EUGENE, Ore. - (June 8, 2009) - Two former graduates from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance will be honored as distinguished alumni at the school's Commencement ceremony, Saturday, June 13, at 3 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall.

The two distinguished alumni are Ann Rodiger, who received her Bachelor of Science degree in Dance in 1973, and Richard Benedum, who received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1972.

Ann Rodiger is the director for the Balance Arts Alexander Technique Teacher Training Program in New York City. Her expertise includes movement analysis and observation, movement fundamentals and awareness, movement recording, and cultivation of change in people's movement behavior. She works with individuals recovering from injuries and surgery, repetitive stress injuries, vocal malfunctions, back pain and other symptoms of stress.

Rodiger has taught at the graduate and undergraduate level, and developed curriculum and teaching methods at many universities, including: California State University at Hayward, University of Illinois at Urbana, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of Hawaii at Manoa, The Juilliard School, and City University of New York. Her international teaching and travel experience includes workshops in Germany, France, and Switzerland. Rodiger holds an M.A. in dance from The Ohio State University and is a member of the American Society of the Alexander Technique. She graduated from South Eugene High School in 1969.

Richard Benedum was the alumni chair in the humanities and professor of music at the University of Dayton. He served as the Department of Music chair from 1980-88, and from 1996 to 2001. He also is the founder and former music director of the Dayton Bach Society, and has conducted all the major oratorios and numerous cantatas of Bach, as well as other major works from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

After receiving his D.M.A. in organ performance from the University of Oregon, Benedum studied organ and conducting with Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart and musicology with Christoph Wolff at Harvard. He wrote and produced a series of programs for National Public Radio on "Mozart: His Music and His Letters." He has been a review panel member for the National Endowment for Humanities four times and a consultant for the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Humanities Council.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.

Contact: Scott Barkhurst, Music and Dance Publicity, scottb@uoregon.edu 541-346-1163

Link: UO Music and Dance website, http://music.uoregon.edu

###