The Voice

As a high school trumpet player, UUPer Ted Piltzecker collided with a tuba and dented his horn.

The “marching band accident,” as Piltzecker puts it, led him to the vibraphone and changed his life.

Piltzecker, an internationally-known vibraphone player, discovered the vibraphone—a xylophone-like percussion instrument with metal bars and motor-driven resonators for tone and vibrato—after bringing his trumpet to a music store for repair. He spied the vibes (short for vibraphone) and began playing it, impressing his parents so much that they got him one for Christmas.

Piltzecker, an associate professor at Purchase College, fell in love with the vibes and has been playing ever since.

Every year, SUNY and numerous academic and professional organizations honor hundreds of UUPers for top accomplishments in their disciplines, on campus and in their communities. The Voice is pleased to recognize four of these members here.

• Laura Kaminsky, a professor of music at Purchase State College and a world-renowned composer, recently took part in a two-week fellowship in Russia designed to help promote Russian culture in the U.S. The fellowship was awarded by the Likhachev Foundation.

• Roxana Pisiak, a professor of humanities at Morrisville State College, recently earned a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes professors who show scholarship and growth and a commitment to students.

• Patrick Regan, a professor of political science at Binghamton University, has written a new book, Sixteen Million One: Understanding Civil War (Paradigm, 2009). Regan draws from a decade of research on civil conflicts to explore the conditions that would drive individuals to take on the life of a rebel.