'or..er goat ea 7tav • Excellent Food, Gracious Service in the Hendrick Hudson Candlelight Room • Your Favorite Cocktail or Highball in our New Hudson Room COMPLETE FACILITIES for WEDDING FESTIVITIES BANQUETS, PARTIES and All SOCIAL FUNCTIONS 712;05rrik, SOUVERIR PROGRflifi . IN WHICH is carried pertinent information on the event of the evening; insight in- to coming events, and a suggestion of the past More than three-quarters of a million dollars has been poured into the RPI Field House in order to make it the versatile structure it is today. The original shell was a former Navy warehouse in Davisville, Rhode Island. (Cover photo by Airs. George H. Lee) NOLO • MILLER • OFFSET • ROTARY • LETTERPRESS Printers of your Field House Program 7 GRAND ST. TROY, N.-Y. *-ta.t 9 AS 2-6650 LIVINGSTON W. HOUSTON President Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute The RPI FIELD HOUSE has in the last seven years of operation become a unique forum for thought and ex- pression in the Capital District. This is partially the result of great words and ideas voiced from the FIELD HOUSE stage by outstanding leaders in many diverse fields — ed- ucation, politics, religion, drama, and many more. It is also the result of cultural expression — enduring music performed by the major symphony orchestras of America and Europe, choral groups and artists. As such, the audi- torium has fulfilled the major objective laid down by the college, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which brought it into being and operates it today to enrich the lives of the college family and the people of the large surrounding community. That the auditorium - sports arena has also proved a recreational asset to the area is a source of pride to it the parent college. H. L. (Jack) GARREN Managing Director RPI Field House KEIS HOLROYD Engineers 257 Broadway Troy, New York • FIELD HOUSE DESIGNED BY KEIS and HOLROYD • Ice Skating is enjoying great success in the Capital District since the creation of the ice rink at the RPI FIELD HOUSE where, unaffected by weather conditions, skating ICE is offered as a daily fare between early November and mid March. The controlled conditions of an indoor ice rink SKATING enables the Field House to stage a variety of ice affairs Qe, r'esi/t iwir[71- Have a Pepsi Today's Pepsi-Cola, reduced in calories, keeps pace with the up-to-date trend to lighter foods. Refresh without filling. Have a Pepsi—the modern, the light refreshment. ranging from daily public skating sessions and figure skat- ing club sessions to ice hockey on the college and pee-wee level. To service the sport, the FIELD HOUSE provides full facilities for the rental and care of skates. Two full time professional skaters are available for figure skating instruction. Most numerous are the public skating and public figure skating sessions where persons of all ages can take part in two hours of healthful skating fun. Enjoying a phenomenal growth, the art-sport of figure skating holds the interest of three clubs at the FIELD HOUSE, the RPI Junior, Intermediate and Senior Figure Skating Clubs. Club membership is divided by age groups and the clubs are open to membership, by application, to anyone in the area. Again this year, hockey, highlighted by R. P. I. varsity play, will have a busy schedule. The Institute's annual invitational tournament will bring to the FIELD HOUSE top sextets from Michigan Tech, Laval, and McGill on Dec. 27, Dec. 28 and Dec. 29. GULF HEATING OILS Complete Reliable Service Costs No More TIM KEN DUTCH COLONY OIL. IIE AT MINTZER PETROLEUM ICE CREAM CORPORATION 28 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP IN TROY Since 1885 Be 5-4400 FOR THE BEST IN MEN'S CLOTHES IT'S 1(fllY CLOTHES Direct From Factory-to-You AT PRICES YOU CAN AFFORD TO PAY OPEN DAILY INCLUDING SATURDAY 9:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. TUESDAY AND FRIDAY EVENINGS TILL 9:00 P.M. 621 River St. Troy, New York Two Blocks North of Hoosick Tel. AShley 2-2022 Most people..... ... are confused when it comes to such vital matters as plumbing, heat- ing, and air-conditioning. When your Plumbing and Heating Contractor says, "It's coming from Cole Supply," you can be certain of satisfaction now and in the future. GEO. H. COLE SUPPLY CO. HOOSICK STREET & FIFTH AVE. TROY, NEW YORK — SINCE 1888 — WHOLESALERS OF PLUMBING, HEATING, AND INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES ENJOY MUSIC YOU LIKE ON RECORDS New Low Prices High - Fidelity Fine Phonographs From $99.50 CLUETT_ -, orne of th e Stein w ay E st: / 5 5y Broadway and 2nd Street 117 State Street Troy, N. Y. Albany 102 Years of Musical Leadership BIRCH — MAGNAVOX — RCA - VICTOR — WEBCOR — ZENITH Home of the Hammond Organ and Leading Make Pianos THE R P I FIELD HOUSE presents BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHARLES MUNCH Musical Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Program BRITTEN Variations for String Orchestra on a Theme by Frank Bridge, Op. 10 Introduction and Theme Variations: Adagio-March-Aria Italiana- Bourree classique-Moto perpetuo- Marcia funebre-Fugue & Finale PROKOFIEFF . Suite from the Ballet, "Romeo and Juliet." Montagues and Capulets Young Juliet Dance Tybalt's Death Intermission BRAHMS Symphony No. 1, in C minor, Op. 68 I. Un poco sostenuto; Allegro IL Andante sostenuto III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso IV. Adagio; Allegro non troppo, ma con brio Performances by this orchestra are broadcast each week on Monday evenings from 8:05 to 9:00 P M on the NBC Radio Network. Baldwin Piano RCA Victor Records Charles Munch Charles Munch was born in Strasbourg, September 26, 1891. His father, Ernest, was a distinguished mem- ber of a musical family, an organist, string player, leader of the St. Guillaume choir in the Strasbourg Cathedral, professor in the Conservatory there, and the first teacher (in violin) of Charles, or "Charry", as he Was called. Charles' uncle Eugene rivalled his brother Ernest in producing the cantatas and passions of Bach in the Cathedral at Mulhouse. Albert Schweitzer, as a pupil of Eugene and as organist for both brothers in their numerous Bach per- formances, became the close friend of the family, a friendship which resulted in the marriage of his brother to Charles' sister, Emma. Charles was not alone among the four brothers and two sisters in perpetuating the family tradition, for all were musical. In the summer season, the Munch family would move to the country home of Charles' maternal grandfather, Frederic Simon, who was a minister of the protestant Eglise de l'Oratoire in Paris. The house at Niederbronn-les-Bains in the Vosges Mountains came to be called the " music box," for the Munchs always brought sheaves of chamber music with them. When the douds of war descended, in the summer of 1914, Charles Munch, the "most French" of the family, with a Paris residence, was unfortunately on vacation at Strasbourg. He was caught in the draft, for, together with his brothers, he was subject (by a circumstance of bound- aries) to conscription in the German army. He was wound- ed at Verdun, and discharged after the armistice at the age of twenty-six. Thus ended the unwilling obligations of Charles Munch and his family to Germany. He relates that when he was confirmed in his boyhood days his grandfather wrote in his prayer book: "Some day the avenger will rise." His case is paralled with that of his fellow Alsatian, Rob- ert Schuman, who served under duress on the German side and lived to become France's cabinet minister, while Mr. Munch was to become France's foremost orchestral conduc- tor and lead the Paris Conservatory Orchestra throughout the Second War, taking no Nazi "instructions," and aiding the Resistance. In 1920, Charles Munch resumed his musical activ- ities as concertmaster of the Strasbourg Orchestra, studying in that summer with Carl Flesch in Berlin. He taught at the Strasbourg Conservatory until he went to Leipzig to join the Gewandhaus Orchestra, playing under Furtwaengler and Walter, and, it may be assumed, observing a thing or two about conducting from these masters. In 1929, he was faced with the alternative of be- coming a German citizen or giving up his job. He accord- ingly settled in Paris, found the opportunity to conduct concerts of the Straram Orchestra (1932). He founded the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris in the same season, con- ducted the Lamoureux Concerts as well, and in succeeding seasons began the round of guest engagements which have since made him a world traveler. It was in 1937 that he succeeded Philippe Gaubert as conductor of the Paris Con- servatory Orchestra, the position he held through the war period.. In 1939, he undertook to visit the United States and conduct the St. Louis Orchestra. Traveling difficulties at the time prevented him from going farther west than the Azores. In 1946, when traveling was resumed, he made the crossing, conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra as guest on December 27, and a month later made the first of numerous appearances with the New York Philharmonic. He was engaged in the spring of 1948 to succeed Serge Koussevitsky as regular conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra beginning with the season of 1949-1950. Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1948, he crossed the Atlantic with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise, the French national broadcasting orchestra, of which he was the conductor. By commission of his Government, from which he holds the Legion of Honor decora- tion, he led every concert in a tour from coast to coast. Charles Munch thus came to the Orchestra whose destiny he now controls, a conductor of worldwide exper- ience and brilliant success, a musician of deep-rooted culture, attained in those centers where the music of the Old World came into being and was developed.