Students from past, present contribute to inaugural memento

November 13, 2008

Two artists have joined together to create a piece of art to commemorate the inauguration of Richard Telfer as the 15th chancellor of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. A recent alumnus and a current senior were commissioned to compose music for the event and to design a CD cover that holds it.

“Atlas” was composed by Elon Arbiture, who graduated in spring 2007 with a degree in multimedia production and is currently pursuing his master’s in film scoring at Columbia College Chicago. On the back of the CD cover, there is information about how the piece came to be; “The work was scored for brass, strings and percussion and is performed by an ensemble of UW-Whitewater faculty and students. The energetic music, built on two main motifs, builds gradually toward a powerful conclusion and near the end a sly reference to UW-Whitewater’s ‘Warhawk Fight Song’ glimmers through the texture.” 

“My only instruction for the piece was to keep it celebratory and triumphant,” Arbiture said. “I tend to gravitate toward such music anyway because it represents achievement and ambition, both qualities I admire very strongly in people, and it's fitting for the inauguration.”

Arbiture titled the piece after Atlas, the Greek god who supported the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Anything can be accomplished with enough willpower and I wanted to try to capture that in the piece,” Arbiture said. “I feel the music has a strong, uncompromising sense of purpose, the same way a chancellor is at a university.”

The CD cover was created by senior art major Jessica Menke. “I wanted to make the artwork uplifting and exciting,” Menke said. “Because when I talked to Chancellor Telfer, that was the way he described his ideas for the direction of the university.”

The CD cover unfolds much like a map, which is one of the many features found in the artwork that center around the atlas theme. There is also a picture of the sculpture outside the University Center, which points upward, another symbol of the Telfer chancellorship. “All over the piece things are pointing up,” Menke said. “This symbolizes the direction of the university.”

Arbiture and Menke were honored to have been selected to work on the inauguration memento. “I’ve been given opportunities here that I could have never imagined and this is just the latest,” Menke said. “I am extremely grateful and proud to have worked on this piece.”

Arbiture was glad for the opportunity to work on the project. “I'm excited for the ceremony,” he said. “I hope I was able to do the event justice.”