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HERDRIK Dies
^ M. FtRGUSONJ
September 24. 197Q
sneoen is neuu
DeSlGn D6PT D6fln
John A. Sneden, noted for his
work in design and production at
East Carolina University, has be
come the Dean of the School of De
sign and Production at NCSA.
Sneden went to ECU in the fall
of 1962 as a designer and tech
nical director. There, with Edgar
Loessin, he founded and organized
the drama department. For the last
seven years, Sneden has worked as
an actor and designer for the ECU
summer theater and as a professor
in the University's Department of
Drama during the academic year.
Br5WN Announces
Semifwrusts
Dr. William Baskin, Academic
Dean of the School of the Arts, has
announced that three seniors have
been named semifinalists in the
1970-71 National Merit Scholar
ship Program.
The students are Campbell
Baird, Design and Production major
from Wrightsville Beach, N.C.;
Rebecca Slifkin, Dance major from
Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Sara Sugihara,
Dance major from College Station,
Tex.
The 14,750 Semifinalists ap
pointed are among the nation's most
intellectually talented seniors.
They will compete for some 3,000
Merit Scholarships to be awarded in
1971.
The Semifinalists were the high
est scorers in their states on the
National Merit Scholarship Qualify
ing Test (NMSQT), which was given
last February to some 710,000 stu
dents nationwide. Although they con
stitute less than one per cent of
the graduating seniors in the U.S.,
the three represent six per cent of
the class of 47.
Record HtvitW (cwt. p^.5
From a technical standpoint,
the record quality is fair. Columbia
has reproduced transparency and
presence in the strings, sufficient
depth and tone, but little stero ,
separation. The pressing is slightly
nosiy, as are most American press
ings in comparison with the Euro
pean.
In summing up the whole album,
it is emphasised tthat this is not
a mediocre recording by the N.Y.
Philharmonic. In view of the style
of this music, their playing is un-
expecedtly refined.
(Note: This recording and also
the Reiner version can be heard'in
the library).
Thg N.r FQgay
A graduate of UNC, Sneden has
spent several summers on the tech
nical staffs of outdoor dramas such
as, "The Lost Colony," "Unto These
Hills," "The Stephen Foster Story"
and has served as an actor and de
signer with Missouri's state theater,
the Arrow Rock Lyceum Repertory
Theater. He has also designed pro
fessionally for the venerable Cape
Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts.
He has been responsible for the de
sign of more than 86 productions
within the past eight years.
A native of Tenafly, New Jersey,
Sneden received his B.A. degree and
M.A. degree from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
where he was also awarded the Car
olina Pla}miakers Master Award.
Stone AssuKTies New
Sam Stone, Director of Religious
Activities and instructor of a social
ethics course, will also be acting
as Director of Institutional Research
this year, a position common to all
schools. Stone will act as NCSA's
liaison with the Board of Education
in Raliegh.
In addition to planning and co
ordinating the school calendar,
Stone will administer the work-study
program and will be responsible for
all placement testing.
Trained in sociology, Stone
has a great interest in the back
grounds and aptitudes of the student
body. The family questionnaire sent
out this summer is an outgrowth of
that interest. These endeavors should
enable the department to become more
aware of the students, their needs
and how to best use time and facil
ities.
Long-range programs now under
consideration include a department
of film and television and an ex
panded drama workshop in the summer
for high school drama teachers.
ms Pi» Cco
Wolfgang Roth (guest lecturer
here last year) conceived a pan-
tomine ballet called "The Littlest
Circus," which he asked Miss Fisher
to direct. The show toured for seven
years, played three Broadway engage
ments and at many music festivals,
including the Seattle World Fair.
Miss Fisher has directed her
own small ballet company and has
been director or guest choregrapher
for many operas and civic ballet
companies. She spent the last six
months teaching in Rotterdam before
joining the NCSA faculty.
Last week, in what is now tragic
irony, Warner Bros. Records released
an Ip which featured the two most in
fluential Black rock artists of the
1960's: Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix.
The individual sets were recorded at
the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967,
where both artists triumphed. Those
performances established the careers
of Redding and Hendrix and they
quickly became the primary symbols
for a rising generation of Black art
ists. Then, at the peak of his career.
Redding was killed in a plane crash.
Hendrix went on to become perhaps the
finest instrumentalist of the 60's,
just as Redding has been the decade's
most vibrant singer.
Now, Jimi Hendrix is dead, the
victim of an overdose of seconal, a
"down" drug.
He joins Brian Jones and Brian
Epstein on the list of rock person
alities who have succumbed to drugs.
There is little that one can
say. Hendrix was an artist of intense
activity and productivity, constantly
searching for new ways to express him
self . The label "genius" followed much
of his work.
His death was a senseless tragedy,
a result, in part, of the frantic,
hyped-up times in which we live. He
led a quicksilver life and flashed
like a comet across ours, playing
wildly immaginative music and destroy
ing himself in the process. His death,
like Brian Jones', was a sadly quiet
affair, slipping into an unconscious
drugged slipstream. Not at all like
the conclusions we imagine for the
immortals we create.
It is perhaps fitting that Hen
drix's most monumental performances
came when he was jamming, playing the
uncharted, free music that was closest
to his soul. Like jazzman Charlie
Parker, Hendrix revitalized the music
of his generation. Listen again to
the Woodstock album, Side Six: Jimi
remarks, in off-hand fashion, that
the people can leave if they want,
he's just going to jam. He then pro
ceeds to play the most original,
most musical, and most aware version
of ','The Star Spangled Banner" perform
ed in this century. And listen to the
exhausted, mud-caked, tripped-out
30,000 remaining scream for "MORE!"
"MOREI" "MORE'."
There will be no more encores
for Jimi Hendrix. No more sly grins
and lovable jive. No more endearing
put-ons. No cosmic music. Superspade
is dead. R.I.P. Axis: Bold As Love.