ON CAMPUS AT OCC:

Orange Coast College’s Symphony Orchestra and 100-voice chorale will pay tribute to former OCC Chorale and Chamber Singers director Richard Raub on Nov. 17, with a performance of Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem” in Robert B. Moore Theatre on campus. The concert begins at 8 p.m.

Raub’s former students and chorale members are invited to perform in the concert. For participation information, phone (714) 432-5800.

Raub, an OCC music professor and choral director for 23 years, from 1970-93, died Oct. 5 following a long battle with leukemia. He was 74 and lived with his wife, Connie, in retirement in Colorado Springs.

Raub loved the challenge of preparing his OCC choral groups to sing great works of music by great composers.

He chose works rarely performed in Southern California, and was undaunted by the degree of difficulty of the work he selected.

“Known for building voices and character in his followers, Richard carried a torch of love and a demand for quality,” said Karen McBride, who taught music at OCC from 1979-93.

“In a time when the ordinary had become commonplace, Richard excelled at creating wonderful music and musicians. His influence will live in the lives of those who had the privilege of knowing him.”

OCC’s Symphony and Chorale are under the direction of OCC music professor Ricardo Soto.

“I knew Richard over the years and admired him greatly,” Soto said. “He was a wonderful musician and a consummate professional. His choirs were second to none. We’re thrilled to honor him with this concert.”

First performed in Vienna in 1867, the German Requiem is sacred but non-liturgical.

It derives its text from Martin Luther’s German Bible translation. “German” Requiem refers to the language of the work rather than its intended audience.

Concert tickets are priced at $10. For information, phone (714) 432-5880.

OCC HONORS FOUNDING FACULTY MEMBER

OCC will honor founding faculty member, Giles T. Brown, with a luncheon on campus on Nov. 14.

The luncheon will commemorate the naming of OCC’s 300-seat lecture hall — formerly known as the Forum — the Giles T. Brown Forum.

Brown, now 91 and a resident of Newport Beach, was an OCC charter faculty member and served as dean of the Social Sciences Division from 1948 through 1960.

He left OCC in the fall of 1960 to serve as chairman of the history department at California State University at Fullerton.

The Forum was the first large lecture hall built on campus. Construction began in 1959. Brown played a substantial role in its design.

When the Forum first opened in the spring of 1960, students referred to it as the “Brown Derby,” but in good nature.

The prank was an obvious reference to the Forum’s curved facade, which students felt resembled the famous Hollywood eatery. It also acknowledged the building’s originator.

Brown worked with the building’s architect, William Blurock and Associates, to create the likeness of a classic Greek theater with a semicircle of steep risers around a round podium.

Brown led a weekly evening world affairs lecture series in the facility from 1960 through 1991. The series was heavily subscribed.

ASTRONAUT BARBARA MORGAN SPEAKS AT OCC

Barbara Morgan, NASA’s first educator-astronaut, and former Idaho school teacher, will share her experiences as a crew member on last summer’s space shuttle mission during a presentation at OCC on Friday, Nov. 9.

The 90-minute presentation, which is free to the public, begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Robert B. Moore Theatre. For group reservations, phone (714) 432-0202, ext. 26238.

Morgan logged 305 hours in space last August as a mission specialist on the crew of STS-118, an assembly mission to the International Space Station.

JIM CARNETT is senior director of community relations at Orange Coast College. He writes the biweekly On Campus at OCC Column. Reach him at jcarnett@occ.cccd.edu or by calling (714) 432-5725.