Composer Carol Ann Weaver and percussionist Donald MacGillivray have a look at the steel drum that figures in her piece "Water" as it will be performed Thursday night.

Composition marks UW anniversary

When Orchestra@UWaterloo gives its end-of-term concert on Thursday evening, it’ll present work by some of the classic composers as well as a new piece by Carol Ann Weaver, faculty member in UW’s own music department at Conrad Grebel University College.

The concert will start at 8:00 Thursday in the Humanities Theatre; free tickets are available from the Humanities box office, 519-888-4908. On the program along with Weaver are France’s Claude Debussy (“Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun”) and Camille Saint-Saëns (“Danse Macabre”), and Belgium’s César Franck (Symphony in D minor).

Weaver’s new piece, Water, “calls for some unusual percussion”, she says, and is a celebration of UW’s 50th anniversary this year. More from Weaver about her piece: “Water evokes various moods and modes of water, from the initial frozen musical landscape to the gradual forming of streams, waterfalls, rivers and oceans, to the rhythmic ‘Rain Dance’ section, to the flowing ‘Watersong’ section.

“Throughout, water is heard as a healing agent and as the vitally essential resource we need to cherish and respect as our planet is challenged by climate change. In order to bring water right into the piece, the work calls for various pitched, ringing wine glasses, some of them filled with water. Also, the piece incorporates agogos (a form of cow bell) and a Trinidadian steel drum.

“In addition to various instrumental soloists, vocalist Rebecca Campbell will sing during ‘Watersong’ (lyrics by C. A. Weaver), blending into the orchestral sound like an instrumentalist, singing both words and vocalise (unworded music).

“The work is generously funded by University of Waterloo Dean of Arts Fund, a UW TRACE grant, and a Conrad Grebel University College research grant.”

Weaver teaches at Grebel in the areas of composition, theory, jazz, and women/music studies. Says a biographical note: “Her genre-bending music, performed and aired throughout Canada, USA, parts of Europe, Africa, and Korea, blends classical, jazz, avant garde, folk,resulting in new fusions of roots and art music often coloured by her passion for African music. She has composed for orchestra, choir, chamber and jazz ensembles, turntablist, vocal and instrumental soloists, often incorporating multimedia, electro-acoustic, spoken word, dramatic and dance elements. Critics laud her work for its blending of cultural voices and its embrace of varied styles.

“Her sixth and most recent CD, Every 3 Children includes a vocal version of ‘Watersong’ (for sale at the concert). As a duo Carol and Rebecca have toured widely, performing throughout Canada, USA, Europe (England, Austria, Slovenia), South Africa and South Korea where they recently performed in a temple festival in CheonAn. The two of them plan to take a second group of UW students to Durban, South Africa, for a music study/travel trip in May 2008.”

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Workshop tomorrow on kids' exercise

from the UW media relations office

UW students will conduct a workshop tomorrow discussing how local public school pupils can exercise more in their daily lives.

The physical activity workshop, aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle, will be held at Sunnyside Public School on Weber Street East in Kitchener. The event, beginning at 1:30 p.m., will involve about 21 UW undergraduate and graduate students and volunteers from the Canada World Youth agency.

The workshop organizers are David Siladi and Christine Herrera, UW graduate students working on their master's degrees in public health. "We want to encourage the young students to integrate physical activity into their everyday life," says Herrera. "The process involved will help to stimulate more than 400 elementary school students to develop their own ideas and ways of being more physically active."

Siladi says the workshop will draw on recommendations from Canada's Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth. The guidelines call for children and youth to do at least 90 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity over several months.

Canada scores a failing grade in physical activity levels, according to the 2007 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. Ninety-one per cent of Canadian children and youth do not meet the targets set out in the physical activity guides. The report card was prepared by Active Healthy Kids Canada, founded in 1994 to advocate the importance of quality, accessible and enjoyable physical activity for children and youth.

"The workshop builds on the current efforts to improve in-school physical activity levels by developing the students' capacity for improving after-school physical activity," Herrera says, adding that the UW students have already met with teachers to obtain their views on the workshop. "The development of the workshop has really been a group effort — the views from the teachers along with the valuable input from the student volunteers have been vital in making this workshop a success."

Siladi says the workshop provides an opportunity for university and elementary school students to exchange knowledge, information and experiences. "The hope is to make lasting connections between the university and the community." Future plans include taking the workshop to other schools as well as follow-up presentations at Sunnyside.

Herrera and Siladi are working on the workshop as part of a UW knowledge mobilization course, taught by psychology professor Kathleen Bloom. The event was developed in co-operation with the International Health Development Association, a student-run, volunteer organization. The workshop was piloted two years ago when Jim Berry, principal of Sunnyside, invited a local judo club to perform at an assembly. Siladi, also co-owner of M&D Siladi Judo Club and former director of the IHDA, decided to add a workshop on physical activity for the assembly event.

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News, announcements, and edibles

Says a brief memo last night from the UW police: "On Tuesday, November 20, at approximately 6:00 p.m. a female University of Waterloo student was sexually assaulted while walking in the area of Tatham Centre and South Campus Hall. Police continue to investigate the incident and are asking for witnesses to contact the University of Waterloo Police Services at ext. 22222 or Waterloo Regional Police Services, Major Case Unit (Detective G. Stinson), at 519-653-7700 ext. 8672."

The inaugural Waterloo Conference on Social Entrepreneurship earlier this month was "an overwhelming success", says its director of communications, Suzanne Gardner. “The weekend of November 16-18,” she writes, “saw more than 200 individuals gather in the World's Top Intelligent Community of 2007 to learn, share and collaborate on how to best unite the passion for social change with business-minded disciplines. Hosted jointly by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, the inaugural conference explored the advancement of social entrepreneurship both internationally and here at home, featuring the key themes of community leadership, international development, and sustainable environmental change. In an effort to ‘walk the talk’ on the conference's theme of environmental sustainability, two keynote presenters — executive director of the Canadian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Gary McPherson and leading sustainability expert Bob Willard — were featured at the conference using videocast technology from their homes in Edmonton and Whitby, Ontario, respectively. The conference has served as a cornerstone for the foundation of the Waterloo Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, an organization whose mission is to foster social entrepreneurial activity both locally and around the world. The Centre is currently in the midst of planning an inaugural lecture series, mentorship program as well as a conference focused on graduate-level research in social entrepreneurial fields.”

There's something new on the website of UW's human resources department, something that will be useful when readers check out the "Positions Available" listing in the Daily Bulletin tomorrow or any Wednesday. It will, explains Neil Murray, director of staff and labour relations, "help staff who are interested in investigating other job opportunities on campus. It can be found in the Employment Opportunities area of the site. We have hot-linked the position name to the job ad and then the ad to the full job description. This will make it easier for staff to research the full scope of duties for an advertised position. The setup is similar to how faculty jobs are listed on our site. Although we have some fine-tuning to do on the preamble, the links are now in place and usable."

Jeff Woodrow, a 2002 UW graduate who operates "a socially conscious T-shirt company" that was featured on CBC's "The Hour" the other day, is expected to make a visit to the Student Life Centre tomorrow and Thursday. • Here's a reminder that the PDEng program office is moving this week (to new space on the second floor of Carl Pollock Hall) and so "some interruption in our service, especially e-mail and phone" is to be expected. • UW's continuing education office is running a two-day course on "Juggling Multiple Projects" December 3 and 4, but I suppose some people won't be there because they have too many things to do.

And . . . there was snow outside, but yesterday there was an even surer sign of the season inside: mince tarts showed up at the Pastry Plus counter here in Needles Hall, and maybe elsewhere on campus too. It's enough to get a body making meal reservations. The traditional Christmas lunch buffet at the University Club starts this coming Monday (and runs five days a week for the ensuing three weeks), and the Club also has a dinner buffet planned, December 12 and 19. The Festival Room in South Campus Hall will offer a Christmas luncheon December 11, 13 and 14. And Federation Hall is offering a buffet dinner, plus a DJ for after-dinner dancing, December 1, 7 and 8 (phone ext. 35925).

CAR

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