Looking at "The Arts in America
Eileen Tate Cline vividly recalls the memorial service for Leonard Bernstein held at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. Cline, then dean of the Peabody Conservatory, was quite thrilled and surprised to be Hopkins' representative on that night.
    Cline says it was an extremely moving evening, resplendent with a who's who of the music and entertainment world. Yet the famous faces she encountered were not what made this night special for her. That moment came when Peabody's own pianist Leon Fleisher gave his performance.
    "He said, 'I'm going to play this piece in his memory.' Then he sat down and played a left-hand version of 'The Man I Love,'" Cline said. "He wasn't out there to say, 'I'm Leon Fleisher. I can play Bach, Beethoven, whatever.' But the point was, he played this wonderful and touching Gershwin number. It was one of the most powerful moments in my life."
    This "spirit" of artistic sincerity is something that deeply touches Cline. Full story...

Homewood honors its helping hands
A little more than 25 years ago, Larry Benedict, dean of Homewood Student Affairs, was about to embark on a career in teaching. In fact, he had already started to interview for various faculty positions when his life took a slight detour. Benedict, in his last year of graduate school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, needed financial support, and the school's dean of students, for whom Benedict had previously worked, told him he could help.
   "He called me and said, 'We liked you so much, why don't you come back and work for us?' " Benedict said.
   Benedict was hired to develop a telephone survey, similar to the Gallup Poll, that would randomly choose students and solicit their opinions about aspects of campus life. Benedict completed the project, a system that is still in place today, and spent the next 18 years at UMass working his way up to associate vice chancellor for student affairs.
   As a student employee, Benedict not only solved his financial situation but also learned some valuable skills that he would later turn into a career. Full story...

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