LehighNow Volume 01, Issue 12

              LEHIGHNOW
April 25, 2001
Volume 1, Issue 12
Choirs, orchestra to premiere
Sametz's first symphony
IN BRIEF
ACADEMICS
LU students beat
statewide rates
Students who completed
the teacher-education
program at Lehigh beat
the statewide rates in all
four categories of an
exam assessing teaching
skills and knowledge.
The exam is part of the
Praxis Series, an Educational Testing Service
program that provides
services for states to use
for teacher certification.
In 1999-2000, Lehigh
students took the Praxis
exam assessing basic
skills, professional
knowledge, knowledge
of content in the area of
specialization, and the
teaching of special
populations.
The Lehigh pass rates
ranged from 93 to 100
percent and surpassed
statewide pass rates of
88 to 96 percent in each
category.
The number of Lehigh
students who took the
tests ranged from 18 to
41 per category.
"Lehigh has always
believed our best
teachers start with the
foundation of a strong
undergraduate background with a major in a
specific discipline," said
Ed Shapiro, chair of
education and human
services. "This is the
basis on which we have
built our 5-year B.A./
B.S./M.Ed. program."
-Rich Harry |
Where does a
major composer
turn for inspiration when he
writes his first
symphony?
For Steven
Sametz, professor
of music and
director of choirs,
the answer is easy: Home.
Sametz has received
composing commissions
from the National Endowment for the Arts and a
host of choirs. His
compositions have been
featured on National
Public Radio, recorded by
Chanticleer, the nation's
leading professional male
chorus, and performed in
Europe and Asia.
But it is the Lehigh
Choral Union, a non-
audition choir he founded
15 years ago, that Sametz
has asked to premiere
many of his compositions.
Next Friday and Saturday, May 4-5, at 8 p.m. in
the Zoellner Arts Center,
the Choral Union will join
with the Lehigh University
Choir and a professional
orchestra to give the first
rendition of Sametz's six-
movement symphony,
Carmina Amoris.
The Choral Union's 150
singers have performed
many major works in the
choral repertoire.
This year, Sametz has
given them their biggest
challenge: Not only to
premiere Carmina Amoris,
which is based on medieval
Latin love poems, and
scored for large chorus and
orchestra, but also to learn
the work while Sametz was
still composing it.
"In a sense, this is the
collaborative evolution of a
Steven Sametz, composer and conductor,
raises the bar ever higher for his choral
union.
symphony and the evolution
of a musical community," he
says. "Ten years ago, the
Choral Union could never
have handled this. But the
group has gotten better, they've
become much more adventurous, and they trust me.
"And the fact that we're
doing this symphony reflects
well on Lehigh. Few universities
would allow this kind of
endeavor, let alone support it."
The May 4-5 concerts, titled
"Stepping into the Beyond,"
also feature the Gloria by
Poulenc and Ravel's Tzigane.
Soloists will be sopranos
Carmen Pelton and Debra
Field and tenor John Aler.
Paul Chou, associate
professor of music, will play
Ravel's Tzigane.
Tickets are $17 with
discounts available. Info and
reservations: x82787.
World takes
center stage
at Black Box
Michael Walter von Orelli
'01, a German-speaking
native of Switzerland,
traveled halfway around the
globe only to hear literature
in his native tongue.
Von Orelli is taking an
innovative course called "The
Best Plays in the World,"
which uses foreign-language
plays to teach students
about other cultures.
On Monday, May 7, at 7
p.m. in the Black Box Theatre
in the Zoellner Arts Center,
the 47 undergraduates in the
class will perform scenes
from the plays in their
original languages - French,
Spanish and German.
The plays are The Physicists
by Friedrich Durrenmatt and
The Caucasian Chalk Circle by
Bertolt Brecht (German), The
House ofBernarda Alba by
Federico Garcia Lorca and
Between Pancho Villa and a
Naked Woman by Sabina
Berman (Spanish), and
Rhinoceros and The Bald
Soprano by Eugene Ionesco
(French).
"Best Plays" is taught by
Vera Stegmann (German),
Antonio Prieto (Spanish),
Marie Sophie Armstrong
(French) and Pam Pepper
(theatre).
Students like von Orelli
who can read plays in their
original language are
encouraged to do so. Others
study English translations.
"It's interesting for theatre
students to watch a scene in
language they don't speak,"
says Pepper. "It gives them a
strong idea about the clarity
of the action of the scene."
"It is nice to see what
people from other cultures
and other disciplines bring to
the plays," says Issabella
Shields '02, who knows
some Spanish but no French
or German. "We talked a lot
about translations and how
things change when they get
translated, and about what
the plays mean to English
speakers and to people who
speak other languages."
"Best Plays" is the
brainchild of Mary Nicholas,
chair of modern languages
and literature, who came up
with the idea as a way to
better prepare students for
the world stage they will
encounter after graduation.
-Jennifer Montemurro