February 13, 2003

Faculty honors

Michal Ginsburg, professor of French and comparative literature and chair of the department of French and Italian, has been named Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes AcadEmiques by the government of France.

Dominique Decherf, consul general of France in Chicago, presented the award during a ceremony at the University.

The Palmes AcadEmiques, the oldest French honor awarded to civilians, was created by Napoleon in 1808 to reward accomplishment in teaching, scholarship and research. Ginsburg’s award recognizes her contribution as founder and co-director of the French Interdisci-plinary Group in promoting collaboration between Northwest-ern and French institutions.

The French Interdisciplinary Group, with more than 50 faculty affiliates, develops student exchange programs, organizes workshops, conferences and lectures, sponsors visiting professors, and provides research support to graduate students and faculty.

Ginsburg’s research interests include the 19th century novel in France and England, contemporary theory, especially psychoanalysis, and narrative theory.

Two members of the School of Music faculty have received 2002 ASCAP awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

They are William Maxwell Raimi, lecturer on chamber music, and Augusta Read Thomas, professor of composition.

The awards are based on “the unique prestige value of each writer’s catalog of original compositions, as well as recent performances in areas not surveyed by the Society”.

Raimi, a violist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is frequently heard in chamber performances in Chicago, live on the radio, and at music festivals throughout the United States. A prolific composer and arranger, Raimi’s works have been performed at the Library of Congress, the Paris Opera, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has received commissions from the Chicago Symphony, the American Chamber Players, the Mohawk Trails Concerts, the Elmhurst (Ill.) Symphony Orchestra, and the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University.

Raimi’s Elegy has been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The CSO has commissioned him to compose music for the ECHO Center, an interactive learning environment that uses computer technology and traditional approaches to introduce musical concepts to new audiences.

Thomas, the Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has had her works conducted by Baremboim, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa and Christoph Eschenbach, and performed by major American and European orchestras.

Recent commissions include Chanting in Paradise, premiered by Eschenbach and the NDR Orchestra on a tour of Germany; In My Sky at Twilight, premiered by Boulez and the CSO; Trombone Concerto: Traces, for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and a solo violin work commissioned by the BBC

Two of her works were included on Chanticleer’s Color of Love album, winner of a 2000 Grammy Award. She has received an Ernst von Siemens Foundation Prize, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and awards from the Guggenheim and Koussevitzky foundations.