MSU President's Column for Traill County Tribune

March 26, 2016 

Join us for the multicultural festival planned for April 4

 

We cordially invite you to participate in a multicultural festival, a celebration of diversity and heritage of our campus and community, at Mayville State University Monday, April 4, 2016. An international food fair is planned in the MSU Campus Center Luckasen Room. It will begin at 6 p.m. An Andinacion concert featuring Luis Muñoz and Josue Trelles, will begin at 7 p.m. in the MSU Classroom Building Auditorium. The festival is being hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Mayville State. Everyone is welcome!

The international food fair will be held in the MSU Campus Center Luckasen Room, beginning at 6 p.m. Those who attend will have the opportunity to purchase tickets so that they may sample international cuisine representing a number of different countries. While sampling food, participants will also be able to learn about countries represented by Mayville State University students.

An Andinacion concert, featuring Luis Muñoz and Josue Trelles, will begin in the Classroom Building Auditorium at 7 p.m. Andinacion comes from the Andes, a range of highlands in South America. There is no charge to attend the concert.

Luis Muñaz is a Swedish citizen who was born and raised in Chile. His musical training includes Ljugskile Music Academy, Academy of Music and Drama, and the Royal Music Academy, all located in Sweden. He plays wind instruments like quena zampoña, cuatro venezolano, and charango. These instruments are native from the Andean region.

Luis has performed with Lecheburre, Grupo Huara (child), Andinacion, Corazonado, Golbang, Solid Gospel, Cressento, Josue Trelles, John Jatta, Alban Faust-Jorge, Alcaide, Dianel Reed, Johan Björklund, Jenny Almsenius, Charlie Storm, Euiadne, and Fishermanand. He teaches at Vittra School in Gothenburg, Sweden and continues to be a freelance musician and lecturer at different universities in Sweden.

Josue Trelles is a Swedish citizen who was born and raised in Peru. He graduated from the world music program at Gothenburg University in 2004. He plays chromatic, diatonic pan flute and several other flutes from around the world. His interest in improvisation of world music has taken him to India, where he studied classical Indian music.

Josue has performed and conducted workshops in India, Iraq, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and the United States. In Sweden, he has been part of the cultural movement in which he is a promoter of integrating international music into the Swedish culture.

He attends the teaching education program at Gothenburg University and is a full-time music teacher at Lövgärdeskolan in Angered, Gothenburg.

You won’t want to miss this opportunity to experience other cultures. We invite you to join us for the entire festival, where we’ll promote cultural recognition and respect, celebrate the diversity of our campus and the community, and honor our community’s heritage and diversity. If you have questions, please feel free to contact Dina Zavala-Petherbridge at dina.petherbridge@mayvillestate.edu. Dina is Mayville State’s director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

On another topic, you may recall that Mayville State is working to develop a new strategic plan, along with core values and a mission statement to complement the plan. We ask for input from our stakeholders, as it is critical to defining our future direction. Please take a few minutes to give your input via the core values survey at www.mayvillestate.edu/corevalues. It will take no more than five to ten minutes to complete the survey, and it is completely anonymous. The survey will be open until April 2. We greatly value your thoughts. Thank you in advance for participating.