Bach Festival wins Grammy
■ Best Choral Performance is
given to Helmuth Rilling
and the Oregon festival
Helmuth Rilling and the Oregon
Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra
won the 2001 Grammy Award in
the field of Best Choral Performance
for “Penderecki: Credo.”
The award was announced
Wednesday at the 43rd Grammy
Awards in Los Angeles. It is the first
Grammy award for the Bach Festi
val, which has nine CDs released
and distributed by the Hanssler la
bel.
Bach Festival executive director
Royce Saltzman was thrilled with
the award.
“Being in Oregon, away from the
cultural centers of New York, Los
Angeles or other cities, makes it
harder for us to be compared on the
same level,” Saltzman said, after be
ing notified of the award. “This af
firms the quality of what Helmuth
Rilling and our musicians can do.”
“Credo” is scheduled for an en
core performance during the 2002
Festival.
Soloists on the Credo CD include
alto Milagro Vargas, a faculty mem
ber of the University of Oregon
School of Music; soprano Juliane
Banse; and bass-baritone Thomas
Quasthoff. The Phoenix Boys Choir
also appears on the recording.
The “Credo” recording was the
climax of a two-year artistic jour
ney. A co-commission of the Ore
gon Bach Festival and the Interna
tionale Bachakademie Stuttgart,
“Credo” began as Penderecki’s set
ting of the full Catholic Mass text.
Penderecki put his finishing touch
es on the 53-minute work in Eugene
on July 4, just days before its pre
miere as the final concert of the
1998 Festival. It was dedicated to
Rilling, who like his friend Pen
derecki, celebrated his 65th birth
day that year.
— From staff reports
Debate
continued from page 1A
President Holly Magner. Emerald
editorial editor Michael J. Kleck
ner and student activities editor
Jeremy Lang will represent the
newspaper.
These four will focus their
questions on the candidates’
platform specifics and how the
ASUO works.
Kleckner said he encourages
all students to attend the debate
and take advantage of the oppor
tunity to learn about the candi
dates.
“We want students to get a
more in-depth and personal look
at the candidates,” he said.
After candidates finish an
swering questions asked by mon
itors, the debate will turn into an
open forum, and audience mem
bers will have the chance to ask
their own questions.
ASUO publicity coordinator
Stephanie Chaney, who is work
ing on election events, said that
sometimes students vote without
being completely informed, and
the goal of the debate is to help
prevent this.
“A lot of students don’t even
know what the ASUO does,” she
said. “The debate is the place for
students to find out more about
who and what they’re voting
for.”
Jesus
continued from page 1A
period, a slew of books, articles and
television shows have attempted to
recreate the historical Jesus. Al
though these different views have
been called both accurate and
heretical, all have fanned the flames
in the ongoing debate regarding
who Jesus really was as a person.
One of the leading scholars in the
field, John Crossan, will be giving a
lecture on the subject at 7:30 p.m.
today in Room 175 Knight Law Cen
ter. The lecture is free and open to
the public.
A professor emeritus with the De
Paul University religious studies
department, Crossan is the author
of 18 books that explore Jesus’ life
and the society in which he lived.
Four of the books have been best
sellers.
Daniel Falk, assistant professor of
religious studies at the University,
helped arrange Crossan’s visit to the
r
University and has explored the is
sue himself.
He said there is no certainty re
garding who Jesus was because he
did not leave any written records
and no one outside of the early
Christian faith wrote anything of
substance about him.
“That gives us very little to go on,
and for a historian, that makes it
very problematic,” he said.
Falk said it would be hard to sim
ply apply what is known of Jesus’
culture because he was probably
different from the norm.
“He was from a different culture,
and he was somewhat counter-cul
ture in his own culture,” he said.
But Falk said finding the real Je
sus has always been an intriguing
scholarly pursuit because countless
generations of Christians have ap
plied their own cultural character
istics to the image of him. This has
clouded the issue and probably left
an image of Jesus in many people’s
minds that likely doesn’t corre
spond with reality, he said.
This reality, however, is open to
question because of the dearth of
concrete information, and hence
the debate over the historical Jesus,
Falk said.
He said some researchers have
{ { It doesn’t offend me or
trouble me. Its a piece of
scholarship.
Daniel Falk
religious studies
assistant professor
been harshly criticized for their
work in finding the true historical
Christ.
“On religious grounds, people get
upset when you say Jesus didn’t say
something from the scripture,” Falk
said.
He said that Crossan has been ap
plauded in scholarly circles be
cause of his research methods.
While conservative Christian schol
ars often criticize his conclusions,
Falk said they admit Crossan’s
methods do have merit.
Falk said Crossan’s work is based
on gospels by the apostles Thomas
and Peter that were excluded from
the New Testament. The works are
different from the other gospels in
that they are non-apocalyptic or
based on the principle that Christ
will not necessarily usher in a new
era.
Although a Christian himself,
Falk was not troubled by Crossan’s
work.
“It doesn’t offend me or trouble
me,” he said. “It’s a piece of schol
arship.”
Falk will be discussing the issue
himself while teaching the class
“Jesus and the Gospels” next term.
Steve Ellisen, director of Campus
Crusade for Christ, said he supports
historical research on Jesus as long
as it does not start on a basis of re
jecting miracles. He said several
historians do not believe in the pos
sibility of miracles, so they research
Christ without the context of mira
cles.
Yet Ellisen said if researchers do
take into account the possibility of
miracles, he strongly supports re
searching who Christ was.
“I think that understanding the
historic Jesus and who he was is an
extremely important endeavor,” he
said.
But Ellisen said he was deeply
offended by people who attempted
to create a scandalous image of
Christ for profit.
Andrew Goble, religious studies
professor and department head,
said even though he isn’t an expert
in the field of Christian research, he
has appreciated the work done by
people like Crossan.
He said that of the major reli
gions, only Christianity has an on
going debate about the historical
truth of one of its leading figures.
“Outside of Christianity, I’m not
generally aware of this type of de
bates over founding figures,” he
said.
Law School 101
An Introduction to Legal Education for Students of Color
Friday, February 23
Program begins at 9:45 am
and ends at 2:00 pm
William W. Knight Law Center
1515 Agate St., University of Oregon
To Register please contact Teresa Specht:
(541) 346-1810 or
tspecht@law.uoregon.edu
*No Fee to Attend
ou are invited to attend break-out
r.*y sessions with current law students and
discuss timely current events that affect the legal
profession and all of us as citizens. Program
activities include a simulated law class, lunch and
an admissions information session.
11200
The program includes remarks by Ibrahim Gassama, Associate Professor at the University of Oregon School of Law and
distinguished recipient of several awards for his contribution to human rights. Most recently Gassama was honored with the SALT
award for his work on behalf of South Africa and its citizens. Also speaking is Associate Professor Keith Aoki. He has served on the
editorial board of the Harvard Environmental Law Review and on the editorial staff of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
A highlight of the program is a film about Native American issues and experience. Introducing and discussing the film is Dean of the UO
law school Rennard Strickland, a distinguished legal scholar and specialist in Native American law and heritage.