Anshel Brusilow

A $1 million endowment campaign recently began for the Anshel Brusilow Chair in Orchestral Studies to honor the Regents Professor of music whose career at UNT has spanned 35 years. Early gifts to the fund include $500,000 from the Lupe Murchison Foundation. The funds primarily will provide scholarships for orchestral students. Brusilow will conduct his final concert with the UNT Symphony Orchestra April 23 before retiring at the end of the 2007-08 concert season.

An accomplished violinist who entered the Curtis Institute of Music at age 11, Brusilow served as associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He also conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, leading its first tours of Central and South America. He conducted the North Texas orchestra from 1973 to 1981 and returned as conductor in 1989.

The gala program in the Murchison Performing Arts Center will include Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Nevsky (Op. 78), performed with the UNT Grand Chorus, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, the "Pathetique."

Buy tickets online or call the box office at (940) 369-7802 for more information. Contributions to the Brusilow chair fund can be made online or by calling (940) 565-2900 or (800) 868-1153.

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A $2.4 million grant-funded program will increase the number of undergraduate math, science and computer science majors obtaining teaching certification and will enhance UNT's efforts to address a national shortage of teachers qualified to teach those subjects. Teach North Texas, a collaborative effort between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education, builds on UNT's already strong support of secondary education in the North Texas region through a partnership with the Fort Worth ISD.

The program, modeled after the UTeach program at the University of Texas at Austin, includes the opportunity for students to explore the teaching profession in two free one-hour courses that can be taken as early as their freshman year. Once in the program, students take courses in the professional development sequence that emphasize field experiences, teaching strategies and concepts related specifically to the subjects they will teach. Students will interact with master teachers, experienced high school teachers hired by UNT to teach courses, supervise field work and offer mentorship and real-world advice.

"During the 2006-07 academic year, about 1200 students completed our certification programs for teachers, counselors or other leadership roles in schools. But this powerful new partnership will allow us to do more than ever before to supply our schools with highly qualified math and science teachers," President Gretchen M. Bataille said at the March announcement of the new program. As a result of Teach North Texas, UNT expects to graduate 60 students a year with bachelor's degrees in math, science or computer science with teacher certification.

UNT is one of 13 universities nationwide selected to replicate the UTeach program. Grants from the Greater Texas Foundation, UTeach Institute and the National Mathematics and Science Initiative will partially fund the program.

Teach North Texas will be directed by John Quintanilla, associate professor of mathematics, and Mary Harris, Meadows Chair for Excellence in Education.

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Fine art prints

		Red Horse With Tethers by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

The Print Research Institute of North Texas, a collaborative fine art press operated by the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design, is offering for sale a range of prints completed at the institute during the past 14 years in collaboration with visiting contemporary artists. Proceeds will enable the establishment of a P.R.I.N.T. endowment to underwrite artist residencies.

Featuring traditional and experimental printmaking techniques, the fine art prints are from artists Terry Allen, Helen Altman ('89 M.F.A.), Lynda Benglis, Anitra Blayton, Paul Booker ('00 M.F.A.), Enrique Chagoya, Sally French, Brian Fridge ('94), Kathy Grove, Edgar Heap of Birds, Sarojini Jha Johnson, Jane Kent, Sharon Louden, Michael Miller, Gladys Nilsson, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Jack Pierson, Dan Rizzie, Jim Shaw, James Surls, William T. Wiley and Annette Lawrence, associate professor of visual arts.

The inventory is online at www.sova.unt.edu/print. For more information, e-mail print@unt.edu or call (940) 369-7575.

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Grammy nods

		Norah Jones

The 50th annual Grammy Awards announced in February featured several UNT ties. The Eagles, including former UNT student Don Henley, won best country performance by a duo or group with vocals for their song "How Long," and former student Norah Jones performed on Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters, which won album of the year and best contemporary jazz album.

Also nominated this year were Steve Wiest ('88 M.M.), assistant professor of jazz studies, for best instrumental arrangement for "Besame Mucho" from The One and Only Maynard Ferguson; and pianists Joseph Banowetz, professor of music, and Alton Chung Ming Chan ('82, '94 Ph.D.) for best chamber music performance for "30 Songs of the Russian People" from Balakirev and Russian Folksong. Two of that album's producers, Marina A. and Victor Ledin, earned a nomination for classical producer of the year.

Two of the nominations for best polka album went to UNT alums. The Denton band Brave Combo, which includes Carl Finch ('75, '79 M.F.A.) and former students Alan Emert and Danny O'Brien, received a nomination for Polka's Revenge, and Bubba Hernandez ('84), former member of Brave Combo, was nominated with Alex Meixner for Polka Freak Out.

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