EUGENE — (May 17, 2010) — A special “welcome” concert featuring UO School of Music and Dance faculty and students will honor new UO President Richard Lariviere and his wife, Jan Lariviere at the historic Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 27. The program will feature instrumental and dance selections by some of the school’s top performers.
Brad Foley, dean of the School of Music and Dance, will welcome the audience and introduce the program, and President Lariviere will make brief remarks.
No tickets are necessary for the free concert. The Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater is at 23 S. Central Ave., and has wheelchair accessible seating. The free concert will be preceded by a reception at the theater. Tickets to the reception -- $15 for UO Alumni Association members, $25 to non-members -- are available by contacting the UO Alumni Association at http://www.uoalumni.com or by calling 800-245-ALUM.
The program will feature instrumental selections by the Oregon Jazz Ensemble (OJE), the UO’s award-winning jazz group directed by professor Steve Owen, along with dancers from the Department of Dance, choreographed by assistant professor Brad Garner. Selections include “Telecasters” and “Such Sweet Thunder” by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn; “One Mint Julep” by Rudy Toombs; “Runferyerlife” by Bob Mintzer; “Chapter” by UO alumnus Andrew Rowan; and “One Voice” by OJE director Steve Owen, commissioned for and premiered at the 2010 University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festival.
The three UO dancers -- Brad Garner, Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner and Shannon Mockli -- are a choreographic offshoot of Harmonic Laboratory, a collective of artists and scientists based in Eugene. The collective produces time-based interdisciplinary projects with a current research theme of volcanoes as a metaphor for human experience.
The event is sponsored by the School of Music and Dance and the UO Alumni Association to showcase the UO to southern Oregon residents, alumni and friends. Bob and Leona DeArmond, long-time residents in the Medford area and generous supporters of the School of Music and Dance, will attend. The DeArmonds are both UO alums: Bob in 1952 from the College of Business and Leona in 1951 from the School of Music. Bob is a former UO Foundation Trustee. One of the two new wings at the UO music school is named in honor of Leona.
Richard Lariviere became president of the University of Oregon on July 1, 2009. He served as executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of Kansas from 2006 to 2009 and as dean of the college of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin from 1999 to 2006. Lariviere earned a bachelor’s degree in the history of religions from the University of Iowa and a doctorate in Sanskrit from the University of Pennsylvania. He has conducted research in London, Oxford, Calcutta, Poona Kathmandu, Tokyo, Beijing, Lahore, Munich, Colombo, and Madras, as well as a host of smaller cities in India.
Jan Lariviere is the senior counselor for external relations in the Office of Development at the University of Oregon. Before joining the UO, she was an award-winning math and science educator with teaching experience in four states. She also helped design, fund, and implement innovative science and mathematics teacher preparation programs: UTeach at the University of Texas at Austin, and UKan Teach at the University of Kansas.
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.
CONTACTS: DeNel Stoltz, 541-346-5687, denel@uoregon.edu; Scott Barkhurst, 541-346-1163, scottb@uoregon.edu
LINK: http://music.uoregon.edu/
###