2009 Vocus Press Releases
4/20/2009
One Scoop or Two?
Day, The
Patrons of Michael's Dairy in New London enjoy their first ice cream of the season Friday night as Michael's held its seasonal
opening with a Sock Hop at the shop on Montauk Avenue.
Originally published on TheDay.com on April 18, 2009. http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=883e4f89-31d4-48ec-889a4021b3aae70f
4/20/2009
Scooping up real world experience
WTNH-TV - Online
New London (WTNH) - Michael's Dairy in New London officially opened up for the season today. The ice cream shop has been
serving up treats for 70 years, but now it's giving college students a chance at some real life experience.
Three years ago Mitchell College took over Michael's Dairy. This year, students from the school's Hospitality and Tourism
program are behind the counter.
"I'm helping getting the scheduling work together. We just had to order the ice cream," said Brittany Smyth, a sophomore at
Mitchell College.
Real life lessons for the real world. Joe Rice is also a sophomore and hopes to open his own restaurant someday. He's in charge of
following all health and safety regulations.
"It's definitely a huge responsibility. It's great training, I love it," Joe said.
"If they've been a shift supervisor here they're gonna transfer right into a supervisory capacity right as soon as they graduate,"
said Bob Forcier, Mitchell College.
Andrew Johnson is a good example of that. He's a Mitchell College alumni and he now manages the shop.
Story by: Tina Detelj
Published on WTNH.com on Friday, 17 Apr 2009, 6:00 PM EDT.
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_newlondon_michaelsdairy_200904171758
4/22/2009
Mitchell College to host battle of the bands
Bulletin, The
Mitchell College students will present local and campus musical talents beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday on the college’s green in a
Battle of the Bands.
The event is free and open to the public and parking is available at the De Biasi Drive commuter lot. The production is
coordinated by five Mitchell College students as part of their coursework in Communications studies, and the event’s proceeds
will help support the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
“The idea came from our mutual appreciation for music and our admiration for St. Jude’s policy that no child be denied treatment
regardless of their financial situation,” Daniel Erhart said.
Erhart, Justin Hammett, Liandra Hodge, Jeff Kahn and John Bentsen teamed up on the project.
Suggested donations will be made toward raffle prize packs of gift cards to local eateries and businesses. Several winners will
also receive two free music lessons and iTunes gift cards. Mitchell College Mariners’ t-shirts will also be sold to raise money.
The following bands agreed to perform at the event free of charge:
New Way Down, New London: Mitchell College student band with Mike Baird on guitar and vocals, Chris Fanti on drums, Scott
Worobow on bass, and Dan Prior backing with harmony vocals.
The Search, Hartford: Chris Brown on piano and vocals, John O’Hara on bass, Nick Powell on drums, and Austin Hatch on
guitar.
Mustache, New London: Acoustic music.
The Paul Brockett Roadshow Band, New London: Paul Brockett on guitar and vocals, Dave Anderson on bass and Meghan
Killimade on drums.
4/23/2009
Region celebrates Earth Day
Day, The
Groups turn out to celebrate sustainability, energy conservation, stewardship of planet
By Judy Benson Published on 4/23/2009
Eels squiggled in a tank, children planted bean seeds in plastic cups and dozens of brochure-wielding spokesmen shared
information about their local environmental, educational or sustainable energy organization's work with anyone who stopped at
their table.
These and many other elements made up the collage of activities put together in celebration of Earth Day Wednesday at Mitchell
College.
”Oh, wow, good score,” said Kenric Hanson, chairman of New London's Sustainability Committee, as he looked over a carbon
footprint score chart student Lora Siragusa had just filled out.
Siragusa, a junior from Meriden, answered a series of questions about her energy use, driving habits and other behaviors to derive
a score of 1.1, using the carbon footprint calculator at www.CTEnergyEducation.com. The average American, Hanson said, has a
score of 3.5 to 4; one person who'd filled out the form thus far came out with a whopping 5.65 score.
”You're doing great,” he told Siragusa, as she moved back to her station, where she was helping some local children plant bean
seeds and make Earth collages on paper plates.
Across the river at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus, a smaller but well-attended Earth Day celebration
included displays by a local organic farm, and others about backyard composting, from a solar panel company, the Denison
Pequotsepos Nature Center, Reforest the Tropics, the Groton Open Space Association and other groups. A fuel-efficient Smart
Car sat parked between the courtyard area, where some students milled around the display tables in spite of a light drizzle, and
the Student Center, where others listened to the local folk-pop band Naked Truth over lunch. The day's fare came from the
Pizzetta bio-fueled pizza truck just outside the center.
After remarks from campus director Joseph Comprone, Town Mayor Harry Watson read a proclamation giving the town's official
support to the campus' Earth Day activities, opening with a Native American proverb: “We do not inherit the Earth from our
ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”
Watson and Comprone then shoveled mulch around five mountain laurel bushes planted on the campus in honor or Earth Day.
The laurel, the Connecticut state shrub, came from UConn greenhouses at the main campus in Storrs.
Jamie Densmore of Noank, a senior with a double major in ecology-environmental biology and history, helped organize the day's
events as vice president of the student group EcoHusky and a member of the campus' environmental advisory committee. The
committee, comprised of students, faculty and staff, is working on ways to make Avery Point a greener campus, including
providing input to ensure a planned new student center is built to a high environmental standard. The Earth Day celebration, she
said, is intended as a fun event for students that also raises awareness about how they can help the environment.
”It just gives the students and the community the idea that there are green choices you can make locally,” she said.
At Mitchell, the day's events took groups to the Mitchell College beach for tours of the beach restoration project. Local Coast
Guard officers gave talks about their environmentally related commands.
In the main event area in Clarke Center, three Connecticut College students offered stickers and information about their newly
formed group Forest Justice.org, that focuses on the harm done by deforestation and forest planting and preservation as an
important force in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Across the room, displays from Kente Cultural Center and Save
Ocean Beach showed photos of New London schoolchildren painting recycled trash cans and exploring Alewife Cove. Project
Oceanology brought a tank with some representatives of Long Island Sound marine life: a lobster, hermit crab, spider crab, clam
and starfish. At The Public Library of New London's table, Cris Staubach, head of youth services, asked passersby to write
messages on cut-out paper leaves she would place on a cardboard-and-construction-paper tree made by children at the library.
The leaves read, “Keep it green,” “Stay green, New London,” and “Save the Earth.”
Later in the day, senior Greg Chapman, an environmental studies student, gave presentations on his internship project building an
installing an eel ladder - or “eel-avator” - for the Tributary Mill Conservancy in Old Lyme to enable migratory eels to swim over
the dam between Mill Brook and Lower Mill Pond this spring. He brought a tank full of the eels he scooped out with a net that
morning.
”Over the next week they'll be coming up the ladder by the hundreds and thousands,” he said.
4/27/2009
When her son nearly died, Joan Ryan learned to celebrate him 'as is'
Marin Independent Journal
When Joan Ryan of Ross started to write her new book, "The Water Giver," she thought it would be about her son and his nearfatal skateboarding accident.
It turned out to be more about her.
Her son Ryan's accident helped her stop fretting over his lifelong learning deficits, where her goal was to "fix him, fix him, fix
him," and to celebrate instead his gifts as a person - "his courage, his persistence, his sunny nature."
"It's like a second chance to raise him all over again," she said. "What a great gift to see my son in a completely different way."
Son Ryan Tompkins is now 18 and will head off to college next fall. Ryan expects to follow him there - Mitchell College in New
London, Conn. - and get an apartment nearby during
The cover of Joan Ryan's new book
his first semester to make sure he is taking his medications.
But she will no longer try to run his life.
"I am not in control of Ryan's recovery. I can finally let go."
Watching her son's recuperation has made other significant changes in her life.
Joan Ryan, 49, was one of this country's first women sports writers, covering sporting events for the Orlando Sentinel, the San
Francisco Examiner and Chronicle from 1983 to 1997. She later became a Chronicle metro columnist and celebrated feature
writer. She wrote two books - "Little Girls In Pretty Boxes," about female gymnasts (1995),
and "Shooting from the Outside" about the years Tara Vanderveer coached the women's basketball team that won the Olympic
gold medal (1998). Her
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2007 newspaper series on two amputee veterans of the Iraq war won her the White House Correspondents Association prize.
But after taking a seven-month leave from the Chronicle to help her son heal, Ryan decided to quit her job altogether. "It was
such a rich experience to go through this with Ryan; for the first time I was fully and completely his mother." While her identity
until then had been as a journalist, she decided that "being Ryan's mom was a pretty good identity in itself."
A Ross friend, Myrna Stevens, said that "as soon as Ryan had the accident, Joan's only interest was Ryan."
In August 2007, mom Ryan took a buyout from the Chronicle. "It's not that I don't need to write," she said. "But I no longer
needed the public forum."
A blog she had begun after Ryan's accident became the core of her new book, which will hit the bookstores in September.
Her son had been diagnosed at age 4 with a condition called sensory integration disorder. He had trouble processing information
and was hypersensitive to everything going on around him. "He's a bright kid, but É has always struggled," she said. "I was
always going to solve it, but there was no 'solving' it - it is what it is."
After six years at Ross School, she enrolled him at Star Academy in San Rafael, then transferred him to the Marin School in
Sausalito.
She said she and her husband, sportscaster and IJ columnist Barry Tompkins, received invaluable help from Matrix, a Marin
agency that offers information and support to parents of children with learning disabilities.
Ryan will read from her new book at an April 30 luncheon at Book Passage in Corte Madera, a benefit for Matrix, to which, she
said, "I am forever indebted."
Despite his problems with ADD (attention deficit disorder), Ryan's son is well-liked, "a big strapping kid with a huge spirit. He
would do anything for you, he would do anything for anybody," she said. He worked after school in the Ross recreation program.
Then, in the summer of 2006, he fell while skateboarding on Lagunitas Road and sustained a traumatic brain injury. He spent
nine days at Marin General Hospital.
The swelling on his brain was so severe that a section of his skull had to be removed to make room; the section was replaced
once, then had to be removed again. "There was one day when we almost lost him," Ryan said. "It was a nightmare."
Response from the Ross community, where Ryan and Tompkins have lived for 14 years, "was beyond what you could have
believed," she said. "Everyone came out. People walked the dog, left pie on the doorstep, came to the hospital to visit."
Ryan said Stevens "went through everything with us."
"Everyone wanted to help," Stevens said. "We returned phone calls and sent out e-mail updates. (Friends) walked Bill, the dog,
and brought crickets to feed Ryan's reptiles. There was always lots of good food in their fridge."
Tompkins said community support was "overwhelming - from old people with no kids to Ryan's friends from school, friends
from my business, friends from Joan's business, people from Tiburon where we used to live, and the whole community of Ross.
Everybody knows everybody in Ross."
Disputing his wife's appraisal of her mothering skills before the accident, Tompkins said, "She tends to be hard on herself, but
she was a pretty good mother to begin with. The difference is that I saw the glass half-full and she saw the glass as half-empty.
Afterward, she really embraced who he was - a good-hearted kid, a really nice person."
Today Ryan is still recovering from the accident - he can't drive yet, his short-term memory is not what it was.
But life for mom and son is pretty much back to normal.
And the ex-sports writer is even a sports writer again. She works for the San Francisco Giants as a media consultant, creating a
dossier on each player.
She sees a successful career ahead for her son, too.
He's "car crazy," she said, and is already taking classes in car repair at College of Marin. "That's what he's going to do with his
life," she predicted. "He doesn't have to fit in like other people. School rewards generalists, but life rewards specialists."
Spoken like a mother who has learned to value her son for what he is - in her own words, "a really great kid."
IF YOU GO What: Joan Ryan talks about "The Water Giver," a benefit for Matrix When: Noon, April 30 Where: Book Passage,
51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera Tickets: $50 Information: 884-3535
By Beth Ashley. Posted at http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_12187840 on April 20, 2009.
5/6/2009
Green Neighbors: Area colleges celebrate Earth Day
New London Times
By Suzanne Thompson, Special to the Times:
Rain or shine, New London’s colleges celebrated Earth Day 2009, inviting friends and neighbors to join in.
The goal of Earth Day is to raise awareness of the state of the earth’s environment and cultivate an appreciation for it. Started in
1970 as a grassroots teach-in and a call to action, U.S. observances over the years have morphed with the times. Although going
green is now big business, perhaps the most fitting settings for Earth Day celebrations are still on campus.
Connecticut College’s Earth Fest! on Tempel Green on April 18 drew about 400 people to more than 30 displayers of
environmental information and products, activities for children, native plants for sale and arboretum tours, locally produced,
organic, and free trade food and drink, music, and dance.
“The idea was to have a celebration of Earth,” said Tyler Dunham, senior in environmental studies, one of the organizers and
president of the Renewable Energy Club. One of the biggest clubs on campus, he says it has visible impact.
Through Concerts in Conservation, the club has spearheaded efforts with college administrators to reduce campus energy use.
Student leaders negotiated for 25 percent of the savings to fund concerts on campus; the other 75 percent goes back to the
college.
“In the past three years, we saved about $35,000 for the college and raised almost $10,000 for these events. It’s really catalyzed
the entire student body to be more aware about electricity and how much of an impact turning off the lights can have,” he said.
Conn College has been a leader in environmental education and advocate for sustainability since 1969, when nationally renowned
ecologists Richard H. Goodwin and William A. Niering launched the “human ecology” major. The program brings together
sciences, social science, arts, and humanities on interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges.
“Right from the start, we were one of the first schools in the country to charge students a surcharge on tuition for renewable
energy,” Dunham said. For three consecutive years, the college has offset 100 percent of its electricity purchases. Students pay an
extra $25 per semester, he said, which goes to Green-e and Renewable Energy Certificates that support wind farms and other
green energy production elsewhere in the country.
Regardless of their majors, all students are aware of the school’s efforts to integrate sustainable practices into everyday campus
life, according to Amy Cabaniss, campus environmental coordinator. These include residence hall policies, organic gardens
tended by members of Sprout!, and participation in ReCycleMania, a 10-week intercollegiate recycling competition. This year,
the college ranked 13th out of 510 colleges and first among enrolled New England Small College Athletic Conference schools.
For more, go to Green Living at www.conncoll.edu
Mitchell College’s Biggest Earth Day Yet
Downpours didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for Earth Day celebrations on April 22 at Mitchell College, which highlighted the
college’s commitment to community habitat restoration.
Displays and activities were set up by student groups and clubs, New London community and environmental organizations, the
Science and Technology Magnet School, area businesses, and others in the Clarke Center. Nature photography and multi-media
environmental art were on display and panels discussed habitat projects.
The college has launched a multi-phase, long-term project to restore its beachfront on the Thames River, reclaiming the fragile
coastal ecosystem from invasive plants and human foot traffic. Partners include the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, UConn Avery
Point, New London Water Authority, and state and federal environmental and conservation agencies.
Mitchell College’s interdisciplinary approach to sustainability and environmentalism involves students in all fields of study, not
just those working on a four-year degree in environmental studies.
Miranda Wood, a sophomore majoring in early childhood education, explained how students are removing invasive plants that
are choking the dunes on Mitchell Beach and will be restoring native sea grasses.
Marine ecology students are helping the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection understand the American eel,
working with the Tributary Mills Conservancy on the Tributary River in Lyme.
“We’re trying to figure out the life cycle of the American eel; it’s really unknown,” said Amy Bernardo, a sophomore in criminal
justice, who chose marine ecology as a science elective. “We know they spawn in the Sargasso Sea, basically the Bermuda
Triangle. Once the larvae hit the coastal Atlantic, they begin developing into eels and start going up the tributaries.”
For more about Mitchell College and its environmental initiatives, go to www.mitchell.edu.
Originally posted at http://zip06.theday.com/blogs/new_london_times/archive/2009/05/01/green-neighbors-area-collegescelebrate-earth-day.aspx on May 1, 2009.
5/6/2009
Before The Plunge
Day, The
Photographer Pietro Camardella snaps a shot of Mitchell College seniors, from left, Amber Russell, Ashley Hidalgo, Marylou
Boucher, Elizabeth English and Betsy Sandler before they plunge into New London Harbor for the second annual Grad Plunge on
Tuesday. The event marks the end of classes for seniors with finals running through the weekend. Next week is Senior Week,
followed by graduation on May 16.
Photo Credit: Sean D. Elliot
Originally posted at http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=3dcaa1ed-2c3f-43e0-afa5-3d5cacfc54f0 on May 6, 2009.
6/1/2009
Dear Neighbor of Southeastern Connecticut & Southern Rhode Island,
resident
This region of ours has much to offer both tourists and local residents. We have magnificent tourism attractions, hotels and inns,
restaurants, museums, galleries and theaters. This region also features 10 institutions of higher learning (Conn College, Eastern
Connecticut State University, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Mitchell College, Mystic Seaport, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, Groton, Three Rivers Community-Technical College, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, UConn, Avery Point and University
of New Haven, Southeastern Graduate Center) that provide undergraduate and graduate programs in this region. All provide
learning opportunities for learners of all ages.
Students are recruited from all over the world to be educated in this beautiful region along the Southeastern CT and Southern RI
shoreline. Mitchell College, a small liberal arts institution in New London, is proud to have students from 27 states and three
foreign countries enrolled this past semester.
The large corporations, small businesses and non profits in Southeastern CT and Southern RI all need more and more qualified
and educated employees. These institutions of higher learning, including Mitchell College, educate the future workforce and
contribute to the vibrant economy this region experiences. We also employ local people and fuel local business. The combined
strength of this educational engine also makes our region attractive in recruiting faculty, staff and employees.
I invite you, our neighbors, to celebrate the educational opportunities right here in Southeastern CT and Southern RI!
Best Wishes,
Mary Ellen Jukoski, Ed.D.
President
Mitchell College
(originally published on theresident.com on May 25, 2009 - http://www.theresident.com/2009/05/dear-neighbor-of-southeasternconnecticut-southern-rhode-island-8/)
10/8/2009
Mitchell College Singers Perform The Bill Of Rights By Neely Bruce
Hartford Courant - Online
On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Mitchell College Singers & Friends will perform "The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight
Motets," one of the more notable and significant musical works created within our state in the past decade.
Of particular note is that the lyrics to this compelling piece are the exact words penned by James Madison and ratified by our
founding fathers in 1791. The music was written in 2005 by composer, conductor, pianist and American music scholar Neely
Bruce, Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University. And in further keeping with the spirit of times, Bruce
intends his work to be sung in the style of The Sacred Harp, an early American tradition of sacred music singing associated with
the shape note style.
Bruce was moved to create the piece to raise awareness of the Bill of Rights after he came to know of a poll taken of 100,000
teenagers revealing that almost half of them believed that government censorship of the press was an acceptable practice. Bruce
originally planned to make his work available to high school music directors for educational purposes, until he was impressed by
friends and colleagues that young people are not the only ones who need to be reminded of our essential liberties. His Bill of
Rights is available for the asking and for free to anyone in the world.
This stunning piece is an excellent representation of Bruce's dual devotion to music and to American history. Most of his life's
work has focused on the promotion of American music and history through a variety of pursuits. A prolific composer, he has
written original music for three documentaries for National Public Television's The American Experience, has written for the
stage, and he is one among an elite group of composers called The Sacred Harp, which brings communities together to sing fourpart hymns and anthems to commemorate historical events.
The program will begin with a lecture by the composer, followed by the performance of his work, which will feature Mitchell
College student recitations of each amendment preceding the singing. It will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in New London's
historic Pequot Chapel at 857 Montauk Ave. in New London. The program begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Donations can be made to Pequot Chapel. For more information about the event, e-mail bartels_s@mitchell.edu or call 860-7015155.
10/12/2009
5 questions with … Neely Bruce
Wesleyan Connection
The following is the second installment of The Wesleyan Connection’s new feature, “5 Questions.” This issue, accomplished
composer and Wesleyan Professor of Music Neely Bruce is our guest.
Q: I see your piece Vistas will be performed at the “Hearts Pounding and Skins Taut” concert in late October at Wesleyan. For
what instrument was this piece originally composed?
NB: Vistas at Dawn is a short (approximately three minute) piece for organ and vibraphone.
Q: For what musician did you compose this piece?
NB: I wrote it for Ronald Ebrecht, Wesleyan University Organist, to play. Over the years I’ve written two major works and
several smaller pieces for him. Ron has been a staunch advocate for new music for the organ for years, and has encouraged his
faculty colleagues and our students to write all sorts of music in all sorts of styles for that remarkable instrument. This has been
going on for more than 20 years, and dozens, perhaps hundreds of new organ works have seen the light of day because Ron asked
people to write them and offered an opportunity to get them before the public. Vistas was originally written for a tour that he did
in Russia with a Russian percussionist, although he’s played it many times in the US with several different vibes players,
including Wesleyan’s own Jay Hoggard. It’s something like a pop ballad—slow, languorous, very chromatic, sometimes almost
atonal, sometimes with jazz-like quasi-standard chord changes.
Q: Aside from hearing Vistas at the Center for the Arts in October, where can people see you perform publicly this fall?
NB: October is an exceptionally busy month, even for me. I’m playing the world premiere of Twelve Fugues by Gerald Shapiro,
chair of the Music Department at Brown and one of my closest friends. (Shapiro and I were freshmen together at the Eastman
School of Music). I’m playing these pieces at Wesleyan’s Crowell Concert Hall on Saturday October 10 at 8 p.m. and at Brown
on October 14, with a little Stravinsky and Ravel as the warm-up. The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets is being
performed at Mitchell College in New London on October 20. For Hearts Pounding and Skins Taught I’m performing one of my
more extravagant piano pieces, a random shuffle of four-note phrases entitled Furniture Music in the Form of Fifty Rag Licks.
Elizabeth Saunders is singing all-Ives concerts that I will accompany—for one of my classes next week, then on November 1 at
The Hopkins School in Hamden. Additionally, there may be a third Ives event later in November. There are also auditions in
New York for Flora (see below). Whew—I’m slightly dumbfounded just writing this all down! I need to put something about all
these things up on my website.
That sounds exciting. Members of the Wesleyan community look forward to filling up their calendars by listening to your music.
Q: Is the public welcome to attend the Bill of Rights concert? How many times has your Bill of Rights composition been publicly
performed and how does it feel to hear this patriotic piece of yours performed for large audiences?
NB: The public is cordially invited to attend—and I hope thousands of them do! So are my friends on Facebook, for whom I sent
up an event page. We should get a good crowd from the immediate area. I have a spy in the chorus, who called me last night to
say that rehearsals were going very well—that was welcome news. I’ve also gotten together a contingent of students, friends and
area singers to help the Mitchell College students out. Anyone who reads this who wants to sing—get in touch with me by
writing nbruce[at]wesleyan[dot]edu. The more voices the merrier.
This will be the fourth complete performance of The Bill of Rights. (There was a public reading at South Church in Middletown
in the summer of 2005, the official premiere at Wesleyan that fall, and a performance in 2006 at the Unitarian Church in
Hamden.) There have been dozens of performances of my setting of the First Amendment, all over the country, including one
that you can see on YouTube. As far as the feeling goes—hearing your own music sung or played is always pleasant, unless the
performance is really awful. But hearing these powerful, formative, urgent texts—ringing 18th-century prose, so majestic to read
aloud and so lasting in the memory—sung to one’s own music is a special thrill.
Q: I heard that you are working on recreating the historical dance music for an operatic piece from colonial era America. How do
you begin to reconfigure the popular dance music of so many years ago and how did you first become involved in this exciting
project?
NB: The first ballad opera done in the colonial US—and the first professional piece of musical theatre done in English-speaking
North America—was a popular import from London called Flora, or, Hob in the Well. It was produced in Charleston in 1735 and
revived the following year at the newly-constructed Dock Street Theatre. The most famous ballad opera is of course The
Beggar’s Opera, but in its day Flora was also quite a hit. Long-lived, too. The text remained in print until the 1850s. Ballad
operas used preexisting tunes (folk songs, popular ballads of the day, etc.) sung to newly written words specific to the drama. For
Flora, 24 of these tunes survive—something like 18 pages of music, in two different, slightly conflicting versions. My job is to
edit the tunes; write accompaniments, including introductions and codas; compose the dance music; write all music for set
changes, entrances and exits, special moments (there’s a big fight, for example); and the overture. I’ve finished all of the vocal
music and begun the various incidental pieces. I’ll do the overture last. The complete score (voices, chorus and chamber
ensemble of eight instruments) has to be delivered early next year.
Recreating the dance music of the early 18th century is actually a piece of cake, because it’s still being played today, all over the
English-speaking world, for country dances, fiddling conventions, etc. Writing new music in that style is also something that
people still do. The vocal music is more of a trick, and there’s no short answer to that part of the question! I should write a blog
about this for my web site after the composition is done.
bruceposterI don’t mean to be coy about the source of this commission, but it hasn’t been officially announced, even though I
have to deliver the vocal score on November 1st and the production is about to be cast! I can say it’s being produced in the
summer of 2010 at a major festival, and the announcement is forthcoming, around New Years.
The way I got the gig is mysterious, and actually I know very little about how I was chosen. What I do know—I got a call out of
the blue asking if I might be interested in being the composer/music director for this project. I said “yes” on the spot. A lengthy
email correspondence ensued. Then there was a long process of being vetted, then there were negotiations about the timetable
and of course the money, and finally there was a contract. And you’re right—it was very exciting.
Professor Bruce, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me during this incredibly busy season. We all look
forward to hearing more about your compositions—especially those that are being created as we speak!
10/16/2009
The accidental mother
Day, The
Warchut, Katie
Always the perfectionist, the high achiever, Joan Ryan knew she was going to be a great mother. But though she loved her son
fiercely, she was not the mother she had envisioned.
“I just didn't have the instincts,” she said. “I was not instinctively affectionate, I wasn't patient ... I would explode at him.”
Her son, Ryan Tompkins, who entered Mitchell College this year, was diagnosed at a young age with learning disabilities and
ADHD.
Ryan had grown up in a household where you listened to your parents, no questions asked. She set out to raise her son the way
she was raised, but Tompkins never seemed to respond.
”My motherhood was still more about me,” Ryan writes, in her new book, “The Water Giver.” “I was raising the child I
expected, not the child I had.”
It took a serious accident for Ryan, who will appear at Mitchell tonight, to become the mother her son needed.
IF YOU GO
What: Book signing and discussion by Joan Ryan, author of “The Water Giver: The Story of a Mother, a Son and Their Second
Chance”
When: Today, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Where: Mitchell College Library, 437 Pequot Ave. in New London.
Bank Square Books in Mystic will be on hand to sell books and will donate a portion of their sales to the Mitchell College
Learning Resource Center.
Tompkins suffered a serious brain injury in a skateboarding accident at age 16. In the both frightening and terrifying recovery
process - doctors had to essentially take apart Tompkins' head and put it back together - Ryan learned to accept her son as he is.
The book's title refers to that moment when everything changed, Ryan said. All Tompkins craves is a sip of water, but doctors
say no. Because his brain has not recovered, the water could get into his lungs, causing pneumonia.
Ryan sheds her disciplinarian self and gives him the sip.
”He recognized that I had changed,” Ryan said. “I had become this nurturing mother.”
The image evokes a baptism, a cleansing,
a way to start over.
”Who you are now is just a snapshot of who you are,” she said. “It's not who you're going to be forever.”
Ryan, a former writer for the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, began taking notes the first night in the
emergency room, before she knew the severity of her son's situation.
”I knew there would be a column in it somewhere,” she said. “As a columnist, everything in your life is grist for the mill.”
Later on, Ryan began a blog to keep family and friends informed about Tompkins' progress. By the end, she knew she had a story
about more than just a brain injury.
Tompkins, who is used to being written about by his mother, still hasn't read the whole thing, though Ryan has read excerpts to
him that she thought he needed to know. Her confession about the challenge Tompkins was as a child and her difficulties as a
mother “wasn't news to him,” she said.
Tompkins isn't interested in reading about the medical stuff either. He's still reckless and forgets to wear his helmet when he's
riding his bike or skateboarding.
”He doesn't know - really know - how serious it was,” she said. “It's not real to him.”
The family chose Mitchell for Tompkins because they found it to be one of few colleges that can help intelligent kids with
learning disorders. The school's state-of-the-art resource center shows where their priorities are, Ryan said. She said it was
friendly and accessible.
But though he is outgoing and gregarious, enjoying college life, Tompkins still lacks much short-term memory, meaning he can
forget to take his medications. That has made it difficult to live on his own, so Tompkins will leave Mitchell mid-semester.
”For him, that realization is enormous,” Ryan said. “He knows it's the right thing.”
Even though Tompkins can't stay enrolled, the family hopes he can return at some point. People don't always realize the struggle
is not over when they leave the hospital, Ryan said.
But, like walking a labyrinth Ryan references in the book, you may not reach your destination by the most efficient path.
”You have no control over it, so you just keep walking,” she said.
A pioneer as a female in sports journalism, Ryan is the author of several books including “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The
Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters.” She also works as a media consultant for the San Francisco Giants.
She lives with her husband and Ryan's father, Barry Tompkins, a broadcaster for Fox Sports, in Marin County, Calif.
k.warchut@theday.com
10/26/2009
Some scary science at Mitchell
Day, The
Warchut, Katie
New London — It was green and gooey and almost creeping, as if it had a life of its own.
But 4-year-old Connor Morse, who stood on a chair stirring the stuff with a wooden spoon in his caterpillar costume, wasn't
scared. Using a simple mix of glue, borax, green food coloring and water, he was making even more.
Kids got to take home the slime they made — to some parents' dismay — with a warning that it was not edible. The activity was
just one of many at Mitchell College's Family Halloween Festival.
Sponsored by the college's Behavioral Science Club, the event was developed by professor Don Helms in 1994 as a way to bring
local families to campus to meet the students and to be part of the community.
This was the event's third year. Last year, it brought out more than 450 people, said Jennifer Mauro, faculty adviser of the club,
which has about 40 members.
"It's a great way to interact with the community," she said. "It's completely run by students, faculty and staff."
Children dressed as cowboys, princesses and superheroes marched around the Clarke Center for a costume parade every half
hour, many wielding balloon swords. They stopped to decorate trick-or-treating bags and beaded jewelry and to play games, such
as the always tricky attempt to eat a doughnut on a string.
The dance team performed to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the Drama Society did a skit called "Witches Dance Party," while
the New London Police Department offered Halloween safety tips.
The event was free, but organizers requested a donation of a non-perishable canned food item to be given to the Gemma E.
Moran United Way/Labor Food Pantry.
Julia Diamant, president of the club, said money raised through a raffle would benefit the club's annual holiday party for kids in
the SAFE Home program through the Department of Children and Families and other events.
"We're really into community service," Diamant said. "The community just needs something ... they need to have a little fun."
The Day online - http://www.theday.com/article/20091025/NWS01/910259996/1044
10/26/2009
Association honors Mitchell professor
Day, The
Paul L. Brindamour, Mitchell College assistant professor of business studies, was recently recognized in his field by the
Northeast Economic Developers Association (NEDA), the leading economic development organization in the northeast.
NEDA has given Brindamour the designation of Economic Development Professional for his significant professional and
educational experience in economic development. NEDA is a 10-state association serving community development professionals
throughout the northeast providing education, resources, advocacy, and network opportunities for economic development
professionals.
Brindamour, a resident of East Lyme, has been at Mitchell College since 2004.
The Day Online - http://www.theday.com/article/20091025/BIZ02/310259962
12/7/2009
Mitchell College students bring festivities and presents to homeless shelter for course
Day - Online, The
New London - Growing up homeless in New York, Jean-Michael Mathurin spent much of his childhood in shelters. He was back
in one Sunday, under entirely different circumstances.
Mathurin and two other Mitchell College seniors, Amy Babcock and Mike Maria, organized a Christmas party for families at
Covenant Shelter as part of their semester-long leadership course.
The trio recruited the Mitchell College rugby team (Mathurin and Babcock are members) to help raise money and prepare for the
party. On Sunday, they brought dozens of gifts, Christmas ornaments and lights, and a tree donated by Maple Lane Farms in
Preston to the Jay Street shelter.
"It meant a lot to me because I grew up in the shelter," Mathurin said. "I'm in college because people helped me, so I'm glad to be
giving back. It means more for me to help these kids than this all probably means to them because I was a part of this when I was
young."
The shelter can accommodate 14 single men, three single women and five families. Three families who had moved into homes
last week even came back for Sunday's celebration.
Mathurin, Babcock and Maria had originally planned to drop off Christmas presents for the shelter, but an extended round of
phone tag with Catherine Foley, the shelter's executive director, brought them to the shelter in person. Mathurin said seeing
children playing inside made him want to do something more than just drop off gifts.
Some of those gifts went to Jacquenetta Holeman-Fussell's two children. The family moved Friday from Covenant Shelter, their
home for the last month, to an apartment in Groton's Branford Manor but came back for the day.
Her children, 12-year-old Rah'Mek and 7-year-old Anastasia, received two of the three bikes given out by the Mitchell students.
"Look at them on their bikes," Holeman-Fussell said. "God knows I couldn't imagine something like this. And I certainly couldn't
do this. I don't have the income. I don't think these kids (the Mitchell students) know what they've done. These college kids are a
blessing and I am so grateful for them."
For Debye Franklin, who is moving into an apartment in Norwich on Wednesday, her two-month stay at Covenant Shelter was
challenging but helped her transition back to a more stable life.
"It's already hard to live in a shelter, but things like this make it better," she said. "Hopefully we won't ever have to come back."
Though Covenant Shelter has a family Christmas party every year, nothing compares with this year's celebration, said Tracy
Morales, a case manager who has worked at the shelter for nine years.
"I've had some kids here who have never had their own Christmas tree, so this is terrific," Morales said.
With help from Mathurin, who hoisted youngsters so they could decorate the highest branches, there was not enough space for all
the decorations.
As the families ate lunch in the shelter's dining room, Mathurin, Babcock and Maria put the presents under the tree. That way,
they said, it would be like Christmas morning with presents appearing from nowhere. In addition to personal gifts for each child,
the group donated an air hockey table to the shelter.
"It all went really well," said Wayne Yearwood, a professor of sports management and the rugby team's coach and adviser. "I'm
sure this is something that will be an annual effort. Yes, we are a rugby team, but we do more than that."
As he watched the children and their families play with new toys, Yearwood was struck by what his team accomplished.
"This was one tremendous day," he said. "It's all I can think. This was one tremendous day."
Originally posted on www.theday.com on December 7, 2009
(http://www.theday.com/article/20091207/NWS01/312079961/1017)