volume 78, issue 79
DESCRIPTION
UH recycling gets a new look, SGA passes bill to recognize Mother Language DayTRANSCRIPT
Channler K. HillAssistant news editor
The 2013 Solid Waste Plan brings UH the new BigBelly program, providing compacting containers that will be seen across campus throughout the year.
The containers will be a more effi cient resource for the inner core of campus and will be placed along sidewalks and outside of buildings. The units are solar powered with a side for trash and recyclables.
“The trash container itself replaces six to eight of the trash containers around it because of the compactor,” said Manager of Central Facilities Service Area 2 James Ballowe.
“We’re on campus every day picking those up. With the solar
power unit, it automatically sends information back telling us when it’s full. They’re (operated by) Wi-Fi and the recycling portion is the same. We’re able to pull the recy-cling and trash containers away from the areas of the BigBellies. It’s our plan to have 90 of these units out on campus by the summer.”
With 250 recycling bins on campus and 322 small blue bins in campus buildings, the BigBelly containers will replace some of the older recycle and trash cans. The recycling portion is single-stream, where students or faculty can throw in plastic, aluminum cans, paper, cardboard and other recyclables eliminating the need for multiple recycling bins.
All on campus housing facilities also have recycling bins. Cougar Village has bins on each fl oor.
The University works with a company called Greenstar
Recycling, after switching from Evergreen Recycling, to save an operating cost. Evergreen would pick up the plastic, aluminum and cardboard, but it was up to Central Facilities to sort the materials.
“We ran three different trucks. Now we run one truck. It’s saving personnel cost and operational fuel,” Ballowe said.
“With Green Star they allow us to take the material to them and they do all the sorting.”
Program Coordinator for Sus-tainability for University Services Leah Wolfthal said recycling is important to minimize the unwanted ecological effects of waste. She said her understand-ing is that reduction and reuse are often the desired fi rst steps in terms of ecological impacts.
In Fiscal Year 2012 the University generated a total of 546.9 tons of recyclable material and 2,738 tons
of trash. Ballowe said he believes that 70 percent of the trash being thrown out is recyclable.
“Our diversion rate has been 25 percent this year. That’s the amount
of what we took out of the trash to recycle. Our goal is to get to 40 per-cent by 2020,” Ballowe said.
T H E O F F I C I A L S T U D E N T N E W S P A P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F H O U S T O N S I N C E 1 9 3 4T H E O F F I C I A L S T U D E N T N E W S P A P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F H O U S T O N S I N C E 1 9 3 4
THE DAILY COUGARWednesday, February 20, 2013 // Issue 79, Volume 78
For health sophomore Samira Mortazavi, recycling is the only option. “If it’s a bottle, I recycle it,” she said. The new bins’ purpose is to inspire more students to do the same. | Mary Dahdouh/The Daily Cougar
Program plans to update recycling process
CAMPUS
UH bellies up to brand-new bins
BELLY continues on page 3
The Big Belly bins, which can already be seen some places on campus, will replace some of the old trash and recycling containers. These units will be included in the 250 total containers. | Mary Dahdouh/The Daily Cougar
2 \\ Wednesday, February 20, 2013 The Daily Cougar
ABOUT THE COUGARThe Daily Cougar is published Monday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and Wednesdays during the summer and online at thedailycougar.com. The Daily Cougar is supported in part by Student Service Fees. The fi rst copy is free. Additional copies cost 25 cents.
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FLASHBACK
The New University Center is scheduled to be fi nished, with the opening of Phase I in Spring 2014 and Phase II in Spring 2015.
The UC received a similar makeover exactly 30 years ago when it was expanded and created the UC Underground and the UC Satellite in 1973.
The UC Underground created 70,686 sq. feet of space and the UC Satellite added 36,827 — totaling 320,354 sq. feet for all three centers.
While the the New UC will no longer contain the UC Underground, a new wing called UC North will take its place.
The UC — proposed by President W.W. Kemmerer in 1952 — opened in 1967 and celebrated its 40th birthday on Valentine’s Day in 2007. It contained playing card areas, a sporting goods store, a post offi ce and practice rooms for musicians.
$5 million in construction costs and $309 million in furnishings for the UC resulted in $6 in student fees per semester.
Most recent renovations — outside of the New UC Project — oc-curred in 2001 with renovations to the UC Houston Room and UC Satellite because of tropical storm Allison.
Same thing, different year
The sign, which reads “this is not a super mole hole” mocks the unattractive-ness of the 1973 construction site. | The Daily Cougar, 1973
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The Daily Cougar Wednesday, February 20, 2013 // 3
Campus recycling is picked up twice a week for each half of the campus with one route for Mon-days and Wednesdays and another for Tuesdays and Thursdays, con-sisting of 10 workers.
“We have one truck with a three person crew that picks up building-to-building. We have others that empty bins in parking lots and three others that go through cam-pus picking up the rest of the bins. Monday and Wednesday’s route generates a 4.1-ton average,” Bal-lowe said.
“Tuesday and Thursday gener-ate 3.7 tons. It’s pretty much equal across campus. Friday’s route we
go to the offside of campus and downtown — the areas we don’t usually get to during the week. We don’t collect on the weekends.”
There are multiple recycling programs geared toward getting students involved with the Uni-versity’s mission to be a greener campus by 2020.
A new program, Adopt-A-Spot, where student organiza-tions adopt an area of campus to assist with recycling and cleaning efforts, is an additional method of participation.
“Anyone that wants to help, can help by keeping track of waste audits and they can talk to me to assist us with that,” Ballowe said.
“We’re going to set up tables around campus so we can hope-fully really get the students that
are out there to really be part of the campus.”
However, UH offers a program for the more competitive organiza-tions to participate.
“RecycleMania is an annual pro-gram in which organizations and departments compete with edu-cational and engagement events on recycling reuse and reduction topics; any individual or group can participate in this,” Wolfthal said.
“Aside from that competition, I’d invite all students to read an article, book, listen to a radio program, do a self-reflection exercise about their own consumption and waste habits, because learning and asking the questions is often the best fi rst step in getting involved.”
NEWSEDITOR Natalie Harms EMAIL [email protected] ONLINE thedailycougar.com/news
BELLYcontinued from page 1 CAMPUS RECYCLING
AT A GLANCE
250Recycling cans
on campus
546.9 Tons of recyclable
material in 2012
90Compacting
containers by the summer
2,738 Tons of trash
in 2012
322Additional blue
recycling bins
Katherine MorrisContributing writer
Thursday will be recognized as International Mother Language Day to the UH community thanks to a bill passed by the Student Government Association.
Authored by civil engineering junior Tanzeem Chowdhury, the bill has been in the works since Thanks-giving. With 20 sponsors backing it, it made its debut at a senate meeting two weeks ago and was approved with a fi nal vote of 24-0-2.
“International Mother Language Day will help create unity in diversity and international understanding through multilingualism and multi-culturalism,” according to the bill.
International Mother Language Day goes back to the late 1940s to the early 1950s. In 1948, east and west Pakistan (now Bangladesh) were divided by India. The govern-ment ruled that the offi cial language for both sections of Pakistan would be Urdu, pushing out the Bengali language.
On Feb. 21, 1952, University of Dhaka students protested for the protection of their language and were shot by police. Now, the United Nations-recognized day is celebrated worldwide, honoring culture and lan-guage. Chowdhury believes UH will be the fi rst campus in the area to add the day to an academic calendar.
Although Chowdhury wrote the bill on his own, much of the senate was behind him. Among the support-ers is the bill’s co-sponsor Senator Guillermo Lopez, a political science senior.
“I am a big supporter of the
International Mother Language Day bill because the University of Hous-ton is in the top 25 universities in the country for international students, and we are the second most diverse research university in the country. By adding this new tradition to the university calendar, we further strengthen our University’s commit-ment to diversity,” Lopez said.
“I think students will react posi-tively to this new tradition because many of them do have a mother language other than English and will appreciate having a day to refl ect and celebrate their cultural heritage.”
In honor of the day, a free event will be held from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Sun-day in the University Center Houston Room. SGA is working to promote the event with fliers and social media and has already caught students’ attention.
“As a fellow student of UH, I would love to celebrate this day with great pride and remembrance,” said media production junior Darwin Morrow. “I believe that language is some-thing of great importance to culture and that we should stand up for its protection.”
The event will have performances by singers and dancers, who will represent various cultures, as well as traditional Bengali food.
“This is not just an SGA thing, this is a University of Houston thing.” Chowdhury said. “The beauty of language should be acknowledged and celebrated everywhere. We really hope other universities can catch up to us.”
SGA
Campus celebrates dialectical heritage
Manuella MoreiraContributing writer
Change isn’t necessarily an indi-cator of progress, said a professor who spoke at the Center for Mexican American Studies’ Spring Speaker Series at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Eliza-beth D. Rockwell Pavilion in the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library.
“Historians try to measure change and identify things that continue,” said Emilio Zamora, history professor at University of Texas.
“We tend to look at our immediate condition in terms of our immediate past to try to explain what we observe today.”
He explained that it is important to look deeper into Mexican-American history because it not only explains their reality, but it also sheds light on the causes of such realities and why they keep repeating.
“We see an increase in Mexican-American students in public schools,” Zamora said.
“Mexican-Americans represent the majority of the body population in public schools in Texas today. That is part of the change, but we also see outrageous dropout rates among the same group, and that is part of the things that remain the same.”
The commemorative series helps illustrate the 40-year-old center’s mis-sion to “advance knowledge, promote critical thinking and foster the value of service to the community,” said CMAS Director Tatcho Mindiola.
Zamora aimed to uphold this mis-sion when he addressed his analysis of Mexican-American condition in Texas with his motto: The more things change, the more they remain
the same.Even though more Mexican-
Americans are going to school and graduating college, a large number of them are dropping out of schools and falling into the bottom of the social scale.
“This dropout problem means we are going to remain marginal-ized, segregated and assume bottom positions in the labor market. A large number of us is graduating and suc-ceeding, but a even larger number is going to stay in the margins of soci-ety,” Zamora said.
The second speaker, Emma Perez, a professor and University of Colorado Department of Ethic Studies chair, addressed the diffi culties regarding Mexican-American women.
“The stats tell us that in 1974, only three Chicanas had earned a Ph.D in history in the universe,” Perez said.
“The next generation from 1981 to 1990 — the one I’m a part of — fi ve more Chicanas earned the title. From 1991 to 2000, 15 more. Out of those 23 Chicanas that have Ph.Ds, only fi ve are full professors.”
She explains that although the numbers are increasing with the years, they are still dismal and refl ect the lack of opportunities given to women of Mexican heritage.
Perez said she became a historian because she came across an essay that reflected Mexican women as “docile and passive who followed their men.”
“My own history helped me understand that such statement didn’t refl ect the truth,” Perez said.
“This is why oral history is so important. We need to know our
history, talk to our ‘abuelitos’ and understand that sometimes we are taught things that don’t reflect history.”
Perez said what motivates her work is her interest in “excavating hidden voices from the past” of those marginalized and making them heard.
She emphasizes that our society lives by ideologies inspired by Mani-fest Destiny that encouraged the inva-sion of Mexico and hatred against the land’s native habitants.
“We need to decolonize history and interpret documents. It’s impor-tant that we deconstruct this white, colonial mindset we’ve inherited that assumes that because we are all Americans; we share the same culture and ideologies so that we can reclaim our voices,” Perez said.
Mindiola said the commemora-tive Speaker Series helps illustrate the mission of the center “to advance knowledge, promote critical thinking and foster the value of service to the community.”
University of Colorado professor Emma Perez stressed the importance of achiev-ing higher education in her talk. | Shaim-aa Eissa/The Daily Cougar
GUEST LECTURES
Using history as a ruler, not a map
— Graphics by Andres Garcia
4 \\ Wednesday, February 20, 2013 The Daily Cougar
AlexCaballero
Here’s a tale of a fateful vote (or lack thereof ) of a city council-woman who has hit a sour note.
No airport runway repairs or road works – not a single “luxury.” Like former Congress-man Ron Paul, she’s conservative as can be.
Last year, City Council was more of a soap opera than a legislative body, all thanks in part to Councilwoman Helena
Brown.Elected in a district that was already
dissatisfied with its incumbent, who ran a mudsling campaign against her, Brown lucked out because of the eight percent voter turnout.
In the 2011 elections, Brown ran against an unpopular incumbent, Brenda Stardig, in a traditionally and reliably Republican district. The only other option, a Democrat, never had a chance.
Fairvote.org, a non-partisan website that promotes “respect for every vote and voice,” says low voter turnout is often pronounced during off-year elections and primaries.
This has the effect of producing unsavory candidates like Brown, who have fringe and extremist views because the only voters who show up at the polls are those who are either extremely passionate or reliable.
Greg Groogan of myfoxhouston.com called Brown a “self-proclaimed uber budget hawk” because her attitude on spending leaves her voting against anything that the Council wants to spend money on, even the essentials.
In a July 2012 article published by Houston Press, Brown is noted as having voted against anything she considers a “luxury item,” like fulfilling city pension obligations.
Brown has effectively blocked many bills throughout her fledgling career as a councilwoman. In Dec. 19 article, Emily DePrang of The Texas Observer says her obstructionism is because of an abuse of procedure. The City Council lets members
“tag” bills, which delay votes for a week. One could see the use of a “tag” as a means to take the time to read it, analyze it and develop a counterproposal; others might see it as a pure stall tactic.
Brown is a huge fan of “tags.” She abuses them, forcing Council to break decorum and override her “tags” on sev-eral occasions.
She is no stranger to controversy. Her past seems filled with gaping discrepan-cies, all of her staff works part-time so that they don’t qualify for benefits and most of her staff left her within months of her first year. Not to mention, the man who seems to back her is a disgraced financier named William Park, who was involved in a Ponzi scheme that resulted to his ban by the Financial Industry Regu-latory Authority.
The most ironic quirk Brown is her alleged use mishandling money. In many ways, she comes across as hypocritical because she cries austerity but doesn’t apply her philosophy to herself.
Brown took a trip to South Korea on the expense of taxpayers and tried to get Houston to also pay for Park’s gas and flight to Asia. She even sent some 13,000 magnets to constituents that were bought with taxpayer money.
“She obviously isn’t responsible,” says business junior Samantha Evans.
“Unless there are reasons we don’t know for her living with her parents, that’s
red flag number one. If she’s mishandling money, that should say something too. I can see what she isn’t doing for (Houston), but I’m wondering what she is doing.”
Spouting fringe conspiracy theories on the Council floor counts as something.
Terrence McCoy of Houston Press reported that in a July 4 session, Brown intercepted plans to approve the con-struction of a $26 million maintenance facility.
“Let us see what this is all about,” Brown said. “This is a company that wants to take advantage of a $30 billion initiative that our president has approved to rebuild schools and outdated buildings, according to Agenda 21.”
Brown even went so far as accusing fel-low conservative and former Republican councilman, Mike Sullivan, as being a communist.
He was considered the most conserva-tive on the board before she was elected.
She is up for re-election this year, but the time has come to vote Brown out of office and elect someone who is qualified. The only way to make that a reality is to have an increased voter turnout.
As cliche as it sounds, people should go out and vote. Houston needs someone who represents its constituents and not misguided ambitions.
Alex Caballero is a creative writing senior and may be reached at [email protected].
David Delgado | The Daily Cougar
STAFF EDITORIAL The Staff Editorial refl ects the opinions of The Daily Cougar Editorial Board (the members of which are listed above the editorial). All other opinions, commentaries and cartoons refl ect only the opinion of the author. Opinions expressed in The Daily Cougar do not necessarily refl ect those of the University of Houston or the students as a whole.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Daily Cougar welcomes letters to the editor from any member of the UH community. Letters should be no more than 250 words and signed,
including the author’s full name, phone number or e-mail address and affi liation with the University, including classifi cation and major. Anonymous letters will not be published. Deliver letters to Room 7, University Center Satellite; e-mail them to [email protected]; send them via campus mail to STP 4015; or fax to (713) 743-5384. Letters are subject to editing.
GUEST COMMENTARY Submissions are accepted from any member of the UH community and must be signed with the author’s name, phone number or e-mail address
and affi liation with the University, including classifi cation and major. Commentary should be limited to 500 words. Guest commentaries should not be written as replies, but rather should present independent points of view. Deliver submissions to Room 7, University Center Satellite; e-mail them to [email protected]; or fax them to (713) 743-5384. All submissions are subject to editing.
ADVERTISEMENTS Advertisements in The Daily Cougar do not necessarily refl ect the views and opinions of the University or the students as a whole.
THE DAILY COUGARE D I T O R I A L B OA R D
EDITOR IN CHIEF Joshua MannMANAGING EDITOR Amanda Hilow
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Samantha WongNEWS EDITOR Natalie Harms
SPORTS EDITOR Christopher SheltonLIFE & ARTS EDITOR Paulina Rojas
CO-PHOTO EDITORS Nichole Taylor, Mahnoor SamanaOPINION EDITOR Aaron Manuel
ASSISTANT EDITORS Channler Hill, Kathleen Murrill, Jessica Portillo
POLITICS
When voter turnout suffers a Brown-out
OPINIONEDITOR Aaron Manuel EMAIL [email protected] ONLINE thedailycougar.com/opinion
Email [email protected] with the subject title “Re: Voice” with your answer. Keep these things in mind:
Be respectful. ßLimit your word count to 500. ßInclude your full name, major and classification. Faculty and staff should list their title and department. ß*Alumni should include their degree and graduation date.
VOICE OF THE PRIDEVOICWhat
are your
thoughts
on gun
control?
The Daily Cougar Wednesday, February 20, 2013 // 5
SPORTSEDITOR Christopher Shelton EMAIL [email protected] ONLINE thedailycougar.com/sports
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Newcomers thrive in late-game situations
Freshman forward Marche Amerson picked up her second Conference USA freshman of the week award on Monday. | Rebekah Stearns/The Daily Cougar
Andrew ValderasStaff writer
It was the game-winning shot against Rice that showed head coach Todd Buchanan one of his players had taken a step up in her play, resulting in a familiar award.
Freshman forward Marche Amerson hit the game winning layup against Rice with 1:21 remaining to secure the 53-51 vic-tory and her second Conference USA Freshman Player of the Week award.
After averaging 11.5 points per game while shooting 59 percent from the field, including three 3-pointers, the Bryan native increased her confidence in order to earn the third C-USA Player of the Week accolade in the last four weeks.
“She’s really gaining a lot of confidence. I think her making the shot at the end of the Rice game is proof of that,” Buchanan said.
“I’m not sure if earlier in the year she would have had the con-fidence to drive toward the basket and finish the play like that.”
Amerson said she needed to play a more aggressive offensive game to help produce wins for her team.
“I’ve had more confidence in my shot,” Amerson said. “I felt I needed to score more to help my team out, because we’ve been struggling on offense in confer-ence play.”
After being out-rebounded by 19 in their first meeting with UTEP, the Cougars will need Amerson to carry that confidence onto the court in order to come away with
a win.“We have to get on the glass.
Lately we’ve been letting people push us under the basket,” Amer-son said.
“We have to get more rebounds and be aggressive.”
The UTEP Miners lead the conference in rebounding by a 7.5 margin against opponents and are anchored by senior center Ante Steinberga, who posted 20 points and 12 rebounds against the Cou-gars previously.
UH will look to increase their overall record to 12-13 by collect-ing a third consecutive road win in its next game.
UH will tip-off at UTEP at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Don Haskins Center.
TENNIS
Sight unseen
Stacey KarrContributing writer
Head coach Patrick Sullivan met his star tennis player, Elena Kordolaimi, by chance.
While in Greece in 2011, Sulli-van had plans to meet a different recruit when a Greece Davis Cup coach suggested Sullivan meet with Kordolaimi.
The coach said the other recruit was good, but that Sullivan really needed to meet Kordolaimi.
There was only one problem.Kordolaimi was injured and
unable to play because of a severe ankle injury, which had her think-ing she may never play tennis again, but Sullivan still met with her.
Based on her positive attitude and the coaches’ word, Sullivan offered her a scholarship to play tennis for Stephen F. Austin in Fall 2011.
The Greek coaches were right; Kordolaimi was a great player and a real asset to the team. Together, they led SFA to its first NCAA tour-nament berth and a 43-10 record — the best two-year period in the
school’s history.Sophomore Kordolaimi, now in
her first year at UH, is attempting to make her mark as a star tennis player.
She transferred from SFA so she could continue playing for Sullivan.
“It was something amazing. Not many people would do that, and I want to take advantage of the opportunity,” Kordolaimi said. “That’s why I want to continue to play for him and do my best.”
S h e s a i d t h e t r a n s i t i o n from Greece to SFA to UH was beneficial.
It gave her the opportunity to start off smaller and work her way up, which made it easier for her to handle the different systems and a larger university.
Kordolaimi said she loves cam-pus and her teammates and is very grateful to be here. The support she gets from teammates, tutors, advisers and coaches provides a great environment and makes her job easy.
Sullivan said Kordolaimi has been a joy to coach because she works hard.
“A lot of kids don’t appreciate it, she does,” Sullivan said.
“She doesn’t take being out here and being able to play for granted. It’s great to have kids that appreci-ate; not everyone gets a full schol-arship to a great place in order to
do something they love.”Kordolaimi said she hopes
to continue to win tournaments here with Sullivan and go on to
play professional tennis after graduation.
After Kordolaimi helped the Cougars to secure a national rank
during her first season at UH, she’s off to a good start.
UH tennis coach’s and then-injured star recruit’s meeting in Greece was chance
Sophomore tennis player Elena Kordolaimi suffered a serious ankle injury that threatened her tennis career. UH tennis coach Patrick Sullivan offered her a scholarship without seeing her play. | Aisha Bouderdaben/The Daily Cougar
6 \\ Wednesday, February 20, 2013 The Daily Cougar
ACROSS 1 Bygone
big birds 5 John of
“Coming to America”
9 Rear of a plane
13 Assign as one’s share
15 Chantilly product
16 Balm base 17 “___ An-
dronicus” (Shake-speare play)
18 Final unpleasant moment
20 Cheered, in a way
22 Sticks that go boom
23 Overly proper person
24 “It Hap-pened One Night” director Frank
28 File, Edit, or Help
31 Tediously repetitious
34 Pie part 36 Tool
repository 37 “That turns
my stomach!”
38 Old tummy tuckers
41 Conduc-tor’s nickname
43 TiVo users may skip them
44 Yuletide song
46 Use choice words
47 Tournedos, e.g.
51 Art Deco illustrator
52 Murphy of Hollywood
53 Attack from all directions
55 Eb’s wife? 57 Cleverly 61 Experi-
enced sailors, slangily
65 Bout of indulgence
66 Salt Lake City’s home
67 Doomed (with “for”)
68 Bonnie and Clyde caper
69 Reporter’s quest
70 Some babies
71 Planning to vote no
DOWN 1 Addition or
subtraction 2 Melange 3 Singing
voice 4 Grouchy
sort 5 Refl ective
power, as of a planet
6 Damsels 7 Six mos.
from Apr. 8 Paving
stone 9 Bagpiper’s
wear 10 Pub offer-
ing 11 Charged
atom 12 Conducted 14 Pre-Soviet
royalty 19 Makes
cryptic 21 Substitute
for forgot-ten words
25 One who’s moping
26 Little rascal 27 Bad way
for a ship to be driven
28 “___ & Mrs. Miller” (Robert Altman fi lm)
29 Became weather-
worn 30 Consumed
slowly, as a drink
32 Measure of resistance
33 Chinese restaurant freebie
35 In an unrelaxed manner
39 Two-year-old
40 “What did I tell you?”
42 Climbing legume
45 Cheesy pasta dish
48 Some bottles of liquor
49 Meetings of lips
50 Decide on, as a date
54 Babble enthusias-tically
56 Bookie’s numbers
58 “___ go bragh!”
59 “___ we forget ...”
60 Abomi-nable snowman
61 Day light? 62 Partook of 63 Type of suit 64 “Look at
that!”
Puzzle answers online: www.thedailycougar.com/puzzles
@thedailycougar
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The Daily Cougar Wednesday,February 20, 2013 // 7
LIFE & ARTSEDITOR Paulina Rojas EMAIL [email protected] ONLINE thedailycougar.com/life-arts
MOORES
All keys consideredMonica TsoStaff writer
In an effort to give open oppor-tunities to improve, a three-time award-winning pianist utilized her expertise to teach students during a guest piano master class Monday at the Dudley Recital Hall.
Artistic Director of Piano Sun-days at the Old Capitol Museum and professor of piano at the Uni-versity of Iowa, Ksenia Nosikova, has performed in numerous festi-vals worldwide and has presented more than 90 master classes.
At the hall, Nosikova observed each performance and jotted notes in the students’ music book. After-ward, she worked with them.
“I use my knowledge to help the
student with what I think needs improvement,” Nosikova said.
“The students play so well, but I hope to convince them to take and understand the reasons for my advice.”
She emphasized the students’ strengths and encouraged them to be open-minded to other ways of playing their piece.
“In such a short amount of time, it’s unfortunate that I cannot work with them long enough to under-stand their unique characteristics,” Nosikova said
Piano performance senior Catrina Kim started the eve-ning with a sonata composed by Mozart.
With her eyes closed and her
fi ngers running up and down the keys, Kim focused on maintaining a balance between the variations of the music and on making each note distinct and interesting.
After her recital, she was said she was grateful to receive expert advice from Nosikova.
“She helped me reconsider a piece of music that I have known for quite some time,” Kim said.
“For this piece specifi cally, she helped me rethink how I shaped phrases.”
Although Kim has been working on the Mozart Sonata for about six months, she said she valued Nos-ikova’s new perspective.
“When a musician learns a piece of music well enough to perform it,
she can start to overlook details,” said Kim.
Fellow piano performance soph-omore Kenneth Broberg excited the audience with a Spanish themed piece from Maurice Ravel.
Instead of concentrating on technicalities, Broberg focused on conveying a character that corre-sponded with his music.
“She addressed some problems. I need to be more aware of including some rhythmic issues and inconsis-tencies of touch,” Broberg said.
“I worked on Alborada del Graci-osio last summer, and Dr. Nosikova’s advice is very helpful in preparing me for the upcoming recital.”
Crystal BrannenContributing writer
What started on a sour note ended with a sweet pitch when the AURA Contemporary Ensemble held its “Set in Stone” concert, which featured compositions from world-renowned contemporary composers and up-and-coming UH musicians Monday at the Moores Opera House.
Directed by associate professor of composition Rob Smith and conducting doctoral candidate Michelle Blair, the concert opened with “Rock and Roll” by Eric Stokes, which featured four men entering from the corners of the stage and creating music with river stones and gravel. The audience didn’t seem to be entertained and several people were heckling the performance from the back of the room.
Anna Weesner’s piece “Light and Stone” made up for the rocky start as musical arts doctoral can-didate Ingrid Gerling’s use of the violin highlighted the piece. Com-bined with her violin skills and her use of the piano and clarinet, the eerie 1950s Alfred Hitchcock sound brought the piece together.
Perhaps, the best performance of the night was by harp perfor-mance senior Hope Cowan as she played a unique fairytale-like tune on the harp in Paul Stanhope’s piece “The Arch Window.” Despite the near empty theater, Cowan’s performance received the most applause and a few standing ovations.
“Set in Stone” also premiered Houston Baptist University composition graduate Desmond Ikegwuonu’s energetic and fast-paced piece, “New Work.” Bryant Beauchamp energized the room with an amazing solo cello performance.
Special guest composer Brian Herrington, whose works have been previously performed by London’s Royal Academy Sym-phony Orchestra, premiered “A
Piano performance sophomore Kenneth Broberg recieved one-on-one encouragement and constructive criticism from award-winning pianist Ksenia Nosikova during a master class at the Dudley recital hall on Monday night. | Monica Tso/The Daily Cougar
Rocky continues on page8
A concert that started on rough seas ends with plenty of continuous notes
REVIEW
From rocky to smooth
ATTENTION DEFICITDISORDER WORKSHOPS
Location: N112 Cougar Village (building 563) Length: 50 minutes. Please be on time. No admittance after 5 minutes past the hour.
Register: “Workshop Signup” at www.las.uh.edu/lss On–line registration is necessary to obtain a spot.
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JUMP START YOUR SEMESTER ENDING THE SEMESTER SUCCESSFULLY
Concentration Part 2Tues. 2/19 at 4 p.m. Rm. N112
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** Workshops will be added when necessary throughout the semester. Please visit the “Workshops Signup” link on the LSS website www.las.uh.edu/lss for the most up to date information.
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8 \\ Wednesday, February 20, 2013 The Daily Cougar
LIFE+ARTS
Circle of Stone” as cellist Daniel Saenz and percussionist music composition and music education senior Adam Beard blended their talents to create a melancholic atmosphere in their music.
The concert ended with Smith’s performance of David Dzubay’s “Kukulakan II”, named after the Mayan feathered-snake deity. The composition conjures images of ancient rituals. While a small hiccup occurred when a cello spring broke, the piece continued to a positive reception minutes after and closed the show.
ROCKY continued from page 7
The AURA “Set in stone” concert featured a wide range of artists and musical instruments. Daniel Saenz struck all the right chords on the cello. | Nichole Taylor/The Daily Cougar
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