February has arrived and we are as active as ever. There is good news to report in that we are reopening the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall on Sunday, February 5th with the Martin Fellowship Piano Concert. The Performance Hall was badly damaged during a rain storm in late July, but thanks to the efforts of upper administration, the hall was been restored and is back in use.
All in the Raclin School are more than pleased.
Life has been busy for us at the Raclin School of the Arts and we have much to celebrate. Our students in theater have been successful at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and we just hosted over 800 high school students plus their teachers for the Indiana State Thespian Festival. This was the first time we hosted this event and thanks to our theater faculty for making this happen.
Our music students were involved in performances at the Indiana Music Education Association state-wide conference in Ft. Wayne plus our faculty and students have been involved with performances with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. We were pleased to host a day with the acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem on our campus, allowing many of our students, high schools students, and community dancers to participate in master classes.
All of our students are engaged in their work and soon we will see evidence in BFA shows and other presentations. I am pleased to report that we have doubled the number of majors in the Master of Communication program in one semester thanks to the efforts of the Communication Studies faculty.
The weather is Midwest weather … it’s cold, snow, and sunshine on occasion, but I encourage you to come and experience the warmth of what we are doing at the Raclin School of the Arts. I am sure that you will have a different perspective about the world as you witness the talent that our faculty and students have worked so hard to hone. In a few months, it will be graduation and we are on track to have a large graduating class once again. It is also recruiting time and we are out looking for students that want to be inspired. We will aid in their development with the high-caliber faculty we have. We are still celebrating our 25th anniversary with Unified for 25 and invite you to the upcoming concert honoring esteemed tenor George Shirley. We look forward to seeing you soon.