BOOKMARKS
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
The old model for choirs, Paul says, was to carefully follow the maestro’s orders, but she believes in empowering her students to be active interpreters of the music. “They have to be engaged in the process, I want them to be thinking, literate musicians.”
PREVIOUS GIGS
After earning her doctorate in choral conducting at Stanford University, Paul joined the faculty at California State University at Chico, serving as professor of music and director of choral activities from 1984 to 1992. She then served as artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, where she conducted the organization’s acclaimed performance ensembles, Chorissima and Virtuose, until joining the UO faculty in 2000.
ON THE BIG SCREEN
Paul appeared in the 1998 movie What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr., as conductor of the choral group Chorissima. She also conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus for the soundtrack of the 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK
Paul gets high ratings from students at ratemyprofessors.com. One calls her “an inspiring role model to female choral conductors.” Another writes: “Sharon Paul is God. She’s the most hilarious person I know, she remembers everyone’s name no matter how little she knows them, she’s incredibly intelligent, and she’s got charisma up the wazoo. Join U. Singers and your life will change.”
LISTEN UP
Hear the choir online at OregonQuarterly.com/chamber-choir.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE SMITH
Ducks publish on an astounding range of topics, as the following titles illustrate. Find more recomended reading at oregonquarterly.com/bookmarks. THE SMALL BACKS OF CHILDREN (HARPERCOLLINS, 2015) BY LIDIA YUKNAVITCH, BA ’89, PHD ’98
In a war-torn village in Eastern Europe, an American photographer captures a heart-stopping image: a young girl fleeing a fiery explosion that has engulfed her home and family. A suicidal writer who has suffered her own devastating tragedy becomes obsessed with the photo, leading her husband and friends to try to save her by rescuing the girl and bringing her to the United States. The novel explores the treacherous, often violent borders between war and sex, love and art. LANDSCAPES OF CHANGE: INNOVATIVE DESIGNS AND REINVENTED SITES (TIMBER PRESS, 2014) BY ROXI THOREN
Climate change, natural resource use, population shifts, and many other factors have changed the demands we place on landscape designs. Using 25 case studies from around the world, Landscapes of Change examines how these challenges inspire new design strategies and result in innovative works that are redefining the field. Thoren is an associate professor in the UO’s Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
MORALITY FOR HUMANS: ETHICAL UNDERSTANDING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE (UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2015) BY MARK JOHNSON
Mixing cognitive science with pragmatist philosophy, Johnson argues that appealing to absolute principles is not only scientifically unsound, but even morally suspect. This book shows how we can use ethical naturalism to adapt our moral standards to many different situations. Johnson is a Philip H. Knight Professor and a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the UO. THE HUNTER, THE STAG, AND THE MOTHER OF ANIMALS: IMAGE, MONUMENT, AND LANDSCAPE IN ANCIENT NORTH ASIA (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015) BY ESTHER JACOBSON-TEPFER
A professor emerita of art history analyzes stone mounds, altars, standing stones, and petroglyphs to reconstruct the prehistory of myth and belief in North Asia. Her narrative shows how images of hunters, mothers, and stags relate to a narrative of birth, death, and transformation in southern Siberia and Mongolia.
T H E M AG A Z I N E O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F O R E G O N
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