Features
(Photo: Adam Fenster)The wide range of scholarship, musical performance, and other creative work produced by Rochester faculty and staff received a celebratory round of applause this spring, as Provost Peter Lennie hosted the University’s “Celebration of the ‘Book.’ ”
The annual event recognizes authors and performers who published an academic, artistic, musical, commercial, or other work in the 2012–13 year. With the increasing influence of digital technology, the celebration has expanded to include materials that don’t always fall under the rubric of “book”—hence the quotation marks in the title.
If you’re looking for something to read or listen to this summer, we’ve put together a small library of suggestions. You can find a more complete list here.
The Challenge of Congressional Representation
Harvard University
Richard Fenno, professor emeritus of political science, adds a chapter to his six-decade-long career of chronicling the lives of elected representatives. In his latest book, based on research conducted over four decades, he portrays one current and four former members of Congress, from across the nation and the ideological spectrum.
Stravinsky: Octet and L’Histoire du Soldat
Avie Records
Under the direction of Mark Scatterday ’89E (DMA), professor of conducting, and with narration by Jan Opalach, assistant professor of voice, the Eastman Wind Ensemble and the Eastman Virtuosi celebrate the 60th anniversary of the wind ensemble. The two neoclassical works demonstrate the range of the group and its ability to include many different sounds, says Scatterday.
What’s That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History
W. W. Norton
In the third edition of the history textbook, John Covach, the Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Andrew Flory, assistant professor of music at Carleton College, set out to organize the rock ’n’ roll repertoire—“an enormous body of music that covers over fifty years of popular music history—to make it easier to understand and appreciate.”
Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told through Red Sox Radio and TV
Potomac Books
A speechwriter turned senior lecturer in English, Curt Smith celebrates the “mikemen” who tried to capture the spirit of the Boston Red Sox, their fans, and their historic baseball park.
Franz Schubert’s Winterreise
Recorded at Kilbourn Hall
Tenor Robert Swenson, professor of voice, and pianist Russell Miller, professor of vocal coaching and repertoire, present Schubert’s 1827 song cycle. “It is a dark journey, of course, at times wistful, hopeful, and despairing, but ultimately accepting of life on life’s terms,” says Swenson.
The Power of Patient Stories: Learning Moments in Medicine
Self-published
Trustee Paul Griner ’59M (MD), ’65M (Res), professor emeritus of medicine at Rochester and a former senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, tells the stories of more than 50 patients whom he encountered as an internist and hematologist, and who “provided a learning moment for me.”
Derek Bermel: Canzonas Americanas
Canteloupe Music
The Eastman-born ensemble Alarm Will Sound, whose stage director is Nigel Maister of the International Theatre Program, “draws together all of [Bermel’s] works for Alarm Will Sound’s sinfonietta instrumentation,” according to ensemble conductor Alan Pierson ’06E (DMA).
Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History
Oxford University
Bernstein Professor Aaron Hughes explores the term “Abrahamic religions,” and his interest “in analyzing where the term came from and why we still insist on employing it.”
The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years
Memorial Art Gallery
Curatorial and library staff members Lu Harper, Kerry Schauber, and Marjorie Searl trace the timeline of an institution that was established, in the words of founding patron Emily Sibley Watson, for “the edification and enjoyment of the citizens of Rochester.”
The Quest for Health Reform: A Satirical History
American Public Health Association
Phelps Professor Ted Brown; Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association; Susan Ladwig ’03, ’07M (MPH) of the Medical Center; and researcher Elyse Berman bring “together two American traditions—editorial cartooning as a medium for trenchant contemporary commentary and the long-standing effort to achieve universal national health reform.”
The Deerslayer, by James Fenimore Cooper
Belknap Press of Harvard University
English professor Ezra Tawil edits and introduces a new edition of Cooper’s final installment of the “Leatherstocking” series. Although the last to be written, the novel takes place before the four other tales, emerging “as a crucial work in the series, rather than an afterthought in a procession of sequels and prequels.”
Reminiscences: A Journey through Particle Physics
World Scientific
Professor Adrian Melissinos recounts a career in which “the dominant recollection is the enthusiasm and joy of doing physics, shared with many a distinguished colleague and with the many gifted postdocs and graduate students who made the whole enterprise possible.”
A Herzen Reader
Northwestern University
Kathleen Parthé, professor of Russian and director of the Russian studies program, adds to the narrative of the influential Russian thinker whose political writing and personal correspondence has previously been largely unavailable in English.
From Afar
Albany Records
For the title track, Nicholas Goluses, professor of guitar, records the first solo guitar version of a composition by former Eastman faculty member and Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwanter.
American Anthem: The Music of Samuel Barber and Howard Hanson
Sono Luminos
The Ying Quartet—cellist David Ying ’92E (Mas), violinist Janet Ying ’92E, violist Phillip Ying ’92E (Mas), and violinist Ayano Ninmiya—explore “what makes ‘American music’ . . . ‘American’ ” in a recording of major works by Howard Hanson, whose 40-year leadership established the Eastman School, and major works of Hanson’s contemporary, Samuel Barber.
Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education
Stylus
Editors Heather Shotton, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma; Shelly Lowe, the executive director of Harvard University’s Native American program; and Stephanie Waterman, assistant professor at the Warner School, bring together scholars to address why, “while enrollment of Native Americans in postsecondary institutions has increased, Native Americans remain grossly underrepresented in postsecondary education.” According to some estimates, Native Americans make up only about 1 percent of the nation’s college student population.
