Rescheduled: Cokie Roberts Presents 'Shaping a Nation' a Talk about Women in Politics at Washington College

New Date: February 17

Chestertown, MD — It's startling now, when we've had women on the Supreme Court, a female Speaker of the House, women in the Cabinet, and a woman who nearly made it to the Presidency, to remember that, until very recently, women had little presence in the official corridors of power.

Yet women have exerted their influence on politics since our nation's beginning. In her best-selling books, Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty, ABC News and National Public Radio political analyst Cokie Roberts brings to life the extraordinary women who helped create the young United States of America. Roberts will share their stories and discuss more recent political events in "Shaping a Nation, Then and Now: A Conversation with Cokie Roberts" at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Tuesday, February 17, at 7:30 p.m.

"If we don't know what the women were up to at the time of the fight for independence and the founding of our country, we're missing half our history," Roberts told Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, after she'd published Founding Mothers. "Not only are we missing half our story, we're leaving out a part of history that is incredibly inspiring to girls and young women."

As a political journalist who grew up in Washington in the 1940s and 1950s, Cokie Roberts says she has long been interested in "the influence of women like my mother—married to Hale Boggs, my father, who had come to Congress when he was 26 and she was 24 back in 1941—and then the women that she associated with, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, Mrs. Albert Gore and Mrs. Gerald Ford. They were very influential in the community of Washington itself, working alongside the African American women who were here, and extremely influential in their husbands' campaigns and careers."

An award-winning journalist, Cokie Roberts has long been a familiar voice on National Public Radio, where she was the Congressional correspondent for more than 10 years and is now a senior news analyst. She was co-anchor of the popular weekly ABC interview program, "This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts," from 1996 to 2002. As chief congressional analyst for ABC News, she covered politics, Congress and public policy, providing reportage for "World News Tonight" and other ABC News broadcasts. With her husband, Steven V. Roberts, also a journalist, she writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column and is a contributing editor to USA Weekend. Together, they also wrote From This Day Forward, a book about their marriage and other marriages in American history.

Admission to "Shaping a Nation, Then and Now: A Conversation with Cokie Roberts," is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/810-7161.

About the C.V. Starr Center

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience explores our nation's history—and particularly the legacy of its Founding era—in innovative ways. Through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach, and especially by supporting and fostering the art of written history, the Starr Center seeks to bridge the divide between past and present, and between the academic world and the public at large. From its base in the circa-1746 Custom House along Chestertown's colonial waterfront, the Center also serves as a portal onto a world of opportunities for Washington College students. Its guiding principle is that now more than ever, a wider understanding of our shared past is fundamental to the continuing success of America's democratic experiment. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Setting Sail for College aboard an 18th-Century Schooner

Quill and Compass Program Launched

Chestertown, MD — A circa-1768 Royal Navy schooner is an unusual place to begin one's first year of college. But for Kevin Lynch and Charles Weisenberger, members of the class of 2012, the first lessons learned at Washington College were how to raise sails, coil ropes, and man the helm. Upon their arrival on campus in August 2008, they embarked on a three-day sailing adventure aboard the Schooner Sultana, a faithful recreation of a British revenue cutter that patrolled American waters before the Revolution. In addition to their new nautical skills, the students learned about Chesapeake history, maritime lore, and the natural environment of the Bay.

Lynch and Weisenberger are the inaugural recipients of the Quill & Compass Scholarships, a new program under the auspices of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. Awarded to outstanding students interested in exploring history and American studies here at one of the most historic colleges in the nation, the scholarships not only help pay recipients' tuition, but also open doors to some extraordinary adventures.

The Quill & Compass name symbolizes a distinctive approach to studying the past. The quill pen represents Washington College's excellence in teaching writing, and the Starr Center's dedication to the literary craft of history. The compass represents the many opportunities for students here to explore the world beyond the college gates—especially the surrounding Chesapeake region, one of America's richest historic areas.

The scholarships are funded by the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter 1; a recent $2.5 million challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities; Starr Center board member Thomas Stanley; and other supporters. Also participating are Washington College's Office of Admissions and Sultana Projects, Inc., which organized the sail. The Quill & Compass Program currently offers $6,000 scholarships ($1,500 annually for four years) and opportunities to take part in activities such as the Sultana trip, which was also open to other members of the class of 2012.

The grants will be awarded to two members of each year's incoming freshman class. In 2008, no fewer than 28 high-school seniors applied for the two available spots. "The caliber of applications this first year was astonishing," said Starr Center Associate Director Jill Ogline Titus, who chairs the selection committee. "We hope that further gifts will allow us to increase both the number and amount of the scholarships."

A native of Audubon, NJ, Kevin Lynch was the most enthusiastic student his history teacher at Audubon High had ever taught. He has continued that passion here. "Living in an area of such historical importance has significantly enhanced my interest in studying history," he says. "The combination of accomplished instructors, programs and activities at the Starr Center, and the history of the surrounding environment has made studying at Washington College an incredibly enjoyable experience that I doubt I would have had anywhere else."

Charles Weisenberger came to Chestertown from Nazareth, PA. He is a graduate of Nazareth High School, and participated in a prestigious summer leadership program at Columbia University. "The financial aspect of the Quill & Compass award is a nice benefit," he says. "But I appreciate more the opportunities it has already opened up for me as a first-year student—such as living aboard an 18th-century schooner, traveling along the escape routes of Harriet Tubman, and canoeing on a creek explored by Captain John Smith."

More information on the 2009 scholarships is available from the Starr Center or from Kevin Coveney, Vice President for Admissions and Enrollment Management (800-422-1782, ext. 7700; kcoveney2@washcoll.edu).

About the C.V. Starr Center

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience explores our nation's history—and particularly the legacy of its Founding era—in innovative ways. Through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach, and especially by supporting and fostering the art of written history, the Starr Center seeks to bridge the divide between past and present, and between the academic world and the public at large. From its base in the circa-1746 Custom House along Chestertown's colonial waterfront, the Center also serves as a portal onto a world of opportunities for Washington College students. Its guiding principle is that now more than ever, a wider understanding of our shared past is fundamental to the continuing success of America's democratic experiment. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Starr Center Donates 78 New Books to Miller Library

Chestertown, MD — America's first banking collapse, war, slavery and racism, women in politics—these are just some of the subjects, both timely and timeless, of 78 new books the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience donated this month to Washington College's Clifton Miller Library.

The books are copies of entries for the 2009 George Washington Book Prize, the $50,000 award given annually since 2005 for the best book on the founding era in American history. Three distinguished jurors have been heroically poring over all 78 volumes, selecting three finalists to be announced by President Baird Tipson at George Washington's Birthday Convocation on February 20.

The new gift, worth about $2,700, brings to 240 the number of books about the Revolutionary era that have been added to the Miller Library collection since the Prize was created in 2005. Publishers submit five copies of each entry for the prize. Each of the three jurors receives one, the Starr Center keeps one, and the fifth goes to Miller Library.

"It's wonderful to think that these books will be read by students and faculty for many years to come," said Adam Goodheart, the Starr Center's Hodson Trust-Griswold Director. "And not just by those studying history, either—these volumes span fields ranging from art and literature to women's studies and economics."

In 2005, when the Prize was new, the jurors gathered the entries themselves, but in 2006, the Starr Center started soliciting submissions from publishers, and submitted 30 books to the jurors. In 2007, 54 books were submitted. In 2008, the number climbed to 78 books. Coincidentally, there were 78 entries again this year. The books represent nearly every adult trade and academic book published in the past year on the founding era.

Administered by the Starr Center, the George Washington Book Prize is co-sponsored by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington's Mount Vernon.

Books Donated

Alderson, Robert J.; This Bright Era of Happy Revolutions: French Consul Michel-Ange-Bernard Mangourit and International Republicanism in Charleston, 1792-1794 (South Carolina) fifth shipment 10/29

Allen, W. B.; George Washington: America's First Progressive (Peter Lang) sixth shipment 11/13

Baer, Frederike; The Trial of Frederick Eberle: Language, Patriotism, and Citizenship in Philadelphia's German Community, 1790 to 1830 (NYU) fourth shipment 10/20

Bederman, David J.; The Classical Foundations of the American Constitution: Prevailing Wisdom (Cambridge) seventh shipment 12/2

Bordewich, Fergus M.; Washington: The American Capital (Amistad/HarperCollins) third shipment 10/13

Boulukos, George; The Grateful Slave: The Emergence of Race in Eighteenth-Century British and American Culture (Cambridge) seventh shipment 12/2

Brookhiser, Richard; George Washington on Leadership (Basic) first shipment 8/8

Brown, Meredith Mason; Frontiersman: Daniel Boone and the Making of America (Louisiana State) seventh shipment 12/2

Burk, Kathleen; Old World, New World: Great Britain and America from the Beginning (Atlantic Monthly Press) eighth shipment 12/19

Burrows, Edwin G.; Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War (Basic) seventh shipment 12/2

Carbone, Gerald M.; Nathanael Greene: A Biography of the American Revolution (Palgrave MacMillan), fourth shipment 10/20

Carr, J. Revell; Seeds of Discontent: The Deep Roots of the American Revolution, 1650-1750 (Walker) fourth shipment 10/20

Casper, Scott E.; Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon (Hill and Wang) first shipment 8/8

Cerami, Charles A.; Dinner at Mr. Jefferson's: Three Men, Five Great Wines, and the Evening that Changed America (Wiley) eighth shipment 12/19

Crawford, Alan Pell; Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson (Random) third shipment 10/13

Daughan, George C.; If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy—from the Revolution to the War of 1812 (Basic) first shipment 8/8

De Bolla, Peter; The Fourth of July and the Founding of America (Overlook), fourth shipment 10/20

DiLorenzo, Thomas J.; Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution—and What it Means for America Today (CrownForum/Random) third shipment 10/13

Dupont, Christian Y., and Peter Onuf; Declaring Independence: The Origin and Influence of America's Founding Document (Virginia) fifth shipment 10/29

Eustace, Nicole; Passion is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution (UNC/Omohundro) fourth shipment 10/20

Formisano, Ronald P.; For the People: American Populist Movements from the Revolution to the 1850s (UNC), fourth shipment 10/20/08

Goldstone, Lawrence; The Activist: John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, and the Myth of Judicial Review (Walker) fourth shipment 10/20

Gordon-Reed, Annette; The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Norton) second shipment 9/29

Halbrook, Stephen P.; The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms (The Independent Institute) sixth shipment 11/13

Hannings, Bud; Chronology of the American Revolution: Military and Political Actions Day by Day (McFarland) first shipment 8/8

Hayes, Kevin J.; The Mind of a Patriot: Patrick Henry and the World of Ideas (Virginia) third shipment 10/13

Hayes, Kevin J.; The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson (Oxford) second shipment 9/29

Hoffer, Peter Charles; The Treason Trials of Aaron Burr (Kansas) fifth shipment 10/29

Houston, Alan; Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement (Yale) fifth shipment 10/29

Kahler, Gerald E.; The Long Farewell: Americans Mourn the Death of George Washington (Virginia) third shipment 10/13

Kamensky, Jane; The Exchange Artist: A Tale of High-Flying Speculation and America's First Banking Collapse (Viking) second shipment 9/29

Kaminski, John P., ed; The Founders on the Founders: Word Portraits from the American Revolutionary era (Virginia) fourth shipment 10/20/08

Kaplan, Catherine O'Donnell; Men of Letters in the Early Republic (UNC/Omohundro) fourth shipment 10/20

Kauffman, Bill; Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin (ISI Books) sixth shipment 11/13

Kermes, Stephanie; Creating an American Identity: New England, 1789-1825 (Palgrave MacMillan) fourth shipment 10/20

Kowalski, Gary; Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America's Founding Fathers (BlueBridge) fifth shipment 10/29/08

Lanning, Michael Lee; The American Revolution 100: The People, Battles, and Events of the American War for Indpendence, Ranked by their Significance (Sourcebooks) sixth shipment 11/13

Lefkowitz, Arthur S.; Benedict Arnold's Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War (Savas Beatie) fifth shipment 10/29

Lockhart, Paul; The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army (Smithsonian/HarperCollins) third shipment 10/13

Luzader, John F.; Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution (Savas Beatie) fifth shipment 10/29

Matsuura, Jeffrey H.; Jefferson vs. the Patent Trolls: A Populist Vision of Intellectual Property Rights (Virginia) third shipment 10/13

May, Cedrick; Evangelism and Resistance in the Black Atlantic, 1760-1835 (Georgia) seventh shipment 12/2

McMichael, Andrew; Atlantic Loyalties: Americans in Spanish West Florida, 1785-1810 (Georgia) seventh shipment 12/2

Meyerson, Michael I.; Liberty's Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World (Basic) first shipment 8/8

Miller, Melanie Randolph; An Incautious Man: The Life of Gouverneur Morris (ISI Books) sixth shipment 11/13

Nash, Gary B., and Graham Russell Gao Hodges; Friends of Liberty, Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and Agrippa Hull: A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions, and A Tragic Betrayal of Freedom in the New Nation (Basic) first shipment 8/8

Nelson, James L.; George Washington's Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea (McGrawHill) fifth shipment 10/29

Nester, William R.; The Epic Battles for Ticonderoga, 1758 (SUNY) eighth shipment 12/19

Newman, Richard S.; Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers (NYU) fifth shipment 10/29

Nussbaum, Martha C.; Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality (Basic) first shipment 8/8

Patton, Robert H.; Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution (Pantheon), second shipment 9/26

Phelps, M. William; Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's) fifth shipment 10/29

Piecuch, Jim; Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South, 1775-1782 (South Carolina) fifth shipment 10/29

Puls, Mark; Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution (Palgrave/MacMillan) second shipment 9/29

Raab, James W.; Spain, Britain and the American Revolution in Florida, 1763-1783 (McFarland) first shipment 8/8

Remini, Robert V.; Andrew Jackson: A Biography (Palgrave/MacMillan) sixth shipment 11/13

Reno, Linda Davis; The Maryland 400 in the Battle of Long Island, 1776 (McFarland) seventh shipment 12/2

Roberts, Cokie; Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (Morrow) sixth shipment 11/13

Roberts, Priscilla H. and Richard S.; Thomas Barclay (1728-1793): Consul in France, Diplomat in Barbary (Lehigh) sixth shipment 11/13

Rust, Marion; Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women (UNC/Omohundro) fourth shipment 10/20

Shannon, Timothy J.; Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier (Viking) seventh shipment 12/2

Silver, Peter; Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America (Norton) first shipment 8/8

Slaughter, Thomas P.; The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of Abolition (Hill and Wang) second shipment 9/29

Smith, Digby, and Kevin F. Kiley; The American Revolutionary War: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms from 1775-1783 (Lorenz) second shipment 9/29

Spring, Matthew H.; With Zeal and with Bayonets Only: The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783 seventh shipment 12/2

Stoll, Ira: Samuel Adams: A Life (Free Press) seventh shipment 12/2

Stuart, Nancy Rubin; The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (Beacon) second shipment 9/29

Swisher, James K.; The Revolutionary War in the Southern Backcountry (Pelican) fifth shipment 10/29

Thompson, Mary V.; "In the Hands of a Good Providence": Religion in the Life of George Washington (Virginia) fifth shipment 10/29

Truxes, Thomas M.; Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York (Yale) third shipment 10/13

Waldman, Steven; Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America (Random) second shipment 9/29

Walker, Frank; John Paul Jones: Maverick Hero (Casemate) seventh shipment 12/2

Wilensky, Mark; The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine (Savas Beatie) second shipment 9/29

Williams, Tony; Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution (Sourcebooks) sixth shipment 11/13

Willig, Timothy D.; Restoring the Chain of Friendship: British Policy and the Indians of the Great Lakes, 1783-1815 (Nebraska) eighth shipment 12/19

Wills, Chuck; Thomas Jefferson, Architect (Running Press) eighth shipment 12/19

Woodfield, Denis B., et al; From Oratory to Scholarship: Two Centuries of Talks on the American Revolution Given before the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey (Virginia) third shipment 10/13

Wright, Robert E.; One Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe (McGraw Hill) sixth shipment 11/13

'African Women and Colonialism' Discussed at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Washington College's Conrad M. Wingate Lecture in History presents "African Women and Colonialism: Suppression or Empowerment?"—a talk by Dr. Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, Distinguished Professor of History Emerita, University of Colorado, Boulder, at Litrenta Lecture Hall on Wednesday, February 4, at 4:30 p.m.

McIntosh has an A.B. in early modern European history from Radcliffe College, an M.A. in African history from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in early modern English history from Harvard. She is the author of Working Women in English Society, 1300-1620 and several other works on early modern life, thought and society published by Cambridge University Press.

She is co-author, with Grace Bantebya Kyomuhendo, of Women, Work & Domestic Virtue in Uganda, 1900-2003 (Ohio University Press, 2006), winner of the 2007 Aidoo-Snyder Scholarly Book Prize awarded by the African Studies Association for the best scholarly book on African women.

McIntosh's latest work is Yoruba Women, Work, and Social Change, forthcoming from Indiana University Press in spring 2009.

In addition to her long affiliation with the University of Colorado, Boulder, McIntosh was Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, East Africa, in 2002-3

The Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture in History is held in honor of the late Conrad Meade Wingate '23, brother of late Washington College Visitor Emeritus Phillip J. Wingate '33 and the late Carolyn Wingate Todd.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to "African Women and Colonialism: Suppression or Empowerment?" is free and open to the public.

'King Corn' Filmmaker Visits Washington College for Screening of Acclaimed Documentary

Chestertown, MD — The Center for Environment & Society at Washington College invites you to bring a bag of popcorn (if you dare) and join filmmaker Ian Cheney for a screening and discussion of his acclaimed documentary "King Corn" at Litrenta Lecture Hall on Tuesday, January 27, at 7 p.m.

This feature documentary raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm. Released in 2007, the film was hailed by the Boston Globe as an "enormously entertaining moral, socio-economic odyssey through the American food industry."

Behind America's hamburgers and 72-ounce sodas is a key ingredient that quietly fuels our fast-food nation: corn.

In "King Corn," recent college graduates Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis leave the East Coast and move to the nation's heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant one acre of Iowa soil and grow a bumper crop of America's most-planted, most-processed, most-subsidized grain.

But when they try to follow their harvest into the food system, they uncover the devastating impact that corn is having on the environment, public health, and family farms. Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high-fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to the screening of "King Corn" with filmmaker Ian Cheney is free and open to the public. For more information, visit ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7161.

Ted Widmer to Discuss His New Book, 'Ark of the Liberties,' at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Ted Widmer, founding director of Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, returns to campus on January 28 to speak about his provocative and engaging new book, Ark of the Liberties: America and the World. A former foreign policy speechwriter and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, Widmer currently directs the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

The talk will take place at the College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Wednesday, January 28, at 4:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public. A booksigning will follow the lecture.

Ark of the Liberties is a cautionary tale about the powerful notion of "American exceptionalism"—the belief that America has a unique destiny and role as the dispenser of liberty—and the way that credo has influenced foreign policy throughout our history. Widmer's text is both serious and entertaining, and brims with fascinating and witty digressions, as well as literary allusions; the title of the book itself comes from a line in White Jacket, an adventure story by Herman Melville: "And we Americans are the peculiar, chosen people—the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world."

Writing in the Washington Post, historian David M. Kennedy described Widmer's book as "an old-fashioned jeremiad" in which he uses "the lantern of history to illuminate an increasingly menacing future." Widmer is well suited to ponder both past and future—his previous books include Martin Van Buren; Campaigns: A Century of Presidential Races, which he co-authored with Alan Brinkley; and Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. In addition, he edited the two-volume American Speeches anthology published by the Library of America, and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The New York Observer, and The American Scholar.

At Washington College Widmer helped launch the C.V. Starr Center in 2000, and during the six years of his stewardship established many if its major programs, including the annual George Washington Book Prize, which, in conjunction with Mount Vernon and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, awards $50,000 to the author of the best book each year on the nation's founding era.

Washington College 2008-2009 Concert Series Continues with Acclaimed Saxophone Quartet

Chestertown, MD — The 57th season of the Washington College Concert Series continues with a performance by the acclaimed ViM Saxophone Quartet at the Norman James Theatre on Saturday, January 24, at 8 p.m.

The multiple award-winning ViM Saxophone Quartet has been thrilling concert audiences across the U.S. and Canada over the past two seasons. Recent concert highlights include a performance at the 2007 Music Teachers' National Assocation (MTNA) National Convention Winners Rectial in Toronto, Ontario, as well as an appearance as soloists with the Eastman Wind Ensemble in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Micheal Colgrass's Urban Requiem for saxophone quartet and wind ensemble.

ViM was awarded the Gold Medal at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions in Notre Dame, Indiana, America's premier educational chamber music competition, where they were also the youngest group among all competitors.

In the 2005/06 MTNA Collegiate Chamber Music Competition, ViM won both the New York State and Eastern U.S. Divisional auditions en route to capturing First Prize in the National Finals in Austin, Texas.

Since their formation in the fall of 2003, ViM has appeared in numerous international saxophone events, including those of the North American Saxphone Alliance (NASA) and the U.S. Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium.

The 2008-2009 Washington College Concert Series will continue with performances by soprano Louise Toppin on February 13 and the Attacca String Quartet on April 17.

All concerts are held at the College's Norman James Theatre in William Smith Hall. Single tickets can be purchased at the door — $15 for adults, $5 for youth and students. For more information, call 410/778-7839.