• Dr. Ronald A. Hemmel, F.A.G.O., associate professor of music theory and composition and artistic director of the Music Computing Center at Westminster, attended the premier performance of his composition, “For Love,” in February. The piece was commissioned and performed by the Westminster Chapel Choir and the Westminster Conservatory Youth Chorale in their first joint concert. Dr. Frank Abrahams, professor and chair of the department of music education, conducted. The text for the work was drawn from “The Way,” by Josemaria Escriva, the Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei. “For Love” was commissioned to correspond to the major work of the program, Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms,” so the new piece uses the same octatonic pitch collection as the first movement of the Stravinsky.

• Dr. Jay Kawarsky, professor of music theory and composition, had his works performed in three locations across the country last month. “Fastidious Notes” for alto saxophone and orchestral winds was performed at the University of Florida on February 21st and at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, on February 28th. On March 2nd, Dr. Kawarsky’s work “Prayers for Bobby” for narrrator, soloists, choir and orchestra, was performed in celebration of World Day of Prayer by the Rincon Congregational United Church of Christ, Tucson, AZ, conducted by the church’s minister of music and Rider alumnus Justin Raffa.

• Dr. Ilhan Meric, professor of finance; Dr. Joe H. Kim, associate professor of marketing; and Dr. Lewis W. Coopersmith, associate professor of management sciences, wrote an article titled “Co-movements of Pacific-Basin Stock Markets: Portfolio Diversification Implications,” that was accepted for publication in the Fall 2007 issue of the “Journal of International Business and Economy.” Dr. Gulser Meric, a professor of accounting and finance at Rowan University, is a co-author of the paper.

• Dr. Pearlie Peters, professor of English, has written a contributing literary essay on writer, journalist and editor, Dorothy West, of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, published in Volume 2 of a recent two-volume book, entitled “Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers,” edited by Yolanda Williams Page and published by Greenwood Press, Westport, CT in February, 2007.

 

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