Yesterday I spent an hour with the wife, er, Associate of the new Chancellor. Mrs. Carol Block. Carol is a very warm person and welcomed me into the Chancellor’s Residence. Carol is a pianist, has a gorgeous new grand piano, and in her new home there is a perfect place for small intimate recitals or concerts. We chatted about the possibilities, and then I brought those back to Jackie Dje Dje (Chair of Ethnomusicology) and we came up with the following:

Students who would like to be considered for a 45 minute concert in the Chancellor’s residence should propose a concert to Alix Von Bosen no later than October 26, 2007. The faculty will suggest a pared down list for Mrs. Block and she will pick five programs, which will occur once a month, January through May for around 30 people.

She assumed that the audience would be music students. I suggested she open it up to the campus. For one concert, invite the staff and faculty from Nursing, and for the second, staff and administers from Murphy Hall, and so on. We’ll see how that works out. I thanked her for generously opening her home for such events. “Oh, it’s just sitting here anyway, it might as well be used!.” If the five month “season” works well, she will consider expanding it next year.

Welcome Carol Block, music lover and wife of the Chancellor!

[Roger Bourland, Professor and Chair UCLA Department of Music]