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A throng of excited students packed the lobby outside Bryan Hall Theatre. It was Saturday night. Young ladies giggled and whispered. Young men fidgeted and bounced on their heels. The backstage door opened at last, and you could hear the shrieks around the building. Maestro emerged to meet his fans.
American classical composer, conductor, and lecturer Eric Whitacre, the featured composer for the 2008 Festival of Contemporary Art Music (FoCAM) sponsored by the School of Music, visited with students, signing autographs and CDs.
It was a fitting finale to the last event of the festival, an "All-Whitacre" concert conducted by Whitacre himself and Tim J. Robblee (instructor, music) and performed by the WSU Concert Choir, WSU Madrigal Singers, University of Idaho Vandaleers, UI University Chorus, and WSU Wind Symphony.
Each year, FoCAM celebrates contemporary classical music, showcasing new original compositions by students, faculty, and a visiting artist. The 2008 festival was held February 7–9 on the Pullman campus.
The festival also included a campus visit by pianist and composer Kevin Olson and was held in conjunction with the School of Music's inaugural American Choral Music Festival, directed by Lori Wiest (associate professor, music) and made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
FoCAM creator and director Charles Argersinger (professor, music) acknowledged Whitacre as one of America's leading composers of choral music. A graduate of the Julliard School and a 2007 Grammy Award nominee, Whitacre has become one of the most performed choral and symphonic composers of his generation.
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In February, WSU Theatre produced and performed The Exonerated, the award-winning play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen that tells the true stories of 6 people wrongfully convicted of heinous crimes and their eventual release from death row.
Terry Converse (professor, theatre arts) directed the hard-hitting, powerful, and socially relevant production, culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and the public record.
One of the subjects of the play is Kerry Max Cook, a sensitive Texan who was brutalized on death row for 22 years before DNA evidence proved him innocent of the rape and murder of a young woman. Awaiting execution for this tragic crime he did not commit, he endured the unimaginable.
Now free, Cook tours the country to talk about the criminal justice system in America. He visited the WSU Pullman campus during the production of The Exonerated to meet with students and participate in a talk-back session following the performance.
Cook is the author of Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself after Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran visited Pullman on February 29 and spoke about peace and the war on terror. As national editor of the Washington Post, he oversees the newspaper's national news content including coverage of the federal government and domestic politics, foreign policy, national security, social issues, science, and medicine.
Chandrasekaran's talk was the first event of the Murrow School–Asia Program International Journalist Speaker Series and was sponsored by the Murrow School, the Asia Program, the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Global Studies, the Department of History, and the College of Liberal Arts.
Chandrasekaran joined the Washington Post in 1994 and has worked there as a reporter, the Southeast Asia correspondent in Jakarta, and the bureau chief in Cairo, Egypt, and Baghdad, Iraq.
In his lecture, "Building Peace in the War on Terror: The Elusive Quest for Stability in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan," Chandrasekaran talked about elections, martial law and militant violence in Pakistan, rising instability in Afghanistan, the uncertain future of the U.S. military presence and political developments in Iraq, and U.S. policymaking in relation to a changing U.S. political arena.
Chandrasekaran is the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone. The best-selling book provides a firsthand view of life inside Baghdad's Green Zone and has won the Overseas Press Club book award, the Ron Ridenhour Prize, and Britain's 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The New York Times named it one of the 10 Best Books of 2007, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2006.
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President Floyd greets Don Hewitt
Television pioneer Don Hewitt accepted the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Communication on April 3. Hewitt is best known for creating the longest-running prime time broadcast on American television, the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes."
The award presentation was followed by Hewitt's acceptance speech, which can be viewed online.
President Elson Floyd said of Hewitt's selection for the Murrow Award, "It is hard to think of anyone who has played a more significant role in continuing Edward R. Murrow's legacy of hard-hitting journalism in the public interest than has Don Hewitt. His development and leadership of '60 Minutes' clearly sets him apart as one of the true pioneers of television news. We at Washington State University are absolutely delighted to be able to recognize his work in this way."
During his distinguished career, Hewitt has received many awards, among them 2 George Foster Peabody Awards, 8 Emmy Awards including the second annual Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors' George Heller Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Broadcasters in April 2003.
The Chronicle, College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University