News from Transy

Transylvania music students start new year with plentiful performances

Posted on January 10, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—January’s “Polar Vortex” hasn’t slowed Transylvania’s vocal and instrumental performers one note. Rather, they have doubled their Honor’s Recitals performances and added an extra day to their popular Cabaret production. Honors Recitals January 16 and 21, 7:30 p.m. Instrumental performers selected by a jury of peers and music professors will perform Honors Recitals in Carrick Theater, located in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. Honors Recitals are free and open to the public. Each performance lasts about one hour and features students who are majors and non-majors. One student, sophomore Yuwei “Vivian” Tsai who will perform Jan. 21, started taking piano lessons just two years before coming to college. She progressed so quickly that she earned a piano scholarship to attend Transylvania. Appearing in her first Honors Recital, the biology major will perform a piece by Debussy. Cabaret January 31, 7:30 p.m. February 1, 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. Transylvania University’s vocal ensembles will present “An Evening at the Cabaret: The British Are Coming,” Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, in Carrick Theater. All tickets are $5. “An Evening at the Cabaret”—featuring the Transylvania Choir, the Transylvania Singers, the Pioneer Voices, a cappella groups TBA and Grace Notes and several soloists—will include a variety of songs made popular by the British invasion, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a Beatles medley (of course!) and music from Spamalot. Beginning Monday, Jan. 27, the Carrick box office will be open weekdays, noon to

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Two community leaders talk about what really matters to them

Posted on January 8, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—A discussion series similar to ones adopted by the University of Southern California, Stanford and Harvard has recently become popular on the campus of Transylvania University. Created to explore values and vocation, the series offers a safe and respectful place where individuals come together to share their personal journeys. On January 14, “What Matters to Me and Why” will feature two respected members of the Lexington community: Wayne Bell (Transylvania class of 1940) and Virginia Marsh Bell (class of 1944). The discussion will likely center around their extraordinary lives of service. Wayne Bell, a Disciples of Christ minister who was active in the civil rights movement, served as president of Lexington Theological Seminary and is a long-time Transylvania trustee. Virginia Marsh Bell has enjoyed a long career as a social worker and is acclaimed for her work on Alzheimer’s disease. She is a sought-after speaker and writer on the issue and has developed one of the country’s first dementia-specific adult day programs, the Best Friends Center. “It’s important to have exemplars who have found success through service,” explains Wilson Dickinson, Transylvania’s associate dean for religious life. “It’s not just what they’ve done. It’s who they are.” Dickinson notes the particular relevance of these discussions to young people starting out in life. “The old model of a single career path is disappearing. If you’re focused on ‘success’ instead of fulfillment, that can be frustrating. But if you are driven by

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Pianist presents concert with an educational twist

Posted on January 7, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.―Pianist Mark Valenti will visit Transylvania University Jan. 14 for an event billed as part concert and part music appreciation class. “The Art of Creative Listening” is aimed at a general audience interested in an introduction to the art of piano and the art of listening to classical music. The event is sponsored by Transylvania’s Division of Fine Arts and is free and open to the public. Valenti’s program includes a mix of pieces from various stylistic eras―from Baroque and Classical to Romantic, Impressionist and Modern, including some jazz improvisation. He will walk the audience members through each piece, pointing out what to listen for, defining the musical style and, in general, equipping them to appreciate music at a deeper level. Performing in the United States and Europe, Valenti’s list of notable accomplishments includes playing for former First Lady Barbara Bush in Washington, D.C., giving a live recital on WFMT classical radio and appearing on television with Joe Sudler’s Swing Machine and with singer/actor Christopher Durham. Valenti has also worked extensively in the jazz field, having performed with actor, singer and dancer Gregory Hines, composer Frank Foster and trombonist Al Grey. The seasoned musician received a Master of Music from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music from the Philadelphia Musical Academy. “The Art of Creative Listening” will be in Carrick Theater, located in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center, at 7:30 p.m. Parking is available in the Mitchell Fine

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Transylvania student heads to Denmark to study issues surrounding sex trafficking

Posted on December 22, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

  LEXINGTON, Ky.—Prostitution and sex trafficking might not be topics we expect to be the focus of a bright young college student. But Bria Parker ’15 is heading to Denmark to learn about policy issues addressing those troublesome social issues, which are universal and timeless—and, unfortunately, commonly in the news. Parker has received a prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study “Prostitution and the Sex Trade in Europe” at the Denmark Institute for International Study, beginning in January. Gilman Scholarships, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, are awarded solely to Pell Grant recipients—academic achievers with financial need. The goal of the scholarship is to diversify the candidates who study and intern abroad and to focus study in countries that are less traveled. Recipients of the grant are required to complete a service component when they return to campus, and Parker hopes to reach out to the Lexington community. Why Denmark? A visit to Transylvania’s annual Study Abroad Fair put Parker across the table from a representative of the Denmark Institute, who described its curricular offerings in sociology and gender studies. It was a eureka moment for Parker and, as Kathryn Simon, director of study abroad at Transylvania, recalls, a logical outcome of a local inspiration: “[Parker] attended the Kentucky Collegiate Leadership Conference last winter where she heard a speaker talk about prostitution and the sex trade. This piqued her interest in wanting to learn

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Transylvania students shine at annual Yale institute for bioethics

Posted on December 10, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Should humans use animals to grow new ears? Should we attempt to revive extinct species like the passenger pigeon or the wooly mammoth? How shall we care for our aging human population? What ethical and philosophical challenges are raised by such questions? These are examples of the heady issues confronting participants in the annual Summer Institute offered by Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. Transylvania has awarded Lydia Lissanu ’15 of Somerset, a sociology major with a biology minor, a full scholarship to the program, which brings together undergraduate and graduate students from around the world for two months each summer. Because of the success of previous Transylvania participants, Yale has reserved a spot for a Transylvania student since 2009. Transylvania selects the student from a pool of applicants and covers the enrollment fee. “I feel really blessed,” said Lissanu of being chosen for the Yale seminar. “It’s an honor. I hope that I can make the school proud when I’m there.” Participation in the program will afford Lissanu, who is on a pre-med, pre-public health track with plans to pursue a career in global health, the opportunity to study with an esteemed group of professors from Yale and other institutions. She was drawn to the program’s interdisciplinary focus, which is similar to the approach of several of her Transylvania courses. “She was really an extraordinary candidate,” said Jack Furlong, a Transylvania philosophy professor who’s on the selection committee.

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