CAS Faculty Updates

English Professor and Department Chair Tony Magistrale is working on a book-length study of Stephen King that seeks to place the well-known author into a specifically "American" context. The book will have chapters on his politics, his literary influences, the role of place (Maine) in his fiction, and two special chapters focusing on The Shining and The Dark Tower. Tony, who has taught “Anglo-American Gothicism” and “The Films and Novels of Stephen King” at UVM, expects the book to be out in late December or early January from Praeger, a division of Greenwood Publishing Group. www.praeger.com/praeger.aspx

******

The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press has just released a new book by History Professor and Director of Holocaust Studies, Alan Steinweis (pictured). Kristallnacht 1938 examines the actions on November 7, 1938, of a Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, who fatally shot a German diplomat in Paris. Within three days anti-Jewish violence erupted throughout Germany, initially incited by local Nazi officials, and ultimately sanctioned by the decisions of Hitler and Goebbels at the pinnacle of the Third Reich. As synagogues burned and Jews were beaten in the streets, police stood aside. Men, women, and children—many neighbors of the victims—participated enthusiastically in acts of violence, rituals of humiliation, and looting. By the night of November 10, a nationwide antisemitic pogrom had inflicted massive destruction on synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish-owned businesses. During and after this spasm of violence and plunder, 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, where hundreds would perish in the following months.

Kristallnacht revealed to the world the intent and extent of Nazi Judeophobia. However, it was seen essentially as the work of the Nazi leadership. Now, Alan Steinweis counters that view in his vision of Kristallnacht as a veritable pogrom—a popular cathartic convulsion of antisemitic violence that was manipulated from above but executed from below by large numbers of ordinary Germans rioting in the streets, heckling and taunting Jews, cheering Stormtroopers' hostility, and looting Jewish property on a massive scale.

Based on original research in the trials of the pogrom's perpetrators and the testimonies of its Jewish survivors, Steinweis brings to light the evidence of mob action by all sectors of the civilian population. Kristallnacht 1938 reveals the true depth and nature of popular antisemitism in Nazi Germany on the eve of the Holocaust. Read the positive review in The New Republic at: http://www.tnr.com/article/world/the-november-pogrom

******

The UVM Music Department faculty presented a concert extravaganza Sunday, October 18. Donations to the David Yandell Fund, which provides scholarships to talented UVM music students, were gratefully accepted.

Faculty performed compositions for a variety of instruments and voices. Pianists rendered John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever with the EIGHT hands of David Feurzeig, David Neiweem, Sylvia Parker and Wayne Schneider. Internationally known jazz trumpeter Ray Vega played the classical Prayer of Saint Gregory by Alan Hovhaness. Pianist Paul Orgel presented Bach’s esoteric Prelude and Fugue in D# minor from WTC Book II. Singers Evelyn Kwanza and David Neiweem offered solos Homage to My Hips by Gwyneth Walker and Charlie Rutledge by Charles Ives, and a duet Make Believe from the musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern.

Especially featured was the stunning Makrokosmos III for Two Amplified Pianos and Percussion by Pulitzer Prize laureate and Grammy award winner George Crumb, who celebrated his 80th birthday in October. Faculty pianist Sylvia Parker and percussionist D. Thomas Toner were joined by UVM senior Xiudan Lin and Dartmouth faculty percussionist Douglas Perkins. Mysterious sounds of pizzicatos and harmonics, African mbira, Appalachian jug, antique cymbals, Japanese temple bells, African log drum, and more created an other-worldly musical experience.

******

UVM faculty and Vermont MTNA board member Sylvia Parker coordinated the participation of music majors Grace Chris, soprano, and Xiudan Lin, piano to represent Vermont at the Quad-State Conference of Music Teachers National Association on October 3 at Plymouth State University. In alternate years Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont join forces in a combined four - state meeting of MTNA. This year’s conference focused on collaborative piano, where the pianist works with other instrumentalists and singers rather than taking a solo role. Grace and Xiudan performed in the featured vocal master class, where they received coaching from internationally known artists Brad Hougham, baritone, and Diane Birr, piano, before a large audience of teachers from the four states.

Grace studies singing with David Neiweem and Xiudan studies piano with Paul Orgel.