Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007 - (Page 12)

gala POPS GOES GALA2007 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BOSTON POPS Keith Lockhart’s wand ﬂicks quickly and elegantly as it creates musical magic. When he points his wand, the percussion thunders and the piccolos twitter. As he raises his hand, the music swells, invoking images from beloved ﬁlms and musicals during the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra’s recent Oscar and Tony tribute tour. Lockhart is only the third person—along with Arthur Fiedler and John Williams—to conduct the famed Boston Pops. But unlike his legendary predecessors, Lockhart brings a rock star charisma to conducting. (He even sells his own clothing and apparel line.) The boyishly handsome and exuberant conductor will lead the Boston Pops in their Holiday Pops performance at Lehigh’s Zoellner Arts Center on Sunday, Dec. 2. The Pops are headlining Gala2007, Zoellner’s major annual fund-raiser. The Pops will be accompanied by the male vocal ensemble Cantus, who will sing beloved Christmas carols and new favorites such as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” These cheery tunes are rumored to lure the jolly old saint himself to concerts. For the past 122 years, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, which consists of freelance musicians from Boston, has attracted celebrities and commoners alike. As America’s most recorded and televised orchestra, they have produced more than 100 recordings. Their annual Fourth of July concert has set the record for the largest audience attending an orchesThe Boston Pops, conducted by Lockhart, will headline Gala2007 tra concert three times. Since 1969, on Dec. 2. PBS has aired Evening at Pops nationally, and the program is watched by almost 40 million viewers each season. The Carnegie Hall. He and the orchestra have Boston Pops even performed at the Super Bowl toured the United States 28 times and have in 2002 and at the White House in 1995. been on four overseas tours to Japan and Korea. Lockhart inherited the conductor’s baton The annual Gala benefits Zoellner Arts in 1995 from John Williams, author of film Center, which presents more than 100 gallery scores for Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost exhibits and performances by guest artists and Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and Harry Lehigh faculty and students each year. The Potter. He became the Pops’ third ofﬁcial concenter derives half of its annual budget from ductor at 35—the same age Arthur Fiedler was the generosity of alumni and friends. Concertwhen he began his 50-year conducting career only tickets are sold out, but Ticket Services is with the orchestra. accepting names for the waiting list. Lockhart has conducted the Boston Pops in For more information about the Gala, visit more than 900 concerts, including several in www.zoellnerartscenter.org. —Becky Straw bookshelf DECONSTRUCTING MASCULINITY For decades, social scientists and cultural observers have argued that men are predisposed to violence and aggression, that they are biologically programmed to dominate women and compete against one another for status and power. Now, Lehigh historian John Pettegrew argues that, contrary to Darwinian arguments, masculinity developed largely through language and cultural habit—and that these same tools can be employed to break through the myth that brutishness is an inherently male trait. 12 lehigh alumni bulletin Pettegrew, associate professor of history and director of the American Studies program, examines the portrayal of manhood in the late 19th and early 20th century in his newly released book, Brutes in Suits. His study views masculinity through America’s celebration of rugged individualism, the hunting-and-killing genre of popular men’s literature, and martial heroism and lust for wartime killing. Throughout his career, Pettegrew’s research has focused on late 19th- and 20th-century America, with a particular interest in intellectual and cultural history, gender studies, legalconstitutional history, and historical theory. His ongoing examination of masculinity will focus on visual culture, combat psychology, and the killing power of U.S. Marines in the Iraq War. Pettegrew says that cognitive patterning and visualization of homicide provide keys to the apparent ease and ferocity with which some young American men ﬁght and kill in foreign lands.—Linda Harbrecht http://www.zoellnerartscenter.org

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Table of Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Arts & Culture Sports Research Cover Story - Forward March Little Man Overcomes Huge Odds Lights, Camera...Antiques Linderman Renewed From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007

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