Dr. Keith Brion portrays the March King, John Philip Sousa.

You gotta love the stirring marches of John Philip Sousa. And did you know that the March King brought his band to Keene on six occasions? Well, he’ll be back in the (re-enacted) flesh at the Redfern’s Main Theatre on Tuesday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. Dr. Keith Brion, who portrays the band leader and is considered the greatest living authority on Sousa, will conduct the KSC Concert Band in an historically accurate recreation of a Sousa Band concert, just as you would have heard it 100 years ago, in honor of KSC’s Centennial Celebration.

Brion will be at the College for a week, speaking to classes on music history, conducting, and the theatre craft involved in depicting the on-stage persona.

More information.

Be a part of history on April 15 as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Keene Normal School. Everyone is invited! Please join current students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and the community.

Keene State College Campus
Wed., April 15
We’ll supply the food, fun, festivities, and fireworks!
Free and Open to the Public

The schedule for the evening is as follows:

7:30 p.m. Centennial proclamation reaches Central Square in Keene. The proclamation, issued that morning by Gov. Lynch, will be relayed by runners and walkers all the way from Concord to Keene.
7:45 p.m. Centennial proclamation enters campus at the Appian Gateway on Main Street. Please help us hand it along Appian Way to the stage outside the Student Center.
8 p.m. Music, cheering, dancing, special remarks, and the biggest birthday cake you’ve ever seen!
8:15 p.m. Fireworks, viewed from the Oya Hill plaza outside the Zorn Dining Commons.
You can also visit our Centennial Relay Page on KSC100 to share your good wishes and monitor the progress of the centennial proclamation as it’s hand-carried from Concord to Keene on April 15.

KSC Grads Megan FitzGerald ’98 and Kara Grenier ’04 know a thing or two about getting, keeping and changing jobs in New York City and they want to get together with other KSC alumni in NYC to talk about job experiences and network, network, network!
Please join them on Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m. at the World Bar in Trump Tower. A $5 cover includes hors d’oeuvres and a raffle ticket for KSC prizes. Specially priced beer, wine and cocktails will also be available. RSVP to Kara or Megan at the KSC in NYC group e-mail.
Those interested in future KSC in NYC career programs should e-mail their interest in future correspondence.
This event is sponsored by the Keene State College Alumni Association and co-hosted by Patty Farmer, Director of Alumni and Parent Relations (603) 358-2370.

The 2009 Alumni Grants Program will be awarding a total of $7,635 to five campus programs.

The recipients include:

• a joint program of the Office of Admissions and the Office of Diversity and Multiculturalism which will bring high school students from underrepresented groups to campus, linking the students with a KSC student mentor who will help them explore the benefits of a college education
• an English Department effort to provide a professional development seminar for middle and high school teachers and the public exploring the richness and diversity of the Middle Ages;
• the Cheshire Academy for Lifelong Learning’s expansion of their continuing education program to Saturdays
• the 2009 Biannual Symposium “From Local to Global: 100 Years of Education at Keene State College”
• a recycling awareness campaign planned by the Recycling and Sustainability Office.

The Department of Communication, Journalism, and Philosophy will host an afternoon of conversation, celebration and culinary treats for alumni on Friday April 3rd from 1-6 p.m. in the KSC Media Arts Center.

The event, entitled “Speaking Up: Why Ideas Matter” will include a welcome by Department Chair, Dr. Ann Atkinson; a presentation by Dr. Sander Lee, “Agreeing to Disagree: The Value of Conflicting Ideas for James Madison”; a participatory forum for majors, alumni, and faculty, “Newsgathering and New Media in the 21st Century,” with Dr. Mark Timney and Dr. Marianne Salcetti; induction of students to Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society of the National Communication Association with Dr. Nigel Malcolm; and concluding remarks by Dr. Rose Kundanis.

There will be opportunities for alumni to visit with faculty, students and one another and a buffet dinner is also planned.

Interested Communications, Journalism and Philosophy Alums are encouraged to RSVP by March 30 to Dr. Marianne Salcetti at msalcetti@keene.edu.

Accordion Flats, (detail) an oil and spray paint work by Keene State College B.F.A. student Nicholas Petrow of Marlborough, Mass., will be among the entries in Emerging Art.

Come on back to campus to discover who may be the art world’s next sensation. Fourteen graduating art majors will have their work in Emerging Art, the annual KSC Art Students’ Exhibition; the show runs from April 18 through May 9, at the Thorne.

From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 17, the Friends of the Thorne will host an opening reception for Emerging Art at the gallery, and the Art Department will sponsor a Graphic Design Senior Portfolio Review from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Media Arts Center, adjacent to the Thorne. More than 20 graphic design seniors will open their portfolios and showcase their best design work.

The exhibit, reception, and portfolio review are free and open to the public.

More information.

KSC junior, Kristine Trutor

Kristine Trutor swam her way into the Keene State College record book last week by becoming the first Owl women’s swimmer to score at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. She competed in three events at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, qualifying for the finals in the 100 butterfly, placing 14th with a school-record time of 57.09. She set another a school-record time (57.88) in the 100 back, placing 17th, and wrapped up her trip by finishing 35th in the 200 backstroke.

Use the “Comments” link below to congragulate Krissy on a most impressive record. She’ll be back at it again next season!

More information.

The KSC Percussion Ensemble, directed by Christopher Swist, will join the KSC Saxophone Ensemble, directed by Craig Sylvern, for a spring performance on Thursday, April 2, at 7:45 p.m. in the Redfern’s Alumni Recital Hall. Among other great music, you’ll hear Edgar Varèse’s “Ionisation” (the first piece written for percussion ensemble) and the premier of “Three Sketches for Bass Clarinet and Percussion,” by KSC Professor Emeritus William Pardus.

More information.

Dr. Raj Patel

Were you one of the many who participated in the “Keene is Reading” program and read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma? As part of that program, journalist, author, food-policy expert, and activist Dr. Raj Patel will speak on the growing international food crisis and what can be done to stop it. Come to the Mabel Brown Room in the Student Center at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, for an important and engaging discussion. This event is free and open to the public.

More information.

The KSC Guitar Orchestra and the KSC Latin Ensemble, both under the direction of music faculty member José Lezcano, will perform works spanning the globe and the centuries on Wednesday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Redfern’s Alumni Recital Hall. You’ll hear a fabulous collection of music, from a sixteenth-century piece from the opera Orfeo by Monteverdi to a work by twentieth-century Cuban guitarist Leo Brouwer.

There will also be arrangements of Spanish folk songs by the guitar trio of KSC music majors Colin Isotti and Brian Heeran and alumnus and Mt. Caesar Elementary School teacher Michael Dillon. KSC student Victoria King will sing, and Bob Arpin, a KSC guitar student, will also perform. The KSC Latin Ensemble will play works from Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Cuba.

More information.