low tuition rate increase approved

SOU Board of Trustees approves low tuition rate increase for second year in a row

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The Southern Oregon University Board of Trustees agreed today with a recommendation from the university’s Tuition Advisory Council and President Rick Bailey, Jr., for tuition rates in the 2022-23 academic year to increase by $8 per credit hour for resident undergraduate students. The new rates were approved following a lengthy, collaborative process involving students, faculty and staff members, and came just a year after the university enacted its lowest tuition rate increase in recent memory – just $5 per credit hour.

SOU’s tuition rates will remain among the lowest of Oregon’s seven public universities, and the increase approved today for the coming year ranks near the middle of increases ranging from 3.19 to 7 percent that have been approved or proposed at the other schools for 2022-23.

Undergraduates from Oregon will pay $209 per credit hour at SOU, up from $201 this year – an increase of 3.98 percent, following last year’s increase of 2.55 percent. Residents of 16 Western states and territories that are part of the Western Undergraduate Exchange will pay $314, up from $301.50; and other non-resident undergraduates will pay $617, up from $597. SOU’s tuition rates for graduate students from Oregon will increase to $525 per credit hour, up from $505; non-resident graduate students will pay $630, up from $610.

“These tuition rates are the result of a very thoughtful process, and based on many months of analysis by our students, working alongside faculty and staff members,” said Daniel Santos, chair of the SOU Board of Trustees. “The Tuition Advisory Council members very clearly understand the needs of students and the university, and I appreciate them finding this balance between the costs of a high-quality education and affordability for our students.”

The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the rates recommended by SOU’s Tuition Advisory Council, which met eight times and is made up of students, faculty and administrators. President Bailey reviewed the council’s recommendations and forwarded them to the trustees.

SOU has committed to keeping higher education within the reach of all students and prospective students, and strives to offset any tuition increases with opportunities for institutional aid – particularly for those who are least able to afford additional costs. The university has also implemented measures to reduce student expenses for textbooks, and to maintain affordable room-and-board costs for those who live in residence halls.

“All students who want to improve their lives through higher education should absolutely have the opportunity to do so on our campus,” President Bailey said. “We are committed to innovations that will change the current funding model, which relies almost entirely on tuition revenue from students and funding from the legislature. With creative endeavors, over time, we can relieve the dependence on both.

“We are actively pursuing a variety of other revenue sources for SOU, and those could prove to be transformational for our students and the institution. In the meantime, we must do our best to balance the academic and financial interests of our students.”

The state paid for two-thirds of its universities’ operating budgets 30 years ago and tuition covered the remaining third. The ratio is now exactly opposite.

-SOU-

New grant for prior learning credits

Arbor Day of Service celebrates SOU’s Tree Campus USA certification

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The  SOU Student Sustainability Team and the Tree, Bee and Bird Committee will host a community-wide Arbor Day of Service on April 29 – an opportunity for hands-on volunteer work, connection with others who have an interest in sustaining the environment and a free lunch.

Volunteer check-in and lunch will be from 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. in the Stevenson Union, outside the Rogue River Room. Upon check-in, volunteers will sign up for tasks including sustainable campus beautification, construction of pollinator gardens, maintenance of the SOU Community Garden and – you guessed it – tree planting.

Lunch will feature food that qualifies under the Real Food Challenge (an initiative to provide food that is ecologically sound, humane, fair, or local/regionally sourced). Joseph Whitney, who heads the initiative, will speak alongside student sustainability coordinator Elizabeth Adkisson and David West, an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and director emeritus of Native American Studies.

Groups will split off at 1:30 p.m. to join the SOU landscaping Team on campus, go to the SOU Farm with the Pollinator Club or head to the SOU Community Garden. Each group will hear from local experts about tree care, pollinators or gardening.

SOU celebrates Arbor Day as part of its Tree Campus certification. The university was recognized in December of 2021, for the seventh year in a row, as a Tree Campus. The national Tree Campus USA program was founded by the Arbor Day Foundation to honor college and university campuses that effectively manage the trees on their campuses, connect with the community to promote healthy urban forest management, and have student bodies that are actively involved in environmental stewardship. There are currently 402 campuses across the nation with this recognition.

Arbor Day has been celebrated by more than 44 countries beginning in 1594, and 45  states in the U.S. since 1872. It was established as a day to honor trees and the vital role they play in the world. Did you know that one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for as many as four people? Trees also provide natural temperature regulation, water, air and soil pollution reduction, and stress relief for students and faculty on campus.

Day of Service participants will reciprocate that generosity by Mother Earth by putting their hands in the dirt and planting.

SOU’s Arbor Day observance was cancelled due to COVID-19 in 2021, so organizers are ready to make the 2022 SOU Arbor Day of Service one of the most enriching, impactful and fun events of the year. Those who are interested are urged to tell their friends, post on social media, and get the word out to anyone in the community to let them know they are invited to make a tangible and lasting impact on the local landscape. The event is open to the community.

Advanced registration is requested; those who wish to join for the volunteer lunch please fill out the form https://southernoregonuniversity.formstack.com/forms/arborday_2022 by April 26.

Story by the Student Sustainability Team, SOU Social Justice and Equity Center

Duo combines organ and percussion in SOU concert

Organized Rhythm Duo to combine organ and percussion in SOU concert

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The Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University together with the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists present: “An Afternoon of Organ and Percussion” on Sunday, April 24, at the SOU Music Recital Hall.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the concert hall will begin shaking with the vibrations of pipes and percussion at 3 p.m., featuring the award-winning, and seldom paired combination of organ and percussion known as the Organized Rhythm Duo. This combination of instruments will be the first for the Rogue Valley.

The concert will be offered in-person and live-streamed from the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University: https://youtu.be/_YzH2A0Ai3o

The Organized Rhythm Duo has dazzled audiences for more than two decades. Founded in 2004, the duo is made up of Britain-born organist Clive Driskill-Smith and Oregonian Joseph Gramley, two top musicians in their fields. Driskill-Smith is wry and reserved – until he lets loose an astonishing array of effects at the organ’s keyboard, and Gramley gracefully complements with dance-like movements across a cadre of more than a dozen percussion instruments.

Together, they captivate audiences with their explosion of energy, sound and musicality, and fill the stage with a lyrical and powerful melding of thunderous and dulcet organ pipes with the arresting and delicate aspects of percussion instruments.

Trumpet and organ: it’s been done before. Flute and organ: it’s been done before. But the “symphonic-orchestral” pairing of organ and percussion remains a rarity, making Organized Rhythm the only full-time duo of its kind anywhere in the world.

The program will open with “Beaming Music,” by innovative 21st century composer Nico Muhly, and the audience will hear dozens of world drums, cymbals, multi-keyboard melodic percussion, orchestral percussion and timpani breaking through the full organ’s sound as satisfyingly as any trumpet; the duo has found balances in which even the soft bars of the marimba meld seamlessly with the organ’s softest registers.

Recognizable classics such as Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Bizet’s “Aragonaise” (from Carmen), and Canfield’s “Pictures at a Klee Exhibition,” will round out the program which will conclude with a lively foot-stomping rendition of Copland’s “Hoe-Down.”

The inspiration to bring the Organized Rhythm Duo to the Rogue Valley for this unique musical experience, was conceived by Margaret Evans, Dean of the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and SOU’s professor emerita, who teaches organ at SOU. Evans partnered with Terry Longshore, professor of music and director of Percussion Studies at SOU. Organized Rhythm Duo is represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.

For information on the Organized Rhythm Duo, the artists and their music, click here.

Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 for seniors, and free to SOU faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The OCA Box Office will open at 2:00pm – one hour before the performance for last-minute ticket sales. Tickets can also be purchased online here or by calling (541) 552-6348 or emailing boxoffice@sou.edu.

About the performers:

Joseph Gramley has had an extensive, award-winning solo and chamber music career, has taught percussion at multiple universities, collaborates and plays with major symphony orchestras, has two solo recordings, and has released eight albums. He was the associate artistic director of the Silkroad Ensemble from 2014-2017. During Gramley’s tenure, the ensemble won the 2017 GRAMMY award for “best world music” album, was nominated for “best music film” and recorded the music for Ken Burns’ documentary, “Vietnam,” for PBS.

Gramley’s versatility as a percussionist has found him performing alongside a broad cross section of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Elton John, Michael Stern, Renee Fleming, Wu Man, Glen Velez, and Keiko Abe. Gramley’s two solo recordings, “American Deconstruction” and “Global Percussion,” represent definitive, milestone works in the modern multi-percussion canon. He is currently a professor of music in percussion at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Born in 1970, Gramley grew up in Oregon and was named a presidential scholar in the arts in 1988. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan, and earned his master’s degree from Juilliard and directed its Summer Percussion Seminar for 17 years. Festival experience includes Tanglewood, Salzburg Mozarteum, Spoleto Festival, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and 15 summers at the Marlboro Music Festival.

Clive Driskill-Smith has been named “a star of a new generation” and critics have praised his “blazing technique” and “unbelievable virtuosity” and describe his performances as “intensely moving” and “truly breathtaking.” He began early as a pianist and bassoon player and later at age 15 began playing organ.

Driskill-Smith is currently the organist and choirmaster at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas – a post that he combines with an international concert career. He has performed at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Melbourne Town Hall, Westminster Abbey, The Grand Philharmonic Hall in Perm (Russia) and the National Performing Arts Center in Taipei. He has played at prominent festivals and conventions, and continues to work with acclaimed conductors.

His performances have been broadcast on the BBC (UK), NHK (Japan), Pipedreams (USA), and on radio and television throughout the world. His CDs have received critical acclaim and he has recorded albums with Peter Gabriel on Virgin Records, and with Howard Goodall on EMI Classics.

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

SOU's Earth Day Extravaganza will highlight Earth Month

SOU Earth Month features Earth Day Extravaganza and more

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Southern Oregon University and community partners are offering an “Earth Day Extravaganza” and a packed schedule of events during the last two weeks of April in observation of Earth Month 2022. Opportunities to learn, take action and celebrate will take place both on campus and in the community April 19 through 29.

Environmental and social sustainability are among SOU’s core institutional values, and the events offered by the Social Justice and Equity Center’s Student Sustainability Team will highlight SOU’s contributions in these areas and offer opportunities to get involved in making a difference. Campus events will include a free screening of the film “Necessity 2: Climate Justice and the Thin Green Line,” the Light Up Your Bike Night Ride and Workshop, the Earth Day Extravaganza and the Arbor Day of Service. All of SOU’s events are free and open to the public.

Events hosted by community organizations include the Bear Creek Stewardship Day, Earth Day celebrations at the Ashland Food Co-op and Temple Emek Shalom, the Run Wild Ashland Color Dash and the Rogue Valley Bike Swap.

Details on the full Earth Month line-up are available online.

SOU’s Earth Day Extravaganza will be held this year from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on April 22, in observation of the 52nd Earth Day. The Student Sustainability Team (formerly ECOS) has been hosting a similar version of the event for more than 20 years – historically, in the Stevenson Union courtyard. The Student Sustainability Team is moving the event to The Farm at SOU to help fill a void that was left when the Rogue Valley Earth Day event, traditionally held at the neighboring ScienceWorks, was discontinued.

The SOU Earth Day Extravaganza has adopted some of the more popular features of Rogue Valley Earth Day, in partnership with the event’s past organizers – including educational exhibits by more than 30 sustainability and social justice-minded organizations and businesses; the Earth Day Ecoquest, in which participants of all ages can complete activities to earning prizes; and musical performances by campus and community groups including the SOU Salsa Band, the Creek Side Strings and Elbow Room Taiko. Other additions include mini-workshops hosted by students from SOU’s Environmental Education master’s degree program, farm and art tours, lawn games, crafts and food trucks.

ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum will be extending its hours on the day of the event to 6:30 p.m., and will also offer free admission that afternoon.

Guests are asked to walk, bike, carpool or take a bus to the Earth Day Extravaganza, to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit parking congestion. Limited on-site parking is available in the ScienceWorks parking lot and overflow parking at Willow Wind Community Learning Center is also available. Guests that walk, bike, take a bus or carpool to the event can stop by the Rogue Valley Transportation District (RVTD) exhibit to receive bonus Ecoquest tokens to be used toward Ecoquest prizes.

SOU’s Earth Day Extravaganza is made possible by contributions from campus and community sponsors, including Café Mam Organic Coffee, the SOU Social Justice and Equity Center, Sustainability at SOU, the SOU Environmental Science and Policy Program, True South Solar, the Ashland Food Co-op, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now and many other partner organizations.

Please visit the Earth Day Extravaganza website for more information.

SOU News Podcast: Faculty Spotlight on Perrow

SOU and faculty union agree to four-year contract

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University and its faculty union have come to terms on a new, four-year collective bargaining agreement. The contract is the result of a collaborative process that ultimately addressed faculty concerns related to pay equity and job security while also recognizing the university’s financial condition.

The university and Association of Professors of Southern Oregon University (APSOU) agree it is critical to now focus on the student academic experience.

“We all share a deep commitment to our students,” said Susan Walsh, SOU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “This agreement allows us to move forward together in service to our students and the community.”

APSOU, the union that represents SOU faculty members, sent the contract to its members and it was ratified late last week.  The university and APSOU finalized their proposed agreement two weeks ago, following a declaration of impasse by the union.

Walsh – who has served the university for more than 30 years as professor, department chair and now SOU’s top academic administrator – joined the final stage of bargaining to urge unity. She said that all university employees – faculty, staff and administrators – have contributed in many ways to keep SOU financially viable despite enrollment declines, the region’s wildfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and an uneven economy.

“Our collective ability to deal with challenges often comes from the recognition that we must always keep what is best for our students at the center of all of our decisions,” Walsh said. “When it comes to a commitment to student success, there is no question that we are all on the same page.”

The new collective bargaining agreement starts with a 1 percent guaranteed minimum raise for the remainder of the current academic year. The contract provides for guaranteed minimum salary increases of 2.5 percent beginning next academic year, and then 2 percent for each of the two following years, as well as annual salary adjustments, based on years in rank, of as much as 2 percent. The university will continue to pay 95 to 97 percent of faculty members’ medical, dental, vision and life insurance benefits.

The agreement, which took effect upon ratification, will run through August 2025.

-SOU-

The SOU Woodwind Ensemble will present “Circusmuzeik”

SOU woodwinds to perform “Circusmuziek” featuring whimsical, colorful melodies

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The SOU Woodwind Ensemble will present “Circusmuziek” at the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall on Monday, April 25. The concert, presented by the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, will begin at 7:30 p.m., in-person with a simultaneous live stream on the Oregon Center for the Arts YouTube Channel.

The program will feature contemporary chamber music by the mixed ensemble “Quintet for 7 Reeds,” the clarinet ensemble “Panic in the Practice Room,” and the saxophone quartet “SAXISTENTIAL QUARTET.”

The concert will begin with “Tanguera” from “QuinteTango” by Mariano Mores, arranged by Silvia Coricelli, and “Circusmuziek” by Ton Ter Doest – the concert’s namesake – performed by the Quintet for 7 Reeds. The quintet is made up of oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon, and will feature SOU alum and current oboe instructor Lorin Groshong, SOU woodwind faculty Rhett Bender, undergraduate music student Jack Boulter and graduate students Randy Nguyen and Travis Muñoz.

The program will also include a performance of “A Real Slow Drag” from “Treemonisha,” written by Scott Joplin and performed by SOU music faculty members Bernadette Keller, Alexander Tutunov and Bender.

Following “Treemonisha” will be “Bagatelle for Clarinets” by Clare Grundman, and selections from “Suite for Clarinets” by T. Stewart Smith, performed by Panic in the Practice Room, which will include undergraduate music students Jack Boulter, Martin Bichinsky, Jackie Lu and Orion Danforth, and graduate student Randy Nguyen.

The concert will conclude with SAXISTENTIAL QUARTET – made up of undergraduate music students Amanda Esser, Jack Kovaleski and Reese Lanier, and graduate student Randy Nguyen – performing “Merry-Go-Round of Life” by Joe Hisaishii and Yudo Yamada, and “Ulla in Africa” by Heiner Wiberny.

A patron commented at a previous concert in February, that “it was the best student wind concert I have heard in 23 years of attending concerts in the SOU Recital Hall.”

About the composers:

“Circusmuiziek” by Dutch composer Ton Ter Doest is composed specifically for the reed quintet. Featuring seven short vignettes that combine the unique sounds of each reed instrument, Doest creates beautiful images in the minds of the audience.

Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime,” wrote two operas that were never performed in his lifetime. The score for Joplin’s first opera, “A Guest of Honor,” was lost in 1903, but “Treemonisha” was rediscovered in the 1970s and has since been performed to great acclaim.

Clare Grundman composed scores for film, television, radio and several Broadway productions. He is most known for his compositions and arrangements for symphonic bands, with many of his compositions inspired by folk music from around the world.

Heiner Wiberny is a German jazz saxophonist and flutist. Wiberny first studied romance studies, geography and school music in Cologne, and composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Pavel Blatný.

Joe Hisaishii is best known for his work with animator Hayao Miyazaki, composing music for many of his films. “Merry-Go-Round of Life” was specifically composed for Miyazaki’s film “Howl’s Moving Castle,” with all of the imaginative wonder of the romantic fairy tale.

This will be the last concert the SOU Woodwind Ensembles perform this term. Tickets can be purchased at the OCA Box Office by calling (541) 552-6348 or emailing boxoffice@sou.edu. The OCA Box Office is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. General admission tickets are $10, and $5 for seniors and SOU alumni. SOU faculty, staff, students and members of OLLI receive two free tickets each. OLLI and SOU community members must call or email the OCA Box Office, as purchases cannot be made online. General public tickets can be purchased online at https://sou.universitytickets.com. For more information or to learn about upcoming events please visit oca.sou.edu.

Story by Gray Blair, box office staff for OCA at SOU

Guanajuato students on SOU visit

Guanajuato students visit SOU for collaborative business development project

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University is hosting nine business students this week from Universidad de Guanajuato, and will send nine SOU students to the Mexican university next month as the two longtime sister campuses launch a new collaboration on multicultural business development as part of a far-reaching program under the U.S. Department of State’s umbrella.

The 18 total students from SOU and UG are working together this week on development plans for three local businesses – Irvine Roberts Family Vineyards, Indigo Creek Outfitters and Northwest Pizza and Pasta – and will do the same for three Guanajuato businesses during the May exchange. The Global Innovation Scholars program also includes international, online coursework for participating students during this year’s winter and spring terms, and the opportunity for immersive social and cultural experiences.

SOU's Dee Fretwell with Giuanajuato visitors“This program is so valuable and unique,” said Dee Fretwell, the SOU business instructor who proposed the project along with UG business professor and SOU alumnus Martin Pantoja. “We push the boundaries of an exchange program, blending cultural experiences with hands-on business development for live, operating businesses. I’m not sure we as a society are even grasping how valuable this is to our students and businesses alike.”

The collaboration between SOU and UG – which have maintained a steady stream of exchange and cooperative projects since 1969 – is part of the “100,000 Strong in the Americas” program, sponsored by the State Department, the U.S. Embassies and the nonprofit organization Partners for the Americas. The SOU-UG partnership applied for and received a $25,000, one-year grant from the 100,000 Strong program, which now serves 534 higher education institutions in 25 Western Hemisphere countries and 49 U.S. states. There is hope that a funding source will be found to continue the new program beyond its inaugural year.

A unique link between SOU and UG has led more than 1,000 students, faculty members and others to participate in exchanges, and has resulted in more than 80 marriages tying people from Ashland and Guanajuato over three generations. In fact, the current SOU-UG project grew out of a previous partnership between the two schools – the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program, which brought together classes of upper-division business students to work on the development of international business relationships.

The collaborative relationship that Fretwell and Pantoja formed through that program provided a natural segue to the “100,000 Strong in the Americas” grant application.

SOU student RJ Henry, who is participating in this week’s events and will be among the nine from the Ashland campus who visit Guanajuato next month, called the program an “extraordinary opportunity” that will build cooperative skills and provide valuable real-life lessons.

“The 100K Strong program offers a remarkably exciting opportunity to embark on a life experience that combines business education with cultural immersion, while making new friends along the way,” Henry said. “The benefits are the various academic, travel, cultural and social activities, which include the development of business-related critical thinking skills within group work settings, and the experience of unique cultural perspectives.”

The Guanajuato exchange students arrived in the Rogue Valley last Saturday night. They have toured the community and SOU campus in the days since, and have had meetings or events with SOU President Rick Bailey, state Rep. Pam Marsh, Ashland Mayor Julie Akins, SOU’s Faculty Advisory Board, the university’s Small Business Development Center in Medford and Ashland’s Amigo Club – an organization of community members and alumni who support the Amistad exchange program and have created an endowed scholarship fund for participants.

The SOU and UG students have visited the three local businesses that are receiving development advice, and will present their business plans at a Friday event in SOU’s Stevenson Union. They will tour Lithia Park and go on a rafting excursion on Saturday before returning to Mexico on Sunday.

The students and participating faculty members from Guanajuato were welcomed to southern Oregon by Vincent Smith, director of SOU’s Division of Business, Communication and the Environment, and a faculty leader for the project. He told the visitors that we face many problems in common as a global society, from the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters, to environmental destruction and political conflict.

“You are here this week to assist three businesses in planning,” Smith told the SOU and UG students as this week’s field work began. “That is important work. It is practice for the many problems you will need to solve in your lives.

“Unfortunately, the problems you will need to solve are complex. They cannot easily be solved without collaboration and cooperation. In fact, unless we work together to solve these problems we will fail.”

Smith told students from the two universities that working together, developing friendships and building trust will provide their greatest strengths.

“We are more alike than we are different, but it is our differences that will help us solve the most complex problems,” he said.

-SOU-

Video tour of The Farm at SOU

The Farm at SOU is gearing up for the 2022 growing season

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The Farm at SOU has begun its 2022 growing season, with more than 40 different crops planted, the resumption of a popular community agriculture program and the introduction of a new one.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares are again available for participants who wish to receive weekly produce boxes and, for the first time, The Farm is growing and preparing to sell garden starts. Both programs are open to community members, regardless of their relationship with SOU.

The Farm is a community-based and student-powered operation, located near the SOU campus on North Walker Street. It provides learning opportunities for students and locally-grown food for SOU students, employees and local residents.

The CSA program, which enables subscribers to receive fresh produce from the farm each week, is expected to have crops ready to harvest and on people’s tables by mid-May and continue into September. Members of the CSA will get a share of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables grown on the Farm, from corn and lettuce to peaches and apples. Those who would like to subscribe for shares of The Farm’s products can follow this link to join the CSA program.

“We farmers at SOU are passionate about having people eat good food,” said Vincent Smith, Division Director for SOU’s Division of Business, Communication and the Environment, and The Farm’s primary overseer.

One of The Farm’s goals has been to promote self-sustaining agriculture in the community, which has led this year to the sale of plant starts for use in home gardens. All plants sold will be fully mature nursery starts, ready to plant upon purchasing. Plant starts are available for purchase here.

Please enjoy this short video featuring a tour of The Farm and its crops by Vincent Smith and SOU environmental science graduate student Elizabeth Mackey.

Learn more about the Farm here.

Oregon Center for the Arts spring performances

Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU offers variety of spring performances

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The Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU is offering a variety of musical, theatrical and dance performances in the coming weeks – both in-person and live-streamed. Free tickets are available for all SOU students and employees.

FREE Dance Workshop: Saturday, April 2nd at Noon
Dance Workshop (tap, salsa, hip hop, and more!)

Session One: Tap for All – Noon – 1:30pm
SOU Adjunct Faculty Instructor: Suzanne Seiber

Session Two: Contemporary/Salsa/Hip Hop 1:30-3pm
Theatre Building/ROOM: THR 137
Guest instructor: Melissa De Corrado

Sessions are first come, first served. Limited space. 

About the workshops: Sponsored by the Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU, these free dance workshops will feature tap, contemporary dance, salsa and hip hop. The workshop will feature a tap session from Noon-1:30pm taught by SOU Adjunct Faculty and Dance Performance instructor Suzanne Seiber. In the second session, guest artist Melissa De Corrado will teach contemporary dance, salsa, and hip hop from 1:30-3pm. Both sessions are in the Theatre Building, Room 137. For more information contact Suzanne Seiber at seibers@sou.edu

SOU Percussion Ensembles perform RECONSTRUCTION Tuesday, April 5th at 7:30PM SOU Recital Hall
Livestream: https://youtu.be/2E3TiRSpLqQ

The program will open with John Cage’s 1939 composition, First Construction, and close with the 10th Anniversary performance of Bryan Jeffs’ first work for Percussion Ensemble, “A Maroon Hog’s Rebel Frog.” Jeffs’ composition is the first of a trilogy of pieces he has written and premiered for percussion ensemble. His work evokes a sense of lighthearted playfulness balanced with complexity and technical demand. Left Edge Percussion, directed by SOU music professor, Dr. Terry Longshore, is SOU’s graduate level percussion group in residence at the Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU. The group regularly collaborates with artists of various media and are featured at festivals and events worldwide. The SOU Percussion Ensemble, directed by 2007 SOU Alum 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.

FRIDAY MUSIC SHOWCASE: Free Music Every Friday in the SOU Music Recital Hall from 12:30-1:20PM. 

Friday Music Showcase is a weekly MUS 165 course that is required for all music majors during their time at SOU but is an opportunity for the SOU Community and the general public to attend performances. The showcase is performance and lecture based and features guest artists, student performances, live music and engaging lectures during the academic terms. It is also a performance opportunity for junior recitals, faculty recitals, and pre-recital performances.

CMC Vienna Piano Trio: Friday, April 8th at 7:30PM, SOU Music Recital Hall
Not offered through the OCA Box Office.

Long established as one of the world’s leading chamber ensembles, and perennially fresh in its artistry, the Vienna Piano Trio was founded in 1988 by the Viennese pianist Stefan Mendl. His partners are the Californian violinist David McCarroll, a member of the trio since 2015, and the Austrian cellist Clemens Hagen, who joined in 2018. Together, the players embody the ensemble’s continuing commitment to bridging the traditions and practice of Europe and America. This philosophy stems from the trio’s early years and its mentoring by such ensembles as the Trio di Trieste, Haydn-Trio Wien, Beaux Arts Trio, and the Guarneri and LaSalle quartets, and by the violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo.

For tickets and more information contact Jody Schmidt, Executive Director at (541) 552-6154, email  Director@ChamberMusicConcerts.org or purchase your tickets online at: https://www.chambermusicconcerts.org/

SOU Music Student Recitals: April 9th-30th
No tickets needed. Open to the public – all in the SOU Music Recital Hall at 7:30pm/dates below:

Morgan List, Senior Recital, piano Saturday 4/9; program: Bach, Grieg, Milhaud, Scaramouche. Livestream: https://youtu.be/csdRi2BsYnA

Tiana Wong, Graduate Recital, piano Tuesday, 4/12; program: Beethoven, Vine, Grieg; Livestream: https://youtu.be/ICeKynFpTPI

Joseph Wong, Graduate Recital, piano Wednesday, 4/13; program: Beethoven, Rachmaninoff; Livestream: https://youtu.be/3GCpbzcFd9Q

Isaiah Spratt, Graduate Recital, piano Saturday, 4/30; program: Debussy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich; Livestream: https://youtu.be/47NBOvw_Hbw

April CVA Gallery Opening, and Schneider Museum of Art Opening & Exhibits

SMA: The Presence of Nature: April 8th-May 21st; Open Tuesdays – Saturdays 10am-4pm

FEATURING ARTISTS:
Claire Burbridge
Sky Hopinka
Kurtis Hough
Naeemeh Naeemaei
Vanessa Renwick
Olga Volchkova

OPENING SMA NIGHT RECEPTION: THURSDAY, APRIL 7 FROM 5 TO 7PM; FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
CVA: The Best of the Best High School Exhibits and SOU Student Exhibits: April 4th-29th

Best of the Best, Meyer Memorial, Boise Cascade, Chairs
Shelby Hammond, I Can Spread My Toes Wider Than You, Jeld-Wen
Kaya Doolaege, Do You Like Me Now, Thorndike
Cheri Ball, NO SIGNPOSTS, Retzlaff

Opening Reception: April 15th, 5-7PM
CVA Gallery Hours: Monday – Sunday, 8AM-10PM
Organized Rhythm: Percussion/Organ Concert on Sunday, April 24th at 3PM, SOU Music Recital Hall
Livestream: https://youtu.be/_YzH2A0Ai3o

The Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU together with the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presents: “An Evening of Organ and Percussion” featuring the Organized Rhythm Duo. This combination of instruments (percussion and organ) is not heard very often, and this will be the first for the Rogue Valley.

SOU Chamber Ensembles present CIRCUSMUZIEK: Monday, April 25th at 7:30PM, SOU Music Recital Hall; Livestream: https://youtu.be/zRJpiKMUGjw

The SOU woodwind – reed and double reed – ensembles will present their spring concert titled  “Circusmuziek.” This will be a concert of contemporary chamber ensemble music saxophone quartet, clarinet ensemble, and a quintet of reed instruments: oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon. The title was inspired by the work of the same name by Dutch composer Ton ter Doest. It will be performed by Quintet for 7 Reeds. Also on the program will be the SAXISTENTIAL QUARTET performing Merry-Go-Round of Life by Japanese composers Joe Hisaishii and Yudo Yamada. Additional music will be performed by clarinet ensemble Panic in the Practice Room.

SOU Music presents: TAMBUCO: Percussion Tuesday, April 26th at 7:30PM, SOU Music Recital Hall;
Livestream: https://youtu.be/VubCB8hJoxg

OCA presents: The Tambuco Percussion Ensemble – from Mexico City will perform in the SOU Music Recital Hall. Four time GRAMMY Nominees, this Mexican Percussion Quartet includes  Ricardo Gallardo, Alfredo Bringas, Raúl Tudón, Miguel González. The group was founded in 1993 by four distinguished Mexican musicians and is ranked among the finest and most innovative in the world.

Oregon Fringe Festival: April 27th-May 1st various locations in the Ashland Community

Each spring, the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University produces the Oregon Fringe Festival, a multi-day event celebrating outrageous creativity in the arts. Featuring over 35 different artists, this year’s festival will include everything from over 20 live performances, to over 10 online performances, in addition to over 20 opportunities to interact with creative work both live and online that is not scheduled as a performance.

On Wednesday, April 27, at 7:00 p.m. the Oregon Fringe Festival will host an Opening Celebration to officially kick off the festival in the CVA Gallery Courtyard – in front of the Art Building on the SOU Campus! Come dressed in your quirkiest attire inspired by the Fringe to meet artists and producers while enjoying an evening of treats and refreshments, visual art exhibitions, Honorarium Recipient Awards from Festival Director, Paige Gerhard, a unique Fringe Gauntlet experience, and more… Following the Opening Celebration will be an Opening Performance featuring a stellar rock concert by MUSIX, a premiere pop music ensemble associated with Music Industry & Production at Southern Oregon University. Click here for a complete schedule of event for OFF: https://oregonfringefestival.org/festival-schedule

Chamber Music Concerts presents: The Jerusalem Quartet Friday, April 29th at 7:30PM; 

Chamber Music Concerts presents: The Jerusalem Quartet Saturday, April 30th at 3:00PM;
Not offered through the OCA Box Office.

Since the Jerusalem Quartet’s founding in 1993 and subsequent 1996 debut, the four Israeli musicians have embarked on a journey of growth and maturation which has resulted in a wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression, carrying on the string quartet tradition in a unique manner. The ensemble has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices. This approach allows the quartet to maintain a healthy relationship between individual expression and a transparent and respectful presentation of the composer’s work. The Jerusalem Quartet is a regular and beloved guest on the world’s great concert stages, including regular visits to the U.S., London’s Wigmore hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich Herkulessaal, Theatre des Champs-Elysées, as well as special guest performances at the Auditorium du Louvre Paris and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. For tickets and more information contact Jody Schmidt, Executive Director at (541) 552-6154, email  Director@ChamberMusicConcerts.org or purchase your tickets online at: https://www.chambermusicconcerts.org/

FREE Bollywood Workshop: Saturday, April 30th at 11AM
Theatre Building/ROOM:THR 137

Sign up by emailing Neeta Singh at neeta@neetanaturals.com
Guest Instructor: Neeta Singh, CEO Neeta Naturals Ayurveda Wellness
Spots available first come, first served. Limited space.
About the Workshop: This workshop (open to the SOU Community) will be a unique opportunity to get to know and learn the basics of a traditional Bollywood dance style, which we all have seen so many times in the movies. Participants will spend the first-half of the workshop learning Bhangra, the high energy folk dance originating from the north Indian state of Punjab. During the other half of the workshop, Neeta will introduce you to the exotic world of Bollywood, India’s largest film industry based out of Mumbai. You will learn the basics of both dances, as well as build a choreography for each dance form that will have you smiling throughout the class and workshop.

About the Artist: Neeta Singh performs year-round concerts, wedding receptions, private parties, fundraisers, corporate events, social/public events, and festivals. She also provides private lessons and training for special events.

For more information or for tickets to any of the above events contact the OCA Box Office M-F from 3-6pm at 541-552-6348, email boxoffice@sou.edu, or come visit us in person to get your tickets. All April-June events are listed at https://oca.sou.edu The OCA Box Office is located between the Music and Theatre buildings at 491 S. Mountain Avenue next to Jefferson Public Radio. E-ticketing available over the phone – avoid long lines and concert delays, and get your free tickets early before the concert day – thank you!