Donald W. Fritz
Donald W. Fritz is a retired Professor of English Literature & Director of the Performing Arts Series, Miami University, 1968-1998. He attended the University of Wisconsin for two years and then transferred to Miami University, Oxford, Ohio from which he received a B.A. & M.A. in 1956 and 1959 respectively. His Ph.D. was conferred by Stanford University in 1968. From 1966-67 he was a Leverhulme Fellow at University College, London University. He served in the US Army and became Personnel Manager for the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra from 1957-58. Following the service he returned to the University of Wisconsin for a summer to begin graduate work in English Literature before continuing his work on his M.A. at Miami University. Following his M. A. degree, he became an Instructor at Southern Methodist University for four years. He matriculated at Stanford University in 1963, working on his Ph.D. and where he taught first-year composition, undergraduate seminars in both 18th and 19th Century British Literature, and writing for Engineers. In 1968 he began his career of thirty years at Miami University.
While at Miami University, he served first as the Assistant Director and then as the Director of the Graduate program in the Department of English; Chair of Art Museum Development Committee and Chair of University Awards and Recognition Committee as well as several search committees. For fifteen years he directed the Performing Arts Series, critically recognized locally by Janelle Gelfand and nationally for its presentation of internationally renowned artists, such as Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Jean Pierre Rampal, Vladimir Feltsman, Wynton Marsalis, James Galway, the Dresden State Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Arturo Sandoval and his Band, Winnipeg Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Les Ballet African, the Ohio and the Cincinnati Ballet, Stars of the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera, the Black Watch, the Cleveland, Tokyo, Colorado, St. Lawrence Quartets, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mummenshanz, the Canadian and the Empire Brass, among many others, and at the same time continued to promote young artists. He served as Conference Director of two International Conferences, the first Creativity and the Unconscious, and the second, The World as Mirror: Narcissism in the Arts and Humanities; he was also the Conference Director for a Tri-State Community College Conference, and the Director of University-wide, year-long celebration of Latin America.
He commissioned a ballet with original music, sets & designs, choreographed by Ulysses Dove and set on the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company that was performed at Miami University and televised live on WPTD on 2/14/88; the ballet, Urban Folk Dance, toured internationally in the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company repertoire, and was later set on the Alvin Ailey Company and selected as one of five of Ulysses Dove's works for a major retrospective and benefit at the New York State Theatre, Lincoln Center. He launched a national competition for a musical composition, Without and Within for flute, prepared piano, harpsichord, and percussion by Denise Ondishko, performed at Miami University and recorded in 1983.
He was a member of Kiwanis Club, served as Trustee of the Chamber Music Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Opera Board from 2000-2002, as well as the on the Education and the Fine Arts Fund subcommittees of the Opera Board; in 2003 he was elected to serve as a Trustee of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra; in 2006 he became a member of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra Executive Committee. He served on the first CCO Gala Fundraiser Committee, The Pearl Ball, in 2005; Co-Chair of CCO Gala Fundraiser, A Masked Gala: A Night In Vienna, in 2006, and in 2007 he chaired the Gala Fundraiser, Broadway Bound, which netted a record $92,000. That same year the Cincinnati Enquirer honored him as an Arts Volunteer of the Year.
He was President of the Springwood Association, Oxford, Ohio for three years before he moved to the Regency in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he serves as a member of The Regency Condominium Board of Association; he also has served on the Regency Social Committee and as Board liaison to the Long-term Planning Committee. He is a founding member of The Gathering, for which he served as the pianist of the Sunday services, coordinated the Book Discussion Group and arranged the art exhibition of Cincinnati artists for Final Friday in Over-the-Rhine. In 2007 he became a volunteer and fundraiser for the Cincinnati chapter of Stand Up For Kids, an organization helping to stabilize the life of the homeless children in 38 cities in the United States; currently he is working on plans for Board of Supervisor for the organization. He was invited to join the Interfaith Hospitality Network Development Board to assist with fundraising for homeless families in Cincinnati and was also elected to the 1809 Lambda LGBT Alumni Board of Trustees of Miami University in 2008.
He enjoys writing poetry, cooking and entertain, reading, the performing and visual arts and traveling.
