SUNY Potsdam Alumni Honor Dorothy Albrecht Gregory with Distinguished Service Award

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SUNY Potsdam President Dr. John F. Schwaller presents Dorothy Albrecht Gregory ’61 with the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from the College’s Alumni Association.

POTSDAM, NY (08/26/2011)(readMedia)-- The SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association recently honored Dorothy Albrecht Gregory, a member of the Class of 1961, with its 2011 Distinguished Service Award, at the College's annual Reunion Weekend.

The Distinguished Service Award is presented to an alumna or alumnus who has made exceptional contributions to the Alumni Association and/or the College. Gregory was honored for her extraordinary lifetime support of SUNY Potsdam and its Crane School of Music.

"Thank you very much to the association for this incredible honor," she said at the ceremony.

Dorothy Albrecht Gregory '61 has made a transformational gift to her alma mater, once again enabling students at The Crane School of Music to work with internationally renowned visiting conductors, and restoring the tradition of major Spring Festival choral works, through the establishment of a namesake visiting conductor fund.

On April 30, 2011, a capacity audience in Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall heard the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra perform under the baton of Maestro Helmuth Rilling, presenting a stirring performance of J.S. Bach's B-Minor Mass. Astonishingly, it was the largest ensemble Maestro Rilling had ever conducted for this choral masterpiece.

In 2012, Gregory's financial support will allow Crane students to perform Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem, under the direction of Ann Howard Jones, director of choral activities at Boston University and a long-time associate of the great Robert Shaw. During a time of financial challenges in higher education across the nation, Gregory stepped forward to ensure that Potsdam students have an education and performance experience that will remain with them forever.

Gregory was shaped by her own Potsdam experiences, the professors who taught her and the visiting conductors she sang under. In this 125th anniversary year for The Crane School of Music, Crane students are once again performing choral masterworks with visiting conductors.

Pleased and honored to give back to a place that had given her so much 50 years ago, Dorothy said she was "high as a kite and in need of adult supervision!" Her generosity has given SUNY Potsdam a gift of the past for the future.

To find out more about the 125th anniversary of SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

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Founded in 1816, and located on the outskirts of the beautiful Adirondack Park, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America's first 50 colleges. SUNY Potsdam currently enrolls approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its handcrafted education, challenging liberal arts and sciences core, excellence in teacher training and leadership in the performing and visual arts.

-www.potsdam.edu-