Published: September 30, 2006 12:00 am            

Five to be honored at chamber's annual Fall Arts Luncheon

For The Transcript

One lifts her voice in song for others who can't speak out. Another plays in a popular local band for relaxation and therapy. Another has had her creations used in movies and television series and hopes to do the same for other artists.

For another, public art is her passion because it gives something back to the community in terms of a life-affirming quality experience for every day life. Another, a professor at OU, fantasized about bringing The Beatles to his class and now plays in the band that opens for 1964 ? The Tribute.

Another, the manager of the computer operations division at Tinker, ignored an older brother's warning and learned to play using that brother's guitar. And finally, one has the technical ability to make performances more enjoyable for the audience.

The constant among these people is that they all are involved in making art a bigger part of our lives in Norman and all will be honored Thursday at the annual Fall Arts Luncheon, hosted by the Business and the Arts Committee of the Norman Chamber of Commerce. The luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom at the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

Tables of eight are available for $100 each and individual tickets are $12. Both may be purchased by calling the Chamber at 321-7260 before 5 p.m. Monday.

The 2006 honorees include Betty Sullivan, Danette Ward, Pamela Bradford, George Ryan and Midlife Crysis ? Carl Rath, Eldon Matlick, Steve Balduff and James Davis.

Sullivan is known locally for many things including her family's annual benefit performance for the Women's Resource Center. The 13th annual concert is scheduled for Dec. 23 at the Catlett Music Center on the OU campus. Sullivan and her husband, Jim, have raised eight children and four of them perform professionally. A fifth, a family practice physician, sings with the family at the annual WRC concert, other family performances, including three at New York City's Carnegie Hall, and "when asked." The family will again appear at Carnegie Hall this spring to celebrate Betty and Jim's wedding anniversary.

Ward has been a graphic designer, a marketing director and an interactive director managing 140 Web sites. Her art has been featured on "Legally Blonde 2," "Will and Grace," "The Bernie Mac Show," "Catwoman," "Raising Helen" and other television shows and movies. She has created handbags for Cirque du Soleil and the wives of the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL in addition to having handbags sold at department stores and showing up as prizes on a game show.

Her ultimate goal is to create a company that selects top artists in a community and state and then promote their art in movies and television shows as hers has been featured. Then, by using her marketing skills, she would like to help the featured artists become the most "sought after artists in the universe."

Bradford is a professional fine artist, illustrator and teacher. She owns an art studio, the Gingko Tree Art Center, and it houses two studios ? one for 2-D work and one for her 3-D mosaic art and design. Her husband, Steve, holds the John Saxon Chair of Ancient History in the history department at OU. The couple is working together on a book about pirates with Steve doing the writing and Pamela doing the illustrations. She has taught in the Norman Public Schools as a visiting artist and has created a number of mosaic murals in the schools and other public places. She began displaying an interest in art at a young age and her mother, also an artist, acted on her interest.

Ryan served as the PA announcer for The Pride of Oklahoma and later OU football games at Owen Field. He is an audio engineer, mixing and making sure the audience can enjoy the performances, whether it is a sporting event broadcast by ESPN or Fox Sports, musical theatre from the Lyric or the sounds of the OKC Philharmonic. Anyone who has been to a concert or musical in the Oklahoma City-Norman area or watched a Sooner football or basketball game on ESPN has experienced the purity of sound by Ryan.

He has begun teaching classes at OU in the Weitzenhoffer College of Fine Arts, passing his talents on to the next generation of audio engineers. He continues his teaching schedule despite travel all over the country to work for the networks of ESPN and Fox. He also has volunteered his talents since the beginning to do the audio production at the annual Sullivan Family Concert.

Rath, an associate professor of bassoon at OU, is the founding member of Midlife Crysis. He also is the principal bassoon for the OKC Philharmonic. While he dreamed of bringing The Beatles to his classes, he has been bringing 1964 ? The Tribute to Norman for 15 years.

Another OU professor of music, Matlick developed an interest in art as a 15-year-old. When he was a senior in high school, he began to get calls to play as an extra horn with the Louisville Orchestra. He spends his time these days teaching at OU and performing with the OKC Philharmonic, the Oklahoma Brass and Woodwind quintet and solo recitals in addition to his gigs as the bass guitarist with Midlife Crysis.

A pair of computer specialists complete the band. Balduff is a computer programmer at Tinker while Davis is the computer center manager for the defense information systems agency at Tinker. Davis learned to play the guitar when an older brother joined the Navy and was sent to Vietnam. The older brother left his guitar at home and warned the younger brother to stay away from the guitar while he was gone. And it was while older brother was gone that Davis learned to play the guitar. While he has had classical guitar training, it is popular music that Davis loves.

No one's inclusion in the group has the unique twist that Davis' has. "Carl (Rath), the founder of Midlife Crysis, created an auction item for a fund-raiser that included the opportunity to play with the group during a SummerWind concert," Davis explained. "My wife, Connie Smith, an accomplished pianist and OU staff member, had the winning bid. I played the gig with the band and was asked to stay. My wife sold me into this. My goal is to play better with the three professionals in the group. Opening each year for 1964 ? The Tribute is an honor."

        

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