February 24, 2004 News Releases
Released 2/20/04 and 2/24/04
UTAH STATE NEWS RELEASES FOR 02-24-03
SMALL ACREAGE
WORKSHOP COMING TO SANDY
LOGAN — Do you own a ranchette, hobby farm or just five
acres you aren’t sure what to do with? A workshop designed
to address the unique issues surrounding small acreage management
will held Saturday, March 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the
Utah Farm Bureau Building, 9865 South State Street, in Sandy.
Small acreage farms and horse properties present unique challenges
because the owners often have no agricultural background, says
Wade Bitner, county agent for Utah State University’s
Extension program in Salt Lake County. This is especially true
at the “urban/rural interface.” An area that is
too big for a yard yet too small for traditional production
agriculture can quickly be overtaken by weeds if not managed
properly. This workshop will provide owners the tools they need
to get the most out of their land and be good neighbors.
Workshop sessions include care of horses and other animals;
fencing and livestock facilities; pasture planning and management;
weed control; wildlife and trees on personal property; and handling
manure to control odor and flies, and to protect water.
Registration, which includes lunch, is $15 in advance or $20
at the door. Advance registration must be received by March
20. Registration materials are available at all Utah State University
Extension offices or by calling Nancy Mesner at 435-797-2465.
February 24, 2004
Writer: Dennis Hinkamp 435-797-1392; Contact: Mike Pace 435-734-9958
UTAH STATE NEWS RELEASES FOR 02-20-04
PRINTMAKER NEXT
VISITING ARTIST AT UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
LOGAN — Printmaker Alfredo Benavidez Bedoya is the next
guest in Utah State University’s Visiting Artist Program,
a series in the department of art. Bedoya will be on campus
March 1-5.
A public lecture is part of Bedoya’s schedule, and he
speaks Tuesday, March 2, at 7 p.m. in the Eccles Conference
Center room 216. During his lecture he will show slides and
discuss his artwork. Following the lecture he will show examples
of original prints.
All Visiting Artist Program activities are free and open to
the public, according to director Marilyn Krannich. The program
is supported by a grant from the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation.
Additional funding is provided by the Utah Humanities Council,
an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and
the Utah Arts Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment
for the Arts.
Bedoya is a printmaker from Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work
has appeared in numerous exhibitions including the 2nd International
Print Biennial ARTE Buenos Aires in Mercosur, Argentina, the
5th International Print Biennial of Sapporo, Japan, and the
11th Latinoamerican Print Biennial of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
He has received numerous awards, including a fellowship by the
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
The artists will spend close to a week at Utah State working
with students, Krannich said. In addition to his lecture he
will present a three-day workshop in the print studio. In that
workshop students will use a piece of literature as subject
matter. The literature will be divided into approximately 20
segments and participants will compose an illustration of each
segment of the story. They will use relief print media, specifically
linocut, to create a visual interpretation. This opportunity
for interaction between artist and the students is invaluable,
Krannich said.
“Our program brings artists working in a variety of media
and with varied background to Utah State,” she said. “Now,
with both nationally and internationally known artists, we are
trying to broaden our students’ view of the art world
and to create a larger world context for them and their own
artwork.”
The final guest in this spring’s program is sculptor Patrick
Dougherty who will be on campus March 22-24.
The artists participating in the Visiting Artist Program have
been selected for their national and international reputations,
and the ways in which their art reflects diversity with respect
to the media used and their own backgrounds, Krannich said.
For information on the Visiting Artist Program contact Krannich
at (435) 797-7373.
February 20, 2004
Contact: Marilyn Krannich (435) 797-7373
WINTER
JAZZ HEATS UP UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
LOGAN — Utah State University jazz instructors Todd Fallis
and Jon Gudmundson admit that it’s been a bit nippy outside,
but they promise that Utah State’s jazz ensembles will
warm things up March 2. That’s when several student ensembles
perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Morgan Theatre of the Chase Fine
Arts Center on the Utah State campus.
Tickets are available at the door. Admission is $5, or free
to Utah State students with current ID.
“We only get to play in the Morgan Theatre about once
a year,” said Todd Fallis, director of the Jazz Ensemble.
“It is an intimate setting with about 700 seats which
are quite close to the performing ensembles. The audience gets
an up close and personal musical experience from the directors
and musicians. With audiences averaging more than 1,000 per
concert, I suggest you come early for good seats.”
Fallis and the Jazz Ensemble present a program that features
swing, funk, Latin and jazz standards. Selections include Chick
Corea’s “Armando’s Rhumba,” “Peel
Me a Grape,” made famous by Diana Krall, Brian Setzer’s
rendition of “As Long As I’m Singing,” featuring
ensemble pianist and singer Tamsyn Anderson. Count Basie’s
barn burner “High Five” is also included.
Joining the two larger ensembles in concert is the student jazz
combo, directed by faculty member and jazz bassist Lars Yorgason.
The group will perform a classic tune associated with Miles
Davis’ late ‘50s group titled “Four,”
and a lovely, less frequently heard Antonio Carlos Jobim composition
titled “Favela,” Yorgason said.
The Jazz Orchestra is under Gudmundson’s direction and
plans its usual assortment of classics to moderns, from a brisk
Duke Ellington composition “Stompy Jones,” to a
mood-shifting work in 6/8 time by Bob Mintzer, “Ellis
Island.”
“The program will also include what may be the strangest
arrangement of ‘You Go to my Head’ that you’ve
every heard,” Gudmundson said. “It is penned by
Bob Graettinger, of Stan Kenton fame, and features our lead
trombonist, Andrew Watkins.”
The Jazz Orchestra also features perennial crowd favorite (and
soon-to-be-graduate) vocalist Kate Skinner on Randy Crawford’s
soulful popular ballad “Everything Must Change”
and a blazing arrangement of “This Can’t Be Love,”
Gudmundson said.
The winter jazz concert offers an additional treat, Gudmundson
said.
“We are excited to have several musicians join us for
the last tune of the concert,” he said. “It will
be a real first for us and them.”
Utah State is fortunate to have a diverse, international community,
Gudmundson said. An active group of students from India —
accomplished musicians all — bring their skills to the
jazz orchestra for an interesting experiment in East/West fusion.
Joining the orchestra are Shyam Kumar, Vishwanath Iyer, Suhail
Ahmed, Charles Mallela and Ram Swaminathan.
“Indian and Western music are quite dissimilar and it
has been a real education for all of us, and a whole lot of
fun, to see how we might be able to play together on something,”
Gudmundson said. “The piece we’ll perform is from
the Don Ellis book from the early 1970s, ‘In a Turkish
Bath.’ The piece is a real creature of its time, with
a 7/4 time signature and use of exotic instruments, including
the endearing sound of the electric piano.”
February 20, 2004
Contact: Jon Gudmundson (435) 797-3003
Todd Fallis (435) 797-3005
MEET THE
WASSERMANN FESTIVAL GUEST ARTISTS
LOGAN — A distinguished group of guest artists and lecturers
has been assembled this year for the Wassermann Festival at
Utah State University.
The 2004 Wassermann Festival takes place March 23-27 on the
Utah State University campus. It is a program in the department
of music and a part of the School of the Arts, a division of
the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Festival Director Dennis Hirst said the artists represent a
diversity of training and background that adds to the diversity
and strength of the event. Lecture topics include “Romanticism
in the Piano Literature,” “The Relation of Knowledge
to Performance,” “Rubato: When and When Not To,”
“Technique for the Pre-college Student,” Interfacing
with the Piano Machine” and “The Sound Fades —
Help!”. The lectures are offered in addition to a number
of master classes conducted by the guest artists.
This year’s guests include Emilio del Rosario, Nelson
Freire, Sophia Gilmson, Olga Kern and Jerome Lowenthal.
del Rosairo has been described as a brilliant pianist and distinguished
teacher. He has appeared in solo recitals, chamber music concerts
and as a soloist with orchestras. He is a former student of
Leon Fleisher, Mieczslaw Munz, Erno Balogh and Julio Esteban,
and he holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Santo
Tomas Conservatory in Manila. He is the recipient of numerous
prizes, awards and grants, including the Steinway Prize, the
Concert Artists’ Guild Recital Award and the Distinguished
Teacher Award from the National Foundation of the Arts. His
performances have been broadcast on WNCY, the Voice of America,
CBS, NBC and PBS.
Freire is described in the festival brochure as “one of
the best kept secrets in the world of the piano.” The
international press has acclaimed him as one of the greatest
pianists of our time, comparing him to legendary greats such
as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alfred Cortot, Josef Hofmann, Arthur
Rubinstein and Glenn Gould. A star in his home country of Brazil,
he has been described in the United States as a “hurricane
of pianistic power.” He is one of the two pianists who
are featured in concerts during the Wassermann Festival.
Gilmson is a Russian born pianist who graduated cum laude from
the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Conservatory, where she studied
with professor V. Margulis. She is the recipient of numerous
awards, including the first prize in the Young Artists Competition
in New York City and the Piano International Recording Competition.
She has performed extensively in Russia, Italy and the United
States to high critical acclaim. She has received an array of
excellence in teaching awards, including the 2001 Collegiate
Teaching Achievement Award of Texas.
Kern makes a return visit to the Wassermann Festival where she
will conduct a master class and is featured in a solo recital.
Critics have described her as “a player of enormous brilliance
and passion.” She was awarded the Nancy Lee and Perry
R. Bass Gold Medal at the world’s foremost piano competition,
the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, held May-June
2001. She was the first woman to achieve this distinction in
30 years.
Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stojowski,
in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann and in
Paris with Alfred Cortot, while traveling annually to Los Angeles
for coaching with Arthur Rubinstein. After winning prizes in
three international competitions, he moved to Jerusalem where,
for three years, he played, taught and lectured. Returning to
America he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in
1963, and, according to his bio, has performed everywhere from
the Aleutians to Zagreb. He has performed as soloist with distinguished
conductors, including Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov
and Slatkin, and with such giants of the past as Leonard Bernstein,
Eugene Ormandy, Pierre Monteux and Leopold Stokowski. Teaching
has been an important part of his music life and he taught 12
years at the Juilliard School and for 33 summers at the Music
Academy of the West.
More information, including registration options, is available
at the Wassermann Festival Web site, http://www.usu.edu/wassermann/.
February 20, 2004
Contact: Dennis Hirst (435) 797-3257
GET OUT
THE POCKET PROTECTORS, IT’S ENGINEERING WEEK AT UTAH STATE
LOGAN ? Calculator quick-draw and professor look-a-like competitions
will help the Society of Women Engineers determine the ‘Geek
of the Week’ during Engineering Week (E-week) at Utah
State University Feb. 23-27.
E-week kicks off Monday, Feb. 23, with free Aggie ice cream
at 11 a.m. on the third floor of the new engineering building
and continues throughout the week finishing up with a banquet
honoring outstanding engineering students and faculty on Friday,
Feb 27, at 6 p.m. in the Taggart Student Center Stevenson Ballroom.
Adding to E-week events, keynote speaker Ron Jibson, regional
director of Quest, will speak Tuesday, Feb. 24 in Engineering
103 on closing the gap between management and engineering in
the work place. Jibson will discuss how engineers can build
a connection between administration and engineering in their
future careers.
Engineering students are also invited to a free lunch at noon
on Wednesday, Feb. 25, on the third floor of the engineering
building, where they will be given the chance to meet the dean,
associate deans and department heads.
“Lunch with the dean is a really great opportunity for
engineering students to meet and talk to Scott Hinton, dean
of engineering,” said David Omer, committee member for
the engineering council. “Plus, students get a free lunch
while getting to know department heads and professors.”
The ‘Geek of the Week’ competition is just one of
the many club-sponsored events taking place Thursday, Feb. 26,
at 5:30 p.m. Other contests that evening will take place throughout
the building including a pinewood derby race, mini-catapult
competition and robot competition.
“Everyone, even non-engineering students and community
members, is invited to come watch the competitions,” said
Omer. “They are a lot of fun to watch, especially the
robot competition. There will be free food and also pizza available
to buy.”
For more information concerning E-week, contact Omer at (435)
797-5667.
February 20, 2004
Contact: Dave Omer (435) 797-5667
Writer: Danielle London (435) 797-1350
UTAH STATE
UNIVERSITY WINS CARNEGIE CONTEST FOR BEST COMMERCIAL IN THE
NATION
LOGAN — It’s no secret that the Public Relations
and Marketing office at Utah State University has ramped up
its marketing efforts in the past year, and the effort is paying
off.
Utah State won first place for its new television commercial
in the 2003 “Best Campus TV Commercial Contest”
sponsored by Carnegie Communications, a market research firm
that specializes in colleges and universities.
The 60-second ad, titled “Space,” focuses on the
university’s renowned space program with one simple message:
“Utah State students send more experiments into space
than any other university in the world.”
“This ad was the most compelling and powerful of all the
spots we viewed,” said Elizabeth Scarborough, vice president
of strategic marketing services at Carnegie. “It is a
bold and aggressive marketing statement that truly differentiates
Utah State from every other university.”
Utah State’s commercial was chosen over competitors like
Ohio State, North Carolina State and Wake Forest universities.
Charles Thompson, creative media director in the office of Public
Relations and Marketing at Utah State, said the commercial won
because of its focused message.
“Rather than trying to be all things to all people, we
differentiated,” said Thompson.
The commercial coincides perfectly with the three-year campaign
the Public Relations and Marketing office planned last year,
designed to revamp the university’s image.
“We’re going to put our best foot forward,”
said Thompson. “This commercial is very high tech—a
big departure from cows and plows.”
Despite the commercial’s high quality, it was extremely
low-cost.
“We were lean in resources, and through the innovation
of our staff, particularly Charles Thompson, and the skills
and talent of our students, particularly Steven von Neiderhausern,
we were able to pull it off,” said John DeVilbiss, executive
director of public relations and marketing at Utah State. “We’ve
proven there are wonderful resources at a university that can
and should be tapped, and by so doing we’ve saved a lot
of money in the process. We don’t need to go to California
to dig for gold when it’s in our own backyard.”
The original idea and concept for the winning commercial was
proposed by von Neiderhausern.
"We wanted to create a certain effect, and we spent a lot
of time matching and piecing video clips and music together
to create an emotional appeal for viewers," von Neiderhausern
said. "I knew how important the music was in this, because
if we didn't have the right music, we couldn't portray the right
message, and no one would feel what we wanted them to feel."
The music, composed by Utah State graduate Russell Dixon, is
the product of hours of conceptualizing and brainstorming. Special
footage, provided by Space Dynamics Laboratory public relations
specialist Trina Paskett and NASA, combined with the final music
track helped create the smooth flow of the final commercial,
von Neiderhausern said.
In addition to producing the commercial, the Public Relations
and Marketing office also displayed billboards in the Taggart
Student Center and the Salt Lake City International Airport.
“The billboards were able to make an impression on millions
of people at a fraction of the cost,” said DeVilbiss.
“The billboard concept is what actually provided inspiration
for our commercial.”
Thompson and von Neiderhausern are already working on next year’s
commercial, which will focus on Utah State’s excellence
in water research.
“The world is a closed system,” said Thompson. “The
water we had yesterday is the water we have today and will have
tomorrow. Utah State is leading the world in management and
planning of water resources.”
To view this year’s winning commercial, visit www.usu.edu/space
February 18, 2004
Contact: John DeVilbiss (435) 797-1358, john.devilbiss@usu.edu
Charles Thompson (435) 797-7237, charles.thompson@usu.edu
Writer: Melissa Petersen (435) 229-9940, mlpetersen@usu.edu
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