N N IAL CEL O - Youngstown State University

Hip
Musicians at YSU?
You Bet There Are.
For Joe Lovano, Grammy Award-winning jazz
saxophonist, life can be summed up in one sentence –
“people who are hip are hip.”
And to Lovano, David Morgan, a YSU associate professor of
jazz studies since 2001, is definitely “hip.”
Morgan was recently commissioned by the Cleveland Jazz
Orchestra to compose a 50-minute suite featuring Lovano, as
well as arrange several of Lovano’s original compositions.
Since the late 1990s, Morgan, who earned a doctorate of
musical arts from the University of Texas in 1996, has been
playing with and writing for the Jazz Unit, a subset of the CJO, as
well as with the main orchestra.
The piece for Lovano, titled “The Surprise of Being,”
premiered in November 2005 at the Cleveland Bop
Stop and was performed next in July 2006 at
Birdland, a famous jazz club in New York. A
CD, titled “The Surprise of Being: Live at
Birdland,” a live recording of the four gigs at
the club has been released and is available at
cdbaby.com.
“I’ve had the opportunity to play with
many people in the music business,” said
Morgan, a Cleveland native. “But Lovano is
really special – he is the Zen master of improvisation.
It was a huge honor for him to want to
take the piece to the Birdland.”
Morgan’s honors don’t start and stop
with Lovano. In 2003, he won an
Award of Achievement from
Northern Ohio Live magazine
for transcribing the music of
Frank Zappa, which was performed
at the TriC Jazz Fest
in 2002. “Three Vignettes
for Alto Saxophone and
Orchestra,” another one
of Morgan’s pieces, was
recorded by Beethoven
Festival Orchestra of Krakow,
Poland, this year and released
internationally.
Most recently, Morgan was
commissioned to write a piece for the
American Wind Symphony Orchestra, which
was premiered at the Yale Festival of Ideas in
June 2007.
David Morgan
Associate Professor of Jazz Studies
In MeMorIaM
Robert K. Herbert
Around
C A M P U S
YSU Campus and Beyond
Harry Meshel of Youngstown, former Ohio State
Senator and former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party,
has been appointed to a nine-year term on the YSU Board of
Trustees by Gov. Ted Strickland.
Meshel, a 1949 graduate of Youngstown College with a
bachelor’s degree in business administration, replaces William
Bresnahan, whose term expired in May.
“Harry Meshel has served as one of YSU’s finest ambassadors
for more than a half century,” YSU President David
C. Sweet said. “We look forward to Mr. Meshel’s continued
work on behalf of the university.”
Meshel, who also taught at YSU, said he is honored to
be appointed. “I have a long love and a great deal of affection
for YSU over many, many years, as a student, a teacher and a
supporter,” he said. “The university is an important asset for
Youngstown and the entire region, and I look forward to serving
it now in this new role as trustee.”
A Youngstown native, Meshel was Student Council
president while at YSU. In 1950, he earned a master’s degree
in urban land economics from Columbia University.
YSU mourned the death this
summer of Dr. Robert K. Herbert,
YSU provost and vice president for
academic affairs, who drowned in July
while vacationing with family in Costa
Rica.
“Strong advocacy for academic
standards, integrity, effective leadership,
and commitment to student
Robert K. Herbert
success were hallmarks of his tenure at
YSU,” said YSU President David C. Sweet.
Herbert was married to Dr. Barbara Nykiel-Herbert, a
faculty member in YSU’s English Department. They have
two sons, Ian and Sebastian, and a daughter, Veronica.
Bob’s love for and pride in his family were evident to all
who knew him.
Herbert became YSU’s provost in July 2005. His
legacy to YSU includes the development of a comprehensive
Academic Strategic Plan, the continued development
of the Youngstown Early College, and the creation
of two new colleges: the College of Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the College of
Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS). The new colleges
are the focus of the cover story of this edition of the
YSU Magazine.
Before coming to YSU, Dr. Herbert served as dean
of liberal arts at Stephen F. Austin State University in
Nacogdoches, Texas, and chairperson of the Department
of Anthropology at the State University of New York in
Binghamton. He had taught at institutions throughout the
world, and his extensive scholarly work on linguistics and
South African languages achieved national and international
recognition.
A native of Long Island, N.Y., Herbert received a
bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Queens College (City
University of New York), a master’s degree and Ph.D.
in linguistics from Ohio State University, and a master’s degree
in higher education administration from the University
of Michigan.
He will be missed by friends and colleagues not only at
YSU, but throughout the world.
In 1970, Meshel was elected to the
Ohio Senate from the 33rd district, serving
until 1993. From 1993 to 1995, he was the
chair of the Ohio Democratic Party.
Meshel is a member of the YSU
President’s Council and has endowed five
scholarships as well as an endowed award
in Greek language at the YSU Foundation.
In 1977, he received an honorary doctor
of humane letters from YSU and spoke at Harry Meshel
summer commencement.
In 1986, due to his efforts to secure funds for construction
of YSU’s new technology center, the university named
the building Meshel Hall.
Meshel also was instrumental in the establishment of
the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in
Rootstown and the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry
and Labor.
A delegation from YSU, led by President David C.
Sweet, visited China and Taiwan from May 21 to June 6 to
develop new and stronger academic ties and opportunities
with universities in the region.
Wen Fang Yen, the president of Lunghwa University,
who was part of the delegation that visited YSU in April,
formally invited Sweet to visit his university.
Sweet also received a formal invitation from Lin Zhengfan,
president of Hangzhou Normal University in Hangzhou,
China, who visited YSU in January 2006.
Youngstown State University
Summer 2007 9