Newsletter April 2008

Message from Mary Ann

Years ago, among the videos my children watched, one from the library stands out in an unusual way. The story involved a little boy who was not taken to caring about much. Somehow a lion came on the scene. It sounds harsh, I know, but the little boy was eaten. Throughout we heard lots of “I don’t care…” Then, suddenly, we hear an ecstatic “I CARE!” There was a good bit of singing, and as I remember it, the final interval was an octave. With the near-miracle of Google and YouTube, I find that this is likely a 1975 song by Carole King called “Pierre” performed with illustrations by Maurice Sendak. While the final interval is not an octave, in fact, it is in my memory that way for a purpose.

We have a great deal going on these days. Perhaps the most striking announcement is the return of an active chapter at SMU. How deeply important that will be in our community. The second announcement: I heard from our secretary Sandra McMillen that our alumni chapter has only 29 paid members. That we are able to accomplish as much as we do is even more astonishing.

A racehorse cannot move its legs faster to go faster. What it must do instead is to lengthen its stride. It then can cover more ground. Considering again our octave, we can take the entire matter musically. An octave is that stretch, that push that can urge us on to do things better. Someone once wrote, “Duty makes us do things well; love makes us do things beautifully.” As I listened to the fine performances last month at Sylvia’s, I felt that love and understood once more how vital live, intimate music can be.

As we complete another year, let us invite our Mu Phi colleagues to meetings, ask those we meet if they are members, and encourage those who have not been attending to come.

Many thanks to you,
Mary Ann Taylor

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Chapter News

Nominating Committee

The nominating committee consisting of Susan Poelchau (Chair), Sadie Rowe and Cynthia Wadley, are pleased to submit the following slate of officers for 2008-2009 at the April 28 meeting:
Mary Ann Taylor, President
Sylvia Taylor Lerch, Vice President
Sandra McMillen, Secretary
Sharon Kraus, Treasurer
Edith Pfautsch, Historian
Patricia Hill, Steward
Sadie Rowe, Chaplain
Phyllis Wilson, Chorister

Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention

Jenny Smith will be the Dallas Alumni delegate to the Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention this summer. She will present a report to the alumni chapter in the fall. President Mary Ann Taylor is unable to attend the convention.

This conference is held every three years and is a wonderful opportunity to experience what is happening to our organization as a whole, get new ideas, meet people from all over and hear wonderful music. Be thinking about whether you can work it into your summer travel plans. Dates are July 30 – Aug 2 in Jacksonville, Florida. More info at: http://muphiepsilon.org/Convention2008.htm

Website

Keep up with the concert series performers and programs and/or any changes to the schedule on our website. And remember, you can always access this newsletter (within a few days of publication) and past newsletters on our site. Feel free to copy any color photos you see there; right click on the photo and save it to your picture file; then you can attach it to an email or print it.

Dues

Check to see if you are one of the members who didn’t get her dues in this year. We need you and your support for our wonderful programs and library series!

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Collegiate Chapters

Thanks to the supreme efforts of District Director Sandra McMillen, the Mu Chi chapter is being reactivated. Prospective new members held their first musicale on April 1 at SMU and will be installed as a chapter on April 20th. Nine candidates have completed membership training. Mu Chi also has a transferee, a graduate student who attended Abilene Christian University.

The installation will be on Sunday, April 20th, 4:00 pm, in room 1060 of Meadows School of Music. Sandra needs nine alumni members to take part in the Initiation on that date. She will be contacting members by phone and e-mail to find out if they can help. So if you can help Sandra for this event, or can help the chapter financially with startup expenses for this chapter, contact her before she starts calling you.

Tena Hehn, through the Dallas Alumni chapter, is sponsoring the Mu Chi chapter delegate to the International Convention this summer and several other members have already made donations. (Make your check out to our chapter, designating it to the Mu Chi chapter.)

The new Mu Chi chapter has been invited to visit the April alumni meeting, Monday, April 28th, at Highland Park Methodist Church.

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Sandra also reports: “Good News!!! The Phi Tau Chapter at UNT is being reorganized!

She met with interested students Thursday, April 3rd, developing plans for an intensive candidate training and rituals. She will be working with alumni members in the Denton area.

Great work Sandra!!

Past Meetings February The February meeting with SAI was held at the downtown Public Library on Feb 11th. The SAIs hosted the meeting. Due to the illness of several performers, only Claudia Jameson and the Dallas Camerata Woodwind Quintet performed. The Dallas Camerata Woodwind Quintet consists of Jackie Akin, flute; Frances Estes, Oboe; Nita Redmond, French Horn; Alan McGuire, Bassoon; and Andrew Dees, Clarinet. They performed Suite of Old Lettish Dances, and Spring into Swing. Claudia Jameson, Soprano, sang with the Winds a medley from The Sound of Music. Top March meeting With a theme of jazz and ragtime, Sylvia Taylor Lerch was a busy lady. In addition to hosting the meeting at her home on March 11th, she gave an informative talk on the life of George Gershwin, and also performed.
	Cherie Bell (left) with Sylvia (right) accompanying her, performed Gershwin’s Love is Here to Stay, Somebody Loves Me, Someone to Watch Over Me and They Can’t Take That Away from Me.
Susan Poelchau and Sylvia played a duet by Gershwin and Donaldson, Rialto Ripples. Katie Radford (left, below) and Pat Suitt (right, below) shared the responsibilities for performing the three Gershwin Preludes for Piano.
	Congratulations and certificates were given to these new golden and diamond members: - Fifty-year member: Sue Depwe Johnson, Phi Xi - Sixty-year member: Rosalie Cinnamon Alexander, Mu Chi
Thanks to Sylvia for serving as hostess and to her co-hostesses Karen Glosserman, Priscilla Long, Jenny Smith, and Cynthia Wadley. Top

Sunday Concert Series

Susan Poelchau reports that the spring 2008 Library Series will conclude on April 27 after a very successful spring with excellent performers and very good attendance. The Fine Arts Department of the Library has put up posters announcing the series and this may account for some of the increase in audience numbers.

The last two recitals have been changed – we invite you to come on April 20 to hear pianist Andrew Jonas Wright, Piano from SMU, whose program will include Chopin, Scriabin and Book I of the Brahms Paganini Variations. On April 27 we’ll conclude the series in a mellow mood with Terry Hankins, Jazz Guitar, whose website is www.terryhankins.com.

We’ll begin sending out invitations for the next season in early May. If you know of any performers who should get an invitation, please let Susan know soon. If you can volunteer to help host some concerts, next year, let her know that too.

Students of Leslie Spotz (center, below) performed Sunday March 30th. Leslie is a Mu Phi who teaches at Tarleton University in Stephenville. She performed herself on the series in January. We are so thankful to them for being on our series.

At our last meeting Susan discussed the problems with the piano at the library. We will pay for a third tuning this year and watch the piano this next year before deciding what to do about it on a long-term basis.

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Member News

∆ Megan Gomen has a change of e-mail: mgomen@yahoo.com.

∆ New member Jenny Smith is getting her Ph.D. degree in biomedical science with an emphasis on cancer immunology. Her thesis (due soon!) is making a preventative and treatment oriented, broad based targeted cancer vaccine (for multiple types of cancers in multiple tissues). She is starting experiments with breast cancer and hopes to make a vaccine that incorporates more tissues. The vaccine will target breast cancer antigens to the immune system and allow the body to fight the cancer by itself. Her group has had 3 successful clinical trials using melanoma patients. Her degree is through Baylor University and she works at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research under Karolina Palucka, the Michael A. Ramsay Chair for Cancer Immunology Research at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas.

Best wishes to Jenny in this research.

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