This weekend, members of the greater Meadville community have an opportunity to witness back-to-back farewell performances by pianist Alec Chien. Since 1980, Chien has served as artist-in-residence and professor of music at Allegheny College. After 35 years on the faculty, Chien, 62, has announced plans to retire after the end of the current academic year.
Friday’s concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Ford Chapel, where Chien performs as guest artist with the Alexander String Quartet. The quartet is also be joined by the Allegheny Chamber Choir.
Saturday’s solo performance is at 3 p.m. in Shafer Auditorium in the college’s Henderson Campus Center.
Both events are free and open to the public.
“I really want these two to be a thank-you to the community,” Chien said. “I think I express myself better with music than with words.”
Mary Spicer serves as special to The Meadville Tribune.
Photo: Allegheny College senior Ben Zuchelkowski plays the piano while music professor and artist-in-residence Alec Chien jokes with him to keep the session upbeat and fun. Photo by Shannon Roae, The Meadville Tribune.
The 23-member Allegheny College Jazz Band performed at local schools on February 24. The tour included performances at Neason Hill Elementary School, Meadville Area Senior High School and Conneaut Area Senior High School. Guest performers included Rebecca Matczak ’74 on trumpet and Civic Symphony Director Ronald Stitt on trombone. Tour music featured swing, jazz, rock, funk, big band, ballad and contemporary musical selections, with numerous Jazz Band soloists featured. Repertoire music included “Moonlight Serenade,” “PA 6-5000,” “Pick Up the Pieces,” “September,” “Cool,” “Peter Gunn,” “Saxes With Attitude,” “25 or 6 to 4,” “Something,” “Yesterday,” “A Child Is Born,” “Deacon Jack’s Gospel Shack,” “Soul Man,” “Fly me to the Moon” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” Stephen F. Corsi is the director of the AC Jazz Band.
She’s a photographer, bird enthusiast, musician—and a Gator, too.
Meet the multitalented Lauren Zurchin, a 2002 Allegheny graduate and an award-winning photographer based in Pittsburgh.
A religious studies major with a double minor in music and health studies, Zurchin’s original dream didn’t involve being behind the lens of a camera. In fact, immediately following graduation, she moved to Salt Lake City to study under Matthew Donovan, a renowned evangelical musician she met while attending church in Meadville. Her ultimate goal was to become involved in music ministry.
What she calls “a crisis of faith” occurred, though, and other more enticing opportunities arose: She moved to South Africa, found love and took a few interesting jobs. For instance, she worked with birds at a boarding school in exchange for free room and board and as a high school music teacher. A longing for home, however, sent her back to Pittsburgh at the age of 27, forcing her to start fresh and ask, “What now?”
An unconventional path? Maybe. But she thinks of it as a time of aligned opportunities—brought about by her own tendency to follow her passion that was enhanced by her time at Allegheny—that helped her get to where she is today: “Allegheny gives you the freedom and confidence to explore, play and experiment … to figure out what you are most interested in without being forced to pick one box. I’ve had the life I’ve had so far because of this,” she says.
A transitional job at a bookstore inspired her to experiment with a career in writing. A connection with Jennifer Rees ’95, then an editor at Scholastic Press, through Allegheny’s Office of Development and Alumni Affairs gave her the courage to apply to review books of young adult science fiction and fantasy books on lytherus.com. She is now managing editor of the book department for the site. “I believe it was my friendship with Jennifer that made me feel I could do it,” Zurchin says.
At that point, photography still wasn’t on her mind. That is, not until 2008, when she casually photographed a wedding she attended and received compliments on her images. “I started looking into it,” Zurchin says. “The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.” Internships and unpaid gigs quickly led her to start her own business, acting as the principal photographer at Lauren Zurchin Studios. She has been a fulltime photographer since 2010.
“My bread and butter for a few years has been weddings. Because of my relationship with the website for which I write, though, I have also done a photography calendar of fantasy authors for charity, all of which are New York Times best-sellers. Those have been the most interesting shoots I’ve done, having the chance to photograph some of the world’s best fantasy authors in a fantasy setting I created. It’s pretty awesome, working with some of the world’s most creative minds, and the best part, besides playing, is getting to hang out and chat with them.”
Past successes are not enough for Zurchin, however. She’s excited for new changes that the future holds. For example, this year, she has decided to shift to a more online business with classes and workshops, and to add in more ethereal portrait photography. “Since up to this point most of my income has been in weddings or the author calendar, I haven’t needed a studio. But in the new year, I’m going to convert part of my house into a studio, office and prep area for more inside shoots. I want to be able to offer more options to women who like what I do but maybe aren’t comfortable playing in the woods with me around.”
When speaking to the future generation of college students, Zurchin says, “I have had various careers, and I have used multiple elements of my degree. If there is something you know you definitely want to do, go do it. But, if you love everything and if you are pretty good at a lot of things … if you just don’t know what you want to do, Allegheny’s liberal arts education won’t let you down. Just go for it.”
Leanne Siwicki ’15, Leah Stefanelli ’15, Sarah Stewart ’15, Allie Condon ’16, Chelsea Hubert ’17, and Troy Dinga ’17 recently participated in the Pennsylvania Collegiate Choral Association’s intercollegiate choral festival. Students from colleges and universities across Pennsylvania prepared repertoire by Benjamin Britten, Gabriel Fauré, Wendell Whalum, and other composers before gathering at East Stroudsburg University for two days of rehearsal and a public concert. The singers performed under the direction of Peter Bagley, professor emeritus of music at the University of Connecticut. Allegheny’s participants were prepared by Assistant Professor of Music James Niblock and Staff Accompanist Kevin Dill. Niblock also assisted with the preparation of the massed chorus at ESU.
Ronald Stitt, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Music and principal trombone with the Erie Chamber Orchestra, is featured on the orchestra’s first professionally produced and recorded CD, The Sounds of the Silents, released on October 13. The CD, the first-ever recording of the silent film music of J.S. Zamecnik, is available on Amazon and iTunes as well as on the orchestra’s website.
For generations of Allegheny singers, 2015 means more than the Bicentennial.
It’s the 85th anniversary of the choir’s existence.
It’s the 50th anniversary of music program/choir director founder Morten “Luvy” Luvaas’ retirement.
And it’s a choir reunion year, meaning all past and present members of the Allegheny choirs are invited back for a special celebration during Reunion Weekend at the end of May. Historically, the triennial choir reunions have drawn the largest group of attendees among any reunion group.
For James Niblock ’97, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities, it’s certainly exciting.
“It’s very humbling to be in this position at such an exciting moment in Allegheny’s history,” he says. “We’re going to premier a wonderful commission; I already have chosen the music for the upcoming choir reunion. There’s so much to celebrate.”
A Kickoff to Remember
During the College’s initial Bicentennial planning, Niblock began thinking about how the music program could contribute to the celebration. That’s when he inquired about having a musical piece commissioned as part of the kickoff event.
“When the Bicentennial Committee approved the idea, one of the first people I thought of asking was alumnus Crawford Thoburn,” Niblock says. “His distinguished music career speaks for itself, and his family has a strong connection to Allegheny. It would be difficult to find someone who embodies that continuing connection to the institution as much as he does.”
Crawford Thoburn ’54
During his time at the College, Crawford Thoburn ’54 studied theory, arranging, and conducting with Luvaas and sang with the mixed choral group called the Allegheny Singers. He is now emeritus professor of music at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., where he served as Chair of the Arts Division and director of choral activities and taught voice, conducting, theory, composition, and music history.
Throughout the years, he has published more than 100 choral compositions, arrangements, and editions, including those that Allegheny choirs past and present have sung. He also is a recipient of Allegheny’s Gold Citation, in recognition and appreciation of the honor reflected upon the College by virtue of his professional achievements.
But Thoburn’s connection to the College goes beyond music; the Thoburn family legacy is a story all its own. More than 50 family members have attended Allegheny, starting with Thoburn’s great-grandfather, James Mills Thoburn, Class of 1857. Crawford Thoburn is among the fourth generation, and two of his daughters are part of the fifth. And, of course, generation after generation has sung in the choir.
So when Thoburn received the call from Niblock about commissioning the piece, he was touched.
“Although the Allegheny choirs have sung other choral works by me in the past, to be asked to write a piece celebrating the College’s Bicentennial is truly a special privilege and honor,” he says.
After the call, he immediately knew where he would draw his inspiration.
“Years ago I did a successful setting of a text titled ‘Wisdom Exalteth her Children’ for women’s voices, and more recently I had intended to compose a new version for mixed voices. When Professor Niblock called about the Bicentennial, I knew this was the text I wanted to use,” he says. “It’s always held a special place in my heart.”
“Wisdom Exalteth her Children”
Wisdom exalteth her children.
And gives help to those who seek her.
Whoever loves her loves life.
And those who seek her early will be filled with joy.
Whoever holds her fast will obtain glory.
And God will bless the place she enters.
-Wisdom of Sirach 4:11-13
After just a few months, Thoburn presented the composition to Niblock, who thought it would be appropriate for the College Choir to debut during a dinner celebrating the new Bicentennial Plaza in October.
“The piece is a great sentiment for celebrating the longevity of an institution like Allegheny that is all about the pursuit of wisdom and embracing that in a joyful way,” Niblock says.
According to Thoburn, “The text, written about 180 BCE by the Hebrew sage Joshua ben Sira, is highly appropriate for celebrating the longevity of an institution like Allegheny, where faculty and students have shared the academic quest for so many years. It joyfully and eloquently expresses the continuing role of this experience at Allegheny, extolling the cultivation and acquisition of wisdom (as opposed to knowledge), which I believe is the true purpose of a liberal arts education.”
When asked what certain lines of the piece mean to him, Niblock references the second line, “and gives help to those who seek her,” and says, “When you see students who have the light in their eyes to take on some new threshold in their discipline, to take on challenges, and they’re anxious for you to lay those challenges down before them, that’s a great example of what that line means.”
When he first shared the text with the Choir, Niblock was pleased with the members’ response. The students are equally excited about performing the piece as part of the Bicentennial kickoff.
“The group was immediately upbeat and positive about the piece,” Niblock says. “Something about the musical language is easy for them to speak.”
“The first day we sang the piece in rehearsal, I knew it was going to be great,” says Rosey Sheridan ’15, a choir member majoring in chemistry and minoring in music performance. “The year 2015 is my graduation year, so for me, the Bicentennial is something that has been talked about for four years. I feel very honored to be part of the event in this way.”
Having the opportunity to sing in front of Thoburn is special for the students as well.
“We are nervous,” admits Lauren Dominique ’16, a choir member who is double-majoring in English and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. “We sang one of Professor Thoburn’s pieces last year, and it was probably one of my favorites. To sing this piece in front of him, to meet him in person, and just to be there for this occasion will be an incredible experience.”
When Nathan Lewis came back from Iraq in 2004, he noticed things were different for him.
“You go to war, (and) you come back changed,” Lewis said.
Lewis didn’t let the change overcome him in a negative way. While he was a student at State University of New York at Potsdam, he became involved with the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), an advocacy group of active-duty U.S. military personnel, Iraq War veterans, Afghanistan War veterans and other veterans who have served since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks who were opposed to U.S. military in Iraq from 2003-11. On the weekends, the group came together and cut up uniforms to turn into paper for artwork and writing projects. It became a therapeutic outlet for Lewis and his group.
This week, Lewis has shared the paper making process with Allegheny College students as part of Combat Paper: Words Made Flesh. This week-long program is geared toward veterans issues, including art, dance, lectures and panels on a broad number of subjects such as psychology, returning home and military/civilian divide.
The combat paper making process may sound complex and timely, but it is for the most part unchanged since the paper making process began in China in 105 A.D.
Uniforms are cut into postage stamp-sized pieces, then moved into a beater. The beater is a trough filled with water which will turn the cloth pieces into pulp. The only change to the original process since 105 A.D. is Lewis has added a small electric motor to the beater.
The pulp is then moved to a tray, where a frame is dipped into it and sifted, similar to panning for gold. Once a layer of the pulp is gathered, the frame is removed, the water is drained and the paper is pulled off into a sheet onto a press. Once pressed, the sheet of paper is stuck to glass to dry into a sheet of usable paper.
Once the paper is dry, veterans, Allegheny College students and members of the community draw pictures, write poems or provide other artistic endeavors on the recycled uniforms. Lewis said paper making has been picked up as a therapeutic tool by military hospitals and the United Service Organization, a nonprofit organization also known as USO that provides programs, services and live entertainment to U.S. troops and their families.
“It helps vets to tell their story,” Lewis said. “They go through this intense experience (war), and it helps to listen.
“We’re not trained psychologists, we’re just guys who make paper.”
The paper making process ended Thursday, but veterans and community members are invited to design artwork today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bowman-Penelec-Megahan Art Gallery inside the college’s Campus Center.
Allegheny College art professor Steve Prince was instrumental in bringing Lewis to campus for the week. Prince called Drew Cameron in California, director of the national Combat Paper Project, to schedule a workshop, and in turn was put in touch with Lewis, who is one of the project’s paper makers on the East Coast.
Prince said the week is an interdisciplinary approach with the art, dance and panels. The big question Prince had about veterans when planning the week was, “How do they get reintegrated back into society and how can we help with the process?”
A gallery of combat paper artwork begins on display Saturday through Oct. 28 at the Bowman-Penelec-Megahan Art Gallery. At the gallery opening on Saturday at 5 p.m. at center, there will also be performances by dance and movement studies students, and vocal and music students.
Prince said combat paper was sent to 26 renowned artists with a request to contribute artwork for the gallery. The pieces will be displayed prominently along with pieces done this week by students and community members.
Allegheny College senior Sam Stephenson is an English major from Portland, Ore., who plans to enter the Marine Corps as an officer following graduation. Stephenson was at the workshop as a member of one of Cheryl Hatch’s journalism classes. Stephenson said he could see where the combat paper would be useful to veterans in the healing process.
“(They are taking) a tool of the military and bridge that gap between military and civilian and make art,” Stephenson said.
“I like the way they’re taking something military and turning it from memorabilia and making something productive,” said sophomore Meghan Wilby, another member of one of Hatch’s classes, who is also participating in the workshop.
Colorado’s Kali Albern, an Allegheny art student, said she has made paper before but never from uniforms. But she enjoys the concept.
“Although it has symbology, because we don’t know what it will be used for, it has its original purpose and can now be used for beauty,” Albern said.
Though Lewis said he has gotten as much therapeutic benefits from making combat paper as he possibly could, he enjoys sharing the experience with students and other veterans and performs four workshops per year.
Diane Kalinowski’s road to the inaugural Elizabeth Connell Prize, an international singing competition culminating this fall in Sydney, Australia, has been a joyous one despite the considerable effort and near-hectic time management required to advance.
The Cochranton native and voice instructor at Allegheny College has not allowed herself to crumble under pressure, however.
Instead, she has prepared diligently for her first trip overseas, where she will compete on Sept. 13 with four other sopranos worldwide for a monetary prize and an operatic audition in London.
“At this point, it’s mostly about keeping myself healthy while earning a living so I can still afford to go,” she said. “I’m recording myself and practicing as much as I can without exhausting my voice.”
Kalinowski rode the success of her performance in the semifinals, held at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City last month, right back into her full-time position as a paralegal/legal secretary at Steptoe & Johnson PLLC in Meadville, juggling her work and practice along with an exercise regimen and giving her regular private music lessons.
“Performing at the Metro Opera was like going to Valhalla or something,” she said. “It was just surreal being there.”
Making breakthroughs with her music students and acting as somewhat of a visual advocate for the operatic arts has kept her spirits high throughout her difficult endeavor.
“People love to say opera isn’t accessible to the average person, but it is,” she said. “It’s fun to see that lightswitch go on. I love making that happen for people.”
While she prides herself as being harder than most to rattle, Kalinowski has admittedly found parts of the overall competition overwhelming and has concentrated on taking the challenge one step at a time.
“I’ve been more focused on trying to be as prepared as possible,” she said. “It’s the only thing you can control.”
Most of what helps keep Kalinowski cool under pressure involves her team of expert coaches as well as her familiarity and level of comfort with the material she performs.
Giving her both vocal and orchestral viewpoints of direction have been Vicki and Ward Jamison, music instructor and longtime conductor for Allegheny College, respectively.
“They’re an impeccable team,” Kalinowski said. “As a soprano, Vicki gives me the view of the singer, which provides aspects I need to perform, and Ward brings a conductor’s background. We (singers) don’t normally think the way that conductors do sometimes, so their combined expertise has been invaluable.”
Kalinowski has also worked with Allegheny dance instructor Betsy Sumerfield, who has helped her maintain natural poise and physical expression when performing her material.
“She makes me tell the story in a way I would in real life, rather than play a stiff character on stage,” Kalinowski said. “We just have fun.”
As per the competition’s requirements, Kalinowski has prepared four arias, expressive pieces of operatic music, and one orchestral piece, which have held special meaning or familiarity for her.
“I can’t really nail down a favorite, because it changes about every five minutes,” she said with a laugh. “I’m keeping the material fresh in my mind at this point. I’ve been singing some of these for about 10 years.”
One piece in particular that resonates with her Czech heritage is translated as “Song to the Moon” from the opera “Rusalka,” by Antonin Dvorak, the concept of which has provided a loose basis for elements that appear in the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,” Kalinowski said.
She will perform this and other competition pieces at an open dress rehearsal today at 3:15 p.m. in Allegheny College’s Shafer Auditorium.
“These pieces hit home for me,” she said. “They’re natural for my voice and some of my favorites.”
While looking ahead at the final hours of her latest competition can be rather daunting, Kalinowski has considered a future in operatic competitions and hopefully auditions after she returns from Sydney.
“I’m just elated to have gotten the boost of confidence from being chosen as a finalist,” she said. “I’m taking the criticism and advice from my coaches and past judges and trying to build on that.”
Ultimately, her placement under the Elizabeth Connell Prize competition will have been more about improving her skills and competing with herself than other contestants, she said.
If she takes home the prize, she will put greater thought into otherwise expensive plans, including future trips and auditions, while she still feels her voice is technically sound.
Voice instructor Diane Kalinowski was recently awarded one of eight prizes in the Alfredo Silipigni Vocal Competition at the New Jersey State Opera. The preliminary rounds of the competition were held in New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey, where 125 singers competed for a spot in the semi-finals. Kalinowski was one of 34 semi-finalists who competed at New Jersey State Opera on April 27 and ultimately one of eight winners. As part of the prize, Kalinowski will perform in the winners’ gala concert with orchestra on June 1 in New Jersey. She began her study of voice with Vicki Jamison, instructor of music, and continues to coach with Vicki and Ward Jamison.
