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(04/04/00 9:00am)
In its first concert in the renovated auditorium, Penn's Wind Ensemble, a student orchestra consisting mostly of non-music majors, treated an audience of several hundred students, alumni and family members to a performance of classical overtures on Friday night. During the two-hour show, the orchestra performed concertos by composers including Mozart and Vivaldi. The Wind Ensemble, conducted by Ensemble Music Director Ricardo Averbach, showcased its individual instrumental sections during the first half. Each instrumental section played a separate piece that highlighted the strengths of that particular group. For example, the percussion piece, A La Nanigo, by Mitchell Peters, allowed the section to showcase the synchronicity and variety of the drums. A piece from the Don Giovanni Overture, performed by a "mix" of oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns was guest conducted by College senior Adam Warshafsky, the president of the Wind Ensemble Board. The University Flute Ensemble also featured a solo performance by freshman flutist David Mills during a concerto from the famous Vivaldi piece The Four Seasons. Near the end of the first half of the performance, Averbach perplexed the audience for a second when he slowly turned around toward them and raised his hands in a conducting stance. The lights then focused on the University Brass Ensemble who had assembled on the side balconies to play above and behind the audience's heads. "I thought it was cool that they played from the balconies. They really mixed it up a lot," said College senior Paul Danifo, who had come to see his friends perform. Before intermission, Averbach announced the release of the Wind Ensemble's debut compact disk. Averbach jokingly pointed out that the CD was the culmination of "only" four years of work. "At Penn, we try to do fun and cultural pieces because they're almost all non-music majors," he said. Averbach then expressed his gratitude to two Penn alumni for their contributions to this year's Ensemble. Daniel Dorff, a composer who received a degree in composition from Penn about 25 years ago, wrote a piece specifically for the Wind Ensemble, entitled Allegro Volante. The piece opened the second half of the show. Jerry Levinson, a Swarthmore College faculty member and Penn alumnus, also composed a piece for the Ensemble. The pieces "Mars" and "Jupiter" from British composer Gustav Holst were particular crowd favorites. "I was definitely impressed," College senior Cathy Zorc said. "The first half was innovative and the second half was phenomenal. It was like being at the Kennedy Center in D.C."
(02/25/00 10:00am)
Rebecca Matthias spent her undergraduate years at Penn convinced she would one day be an architect. But after a startling realization in, of all places, a women's clothing store, Matthias found her true calling. Today, Matthias is the chief operating officer of Mothers Work Inc., a $300 million publicly owned company that manufactures and sells maternity ware in a variety of price and style ranges. A 1975 College graduate, Matthias addressed more than 25 College students yesterday in Logan Hall as part of the Robert Fox Lessons in Leadership Program. Matthias discussed the history and future of her company as she guided the audience through a brief Powerpoint presentation. She told the students the idea for her company came to her while shopping for business maternity clothing. "If I was having trouble finding clothes, I figured others probably were too," Matthias said. So, in 1982, she and her husband -- who serves as the chief executive officer of the company -- spearheaded the creation of the Pennsylvania-based specialty clothing corporation. Speaking of the struggles she had to endure during the first 10 years of building her business, Matthias named perseverance as the one quality that kept her going. The difficulties ranged from finding enough time for both her domestic life and her career as well as learning the simple tricks of the trade. "I wish I'd gone to Wharton," Matthias joked, as most of the audience laughed loudly and School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston raised his hands in protest. "Balancing a family and a career is still an impossible task for women," she said. "You have to make a choice for yourself, what do you want out of your life." Matthias encouraged the audience members to take the leap into starting their own businesses, calling it "challenging, to take nothing and make something out of it." She spoke fondly of her years at Penn, describing them as "four years of experimentation" because she participated in a variety of activities -- she joined the women's squash team and played cello in the Penn Orchestra -- in which she always wanted to get involved. "I gained a lot of confidence here." Chuck Brutsche, the associate director of the Lessons in Leadership series, said Matthias was an ideal speaker because "she's made a leadway since she's graduated." Several students in the audience, almost all of which was female, said they liked that Matthias offered applicable real-life advice. "I liked that she recognized she had to make sacrifices with her children, but that she could teach them as a role model," College senior Kim Bardy said. "Her wandering entrepreneur spirit doesn't just apply to business. It applies to life in general," College sophomore Henry Brigham said. "It illustrates how low and high you can go and still laugh at it later." Last week, Martin Franklin, chief executive officer of Marlin Holdings Inc., returned to campus to be the first speaker of the semester. University President Judith Rodin is scheduled to speak in two weeks. "This series gives students a perspective of what it's like 20, 30 years out of school," Preston said. "[Matthias is] clearly a wonderful leader in her field."
