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Chancellor Steve Ballard led a contingent of about 30 ECU faculty, staff and students to New York City in February to witness the Carnegie Hall debut of the university’s Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. Several other events were planned around the performance, including a luncheon with the New York Metro Alumni Chapter and a private tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (right).
 
The trip also presented East magazine an opportunity to meet in person two of ECU’s more notable alumni in the city, Ronnie Barnes ’75 and Lisa Callahan ’83.

At a reception after the Carnegie Hall event, the chancellor unveiled architectural drawings of ECU’s planned new Performing Arts Theater, an $85 million theater and teaching complex (photo below).

Dean Jeff Elwell of the College of Fine Arts and Communication said the university needs the facility to support its growing theater and fine arts program. He said a major fundraising campaign would begin soon.

The concert in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall featured ECU Professor of Violin Ara Gregorian with guest violinists Hagai Shaham and Xiao-Dong Wang, violist Maria Lambros, cellist Zvi Plesser and pianist Thomas Sauer. It was the first residency of the Four Seasons festival to be held off campus. Gregorian is artistic director and founder of the festival, now in its sixth season.

An audience of more than 200 loudly applauded the all-star group’s performance of Debussy’s Sonate pour Violon et Piano; Mendelssohn’s String Quintet in B Flat Major, Op. 87; and Dvorak’s String Quintet in E Flat Major, Op. 97 “American.”

Before the concert, many from the ECU contingent enjoyed a hearty brunch with members of the New York Metro alumni chapter at a popular Eighth Avenue spot near the theater district. There are more than 2,500 alumni in the New York area, according to Chapter President Shannon Smith ’02. The chapter maintains an active schedule of events and will sponsor a freshman send-off picnic in July, she said. The chapter has a web site at www.ecunymetro.com.

Howell Binkley ’78 dropped by the reception after the Metropolitan Museum of Art tour. Given his schedule, it’s understandable that he missed the weekend’s other events. Binkley is the lighting director for two new plays running on Broadway—Bridge & Tunnel and Jersey Boys—as well as the long-running Avenue Q. The three raise to 20 the number of Broadway productions for which Binkley has served as lighting director.