Council on the Arts Awards Student Prizes
Each year the Council on the Arts, a standing committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recognizes undergraduate excellence in the arts with four arts prizes as administered by the Office for the Arts.
The Louis Sudler Prize, established at Harvard in 1983, goes to the graduating senior demonstrating the most outstanding artistic talent and achievement in the composition of performance of music, drama, dance, or the visual arts, and honors the sum of a student’s activities at Harvard, rather than a single project. On Saturday, May 2nd, the Sudler Prize was presented at the President’s ARTS FIRST reception to Hazel Dean Davis ’03 (Music) and Roberto Pacho Velez ’03 (Visual Arts). Each received a cash award of $1000.
A resident of Cabot House, Hazel Dean Davis is recognized for her extraordinary musicianship. A French horn player, she has been a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) during all four of her undergraduate years. She has also performed with the Bach Society Orchestra (soloist, Britten’s “Serenade,” 2001), the Harvard Mozart Society Orchestra, and the Harvard Brandenberg Orchestra. She has served as the personnel manager of the HRO since 2000. Outside of Harvard, Davis has participated in the Aspen Music Festival (2001) and was a Tanglewood Fellow (2002). She has studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra principal horn player James Somerville. Thinking back on what she enjoyed most about being involved in the arts while at Harvard, Davis says, “The intelligent and diverse artists. The multi-talented student body is what makes Harvard so exciting. The musicians are not only great artists but also extremely intelligent and interested in many things. Some of my best Harvard memories involve the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.”
Roberto Pacho Velez, an affiliate of Cabot House, has been awarded the Sudler Prize in recognition of his talent as a documentary filmmaker. A VES concentrator, Velez’s films have been screened at both national and international festivals including the New England Film Festival (2003), Croatia Human Rights Film Festival (2003, and the Seoul Korea Labor Film Festival (2002). In 2000, Velez received a grant from the Harvard College Research Project to direct a 30-minute film, “Out for Summer” (2001), documenting the lives of families living in New York City’s public housing developments. In 2002, Velez directed “Occupation,” which investigated the living wage campaign at Harvard. His most recent work, “Orphans of Mathare” (2003), received the Rosa Luxembourg Prize for Humanitarian Filmmaking and was screened this past March at the Harvard Film Archive. When considering what winning the Louis Sudler Prize means to him Velez says, “I was happy, because very often it feels like the arts exist only on the margins of the College. I think it is important to support the arts, in particular their ability to promote the spirit of dissent and alternative interpretations of experience.”
Daniel Cozzens ’03 and Elizabeth Little ’03, are co-recipients of the Louise Donovan Award, which recognizes Harvard students who have done outstanding work behind the scenes (e.g., as a director, producer, or set designer), contributing to the success of a production and the opportunity for others to shine. The award is given in honor of Louise Donovan, who was a role model of unselfish, effective support throughout her career at Radcliffe College.
An affiliate of Pforzheimer House, Daniel Cozzens has been contributing to the Harvard theater community since his freshman year. He served as the Managing Co-Producer for Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theater (HRST) Experimental Theater Coordinator for two seasons, and, most recently, as HRDC President. During his term as HRDC President he established an American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) Assistant Directing Observers program that provided student directors with the opportunity to observe the direction of A.R.T. mainstage shows, oversaw a series of workshops provided to HRST and HRDC members by A.R.T. company members, and worked to enhance available technical support provided for Loeb Experimental Theater productions.
Cozzens also served as Production Associate for the fall 2002 workshop of the A.R.T.’s production of Highway Ulysses and has directed for the Hyperion Shakespeare Company, including their highly successful Spring 2002 outdoor production of Macbeth at Hilles Library Courtyard. This spring, Cozzens served as Sound Designer for the Loeb Experimental production of The Dybukk. He has supplemented his supportive work in theater with appearances as an actor in several student productions.
When asked what he enjoyed the most about being involved in the arts while at Harvard, he replied, “My involvement in theater has enabled me to meet a very diverse group of people, get to know them, and figure out how to work with them in a truthful and constructive way. Theater also combines diverse academic and practical disciplines and bodies of knowledge. Few classes here have been able to provide me with such an intellectual and experiential fusion.”
A resident of Winthrop House, Elizabeth Little held “behind the scenes” positions, including producer, set designer, and technical director, for almost 20 Harvard theater productions. These included, The Marriage of Figaro (Dunster House Opera), The Mikado and Patience (Harvard and Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players), and Reckless (Loeb Experiment Theater). In addition, Little served as a proctor for the Freshman Arts Program, technical director for the Freshman Theater Program, and worked as a shop assistant for the Agassiz Theatre. She also served on the Board of Directors for the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players, and currently serves on the Executive Board of the Harvard Theatre Advisory Group. This spring, Little’s set designs were seen on the Loeb Mainstage for the HRDC production of Richard III. When asked about her experiences in theater at Harvard, little responded, “The time I’ve spent in the theater, building or designing or painting, has managed to keep me sane in times of academic stress, has allowed me to mature intellectually in ways that are not at all encouraged in the classroom, and has given me the chance to work with some of the most incredibly talented and passionate people I have ever met. Theater is a fundamentally collaborative art and it has allowed me to work with and learn from other students far more than any class I have taken. Unlike in any seminar, in theater, collaboration isn’t just encouraged – it’s required.”
Shelby Braxton Brooks ’03 is the recipient of the Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Prize. The prize recognizes a Harvard College student who combines talent and energy with outstanding enthusiasm for musical theater at Harvard and honors the memory of Doris Cohen Levi, a member of the Radcliffe class of 1935.
A resident of Mather House, Shelby Braxton-Brooks is a member of the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, Sisters of Kuumba and the Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Company. She has appeared in Harvard theater productions including Jesus Christ Superstar and played the lead role in Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Agassiz Theater. She has choreographed pieces for the Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Company, Kuumba Singers, The Black Arts Festival, Freshman Musical (Star-Crossed Dressers, 2000), and for Loeb Experimental performances (Ex-Rated, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf: A Choreopoem). Her pieces have also been featured in the Office for the Arts Dance Program’s spring dance showcase, Dancer’s Viewpointe and Segue!…A Celebration of Students and the Arts, the first official event in the inauguration of Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers. Braxton-Brooks’ directing credits include the 2002 Black Arts Festival (Roots & Revision) and Against the Grain (co-director) at the Loeb Mainstage. Last month, Braxton-Brooks’ piece “Xerophilous” was performed at the New England Regional American College Dance Festival at Plymouth State College in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
When asked about her impression of the arts at Harvard, Braxton-Brooks said, “Until recently, I felt that artistic disciplines were very segregated here. I love theater, dance, music, and visual art. I graduated from a performing arts high school where collaboration was the norm and it seemed to be the exception at Harvard. It was hard for me to pursue my interests because none of them overlapped in the vast extracurricular world of Harvard University. However, within the last year or so there has been a change in this phenomenon. Different student organizations are beginning to collaborate, more performance theory courses are finding their way into the curriculum, and the dance department has witnessed an unprecedented revival. In short, wonderful things are happening here and I’m glad I was present to witness them.”
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