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Music ensemble during the Sacred Music Series 2014.
BYU-Idaho Sacred Music Series to perform “The Redeemer” The BYU-Idaho Sacred Music Series has been uplifting and inspiring the BYU-Idaho community since 1993. This year the Music Department will perform, “The Redeemer” by Dr. Robert M. Cundick. The biennial concert typically provides a combination of scripture, oratorio, and music created by a composer hand selected and invited to create a piece for the event. “We don’t audition, we don’t put out an invitation for people to submit works, we actually identify composers and those involved in music in the Church that we feel that we could work with and that their music has a voice that we can resonate with that can be communicated well here at BYU-Idaho,” said Kevin Brower, College Dean of Performing and Visual Arts. This year’s performance will take place on March 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the BYUIdaho Center, and will pay homage to the late DR. Robert M. Cundick, former Salt Lake Tabernacle organist for 27 years, who recently passed away in January of this year.
Cundick’s work, “The Redeemer” was first performed in 1978. “We initially had a composer lined up for this year, but that composer was called on a mission with his wife. In the mean time we decided to come back to one of our beloved composers for the Church, and a good friend of BYU-Idaho, Robert Cundick,” Brower said. “In honor of him, of his life, of his musical output we’re composing one of his most beloved pieces, an oratorio type work. The oratorio consists of three parts: The Prophecy, The Sacrifice, and The Promise. The concert will feature the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra and multiple campus choirs and soloists. Under the direction of Kevin Brower, Robert Tueller will direct the Symphony Orchestra, Randall Kempton will direct the choral activities, and Eda Ashby will act as artistic director of the performance. The concert will allow the audience to experience the story of the Savior in
ROBER T M. CUNDICK’S “ THE REDEEMER” MARCH 19, 2016 7:30 P.M. AT THE BYU-IDAHO CENTER
three sections of the production and through various mediums of music and voice. It will also serve as an opportunity for the students involved to become part of a BYU-Idaho tradition that has the potential to pave the way for future endeavors. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 M A R C H 2 016
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Wellness Ceneter offers free health screenings Brigham Young University-Idaho’s Wellness Center continues its mission to help employees and students reach optimal health by offering physical and mental assessments, while training students pursuing a career in the medical field.
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The Wellness Center provides free stretch tests, body fat tests, skin fold tests, nutrition counseling, and a blood lipid profile test to all employees and their spouses.
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“All employees can sign up with their spouses and come in and make an appointment and they do blood pressure checks and the blood draw, and give them all the numbers they need to submit to DMBA,” said Wellness Center Manager Derik Taylor. “With benefits they get a $70 rebate just by having that test.” The university purchased a new N-body machine last year that can test the health of almost every aspect of a person’s body. The test takes around thirty seconds and will tell a person their BMI, body fat percentage, and even weigh each appendage of the body. This machine will help the Wellness Center provide test results more quickly and accurately, while
being able to offer some things it wasn’t capable of before. “Probably one of the most telling parts of that machine is it will tell you what your visceral fat count is, which means the fat around the organs of your insides,” Taylor said. Along with testing physical wellness, the Center has been working with the Department of Psychology to expand their services for mental wellness. While still in the beginning stages, these services will begin in full during Spring Semester 2016. In addition to providing physical and mental evaluations, the Wellness Center also gives training to students looking to gain real-life experience for a future career in health. Some students are developing nutrition lessons that will be instituted as part of the Wellness Center’s nutrition counseling. “We’ve had a ton of success with students doing internships and getting their experience here,” Taylor said. “When students have graduated and left, they’ve been getting very quality jobs based on the experience they’ve had.”
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BYU-Idaho students attend a workshop with theater professionals at a regional theater festival in Denver, Colo.
Theater students compete in prestigious regional theater festival Several students from the Department of Theater and Dance participated in the Region 7 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival last month in Denver, Colorado. For the first time three BYU-Idaho students competed in the festival.
against more than 250 students around the region for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship.
“We have great professors here,” Call said. “We progressed to the semis because they took the time to work with us.”
“Lani and her partner Janice Munk represented BYU-Idaho very well,” Bates said.
The festival provides opportunities for students to view and participate in new dramatic works, compete for scholarships, and audition for graduate school or internships.
Call, who was nominated for her characterization of the title role in last semester’s production of Mary Stuart, was delighted just at the prospect of being nominated. She compared the prestige of the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship to a collegiate version of the Academy Awards.
The festival also provided networking opportunities in the form of workshops and auditions. Five BYU-Idaho students received callbacks from organizations offering summer work and internships, including prestigious institutions such as the Stella Adler Conservatory and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
“The festival was very beneficial for those students who attended,” said Justin Bates, faculty member of the Department of Theater and Dance. “It was a worthwhile and productive week.” Lani Call, a theater major, advanced to the semifinal round while competing
Call was quick to give credit to the Theater Department for helping her and her partner progress to the semifinals by giving one-on-one critique and suggestions.
Bates said these callbacks, as well as the success in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships, show that BYU-Idaho can hold its own against the talent in the region. “It was great to see the Theater Department is training us well enough to be successful outside of our little bubble,” Call said.
Sacred Music Series: continued from page 1 “People are writing significant works, but we are uniquely positioned on this campus because of many things including the support of the community, the support of the university, the training of the musicians, the focus on gospel centered living and performance; we’re uniquely positioned to celebrate this kind of repertoire, this body of output,” Brower said.
The Sacred Music Series is a culmination of collaboration, hard work, and is by its very nature, a spiritual endeavor. “It usually takes about two years from thought to actually making it happen because they have to write all of the music,” Brower said.
“It’s been fun to watch that because as eager as we are when we approach something of this significance, it brings us to a state of humility and literally broken hearts and contrite spirits. I love that process; every time there’s been that refining process,” Brower said.
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Chemistry faculty member visits Carnegie Mellon University for semester Héctor A. Becerril, faculty member of the Department of Chemistry, spent last fall as a visiting faculty member at Carnegie Mellon Héctor A. Becerril University, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he performed laboratory research and received training in current best practices in chemical safety and other areas applicable to his department and college. As a visiting faculty member at CMU, Becerril attended classes to observe teaching methods, met with safety professionals, academic administrators, and spent time in the lab doing research with postdoctoral, doctoral and masters students. Through those experiences he learned new chemical techniques, state of the art safety procedures, and expanded his knowledge of research mentoring methods. Working long hours in a lab, Becerril said he was reminded of his days as a graduate student and felt his abilities and dexterity coming back. He said he was grateful for the culture of professional development that BYU-Idaho cultivates and for the opportunity he was given to keep his technical skills current.
During this leave Becerril says he also gained an appreciation of the many resources that BYU-Idaho provides to its students. “I have a better idea of why we do certain things, and why we don’t do other things,” Becerril said. “I came back with a new perspective.” Since returning he has shifted his focus to spending his time with those students who need it more. “If a student is struggling, most often it is not because of a lack of capability,” Becerril said. “I can’t make students smarter, but I can help them focus and work through things. I find that process very rewarding.” In addition to learning from students and faculty at CMU, Becerril was able to introduce them to BYU-Idaho. “I was given the opportunity to present my research and tell others about BYUIdaho. Now they know that there is more than BYU in Provo,” Becerril said. “Professors and students were very impressed with our weekly devotional gatherings and our emphasis in learning and teaching. I was able to give them a positive perspective of our school and our sponsoring church.”
Becerril found that, despite some key differences, there are several similarities between CMU and BYU-Idaho. “The goals, resources and equipment may be different, but the real work in both places has to do with reaching out to individuals and helping them improve.” Becerril said. “We can do that here just as well, if not better, than at most other places.” “CMU is a great institution, their engineering college is ranked 10th in the nation, their computer science is on par with MIT and Stanford, their drama graduates frequently earn Grammys, Emmys and Academy awards. CMU has deep alumni networks in many fields and they position their graduates in exceptional places,” Becerril commented. “My hope is that faculty at BYU-Idaho may look at CMU’s graduate programs and encourage students to consider applying there for grad school. There are only a few LDS students at CMU, and certainly the Pittsburgh wards could benefit greatly from having our BYUIdaho graduates.” Becerril went to CMU as part of a Faculty Learning Fellowship. These fellowships allow faculty to develop their abilities, broaden their understanding, keep current in their disciplines, and open up opportunities for BYU-Idaho students.
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News & Notes A monthly publication of University Relations A D V I S O R Brett Crandall W R I T E R S Brock Allen, Paul Morgan, Clint Urick P H O T O G R A P H E R S Michael Lewis, Katelyn Crompton, Tyler Rickenbach, Ryan Chase
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