Faculty and Staff News Briefs
-Edward Kaplan, Kevy and Hortense Kaiserman Professor in the Humanities, has won a National Jewish Book Award in the American Jewish Studies category for “Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America” (Yale University Press). Kaplan, and 19 other winners, will be honored on March 4 at a gala award ceremony at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.
-Three authors with work published by Brandeis University Press were also honored with National Jewish Book Awards in 2007. Tova Hartman’s “Feminism Encounters Traditional Journalism” won in the women’s studies category, Murray Zimiles’ “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses” picked up the visual arts award and Marianne Sanua was a finalist in the American Jewish studies category with “Let Us Prove Strong.”
-David Elwell, director of Brandeis’ International Students & Scholars Office, was recently honored with the Sally Heym Award from NAFSA: The Association of International Educators New England Region. The award is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of international education through service and mentoring of other professionals, students and the field/community at large. Brandeis was well represented at the conference, with participation by Study Abroad, the International Students & Scholars Office, Admissions, the Master’s Program in Co-existence and Conflict and the Office of Global Affairs.
-Richard Beaudoin, a music composition and theory PhD candidate who is currently teaching an introduction to music course at Brandeis, recently presented a portion of an opera he is composing on a London stage. The first act of his opera, based on Herman Melville’s 1852 novel “Pierre,” was performed at the Arcola Theatre in August. Beaudoin is writing the piece for six singers and it has been submitted for consideration by New York City Opera's VOX Program, which offers full orchestral readings of new works at Lincoln Center each May.
-Paola Servino, a senior lecturer in Italian studies, was recently honored for her course “Intermediate Italian.” The course was identified as one of the top 10 courses in a national study of Italian courses conducted by the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC). As one of the selected courses, it will serve as a model for the redesign of the AP equivalent course. Servino, a graduate of Intituto Univeristario Oviensale of Naples, has been teaching at Brandeis since 1989.
-Music professor and Lydian String Quartet cellist Joshua Gordon and pianist Randall Hodgkinson were given a prominent review for their new CD, "Leo Ornstein: Complete Works For Cello and Piano," from the New York Times. In the article, dated Sept. 16, Vivien Schweitzer wrote, "on a fine new disc from New World Records the value of [Leo Ornstein's] powerful works for cello and piano is revealed by the pianist Randall Hodgkinson and the cellist Joshua Gordon, admirable chamber musicians who play with passion and sensitivity... These exemplary performances should ensure that Ornstein’s cello works will enjoy some of the limelight the composer shunned for so long."
Also, in the November 2007 issue of Strings Magazine, Edith Eisler wrote, "The music is beautiful: tonal, often impressionistic, primarily dreamy, occasionally with a strong Judaic flavor... It is astonishing that more cellists have not discovered these idiomatic, effective works. This recording should change that. The playing is splendid, authoritative, expressive, and involved. Ornstein could not have wished for more committed, persuasive advocates."
