Ellen Marshall Leads Alumni Chorus Tour
Ellen Marshall recounts her inspiring trip with the Yale Alumni Chorus this summer:
From August 1 to 12, 2009, the Yale Alumni Chorus toured Guatemala and Mexico, in a journey for which Ellen Marshall, TC '71, served as the lead producer. Travelling with 137 people invariably presents its challenges, but it was worth it all when we appeared before appreciative and packed audiences, and shared the stage with new friends.
After spending 3 days in intensive rehearsals, we performed our first concert in the outdoor ruins of a convent, before a SRO audience that included the US Ambassador to Guatemala, Stephen McFarland, Yale Class of '77, and his family.
While in Guatemala, we also sponsored a festival and choral competition at the tiny indigenous village of Santiago Zamora. The cutest kids from various surrounding (and even smaller) villages took the stage to sing local favorites, in their first venture into choral singing. We bought fabrics and munchies from women's cooperatives, and shared songs.
In Mexico, we held concerts in Puebla, and at the fabulous Sala Nezahualcoyotl concert hall in Mexico City (with a fine orchestra). We did a radio concert before a live audience, for broadcast on the leading station for classical music.
Our repertoire included two newly commissioned works, and we had the privilege of a workshop with one of the composers, the leading contemporary Mexican composer Jorge Cordoba Valencia. Musically, this was the tour highlight for many of us.
At our last stop, San Miguel de Allende, we again had a packed and enthusiastic audience.
As always, the great thing about this tour was sharing fun with such a diverse group of Yalies. We ranged from Dave Coughlin, Class of '41, to Matthew Doud, Class of '09. The Class of '71 took the prize for geographic diversity, with Bob Bonds from Germany and Michael Bales from Canada.
See our blog at www.yacnewsandviews.blogspot.com.
Frances Beinecke Awarded Yale Medal
Congratulations to Frances Beinecke on being awarded the Yale Medal! The text of the AYA's announcement appears below:
Association of Yale Alumni Names Yale Medalists
Published: August 27, 2009
New Haven, Conn. - Five Yale University alumni have been selected by the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) to receive the Yale Medal in 2009.
This year's recipients are Stephen Adams '59, Frances Beinecke '71, '74 MFS, Charles D. Ellis '59, Justice Carlos R. Moreno '70, and Eve Hart Rice '73.
Inaugurated in 1952, the Yale Medal is the highest award presented by the Association of Yale Alumni and is conferred solely to recognize and honor outstanding individual service to the University. Since its inception, the Yale Medal has been presented to 272 individuals, all of whom not only showed extraordinary devotion to the ideals of the University, but also were conspicuous in demonstrating their support of Yale through extensive, exemplary service on behalf of Yale as a whole or one of its many schools, institutes, or programs.
The AYA citations honoring the Yale Medalists follow:
Stephen Adams, long a loyal and active volunteer, has demonstrated enduring devotion and uncommon generosity to his alma mater. While his commitments extend well beyond his Yale College class to a broad range of initiatives throughout the university, it is his sense of vision and purpose that has transformed in particular the School of Music. Adams' gift to that school - enabling all future generations of students to attend tuition-free - has redefined the role of music at Yale, and will in turn redefine arts education throughout the world. Adams serves on the Board of Visitors to the School of Music, the University Council and as a Sterling Fellow.
Frances Beinecke is the "quintessential example" of outstanding individual service to Yale. Since her graduation from Yale College and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, she has provided Yale with inspired and transformational leadership. A former member of the Yale Corporation, the University's governing board, she currently co-chairs the Leadership Council of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and is a member of the School of Management's Advisory Board. A dedicated conservationist, she chaired the University Council Committee on a Sustainable Yale and propelled Yale to the forefront in campus sustainability.
Justice Carlos R. Moreno has served Yale with distinction for close to four decades in many volunteer roles. Through his determination and dedication he revived the Yale Club of Southern California, fostering community and sustaining the Yale alumni family on the West Coast. He has served on the AYA Board of Governors, and for over 15 years he has co-chaired the Central Los Angeles Yale Alumni Schools Committee, which has become a national role model for minority recruitment. As mentor and counselor, he has shared his love for Yale with generations of Yale students, faculty and staff, inspiring in them a similar commitment to leadership and service to Yale.
Even among Yale's extraordinary corps of alumni volunteers, a select few stand out because of their profound impact on the institution. Charles D. Ellis is such a volunteer. He has shared his gift of leadership with Yale in many broad, sustained and diverse ways, from his Yale College Class Council, to the School of Management, to the Yale Corporation and as chair of the university investment committee. His tireless efforts, wisdom and experience have inspired in countless others the motivation to give back to Yale through the "And for Yale" and "Yale Tomorrow" capital campaigns. He chaired the gift committee for both his 25th and 50th reunions and both set Yale and world records. In particular, through his drive and vision, the Yale School of Management continues to rise in the ranks of America's top business schools
Eve Hart Rice is unique in her ability to support and touch many different lives at Yale. Her devotion is exemplified by the roles she has undertaken - Sterling Fellow, University Council, vice chair of the Class of 1973 25th, 30th, and 35th reunion gift committees, Yale Tomorrow executive committee, Yale Club of Westchester Board member, trustee of Jonathan Edwards College, and 40th Anniversary of Coeducation Steering Committee member. In addition, she has supported and been involved with numerous activities throughout the university - the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, the Yale World Fellows Program, the Yale Asia Environment Fund, the Yale School of Architecture - the list of her engagements, leadership and dedication is an inspiration for all who would choose to become involved at Yale.
For the announcement on the Yale Office of Public Affairs site, visit http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=6834&f=46.
Rubin Review: 'Past Imperfect' by Julian Fellowes (Writer of the Screenplay for 'Gosford Park')
Society Meets the Sixties
The aristos flock to a party. The brownies are spiked with hashish.
By Martin Rubin
Wall Street Journal August 30, 2009
Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes; St. Martin's, 410 pages, $24.99
Anyone who has seen "Gosford Park" (2001) knows that Julian Fellowes, the movie's screenwriter, has a knack for mocking the foibles of the British upper crust. In his novel "Snobs" (2005) he skewered the inhabitants of the same milieu even more savagely. "Past Imperfect" shows Mr. Fellowes's satirical talents to be undiminished. Here, though, he offers a rounded portrait of an aristocratic gratin fighting to preserve its customs and defend its turf. . . .
For Martin's full review, click here or visit www.wsj.com.
Martin Rubin on 'To Heaven by Water'
Martin Rubin reviews Justin Cartwright's novel To Heaven by Water:
Quest in the fog: A recently widowed former British TV news anchor frantically searches for meaning in this novel that knows its setting.
By Martin Rubin
L.A. Times, August 21, 2009
Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa in 1945, came to study at Oxford in the mid-1960s and has lived in England ever since. Like his previous novels, "To Heaven by Water" showcases his uncanny ability to get the British scene just right, combining the perspective of a onetime outsider with the innate knowledge of one thoroughly at home.
The novel is a snapshot of a particular time in London---the present---and will serve very well one day as a time capsule of this interregnum. This is British society post-Iraq, post the prosperity and exorbitant property prices that characterized the early years of the 21st century. It's a time of bewilderment, of anger, of bitterness---what went wrong? Even despised old Tony Blair is looking good in a world where his successor seems to be nothing more than a punching bag for everyone, including retired TV anchorman David Cross, the novel's protagonist . . . .
For Martin's full review, click here or visit www.latimes.com.
Jim Kaplan Tour Oct. 24 'The Great Crashes of Wall St.'
Jim Kaplan invites us to join him Oct. 24 at 1 pm for a Lower-Manhattan historical tour that traces Wall Street's quests for riches and even goes back to that pre-Wall Street entrepreneur, Henry Hudson, who sailed into New York harbor 400 years ago this September:
The Great Crashes of Wall Street October 24, 1 pm. Sponsored by the Museum of American Finance. Tickets ($15): click here or visit www.moaf.org.
Jim writes:
Richard M. Warshauer and I have given this tour for the past 20 years (since the 1987 Crash). We discuss the vagaries and vicissitudes of Wall Street as well as its history from its founding by the Dutch. This year I expect to cover more extensively than in the past Henry Hudson in honor of the 400th Anniversary of his discovery of New York. I have recently done more research on Hudson who I now view as the archetypal driven corporate entrepreneur and a harbinger of things to come. See my article in the most recent issue of Last Exit Magazine [or visit lastexitmag.com].
Shelley Fisher Fishkin Reading in NYC Oct. 8
In NYC on October 8, Shelley Fisher Fishkin will be reading from one of her newest Mark Twain books, and she's delighted to welcome classmates and friends to this free event in Lower Manhattan. Shelley writes:
On Thursday, October 8, the evening before the Class of '71's celebration of the 40th anniversary of coeducation at the Yale Club (organized by Susan Yecies and Vera Wells), I will be doing a reading and informal talk about Mark Twain's Book of Animals in a bookstore in Manhattan, and I'd be happy to spread the word to members of our class who might like to attend. It will be at 7 PM at BLUESTOCKINGS, a bookstore, fair trade café and activist center at 172 Allen St. (between Stanton and Rivington). It's free and open to the public.
This is a busy season for Shelley's publishers (not to mention Shelley herself). Her Mark Twain's Book of Animals will be published October 9 by University of California Press. In November, Oxford University Press is publishing a paperback edition of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain that she edited in 1996, and in March 2010, the Library of America will publish her Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works.
UC Press profiles Mark Twain's Book of Animals as follows:
Longtime admirers of Mark Twain are aware of how integral animals were to his work as a writer, from his first stories through his final years, including many pieces that were left unpublished at his death. This beautiful volume, illustrated with 30 new images by master engraver Barry Moser, gathers writings from the full span of Mark Twain's career and elucidates his special attachment to and regard for animals. What may surprise even longtime readers and fans is that Twain was an early and ardent animal welfare advocate, the most prominent American of his day to take up that cause. Edited and selected by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who has also supplied an introduction and afterword, Mark Twain's Book of Animals includes stories that are familiar along with those that are appearing in print for the first time.
"For those unaware---as I was until I read this book---that Mark Twain was one of America's early animal advocates, Shelley Fisher Fishkin's collection of his writings on animals will come as a revelation. Many of these pieces are as fresh and lively as when they were first written, and it's wonderful to have them gathered in one place." ---Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation and The Life You Can Save
"A truly exhilarating work. Mark Twain's animal-friendly views would not be out of place today, and indeed, in certain respects, Twain is still ahead of us: claiming, correctly, that there are certain degraded practices that only humans inflict on one another and upon other animals. Fishkin has done a splendid job: I cannot remember reading something so consistently excellent."---Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep and The Face on Your Plate
"Shelley Fisher Fishkin has given us the lifelong arc of the great man's antic, hilarious, and subtly profound explorations of the animal world, and she's guided us through it with her own trademark wit and acumen. Dogged if she hasn't." ---Ron Powers, author of Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain and Mark Twain: A Life
About The Author
Shelley Fisher Fishkin is Professor of English and Director of American Studies at Stanford University. She is the author of many books, including Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture and Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices. She edited Is He Dead?, a new play by Mark Twain, and is also the editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain. Barry Moser is one of America's foremost wood engravers and is the proprietor of the Pennyroyal Press. Among the books he has illustrated are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Moby Dick, or The Whale, all from UC Press. The Mark Twain Project is housed within the Mark Twain Papers, the world's largest archive of primary materials by this major American writer.
David Pudlin Wins Squash Gold Medal
Congratulations to David Pudlin! In the photo below, he wears the gold medal he just won for Team Masters Squash at the Maccabi Games in Israel:
Rick Merkt Profiled in YDN
In April, the Yale Daily News' Courtney Pannell profiled our classmate Rick Merkt:
Candidate reflects on political roots at Yale
Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
While New Jersey Assemblyman Rick Merkt ’71---a self-proclaimed “conservative constitutionalist”---said he has softened up since his undergraduate years, he admits he would have definitely fallen in the first category as a history major in Timothy Dwight College nearly 40 years ago. But his political roots, partly fostered during his time in New Haven, have only developed since his Eli days. . . .
For the full article, click here or visit www.yaledailynews.com.
In the News: Jim Kaplan's Tour of Lower Manhattan
Noreen O'Donnell, news columnist for Westchester's Journal News, reported on Jim Kaplan's July 4 tour of lower Manhattan:
"Each Independence Day, for the past 13 years, Kaplan has led a group through the streets around City Hall in the early morning hours. It's as much a very personal telling of American history with Revolutionary New York as a backdrop as it is a tour of historical sites."
For the article, click here or visit www.lohud.com.
Jim Kaplan's July 4 Lower Manhattan Tour
Jim Kaplan's annual dead-of-night July 4 walking tour of lower Manhattan is officially sold out, but below are excerpts from and links to his recent articles in Last Exit magazine on Horatio Gates and Thomas Paine, both of whose lives he celebrates on the tour; Jim claims Gates is the greatest of the Revolutionary War generals:
Although most people do not consider New York as important a Revolutionary War site as Massachusetts or Virginia, New York was actually equally if not more important than those places in the revolution. Furthermore, contrary to the belief of most New Yorkers, the American Revolution was critically important to what New York is today. Two of the major battles of the Revolution---the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Saratoga---were fought in New York. The Lower Manhattan hosts the graves of three very significant Revolutionary War generals: Richard Montgomery, hero of the battle of Quebec; Alexander Hamilton, the commander of the final assault at Yorktown; and Horatio Gates, commanding officer of the victorious American troops at Saratoga.
For the full article, click on the following link: J. Kaplan---Horatio Gates, New York's Forgotten Revolutionary
***
On June 8, 1809, a 72-year-old man died in poverty and relative obscurity in a rooming house on Grove Street in Greenwich Village. His name was Thomas Paine, and 33 years earlier in 1776 he had been the most important political theoretician in the country. The New York Post on June 9, 1809, one of the few papers even to note his passing, stated that he “lived long, did some good and much harm.”
Despite his modest obituary, Paine has not been forgotten, although many think he still has yet to receive full recognition for his achievements. In the last ten years there have been more than five full-length biographies of Paine, most of which argue that he was one of the most important men in modern history. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death, I will be giving a walking tour on Sunday, June 7 sponsored by the Fraunces Tavern Museum that examines Paine’s underappreciated impact on the growth of New York City, where he resided at the time of his death. In a sense it is to refute the New York Post obituary of 200 years ago.
For the full article on Paine, click on this link: J. Kaplan---Thomas Paine's America