Former Belmont men’s soccer standout J.P. Rodrigues participated in his first Major League Soccer match on Saturday. Rodrigues was called in on loan for D.C. United’s contest against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Rodrigues, who played the 2010 season with Miami FC of the United States Soccer Federation Division II, played on defense as United fell to the Earthquakes 2-0. D.C. United is now 6-19-3 on the season with 21 points, while San Jose improved to 12-8-7 with 43 points.
Rodrigues is in Washington as a guest player with the Black-and-Red. His first day with the club came on Wednesday, where the Miami FC player took part in a full-sided match. On Thursday the players took part in a weight room session in preparation for Saturday’s contest. Rodrigues is 26 years old and has been capped nine times by Guyana at the international level.
One of the all-time great Bruin players, Rodrigues was a two-time NSCAA/Adidas All-South Region Team honoree (2004, 2005) and the 2005 Atlantic Sun Conference Defender of the Year.
Belmont Alumnus Participates in Major League Soccer Match
Belmont Cheerleaders Volunteer at Local Health Center
Members of Belmont’s cheerleading squad volunteered at the Matthew Walker Health Center to assist with their kickoff event for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The center is holding a “Screening for Life” program and hopes to provide 1,000 mammograms and clinical breast examinations over the next two months. The cheerleaders visited the Jefferson Street location to help stuff the complimentary bags the center will give to the patients who come for the Screening for Life exams.
Belmont Alumna Has Songs Featured on Television
Belmont alumna Allie Pedan Levanway has two original songs featured on television. Her first song, “Calling Me,” was featured in Grey’s Anatomy last week (the episode re-aired on Oct. 7). “Calling Me” is inspired by the novel “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson, which Allie read in an independent study with Darrell Gwaltney, Dean of the School of Religion. The second song, “Skyline,” is featured in a commercial for the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
“At Belmont, so many intelligent and inspiring professors revealed to me the spirit of mystery in life, and they encouraged me to celebrate it, write about it and never leave it behind,” said Allie.
Both songs are featured on Levanway’s album “Alva Leigh,” which is available on iTunes. Alva Leigh is Allie’s stage name. For more information on Allie, click here.
Fujimura Contemplates Religion and Art in FYS Keynote
Artist, writer and speaker Makoto Fujimura spoke in Belmont’s Curb Event Center last night as the keynote speaker for the 2010-11 First Year Seminar. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts (2003-2009), Fujimura has contributed internationally as an advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. Fujimura’s work is exhibited at galleries around the world, including Dillon Gallery (New York), Sen Gallery (Tokyo), The Contemporary Museum of Tokyo, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts Museum and Oxford House, Taiku Place (Hong Kong).
“I want to press into you issues I am sure you are thinking about while reading [Common Book] My Name is Asher Lev,” said Fujimura. “I want to talk about my journey with this book and how Chaim Potok captures the contemporary art scene.”
For the past eight months Fujimura has been sequestered working on a commission to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. The commission is an illuminated manuscript published by Crossway and set to be released January 2011. The leather-bound Bible, printed with a six-color metallic process, will comprise the four Gospels as designed and illustrated by Fujimura. Five major new works, painted in the artist’s Manhattan studio, will be the volume’s main images, making this the first such manuscript to feature abstract contemporary art in lieu of traditional representational illustrations. It is this unprecedented marriage of a modern, usually secular art form with ancient scripture that most interests Fujimura, who aims to depict “the greater reality that the Bible speaks of… for the pure sake of integrating faith and art in our current pluralistic, multicultural world.”
Folk Explains ‘LiveWorkCreate’ Projects and Economic Impact
Marc Folk, executive director of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, spoke on campus Monday on the relationship between arts and community as part of the Living Sociology Speaker Series. The 2009 recipient of the Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio, Folk contributed to the 2010-11 Belmont University theme of innovation and creativity in his talk “LiveWorkCreate,” a focused conversation of the role of public art in building community.
In six years Folk led the creation and growth of projects that have made the arts a far more visible and impactful component of Northwest Ohio life. Among these are Artomatic 419, a community-led arts event, and the Toledo Art Loop and Toledo Jazz Loop, both regular arts events that open and connect art galleries, studios and performance spaces to artists and the general public. Folk also helped develop LiveWorkCreate Toledo, which identified an “Artzone” in Toledo’s downtown to attract artists to live and work there and assist in downtown revitalization. One building in the Artzone had sat empty for more than four years, but was leased at 100 percent capacity within four months of hosting an Artomatic 419 event. “Through these efforts,” Folk said, “we built a case for art and artists as agents of economic development.”
Click here for more photos from this event.
Scarlett Leadership Institute Holds Courageous Leadership Panel
Belmont University’s Scarlett Leadership Institute (SLI) recently hosted a CEO panel on courageous leadership. Held at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Green Hills and moderated by SLI founder Joe Scarlett, the panelists included Kent Adams, president of Caterpillar Financial Services Corp.; Doug Cahill, CEO of Oreck Corp.; Bob Fisher, president of Belmont University; and Brett Rodewald, president of Comdata Corp. The panel discussion served as a precursor to the upcoming SLI Fall Leadership Breakfast on Nov. 18 featuring American historian Michael Beschloss, author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America.
During Wednesday’s panel, Rodewald said, “The most important thing we do as leaders is hire the right people… Be a verb, not a noun. You’re a manager–manage people. You’re a leader–lead people.”
When Scarlett asked the executives to discuss transparency and communication within their organizations, Cahill responded, “Why do we think our people cannot handle the truth? We tell folks everything. The rumor mill dies because people know there’s no spin. We want employees to understand completely what we’re doing right [as a company] and what we’re doing wrong.”
The executives were also asked to share a favorite book on leadership, and Fisher offered Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose. “To me, courageous leadership means having a reason and purpose and being totally undeterred in accomplishing it.”
Michael Beschloss will appear at Belmont’s Curb Event Center Thurs., Nov. 18 from 7-10:15 a.m. Tickets are $45, and the ticket price includes a continental breakfast, admission to the program and talk back session and a copy of Beschloss’ book Presidential Courage. Click here to register.
Alumni Return for ‘Insider’s View’
Several Belmont alumni who are now employed at Sony Music Nashville and Provident Music Group returned to campus this week for dinner with the Office of Alumni Relations and to hear Curb College guest speaker Gary Overton as part of the “Insider’s View” Wednesday night. Overton is chairman and CEO of Sony Music Nashville, the label that represents artists such as Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. Chad Cates, Charles Van Dyke, John Clore, Heather McBee, Betsy Bruington, Lori McCurry, Shane Pursifull, Cary Ryan and Bob Foglia were among the alumni in attendance.
Career Services Hosts ‘Belmont and Beyond’ Kickoff Event
More than 200 students attended the Belmont and Beyond kickoff event featuring guest speaker Lowell W. Perry, Jr., CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. Perry spoke on the topic “Creating a Meaningful Life.” In offering advice to students, Perry quoted his father who said, “You make a living by what you earn, but you make a life by what you give.”
Perry was awarded BBBS of America CEO of the Year in 2007 and the Marvin Runyon Award winner in Nashville. He was also chosen as a member of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Nationwide Leadership Council and chair of the African-American Community Engagement Action Roundtable. Perry graduated from Yale University and is an experienced business development executive with an extensive broad-based business background.
Theatre Faculty Honored by Nashville Scene
The “Best of Nashville 2010” issue of the Nashville Scene recently named Theatre Chair Paul Gatrell, Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing Bill Feehely and Assistant Professor Brent Maddox to the publication’s Arts list. Gatrell was honored for “Best Set Design” with the paper noting, “Gatrell designed a marvelous set — warm and pristinely crafted — for Actors Bridge Ensemble’s production of Vincent in Brixton. It was the kind of work that demonstrates just how significant set design is to the overall impact of a production. Sure, writing, acting and directing are extremely important, but over the last few years, Gatrell’s sets — for Belmont University and other local performing groups — have helped remind us that art is wherever you find it.”
In addition, Feehely’s direction and Maddox’s acting were also noted on the Best of list: “Bill Feehely’s attentive direction set the tone for this literate, historically fanciful Nicholas Wright script about Vincent van Gogh. A front-rank cast was led by two Nashville newcomers, Brent Maddox and the amazing Kim Bretton.”
Murray, DeVore Premiere Arias
Two collaborations by librettist Douglas Murray (Department of English) and Rachel DeVore Fogarty (School of Music) received their world premiere on October 3 at a concert at Trinity Presbyterian Church devoted to the music of Rachel Fogarty. These arias (“First Light of Silver Sea” and “To Be Again What Once She Was”) are selections from a work in progress, the opera Persuasion, based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. The selections were performed by Sabrina Laney Warren (soprano) and Rachel DeVore Fogarty (piano).
