The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 27, 1986, Image 5

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 27, 1986, Image 5

Newspaper Page TextMonday, October 27, 1986/The Battalion/Page 5 ^language department ^'undergoing expansion ! Department can't meet student demand crowd, wliicli || nal Grin's ct«vM cett with a m By Olivier Uyttebrouck Staff Writer Place (,■ /Dr, G’s/GrinsillsThe number students majoring in of the firsi|j modern languages at Texas A&M I tomeinaml has almost doubled in one year and "Lovettsaid although the Department of Mod- important, If, etn Languages has five new faculty town wherct, mem hers this year, it still can’t meet 1 come and Is; tfie demand for courses, says Dr. te songs I»[' ljuis Costa, department head, re a lotand^|fWh‘le several colleges, such as en- t." jineering, have had enrollment de horn the chi, dines in recent years, many depart- I rememberilHhts in liberal arts have Mr. Ghatti'sh experienced sharp increases, Costa ;gs Centerkh says. The language department may tgular bast lie the most dramatic example of this p in Klein, [jhenomenon, he adds. beiiigafoiriPTho department will offer as n, Lovett gic, ian' as four new languages over ;il j n f]uenc e t(iepext two years, Costa says. )!/, B.W. Stei'll Chinese and Italian will probably GrnZandt. be offered by Fall 1987 and Japa- e in that he (4 | es ? and Portuguese are likely can- sical no» (|i d;il '“ s for Fall 1988, he says. . of In recent years, A&M has forged re think 1 links with a number of universities in e give up China, Costa says. But one of the big hiin and problems with student exchange agreements is that A&M has few if countn any students who know Chinese well of thesongi; enoLrgh to get along, at a Chinese iditional cc unifersity. are some' C hinese language courses will also , songsomliti conjplement the planned Oriental Studies Department announced by re firstPresident Frank Vandiver at the song opening address to the faculty this single jun>: y eai 40 on the ci Cilosta had hoped to have an Ital ian course in the catalog for this year but the professor he had engaged to teach the course was committed to another project. Japanese is without a doubt one of the most important business lan guages in the world and this in good part explains why the department plans to offer the language in 1988, Costa says. The First course in Portuguese should be offered about the same time, Costa says. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, the larg est and fastest-growing commercial nation in Latin America. In addition to the new' language offerings and the growdng popular ity of language courses, the pro posed changes in the core curric ulum may also increase the department’s enrollment in the next few years. If the curriculum changes take place, possibly by Fall 1988, any en tering student without two years of a foreign language will be required to take one year here, Costa says. If the curriculum changes took place today, the added students would be more than the department could stand, Costa says. But fortunately, House Bill 72, the education bill passed by the Leg islature last summer came to the res cue by creating a language require ment for high school students, he says. Costa expects that when the cur riculum changes take effect, lan guage enrollments will swell by about 1,000 students initially, and then fall off year by year after that. But the demand for high school lan guage teachers created by H.B. 72 has already brought a small army of education majors into the modern languages department, he says. The demand for language courses has in some ways been a surprise to the department’s faculty. Costa says the classical Greek course offered for the first time this fall filled up even before freshmen and sopho mores had a chance to register for the course, and the department is looking for a second Greek profes sor for Fall 1987. Costa says the . department wall probably add another six faculty members by next year. Russian, which had an enrollment of about 50 students last year, has 110 students now. Costa credits the professors teaching the course with the language’s popularity. A single teaching position in Russian is being filled by a husband and wife this se mester, who trade off delivering lec tures, Costa says. Costa says the number of students who want to take Spanish is so much larger than the department’s capac ity to accept them that he can’t even estimate how many professors it would take to handle them all. eeminglvinlftj hat does Lore ep writing so g them on being abk oncert series at A&M offers affordable’ chamber music uly, the .V ip (1 Lovett'sr/jl By Catherine O'Bryant : the week. § . Reporter >r$ r of enter ublk Libran iow well tilts ent says it r® at the colta ion does wW tatementsint tants will bet!! arils. lis yeaChes* lention ofite 1 ol $50. It: ding on wW nounced ml on Nov. lit ption follow^ Biyan-College Station residents ^■he Texas A&M community can expei lence chamber music at its best ionight at the first performance in ^Hniversity Chamber Series. 1 Tie new concert series is the re sult If combined efforts by the Col- legelif Liberal Arts, the Department of Philosophy and Humanities and the Memorial Student Center Opera pflPerforming Arts Society. Tonight’s performance brings well-known trumpet player Ar mando Ghitalla and the Brazos Val ley Sinfonietta together in the series’ semester opener. The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Tickets are avail- beat the MSC Box Office. All tick ets are general admission and are (9.50 for non-students and $7.50 for students. Ghitalla’s career includes 16 years with the Boston Symphony Orches- :ra as a principal trumpet player and 13 years as a soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler. The concert also will feature lieces from composers such as Anto- lio Vivaldi, Franz Joseph Haydn iindOttorino Respighi. The chamber music is primarily classii 1, but features trios, quartets, soloes or small chamber ensembles lerfbrming instead of the larger symphony orchestra, said Anne llack. program coordinator for OPAS The idea of the chamber music se- iesis to provide concerts in Rudder Theaier at a lower ticket price than vhat the other performing arts (ibis are offering, Black said. Tjckets for all of the chamber se- ies performances will be under $10 ora regular ticket and between $5 indp7.5() for student tickets, she said, “Students are interested in classi cal and chamber music and, if you get the price down so that students can afford it, they come,” Black said. She said that booking performers for the series is not as difficult as some may think. First-class facilities and the Uni versity help enhance the community and as a result help bring artists here to perform, she said. She added that Aggie friendliness and a positive response to the per forming arts are a help. “Our reputation in the perform ing arts community is good,” Black said. “When that word gets around we just don’t have trouble booking people.’’ Ghamber music dates back to a time when families had small, pri vate ensembles perform for them in their sitting rooms. Dr. Herman Saatkamp, head of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities, helped found the Uni versity Ghamber Series and ex plained that chamber music was originally an essential part of a per son's life, similar to the essential role eating plays in a person’s life today. “Ghamber music is much more closely related to one’s individual way of living rather than a perfor mance in a concert hall that is more like an event,” Saatkamp said, “This is something that is very intricately tied to the way in which a person lives, so it’s a smaller number of pieces playing in an intimate set- ting.” The Brazos Valley Sinfonietta is made up of 35 to 40 members. The Brazos Valley Symphony Or-. chestra has approximately twice that number of members. How many of those musicians play at one time depends upon the piece being performed, said Penny Zent, a member of the Brazos Valley Sinfonietta. The University Chamber Series got its start in November when Dr. Daniel Fallon, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, suggested that Hugh Tinney, a famous pianist and winner of the Santander Competition in Spain, be invited to perform at T exas A&M, Saatkamp said. Saatkamp played a major role in arranging the spring concert, and so the chamber series was formed. Tinney’s concert had an over whelming number of people in at tendance, with 500 on hand for the performance, Black said. She esti mates that 60 percent of the 500 were students. Because of the good response to the spring concert and the great amount of support received from the University, planning for the chamber series started immediately, Saatkamp said. “T he support for such a program is uniform across the board,” she said. “The president’s office, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts, the MSC, everyone welcomes this (chamber music) and is supporting it in a significant fashion.” Other performers for this series include pianist Paul Hersh on Feb. 6, the Western Arts Trio on Feb. 15 and Robert Guthrie on March 30. ary tick the Class* 1 THE FLU VACCINE STUDY BEGINS In addition to posible protection from the Flu, your can earn at least $100. 00 a year for the next four years. To Enroll or to check your Eligibility come to the places below. Come to: Beutel Health Center, Room 03 10am-4pm Commons Lounge 10am-6pm Monday-Wednesday, October 27-29,1986 Corps Lounge "D" Tuesday, October 2810am-3pm Dr. John Quarles College of Medicine I I “The greatest living performer on the trumpet...absolutely unexcelled today by anyone. THE BOSTON HERALD Master trumpeter Armando Ghitalla and the Brazos Sinfonietta will open the exciting new University Chamber Series Monday, October 27 at 8 p.m. in Rudder Theatre at Texas A&M. Ghitalla played solo trumpet with the Boston Pops Orchestra for 13 years under Arthur Fiedler. He was also principal trumpet for 16 years in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His extraordinary talent will make this a bold, dynamic performance. The Brazos Sinfonietta is the chamber ensemble of the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra (BVSO) conducted by Franz Anton Krager, music director and conductor. The University Chamber Series is the newest performing arts series at Texas A&M dedicated solely to chamber music at its finest. The University Chamber Series is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, the Depart ment of Philosophy and Humanities and the MSC Opera and Performing Arts Society. Tickets are $9.50 for non-students and $7.50 for students at the MSC Box Office, 845-1234. VISA and MasterCard accepted. The. University Chamber Series 1985-86 Yearbooks are available to be picked up at the English Annex 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Mon day through Friday. ★★★★★★★ Attention Freshmen and Sophomores: Freshmen and Sophomores can be photographed until October 31.

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 27, 1986, Image 5

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