Houston Memorial Chapel organ helps son revisit his family and company's past

Lynchburg is not a natural stopping place for most people driving from Charlotte, N.C., to Norfolk, Va. In fact, it is two hours out of the way.

But Chris Holtkamp made it an important detour on his business trip on Friday. This was his first chance to finally see the pipe organ in Houston Memorial Chapel at Randolph College.

“It’s an organ I have never had the opportunity to see nor to hear, but I have always wanted to,” he said.

Holtkamp is the president of Holtkamp Organ Company, the family company that designed and built the organ. His father, Walter Holtkamp Jr., was president of the company in 1969, when Houston Memorial Chapel was built and the organ was installed.

Holtkamp said he remembers traveling to New York once when his father went to meet with architects to discuss the organ. He also has seen a striking picture that shows the organ as well as the chapel’s stained glass window above the organ.

“It’s so absolutely magnificent, and the chapel is visually magnificent,” he said. “You can’t take that in through a picture.”

Unlike many modern organs that conceal most of their pipes in wooden framework, the organ in the chapel has most of its pipes revealed. “Every single pipe has not just a musical function, but also an architectural function, in its shape and its size,” he said.

Katelin Shugart-Schmidt wins Virginia Tech Graduate Woman of the Year award

A 2010 alumna has won a prestigious award in graduate school at Virginia Tech.

Katelin Shugart-Schmidt was named Virginia Tech’s Graduate Woman of the Year. The annual award recognizes students who are deeply involved in the graduate community, contribute new knowledge through their research and teaching, and demonstrate a commitment to diversity.

Shugart-Schmidt said she was honored to receive the award, and that she traces her success in graduate school back to her undergraduate days. “It all came out of my experiences at Randolph,” she said.

Shugart-Schmidt, from Logan, Utah, majored in environmental science and minored in mathematics and biology during her time at the College. She participated in several research opportunities, including a summer internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She went to Hawaii to study algae blooms, coral reefs, and conservation efforts on Waikiki beach. For that project, she won Best Oral Student Presenter at the Hawaii Conservation Conference in Honolulu.

She also held leadership roles in Randolph’s honor system, which opened doors for her to be involved in the Virginia Tech honor system. She now serves as chief justice in that program.

Today, Shugart-Schmidt is studying methods for predicting how fishing regulations will affect fish populations, considering variables such as the weather and gas prices. She hopes to graduate in December. After graduation, she wants to help make conservation policies become more effective.

“I would really like to work in the intersection between policy and science,” she said. “I would love to take scientific information and translate that into a language that our policy makers and managers can understand and deal with correctly.”

Student Center Renovation: February 28, 2012

Foundation work is beginning on the area behind the current facility. An expansion of the Student Center will be housed here.

Windows in what was originally the Skeller are being enlarged. The new windows will allow people eating in the dining area of the Student Center with nearly floor to ceiling views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

View of the main area of the Student Center.

The framing for one of the glass vestibules is in place. A balcony will overlook the area.

Construction of Randolph College's $6 million Student Center renovation continues at a rapid pace. The existing windows in the structure are being expanded in order to accommodate larger, energy efficient windows. Framing for restrooms and other parts of the main area of the Student Center are in process, and flooring work continues throughout other parts of the building. The building's expansion on the back side of campus is also progressing as construction crews prepare the area for the foundation.

Society of Physics students wins national recognition for the sixth year running

The annual Science Festival, where Randolph College students lead science demonstrations
and activities for children, teenagers, and adults, helped the Randolph chapter of the Society
of Physics Students win an Outstanding Chapter designation again.

Randolph College's physics students stay on the move: Throughout the year, you can find them fine-tuning potato guns, riding roller coasters to explore the physics at play, or helping Cub Scouts perfect their Pinewood Derby cars.

Those activities and outreach efforts have again caught national attention. The national office of the Society of Physics Students national office has just awarded the Randolph College Chapter with the Outstanding Chapter status for the sixth year in a row.

The Randolph College Chapter of the Society of Physics Students works on a variety of projects. Its largest activity is the annual Science Festival, when the College hosts science activities and demonstrations for people of all ages with the help of more than 90 student volunteers. This year's Science Festival will take place March 22 - 25.

This year, the group also plans to build a canon that will shoot T-shirts out to fans at Randolph College athletic events. They just do not stop!

Bunny Goodjohn wins poetry prize

Bunny Goodjohn teaches English, writes poetry
and fiction, and recently won a poetry prize

Bunny Goodjohn ’04 answered what she thought was a routine phone call, only to find out about an exciting honor she had not expected.

“I answered the phone and discovered I was on a conference call with the Reed Magazine editorial staff,” said Goodjohn, who teaches English and directs the College’s writing program and tutoring services. “The editor told me the good news.”

Goodjohn learned that she had won the Edwin Markham Prize for Poetry, a prize sponsored by Reed Magazine and San Jose State University. The award comes with a $1,000 prize and publication in the magazine. Then the editors added to her surprise and delight by reading the remarks that the contest’s judge, Kim Addonizio, had written about Goodjohn’s work. (Addonizio is a poet whose work Goodjohn admires.)

Addonizio praised Goodjohn for “an ability to tell a story not just for the sake of narrative, but to get at a deeper truth; sentences that were complex and layered, as well as musical; and a sense of real presence on the page.”

“To have her consider my work and find it worthy is such a tremendous honor,” Goodjohn said.

Goodjohn submitted several poems to the contest, including two that she wrote during graduate school, one that she wrote after a camping trip in West Virginia two years ago, and one inspired by Paula Rego’s painting Family. The newest poem she entered, titled “Running 24 North,” came to her after she saw two stray dogs stop traffic outside Rustburg, Virginia.

Goodjohn studied writing and wrote a novel during her time at Randolph, and then she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Southern Maine. She then returned to the College as an English professor.

Her work has also been published in The Cortland Review (in 2002 and again in 2004), The Texas Review, Connecticut Review, and Zone 3.

Shakespeare meets Carnival in WildCat Theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream has made its rounds through the Lynchburg area, but this weekend Randolph College students will present production that promises a new spin on the classic tale.

Randolph College presents

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Feb. 23-27, 2012
7:30 p.m. (2 p.m. on Feb. 26)
Tickets: $10 general admission, $8 faculty/staff/seniors, $5 students

“Our version will be markedly different. It is inspired by Brazilian Carnival,” said Mace Archer, a Randolph theatre professor directing the show. “It's set during the festival during our production.” It takes place aboard a Carnival float with samba dancers and other celebrators. “It’s like you’re watching Carnival,” Archer said.

The fairy royalty Oberon (portrayed by Matt Cornpropst ’14) and Titania (Marian van Noppen ’12) become the king and queen of the Carnival festival. Puck (Emily Perry ’12) is more of a snappy, snazzy Vegas showgirl than the natural woodsprite of most Midsummer productions, but she plays the same tricks that cause mayhem and disrupt the course of the young lovers who have left the nearby city.

Student actors rehearse a scene from A Midsummer Night's
Dream on the Thoresen Theatre stage in early February.

Other leading cast members include Brian Yarger ’15 as Lysander, Anne Morris ’12 as Hermia, Erin Sudol ’12 as Helena, Tory Brown ’13 as Demetrius, and Robert Santmyer ’15 as Bottom. The cast consists of 30 students, including about 10 from the Randolph College Dance program. Isabelle Dom ’12 choreographed the dances for the show.

“We have all the right actors to fit the parts of this play,” Archer said. “The energy they bring to it is phenomenal. This is the third time I've worked on Midsummer, and it’s the most energetic.”

Emily Perry '12, right, portrays the role of Puck in
an original way, combining Shakespeare with Carnival.

This is also the third time A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been performed in Lynchburg in the past year, after having a round of several performances two years ago. But the story will not be old, partly because of the Carnival setting, and partly because of the fun versatility of the story. “You could do Midsummer every year, because there are so many different ways you can do it," Archer said.

The language and storyline of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is also very accessible, allowing actors and audience members to enjoy the humor. “It’s getting really funny,” Archer said.

Producing a play in a short time period while also keeping up with demanding academic programs at the College is no easy feat, but Archer said it is preparing students for careers on stage. “Figuring out how you can do really good quality work in a compressed amount of time is part of the profession now,” he said. “They’re learning how to do that.”

Students, professor prepare for Carnegie Hall performance

Twenty singers at Randolph College will follow in the footsteps of many famous artists this spring by performing in Carnegie Hall.

Randolph College conductor and music professor Randall Speer will conduct a concert in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on Easter Sunday. He will be joined by the Randolph College Chorale, a high school choir, and the New England Symphonic Ensemble, for a performance of Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (Solemn Vespers). The concert was organized by MidAmerica Productions, a company that produces concerts in New York and around the world.

Randolph College Chorale and Randall Speer

Performance in

Carnegie Hall

Sunady, April 8, 8:30 p.m.
Discount tickets are available but must be ordered through MidAmerica productions by March 14.

One year ago, MidAmerica Productions invited Speer to conduct a festival choir performance this season. Although he was not required to bring singers himself, he invited his students at Randolph to ensure that they would have the incredible opportunity. Connie Anderson Calhoun ’57 and C. Merrell Calhoun donated money to help cover the costs of the trip, Speer said.

“Being able to perform that on the Carnegie Hall stage is daunting a little bit, but more than anything else, it’s exciting,” Speer said. “This is an incomparable experience for these students, and once in a lifetime for most.”

Since it opened in 1891, Carnegie Hall has hosted some of the world’s most accomplished composers, conductors, and musicians, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky, Benny Goodman and his orchestra, and Judy Garland. That tradition continues today—in fact, Speer and the Chorale will take the stage in Stern Auditorium just a few hours after the acclaimed British composer John Rutter conducts a concert there.

Speer said he never expected to find himself leading his students for a Carnegie Hall performance. “Perhaps in my wildest dreams I might have wished for something like this,” he said. For it to become a reality, and to have the opportunity to stand in the same spot that some of the world’s greatest conductors have stood, is such a great honor.”

Mozart’s Solemn Vespers is a challenging but inspiring piece, Speer said. Mozart composed the music while working in Salzburg, Austria. “Right now, the students are experiencing the hard work that it takes to get into it, but they’re already getting a sense of just how glorious this music is,” Speer said.

The group will travel to New York a few days before their concert. Then they meet the high school choir and the orchestra that will join them for the Easter Sunday performance and hold several hours-long rehearsals.

While performing in Carnegie Hall is a rare opportunity, touring far and wide is normal for Randolph College music students. Chorale regularly tours, and has performed in Washington, D.C., California, eastern Pennsylvania, Jamaica, and the Midwest. “These are significant experiences, certainly, but the New York and Carnegie Hall trip is taking it to a whole other level,” Speer said.