Mrs. Martha O’Brien
Title: Dean of General Education, Instructor of Music
School: Arts & Letters
Academic Department: Fine Arts
Phone: 814-472-3215
E-mail: mobrien@francis.edu
Office Location: Museum 14
Education
- A.B.: Wilson College Chambersburg, PA 1965 Major - Fine Arts Minor - French Non-degree study:1) Conservatoire National de Musique Paris, France 1965-6 Studies in voice 2) La Sorbonne Paris, France 1966-7 Courses in Medieval Art
- M.A.: Indiana University of PennsylvaniaIndiana, PA1988Concentration - Music Theory and Composition
Biography
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1977-present:
Lecturer in/Instructor of Music
Saint Francis College (now Saint Francis University)
Loretto, PA
May 1997-Dec. 1999:
Dean of General Education
Saint Francis College
Loretto, PA
March 2005-July 2005
Interim Associate Dean of General Education (part time)
Saint Francis University
Loretto, PA
July 2005-present
Dean of General Education
SELECTED CAMPUS SERVICE
General Education Committee—several terms
Readers' Forum and Summer Book Selection group
Music Director: Sesquicentennial Opening Mass -- Fall 1996
Baccalaureate Mass -- 1997-1999; 2005-2008
Alumni Weekend Mass -- Summer 1997
Sesquicentennial Solemn Mass -- Fall 1997
Sesquicentennial Closing Mass -- December 1997
Mass of Thanksgiving for Fr. Gabriel’s inauguration—Fall 2004
First-Year Advisor--1997-2005; 2008
Faculty Advisor to the B.R.I.D.GE. Project (the university’s Haiti outreach)
Day of Reflection Committee—every year since its inception
Academic Restructuring Task Force (2006-07)
Academic Strategic Planning Task Force (2007-08)
Diversity Strategic Planning Task Force (2007-08)
Christian Culture Task Force (2008)
New Faculty Orientation presenter (2006-08)
Distance Education Task Force (2006-08)
SELECTED COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Past: 1) Johnstown Symphony Chorale--1970s
Member and soloist
2) Music Reviewer--1980s
Johnstown Tribune-Democrat
3) Director of a play for the local Bi-Centennial Festival--1976
4) Board of Directors; Talus Rock Girl Scout Council
Member--1970-76; 1st VP--1976-82; President--1982-88
5) Girl Scout Camp Director (resident and day camps)--1969-73
6) Trainer - special music session--1982
Nuestra Cabana, International Center of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
Cuernavaca, Mexico
7) Support Staff (mainly informal interpretation)
World Conference of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
8) Founder and Director - Holy Name Women's Choir
Holy Name Church, Ebensburg, PA
9) Seasonal Volunteer: DDC
10) Interpreter and teacher for various mission trips to Haiti
Present: 1) Board of Directors
Kindred Journey, Inc. (a mission outreach to Hinche, Haiti)
2) Member: Women’s Choir—Holy Name Church
3) Involvement in planning and implementation of “Peace from Pole to Pole” peace walk (2005-2008
4) Girl Scout leader (2007-present)
SELECTED PERFORMANCES, PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
1) On-campus concerts -- at least one per semester
2) Joint concert with Mount Aloysius—April 2008
3) Producer of 3 tapes of Haitian religious music composed and performed by the Petits Frères et les Petites Soeurs de l’Incarnation, including liner notes and/or trilingual booklet.
4) Presentation: “Sister Emmanuelle Victor’s Haitian Rhythms”—Festival of Women Composers—Indiana University of Pennsylvania—March 2001
5) “A Feminine Voice in Contemporary Haitian Roman Catholic Religious Music: The Songs of Petite Soeur Emmanuelle Victor, P.S.I.”: The Journal of Haitian Studies, Fall 2004.
RESEARCH (ongoing)
Oral history with Mme. Catherine de Béchillon, a Holocaust survivor. CDs and DVD of
interviews.
Translation of part of French text based on aforementioned interviews.
TRAVEL
1) Canada -- yearly
2) Europe -- June 1986; June 1990; March 1995; February 1996; June 1996; June 1999;
March 2000; March 2004; March 2005; March 2006; March 2008 (France, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Spain, Germany)
3) Haiti --September 1991 -- as a parish representative on a visit to our “twin” parish
November 1995 -- to plan production of tape
November 1996 -- to record for tape
March and November 1997 -- group leader for “Spiritual Tourism” trips
March 1998&9 -- group leader for service-learning/intercultural exchange trips
January 2000--interpreter for workshop given by a group of American nuns
for a group of Haitian nuns
May-July 2000-- immersion experience in Haiti
Activities included: Teaching basic weaving skills, recording for tape, beginning the study of Haitian drumming, improving skills in speaking Haitian Creole
May-June 2001—immersion experience in Haiti
Activities included: recording for tape, improving skills in speaking Haitian Creole, continuing the study of Haitian drumming
May-June 2002—leader of service-learning/intercultural exchange trip
with extension of trip for immersion experience
Activities included: Various activities with trip participants, weaving, teaching block printing, interpreting for a medical mission
improving skills in speaking Haitian Creole
January 2003—interpreter for a medical mission to Les Petites Soeurs
January 2004—interpreter for a medical mission to Les Petites Soeurs
4) Various places in U.S.A.