UMaine’s Danny Williams Wins 2005 Hartgen Award
Contact: Karen Cole, (207) 581-4704, George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Danny Williams of Orono, a long-time and enthusiastic supporter of music and arts at the University of Maine, is the 2005 recipient of the annual Vincent A. Hartgen Award.
He has been involved in promoting the arts and music programs on and off the UMaine campus for many years, according to Leonard Minsky, chair of the University of Maine Patrons of the Arts organization. Williams, Minsky says, “is more than eminently qualified for the Vincent A. Hartgen Award. His enthusiasm for the arts is legendary.”
The Hartgen award is an honor bestowed annually by the Patrons of the Arts since 1999 on individuals who distinguish themselves in advancing the community of the arts on campus. Hartgen, who died in 2002, founded the University of Maine Art Department in 1946 and co-founded the Patrons of the Arts.
Williams grew up in Bangor, earned a Bachelor of Arts in music and a Master’s degree in higher education administration at UMaine and now is director of Annual and Reunion Giving at the UMaine Alumni Association.
An original advisory board member of the Maine Center for the Arts, Williams co-chairs the center’s Gala Committee and has or continues to serve on several other MCA committees. He also is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, and has been the music director for several School of Performing Arts productions, including “Pump Boys and Dinnettes,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Cabaret” (where he also played the role of Herr Schultz), and “The Rocky Horror Show.”
Williams was a founder of the University of Maine Black Bear Men’s Chorus in 2001, of which he is music director. The chorus is composed of almost 50 men from the UMaine campus and surrounding communities and performs regularly as part of the School of Performing Art’s annual concert series. Williams also directs “The Landlords,” a small men’s glee club, which performs regularly for area civic groups and community organizations. He also sings with the St. John’s Chamber Choir in Bangor.
As an undergraduate at UMaine, Williams was in six different performing ensembles, and was among the original group of eight men who reintroduced the Maine Steiners to campus after a 20-year hiatus. For his involvement and contribution to UMaine in the performing arts, Williams received an Outstanding Achievement Award in Arts and Communications both as an undergraduate and graduate student. He remains the only UMaine student to have won the award at both degree levels.
For the past four years, with his colleague Liz Downing and wife Emily Cain, a state legislator from Orono, Williams writes and directs a show performed by UMaine students at the Stillwater Society Dinner — which, through song, recognizes and honors up to four prominent UMaine alumni.
In program notes for the Patrons of the Arts annual awards ceremony in April, MCA director John Patches wrote that “Danny has been a valuable asset to the University of Maine arts community and the Maine Center for the Arts for close to a decade. In particular, his leadership and commitment to the area of arts outreach has allowed literally thousands of young people to have an artistic experience who may not otherwise have such an opportunity.”
Last year’s Hartgen award winner was Janet Rourke of Orono.