The 2007-2008 Season

Patricia Limerick, Ph.D.

Dr. Limerick will be giving a talk highlighting the individuals who have devoted their lives and careers to the study of history. These individuals must balance their encounters with people who are profoundly bored by history and who seem to carry a lasting sense of grievance over the fact that they had to study such a tedious subject in school, and with others who's enthusiasm for the company of historians is almost at a fever pitch, with many Americans hoping that historical perspective will help them make better choices. For a historian responding to this hope, life becomes an ongoing experiment testing the hypothesis: lessons from history have the power to guide our actions in concrete and practical ways.

The work of the Center of the American West- ranging from legislative efforts to help the clean- up of abandoned mines to the making of a film comparing the adoption of fossil fuels in the Industrial Revolution to the adoption of renewable energies in our time- provides illuminating case studies for the exploration of the question: Can historians be of help to their fellow human beings?

Best known for her work, The Legacy of Conquest, an overview and reinterpretation of Western American history that has fueled academic and public debate, Limerick has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between academics and the general public and to demonstrating the benefits of applying historical perspective to contemporary dilemmas and conflicts. Limerick is also a prolific essayist, and in the summer of 2005, she served as a guest columnist for the New York Times. Some of her more recent works include compelling Western issues, including What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy (2003) and Cleaning Up Abandoned Mines (2006). Limerick is also known as an energetic, funny, and engaging public speaker. In 1995, she received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of the impact of her scholarship and her commitment to teaching. Currently, Limerick serves as the faculty director and chair of the board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, where she is also a professor of history. For more information about Patty Limerick, http://www.centerwest.org/about/patty/index.php

Pacific Baroque Orchestra

From Vancouver, Canada, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra is one of North America´s most exciting and innovative period-instrument ensembles. Presenting music of the past in lively and imaginative performances, the orchestra plays the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Baroque Period on period instruments (or replicas) and always in a historically informed performance. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/authentic_performance)

For this Central Washington University performance, German native Alexander Weimann is the guest leader and harpsichordist. According to the Ottawa Chamber Music Society, " Alexander Weimann ...[is] one of the most sought-after ensemble directors, soloists and chamber music partners of his generation." For more about the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, http://www.pacificbaroqueorchestra.com/
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Vietnam 101: The War on Campus

Central Theatre Ensemble presents this theatrical documentary about one college community's journey during the Vietnam War years. Based on letters and recollections of over one hundred students at Oberlin College in Ohio, the play recreates a time that parallels much of what is happening in the world today. The play spans an era from early, polite demonstrations in 1964 to the campus shutdown after Kent State in 1970. Along the way, stories illustrate the personal lives of students on campus, including the radical, the cautious, the conservative, and the chronically undecided. Combining monologues with Story Theater-type scenes, the play covers the years 1964 to 1970, from Lyndon Johnson's promise not to expand the war and early, well-behaved protests to the tragic outcomes of the protests at Kent State, to an epilogue from the present.

On November 1 only, theatre-goers can meet the award-winning playwright Rich Orloff and listen to a panel discussion immediately following the performance. Coming from his home in New York for this special performance, Orloff will be available to answer questions from audience members during the post-performance discussion.

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Jazz Nutcracker

The series welcomes back CWU Jazz Band I under the direction of Chris Bruya in this performance of the family holiday favorite—Jazz Nutcracker. This marvelous jazz arrangement, by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's fabled Nutcracker Suite, was first performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1960. Ellington and Strayhorn didn't simply overlay a "jazz beat" behind the Russian composer's work; they transformed it into something that is idiomatic to jazz, extending Tchaikovsky's basic ideas and harmonies in new and surprising ways. To learn more about the CWU Jazz Band I, go to http://www.cwu.edu/~music/ensembles/jazz/index.html

Concert-goers are invited to an intermission treat with design-your-own hot cocoa featuring peppermint sticks, whipped cream and marshmallows, or have apple cider and other scrumptious holiday treats!
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Joseph Esherick, Ph.D.

A century ago, China was labeled the "sick man of Asia," and Chinese and foreign observers alike debated whether the failing empire would be carved up like the Ottoman Empire of the Middle East or colonized like the Moghul Empire in India. Today China is an economic giant and an emerging superpower. What happened in the intervening years to alter the course of Chinese history? Was Mao Zedong's communist revolution an extended detour that delayed China's present economic vitality? Or did the revolution lay a foundation for China's present growth.

Specializing in modern Chinese history, particularly the intersection of economic, social, and political history in China, Joseph Esherick has written numerous books on social and political upheaval in twentieth century China and has edited volumes on Chinese cities and local elites. Esherick's work pushes past generalizations and assumptions by the West and brings different perspectives to American research on China. His own research interests span a broad range of subjects including local and provincial origins of revolution, family history, and the transition from empire to nation in China. His first book, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (1987) won the prestigious John K. Fairbank Prize from the American Historical Association. Esherick earned his Ph.D. from University of California Berkeley and is currently on the faculty at University of California, San Diego and is the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Endowed Chair in Chinese Studies. He serves on the editorial boards of the China Quarterly, Modern China, Asia Major, and China Review International.
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Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

Master fiddler Alasdair Fraser, long regarded as one of Scotland's premier musical ambassadors, presents the rich Scottish fiddle traditions with unsurpassed eloquence, passion, and energy in this series performance. In this series performance, Fraser collaborates with vibrant young cellist Natalie Haas, exploring the dynamic and rhythmic soul of Scottish dance music together with lyrical, sensitive airs. Their debut CD, Fire and Ice, displays the duo's dazzling teamwork, virtuosic yet playful musicianship, and love for the driving, dancing rhythms of Scottish fiddle music.

"The cello was traditionally the back-up instrument to the fiddle in Scottish dance ensembles, into the 20th century," says Fraser, "and it has long been one of my goals to put the cello right back there, at the rhythmic heart of Scottish music. I feel incredibly fortunate to have found such a sympathetic sparring partner in Natalie Haas - we can 'duck and dive' around each other, swap melody and harmony lines, or play off each other's rhythmic riffs. We're releasing the cello from its orchestral shackles, and unleashing its rhythmic power; it's very exciting."

Fraser and Haas have played to great acclaim in numerous concert halls and festivals across the U.S., including the Scotland at the Smithsonian Festival in Washington, DC, and in Europe, at Glasgow's Celtic Connections and the Festival Interceltique in Lorient.

Follow this link to hear samples of music by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

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CWU Percussion Ensemble

Professor Mark Goodenberger conducts the CWU Percussion Ensemble in this dynamic, thrilling, stirring, and hilarious series program that will appeal to people of all ages. The group combines cutting-edge compositions by the leading composers of the day with "world-beat" grooves, drawn from cultures around the globe. Marimbas, xylophones, vibraphones, timpani, junk-yard objects and every kind of drum imaginable find their way to the front of the stage at a Percussion Ensemble concert. For this Presidential Series concert, the centerpiece of the program will be the River of Life (Songs of Joy and Sorrow)-a song cycle by George Crumb for Percussion Quartet, Soprano and Piano.
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Ken Burns

An American director and producer of documentary films for over 30 years, Ken Burns is most notable for his PBS television series, The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), and Jazz (2001). The Civil War has been honored with more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and the Peabody Award. Through the extensive use of archival photographs and newsreel footage, Baseball, became the most watched series in PBS history, attracting more than 45 million viewers. In JAZZ, Burns completes his trilogy of American life, finding in the music's lines and phrases and riffs not only a meditation on American creativity, but a joyous and sublime celebration of the redemptive future possibilities of this remarkable republic.

Burns recalls in a filmed interview what the writer and essayist Gerald Early said, " (He told me) when they study our civilization two thousand years from now, there will only be three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball and jazz music. They're the three most beautiful things Americans have ever created." Continues Burns, "His astute comment made me realize that we have worked almost unceasingly for the past nearly seventeen years on a series of projects to honor that statement. Having grappled with many Constitutional issues in our Civil War series (the Constitution's greatest test) and many other films, and having explored our national pastime and its exquisite lessons in our series on Baseball, we have over the last several years struggled to understand the utterly American art form of jazz."

This September, Burn's newest series, The War, will be aired on PBS stations nationwide. The film is about the American experience in World War II, but instead of ponderous interviews with generals and diagrams of troop movements typical of earlier WWII documentaries, the series will focus on the grunts on the ground and those they left behind in four quintessential American localities-Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota. This time around, talking heads will be limited to eyewitness testimony. According to historian Stephen Ambrose,"More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." For more information on Ken Burns go to http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/
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Sweet Honey in the Rock®

Founded in 1973 by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock® is a Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble that has become a major cultural voice for freedom and justice. With deep musical roots in the sacred music of the black church - spirituals, hymns, gospel - as well as jazz and blues, six African American women join their powerful voices and hand percussion instruments to create a blend of lyrics, movement, and narrative that variously relate history, point the finger at injustice, encourage activism, and sing the praises of love. The music speaks out against oppression and exploitation of every kind. The performance is simultaneously interpreted in uniquely expressive American Sign Language. For more about Sweet Honey in the Rock® or to hear samples of their music, see http://sweethoney.com/

Samples of music by Sweet Honey in the Rock®

Peter Pan

Music by Mark Charlap
Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
Additional music by Jule Styne
Additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Additional incidental music by Trude Rittman and Elmer Bernstein

Central Theatre Ensemble presents this high-flying family musical adventure based on the play by James M. Barrie.
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CWU Symphony Orchestra and Choirs

For this performance the CWU Symphony Orchestra and Choirs collaborate on a production of Beethoven's final symphonic utterance, Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, Choral. Although nearly 200 years have passed since it was written, this epic work is still relevant. Proclaiming a new order in which distinctions and prejudices no longer apply, the work’s central themes of liberty, equality, and fraternity resonate in today's world. Nikolas Caoile, director of orchestral studies at Central, conducts this performance.

The program also includes Ralph Vaughan Williams' beautiful Serenade to Music, a setting of verses from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, in the audience at the 1938 concert premiere, was so overcome with emotion upon hearing the piece that he wept. This work is conducted by Gary Weidenaar, who is in his second year as director of choral studies at Central.

The performance will feature guest soloists, along with the CWU Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Choir, and University Chorale. The CWU Symphony Orchestra performs a standard symphonic repertoire, from the baroque through the twentieth century, as well as opera and contemporary works. The orchestra is well known throughout the Northwest and has made numerous appearances at state and regional music educators' conferences.

The CWU Chamber Choir (singing the Serenade to Music) is a premier choir at Central. It is open to sophomores through graduate students, and members are chosen through a rigorous audition process. Like the orchestra, Central's Chamber Choir is well known throughout the Northwest and regularly presents concerts around the state and beyond. The University Chorale, which will join the Symphonic Orchestra and the Chamber Choir for Beethoven, is the largest of Central's eight choral ensembles and is open to any student who enjoys singing. Numbering well over 100 members, the choir is directed by Vijay Singh, associate director of choral studies, who is also a featured soloist in today's performance.