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By TOny BakShi neWS editor
the Brown
U. to create Corporation affirms office on ROTC, athletics recs campus for ROTC
By ShEfali lUThra Senior Staff Writer
Herald
Since 1891
The Corporation instructed the University to create an office to support veterans and students interested in the Reserve Officers Training Corps at its meeting this weekend. The Corporation also affirmed Simmons recommendation to maintain the Universitys campus ban on ROTC programs and endorsed her recommendation that the University explore ways for Brown students to participate in ROTC programs at nearby campuses. Simmons released her recommendations in an email to the campus community Oct. 19. Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said the Corporations thoughtful and ultimately beneficial decision reinforced Simmons message of expanding opportunities for students interested in ROTC. We should be thinking about the kind of support we offer servicemen and women on campus, and this office is an outgrowth of that, Bergeron said. Details of the new office have not yet been determined, but Bergeron said it will be an extension of the current ROTC liaison within the Office of the Dean of the College. Jonathan Tollefson 15, a member of the Brown Coalition Against Special Privileges for ROTC, said he thinks the decision to expand continued on page 3
In its first meeting since President Ruth Simmons announced her decision to step down at the end of the academic year, the Corporation approved Simmons Reserve Officers Training Corp and athletics recommendations. The Corporation, the Universitys highest governing body, meets every October, February and May. It convened Saturday to address the search for Simmons successor, means of continuing the momentum generated by the Plan for Academic Enrichment, tenure practices and ways of adapting to the Universitys diminishing revenue, Simmons wrote in an email to the community. Simmons recommendations on athletics and ROTC, which she released last week, closed discussions that began last year. She rec-
ommended against bringing ROTC back to campus but said the University should explore establishing more cross-curricular programs with other universities. Simmons recommended giving the mens and womens fencing, womens ski and mens wrestling teams a year to raise funds for the program outside University resources. She also called for an increase in teams Academic Indices a quantitative measure that indicates recruits academic aptitude and for the elimination of 20 admissions slots reserved for recruits. Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger said the details of implementation need to be worked out. But teams are very close to raising funds that would secure their statuses, he said. The elimination of admissions spots will be hard, but not impossible, he said. continued on page 3
Members of the Corporation attended the Medical Education buildings official dedication Friday evening. See full coverage on page 2.
Football
NE wS iN BRiEF
The football team defeated Cornell 35-24 with a combination of strong red zone defense and explosive offense Saturday in Ithaca. The Big Red (2-4, 0-3 Ivy) marched down the field and into the red zone six times, but the Bears (5-1, 2-1) forced Cornell to settle for field goals thrice. Co-captain quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero 11.5 contributed to four of Brunos five
touchdowns on the day, passing for two and rushing for two more. Cornell moved the ball through the air very, very well, said Head Coach Phil Estes. When the field got short, our defense got tougher. Though the Bears were victorious in the end, the Big Red burst out of the gate. After a 55-yard return on the opening kickoff, Cornell started its drive on Browns 33-yard line and made quick work of the short field. Less than two minutes into the game, the Bears
found themselves in a 7-0 hole. The Bears were unable to convert on third-and-one on their first drive and had to punt the ball back to Cornell. On Brunos next possession, the drive again seemed to stall, and the offense faced a fourth-and-five on the Big Reds 32-yard line. But the Bears decided to go for the first and picked it up on a completion to Matthew Sudfeld 11.5. Only two continued on page 4
Thirty students occupied the Main Green Friday night, advocating change.
It was 9 p.m. Friday, and 15 Occupiers participants from Occupy College Hill and Occupy Providence sat in a circle around a potluck dinner discussing semantics: Were the issues they planned to present to the Corporation the next morning grievances or demands? Occupy College Hill organized the event One Night Stand to allow for group discussion of complaints regarding University practices. The camp-out on the Main Green was scheduled to immediately precede
Saturdays semi-annual meeting of the Corporation, the Universitys highest governing body. The discussion inevitably led to a more poignant debate what kind of collateral did the group possess to persuade the Corporation to listen? What power building have you done? asked Jay Willis, a Seattle native who has been a part of Occupy Providence since its inception. If you dont have any weight to throw, you look silly, Willis said. You mess with the guys who have money, theyre going to come down continued on page 3
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ResLife may offer genderneutral rooms for first-years
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The Office of Residential Life has been working with undergraduates on a proposal to allow first-years to opt in to gender-neutral housing, said Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential and dining services. Queer Alliance is collecting signatures for the proposal, which it expects to present to ResLife within the next two weeks. The proposal will then go to the Office of Campus Life and Student Services for approval. The Queer Alliance is recommending ResLife include a question on the New Student Housing Questionnaire for incoming first-year students that would allow them to be assigned a roommate assignment regardless of gender. Though gender neutral rooms could exist in any first-year residence hall, the proposal specifically names Emery and Woolley halls because of their private bathrooms. GenderAction, a subgroup of Queer Alliance, aims to offer more comfortable housing to students
who do not fit within the gender binary, said Maddy Jennewein 14, co-president of GenderAction. Under the proposal, the gender-neutral option would be open to all incoming first-year students. Past proposals have failed due to a narrow focus on transgender issues, she said. The current system is a lot of work for students who do not identify as strictly male or female because they have to negotiate with ResLife to change their room assignments, Jennewein said. It seems like a small thing, but its a big barrier if students have to pick up the phone to call ResLife to get appropriate housing, she said. Gender-neutral housing for firstyears was first considered in 2006, when ResLife adopted the current housing lottery system, Jennewein said. When the University approved the gender-neutral option for upperclass doubles in 2008, discussion reached the level of the Corporation. It is not clear if the Corporation would consider a proposal for implementation of gender-neutral housing for first-years, she said. ResLife suggested GenderAc-
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tion gather names to gauge student opinion in early October, Jennewein said. The group hopes to present the names to ResLife within the next two weeks and then present the proposal with ResLife to the Office of Campus Life and Student Services, she said. The goal is to collect at least 600 names, which would represent about 10 percent of the student body, Jennewein said. Over 400 names have been collected so far, including those of 60 alums, she said. Emily Walsh 13, who said she lived with a student two years ago who identified as genderqueer and transquestioning, signed the proposal. Though Walsh said she and her roommate lived amicably, she remembers the email that the student had sent her, letting her know that he did not identify as female. Walsh said the situation made her wonder what would have happened if she had not been comfortable with her roommate situation. Genderneutral housing would help students who identify as transgender or gender-variant feel more comfortable, she said. The proposal seems like a good idea for students who identify as transgender or genderqueer, so long as both roommates opt in to the living situation, said Tene Johnson 14, who lives in gender-neutral housing this year with a male friend. But incoming first-year students might not opt in because they do not know their roommate, she said. Ramsey Jeremie 12 said the proposal was appropriate because transgender and gender-variant issues are often overlooked by the University. Allowing students to choose a gender-neutral living situation does more good than harm, he concluded.
Campus news 3
The documents established an appropriate tenure ratio of between 70 and 75 percent, McLaughlin said. Currently, the Universitys tenure rate falls around 76 percent, he added. Before addressing the Corporation, McLaughlin presented the documents to the Faculty Executive Committee, the Academic Priorities Committee, department chairs and the Tenure, Promotions and Appointments Committee. The presentations mostly consisted of informing the faculty of the documents contents, McLaughlin said, though they did change a couple of details in the documents based on the discussions. McLaughlin, Schlissel and Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Ed Wing will present again before the Corporation at its February meeting. Officials also presented the Universitys annual financial statement to the Corporation, addressing the diminishing growth of revenue. Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, said an important part of the Corporations discussion was acknowledging this is going to be a challenging two years and prioritizing University projects. The Corporation also approved over $30 million worth of gifts and donations, including $15 million donated by Tisch for University priorities. Schlissel said the money will likely be used for academic initiatives like the School of Engineering, the Institute for Brain Science and the creation of a school of public health. General Motors gave $1.6 million to maintain a joint research lab with the University. The University has not been particularly successful in generating corporate revenues, but it is something administrators hope to improve upon, Huidekoper said. Particularly, she said, Dean of Engineering Larry Larson hopes to bring in more corporate donations for engineering. The Corporation also established a new IBM Professorship of Applied Mathematics and renamed a visiting professor to the existing IBM Visiting Professorship for Applied Mathematics.
By TOnya rilEy Contributing Writer
it would be impractical to require all seniors to complete a project. Since faculty advising students on capstones still have to teach their normal course loads and get no additional funding, the projects can create a strain on professors, she said. In her experience, Levy said she noticed capstones tend to fall disproportionately on the professors in more popular departments or those with more popular classes. But Jan Tullis, professor of geological sciences, said she believes that even though sponsoring senior projects is not a formal part of the teaching load, it is still a responsibility of professors and one that she thinks is an important part of teaching. Tullis said she thinks capstones can be a transformative experience because they can help students make the leap from simply learning to actually doing. They can help students figure out how to integrate what theyve learned in their four years, she said. You get to go out and practice interpreting the real world, Tullis said. Often textbooks present an idealized, clean version of the world, but its actually quite messy.
4 Sports Monday
Bears still looking for first Ivy win
By madElEinE WEnSTrUP SportS Staff Writer
FIElD HoCKEY
Scrum-ptiouS
The field hockey team fell to Cornell Saturday afternoon in Ithaca, dropping its fifth Ivy League game of the season. The Bears (3-11, 0-5 Ivy) matched two of the Big Reds goals, but Cornell (7-8, 1-4) pushed through and came away with a 4-2 win. Just six minutes into the first half, the Big Reds Brown 2 l e a d i n g Cornell 4 s c o r e r, Brittany Thompson, received a pass at the 25-yard line and charged through Brunos defense. Goalie Shannon McSweeney 15 came out of the net to cut off the angle, but Thompson maneuvered around her and scored into an open net to put Cornell on the board, 1-0. Brown answered right back. Just 3:42 after Cornells first goal, forward Kit Masini 12 received a pass that popped over her left shoulder. The pass allowed her to escape her defender and spurred a one-on-one with Cornell goalie Alex Botte, whom she beat to even the score. But Bruno was not given much time to celebrate. The Big Red
struck again in the 11th minute after Thompson stole the ball on the Bears side and pushed it forward to Hannah Balleza, who then crossed it to Kat DiPastina for the score. Cornell secured its lead with another first-half goal to go into halftime with a comfortable 3-1 lead. We werent playing together as well as wed hoped, Masini said. It wasnt clicking quite right. After the break, the Bears put on the pressure and went on the offensive for 11 minutes. The push paid off when Abigail Taft 12 turned a pass from Kelley Harrison 13 into a goal to put Brown back in the game 3-2. We said at halftime that we need to go back to playing our own game, Masini said. We came out ready to come back and to turn it around. But a goal by the Big Red in the last 10 minutes of play secured the win. Thompson converted a penalty corner to put the final score at 4-2. Cornell had the offensive advantage, leading 18-10 in shots, 10-8 in shots on goal and 8-3 in penalty corners. The Bears are back in action Tuesday when they host Holy Cross for a 4 p.m. non-conference contest.
5
Aid packages remain stagnant
By cOrinnE caThcarT Contributing Writer
NE wS iN BRiEF
The University has been unable to increase aid packages to faculty and staff to subsidize their childrens undergraduate education due to budget concerns. The Tuition Aid Program, a benefit provided by the Human Resources Department, currently provides up to $10,000 to faculty and staff to help pay for each of their childrens undergraduate tuitions. Because tuition costs across the country have steadily increased in recent years, the Benefits Office wanted to raise the amount of aid it doles out. But the recent economic downturn has prohibited an increase to the aid package, said Drew Murphy, director of benefits.
The office also discussed doing a benchmarking study with peer institutions to study similar programs, according to the Human Resources Advisory Boards Annual Report from 2010. Though the study was put on hold due to financial constraints, Murphy said the office is still periodically checking in with peer institutions. Kimberly Almeida, benefits financial manager, said some form of the tuition program has been around since the Universitys founding and has remained largely unchanged. The biggest change occurred in 2002 when the standard rate was set at up to $10,000 per child, Murphy said. Though the office is not able to increase the subsidy, both Murphy and Almeida said the current
program is not in danger of disappearing. Because the rate is equalized, the benefit is not taxed, which many faculty and staff seem to appreciate, Murphy said. The benefit is also applied toward each child who attends college. The benefit can be applied to virtually any school, Murphy said. In the past few years, we have rarely had to turn anyone away, Almeida said. Robert Boland, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, who has a son that is a junior at Drew University, said he was glad the program was in place at the University because he had heard from colleagues at other institutions that they were not provided the same benefit.
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opinions 7
vantaged by giving a little of ourselves to them. While the progressive prep school graduates were huddled on the Main Green discussing inequality and injustice, many local organizations were looking desperately for volunteers. Rather than pursuing abstract ideals of social justice that will ultimately only be realized by people in positions of power, why not do a little good immediately? As for ending corporate Americas control of Washington, next November will be a far more opportune time than this ey from Wall Street executives in 2008 than John McCain did. There is also the much talked about relationship between Wall Street and the University. Our president is a former Goldman Sachs board member. The CEO of Bank of America is a graduate of Brown. And many Brown alums go on to work at financial institutions located on or near the hated street in New York. Browns connections to Wall Street are neither bad nor good, but they must be acknowledged. We cannot gripe and moan with integrity about the huge wealth presif they even notice that seven Rhode Islanders are no longer their customers. The power of these protests is, sadly, limited. In a perfect world, college students yelling would evoke a prompt and effective response from our political leaders. But as the protesters know and despise, this world is far from perfect. We were all taught growing up that actions speak louder than words. But, as is often the case in academia, obtuse ideals about social justice and societys responsibilities have caused us to lose track of our own hands-on abilities. But you can just keep protesting. Keep up your yelling about the 99 percent versus the 1 percent, because divisive rhetoric is exactly what we need right now. Keep claiming that you have no power in this world, while in fact you have the power and the time to actually do good. Rather than talking about the lives of poor people, go and make their lives better. Be a friendly face at a womens shelter. Donate your change to a halfway house. Read to the children at an emergency room. I promise you that they will appreciate those efforts much more than all the time you have spent shouting at stockbrokers. Stop Occupying College Hill now. Go out and Occupy the lives of the people for whom you are marching. Garret Johnson 14 is a biochemistry and molecular biology concentrator who enjoys occupying Chipotle.
Watching the Occupy College Hill movement, one cannot help but sympathize with the protesters cause. Who doesnt want to support a group aimed at fighting for social justice, as the Occupy parent organization describes itself as doing on its website? Who doesnt wish that the lower 99 percent of America had more power? The problem is that seven people canceling their accounts with Bank of America (Occupy protesters close bank accounts, Oct. 18) will do absolutely nothing to change corporate Americas stranglehold on our political system. Even the efforts of the 2,000 people who started the movement in lower Manhattan last month will be in vain. In the square where Occupy protesters march, Wall Street executives have responded by sipping champagne and watching the representatives of the 99 percent with amusement. What is the solution? What should you do if you want to fight social injustice? Stop Occupying and give back to your community. Brown students time would be far better spent volunteering at local free clinics and soup kitchens than waving signs at Kennedy Plaza. As economically advantaged members of society, we can make a direct impact on the disad-
Stop occupying College Hill now. Go out and occupy the lives of the people for whom you are marching.
October to settle that score. At the end of the day, Brown students will not be able to vote on financial reform legislation in Congress. The 2012 elections are just around the corner, and every American student at the University will have the chance to vote against politicians owned by Wall Street. For many Brunonians, this may even mean voting for the dreaded Republicans. Wall Street owns Democrats, too. In fact, President Obama received far more mon-
ent on Wall Street and corporate America when some of this University was built on that wealth. Much of Browns endowment comes from rich alums who give back to their alma mater from their personal fortunes, which are made possible by our current system. The point is that social justice will not be realized by 19-year-olds smoking cloves and yelling chants on Prospect Street. Bank of Americas board members will not recoil in terror when they see or rather,
Miss Representation?
BY SuzANNE ENzERiNK
opinions Columnist
and make it possible to begin with. In the film, Geena Davis shared an anecdote that can be seen as a metaphor for the current state of affairs. Waiting for a traffic light, right after the exquisite Thelma and Louise was released, a car pulled up next to her. A gaggle of young women opened the sunroof, waved at her in recognition and simply yelled, Woohoo! This deceptively simple seal of approval signals the acknowledgement of Davis as a role model and a visible presence, but that power. In political positions, women will not achieve parity for another 500 years at the rate things are progressing now. The documentary is important in that it calls for a reeducation of both boys and girls, as boys too are conditioned to adopt thinking patterns that are not of their own making. The fact that only a handful of male students attended the screening is exemplary of the current mindset. Cultural productions that center on women are only of interest for women, whereas the eProwler.com, and both the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Graduate Student Council have an almost equal number of male and female students as officers, white men still dominate the ranks of full professors. The University has made great progress already by encouraging applications from female scholars, but is still a long way from achieving parity. But in order to completely overcome differences in power, in the end, the binary logic Miss Representation adheres to will have to be imploded. It is not the physicality as such that divides us. It is about how our brain conceives and is conditioned to conceive of our own bodies and those of others, and it is this interior process that translates itself into differential and unequal power structures in a variety of categories. Women can look to other women for inspiration and support, but true success will only be achieved when there is complete equity in which women can look up to both women and men based on their professional or personal merit, rather than having to strategically align themselves exclusively with other women to combat the power structures that disadvantage them. Only then can the ideal of a high school girl featured in the documentary be realized a climate in which its all about the brain, not about the body. Suzanne Enzerink GS is a graduate student in American studies and can be reached at suzanne_enzerink@brown.edu.
Why is President Ruth Simmons consistently referred to as the Universitys first female president by non-campus media, or its first African-American president, when up until her ascent, it had sufficed to simply write President without the addition of white or male? The answer is, of course, that both women and people of color have been grossly underrepresented in positions of visibility and power. The question is whether this emphasis on difference from the norm is productive. In the short run, it might be useful, whereas the ultimate goal is a society in which gender or race does not correlate with visibility or power. It is not that the media emphasizes the presidents gender or race in a negative way the fact that it is considered so noteworthy that it is automatically included in virtually all reports is enough to see that it is an exception to the normative structures. Miss Representation, the documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom that was screened on campus Oct. 20 by the Ivy Film Festival as part of its Films For Social Change series, points to the positive effects of these categorizations in that you cant be what you cant see. Placing emphasis on women in positions of power can both encourage emulation
Placing emphasis on women in positions of power can both encourage emulation and make it possible to begin with.
Davis Thelma is hailed as such a liberation points to the fact that the portrayal of empowered women is an anomaly. The passion of the exclamation is the result of an absence of other things to be passionate about. It is at once a symptom of the problem itself and a way of working through it, as the identification of the women with Davis leaves them feeling empowered, euphoric almost. This is an important antidote to the national epidemic of self-objectification, in which girls have internalized the expectations fostered by the media and therefore cannot envision themselves in roles of
majority of productions revolve around men, yet are expected to be of interest to everyone. The absence of real life examples only contributes to this experiential gap. Miss Representation closely echoed the sentiment of former Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P07, as noted in The Herald this February (Faculty Remains Mostly Male, White, Feb. 10), that the introduction of female professors into historically male departments such as economics, physics and applied mathematics will pave the way for future female hires. While the student body gets an A+ for diversity from Colleg-
Laurie Anderson spoke with the kind of voice one uses with babies and a nearly full Martinos Auditorium listened with an infants delight. Anderson has found success as a spoken word poet, film composer, author and performance artist. She kicked off a weekend of Providence appearances organized by FirstWorks with a talk on Friday afternoon about her career, concerts for dogs and bigger themes of art and life. A smattering of Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students filled the hall along with local residents, some taking notes between the bursts of laughter elicited by Andersons poignant wit. Andersons multimedia piece, Delusions, was presented Saturday at The Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The show is comprised of 20 pieces built around the question, What do you do when you dont know what youre doing anymore? Anderson said. Anderson told anecdotes spanning her career, most of them entertaining and endearing. While waiting to receive an honorary degree from RISD in 2008, she conceived of a concert solely for dogs after speaking with fellow recipient Yo-Yo Ma. Her plans came to fruition on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 2010. As fellow creatures, they really appreciate a lot of the same things that we do, Anderson said. Describing her writing process for an opera based on Moby Dick, Anderson advised the audience to never again attempt to adapt a masterpiece. This book does not need to be a multimedia show, Anderson joked. While describing several chapters of Moby Dick, Anderson floated in and out of character with such ease that it was hard to delineate where character and lecturer began and ended. Anderson opened the floor to questions, comments and ramblings at the end of her lecture, with several audience members particularly interested in advice for aspiring artists. If you dont like the design, you go back and look at it again, Anderson said, describing her early trial and error attempts at sculpting. She offered insights about her artistic process and used photographs of her work to teach and to inspire. The biggest question is, What do you want? she said.
A new dance studies program will fund scholarship regarding the movement of the body.
In collaboration with Northwestern and Stanford universities, Brown announced Oct. 11 the creation of a new dance studies program that incorporates doctoral fellowships and summer seminars for the expansion of research and scholarship in the field of dance studies. The Dance Studies and/in Humanities arts program is funded by a $1.4 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and will cover two-year appointed fellowships for two or more individuals between 2012 and 2016. Fellows will be equipped with the tasks of teaching an introductory course on dance studies and another course in their specialty area, said Rebecca Schneider, chair of the theater arts and performance studies department. Because dance doesnt have a literary- and object-based history, its a very embodied practice,
Schneider said. The question is Whats dance research? Scholarship has not developed as much for dance. Dance studies focuses on how movement means and travels, and practices get in the body. Its seeing the texts of sources on bodies, Schneider said. Though many scholarships are available only to students of theater, this program will provide students in other areas of art with access to scholarships as well, she added. Jarrett Key 13, a concentrator in theater arts and public policy, said the program is a great opportunity for the University. Browns focus on dance scholarship is manifested in the Bryson Dance Collection, currently housed at the John Hay Library. Over 2,000 rare arts items, such as class pictures and journals, are on display. Here is a perfect example of how scholarship is becoming part of the research, said Sam Jam-
brovic 12, a performance studies concentrator. Im very interested in the body as an archive for history of society, the way it reveals society and how its affected by others, he said. The arts program could also pose challenges for the University. Since scholarships on dance have not been studied or recorded earnestly until now, librarians will have to learn how to catalog this material, Jambrovic said. The three directors from the universities Schneider, Susan Manning from Northwestern and Janice Ross from Stanford will read applications from post-doctoral fellows. They will be in charge of selecting fellows they feel appropriate for their university. We have the right to tailor to the needs and strengths of each university. We will make it even and rank the short list we will bring out, Schneider said. We are already building upon a strong program, she added.
The term rock star invokes a variety of images Bono trotting the globe dispensing humanitarian aid, Mick Jagger with a woman on each arm, Jimi Hendrix and his trademark bandana. But Franz Liszt? Many will be surprised to discover the famed composer and piano virtuoso is widely considered the first embodiment of the rock star persona. This is but one of the intriguing qualities the Department of Music is celebrating in its month-long bicentennial festival, Visions of Liszt. The life and music of Franz Liszt is the best-kept secret in the arts, and it shouldnt be, said Cecil Lytle, professor emeritus of music at the University of California at San Diego. A preview screening of his film Liszt in the World: A Documentary in Search of the Interior Life and Music of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) kicked off the festival Oct. 17. Lytle introduced his film with a titillating performance of Bagatelle without tonality, one of Liszts last and, according to Lytle, least appreciated compositions. Before Liszt, atonal compositions were nearly unheard of. At the end of his life, he was composing truly avant-garde music that was really ahead of his time, said James Baker, chair of the music department. Liszt pushed the boundaries of piano technique further than they had ever gone before. But he also sought to communicate to the common patron. In addition to emotional performances and composing, he pioneered the concept of conveying dramatic ideas through sound, spawning the genre of the symphonic poem. Liszt is actually a very friendly continued on page 5
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Gabriel Kahane 03 is ambivalent about the banjo. Im just a dilettante, he said ruefully, Although a banjo definitely has the element of surprise. But this was an understatement. In addition to songs from his most recent album, Kahane performed two songs on the banjo from his upcoming musical February House in Grant Recital Hall last Thursday. Commissioned by the venerable Public Theater in New York City, the songs showed a new side to the twangy, boot-scootin instrument. His banjo was ethereal and lilting, complementing what he calls his inescapably sincere voice in a way that was otherworldly and vaguely unsettling. The concert was regrettably underattended only 13 people
were scattered throughout the huge-by-comparison recital hall. But Kahane said during his tour, he has played in just about every conceivable bizarre situation rock clubs, concert halls, synagogues, suburban coffee shops so Brown just gets tacked onto that list. Older than his red jeans and multicolored Vans make him seem, Kahane, by his own admission, defies the notion of genre. Gabriel Kahane is not part of a scene, reads the biography on his website. His music ranges from minimalist guitar with crooning lyrics in the style of Elliott Smith to complex piano lines and operatic arias. Kahanes rise to notoriety started after the composition o f C r a i g s l i s t l i e d e r, a n unconventional 16-part song cycle for voice and piano based on personal ads he found on
Craigslist.com. His self-titled debut LP, released in 2008, garnered praise from the New York Times, Pitchfork and Prefix Magazine, among others. He was recently named the composerin-residence of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with Sufjan Stevens and Rufus Wainwright. Gabriel Kahane is an NPR programmers wet dream, Pitchfork reported of his first album. His s ophomore e f for t , Where Are the Arms, is a gem of an album, a different facet glimmering in each eerily refulgent listen. The occasional Schoenberg-esque atonalities and rollicking triplets evoke a man on edge, struggling to keep his balance in a shifting world. Kahanes musical pedigree his father is the renowned concert pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane means that his sheer
musicality is unsurprising but still very much appreciated. His voice is an obstacle to those for whom earnest warbling is anathema but is nevertheless well-suited to the albums restrained orchestration, and the lyrics are crystalline snapshots, perfectly articulated moments winking in the sun. Fred Jodry, director of choral activities, organized the recital and a master class earlier in the day. He asked Kahane to attend because not only is Kahane an alum, but he is also an amazing example of what you can do with music after college. Plus, hes a great cook. It was an incredible reminder and I say this in no way blowing smoke up the Universitys ass how amazing an institution Brown is, Kahane said of the master class. I hope that I can take back to Brooklyn with me the kind of optimism and idealism that I felt being around the students.