SOU percussion groups to play in New York

On repeat: prominent NYC music festival features SOU percussion ensembles

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Southern Oregon University’s percussion ensembles received a special invitation two years ago to perform at the Bang on a Can “LONG PLAY” music festival – a three-day NYC event each year that draws hundreds of percussive artists from around the world. With instruments nearly packed and ready to go, SOU’s contingency had to wait while the world paused for the pandemic.

The invitation was extended again this year and with renewed fervor, SOU’s percussion faculty – Terry Longshore, Bryan Jeffs and Reed Bentley – will venture to NYC with percussion students and perform during the festival, April 29 through May 1.

SOU will be the only university participating in the May Day festival, and students will share the stage with a cadre of some of the biggest names, composers and musicians, in the world of percussion – an impressive “who’s who” of new music. A total of 11 percussion students, three faculty members and two SOU alumni will participate during the festival, which features 50-plus percussive artists and 60-plus concerts across eight pioneering music venues in Brooklyn. Performances will be held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Roulette, Public Records, Littlefield, Mark Morris Dance Center, The Center for Fiction, outdoor events at The Plaza at 300 Ashland and more.

Longshore’s longstanding connections with festival producers prompted the recent invitations and opportunities for SOU students. He has been involved in the weekend festival since the early 1990’s and performed twice during his own master’s program. He has also made connections with composers and other percussionists through his own professional music career and has participated in the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA.

Bang on a Can was founded in 1987 by lauded contemporary composers Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon. Lang and Wolfe have each been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Gordon is the composer of “Natural History,” which premiered with a 2016 performance at Crater Lake by the Britt Festival Orchestra with Steiger Butte Drum, members of the SOU Percussion Ensemble and various SOU music faculty and students.

“Right now – this minute – is an amazing time to love music,” Wolfe, Lang and Gordon said in a statement about this year’s festival. “Musicians and listeners from every corner of the music world are pushing beyond their boundaries, questioning their roots, searching and stretching for the new. There’s so much audacity and so much courage. We want to show you all of it.

“With the creation of LONG PLAY, we are presenting more kinds of musicians, playing more kinds of music, bending more kinds of minds. LONG PLAY expands and enlarges our scope and our reach, and puts more new faces on stage than ever before. It’s a lot of music!”

The theme of this year’s festival is “An Explosion of Mind-Bending Music of the Moment.” Some of the headliner/highlighted groups: Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kris David/Dave Holland, Matmos, Michael Pisaro, Pan in Motion, Sun Ra Arkestra and Vijay Iyer.

Left Edge Percussion, directed by Longshore, is SOU’s graduate-level percussion group in residence at SOU’s Oregon Center for the Arts. The group regularly collaborates with artists of various media, and are featured at festivals and events worldwide.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble, directed by SOU alumnus and faculty member Bryan Jeffs, is made up of SOU music program students who perform on campus and across the Rogue Valley at a variety of community events. Several students who were slated for the 2020 festival will now get the chance to participate.

“I was so disappointed the festival was cancelled in 2020,” said Jared Rountree, a junior music major and member of the SOU Percussion Ensemble. “But when we were invited again to this year’s festival, I was overwhelmed and excited. I am so ready to get out there and perform again in front of a big audience – I feel like I’m getting my life back through music.”

“We will perform along a star-studded cast of performers and composers at the festival, and this is truly an incredible opportunity for our students and alumni,” Longshore said.

And speaking of alumni, two of Longshore’s first music students – Joseph Perez ‘07 and Rebecca Merusi ‘06 – will meet up and perform with SOU during the festival.

“The piece ‘ricefall’ is composed for 16 players and we only had 14,” Longshore said. “So I reached out to a couple of percussion alumni that live near Brooklyn, to see if they would join us.”

“I didn’t even hesitate to say yes, when Terry called and asked if I would perform,” Merusi said. “I started as a percussion ensemble at SOU before Terry arrived at SOU. Now, to be joining them in a performance 20 years later, is absolutely epic.

“SOU is very much a center for the arts, and I am unbelievably proud of my experience and legacy there, and enthusiastic about everything that continues to develop.”

Merusi is connected with the Eastman School of Music, plays with a local philharmonic ensemble, and is an executive team leader for Target Corporation.

Both SOU groups will perform one piece during the festival. Left Edge Percussion will perform “Strange and Sacred Noise” by composer and Pulitzer Prize for Music awardee John Luther Adams, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. Adams uses his music to describe the natural world, how nature changes us and how we change it, impacting the health of our planet.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 29, a piece called “ricefall” by Michael Pisaro, director of the Composition and Experimental Sound program at the California Institute of the Arts. The ensemble in this piece will create a sonic environment, visual and intensely quiet and dramatic, and use rice falling like a gentle rain, from the hands of the performers, onto a variety of objects and surfaces.

The festival won’t be livestreamed, but tickets are available at: www.longplayfestival.org, and range from $95 to $350.

SOU’s percussion groups will also perform on campus – both ensembles will perform Re-Construction at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, in the SOU Music Recital Hall; the SOU Percussion Ensemble will perform “ricefall” at 7:30 p.m. on May 26 in the SOU Music Recital Hall; and Left Edge Percussion will perform “Strange and Sacred Noise” on June 3 at the CVA First Friday Gallery Opening in the courtyard in front the SOU Art Building.

Story by Kim Andresen, Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU

2022 OTA Fellow Whillamina Wise

SOU student selected as TRIO-SSS 2022 OTA Fellow

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The Oregon TRIO Association (OTA) recently selected TRIO-SSS student Whillamina Wise of Southern Oregon University as its 2022 OTA Fellow. She participated in the Council for Opportunity in Education Policy Seminar as Oregon’s representative last week in Washington, D.C.

The OTA Fellow’s main responsibility is to encourage funding for TRIO and hear stories of how the federal Student Support Services (SSS) program has helped first-generation, low-income and other underrepresented students around the country. Whillamina and the student representatives of other states help the organization to support students in the program nationwide.

“They’ve supported me so much throughout my education, and I’m just happy to be representing them,” Whillamina said in an interview with SOU News.

TRIO is a federally funded organization that helps disadvantaged students progress through the academic pipeline from middle school through graduate school. Student Support Services is one of eight sections of the TRIO program.

The TRIO-SSS program at SOU is limited to 190 students per academic year and has served more than 1,500 since 1994. The free program offers services including academic advising, tutoring, personal education plans, career guidance, preparation for graduate programs and financial aid information.

There are 23 colleges and universities in Oregon that offer TRIO-SSS.

Whillamina is majoring in International Studies and Spanish at SOU, and participates in the university’s Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program – another of the federal TRIO program’s eight sections. She plans to enter a master’s degree or doctoral program in her field next year.

Whillamina is passionate about uplifting underrepresented communities, and one of her goals with TRIO-SSS is to help first-generation students in developing their academic careers and increasing diversity across the board. The International Studies major at SOU has helped her work as the OTA Fellow, in finding new ways to improve integration and to diversify academia.

Those who may be eligible for support from TRIO-SSS are encouraged to learn more about the program.

SOU News sat down with 2022 OTA Fellow Whillamina Wise in this podcast interview below. Listen here and subscribe to SOU News podcast with Nash Bennett on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.

Story by Nash Bennett, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

RVTD bus passes for SOU students

RVTD: It may be time to rethink your commute and drive less

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With the increase in gas prices, many in the SOU community may be looking for ways to save some money at the pump. SOU’s partnership with RVTD, which provides a 90 percent discount with the SOU Student Term Bus Pass, compared to the regular cost of monthly bus passes, is a great option. Many students and staff have regularly used the bus as their way of getting around; since fall 2019, students and staff have recorded more than 33,000 transit trips.

In recent years, RVTD has worked to provide an improved and more convenient passenger experience. RVTD launched a free WiFi service on all RVTD buses in January, allowing passengers a chance to be better connected and more productive with their commute time. There are great new technology amenities like the Transit App, One Bus Away or the Google Trip Planner which provide passengers real-time bus information on when their bus will arrive at their bus stop and destination, making planning your bus trip easier than ever. The Umo Mobility App also makes it easy for students and staff to use their mobile phone to ride the bus.

Riding the bus offers many benefits like saving money in gas and parking costs and can also help reduce your carbon footprint. If you are interested in getting a discounted SOU Term Bus Pass, visit https://inside.sou.edu/sc/bus-passes.html for details on SOU faculty/staff passes, and students can visit www.tinyurl.com/soubuspass.

Interested in carpooling?
RVTD and SOU also provide easy ways to find or post a carpool so you can share the cost of the ride. Get There Oregon is the statewide online ride-matching tool built to help you connect with others going your way for school, work, or shopping. If you use your @sou.edu email address to create your Get There account you can search for carpools with others in the SOU community using the SOU Raider Rideshare Network. To sign-up visit: GetThereOregon.edu

Need a bike? Check out the 2022 Rogue Valley Bike Swap
The Bike Swap is back this year and will be held on Saturday, April 30, offering a great opportunity to find a “new” set of wheels.

Buy, sell, or DONATE a bike, parts, or accessories at the festive revival of this long-running annual event. Test ride an e-bike, register your bike with the Ashland PD, and learn about bike events and advocacy efforts in your community. A portion of each sale will go to fund youth bike education programs in local public schools. For more information, visit rvtd.org/bikeswap.

From the Student Sustainability Team of SOU’s Social Justice and Equity Center

The Creativity Conference returns to SOU in July

Call for proposals: Creativity Conference at SOU

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The annual Creativity Conference at SOU will return to the Southern Oregon University campus July 14 to 17, and all members of the SOU community are encouraged to propose presentations or consider attending the four-day conference.

Last year’s conference, which was held remotely, featured 112 presenters and 243 attendees from more than 30 countries. The 2022 conference will operate on a hybrid format, hosting presenters and attendees both in-person and online through video conferencing.

Faculty members and others who wish to make presentations at the conference should fill out the call-for-proposals form on the Creativity Conference website. Poster sessions at the event are considered to be a valuable interactive format for all researchers, and ideal for students seeking feedback on their work.

Those with questions about the conference may reach out to either Mark Runco at runcom@sou.edu or Dan DeNeui at deneuid@sou.edu.

This year’s scheduled keynote speakers include Bonnie Cramond, a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia. Cramond is the former director of the University of Georgia’s Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, and has served on the boards of several national and international organizations and journals related to creativity and giftedness.

The international conference features many of the world’s top scholars, researchers and practitioners in the field of creativity. It provides cutting-edge information and resources for those who are interested in learning more about the science and application of creativity research.

Kelly Taylor, a volunteer with Court Appointed Special Advocates

SOU alumni working as Court Appointed Special Advocates

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Several SOU alumni are volunteering this year as Court Appointed Special Advocates – a national organization that provides volunteer support and aid for children that have experienced abuse or neglect, and are struggling within the court system. The Jackson County division of CASA has welcomed many past and present SOU students as volunteers in recent years.

Kelly Taylor got his master of arts in teaching degree at SOU in 2006, and began teaching kindergarten shortly after. He had contact with CASA volunteers as part of that job, and eventually began volunteering himself, alongside his wife.

He currently works with two children, whom he visits at least once a month – developing personal relationships with them and their families, and offering a friendly figure to connect with. After spending time with the children, he writes court reports on their cases to help a judge make decisions for the children in a court of law.

“I got involved with CASA because I fervently believe that it takes every one of us to somehow do our part to make the Rogue Valley the best place it can be,” Kelly said, recounting why he decided to join CASA.

He enjoyed being able to get involved in the community, and the volunteer work has been very fulfilling. In general, he encourages help in the community in many different ways. CASA has been a great way for him to give back, along with activities such as nature maintenance crews, feeding the less fortunate and donating to charities.

Another SOU alum making strides with CASA is Alicia Linton Ambrocio, who majored in criminal justice with a minor in psychology at SOU. She started as an intern for CASA during her senior year of college, became a full-fledged volunteer shortly after and has now moved up to the position of case supervisor for the organization.

Alicia became inspired to work for CASA through her studies of the justice system, and realizing the potential for prejudice against people of color and other minority groups.

“Working for CASA is honestly some of the most rewarding work I have ever done,” she said. “Working with the families, putting a face to these court cases, and amplifying the children’s voices is so important, real differences can be made (in) the process.”

Alicia has found that the work done for CASA-supported children and families can have a long-lasting result on the community as a whole.

There are at least 10 current or former SOU students involved with CASA in Jackson County. The program provides its volunteers the opportunity to support children in need and foster a better overall environment for them and the communities in which they live. More information for those interested in getting involved with CASA and making a difference in children’s lives is available at this link.

Story by Nash Bennett, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

SOU approaches COVID as endemic

SOU shifts to endemic approach on COVID-19

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University announced this week that its COVID-19 policies will shift from a pandemic footing to an endemic approach, emphasizing safety and caution as changes are made in practices such as masking, quarantines and restrictions on campus visitors.

Masks will not be required either indoors or outdoors at SOU beginning March 19, the day after winter term ends, but those who prefer to wear masks for their own safety are welcomed and encouraged to do so. President Rick Bailey told students and employees in a campus message on Monday that N95 masks will continue to be made available for their use in most campus buildings.

“As you know, Southern Oregon University has been a role model in the way we have fought to keep each other safe and healthy despite the challenges of the pandemic,” Bailey said. “We recognize that COVID may not disappear anytime soon, but we feel we can safely return to largely normal operations by exercising caution and following the advice and recommendations of scientific and public health experts.”

SOU’s vaccination policy will remain in effect – students and employees are still required to attest that they have received all CDC-recommended COVID vaccines and boosters, or that they have been granted medical, religious or other exemptions. New students will be required to attest that they are fully vaccinated or apply for exemptions. Compliance with the policy will be monitored by randomly selecting students to show proof of their vaccination status.

The most significant change to the vaccination policy is that guests and visitors to campus for indoor or outdoor events will no longer be required to show proof of their status. Mandatory weekly testing for students or employees who have been granted exemptions under SOU’s vaccination policy will be discontinued as of March 12, and the isolation period for those who test positive for COVID-19 will be reduced to five days, from the 10 days now required, bringing SOU in line with current recommendations from the CDC.

President Bailey pointed out in Monday’s announcement that all changes to the university’s policies “may be subject to further revision depending on evolving conditions.” The latest modifications were recommended by the university’s COVID-19 Advisory Committee, with input from local, state and federal health authorities.

“The guiding principle of that group, and of our university, is that the health and safety of students, employees and community members will always be our highest priority,” Bailey said.

-SOU-