With the beginning of a new semester just a few days away, it is time to fill you in on the last of our summer news. We begin with two announcements that we believe will be real improvements in the services we offer – the first to the entire student body and the second to our own students.
Firstly, we are delighted to be able to announce an extension to our on-campus ticketing services. Beginning on Tuesday, September 4, 2012, tickets will be available for purchase at the Center for Student Activities Service Window in the Oakland Center during their regular opening hours. The center will accept cash, checks, credit cards and students can even use SpiritCa$h on their Spirit Cards! Tickets will be issued at the time of purchase and no additional fees are added. Of course, we will continue to sell tickets through our own box office in Varner Hall during the hours listed on our website, and we will still sell tickets online and by phone using our ticket service, StarTickets, but we know many of you will be happy to be able to purchase your tickets in person at this center-of-campus location. All fall semester tickets will be available at the OC beginning September 4, with winter semester tickets becoming available later in the month.
All tickets information here.
Our second improvement results from the very generous loan of new pianos from our friends at
Evola Music for our third floor practice rooms. We are very grateful to them and we know our students will enjoy using these fine instruments. We know many of you were abuzz on your Facebook pages about the new door construction in that area; in order to keep the pianos in the best possible playing condition, the practice rooms will now be accessed with Spirit Cards and electronically monitored. The new pianos will arrive and the new system will be in place shortly.
A highlight of the summer on campus was a gala dinner on July 18 to celebrate Meadow Brook Hall's designation as a National Historic Landmark, which was attended by community leaders and local dignitaries. Several of our students provided the entertainment for the evening. Among them were guitar students from
Bret Hoag’s studio, jazz students from
Miles Brown’s studio and musical theatre students under the direction of
Fred Love. Students and faculty were delighted to be asked to be a part of such a special occasion and thrilled by the appreciative comments they received afterwards from the staff at The Hall.
And looking forward to the winter, we are proud to announce that OU has volunteered to host the American College Dance Festival Association East-Central Conference for the first time since 1996. From February 20 to 23, 2013, Varner Hall will be alive with master classes, adjudicated concerts, workshops and panel discussions on what will be the ACDFA’s 40th anniversary.
Gregory Patterson, our dance program director, will be the conference coordinator and he expects no less than 450 dancers to be in attendance for the conference. Collegiate dancers from Michigan, Ohio, and the western areas of New York and Pennsylvania will be here. Conference details will be available on September 1 and registration will open October 15.
Find more information here.
And finally we have two pieces of good news to pass along, one about a former student and the other about a faculty member. We learned recently that
David Havasi, an actor who was featured in the June issue of Prism, has joined the “Tesla Team.” Tesla Motors, a company that makes premium electric cars, has asked Dave to join them as part of their ownership experience/brand ambassador team. He will spend six weeks in Palo Alto at Tesla headquarters and then return to New York where he currently lives.
And
Leslie Littell, our special lecturer in costume design, is this month’s featured member on the website of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals.
See the article about Leslie here.
Photo: The service window at the Center for Student Activities in the OC. Photo by Gillian Ellis 