Belmont University School of Music’s student classical string and jazz quartets performed April 11 at the Williamson County Public Library in a Lyceum Committee event co-sponsored by Columbia State Community College and the Williamson County Library. The performances were free and open to the public.

The string quartet played a selection of works by Brahms, was coached by Elisabeth Small and included Danika Lukasiewicz, Chuck Callahan, Katherine Holmgren and Kevin Terry. The two performing members of the jazz quartet, Travis Patton and Shawn Williams were coached by Tracy Silverman. The jazz quartet performed selections by Herbie Hancock and some original compositions.

“The joint venture of Columbia State, the Williamson County library and Belmont reflects a rich history of educational collaboration between the two colleges and the Williamson County community,” said Shanna Jackson, the dean of Extended Services and the Columbia State Williamson County campus. “Columbia State has been an active part of the educational and cultural community in Williamson County for more than 30 years and we are delighted to bring this wonderful evening of classical and jazz music to the beautiful new library in Franklin.”

Belmont University’s Speech and Debate team is accustomed to winning, but this week the 2012 Tennessee state champions took their success to a new level by turning the heads of national competitors.

Founded more than a decade ago, the team earned 13th place in the nation at the American Forensics Association NIET Tournament at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Belmont competed with only four students against a field of 83 teams, besting such impressive, larger schools as James Madison University, Northwestern, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin – one of the founders of the American Forensics Association.

In addition to the team achievement, Senior Communication Studies Major Eric Schoen earned third place out of 148 competitors in Prose Interpretation – the first time in Belmont forensics history a student has placed this high in the national competition.

Belmont computer science major and Pathways Scholar Grayson Carroll attended the Einstein Toolkit Workshop at Georgia Tech University April 3-6 in Atlanta, Ga. Carroll and Belmont physics professor Scott Hawley, along with almost 20 students, postdocs and professors from around the world, learned to implement concepts from Einstein’s theory of gravity in a High Performance Computing (HPC) environment.

During the workshop Carroll and a small team developed a routine to track neutron stars as they orbit in computer simulations. Carroll and Hawley plan to apply what they learned at the workshop in order to interface Hawley’s black hole simulation code with the codes of other researchers around the world.

On April 1, the Belmont Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta inducted 28 members in a ceremony at Annette Sisson’s home. Sigma Tau Delta is the international English honor society with over 800 chapters across the United States. Membership in the society confers distinction for high achievement in English language and literature studies to  undergraduate and graduate students in English.

The inductees for 2012 were Kristen Allerton, Hannah Baggott, Jill Barrett, Austin Boling, Amanda Buckner, Jessica Duble, Betti-Chandrea Frazier, Caroline Hart, Jennifer Hamrick, Abigail Henry, Allison Hill, Rainu Ittycheriah, Jessica Lavender, Hilli Levin, Daniel Logan, Emily Lynd, Alyson McHargue, Scott Maddux, Rick Martin, Anna Matlock, Melanie Meriney, Jeremy Minor, Brittney Morey, Jessica Spradlin, Laura Stack, Heather Thompson, Kate Tully and Layne Walton.