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Alumni News
- Super Homecoming 2009 thrills alumni
- Fifty Plus induction held for class of 1959
- Chamber Singers offer new CD of Roland Carter’s music
- Class note: Roger Gibbens appointment
Super Homecoming 2009 thrills alumni
Enthusiastic UTC alumni, students, and friends enjoyed a full week of “Super Homecoming 2009” activities. “Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of campus and community folks attending the homecoming pep rally held in the Tennessee Room of the University Center,” said Jayne Holder, director of UTC Alumni Affairs.
UTC administrators, alumni and community leaders, coaches, band and spirit squads joined Don Adkins, ‘94 , alumni homecoming chair for the last decade, in kicking off the activities for the week. Lip Sync and Step Show competitions, a tap party at Big River Grille, and the annual alumni board golf tournament chaired by Brownie Au, ‘75, were just a few of the events leading up to Saturday’s celebration.
First Tennessee Pavilion was filled with thousands of Mocs fans at the tailgating party. Alumni constituencies gathering for the festivities included University Honors, Scrappy’s, Andy’s and Billy’s Boys, football players from the 1970s, the UC Fifty Plus Club, College of Business, Wrestling Old Timers, Atlanta Alumni, Band, Sigma Chi, and Alpha Delta Pi.
“Although there was rain earlier in the day, the sky cleared for the tailgating party and the weather was perfect for the 6 p.m. kick-off between our UTC Mocs and the Wofford Terriers,” Holder said.
On a perfect fall evening, Camille Ward was crowned Homecoming Queen and Tyler Forrest was presented as the Top M.O.C. (Man on Campus) by Chancellor Roger Brown and UTC Alumni Board President Michael Purcell. “Super Homecoming 2009” was topped off by a tremendous performance by the UTC Mocs, defeating the nationally ranked Wofford Terriers 38-7.
Fifty Plus induction held for class of 1959
Members of the University of Chattanooga class of 1959 graduated the same year the Barbie Doll was introduced, Alaska was admitted as the 49th state in the U.S., Motown was founded by Berry Gordy, Jr., and Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500.
Fifty years later, on September 25, members of the class of 1959 gathered at the Doubletree Hotel for a time of reminiscing and fellowship. Student Body President Moses Payne served as the emcee.
Committee members Lee and Emily Callahan Godfrey, Richard Holcomb, A.C. (Scrappy) Moore Jr., Johnny Green, Moses Payne, and Harold Wilkes helped plan a full weekend of activities enjoyed by many University of Chattanooga alumni.
“Following the dinner on Friday, UC graduates and their guests joined the Chattanooga Chapter of the Mocs Club at breakfast to hear a game day report from UTC Mocs Head Coach Russ Huesman. Class of ’59 members then moved to Patten Chapel for a special Fifty Plus Club Induction Service,” said Jayne Holder, director of UTC Alumni Affairs.
Guests included UTC Chancellor Roger Brown, Vice Chancellor for Advancement Bob Lyon and Alumni Board President Michael Purcell. “A special portion of the program was the vocal presentation of The Chattanooga Chamber Singers, led by Kevin Ford. After the induction service, the Class of ’59 joined other members of the Fifty Plus Club, UC graduates from 1959 and before, at a luncheon held at the University Center,” Holder said.
Celebrating their 60th reunion were Class of 1949 members Charles Comer, Louise Perkins Henderson and Carl Warren.
Provost Phil Oldham presented a campus update to the guests and all were amazed at the changes taking place at their university. “Smiles and shared treasured memories were the highlight of the weekend. Everyone left with a renewed sense of pride in their alma mater,” Holder said.
Chamber Singers offer new CD of Roland Carter’s music
A new UTC Chamber Singers compact disc featuring arrangements by UTC music professor Roland Carter is raising money for the group’s upcoming international tour. In Bright Mansions Above: The Choral Music of Roland M. Carter, Volume I, by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chamber Singers, J. Kevin Ford, director, is available at the UTC Bookstore, www.CDBaby.com.
A special fundraising effort
Dr. Kevin Ford’s vision for choral music at the University includes an international student trip every four years, so that each generation of undergraduates will have that opportunity. Discussions are beginning for a trip in 2011.
Ford, UC Foundation Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, was pleased with the success of a trip the Chamber Singers took to Austria in 2007. At that time, the cost per student was $2,400, but with fundraising and University support, the amount dropped to $600.
“Every honorarium we are given for a Chamber Singers performance is put with other gifts into an overseas tour account, which is only used for that purpose,” Ford said.
Considering the financial situation the country and the University is enduring, Ford said it was becoming clear that state support would continue to decline and it was time to look for alternate funding sources. It took two years from the time the idea of a compact disc was conceived to its completion.
“Roland donated all the music to the Choral Music library. That was a significant donation when you figure that each piece a chorus performs usually costs between $80 and $150 depending on length. We had taken two of Roland’s pieces to Austria and Roland came with us. He conduced his pieces on each concert and the audiences absolutely loved them. It appeared to me then that we had someone on faculty who had an important body of work and we should work with him to realize that work in a single collection, so that someone interested in his work could use this CD as a reference recording. Also, by focusing on Roland’s music the CD has a much wider audience,” Ford said.
Benefits of an international music experience
Most of the students who comprise the UTC Chamber Singers have never left the country. An international tour gives them a much broader perspective of the world, Ford said. As music students, much of the music the students perform now and will perform throughout their professional lives was written for specific locations and in many cases, specific buildings, many of which are still in existence.
“Each singer in a chorus produces a sound much like the individual string on the guitar. The resonating chamber is the room or concert hall and that is where all 30 or so voices blend together and become the sound of the chorus,” Ford explained.
Each major composition that is still in the cannon was written with a specific acoustic in mind, Ford said. The composer knew how much echo was in the room and wrote accordingly.
“Anton Bruckner’s ‘Locus iste’ has this very long pause toward the end of the piece. To do it in Roland Hayes [on the UTC campus] is a little silly. Everyone just waits in silence. However, to do it in the church for which it was intended reveals the reason for the long pause. The church has about a six to seven second echo. He was letting that die out before the piece could conclude. In Austria, we were able to perform in the church that hosted Bruckner and in the church in which Mozart and Michael Haydn worked and wrote many of their masterworks,” Ford said.
Finally, Ford said the tours advance the reputation of the University to a new audience.
Recording the music
The process of recording the compact disc began with Ford writing grants and requesting funds for the purchase of recording equipment and an editing system. He learned the process and the software editing. Creative recording sessions began in spring 2008.
“We would put up crude recording curtains on the doors of Cadek recital hall to dampen the outside noise and ask that people be very quiet in the halls,” Ford said. “During hot months we had to have the air conditioning turned off to the recital hall since it made a great deal of noise. We rehearsed and recorded during class time for all but two days. On one day, we came back at night to record the pieces we had taken to Austria. This way the recent graduates who sang those pieces got to come back and be part of the project. At the end of the term we also put in an extra Saturday to record what was left from our schedule. We started that day out at Roland Hayes Concert Hall in the FAC but soon discovered that a new lighting system put in emitted a loud hum, which could not be silenced. We all got in cars and went to the Signal Mountain Arts Community Center and finished the recording there in their auditorium.”
In summer 2008, Ford worked on the recordings and decided some songs needed to be re-recorded. The project was completed in a recording session in Cadek. Ford finished editing and took the files to an engineer, who finalized the recording. At its conclusion, 62 student singers participated in the project and learned about the recording process.
“I want to say how appreciative I am of the University for the support for this project, to Roland for allowing me to do it and for working so hard on the project himself and to the UTC students for all the hours practicing and recording,” Ford said. “I’m excited to think that the proceeds for this work will send our students to parts of the world that they have never seen, will deepen their knowledge and understanding of their art, and will allow them to experience things that will last a lifetime.”
Class note: Roger Gibbens appointment
Roger Gibbens (’91) was named to the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities by Governor Phil Bredesen. Gibbens will serve a three year term beginning in September 2009 and ending in 2012. The goal of the council is to advocate for Tennesseans with disabilities and to work with the governor’s office and the Tennessee legislature on bills that would strengthen the efforts to support disability awareness and advocacy.
Gibbens’ story is one of the Class Notes shared by University alumni online. Read more Class Notes and share your success story.
Gibbens, who is a Hamilton County police officer by profession, has spent over twenty years volunteering for the rights of those with disabilities. His interest in serving in this capacity stems from his experience as a father of a child with autism. His daughter Aimee was diagnosed with autism early on in life and this led Gibbens to a discovery of how those with disabilities were treated, often times unfairly, in the community. Having served in previous volunteer positions on local disability advocacy groups for many years he was asked to serve on then Hamilton County Department of Education Superintendent Jesse Register’s Superintendent Committee for Students with Disabilities (now defunct). In this capacity, he helped the committee develop an online handbook for students with disabilities and began to advocate for increased speech and language therapists within the public schools. He also served as past president of the Southeast Tennessee Autism Society.
While he was a student at UTC, Gibbens was involved in the Golden Key National Honor Society, Mortar Board Society. He has also since served on the Tennessee Association of Social Workers, National Association of Social Workers, Tennessee Association for the Education of Young Children, and the Tennessee Council on Children and Youth.
For more information on the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, please visit http://www.state.tn.us/cdd/.
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