Something for Everyone: Convocations Program to Host Three Events in One Week

Published: March 09, 2009 | Read Time: 3 minutes

For only the second time in the history of the SUU Convocations program, the University will play host to three Convocations in one week. A performance and discussion by Guitarist David Burgess, a return to SUU by Dr. Gerard Yun and a presentation by Miss Indian World to highlight Native American Week on campus will compose the special event. 

Musician David Burgess will start the series off on Tuesday with The History of Latin American Music at 11:30 a.m. in the Auditorium Theatre. 

Burgess is recognized as one of today’s outstanding guitarists. His international appearances as a soloist and chamber musician have taken him to concert halls throughout North and South America, Europe and the Far East. Through his extensive travels in both Spain and Latin America, Burgess has explored traditional guitar styles, along with many popular and folkloric types of music. He has acquired one of the largest collections of Latin American guitar music in the U.S., from which he often draws interesting and unusual works for his programs. 

A former guitar instructor at the University of Washington and the Cornish Institute of the Arts, Burgess currently resides in New York City where he has performed at Town Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center. He has recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, Tritone, Athena and 
Camerata Records, and has also recorded Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with the Philharmonia Virtuosi on the CBS Masterworks label. 

Dr. Gerard Yun, a current choir instructor and former SUU assistant professor of music, will present Perception, Imagination and Time across the Arts Wednesday, March 11, at noon in the Sharwan Smith Center Theatre. 

Yun is a global music specialist, conductor and composer. He has a successful and varied performance career across North America as a conductor of choirs, orchestras and opera, and has performed with a variety of world instruments and techniques, including Australian didgeridoo, Native American flute, the Japanese shakuhachi and several forms of Asian harmonic or “throat” singing. 

Dr. Yun is also in demand as a composer of works featuring the interface of global and western classical music. He appears as a guest conductor and workshop clinician across North America and currently serves as assistant professor of choirs and music education and associate director of choirs at Wilfrid Laurier University. Yun is also the current conductor of the award-winning Hamilton Children’s Choir in Ontario, Canada. 

And finally, Miss Indian World Nicole Alek’aq Colbert will speak on Thursday, March 12, presenting Diversity Among Tribes as a part of SUU’s Native American Week events, at 11:30 a.m. in the Auditorium Theatre. 

Nicole Alek’aq Colbert is the daughter of the late Drew and Grace Panik’aq Colbert. Nicole’s father, an African-American from Little Rock, Arkansas, always taught her to embrace her rich Alaskan Native heritage while her mother, a Yupik Eskimo from Napakiak, Alaska, taught her the beauty of living the traditional way. 

Nicole is proud of both her Yupik Eskimo and African-American cultures and encourages others to embrace their diversity as well. She is currently working to attain a degree in Business Logistics from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and also attends Bible College in her village via correspondence. 

All SUU Convocations events are free and open to the public. For complete details on the Convocations series, please visit www.suu.edu/convocations.

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