James Reddan speaks about music

 It can be inspirational, bring solace, can bring out our emotions, it can hype us up, it can be where people feel safe or can express ourselves.

Music is the one thing that makes the world bearable, it is a multi faceted

art form, that’s what makes it so special.

James Reddan is the music instructor at Linn-Benton Community College. He has a passion for music all of his life and a passion to teach his students about music in every aspect.

Reddan had gotten started with music in elementary school where he had originally joined a national boys choir.

“My teacher really encouraged me and and it was my favorite class,” said Reddan, “I liked all the academics, but music was it for me.”

Everyone has something that makes them feel safe, comforts them or that they enjoy. For Reddan, music was one of the things he could always go

“ I've been fortunate enough to have the right teachers and mentors along the way that kept me going,” said Reddan.

He had also started band in middle school in the fifth grade and had was able to also take choir at the same time. In high school Reddan only took choir, and upon attending college, he had done a lot more choir, and a little bit of band that dealt more with directing. He had played as a percussionist and a student conductor.

While deciding a career path, Reddan knew from the beginning that he either wanted to be a lawyer or a music director.

“When I went to college, I thought I was going to do pre-law,” said Reddan “but music had been something I always went to. Music is what I've done, it’s not just what I know, it’s what I am passionate about, if I can make my passion my career, how many people can do that?”

The realization of what Reddan found to be passion and loved to do barred no hesitation on what career to further explore.

“The first time I was directing and in front of people, it just made sense and I never looked back,” said Reddan.

Reddan had done his undergraduate at McDaniels College in Westminster, Maryland. Three weeks after graduation he started graduate school at University of Oregon. He did two Masters degrees, he is working on his doctoral degree with Boston University, and is currently working on dissertation

.

Prior to coming to LBCC, Reddan had been a public school teacher for six years dealing with high school and middle school students. He had seen the job posted and decided to drop his name.

“I like to work with undergraduate students, it’s family oriented, also all of my in-laws live up here in Willamette and Oregon has always had a special place for me,” said Reddan, “it was a hard decision, but it was the right one, it was the right time and the right place.”

Reddan says that first and foremost what he likes most about teaching at LBCC is his students

“They all have something unique to bring to the table, all have different background but all share a love of music, that’s why they’re here that’s why they are singing.”

The LBCC choirs and a capella groups will be performing in a few upcoming events such as their Spring Concert on June 6^th, and the annual tour called, “Albany Sings,” a local school district performance on May 30^th.

The a capella groups will also be doing a small performance during the rally against tutition increase on April 25^th.

While the music program is as strong as ever there are some areas that need some help.

“We have a great faculty hear, but the facilities bear some needed improvements,” said Reddan, “we have become a much larger program than what I started with 5 years ago and facilities take time and money.”

Reddan says that one of his biggest accomplishments is getting to do what he loves to do each day, getting to see the students succeed, in class or in a performance.

“I can’t succeed without the students,” said Reddan, “in my point of view, my success is their success, their success is mine. Being able to share the joy of music and what I love and also have my students be able to share their love of music together with everyone else, on a daily basis.”

LB Dance club travels to Portland

The audience buzzes with electricity, then hushes as the house goes dark. The music begins, the curtain rises and the lights come up on some of the world’s greatest dancers.

The stage was alive with sound and excitement. Live pianos were practicing in the orchestra pit, lights were dimming and flashing. The dancers on stage were stretching in all angles and positions, warming up to soft music or music of their own.

All is calm in the beginning. Even without a full audience the energy of the performers never cease. The company even on dress rehearsal night are still perfecting every little detail of a dance. Whether a dance move is on beat, or a leg is lifted higher.

When the dance ends the curtain rises, the dancers take their bows and a thousand people shower them with applause.

This is the magic of a Paul Taylor performance.

The LBCC Dance Club took a trip to Portland with ten members of the club to watch a once in a life time backstage performance spectacle.

“Paul Taylor was great it was a really great experience and it was fun to see a professional company,” said Tiffany Johnson, a LBCC dance club member.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company is a New York bases international performing, modern dance company. Paul Taylor is widely known for uncommon musicality and catholic taste, Taylor has set movement to music so memorably that for many people it is impossible to hear certain orchestral works and popular songs and not think of his dances.

Taylor has made 138 dances since 1954, many of which have attained iconic status. He has covered a wide range of topics, but recurring themes include life and death; the natural world and man’s place within it; love and sexuality in all gender combinations; and iconic moments in American history.

Elizabeth Pearce, the LBCC Dance Club adviser

 has seen the Paul Taylor Dance Company perform three times, but this was the first time to see them behind the scenes and see them rehearse.

“Seeing them in rehearsal you got to see individual personality and styles of dancers,” said Pearce, “it was really once in a life time experience even for someone who has seen them in performance before.”

Taylor has set works to an eclectic mix that includes Medieval masses, Renaissance dances, baroque concertos, classical symphonies, and scores by Debussy, Cage, Feldman, Ligeti and Pärt; Ragtime, Tango, Tin Pan Alley, Barbershop Quartets and The Mamas and The Papas; and telephone time announcements, loon calls, and laughter.

“I would have loved to have been on stage dancing with them,” said Johnson

The LBCC Dance Club was invited to come sit in on a dress rehearsal of dances that were to be performed by the group later in the weekend.

The dance company rehearsal three of several signature pieces choreographed by Paul Taylor himself including “Brandenburgs,” “The Uncommitted,” and Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal)” set to two piano version of Stravinsky score performed live by Jeffrey Payne and Susan Dewitt Smith.

“I like that they were very focused but they were also having fun at the same time,” said Courtney Davidson, another LBCC dance club member who attended the rehearsal.

“They knew how to turn it on and turn off, they knew when to have fun but also when to be serious,” said Davidson.

The performances were April 4-6 and were presented by White Bird in the Newmark Theater in Portland.

Paul Taylor himself was not going to present until April 6th of the award show, however the rehearsal director and Taylor's closet friend Bettie de Jong was present.

No doubt the lifetime achievement award being given to Taylor will be presented with love.

Graphic design students discuss changes.

People put a lot of hard work and effort into things they are passionate about. The things people go to school for, or made a career out are mostly subjects they enjoy and love being around. The Linn-Benton Community College graphic design department is no exception. They students are dedicated individuals that eat, sleep and breath the graphic arts.

Graphic design is a visual communication that happens everywhere all the time. It is the commercial application of the elements and principles of arts and design.

A graphic designer manipulates those elements and principles to solve a particular problem, or particular communication problem.

“I think one of the definitions I think of when I think of graphic design is ‘creative solution,’” said Eric Robinson, a second year visual communications major at LBCC.

John Aikman is the graphic design instructor on campus. In the first year for new students in graphic design, he uses digital imaging. Students that are motivated, and that believe that graphic design, illustration, packaging, are things that they would be interested in, take a full year of that subject.

By doing this they build a strong technical base. They have to know to use the tools, before they can actually start talking about designing.

“The computer is a tool and the applications are the vehicles, that will help you visualize your ideas,” said Aikman, “it’s a mastery of the process and a mastery of the hardware and software in that first year.”

After the first year is completed, the students move on to the next steps of learning. They start out slow to review the previous material and then move to more advanced material and start increasing their technical skills even more over the years.

Eric Robinson is a ongoing graphic design student. In the beginning of his first year he was really excited by learning on how  to start using all the tools learned in class.

“I was also frustrated that my work was not looking very good. I can do whatever you want me to do on a computer, but I did not know how to make it look good by the end of the first year,” said Robinson, “At the end of my second year I’d say my work looks nice.”

So far Robinson’s favorite project with graphic design was the “Packaging Project.” It’s a group of students who are assigned a random fruit or vegetable, something that nobody knows a lot about. Then they start designing packaging for it, such as wine bottles, or jam. In Robinson’s group they made packaging of 4-pack soda bottles for gooseberries.

For Sharon Betterton, a fellow visual communications major at LBCC, she enjoyed the packaging design. Betterton is in the middle of her second year in graphic design. She had started out wanting to do magazine editing.

“I will come a lot further in illustrating more than I ever thought I would,” said Betterton.

The graphic design department is a well grounded place that has worked with many different non-profit organizations such as Meals on Wheels and logos for Mid-Valley Red Cross Chapter. Also for the last three of the four years they created the poster for The DaVinci Days, they also did the poster for LBCC’s production of, “The Crane Wife.”

John Aikman will be retiring from teaching graphic art in June of 2013. Aikman had started working at LBCC in 1980 and has been with the college teaching graphic art for 32 years.

“I have been thinking about retiring for a while actually ” said Aikman,”there maybe be a chance of working part time at some point in the future, but that wont be for a while.”

The department will be having graphic art instructors Lewis Franklin and Frossene King help out the graphic design department by the students that are finishing up their degrees.

“I think it’s a really awful idea not to have one instructor for graphic design,” said Betterton, “I think it’s irritating to be honest, I don’t think they understand the things we students do in the program. I mean we are here all day everyday, even weekends.”

They are usually the first people on campus and the last to leave with security getting them to leave the campus because they are around so late. The students feel they need faculty who can be there that much with them.

It takes a lot of time and dedication to be a part of the graphic design department. The students and faculty feel like family, and now things will change for them with new instructors with different schedules.

“The graphic design department is not going anywhere,” said Aikman, “it’s alive and well and will be continuing, the college will hopefully hire a full time instructor, but not yet.”

If the students are interested in what the graphic design department does, the department makes sure to invite the students to the graphic design show which is a gallery present by the graphic design students. Opening night for the show is  May 13^th, starting at 7:00 p.m. in South Santiam Hall.

If anyone is interested in graphic design but does not have time for the class, can feel free to join their club, The Visual Art Club. It’s said to be probably the longest established club on campus. They are an active club, anyone is able to join, they do road trips, fundraisers, social activities.

A Cappella Festival to entertain at LBCC

A Cappella Festival to entertain at LBCC

The 2nd annual “Celebration of A Cappella” will be held Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Linn-Benton Community College’s Russell Tripp Performance Center located in Takena Hall.

The concert will feature a cappella performances by LBCC’s Blue Light Special and The Sirens, the award winning Rezonate, South Albany High School Rebelation, and West Albany High School Rhythmix.

LBCC choir director, James Reddan, says that he is very excited for the performances and expects a good turn out.

Tickets will be available at the door for $7 general admission, $5 for students and seniors, and $3 for children under 12.

For more information, contact the LBCC theater box office at 541-917-4531. For special needs and accommodations, contact the LBCC Office of Disability Services at 541-917-4690 or via Oregon Relay TDD at 1-800-735-2900 at least 72 hours in advance of this event.