Joe Hutchinson, a freshman decathlete on the UNC track and field team, will fly home to England May 23 to run the Olympic torch before the games begin in London July 27. An international student from Melksham, England, Hutchinson is looking forward to representing his country, according to the The Daily Tar Heel.

He will do a 300-meter jog with the torch. Three hundred different runners each day will carry a torch in a relay for 60 days before the Olympic games. After the jog, Hutchinson will be able to purchase the torch he carries.

Hutchinson was given this opportunity after he was chosen by a panel of judges out of the top 1,000 in a competition to carry the torch. The director of sports from his high school entered him into the competition.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1tOSzGVGeM[/youtube]

The Tar Heel baseball team has successfully completed half of their season, having gone 27-9 total and 12-6 in conference play.

They begin a 12 game home streak tomorrow, April 17, at 6 p.m. versus High Point. After High Point, they will challenge Liberty, Georgia Tech, UNC Greensboro, ECU, Winthrop, Boston College and UNC-W over the course of the following two weeks. The schedule and roster can be found on the baseball page on tarheelblue.com.

Ranked 9th in preseason, UNC baseball has since moved to the national No. 3 seed by ESPN’s rankings.

The team will have their final streak of home games before they go on the road for the final set of games prior to the ACC tournament, beginning on May 22.

Sweden’s Göteborg Ballet, a modern dance company consisting of about 40 trained dancers from over 15 different countries, will be performing at UNC in Memorial Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

According to Göteborg Opera’s website, the Göteborg Ballet is the largest modern company of all of the Nordic countries. The company has become internationally known in the last few years, due to the involvement by many world-renowned choreographers. The Boston Globe has called the ballet “simply fabulous.” Adolphe Binder is the new ballet director for the company. She formerly worked as administrative and artistic director for the Berlin Ballet and was program director for various dance festivals in Hanover.

This will be the last performance by the Göteborg Ballet during their United States tour, and the last time they will be in the United States for the rest of 2012.

Tickets are limited. Tickets for the general public range from $19-$49, depending on the section. Faculty/staff tickets are slightly cheaper, depending on the section. For students, individual tickets cost $10 each. They can be purchased online through Carolina Performing Arts, by calling (919) 843-3333 or by visiting the Memorial Hall Box Office on Cameron Avenue. (Map below)

There will also be a discussion prior to the performance about contemporary dance. This will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Historic Playmakers Theatre and will include ballet specialist Laurie Yeames and staff members of the Carolina Performing Arts, Reed Colver and Tiffany Dysart. This event is open to all.

*Please follow Goteborg Ballet @UNC on Twitter for information/updates about the event.

Unable to make the ballet? No problem. Come back to Reesenews.org on Wednesday, April 18, 2012, for a detailed recap of the performance. A link will be made available via Goteborg Ballet @UNC on Twitter.

Map of Memorial Hall:

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Click here for a visitor parking map.

On April 12, Dr. Hugh A. “Chip” McAllister Jr. made a $10 million commitment to UNC which will include an art collection of more than 50 works for the Ackland Art Museum and an endowment to heart disease research at the UNC School of Medicine. McAllister graduated from Davidson College before attending the UNC School of Medicine until 1966. He began his military career as an intern at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, trained at the Armed Services Institute of Pathology, and served as the institute’s chair of cardiac pathology before retiring as a colonel in 1984.

In a recent press release from UNC News, McAllister expressed his deep admiration and respect for UNC Chapel Hill as an institution. McAllister says that his art collection is his way of sharing his love of American art  while simultaneously helping to eradicate one of the deadliest diseases in the U.S.

The art collection is valued at $5.5 million making it the largest gift of art in the Ackland Art Museum’s history. The collection of more than 150 paintings, sculptures, and artifacts includes several 19th-century painters such as Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, Oscar Berninghaus, Joseph Sharp, as well as contemporary sculptures from Willem de Kooning, Allan Houser, Jesus Moroles and Reuben Nakian.

Several pieces of the collection will be sold rather than go to the museum. The $2.5 million proceeds will help to expand an existing endowment to support the UNC McAllister Heart Institute at the School of Medicine and cardiovascular medicine researchers. The institute was named after Chip McAllister in honor of his many contributions to cardiovascular medicine in 2009. McAllister included an additional $2 million with his gift in further support of the institution. In the past 15 years, he has given a grand total of more than $18 million to the University.

The McAllisterHeart Institute employs researchers in more than 45 labs working in areas such as blood vessel formation, cardiac stem cells, genetics, blood clotting, and metabolism to advance care of patients dealing with disease of the heart, blood, or circulation. The institute provides a world-class environment for basic, preclinical and applied cardiovascular research attracting more than $15 million annually in research funds.

McAllister’s gift included an additional $2 million in further support of the institution as well. In the past 15 years, he has given a grand total of more than $18 million to the University.

The play Julius Caesar, which features 15 undergraduate students playing 45 roles to represent the entirety of Rome, will open Thursday night at 8 p.m.

Presented by The LAB! Theatre,this production tells the familiar story that William Shakespeare wrote in 1599 about the assassination that changed the world in 44 BC.

“The play takes us on this journey and shows how, in the art of politics, the actions of few can have consequences for the entire world. History is driven by people, and the people who lived 2056 years ago wanted what we still want…power, security, happiness and love,” said Josh Wolonick, the UNC senior directing the show.

[Show as slideshow]

Performances will take place:

• Thursday, April 12 – Saturday, April 14 at 8 p.m.
• Sunday, April 15 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Monday, April 16 at 5 p.m.

Location: Kenan Theatre, at the UNC Center for Dramatic Arts

Admission is free.

The UNC Clef Hangers will present a spring concert April 21 at 8:00 p.m. in Memorial Hall. The concert will serve as a farewell to the Clef Hangers’ senior-class members, as the performance will be the last of the school year.

The Clefs are Carolina’s oldest a cappella group, formed in 1977 by UNC student Barry Saunders and originally called the Morrison Dorm Singers. The Clef Hangers adopted their current name in 1978 in addition to their signature vests and bow ties. Since then, the Clefs have had the opportunity to take their talents around the world, performing in Spain, France, Scotland, Jamaica, Greece and Italy. Over the years, the Clefs have released 16 professionally produced studio albums.

The Clef Hangers are, in many ways, similar to a fraternity. Many of the close-knit members live in a house together, and the group often travels abroad over spring break for international performances.

Senior soloist Cole Hammack says that he will really miss being a Clef after he graduates. “My favorite part of being a Clef is the brotherhood of the group,” he said in a recent phone interview. “You’re with these guys all the time and singing is a very vulnerable thing to do, so you grow close to people you otherwise would have never known very quickly.”

The Clef Hangers cover popular songs, adapting them to a cappella versions entirely their own. This year’s repertoire has included popular Coldplay songs “Yellow” and “Paradise,” a cover of the Old Crow Medicine Show song “Wagon Wheel,” a rap cover of the David Guetta and Nicki Minaj song “Where Them Girls At,” and the always classic “Carolina In My Mind” by James Taylor, among others. Watch the Clefs sing “Wagon Wheel” here.

The Clef’s albums are available for purchase online. You can also like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Their recent tweets are about the upcoming spring concert:

Tickets for the 2012 spring concert are available through the Memorial Hall box office.

Joshua Redman (on saxophone) and Brad Mehldau (on piano) are teaming up on April 10 for a jazz performance in Memorial Hall.

Time magazine compares Brad Mehldau‘s 2000 album, Places, to an unattainable, ideal vacation spot, and regards his talent most respectfully.

He can be emotional (as on Airport Sadness), but he is never weepy. He can be jaunty (West Hartford), but he never descends into trifling silliness. And while his work tends to be courageously complex (the dizzyingly cerebral Amsterdam), he never gets lost in the labyrinth of his intellect.

A video of the two performing Lithium in 2010:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGRoRzXrikI[/youtube]

Tickets can be bought at the Memorial Hall box office or online at the Memorial Hall website. Student tickets are $10, and tickets range from $20-$60 for others. The show begins at 7:30 p.m.

Pianist Stephen Anderson and saxophonist Dave Finucane are co-hosting a pre-show discussion at 6:30 pm in Gerrard Hall.

Campus Recreation, MASALA, Alpha Phi Alpha and the Interfraternity Council are hosting the 2012 Global Gladiator Games on April 11.

The event is free and open to UNC students, faculty or staff. To compete, make a team of five to eight members, or register as an individual (Campus Rec will place you on a team). You can enter in one of three divisions: men’s, women’s and co-rec. The five challenges will be jousting, sniper, wheel barrow relay, obstacle course relay and tug-of-war.

The games will begin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on Hooker Fields 1 and 2. Teams or individuals must check in between 5-5:25 p.m. event-day.

Today is the last day to register. To register as a team, complete the registration form, have all members sign it, and turn it into the Campus Rec main office (101 Student Recreation Center). If you would like to register as an individual, click here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFaK3Mi4fqA[/youtube]

Excited for Global Gladiator Games on Wed, April 11th? Sign up as an individual or as a team. Go to campusrec.unc.edu/GGG for more info!

— UNC Campus Rec (@unccampusrec) April 3, 2012

A Chapel Hill church will soon become the first in the Presbyterian Church to ordain an openly lesbian candidate in the United States.

Katie Ricks will be ordained Sunday, April 15 at Chapel Hill’s University Presbyterian from 2:30 to 4:15 p.m. The denomination opened ordination to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates in July last year.

Ricks graduated from Columbia Seminary in 2002 and has since been the associate in ministry at the Church of Reconciliation. She was named one of the 13 religious women to watch by the Center for American Progress in March.

Roughly 400 people are expected to be in attendance for the ordination service and the reception that follows, the Chapel Hill News reported.

In October of 2011, the Presbyterian Church ordained its first gay minister. Scott Anderson had been rejected by many members of the congregation at his church, the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, Calif., and left the ministry in 1990. When the Presbyterian Church changed its constitution in July, Anderson became the first in line to be ordained.

Jonathan Abramowitz, a UNC psychology professor and associate chair of the psychology department, is the editor in chief of a new journal, the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.

“Although crucial advances in understanding and treating OCD have been made over the past half century, important questions remain unanswered regarding the causes of OCD,” Abramowitz wrote in a statement about the new journal. He added that he hopes the new journal will integrate various  scholars’ studies and hypotheses into one “intellectual home,” simplifying progress in the field.

The journal will be published four times per year, presenting new information about obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders such as trichotillomania, hoarding and body dysmorphic disorder, as reported by Zenopa.

The first edition is now available online.

The Sacramento Bee reports that the journal’s publication, Elsevier, headquartered in Amsterdam, is an internationally renowned provider of more than 2,000 scientific journals.

The Daily Tar Heel adds that Abramowitz focuses his study on OCD’s relationship with the very young and elderly, environmental triggers and prevention.