NewsBriefs Purchase Ranks Number Ten According to a special feature in the May 29 issue of the Hollywood Reporter, Purchase College ranks number 10 on a list of the “Top 25 Dramatic Arts Schools and Programs in the World.” The ranking, says the magazine’s editors, is based on a recent poll of active casting directors across the globe. The Purchase College listing notes that “after four years, the cream of SUNY’s BFA actors get to audition for more than 300 agents, producers and casting directors in NYC and L.A.” “The style these actors have is unique,” adds Casting Society of America’s Monika Mikkelsen.
MFA Students Chosen for Prestigious Optic Nerve 15 Video Arts Festival Graduate students Samantha Harmon and Juwon Lee are among the 14 artists whose work was selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami to be featured in Optic Nerve 15, an annual festival of short videos by artists. Harmon and Lee are pursuing degrees in the MFA visual arts program in the School of Art+Design. “This kind of success is typical for our alumni, but less common for students still in school,” says the dean of the School of the Arts, Ravi Rajan. “Faye Hirsh, senior editor of Art in America and the coordinator of our MFA Still from Juwon Lee’s work Hidden Stories visual arts program, encourof Super Mario Bros. aged the students to apply for the festival as part of the learning experience of being a working artist. We were delighted to learn that not one, but two of our students were selected for this curated festival.”
Studio Production Majors Finish First Competing against music recording schools and programs across the country, a team of Purchase Conservatory of Music studio production majors received the grand prize in Shure, Inc.’s Fantastic Scholastic Recording Competition. With the first-place award, Shure is donating nearly $12,000 in much-needed, high-end microphones and other recording equipment to the studio production program and Purchase Studios. Faculty advisor and lecturer Silas Brown led the team of five production students, with the support of Peter Denenberg, assistant professor of music and chair of the studio production program. Brown and Denenberg are co-directors of Purchase Studios. Team members included Trevor Fedele, Pat Linehan, Josh Pleeter, Brendan Willams, and Joe Yonkers, who recorded Purchase studio composition major Sean McVerry and his band Coyote Campus performing McVerry’s song “Soviet Union.” “We are especially proud that this was a Purchase-wide effort,” says Brown. “There are students involved representing our studio proLasersaur workshop duction and studio composition departments, but members of the band are also jazz studies, film studies, and new-media majors.” P U R C HA S E | 18
Go Panthers
• Purchase baseball standout Michael Sarni is the NCAA’s Division III statistical champion for stolen bases per game. He swiped 44 bags in the spring 2013 season.
• Panther alumni Miller Lulow ‘13 turned professional following a
sterling senior campaign this past spring, where he was named the 2013 Skyline Conference Pitcher of the Year, the Skyline ScholarAthlete of the Year, and an All-Region performer. He later joined the Taos Blizzard in Taos, NM, primarily as an everyday reliever.
• Baseball star Ronald Echavarria finished the season for the
Panthers by taking home 2013 ECAC Division III Metro Baseball Player of the Year honors. The designated hitter and outfielder registered the third-highest batting average in all of Division III (.478), and led Purchase in home runs (7) and runs batted in (35). He was also named an ABCA and D3 Baseball.com All-American, and the Skyline Conference Player of the Year.
• The spring season saw the Panthers’ men’s tennis team reach the
Skyline Conference quarterfinals and the men’s baseball team reel off a 20-win season on the way to a conference playoff berth.
Winners on the courts and fields, Purchase athletes also stood out in the classroom—four were named SUNY Chancellor’s Scholar-Athlete Award winners, 42 were named to the Skyline Academic Honor Roll, and 39 more were named Purchase ScholarAthletes, boasting a 3.5 GPA or above. Purchase alum Taylor Edelmann ’13 was featured in OUT magazine’s sports section, alongside diver Greg Louganis, Billy Bean (MLB), Wade Davis (NFL), and other notable LGBT male athletes. A rising star on the Purchase Women’s volleyball team, Edelmann switched teams and genders in 2012—and was later voted captain of the men’s volleyball team.
J azz Fans Enjoy Two Free Summer Concerts Pete Malinverni, director of jazz studies at Purchase College and a popular recording artist, headlined the first of two free jazz concerts this summer. Also featuring saxophonist Steve Wilson, professor of jazz studies, and vocalist Afua Monk, the concert, held on July 25, showcased American spirituals.
Pete Malinverni
Bill Charlap
The second event, on Aug. 8, featured two-time Grammy nominee Bill Charlap and his wife, the world-renowned jazz pianist Renee Rosnes. The two often collaborate in a duo piano setting.
Purchase Writers Center Entering its third year, the Writers Center at Purchase College welcomes two fellows. Professor Sun Xin, who teaches art history at Capital Normal University in Beijing, is a visiting scholar at Purchase, studying with Michael Lobel, professor of art history and director of the MA program in modern and contemporary art, criticism, and theory; Maurizio Calbi, professor of English and Anglophone literature at the University of Salerno in Italy, joins the center as an Affiliated International Scholar. Professor Calbi is pursuing research on Shakespeare and film. The Writers Center also has a new interim director: Ross Daly, professor of journalism and chair of the School of Humanities at Purchase.