EUGENE–Anne Dhu McLucas, dean of the University of Oregon School of Music, is recipient of the Eugene Arts & Letters Award for 2000.

Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey will present the award to McLucas on Saturday, March 11, at the opening of the Lane Arts Council’s 16th annual Heart of the Arts celebration. The public is invited to attend a reception beginning at 4 p.m. in the lobby of the Hult Center, One Eugene Centre, followed by the Heart of the Arts Awards from 5—6 p.m. in the Soreng Theatre.

The Eugene Arts & Letters Award is given to recognize and honor "persons and/or organizations, past and present, who have contributed to the enrichment of Eugene’s cultural life through their involvement in the Arts & Letters." Established in 1982 by Lee and Hester Bishop, the Eugene Arts & Letters Award continues to be sponsored by the Bishop Endowment, which is now a subfund of the Arts Foundation of Western Oregon (AFWO) Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.

Previous recipients of the award have included such artistic leaders and organizations as Marin Alsop, Horace Robinson, Ed Ragozzino, The Oregon Bach Festival, Royce Saltzman, Barry Lopez, LaVerne Krause, The Oregon Mozart Players and The Very Little Theatre.

McLucas receives the 2000 award "in recognition of and appreciation for her dynamic leadership, creativity and vision," according to Jan Gallagher, AFWO Fund coordinator.

Since arriving in 1992 as the newly appointed dean of the UO School of Music, McLucas has shown boundless energy, intellect and commitment in leading the music school to even higher levels of excellence, Gallagher says. She also has encouraged UO music faculty and students to be an active part of the greater arts scene.

McLucas began a Community Music Institute, serving children of the greater Eugene area (ages 2 to 18) with fine music instruction and class experiences. That institute currently enrolls more than 175 non-university students. She has fostered joint ventures with the Eugene Symphony, Eugene Opera and the Oregon Festival of American Music, and has further strengthened the school’s internationally acclaimed Oregon Bach Festival.

By serving on committees, boards of directors and advisory boards, McLucas has helped forge productive partnerships between a number of leading arts organizations. She has been a member of the boards of directors for Eugene Opera, the Oregon Festival of American Music and the Oregon Bach Festival, and has served on arts-oriented ad hoc committees such as ArtsPlan and the Eugene Cultural Services Advisory Committee for the Hult Center.

In 1997, McLucas invited the Oregon Symphony for a residency, co-sponsored with the Eugene Symphony and the University of Oregon Foundation. She also co-sponsored with the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts a two-week Martin Luther King celebration in 1996.

She encouraged the School of Music to host regional and national meetings that brought visibility to Eugene as well as the university. These events included the Orlando di Lasso Conference in 1994, the International Horn Conference in 1996, the National Meeting of the Society of Dane Historians in 1998 and regional meetings of the American Musicological Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the College Music Society and the Northwest Theory Conference, all within the past five years.

In professional academic circles, McLucas has been an officer in several national organizations. She was president of the Sonneck Society for American Music (1997-99) and of The College Music Society (1990-92), council member for the Society for Ethnomusicology, and chair of the Annual Program Committee for the American Musicological Society’s 50th Anniversary Meeting, as well as editorial board member for that organization’s journal. She was editor-in-chief of College Music Symposium from 1993-96 and review editor for Ethnomusicology, 1990-93. In December 1997 at the 73rd annual meeting of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), McLucas was elected to the board of directors as chair of region to serve for a three-year term.

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