1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Shearer to deliver Transylvania commencement address

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Charles L. Shearer, who recently announced his retirement from the presidency of Transylvania University after a record-setting 27-year tenure, will deliver the commencement address to the class of 2010 on the steps of Old Morrison on Saturday, May 29. Shearer, who will step down on June 30, is the longest-serving president at Kentucky’s oldest college, founded in 1780. During his tenure, the university has prospered in every measurable area, highlighted by a growth in enrollment from 655 to approximately 1,100, an increase in endowment from $32.8 million to more than $100 million, and the completion of nine new buildings, two athletics fields and four major renovation projects. Faculty and student quality have been enhanced under Shearer’s leadership through the creation of the Bingham Awards for Excellence in Teaching and expansion of the William T. Young Scholarship Program for entering first-year students. Shearer came to Transylvania in 1979 as vice president for finance and was named president in 1983 at the age of 40. He was previously director of operations and director of the Liberal Arts Program in Professional Management at Albion College in Michigan. Shearer, a native of Louisville, earned a B.S. in accounting and an M.A. in diplomacy and international commerce from the University of Kentucky. He completed an M.A. and Ph.D., both in economics, at Michigan State University.

Transylvania’s choir joins other college choirs for two performances of Brahms’ “Requiem” April 9-10

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Transylvania University Choir joins choirs from Centre College, Berea College and Asbury University, along with a full orchestra to present two performances of Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutches Requiem” (“A German Requiem”) at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 9, in Haggin Auditorium at Transylvania and at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 10, in Newlin Hall in Centre’s Norton Center for the Arts. There will be an optional short lecture before each performance, at 7 p.m. The lecture on April 9 will be in the Coleman Recital Hall in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center at Transylvania. The lecture on April 10 will be in the Vahlkamp Theater in Crounse Hall at Centre. To reserve concert tickets, which are $15, call the Norton Centre Box Office at (877) 448-7469; tickets may be picked up at the door the evening of each performance. Completed in 1868, “A German Requiem,” Brahms’ longest work for orchestra and the work that first brought him to wide recognition, is both within and outside the long tradition of requiems by composers such as Mozart, Verdi and Berlioz. Not only did he not use the standard Latin texts from the Mass for the Dead, but he also wrote a requiem for all people and especially for those who mourn a loved one’s death; in one letter he referred to it as “a human requiem.”  Though not traditionally religious, Brahms knew the Hebrew and Christian scriptures through Martin Luther’s

Award-winning poet Cecilia Woloch ’78 to give public reading Monday, April 12, 4 p.m. at Transylvania University

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Poet Cecilia Woloch will speak at Transylvania’s Cowgill Center, room 102, Monday, April 12, at 4 p.m. This event, the fourth annual writing, rhetoric, and communication lecture, is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow the lecture. Woloch is the author of five collections of poetry, including “Sacrifice,” a 2001 BookSense Selection; “Late,” for which she was named 2004 Georgia Author of the Year; and “Narcissus,” winner of the 2006 Tupelo Press Snowbound Prize. Her poems have been published in translation in German, French and Polish. She is a lecturer in the creative writing program at the University of Southern California and the founding editor/publisher of Fortunate Daughter Press and founding director of both the Summer Poetry in Idyllwild (Calif.) and of the Paris Poetry Workshop, France’s longest running English language writers’ workshop. A celebrated teacher, Woloch has won several fellowships and prizes and has conducted poetry workshops for thousands of children and young people throughout the United States and around the world. She has also conducted workshops for professional writers, educators, senior citizens in Elderhostel programs, prison inmates and residents at a shelter for homeless women and their children. As a Transylvania student, Woloch majored in English and drama and her poetry was published in the “Transylvanian,” the university’s literary magazine. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.

Transylvania’s senior art exhibit runs April 2-23 in Morlan Gallery; included in April 16 Gallery Hop

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery presents “Our Eclectic Minds: Transylvania University Senior Exhibition 2010.” The exhibit opens at 5 p.m. on April 2 and runs through April 23. Regular gallery hours are noon-5 p.m. weekdays, and the gallery will be open for the Lexington Gallery Hop Friday, April 16, from 5-8 p.m. An opening reception for the artists will be Friday, April 2, from 5-8 p.m. The work of nine graduating art majors will be showcased in the exhibit. Kristy Marie Allison Kristy Marie Allison, Mount Olivet, Ky., is a member and previous philanthropy chair of Alpha Omicron Pi and is the leader of PB&J Club, a volunteer effort provides food for the homeless each week. Allison plans to attend graduate school for a master’s in architecture with an emphasis in historic preservation.  For “Our Eclectic Minds,” she will be exhibiting artwork she has created through her years at Transylvania. Denise Estelle Brown Denise Estelle Brown is a painter, poet, writer and stage performer from Harlan County, Ky. She has done portrait work as a freelance artist and has exhibited at Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery. One of her oil paintings was recently purchased by Lexington’s Joseph’s Hospital, for its new women’s hospital. Her art work can also be seen in an outdoor exhibit as part of the downtown revitalization project that includes the historic Lyric Theatre. Brown hosts a monthly poetry reading called “22 Nights” at Third Street Stuff Coffee Shop

Transylvania’s Theatre Guild presents “Brighton Beach Memoirs” April 1-3 at 7:30 p.m.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s student-run Theatre Guild will present Neil Simon’s classic coming-of-age play, “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” April 1-3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lucille C. Little Theater. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the Little Theater box office prior to each show. The play, with its mix of comedy and drama, is set in the Brighton Beach area of New York, in 1937 and tells the story of Eugene Morris Jerome, a Polish-Jewish teenager who experiences puberty, sexual awakening and a search for identity as he deals with his family, including brother Stanley, parents Kate and Jack, his aunt Blanche and his cousins Nora and Laurie. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.