Arts Consortium Awards
Their artistic accomplishments span music, outreach, computer art, film, creative writing and dance. The awards they will receive illustrate the power of partnership between the university, the Arts Consortium and private donors. The 1998 faculty winners of arts awards, who were recognized by Chancellor David Ward and the Arts Consortium at a special celebration April 17, are:
John Aley, Martha Fischer and William Richardson
Edna Weichers Arts in Wisconsin Award
With a musical range encompassing the Renaissance, baroque, classical, modern, contemporary and avant-garde, these artists, who comprise the School of Music Brass and Ivory Trio, have been educating and delighting audiences across Wisconsin since 1984. The ensemble performs music from Broadway shows, operas and operettas, jazz and pop standards. In honor of Wisconsin’s sesquicentennial, the trio will showcase music from 150 years ago, particularly work by composer Stephen Foster.
Such an eclectic fare grows out of members’ varied interests; Aley, professor of trumpet, is an acknowledged expert on the piccolo trumpet, an extremely demanding instrument a full octave higher than the usual trumpet. Fischer has achieved renown as a pianist, both as a soloist and a much-sought-after accompanist. She also has made a mark as singer, performing and coaching operas and Gilbert and Sullivan and show tunes. Richardson, conductor of the Wisconsin National Guard Band, performs on alto, tenor and bass trombone in all styles of music.
The Weichers Award, to faculty or academic staff whose work embodies the Wisconsin Idea, will fund trio visits to Wisconsin communities, and work with summer music programs.
John W. Barker
Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts
The arts, especially music, appeared as an integral part of emeritus history professor Barker’s classes on Byzantine and medieval history decades before the concept of interdisciplinary scholarship found widespread favor.
However, his contributions to the city’s cultural life have extended far beyond the classroom. Drawing on his vast musical knowledge, he produced and hosted Wisconsin Public Radio’s Recent Recordings, a weekly musical review program, between 1962-1993. He also wrote about music for Isthmus, The Capital Times and national publications.
Barker has been active for more than a dozen years with the Madison Savoyards, the local Gilbert and Sullivan troupe. He also has bridged campus and community through his work with the University Opera and its support group, Opera Props. In 1981 Barker created the first edition of The Opera Prompter, a 40- to 50-page booklet mailed to Opera Props members and sold at performances.
The Bartell Award is given annually to a faculty or staff member whose activities support and encourage enjoyment of the arts.
Li Chiao-Ping
Faculty Development Award in the Creative Arts
A multifaceted performer and choreographer, Li’s themes range from men’s issues to classic Greek drama to her Chinese-American heritage and beyond. During her five years on the UW–Madison faculty, Li, an associate professor of dance, has strengthened her reputation as an artist of international caliber. Her work has been commissioned by the prestigious American Dance Festival, The Yard and others. Her video dances “Chinatown” and “New York Po Po” premiered this year at the San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival. Her dances have been performed at San Francisco’s Mozart and His Time Festival, New York’s Symphony Space and as part of the University of Alaska’s “The Future of the Book” show, to name only a few.
 Li Chiao-Ping assists a student during one of her dance classes. |
Li teaches courses in movement, modern dance, composition and conditioning in the Dance Program.
The Faculty Development Award in the Creative Arts allows professors to pursue projects that support and encourage creative development. Li will use her grant to complete The Cross-Cultural Choreography Commissioning (“Men’s”) Project, a solo program in which Li works with noted male choreographers. She also will further her adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey.
Also to be recognized at the ceremony are George Cramer, Mimmi Fulmer and Jesse Lee Kercheval, winners of the university’s Vilas Associates grant program, and Nietzchka Keene, who has been named to the Emily Mead Baldwin Bell-Bascom Professorship in the Creative Arts. Kercheval will also be recognized for her Romnes Fellowship. Student Emily Eagen will be awarded the Sinako Frank Fellowship for a Woman in the Performing Arts.