Los Angeles Lakers president and governor Jeanie Buss will discuss her business leadership experiences at Staples Center on Tuesday, March 22, at 5:30 PM.

With a decades-long sports management career that launched when she was 19, Buss embodies an inspiring combination of ambition and agility. As the featured speaker at this engagement, she will share a breadth of experience in how to lead with passion and bring out the best in teams.

Buss has expanded her business skills through her involvement in the worlds of professional basketball, tennis, and wrestling, among other sports, as well as the Olympic Games. She is a member of the NBA Advisory and Finance Committee, and has served on the NBA Labor Committee during collective bargaining.

This event has reached full capacity, and registration is now closed. For additional information, visit the Graziadio School of Business and Management website.

The Grammy-winning, first all-women Celtic music ensemble, Cherish the Ladies, will perform at Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Tuesday, March 22, at 8 PM.

Under the direction of All-Ireland flute and whistle champion Joanie Madden, performances by Cherish the Ladies are known for their combination of captivating vocals, arrangements, step dancing, and instrumental talents, which provide audiences with a passionate and entertaining showcase of Irish culture.

The concert will include performances by The Ennis Sisters from Newfoundland, legendary fiddler Liz Carroll, and dance numbers from Garrett Coleman, Julie Fitzgerald, and Jason Oremus.

Cherish the Ladies was originally formed in New York City in 1985 to celebrate the rise of women in the traditionally male-dominated world of Irish music. The ensemble has recorded 16 albums, performed at the White House and the Olympics, was named BBC’s Best Musical Group of the Year, and won recognition as Top North American Celtic Group at the Irish Music Awards. Over their three-decade career, Cherish the Ladies has collaborated with numerous famed musicians, including Don Henley, Vince Gill, Pete Seeger, Nanci Griffith, The Boston Pops, and The Clancy Brothers.

Ticket prices range from $10 to $40, and are required for attendance. For additional information about the performance, and to purchase tickets, visit the Center for the Arts website.

Pepperdine University and the Malibu Public Library Speaker Series will present the third annual three-day Climate Calling conference at the Pepperdine campus in Malibu, from Wednesday, April 6, to Friday, April 8.

Climate Calling: Student and Community Responses to Climate Change aims to encourage participants to work toward stopping climate change and to foster a more sustainable future.

Environmentalist and climate activist Bill McKibben will provide the keynote address at Elkins Auditorium on Wednesday, April 6, at 7 PM. McKibben is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized 20,000 rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement. He is also the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Registration is required to attend this event. Register for tickets on the Climate Calling page on the Eventbrite website.

The second day of the event features a screening of the film This Changes Everything, at Elkins Auditorium at 7 PM. Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein's international non-fiction bestseller with the same name, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities facing the vast challenge of climate change, from Montana's Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond.

The final day of the conference is dedicated to student research presentations given at Juarez Courtyard and Weisman Museum at 2 PM. Student researchers will discuss their research topics during an academic poster session. Their presentations are part of a spring semester course that includes a climate change component.

The conference will also include the sixth annual Earth Day Fair on Wednesday, April 6, from 11 AM to 2 PM at Mullin Town Square on the Malibu campus. Guests can enjoy free food from local vendors, compete for prizes, see farm animals, and recycle their unwanted electronics at the e-waste recycling drive. They can also learn about what Pepperdine and organizations within the local community are doing to further environmental and social causes. On-site vendors include City of Malibu, Heal the Bay, Malibu Chamber of Commerce, and the Pepperdine Volunteer Center, among others. While Earth Day worldwide is April 22, Pepperdine celebrates early to ensure that students are not impacted as they prepare for finals. This portion of the conference is sponsored by the Malibu Community Alliance.

In response to growing concerns about the future of the earth, Climate Calling was launched in 2014 by a group of Pepperdine faculty members from diverse disciplines, in partnership with student representatives. Together they organized the first-ever Climate Calling, a three-day conference dedicated to exploring climate change, its consequences, and our moral calling to respond. The gathering drew students, faculty, and others in a mutual effort to address the subject of climate change and, over the course of three days, attendees learned about topics such as species extinction, population growth, and biological capacity.

Admission to this event is free, and registration is required to attend the keynote address on Wednesday evening. To learn more about this year’s Climate Calling conference, and to register for tickets, visit the Climate Calling page on the Eventbrite website.

The Pepperdine University Fine Arts Division Theatre Department will present for the first time Bertolt Brecht’s groundbreaking musical The Threepenny Opera at Lindhurst Theatre in Malibu from Wednesday, April 6, through Friday, April 8, at 7:30 PM, with an additional matinee performance on Saturday at 2 PM.

Pepperdine associate professor of theatre Bradley Griffin directs the student cast, and will host a free pre-performance conversation with the audience in the Surfboard Room at Payson Library on Friday, April 8, at 7:30 PM.   

With a script by Bertolt Brecht and a score by Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera occupies a pivotal position in the history of musical theatre. The story portrays the life of Macheath, a notorious London gangster, whose marriage to Polly Peachum threatens to undermine London’s Union of Beggars, run by Polly’s father. Without this trailblazing musical, which produced the hit song “Mack the Knife,” the political musicals of Stephen Sondheim, as well as the John Kander and Fred Ebb songwriting team may not have been possible.

The show is presented as part of the Mary Pickford-Stotsenberg Performances series at Pepperdine, through special arrangement with R&H Theatricals, and funding provided in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.

This opera contains strong language and adult themes, appropriate for ages 13 and up. Ticket prices range between $10 and $15, and are required to attend. For additional information, and to purchase tickets, visit the Center for the Arts website.

Pepperdine University Seaver College will host a panel discussion in Elkins Auditorium on Sunday, April 3, at 7 PM, that will explore topics of faith and responsibility to the orphaned, widowed, homeless, and displaced around the world. The event will also feature a screening of the documentary Salam Neighbor.

Students Amal Bahloul and Ben Drolet, along with Pepperdine University professors Joel Fetzer and Robert Williams, will share how the refugee crisis impacts them and how they are taking action. Together, these panelists will address the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Participants are encouraged to continue to analyze this theme with the screening of Salam Neighbor after the panel. In this documentary, the first filmmakers ever allowed to live inside a refugee camp befriend their Syrian refugee neighbors and share the power of their stories through film.

This event is part of the Seaver College Convocation Series, a program dedicated to help students build Christian faith, affirm Christian values, and address the moral and ethical dimensions of current issues.

Those unable to attend this engagement are invited to view a live broadcast via Livestream. 

Pepperdine University chaplain emerita D’Esta Love will present her new book Finding Their Voices: Sermons by Eomen in the Churches of Christ, in the Surfboard Room at the Payson Library in Malibu on Tuesday, April 5, at 4 PM.

In celebration of Love’s book launch, English professor Maire Mullins and religion professor Ronald R. Cox will review the book. Following the professors’ discussions, Love will provide responses to the reviews, and engage in a question and answer session.

Love has been a member of the Pepperdine community since 1979, where she received her master of divinity degree in 2003. She has served in multiple capacities at the University, including as a religion professor, director of the Career Development Center, and dean of students.

She is the author of several books and numerous articles, and has been presenting at speaking engagements for over 25 years, most frequently at women’s retreats, marriage seminars, and church lectures series.

This event is free to the Pepperdine community. For additional information, visit the Center for Faith and Learning community website.

The Pepperdine University Fine Arts Division Theatre Department will present for the first time Bertolt Brecht’s groundbreaking musical The Threepenny Opera at Smothers Theatre in Malibu from Wednesday, April 6, through Friday, April 8, at 7:30 PM, with an additional matinee performance on Saturday at 2 PM.

Pepperdine associate professor of theatre Bradley Griffin directs the student cast, and will host a free pre-performance conversation with the audience in the Surfboard Room at Payson Library on Friday, April 8, at 7:30 PM.   

With a script by Bertolt Brecht and a score by Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera occupies a pivotal position in the history of musical theatre. The story portrays the life of Macheath, a notorious London gangster, whose marriage to Polly Peachum threatens to undermine London’s Union of Beggars, run by Polly’s father. Without this trailblazing musical, which produced the hit song “Mack the Knife,” the political musicals of Stephen Sondheim, as well as the John Kander and Fred Ebb songwriting team may not have been possible.

The show is presented as part of the Mary Pickford-Stotsenberg Performances series at Pepperdine, through special arrangement with R&H Theatricals, and funding provided in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.

This opera contains strong language and adult themes, appropriate for ages 13 and up. Ticket prices range between $10 and $15, and are required to attend. For additional information, and to purchase tickets, visit the Center for the Arts website.

The Pepperdine University Pickford Ensemble will debut original songs in “Up Against the Screen II: New Music with Film,” along with a live screening of the 1917 silent film A Little Princess, at the outdoor Amphitheater in Malibu on Saturday, April 9, at 7:30 PM.

Under the direction of Pepperdine professor of music N. Lincoln Hanks, The Pickford Ensemble’s three student composers were each assigned a large segment of A Little Princess, and have composed a score especially for the unique instrumentation of the group, which features the combined sounds of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion, piano, and strings.

In November 2015 The Pickford Ensemble hosted internationally renowned composer Missy Mazzoli, who worked with the composition students as they finished their scores.

Funded by a generous grant from The Mary Pickford Foundation, members of The Pickford Ensemble have the honoring identifier, “Pickford Musician,” next to their names listed on any official Pepperdine University music program brochure.

The educational mission of The Mary Pickford Foundation Music Project is to train young composers and performing musicians in the art and presentation of silent film scoring. The Pepperdine student composers selected to participate in this project have learned to develop an effective music score for live players that supports the visual drama on the screen.

For additional information about this free event, visit the Seaver College website.

Internationally award-winning cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan will perform a sold-out show at Raitt Recital Hall as part of the Pepperdine University Recital Series in Malibu on Sunday, April 10, at 2 PM.

Born into a musically gifted family, Hakhnazaryan studied music at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Armenia, the Moscow Conservatory in Russia, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Mentored by Mstislav Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan was the only cellist invited to travel on behalf of the Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation.

As first prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan debuted in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2011 Hakhnazaryan was awarded the Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition, the most honorable prize given to a cellist. He then joined the prestigious BBC New Generation Artists scheme in 2014.

Hakhnazaryan has performed in some of the world’s finest orchestras. His performance at Pepperdine will include Schumann’s “Adagio and Allegro,” Brahms’ “Sonata in F Major,” Fauré’s “Elegie, Après un rêve,” and “Papillon,” Tchaikovsky’s “Nocturne” and “Pezzo Capriccioso,” Khachaturian’s “Lullaby,” and Harutyunyan’s “Impromptu.”                                                                                                                                                         

The Recital Series at Pepperdine University has delighted audiences with new and emerging classical musicians since 1993. With intimate Sunday afternoon performances in Raitt Recital Hall, the series is nationally known for its high quality performances, stunning location, beautiful and acoustically superior venues, and the engagement and loyalty of its audience. 

Tickets for this recital are currently sold out. To be added to a waiting list, call the box office at 310-506-4522. For additional information about the performance, visit the Center for the Performing Arts website.

The Pepperdine University Student Activities Office at Seaver College will host The Mountain 2016, a live worship celebration led this year by Christian musician Phil Wickham at Alumni Park in Malibu on Sunday, April 10, at 6 PM.

Wickham became involved in music during childhood, and began to lead his youth group in worship at the age of 12. His first independent project was released in 2002, and garnered enough attention to get him a deal with the Simple Records label. After releasing five internationally successful albums with them, Wickham signed with Fair Trade Services in 2011, and has since released another four albums.

His repertoire includes worship songs widely used in churches, including “This is Amazing Grace,” “Cannons,” and “After Your Heart.” His performance at Pepperdine coincides with the release of his next album, Children of God.

The Mountain is a student-led ministry that provides a time of worship, prayer, and community, as students, faculty, staff, alumni, local churches, and Los Angeles residents are united under the common banner of worshipping Jesus Christ. Each year, a well-known worship artist is invited to lead over 1,500 attendees in a night of worship, strategically hosted in mid-April to celebrate the ending of the academic year. 

Tickets are free for Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff, $8 for alumni, and $15 for the general public. For additional information about this event, and to register for tickets, visit The Mountain’s page on the Eventbrite website.

Pepperdine guitar students will perform a free concert in the Surfboard Room at Payson Library in Malibu on Tuesday, April 12, at 5 PM.

The students will present pieces they have studied under the instruction of internationally recognized classical guitar virtuoso Christopher Parkening, distinguished professor of music at Pepperdine University.

Parkening and has served as the Christopher Parkening Chair in Classical Guitar since 2002. The Parkening International Guitar Competition, which honors his lifetime commitment to fostering musical excellence in young artists, is held every four years.

Parkening has performed around the world, including such prestigious places as Carnegie Hall and the White House. His television appearances include The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and 20/20. He has recorded over 20 albums, and earned two Grammy nominations in the “Best Classical Recording” category.

For additional information about this concert, visit the Pepperdine University Libraries website.

Opera librettist and California poet laureate Dana Gioia will read from his recent 99 Poems: New and Selected in the Kresge Room at Payson Library in Malibu on Tuesday, April 12, at 4 PM.

Gioia is the author of three opera libretti and editor of 20 literary anthologies. He has written five collections of poetry, including Interrogations at Noon, which won the American Book Award. One of his three critical collections Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award.

He served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009, and is currently the Judge Widney Chair of Poetry and Public Culture at University of Southern California. In 2015 Gioia was appointed the State Poet Laureate of California.

This is the final reading hosted by Pepperdine University Libraries before the facility temporarily closes for renovations. For additional information about this free event, visit the Pepperdine University Libraries website.

The Pepperdine Orchestra and Choir Masterworks will perform a sold-out concert at Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Thursday, April 14, at 7:30 PM.

Select pieces to be performed include Johannes Brahms’ “Nänie” and Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” The show will also feature the talents of guitarist Alex Park, winner of the 2016 Thomas M. Osborn Concerto Competition, a rigorous music competition held each January.

These ensembles are made up of nearly 150 Pepperdine students, and are a combination of music majors, minors, and non-majors. This year’s performance is codirected by Ryan Board, Pepperdine director of choral activities, and Tony Cason, conductor of the Pepperdine Orchestra.

Tickets for this show are currently sold out. To be added to the waiting list, call the Smothers Theatre Box Office at 310-506-4522. For additional information about this concert, visit the Center for the Arts website.

Pepperdine University track athlete Izzy Connell broke her own records in the 100- and 200-meter races at the Bruin Legends Invitational at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 2. Connell has broken multiple school records for the women’s track team, including in the 6200 and 4x400 indoor records, as well as the 400 and 4x400 outdoor records.

The Seaver College junior broke the 400-meter race record with a time of 24.97 seconds at the Spring Break Invitational at University of California, Irvine, on March 19. This race was against some of the fastest runners from other Southern California schools, like University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Fullerton.

On describing this win, Connell says she was simply aiming for an adequate time. “I was actually a little surprised when I broke the school record,” she admits. “I was told [about it] right when I walked off the track, and I was drying because running a lap for me is like running a whole marathon, so that was exciting!”

Even more remarkable is Connell’s absence from the world of track for a full year prior to her win, as she spent time studying abroad in Florence, Italy, as part of Pepperdine’s International Programs. Upon her return to Malibu, head coach Robert Radnoti welcomed her back to the team to compete again.

Connell credits her teammates and coaches for her recognition, and expresses a genuine appreciation of her team, explaining, “They are like family to me. I definitely would not have made it this far without them.”

She especially values the training she has received from assistant coach Venus Jewett (whom the athletes call “Coach V”), as her approach to track is much more focused on the individual athletes rather than the scores they can potentially generate. “She has done a great job of forming a real connection with all of the track athletes, whether they’re her sprinters or the long-distance girls,” Connell shares. “She really knows the ins and outs of track, and the mental and physical competition, because track is definitely more than just sprinting for 12 seconds. There’s a lot more to it.”  

The best advice Connell has received has also been from Coach V, who taught her the value of having fun and enjoying what she does, because without enthusiasm and passion, people can feel burnt out very quickly. Connell says that this philosophy has had a strong, positive impact on her. “I believe it’s helped me perform better than I ever have, because I’m able to actually look forward to going to practice, and look forward to going to meets, instead of being frozen in fear that I won’t hit a certain time.”

She explains that student-athletes have a tendency to become overly focused on having to win a match or game, and beat their rival teams. But they will never be fully happy or satisfied with their results if they do not actually enjoy their sport.

Assistant strength and conditioning coach Adam Estrin has played a part in Connell’s success as well. “He has so much patience, and he really believes in all of us, and pushes us to pass the limit that we think we can hit,” she reveals.

Connell’s longtime involvement with track has also benefited other aspects of her life. “College is all about making connections and creating lifetime friendships, and you can’t do that if you’re just in the library, so I definitely try to manage my time. And track has taught me how to do that well,” she notes, adding that, “In terms of relationships and friendships, and the different roles that I play, I have definitely learned to take responsibility for my actions and hold myself accountable.”  

Aside from her passion for the sport that has given her a lifetime of discipline and success, the psychology major aspires to pursue a career as a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Graduating seniors enrolled in the Pepperdine University Seaver College studio art program will showcase their unique artwork at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in Malibu from Thursday, April 14, through Saturday, April 30.

The 2016 exhibition will feature Pepperdine’s largest graduating class of artists in several years, each with a different artistic focus, making this year’s theme “Light & Dirty” an eclectic collection of diverse narratives. The art displayed will portray the deep complexities of identity, race, history, and gender, and range from painting and installation, to concept art oriented on social commentary. All artists will be assigned their own walls at the museum to display multiple pieces of work.

The student artists include Meridith Cary, Candice Erdös, Lydia Jewel Gerard, Jay Hartmann, Esther Jina Lee, Kyle Long, Corinne Luper, Christine Nelson, Naomi Purnell, Kubie Rudd, and Sara Um.

“We have such a diverse range within the theme of ‘Light & Dirty,’ which is why we call it that,” explains Cary, who will present several oil paintings with figural representations related to the first two chapters of Genesis. “There will be children’s animation and a giant igloo, and works on social and institutional critiques that are relevant to things going on at Pepperdine,” she continues, adding that the exhibition will portray “the light side of life, and the dirty side of life that doesn’t get discussed that often.”

The Weisman Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 11 AM to 5 PM. For additional information about this free art exhibition, visit the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts website.

Kamikaze Fireflies will bring their modern vaudeville act to Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Sunday, April 17, at 2 PM.

Whether spinning gigantic metal cubes, juggling, stilt-walking, performing daring stunts, breathing fire, breaking into contortionist backbends, or making a sandwich using only their feet, the two-person modern vaudeville act Kamikaze Fireflies instigate mischief, awe, and laughter for the entire family.

Created by and starring Casey Martin and Rob Williams, Kamikaze Fireflies have performed at numerous international events, including the Uptown Comedy Festival in Canada, the Festival of Fools in Northern Ireland, and the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia. Martin and Williams have also performed at many universities and comedy festivals across the United States, and were featured on the television show America's Got Talent.

Attending guests can also enjoy Family Art Day activities hosted by Pepperdine University from 12 noon to 2 PM. This free event is open to the public and features hands-on art projects, backstage tours, as well as tours of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum on campus.  

General admission ticket prices range between $17 and $35, with special $10 pricing for Pepperdine students. For additional information about this performance, and to purchase tickets, visit the Center for the Performing Arts website.

The Seaver College Fine Arts Division will mark the ending of the spring 2016 semester with a series of musical performances by the Pepperdine Jazz Ensemble, the Pepperdine Wind Ensemble, and the Pepperdine Chamber Choir on the Malibu campus.

The Pepperdine Jazz Ensemble will perform at Lindhurst Theatre on Monday, April 18, at 7:30 PM. Under the direction of Brian Scanlon, this concert of 16 students will feature several music styles, such as swing, bebop, rock, samba and Latin.

Song selections will include Oliver Nelson’s jazz standard “Stolen Moments,” Gordon Goowdin’s “Hit The Bricks,” and Nat King Cole’s “Orange Colored Sky.” Student vocalist Shamiran Prater will sing a tribute to famed singer-songwriter Natalie Cole.

The Pepperdine Wind Ensemble will perform a free concert at Smothers Theatre on Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 PM. This performance will be directed by conductor Tony Cason, and will feature wind, band, and contemporary music.

Songs will include the 1889 classic march “The Thunderer,” “A Celebration Overture,” written by accomplished Hollywood movie score composer Bruce Broughton, and “Molly on the Shore,” a challenging piece that features the ensemble’s clarinet section. Another selection, “The January February March” will be conducted by vocal music major and graduating senior Marcus Klotz.

The Pepperdine Chamber Choir will present its official pre-tour concert at Stauffer Chapel in Malibu on Friday, April 22, at 7:30 PM. This dynamic group of 31 highly versatile student vocalists will perform a mostly a cappella concert of choral music from a variety of styles and time periods, and will sing songs that sometimes divide into as many as 12 parts that create rich sonorities and brilliant displays of vocal acrobatics. 

One special feature is Eric Whitacre’s “Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine.” Considered to be one of the most challenging pieces of choral music, “Leonardo Dreams” refers to one of da Vinci’s flying machine inventions. Using actual quotes from Leonardo da Vinci’s notes and papers, Whitacre takes listeners through the mind of da Vinci as he conceives this contraption. At the end of the piece, the audience is led to the moment in the dream where da Vinci leaps and flies.

Another piece to be presented during the program is Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Only in Sleep,” a setting of the Sara Teasdale poem by the same name. The song recalls the moments in sleep when faces of friends and loved ones from many years ago appear as recent encounters.

Ryan Board, Pepperdine director of choral activities, will guide the students in this performance. Seaver College seniors Marcus Klotz and Leah Owen will be featured as conductors at the concert as well. The group will spend two weeks this summer on a concert tour in Italy and the Czech Republic.

For additional information about these upcoming concerts, visit the Center for the Arts website.

It was in 2004 when Pepperdine University professor of music N. Lincoln Hanks was first introduced by a Christian friend to the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German minister and Confessing Church founder whose poetic writings deeply inspired Hanks to compose a dramatic cantata that took over a decade to complete.

“I feel very connected to Bonhoeffer,” Hanks admits. “I feel incredibly inspired by his faithfulness and his patience, and the way that he faced death was so peaceful and amazing,” he adds, referring to Bonhoeffer’s final moments of prayer immediately before his execution.

While Hanks’ initial idea was to develop this story into an opera, a musical style often associated with tragedy, his research about the martyr’s life led him to realize that this story was actually one of triumph rather than grief. As he explains, “If you really believe in the afterlife, believe in God, and believe in how faith can transform all the things going on around you, it’s not a tragic story.” This required revisions to the composition, which Hanks accomplished by writing an additional three minutes of music that directs the orchestra to end the score dramatically and climactically after an intense buildup.

His dedication for this project was nationally recognized in 2010, when his cantata, “Tegel Passion,” was awarded as a finalist in the Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Musical Performance competition through the Lilly Fellows Program.

In October 2014, “Tegel Passion” was performed at a Christian composition convention at Biola University in La Mirada, California. The performance involved the combined talents of the Pepperdine Chamber Choir, the Pepperdine University Orchestra, and a professional tenor soloist hired by Hanks. For added dramatic effect, images of Bonhoeffer and footage of World War II were projected on a screen behind the musicians as they performed the piece. This collaboration also includes the efforts of recording engineer Randy Coppinger, who edited and mixed recordings of the Biola performance in early 2015.

Ryan Board, Pepperdine director of choral activities who prepared the choir for this performance, explains that “The themes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and his martyrdom are sometimes deep, and sometimes poetic and morose. The music dramatically went along with those themes—all the themes he struggled with. The music ends with the moment of his death, and it’s very dramatic.”

Board also remembers the audience’s response throughout the performance. “This was done for a chapel, with 1000+ students, some of whom have no connection to classical music. We all wondered [whether] the average listener [would] be able to make a connection. And the great thing was, we got to the end, and they roared. They thought it was amazing.”

Jared Chance Taylor, a Pepperdine student composer involved in the Biola performance, shares that, “As someone who has read some Bonhoeffer, I found performing ‘Tegel Passion’ incredibly enriching, [and] not only as a musician. Hanks’ orchestration, harmonic language, and dramatic choices successfully reflect both the psychology and spiritual transcendence characteristic of a twentieth-century martyr.”

Dyer Bowers, a Pepperdine music performance major who played the violin for this production, adds that “To compose such a piece takes hours of dedication, and extensive knowledge of music. The performance of ‘Tegel Passion’ was an accomplishment for both students and Dr. Hanks, and I was honored to be a part of it.”

Hanks also remains impressed with the concerted performance at Biola, expressing, “It was such a great project with a faculty composer, Dr. Board, the choir, and the orchestra. It was a huge part of our program that was on the stage and doing the recording, so I think it’s a great representation of who we are at Pepperdine.”

For a full listing of the cantata’s playlist, and to listen to the concert, visit the Pepperdine University YouTube page.

Pepperdine University Seaver College will present the sixth annual ceremony Loqui: A Celebration of Diversity and Inclusive Excellence at Smothers Theatre on the Malibu campus on Friday, April 29, at 1 PM.

The event will be held one day before the spring 2016 commencement ceremony, and will feature a variety of student performances and presentations. Two graduating seniors who have demonstrated an active commitment to advancing institutional diversity and inclusion will receive the Bowers, Davis, and Todd Award for Leadership in Diversity and Inclusive Excellence.

The award nomination process encourages participation from students, faculty, and staff. Student nominees must meet several criteria, including being good role models to their peers, being rooted in a robust and active Christian faith commitment, and being highly regarded for their unusual service to advancing institutional diversity and inclusive excellence in the Pepperdine community. The awards are then presented to one male and one female senior.

Each year, Loqui honors those graduates and distinct cultures that shape the Pepperdine experience and deepen the community’s collective sense of belonging. The University roots its educational mission as a diverse learning community in the animating work of a triune God, whose perfect unity in diversity brings to life abundant meaning and significance.

This event is open to the Pepperdine community, and registration is required to attend. For additional information, visit the Seaver College website.

Craig Detweiler, professor of communication and creative director of the Institute for Entertainment, Media, and Culture at Pepperdine University, has been selected as Variety’s “Education Mentor of the Year” in the magazine’s 2016 Education Impact Report.

Both the nomination and win were a complete surprise to Detweiler, who credits the recognition to the dedicated film students he has worked with over the years.

“I’ve been blessed to have some really sharp students who studied under me, who have done very well all across the industry,” he reveals. “The award recognizes education and mentoring, and I’ve been honored to have some talented people to mentor.”

Detweiler explains that working as a university professor is about legacy, and that the focus is not so much on what professors accomplish, but rather on empowering students to do more and become more than they originally thought possible.

He is particularly proud of occasions when former students call him with the news that they have just received a Hollywood offer and need an agent, which he experienced earlier this year when alumnus Jeff Loveness (’10) won the Writers Guild Award for his comedy writing on Jimmy Kimmel Live: 10th Annual After the Oscars Special. Another notable moment for Detweiler was in 2015, when producer Taylor Johns (’12) was on the red carpet at the 87th annual Academy Awards to represent the film Last Days of Vietnam.

Detweiler also expresses gratitude toward fellow Pepperdine faculty members, saying it’s “an honor to work alongside those who have been tracking with students for decades in film and media, with people like Don Shores, Susan Salas, and Joi Carr, who have been investing in students for decades.”

Over the course of his career, Detweiler has authored, coauthored, and edited several books, including iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives (2013), worked with the Directors Guild of America, received multiple awards from nationally recognized institutions, and been featured on ABC's Nightline, CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, NPR, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.