Michael G. Finegold

The first of three Essex Chamber Music Players (ECMP) concerts, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Northern Essex Community College and featuring music written for the occasion, will be held Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Hartleb Technology Center on the Haverhill Campus, 100 Elliott St.

Past ECMP composers and new composers have created works that are short—three minutes or less—to celebrate the college’s 50 years. NECC alumni and students were also invited to create works for the performance.

The October concert will feature the World Premieres of Fanfares for the 50th Anniversary of Northern Essex Community College by Stephen Feigenbaum: Spread the News; Michael G. Finegold: Fanfare in Bb and Variation (based on the Bill Winiker Orchestra Fanfare); Donald Krishnaswami: Anniversary Fanfare; Erik Lindgren: 50 Years of Excellence; Kate Sullivan: Fanfare in the Key of NECC including Roussel, Trio for Flute, Viola and Cello, Op. 40 and Beethoven’s Duo in E Flat for Viola and Cello, woO 32 ‘Eyeglass’; and David Bennett Thomas: Tale for Flute, Viola and Cello (World Premiere).

General admission is $15, and $10 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for Northern Essex students with college ID.
Additional concerts in the series will include a Feb. 19 piano recital featuring David Alan Pihl performing new and treasured works and a March 25 concert featuring the Essex Chamber Music Players performing works for flute, piano, and cello that use the number 50, for example 50 measures, 50 beats at any tempo
In residence at Northern Essex Community College, the Essex Chamber Music Players (ECMP) under the Artistic Direction of Michael Finegold is devoted to the creation and presentation of new classical music along with great musical treasures of the past. Founded in 1999, the group’s motto is Music for the Twenty-first Century: Treasures of the Past, New Music Premieres.

For additional information visit www.ecmp.org.

Alicia Lara, Lance Hidy, Trish Schade, Ivan Perez

Two Northern Essex Community College students and one NECC professor will now go down in history as the faces representing the college’s first 50 years.

Ivan Perez, a graphic design major from Lawrence, and Alicia Lara, a business transfer major, also from Lawrence, and Developmental English Professor Trish Schade, are all featured in the poster created by Lance Hidy of the college’s graphic design faculty to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the college.

On Wednesday, October 12, Hidy shared his experiences designing the poster with students, faculty colleagues, and interested members of the community in a presentation titled “Celebrating 50 Years in One Poster.”

In addition to designing three U.S. postage stamps, Hidy, a resident of Merrimac, has designed commemorative posters for colleges and universities across the country including Wellesley College, Yale University, and The George Washington University.

His first step is always to form a committee of people who can provide direction to the project and help develop themes and brainstorm images.

A committee of Northern Essex faculty and staff agreed that the image should celebrate human beings directly, rather than just symbols; emphasize the relationship between a teacher and a student; and show the college’s diversity since, according to Hidy, “this is one of the features of our campus of which we are most proud.”  The group also decided on three symbols that should be included in the poster: light, a computer, and a book.

The end result is a beautifully lit and colored poster design featuring two students, Perez and Lara, working on a computer, with a book open to the side, with guidance from Professor Schade.

The artwork came from a photo taken by Hidy who then added the color using Adobe photo shop.  Called Penumbra, the type used in the poster was designed by Hidy in 1994 for Adobe Systems.

Lance Hidy became active as an artist while growing up in Portland, Oregon. He sharpened his skills in art and design at Yale University from 1964 to 1968 and later studied privately with Leonard Baskin. Hidy was co-founder of David R. Godine, Publisher in 1969, before starting his own design firm in 1973. His commercial and fine art work covers a broad range from book design, posters, photography, type design, and illustration.

He was the art director of Harvard Business Review, and is the designer for books and apps for the Ansel Adams Trust. In addition to teaching and running his design and illustration studio, Hidy has lectured and written on design history.  His poster clients have included The George Washington University, Yale University, Wellesley College, Columbia University, the Library of Congress, and the universities of Maryland and Delaware. His fine art work is represented locally by Chameleon in Newburyport. In addition, he is working on a book about the illustrious fly-fishing career of his father, Vernon S. ‘Pete’ Hidy.

Suitable for framing, the 18×24-inch posters are available for $10 in the following locations:

• Bentley Library Circulation Desk, Haverhill Campus, 100 Elliott St.
• Lawrence Library Circulation Desk, Dimitry Building, 45 Franklin St.
• College Bookstore, lst floor, Behrakis One Stop Student Center, Haverhill
• Institutional Advancement, A317, Bentley Library, Haverhill

Proceeds benefit the NECC Fund which provides much needed scholarship awards to students, program grants to faculty and staff, and support for the college’s endowment.

For more information, contact Institutional Advancement at 978 556-3624.

Left: Governor Patrick, Sitting in Back: Secretary of Education Paul Reville and President Lane Glenn

While visiting Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill Campus in mid-September, Governor Deval Patrick took time for a lively discussion with a group of NECC students.

After being introduced by President Lane Glenn, Patrick greeted the students, saying I want to “get a sense of your own experiences here, what’s working, what’s not, what you’re worried about, what you’re thrilled about, what your plans are.”

Calling the NECC faculty and staff “the most supportive people I’ve ever met”, Andy Robinson of Merrimac,  a liberal arts major, asked the governor about funding for community colleges, emphasizing the role they play in preparing local residents for careers.  The governor responded by talking about the importance of building relationships between community colleges and employers.

After meeting with students, President Lane took the Governor on a tour of the campus including stops at the Behrakis One Stop Student Center to see the college’s new academic advising program and the Science Building to visit labs that were created for the college’s new associate degree in lab science program.

The Governor’s visit to campus came one week after he announced a new competitive grant program—The Performance Incentive Fund (PIF)—which included $135,053 to fund a newly renovated Student Success Center on the Lawrence Campus and provide retention programs along with an early alert system to identify struggling students and implement planned interventions.