orchestra, and chamber music. Students will perform solos for one another during their Saturday technique classes.</p>
<p>Traditional string classes also will be offered for public or private school students who have completed at least one year of class instruction. Classes will include fun string tunes, note-reading, and orchestra for students entering grades six and seven.</p>
<p>The camp faculty will include teachers from the SIUE String Development Program and teachers from the Webster University Community Music School in St. Louis, as well as private string teachers. The camp will close with a gala concert at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 17, during which each of the classes, the orchestra, and chamber groups will perform for parents and friends in the instrumental rehearsal room of Dunham Hall.</p>
<p>The cost for the camp is $130 that does not include lunches. For an additional charge, students may choose to participate in individual lessons taught by camp faculty. Children in fifth grade or under must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult.</p>
<p>Co-directors of the camp are Vera Sulentic-McCoy, director of the SIUE String Development Program, and Vicki Lottes. For registration information, call (618) 650-2839, or, from St. Louis toll-free, (888) 328-5168, Ext. 2839, or visit the Web site: www.siue.edu/MUSIC/Suzuki.</p>
<h2>June 17, 2004</h2>
<p></p>
<h2>Gypsy Set Design Mirrors Days Of Burlesque, Vaudeville<br /></h2>
<p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The Summer ShowBiz 2004 production of Gypsy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will have five separate art nouveau theaters in the set design. The production, presented by the SIUE Department of Theater and Dance and part of the university’s SummerArts 2004 series, begins July 8.</p>
<p>Gypsy runs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, July 8-10 and July 15-17, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 11 and 18. The hit Broadway musical opened in 1959, starring the incomparable Ethel Merman in the role of Mama Rose. With music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy has been one of the most revived musicals on Broadway, including the popular version starring Bernadette Peters which just closed in May after a very successful run.</p>
<p>The play tells the story of Rose Hovick and her two daughters, June and Louise, as they troupe throughout the country with their vaudeville act in the late 1920s. However, they eventually discover that vaudeville’s waning years are giving way to a new entertainment phenomenon—burlesque. As a result, Louise becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, one of the most celebrated burlesque dancers in show business. The play, written by Arthur Laurents, is based on Louise Hovick’s memoirs.</p>
<p>The show has endeared itself to audiences over the years because of the strong character of Rose and because of memorable songs such as “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Together, Wherever We Go,” and “Small World.”</p>
<p>SIUE’s version features sets created by designer Jim Dorethy, an associate professor in the Department of Theater and Dance, who created them to mirror the theaters of 1920s and ’30s America. “I wanted to do the sets from a historical viewpoint focusing on the middle and late years of vaudeville and burlesque,” Dorethy said. “The play’s characters are going through a succession of theaters and the sets then were done in flat screen, art deco.”</p>
<p>All of the sets are hand-painted, flat pieces of scenery. There will be four separate proscenium archways that surround the stage and four theater interiors on stage, Dorethy explained.</p>
<p>“The real interest for me is the opportunity to use flat-painted scenery, a technique I studied at the University of Minnesota. This style of scenery was not only used for theater backdrops in those days, but also for Masonic ceremonies,” he added.</p>
<p>Each piece begins with a one-inch scenic rendering. One might assume that the painting would be time intensive. “Not really. It’s as much about knowing what to paint as knowing what not to paint. The audience’s eyes fill it in,” Dorethy said. “I’m using designs at The Fox in St. Louis, the new Pantages Theater in L.A., and the restored New Amsterdam Theater in New York to draw from.”</p>
<p>One aspect Dorethy hasn’t decided on is what subject to use for the mural across the proscenium. “I can’t decide whether to use a classical scene or something from the Lewis & Clark expedition,” he says.</p>
<p>For tickets or for more information, call SIUE’s Fine Arts box office, (618) 650-2774, or, from St. Louis toll-free, (888) 328-5168, Ext. 2774. The SummerArts 2004 series is part of the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences.</p>
<h2>June 1, 2004</h2>
<p></p>
<h2>Drumvoices Revue To Devote Issue To Katherine Dunham<br /></h2>
<p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) In honor of her 95th birthday celebration, internationally known anthropologist and choreographer Katherine Dunham will be the theme of the upcoming edition of Drumvoices Revue, a multicultural journal published by the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Department of English Language and Literature.</p>
<p>Published with the editorial help of the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club of East St. Louis, the journal will feature an exclusive interview with Dunham by editor Eugene Redmond, a professor of English at the university and the writing club's namesake. Redmond's "95th Birthday Interview with Miss Dunham" will feature photos of Dunham and her many associates over the years, as well as a poetic tribute, "Kwansabas for Katherine," and one of short stories, "Afternoon Into Night." Redmond said that at the end of the interview, Dunham told him "get your questions ready for the 100th."</p>
<p>Among those writing tributes and appraisals of Dunham in Drumvoices are poets and authors Amiri Baraka, Darlene Roy, Tyrone Williams, Lorraine Caputo, Roscoe Crenshaw, Sheryl Johnson, Howard Rambsy, Carolyn Himes, Orlando Taylor, DuEwa Frazier, Bruce Petty, D. Morrowloving, Sherman Fowler, Lissette Norman, Patricia Merritt, Shirley Bradley LeFlore, Nicole Stephens, Rebecca "Butterfly" Vaughns, Sybil J. Roberts, Andrew Theising, Loue Chinn, Jeffrey Skoblow, and Mali Newman.</p>
<p>The journal will be launched during an eight-day birthday celebration for Miss Dunham from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, June 22, in the rotunda of the East St. Louis Municipal Building, 301 River Park Drive. The celebration will include brief performances and tributes.</p>
<p>For more information about the celebration, call (618) 531-0403. To order <em>Drumvoices Revue,</em> send a check for $10 or a money order for each copy to: Editor, "Drumvoices Revue," Department of English Language and Literature, SIUE, Edwardsville, Illinois 62026-1431; or to the EBR Writers Club, P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis, IL 62202. For more information, call (618) 650-3991; or visit the Web site: www.siue.edu/ENGLISH/dvr.</p>
<h2>June 1, 2004</h2>
<p></p>
<h2>SummerArts 2004 Concert Series To Feature Music Of Russian Composers<br /></h2>
<p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Some of the best musicians in the St. Louis area will converge on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville during the week of June 7 as part of the SummerArts 2004 Concert Series. The three concerts will feature music of Russian composers as well as American Jazz standards played by SIUE music faculty and St. Louis musicians, some of whom play with the Saint Louis Symphony.</p>
<p>The concerts are:</p>
<p>The Russians are Coming!—Monday, June 7, 7:30 p.m. in Rm. 1109 of Dunham Hall—Two pieces by two of Russia's most treasured composers. First, cellist Kangho Lee, assistant professor of Music at SIUE, and his wife, noted pianist Minyoung Lee, will present what is considered Sergei Rachmaninoff's most significant and finest chamber composition, Sonata for Cello and Piano. Afterwards, 18 of St. Louis' finest brass and percussion players, including members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and SIUE Music faculty, will perform Elgar Howarth's celebrated arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.</p>
<p>All That Jazz!—Tuesday, June 8, 7:30 p.m. in Rm. 1109 of Dunham Hall—</p>
<p>Members of the SIUE Jazz Faculty will perform standards and new compositions for a hot night of cool jazz. Members of the faculty to perform include: Brett Stamps, Rick Haydon, Reggie Thomas, Jason Swagler, Zeb Briskovich and Miles Vandiver.</p>
<p>Leclaire Trio and Friends—Friday, June 11, 7:30 p.m., in John C. Abbott</p>
<p>Auditorim at Lovejoy Library—The celebrated Leclaire Trio will perform the Piano Quintet, Op. 57 by Shostakovich, and the Dvorak Piano Quartet, Op. 87. The trio features SIUE faculty members Lenora Anop, violin; Kangho Lee, cello; and Linda Perry, piano, who will be joined by violinist Ann Hirschl, who performs frequently with the St. Louis Symphony, and violist Peter Chun from the University of Kansas music faculty. All concerts are free of charge. For more information, call the SIUE Department of Music, (618) 650-3900.</p>