IN THIS ISSUE: Youth music camps offer diverse learning, performance opportunities | UI grads show commitment to fieldwork in I space exhibition | Faculty/Staff: time to update your directory listing | Volunteers needed for research study | Summer concert series at Research Park announced | Bluegrass, gospel featured July 10 | Students explore fight for gender equity in radio documentary |
Youth music camps
Students get diverse learning, performance opportunities
Young music-makers are once again flocking to the UI campus to participate in the Illinois Summer Youth Music camps.
This year there were two sessions during June and the final session is scheduled July 5-11.
The camps, which have been offered at the UI since 1949, attract more than a thousand middle and high school students. Most students are from Illinois, but some come from as far away as Australia and Indonesia.
As ISYM celebrates its 60th anniversary, the program’s alumni ranks have swelled to more than 60,000.
“Many are now performing in major symphony orchestras and other professional ensembles,” according to ISYM executive director Joyce Griggs. Countless campers, after becoming familiar with the UI through their summer experiences, have returned as college students,” she said.
“ISYM developed a core mission during its earliest days: to bring the highest quality of music education to pre-college students from the state of Illinois,” she said. “Particularly important to this mission was the belief that participation had to be affordable.”
Inflation has definitely kicked in over more than a half century. The fee for the first camps was $32.50. But the cost is still affordable for most. Enrollment fees range from $375 for commuters to $645 for pre-college-level students and those enrolled in piano programs. For students requiring financial assistance, scholarships are available to campers.
Over time, the list of available programs has grown more expansive, Griggs said. Today’s students can opt for sessions emphasizing band, orchestral or choral music, or can sign up for camps focused on a particular instrument – from piano and organ to horns and string instruments of all kinds.
Griggs said the majority of the program’s 140 instructors are UI faculty members and graduate students. Others include recent UI graduates and high school music teachers and conductors. Many of the camps’ counselors are public-school teachers who are themselves enrolled for the summer in the master of music education program.
Throughout the day and evening, students attend music lessons, ensemble rehearsals and performances, elective classes and extracurricular activities on the campus. In addition, campers may choose to take one of several elective courses as well. This year, electives range from “Careers in the Arts” and the Alexander technique to world music and Balinese dance.
Brand-new to the program this year is the ISYM Academy. Open to a limited number of applicants who must audition for acceptance, the academy was created for students who want a more rigorous musical experience.
All ISYM students are required to perform a final concert that takes place on the last day or evening of their session in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The concerts are free and open to the public.
Faculty concerts, also free and open to the public, take place on Monday evenings during each session in the recital hall of Smith Hall.
Exact times and dates of performances appear in the calendar on the School of Music Web site.
For those interested in learning more about the history and evolution of ISYM, an exhibit is on display through July 13 in the lobby of Krannert Center.
I space exhibition
UI grads show commitment to fieldwork
Works by the latest group of students receiving master of fine arts degrees from the UI’s Urbana-Champaign campus will be on display July 10 through Aug. 8 in “Fieldwork,” an exhibition at I space, the university’s Chicago art gallery.
Featured artists are Michael Collins, Matthew Crowther, Brandice Guerra, Steve Kluempers, Michael Peyton, Ryan Thompson and Skot Wiedmann.
The exhibition is organized by UI School of Art and design professor Stephen Cartwright, with Conrad Bakker, a professor and director of graduate studies in the school.
According to the organizers, “the work in this exhibition demonstrates a commitment to fieldwork: a grounded studio practice rooted in the strong tradition of research and scholarship at the University of Illinois.” Further, they note, the exhibition “functions as a momentary reflection of our contemporary landscape and the need for continued fieldwork.”
An opening reception is planned from 5-7 p.m. on July 10 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago.
I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Student/Staff Directory
Faculty, staff: time to update your listing
Faculty and staff members are reminded to update the information used to create listings for the Student/Staff Directory, the printed version of the campus phonebook. A Web page explaining the process is available at publicaffairs.illinois.edu/resources/updatedirectory.html. Employees can use the Employee Information Form on the NESSIE Web site to review and update their campus address, telephone number and e-mail address. A university NetID and password are required. UI retirees and employees of allied and affiliated agencies who wish to be included in the directory can access forms at publicaffairs.illinois.edu/resources/directoryforms.html.
In response to privacy concerns, the directory will no longer include a home address or phone number. Those who suppressed information from appearing in the directory in the past do not need to take any additional action.
All changes to listings must be made by Sept. 15 to appear in the 2009-2010 edition of the directory. Those without a computer may use any public computer site on campus or computers located at Staff Human Resources or Academic Human Resources.
For more information, contact Creative Services at creativeservices@illinois.edu.
‘The Women In Recovery Project’
Volunteers needed for research study
Volunteers are needed for a research project to learn more about how women go about recovering from upsetting experiences, and to see whether talking about such events is helpful to them. UI doctoral student Sadie Larsen is interviewing women who have experienced something upsetting or traumatic within the past three years and are in the process of recovery. The project includes a one- to two-hour interview and some questionnaires. Participants will be entered in a drawing to win one of three $50 prizes. Anyone interested in learning more should contact Larsen at 244-4066 or upsettingevents@gmail.com or go to womeninrecovery.weebly.com.
Outside at the Research Park
Summer concert series announced
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the UI Research Park again join forces with Fox/Atkins Development LLC, for three summer concerts at the UI Research Park.
The concerts are free and open to the public. Organizers of “OUTSIDE at the Research Park” say the concerts provide “great music, fresh food, a green state of mind and an open, relaxed environment.” The performance space and seating area are located just south of the building at the corner of First Street and St. Mary’s Road in Champaign. Free parking is available in the lot south of the Caterpillar/SAIC Building at 1901 S. First St. Beverages, wine and food are available in the concession area at the northwest corner of the building.
Featured performers:
- Chicago’s world music masters Funkadesi on July 17 at 7:30 p.m., with Hathaways opening at 6:30 p.m.
- Grammy-winning country/indie crooner Kathy Mattea at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 14, with Ryan Groff (from the band Elsinore) at 6:30 p.m.
- The bluegrass band Hot Buttered Rum on Aug. 28. A Green Fair begins at 4 p.m. Opening acts are Post Historic at 5 p.m., The Duke of Uke and His Novelty Orchestra at 6 p.m. and High Cotton at 7 p.m.
The 2009 series continues an initiative started in 2008 that focused attention on a community service group. This year, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore will be the featured community partner, with information available at all three performances.
Krannert Center will offer biodegradable containers and utensils, easy-to-access recycling bins, and marketing materials printed on recycled paper. “We’re especially pleased this season to offer bike racks for those who choose to arrive via two wheels and to incorporate the use of an environmentally friendly biodiesel generator as a power source for the performances,” said Rebecca McBride, senior associate director of Krannert Center.
The Green Fair will invite sustainability-minded local businesses and organizations to take advantage of free exhibit space where they can share information about their company’s green efforts. Interested parties can contact Valerie Oliviero at 217-244-4287 or valo@illinois.edu for more information.
Kickapoo Landing
Bluegrass, gospel featured July 10
Strings Attached, a Tuscola-based band, will perform old-time bluegrass and gospel music at Kickapoo Landing at Kickapoo State Park in Oakwood from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on July 10.
The free outdoor concert, part of the regular Music at the Landing on Tuesday and Friday nights during the summer, is co-sponsored by Illinois Public Media in conjunction with its Kickin’ It at Kickapoo project. The project involves 10 teens from the Danville Boys and Girls Club, who are experiencing what the park offers and creating videos to promote the park among their peers.
Kimberlie Kranich, director of community engagement for Illinois Public Media, said WILL wants to encourage people to come out and enjoy Kickapoo. “We hope people will discover what a great resource we have in our backyard,” she said.
For a full schedule, visit kickapoolanding.com. If it rains, the entertainment will be in the Dockside Cafe.
WILL Radio
Students explore fight for gender equity
A radio documentary created by University High School students looks at how the fight for gender equity took place in Central Illinois.
“Rethinking Assumptions: The Quest for Gender Equity in East Central Illinois” features interviews with 13 women and two men who discuss how the struggle for gender equity has left an imprint on their lives. Students in the class of 2012 conducted the interviews.
Some of the interviewees experienced discrimination or missed opportunities because of gender bias. Others worked to end this discrimination.
Janet Morford, the Uni High teacher who supervised the project along with WILL-AM’s Dave Dickey, said she found it interesting that many women in Champaign and Urbana had come here because of the UI, but had been unable to work on campus because their husbands were employed by the UI. “So many talented women came here and had to reinvent themselves because of the university’s nepotism policy,” she said.
“Another interesting thing we saw in the interviews was the tension between gender and race,” Morford said. “We found that some people were torn between loyalty to members of their racial group and to their gender.”
Some African-American women suggested that it was more important to stand up to racism, and to stand by African-American men, than to confront gender bias. Others spoke compellingly of the double burden of having their capabilities questioned on the grounds of race and gender, and recalled how these attitudes on the parts of others only strengthened their own determination to excel, she said.
The documentary will be broadcast on WILL-AM (580) at 11 a.m. July 3 and at 6 p.m. July 25. The program also looks at how reproductive rights and women’s safety mobilized people on college campuses in recent years.
