1987
BC trombonist Brian McCommon will solo with the Asheville Symphony
Feb. 22. He has been named one of four winners of the Asheville Sym
phony’s Ivey’s Young Artists Composition. (BC News Bureau photo)
King’s birthday observed
Page 8 The Clarion February 4,
BC music
student wins
top honors
A Brevard College student has been
named one of the four winners in the
Asheville Symphony Ivey’s Young Artists
Competition.
Freshman trombonist Brian McCom
mon of Alexandria, Va. became the first
Brevard College student ever to win the
honor after he auditioned earlier this
month. “I’m very happy to win,” said
Brian, who will solo with the Asheville
Symphony Orchestra, Sunday, Feb. 22.
"It will be very good experience for
me,” he said. “It’s not something you get
to do very often as an 18-year-old. I hope it
will help with my career.”
In the audition session Brian was accom
panied by pianist and music instructor
Tony Sirianni. He also credits his BC
music teacher, Steve Kelly. On campus,
Brian plays in the Concert Band, The Jazz
Ensemble and with various student
recitals.
His goal is to someday play in one of
■America’s major symphony orchestras.
Collrane Art
Gallery schedule set
The Coltrane Art Center Gallery cur
rently is showing the work of the fall
semester painting class. Sculpture and
drawing are found upstairs by the fall’s
beginning sculpture and drawing class.
A Brevard College Faculty Photography
Show will go up on Thursday, Feb. 5, ac
cording to photography instructor Bill
Byers.
Photographer Patricia Butcher will
show her black-and-white photographs in
the gallery from Feb. 27 to March 27. But
cher, who lives in Greenville and Brevard,
teaches photography and is also a musi
cian each summer at the Brevard Music
Center.
In other news from Coltrane: Professor
of Art Tim Murray has been invited to
show two of his pieces in the Tri-State
Sculptors show at the Metro Gallery at
George Mason University in Arlington,
Va., Feb. 1-28.
Murray will be showing “Square Sticks
with One Escape,” and “Dragon Runner.”
BC Concert Band
tapped for honor
^e Brevard CoUege Concert Band has
been selected for what director Steve Kelly
calls “a very big important honor.” The
^member band will play next November
for the N.C. Music Educators’ Conference
in Winston-Salem.
Only one or two concert bands are
elected each year for the honor, accor-
The BC band was picked on
the basis of their audition tape They will
a^mpanied by Dr. John Marcellus,
teacher from the Eastman
^nrol of Music. Approximately 2,000 Tar
Heel music educators will attend the con
ference and concert.
by Kerry Wells
To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., the Brevard College
Peace Assembly, students and faculty,
and community members gathered for a
candlelight memorial service on Monday,
Jan. 19.
The meeting was organized by Preston
Woodniff, faculty advisor to the peace
group, to honor King, who won the Nobel
Peace prize in 1964 for his fight against
racism and segregation.
The memorial started with an invocation
and scripture reading by Woodruff, follow
ed by remarks from Dr. C. Edward Roy,
Professor Emeritus of Religion at Brevard
College and former head of the Brevard
Human Relations Conunittee. Dr. Roy
said young people today need to be aware
of the contributions of Dr. King and how he
affected today’s society. “You cannot
remember a time when the person because
of the color of his skin could not enjoy the
benefits of a society which we take for
granted,” he said.
After remarks from Dr. Roy, candles
were lit and faculty and peace group
members read selections from King’s
writings and speeches. President Billy
Greer then read “Abide With Me,” King’s
favorite hymn and Dr. Charles Zimmer
man, campus chaplain, gave the benedic
tion.
This was the second annual service held
for the birthday of Dr. King. Woodruff
noted, “There were twice as many people
here this year” as compared with last
year’s ceremony, and said that the service
went very weU. “I was delighted with it,”
he said. Woodruff noted that he feels it is
important to have such a ceremony for
King because young people seem to “have
only the vaguest idea of who he (King)
was, and he is too important in American
history for that.”
Dr. Clara Wood commented on King’s in
fluence on her by saying, “So much of
what Dr. King said either directly or by
implication included women as well as
men in this need for freedom, that he is one
of my heroes, if you will, in that he not only
transcends race, he transcends gender.”
All-Chopin
concert set
in Dunham
by Chris Peterson
The world is certainly a small place, and
Anthony Sirianni, a piano instructor here
at Brevard College, knows this to be true
since his former piano instructor,
Penelope Cecchini, will be performing in
Dunham Auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 5,
at 8:15 p.m.
Penelope Cecchini is an associate pro
fessor at the University of Wisconsin. BC’s
own Anthony Sirianni studied under her
from 1971-76 for his undergraduate degree
at U of W.
Sirianni says, “Her recitals are con
sistently chosen to represent Wisconsin’s
outstanding artists on Wisconsin’s public
radio, and her last solo was recently
chosen to be aired nationally with in
cluding Yo Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax.”
Sirianni describes her as a “brilliant
teacher, musician, and performer.” She is
also listed in the International Who’s Who
of Women in Education for her distinguish
ed services to music.
When asked to give a brief description of
Cecchini, Sirianni said, “Through a
lifetime you can count on one hand the peo
ple who are major influences in your life
and she is one of them.”
Brevard College
receives re-
accreditation
(Continued from page 1)
dations that the college subsequently ad
dressed in the self-study. Langley called
the self-study a “blueprint for the develop
ment” of the college over the next five
years.
The criteria set by SACS are getting
more demanding, according to Langley,
and are becoming increasing results-
oriented. This is a new focus for SACS, and
it is to Brevard’s credit that the college
chose to be one of the first institutions to be
evaluated by the new criteria, Langley
said.
Far from being a rubber stamp, re-
accreditation was denied to four colleges
in the region, and another 16 were put on
“an endangered list, so to speak,” Langley
said.
Credibility of education has become a
major focus for SACS, Langley said. Ac
creditation requires colleges now to show
the evaluating body as well as to the com
munity and students “that your institution
can indeed deliver on what you say it will.”
Brevard College President Billy Greer
agreed. “We are in a time when there is a
lot of talk about academic integrity and ex
cellence in education,” he said, “so the
Southern Association is looking very
carefuUy at who they re-affirm. The SACS
people turned this institution inside out
and found nothing of any substance wrong
with IK. It was very important to us to be
reaffirmed; it just points again to what
kmd of people we have at Brevard
College.”