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Upcoming events at Monmouth College

Fox Classics Lecture is Feb. 23; guest piano recital is Feb. 27

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (02/18/2026) —

Lines in the sand: Colorado professor to present annual Fox Classics Lecture Feb. 23

The recent discovery of papyrus unearthed from the sands of Egypt provides the topic for an annual guest lecture at Monmouth College.

The papyrus contains previously unknown lines from a lost play by the ancient Greek tragedian Euripides. Laurialan Reitzammer, an associate professor of classics at the University of Colorado, will delve deeper into that discovery when she delivers Monmouth's 41st annual Fox Classics Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 in Dahl Chapel. Titled "The Recently Discovered Ancient Texts of Euripides: The Myth of Ino, Human Sacrifice, and Greek Women's Ritual," Reitzammer's lecture is free and open to the public.

"She is an engaging speaker, and her topic, which is based on stretches of plays from the Athenian tragedian Euripides that were recently found in Egypt on stretches of papyrus, should be stimulating," said Monmouth classics professor Bob Simmons.

"This talk introduces what we can reconstruct about the plot of Euripides' Ino, along with aspects of the myth of Ino that Euripides did not include in his tragedy," said Reitzammer.

In Boulder, Reitzammer studies and teaches Greek literature, mythology, religion, gender and sexuality. Among the honors she's received have been a Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award and a Classical Association of the Middle West and South Award for Excellence in College Teaching.

Her first book, The Athenian Adonia in Context: The Adonis Festival as Cultural Practice, examines literary and visual representations of an ancient Greek women's festival to argue that the performance of the ritual offered a critique of mainstream cultural practices. She has published essays on tragedies such as Euripides' Bacchae, Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, and a modern adaptation of Euripides' Medea. She is currently working on a second book on the representation of sacred sightseeing in classical Athenian drama, and another book on Euripides. Her Fox Lecture derives from a volume she is co-editing.

Established in 1985, the Fox Classics Lecture honors the late Bernice L. Fox, who taught classics at Monmouth from 1947-81. The series' goal is to illustrate the continuing importance of classical studies in the modern world and the intersection of the classics with other disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences.

Pianist John Orfe to present recital at Monmouth College on Feb. 27

John Orfe, a highly accomplished musician with ties to both Peoria and Macomb, will present a guest piano recital at Monmouth College at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Kasch Performance Hall of Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

Free and open to the public, the program will include music by Ukrainian, Turkish and American composers.

Earlier in the day, Orfe will discuss his recital repertoire with Monmouth music students during a 3 p.m. convocation in Dahl Chapel, an event that is also open to the public.

"The music convocations are monthly concerts performed by Monmouth College music students," explained music faculty member Solee Lee-Clark. "February's convocation will have students' performances first and be followed by Dr. Orfe's presentation."

Orfe serves as the organist at First United Methodist Church in downtown Peoria, where he was appointed the Peoria Symphony Orchestra's first composer-in-residence. In addition, he began an appointment last year as music director of the McDonough Choral Society in Macomb.

He has fulfilled commissions from a number of choirs, orchestras and chamber ensembles including the American Guild of Organists, Illinois Wesleyan University, Two Rivers Chorale, the Music Institute of Chicago, the University of Ohio School of Music, and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra. Some of the ensembles that have performed his music include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Dinosaur Annex.

Orfe has received multiple awards and honors, including a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, the Heckscher Prize from Ithaca College, and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among others, as well as first prizes in a host of competitions. His music has been performed on five continents and at national and regional conventions.

Orfe has earned critical acclaim for his interpretations of five centuries of keyboard repertoire ranging from the canonic to the arcane. The core pianist and a founding member of the Grammy-Nominated new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, Orfe is also pianist for Present Music in Milwaukee, where he premiered and recorded the organ part of Raven Chacon's Voiceless Mass, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

He has performed in Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as well as venues in Beijing, Nanning, Seoul, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krakow, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bremen, Bolzano, Cork, Hamburg, London, Lima, San Jose, Quito and Sao Paolo. He has recorded more than 30 albums on the Cantaloupe, Nonesuch, Kairos, Parma and Albany Records labels.

Media Attachments

Laurilan Reitzammer will present Monmouth's Fox Classics Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23

John Orfe will present a guest piano recital at the college at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27

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