News from Transy

LEXINGTON, Ky.―All 39 Transylvania University choir members will soon board a coach bus for an early spring concert tour, performing an eclectic repertoire of sacred music in Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas churches. The vocal tour kicks off March 7 close to campus, at Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington at 7 p.m., and then heads south, eventually landing in Fort Worth, Texas, the farthest destination on the six-day journey. While the tour is regional, the musical offering is global, including songs of worship and adoration from the ancient to the contemporary.  A Lithuanian folk tune, a Nigerian Christmas song, Gregorian melodies and an E.E. Cummings’ poem set to music are all part of the diverse mix of spiritual music offered by the choral group. Transylvania’s a cappella group, TBA, is featured after the intermission. A subset of the choir, TBA will invite the audience to join them in Michael McGlynn’s “Alleluia: Incantations.”  Each of the six concerts concludes with singing the praises of the university as well, with a heart-felt rendition of “Hail, Transylvania.” The homecoming concert is Monday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater on Transylvania’s campus. This concert, like all of the concerts on the tour, is free and open to the public. Carrick Theater is in Transylvania’s Mitchell Fine Arts Center on West Fourth Street, between North Broadway and Upper Streets. Free parking is available in the adjacent parking lot. The Mitchell Fine Arts Center

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LEXINGTON, Ky.―Pianist John Mortensen presents “Off the Cuff,” a recital composed entirely of improvisations in classical, jazz and contemporary music on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. The concert, in Transylvania University’s Carrick Theater, is free and open to the public. “I will improvise in several different styles and then describe briefly how improvisation works and what to listen for in each style,” explained Mortensen. His concerts may start with music of Bach, venture into improvisation, and end with music from the Canadian indie rock band The Arcade Fire or music composed by Leonard Cohen. Mortensen has performed with artists from different musical worlds, such as Moscow Conservatory professor Mikhail Petukhov and All-Ireland fiddle champion Winifred Horan. He also performs and teaches Irish and American roots music, playing mandolin, octave mandolin, Irish flute, Irish button accordion, five-string banjo, Uilleann pipes and Irish whistle. He created America’s only college-level traditional Irish music session class. After a concert in Eisk, Russia, the Russian press wrote that “… for John Mortensen Russia has always been close musically. He plays with especial passion the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff. ‘I don’t speak Russian, I speak Rachmaninoff,’ was heard from the mouth of the pianist during the concert. And truly, during the performance of the work of the great Russian composer, in the hall peoples of different nationalities disappeared—it seemed from the stage sang and wept the Russian soul. The chords of the next Rachmaninoff prelude

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—When physicist Ronald Mallett was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack. Within a year, inspired by a comic book based on “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells, Mallett began to imagine traveling back in time in the hope of saving his father’s life. The idea became a lifelong quest to make time travel possible. Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee is adapting Mallett’s memoir, “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality,” for a feature film. Mallett, professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, will share his gripping personal and scientific journey during the Kenan Lecture on Tuesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m., in Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium. A reception and book signing will immediately follow in Carrick Theater. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public. Designed for a general audience, the lecture—“The Real Science of Time Travel”—will draw from his memoir and also focus on the scientific possibility of time travel based on Einstein’s theories of relativity. It will highlight Mallett’s own current research and consider the problems and paradoxes of time travel. When asked what kept him focused on his lifelong quest, Mallett explained, “My passionate desire to see my father again is what kept me primarily focused on my goal of understanding time travel. When I realized that time travel might be possible based on Einstein’s theories of relativity, I felt that this was a

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LEXINGTON, Ky.―According to author, playwright and storyteller Kevin Kling, “There’s the trip you plan and then there’s the trip you take. Our stories told and retold define who we are, where we come from, what’s funny, what’s sacred.  And the best story is a love story.” Kling delivers that best story with “Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names” on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lucille C. Little Theater at Transylvania University. Written and performed by Kling, “Breakin’ Hearts” is a hilarious and heartfelt collection of stories and songs about “love gone right, love gone wrong and everything in between.” Arguably one of America’s very best storytellers, Kling is known for his popular commentaries on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and his storytelling stage shows like “Tales from the Charred Underbelly of the Yule Log,” which are notable for having just the right mix of sentiment and silliness. A Minneapolis native, Kling has authored five books, had his plays and adaptations performed around the world, and been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation and The Bush Foundation, among others. He is a McDowell Fellow and has received the Whiting Award, the A.P. Anderson Award, the Jeahny Award from VSA and the Eric Peterson Award. Kling was born with a congenital birth defect—his left arm is about three-quarters the size of his right arm, and his left hand has no wrist or thumb.

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—In many regions of the United States, including Kentucky, water is endangered or in short supply. As the recent chemical spill in Charleston, W. Va., has shown us, what happens up river affects the communities below. Indeed, West Virginia and Kentucky are part of the same expansive Ohio River watershed that runs from Pennsylvania to Illinois. Water connects us. Our lives depend upon its quality and availability. Yet, more than 40 years after the creation of the Clean Water Act, our water is often compromised beyond use. How do people, laws and nature get along? Peter J. Longo, professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, will provide insight in his presentation “Water Policy on the Great Plains: There’s No Fooling Mother Nature” on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m., in Transylvania University’s Cowgill Center, room 102. The lecture is free and open to the public. Longo will offer an overview of the culture of the Great Plains and address the local ecology and laws related to water. “Water issues and resulting policies and laws [bind] the citizens and political actors of the Great Plains,” Longo explains. “However, policies and laws are no match for Mother Nature.”Longo holds a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He teaches, researches and writes about civil rights and liberties, constitutional law and environmental policy. His writings on water range from how laws affect farmers to a legal history

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