Whitworth singers shine at competition for the National Association of Teachers of Singing

Students win a total of nine awards at regional contest

Eight Whitworth singers earned a total of nine awards in the classical voice and musical theatre categories when Whitworth hosted auditions Nov. 13-14 for the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

More than 160 students from universities across Eastern Washington auditioned in the Inland Empire Chapter of NATS. In addition to Whitworth, singers hailed from Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Walla Walla College, Spokane Falls Community College, Washington State University, Whitman College and Yakima Valley College.

Senior Mollie McComb received two awards, taking first place in musical theatre and second place in classical voice. Senior Ellie VerGowe took first place in classical voice. Freshman MacKenzie Covington, junior Tyler Kruse, senior Mac Merchant and freshman Kirsten Mullen all received second place in classical voice. Sophomore Ira McIntosh took second place in musical theatre, and freshman Jordan Kingma earned third place in classical voice.

Scott Miller, director of voice studies and assistant professor at Whitworth, serves as the NATS audition chair.

“In addition to the Whitworth students who were recognized with awards, we had many who set goals for themselves heading into the auditions that they were successful in reaching, which is equally important and rewarding,” Miller said. “The best part is seeing students achieve that kind of personal and artistic growth, whether they ‘win’ or not. It’s an honor to teach such bright, talented, intellectually mature students. They represented the university very well.”

Miller credited Whitworth's strong performance at the competition to the students, voice faculty and pianists. He described the students involved in NATS as talented, hard-working, dedicated and receptive. The Whitworth voice faculty features excellent teachers who use their professional experience to help students, he says. And the pianists, who had to perform about 30 songs apiece, collaborated well with their students and essentially represented half of every performance.

The singers were students of Whitworth voice professors Patricia Blankenship-Mortier, Marjory Halvorson and Scott Miller, and were accompanied by staff pianists David Brewster, Beverly Rhodes and Mary Trotter.

The National Association of Teachers of Singing Inc. was founded in 1944 and is now the largest association of teachers of singing in the world. Today, NATS boasts more than 6,500 members in more than 25 other countries around the world. NATS offers a variety of lifelong learning experiences to its members, such as workshops, intern programs, master classes, and conferences, all beginning at the chapter level and progressing to national events.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Scott Miller, NATS audition chair, director of voice studies and assistant professor, Whitworth University, (509) 777-3382 or smiller@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.

Whitworth choirs to present 2009 Christmas Festival Concert, "Ye Shall Have a Song"

The 2009 Whitworth University Christmas Festival Concert, "Ye Shall Have a Song," will take place in Bellevue, Seattle and Spokane, featuring the Whitworth Choir, the Whitworth Women's Choir, and, for the first time, the Whitworth Men’s Chorus. The production, built around themes of pilgrimage and song, will involve 110 student singers, accompanists and instrumentalists. For more information, please call (509) 777-3280.

The concert will include its title piece, Randall Thompson’s “Ye Shall Have a Song,” from The Peaceable Kingdom. The Whitworth Choir will sing the featured work of the program, John Rutter’s “Gloria,” which is accompanied by brass, organ, timpani and percussion. Other concert selections include “Cantate Domino,” by Jackson Berkey, Healey Willan’s “The Three Kings,” “Pilgrims’ Hymn,” by Stephen Paulus, Peter Louis Van Dijk’s, “Susa Ninna,” and “There is No Rose of Such Virtue,” a setting of the 15th-century English text composed specifically for the Whitworth Men’s Chorus and the 2009 Festival Concerts by Marc A. Hafso.

The Whitworth Choir and the Whitworth Men’s Chorus will perform under the direction of Marc A. Hafso, professor of music and director of choral activities. The Whitworth Women's Choir will perform under the direction of Debbie Hansen, associate director of choral activities and chair of the music department. Diana Trotter, professor of theatre, will serve as narrator, and Bonnie Robinson will serve as organist.

Following is concert and ticket information for each performance location:

• Bellevue
  When: Saturday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m.
  Where: First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, 1717 Bellevue Way NE
  


• Seattle
  When: Sunday, Dec. 6, at 3 p.m.
  Where: First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, 1013 8th Ave.
  


• Spokane
  When: Friday, Dec. 11, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 12, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
  Where: First Presbyterian Church of Spokane, 318 S. Cedar St.

Tickets: $18 general admission, $15 for students and seniors 62 and older. Tickets may be purchased by calling (800) 532-4668, online at www.whitworth.edu/musictickets or at the information desk in the Hixson Union Building at Whitworth. A limited number of tickets may also be available for purchase at the door prior to each concert.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Marc A. Hafso, professor of music and director of choral activities, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4589 or mhafso@whitworth.edu.

Joan Lack or Loree Swegle, music department program assistants, Whitworth University, (509) 777-3280 or jlack@whitworth.edu or lswegle@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.

Whitworth team takes third place in Northwest Regional Ethics Bowl

A team of Whitworth students took third place at the eighth annual Northwest Regional Ethics Bowl, hosted Nov. 14 by The Avanade Co., in Seattle, Wash. The Whitworth team defeated groups from Central Washington University and Montana State University to advance to the semifinals, where they lost a close match to another team from Central Washington University. This year marks the seventh time in eight years that a Whitworth team has placed in the semifinals or finals.

The Northwest Regional Ethics Bowl was one of 10 regional competitions held this fall as part of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB).

In the IEB, a moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students. Questions may concern ethical problems on a wide range of topics. Each team receives a set of ethical issues in advance of the competition, and questions posed to teams at the competition are taken from that set. A panel of judges evaluates answers; rating criteria are intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness.

Prior to the Nov. 14 competition, Whitworth's interdisciplinary ethical-debate team analyzed 10 ethically complex cases pertaining to topics such as the creation of synthetic meat, policies in which women pay higher rates than men for similar types of health insurance, and how Kenya should manage national parks and resources in cases of severe food shortages.

In each round of the competition, a panel of judges posed a question about a topic; the teams prepared responses using reasoning, application of ethical theories, and cogent-policy analysis. The teams gave short presentations on their responses and then fielded questions from the judges.

Members of the Whitworth team include philosophy and theology majors Dan Herve, '10, and Jared Lollar, '11, philosophy and sociology major Benjameen Quarless, '12, philosophy and marketing major Mary Rupert, '10, and speech communications major Michella Sutherland, '12. The team was coached by Mike Ingram, professor of communication studies and associate dean for faculty development and scholarship, and Keith Wyma, associate professor of philosophy.

Organized by the Illinois Institute of Technology's Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, the IEB develops students' intellectual abilities and capacities, deepens their ethical understanding, and reinforces their sense of ethical commitment. The IEB has received special commendation for excellence and innovation from the American Philosophical Association and won the American Philosophical Association/Philosophy Documentation Center's 2006 prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs. The format, rules, and procedures of the IEB all have been developed to model widely acknowledged best methods of reasoning in practical and professional ethics.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Mike Ingram, professor of communication studies and associate dean for faculty development and scholarship, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4428 or mingram@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.

Whitworth students stand out in Pacific Northwest Regional Computer Programming Contest

Three teams of Whitworth computer-science students outmaneuvered their peers and solved a series of complex programming problems during the 34th annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Pacific Northwest Regional Computer Programming Contest. Eighty teams from the Western United States and Canada took part in the Nov. 7"battle of the brains" competition at the University of Idaho, in Moscow, Idaho. Four other contest sites in the region also hosted schools, and teams submitted their problems electronically to a central judging location.

The top Whitworth team - seniors Timothy Bull, David Jackson and Josh Simmons - solved five out of 10 problems in 428 minutes to beat 62 other teams and rank 18th. To view complete contest results, please visit http://cm.baylor.edu/public/worldMap/publicStandings.icpc?contestId=558&cid=737.

The second Whitworth team - juniors Ian Thompson and Cole Wardell - solved five problems in 1155 minutes to beat 48 other teams and rank 32nd among their peers. The third Whitworth team – freshman Eric Fode, senior Nathan Sargent, and senior Jason Heide – turned in a strong performance by solving two problems.

The top two Whitworth teams beat out Whitworth's peer schools in the region, as well as many teams from larger schools. The other participating teams at Whitworth's contest site included Gonzaga University, Eastern Washington University, Washington State University and the University of Idaho. Some of the other schools that participated in the regional competition included the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley.

"The standings say a lot about the top-notch caliber of students that Whitworth attracts," says Kent Jones, professor of math and computer science at Whitworth. "Teams who rank well in the regional competition are looked on favorably by recruiters from corporations."

The ACM Pacific Northwest Programming Contest challenges teams of three university students to use their programming skills and rely on their mental endurance to solve complex, real-world problems within a five-hour deadline. The Whitworth contest is a regional competition of the IBM-sponsored ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, which will gather 6,099 university teams from 82 countries on six continents during its preliminary rounds through December. The top two teams from each regional competition will earn coveted spots at the world finals, to be held in February, in Harbin, China.

The Pacific Region comprises Alaska, Hawaii, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, northern/central California and western Nevada. Because of the large geographic area of the region, the Pacific Northwest contest is held simultaneously at multiple sites: California, Washington/Oregon, Canada and Hawaii. For more information on previous contests, problem sets and last year’s final standings, please visit http://cm.baylor.edu/welcome.icpc.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Kent Jones, professor of math and computer science, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4248 or kjones@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.