Music
	Performances Ithaca College's 30th annual Com-mencement Eve Concert, "Around the World in 50 Minutes," was held May 17 in Ben Light Gymnasium. The concert was dedicated to President James J. Whalen and featured the premiere of Charles A. Dana Professor of Music Dana Wilson's Wailin', a piece commissioned in Whalen's honor. Wilson directed the concert for the 10th consecutive year. The program included performances by a variety of Ithaca College ensembles and vocalists and employed Wilson's "surround sound" concept, which promises a good seat anywhere in the audience. Zooming from one ensemble to the next, "surround sound" makes it possible to present a broad spectrum of offerings. Wilson describes it as "a very exciting environment, musically, emotionally, and energy-wise, where everyone has a chance to feel close to the music." Featured in the concert were the symphony orchestra, choir, women's chorale, marimba ragtime band, brass choir, and vocal jazz ensemble. This February the Ithaca College Women's Chorale was selected to present one of two showcase concerts at the Eastern Division MENC Convention in Baltimore. The group presented a performance to a standing-room-only audience of over 1,500 people. The performance ended with a rousing composition from India, which received a standing ovation. The ensemble was accompanied on an Alberto Favero composition by Ithaca College faculty member Pablo Cohen. The Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, with guest conductor Rodney Winther, has been invited to participate in the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles Convention this September in Canterbury, England. As part of the excursion, the ensemble will be performing four concerts at various locations in England and Ireland. For the schedule, see "Alumni Club Spotlight," page 37. Summer Programs The 1997 session of the Ithaca College Signature Band and Choir Camp opened at Ithaca in July. Led by executive director Richard Ford '58, the camp was attended by student musicians between 13 and 15 years of age. Faculty members included public school and university music educators; counselors were college seniors and graduate students drawn from prominent music schools throughout the Northeast. The Ithaca College Suzuki Institutes also returned to campus in July. Hundreds of teachers, students, and parents have come to the campus each year since 1974 to study the philosophy and teaching of the celebrated Japanese pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki. The institutes are patterned after Suzuki's summer school in Matsumoto, Japan, where he annually assembles a group of teachers, students, and parents for a concentrated week of instruction, motivation, and enjoyment. In July Ford Hall was also home to the Ithaca College Chamber Music Institute, held on the Ithaca campus for the 24th year. Coordinated by members of the Aurora Quintet, the three-week session featured a daily schedule of quartet coaching by distinguished faculty and rehearsals (and work with guest artist and faculty member Debra Moree) in independent quartet and string orchestra, performance seminars, and technique classes for each instrument. A workshop entitled "Kids, Computers, and Music in the General Setting" was held in July and was taught by music education faculty member Maud Hickey. The workshop offered elementary and secondary school educators practical ideas and tools for utilizing computers and MIDI keyboards in general music classrooms. Teachers learned notation and sequencing software in order to develop ideas for teaching composition in their classrooms. In addition, the workshop explored other software and CD-ROM packages that might be used to enhance general music curricula. Sessions also investigated the use of e-mail and the Internet for exchanging teaching ideas and student musical compositions. A unique workshop, "Body and Spirit: The Union of Multicultural and Classical Music," combined the talents of guest artist Nóirín Ní Riain, a soprano described as "one of Ireland's living treasures," and Ithaca College voice faculty member Carol McAmis. The workshop focused on the vitality of spirit to be found in the sacred and secular music of many cultures and times and on the creation of a living instrument, the human body, which allows people to sing "from their own true space" in whatever musical style is chosen. Participants learned about the Celtic tradition, 12th-century music, Gregorian chant, the Indian tradition, and women's music from all over the world. McAmis was a member of the multidisciplinary faculty team that presented to the Health and Performance Institute for Musicians July 16-20. The institute includes seminars, workshops, and consultations that provide an individualized approach to health and music performance. This summer Rodney Winther, director of bands, and guest faculty member Craig Kirchhoff, director of bands at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, presented an advanced course on wind conducting. Lecture sessions focused on rehearsal procedures, conducting techniques, and development of literature for the wind band. Faculty News Trumpet professor Kim Dunnick attended the International Trumpet Guild's annual conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, as vice president. He also chaired a panel discussion on historical research for the trumpet. He will assume the presidency of the guild in October. In the meantime, he was scheduled to perform in the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival in August. Richard Faria '87, assistant professor of clarinet, performed an all-Czech program of music with the Sylvan Wind Quintet at Christ and St. Stephen's Church in New York City. He spent the summer teaching at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in Keene, New Hampshire, where he performed Mozart's Clarinet Quintet on basset clarinet. In June bassoon professor Lee Goodhew appeared with percussion professor Gordon Stout at the Inter-national Double Reed Conference in Chicago. They performed Duo (Dance-song), one in a series of works written by Stout for various instruments and marimba. Violin professor Ellen Jewett played eight concerts at the Cape May Music Festival with the New York Chamber Ensemble. She also performed the Bach A Minor Concerto and Brandenburg Concerto no. 4 in the Bach and Beyond Festival in Fredonia, New York, with professor Grant Cooper on the podium. In addition, she appeared at Tanglewood, performing with cello professor Liz Simkin and working with such luminaries as Leon Fleischer and Gilbert Kalish. Invited to the National Flute Con-vention in Chicago in August, flute professor Wendy Mehne performed Canyon Echoes by Katherine Hoover. She was accompanied by Matthew Ardizzone '91, M.M. '93, on guitar. Mehne had been in Wisconsin the previous week to perform, coach chamber music, and conduct workshops with members of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony. Piano professor Karl Paulnack returned to the Tanglewood Music Center for his fourth season. He is on the voice coaching faculty there. Theory professor William Pelto went back to Fairbanks, Alaska, for the University of Alaska's Summer Fine Arts Camp. It was his 15th summer there as music theory coordinator and music theater conductor.