PSU Magazine Spring 1992

~ PS~ composers honored The applause resounded this winter for music faculty members Bryan Johanson and Tomas Svoboda at two separate events celebrating each composer's talents. On Feb. 16, the Oregon Symphony premiered Johanson's Symphony No. 2. In attendance at the performance, Johanson was called back for three bows by the audience. His music has been described by critics as "formal and often lyrical, shot through with ele– ments of virtuosity and drama." The music professor is an active per– former himself-play ing class ical guitar. He has composed an earlier sym– phony, chamber music, and individual pieces for piano, flute, guitar, and other instruments. On Feb. 14, Tomas Svoboda was given a Governor's Art Award by Gov. Barbara Roberts in a ceremony at the Newport Performing Arts Center. A professor of music, Svoboda teaches composition and music theory and is a highly regarded composer and per– former. The Prague Symphony Orchestra premiered his first symphony m 1956 in his native country Czecho– slovakia. He has composed 26 orchestral works, that have received 180 performances. Svoboda will conduct the Oregon Symphony Orchestra doing his most recent work, Symphony No. 6 for Clarinet and Orchestra, on April 26. Working with students The Portland chapter of the Pacific Northwest Personnel Management Association/Society for Human Resource Management has rece ived a national award for its work with PSU business students. A 1991 Pinnacle award was given to the Portland chapter for its 11 -year sup– port of the student chapter at PSU. Through the years, the profess ional group has supported the students with internship programs, monthly lunch– eon meetings, annual business visita– tion days, resume book, speaker and network opportunities, exchange of newsletters, scholarship programs, and regional conferences. "The Portland chapter feels it has a distinct responsibility for the quality and caliber of new human resource profess ionals entering the work place," sa id Jim Zwicker, past president of the Portland chapter and human resource director for MicroPump in Vancouver, Wash. The $1,000 awarded to the Portland chapter will be used fo r a Spec ial Pin– nacle Award Scholarship and for spon– soring students at the next national and regional conference. The student group, advised by Alan Cabelly, associate professor in the School of Business Administration, has won supe– rior merit status from the national organization for the past nine years. Accounting partnership When the crunch of tax season sub– sides for another year, members of the O regon Society of CPAs, with the help of Portland State accounting students, will again offer volunteer services to not-for-profit organizations. O regon Society (OSCPA) members, paired with members of the PSU chap– ter of the national student business honorary Beta Alpha Psi, offer support for select accounting projects, from set– ting up computerized accounting sys– tems to creating financial statements. The OSCPA began offering accounting ass istance to tax-exempt organizations several years ago, but the time commitments were too great for many CPAs. With student assistants supervised by a CPA, the group reali~ed it could tackle projects it was unable to accept in the past. . "Many of these not-for-profit agen– cies have no accounting knowledge and little funding. CPAs have limited time for volunteer activities, and stu– dents have little actual accounting ex– perience. This program is great for all parties," says Jim Richardson, chairman ofOSCPA 's Accounting Aid Committee. Study of the earth Dr. Lynn Margulis, a world-class evolutionary theorist, will discuss "The Gaia Theory: Earth as Living Or– ganism" on May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This is the last lecture in the 1991 - 92 Science, Technology and Society Lecture Series, co-sponsored by Portland State. Margulis, a botanist from the University of Massachusetts, has pioneered fundamental insights about the central role of symbiosis (coopera– tive relationships) in evolution. Tick– ets fo r the lecture are ava ilable from FASTIXX ou tlets and from Portland Center for the Performing Arts. The ' series is presented by the Inst itute fo r Science, Engineering and Public Policy. Readings from new plays The call went out in April 199 1 invit– ing Oregon and Washington play– wrights to submit original, unpublished scripts to PSU's New Plays Conference. Applicants competed for a one-month res idency and the unprecedented oppor– tunity to network, hone their skills receive comment from theater prof~s­ sionals in several fields, polish their plays and present them in fully staged read ings. That year- long process culminates in the reading and performances of four new plays April 15 -24 at 8 p.m. in the Lincoln Hall Studio Theater. O ut of the more than 100 scripts, the four chosen for production and their playwrights are: On the House by Wayne C. Anderson, Portland; This Sunset by Dana Woodbury, Portland; Rite of Passage by Joel Harmon, Corval– lis; and Remember Where You Started From by Susan Pakenen Holway '88 MA, Oysterville, Wash. "We were looking for works that reflected a new voice or a distinctly in– dividual perspective," says Jack Featheringill, artistic director of the Conference and chair of PSU's Theater Arts Department. "In the process we've uncovered a lot of potentiai." PSU 5