Classes

The Great Women of Song
In a small cafe on a crowded night
In spot of light stands the singer.
And the band begins and the beat is strong
And the room belongs to the singer . . .

From Sophie Tucker to Bette Midler, from Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin, from Doris Day to Carole King, from Ella Fitzgerald to Whitney Houston, the great women of song have chronicled an emotional history of our lives. Irving Berlin once said, “History makes music and music makes history.” For over ninety years, the women of song have given voice to The Great American Songbook. The music and lyrics of the great tunesmiths live in their voices.

Sing For Your Supper celebrates the careers of the great vocalists who stood in front of the bandstand or in the recording studio in front of a microphone and sang the songs that told us who we were, where we were, what we did and how we felt. A great singer can instantly trigger the soundtrack of our lives. A great singer takes us into the heart and soul of a song. Whether on vinyl, eight-track, cassette, CD or streaming, hearing Over The Rainbow or Sentimental Journey or Alfie or I Feel The Earth Move or Proud Mary can instantly transport us back to a special place in time when it was just you, the singer and the song.

Sing For Your Supper features a cavalcade of singing stars: The Greats of Jazz and the Blues, The Belters, The Rockers, Big Band, Pop and Cabaret Singers, The Girl Groups. Join Lena, Judy, Ella, Adele, Barbra, Eydie, Nina, Janis, Cher, Billie and a cast of thousands who will lift your heart and make your spirit soar. Each week, it will be standing-room-only for the great women of song!

Sing for your supper,
And you’ll get breakfast.
Songbirds always eat
If their song is sweet to hear . . .

The Great Women of Song
In a small cafe on a crowded night
In spot of light stands the singer.
And the band begins and the beat is strong
And the room belongs to the singer . . .

From Sophie Tucker to Bette Midler, from Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin, from Doris Day to Carole King, from Ella Fitzgerald to Whitney Houston, the great women of song have chronicled an emotional history of our lives. Irving Berlin once said, “History makes music and music makes history.” For over ninety years, the women of song have given voice to The Great American Songbook. The music and lyrics of the great tunesmiths live in their voices.

Sing For Your Supper celebrates the careers of the great vocalists who stood in front of the bandstand or in the recording studio in front of a microphone and sang the songs that told us who we were, where we were, what we did and how we felt. A great singer can instantly trigger the soundtrack of our lives. A great singer takes us into the heart and soul of a song. Whether on vinyl, eight-track, cassette, CD or streaming, hearing Over The Rainbow or Sentimental Journey or Alfie or I Feel The Earth Move or Proud Mary can instantly transport us back to a special place in time when it was just you, the singer and the song.

Sing For Your Supper features a cavalcade of singing stars: The Greats of Jazz and the Blues, The Belters, The Rockers, Big Band, Pop and Cabaret Singers, The Girl Groups. Join Lena, Judy, Ella, Adele, Barbra, Eydie, Nina, Janis, Cher, Billie and a cast of thousands who will lift your heart and make your spirit soar. Each week, it will be standing-room-only for the great women of song!

Sing for your supper,
And you’ll get breakfast.
Songbirds always eat
If their song is sweet to hear . . .

Literary Works That Changed the American Mind

The transformative power of literature has had a profound effect on the development of our country and continues to shape our lives today. Inspired by Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America by Jay Parini, noted American literature scholar and Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, this course explores fifteen significant works of American literature, expanding on the selections included in Perini’s book.

Join Dr. William Fry for an intriguing eight-week examination of the power of the pen.

Week 1: A survey of many American books that changed the fabric of American life. We will discuss titles, themes and the significance of these books.

Week 2: Discourses on Various Important Subjects (1738) by Jonathan Edwards; The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1771-never completed).

Week 3: Selected Essays (1840’s-1850’s) of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Week 4: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Up From Slavery (1901) by Booker T. Washington; Souls of Black Folks (1903) by W.E.B. DuBois.

Week 5: The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Week 6: Black Boy (1945) by Richard Wright; The Pillar and the City (1948) by Gore Vidal.

Week 7: Notes of a Native Son (1955) by James Baldwin; On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac.

Week 8: Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson; The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan.

The Great Women of Song
In a small cafe on a crowded night
In spot of light stands the singer.
And the band begins and the beat is strong
And the room belongs to the singer . . .

From Sophie Tucker to Bette Midler, from Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin, from Doris Day to Carole King, from Ella Fitzgerald to Whitney Houston, the great women of song have chronicled an emotional history of our lives. Irving Berlin once said, “History makes music and music makes history.” For over ninety years, the women of song have given voice to The Great American Songbook. The music and lyrics of the great tunesmiths live in their voices.

Sing For Your Supper celebrates the careers of the great vocalists who stood in front of the bandstand or in the recording studio in front of a microphone and sang the songs that told us who we were, where we were, what we did and how we felt. A great singer can instantly trigger the soundtrack of our lives. A great singer takes us into the heart and soul of a song. Whether on vinyl, eight-track, cassette, CD or streaming, hearing Over The Rainbow or Sentimental Journey or Alfie or I Feel The Earth Move or Proud Mary can instantly transport us back to a special place in time when it was just you, the singer and the song.

Sing For Your Supper features a cavalcade of singing stars: The Greats of Jazz and the Blues, The Belters, The Rockers, Big Band, Pop and Cabaret Singers, The Girl Groups. Join Lena, Judy, Ella, Adele, Barbra, Eydie, Nina, Janis, Cher, Billie and a cast of thousands who will lift your heart and make your spirit soar. Each week, it will be standing-room-only for the great women of song!

Sing for your supper,
And you’ll get breakfast.
Songbirds always eat
If their song is sweet to hear . . .

Literary Works That Changed the American Mind

The transformative power of literature has had a profound effect on the development of our country and continues to shape our lives today. Inspired by Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America by Jay Parini, noted American literature scholar and Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, this course explores fifteen significant works of American literature, expanding on the selections included in Perini’s book.

Join Dr. William Fry for an intriguing eight-week examination of the power of the pen.

Week 1: A survey of many American books that changed the fabric of American life. We will discuss titles, themes and the significance of these books.

Week 2: Discourses on Various Important Subjects (1738) by Jonathan Edwards; The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1771-never completed).

Week 3: Selected Essays (1840’s-1850’s) of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Week 4: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Up From Slavery (1901) by Booker T. Washington; Souls of Black Folks (1903) by W.E.B. DuBois.

Week 5: The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Week 6: Black Boy (1945) by Richard Wright; The Pillar and the City (1948) by Gore Vidal.

Week 7: Notes of a Native Son (1955) by James Baldwin; On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac.

Week 8: Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson; The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan.

Painters of all levels are invited to come together for instruction, inspiration, and encouragement. Review the basic elements of painting and receive plenty of individual attention in a small and supportive class environment. Work on projects of your choice or those suggested by the instructor. Discuss methods for color mixing, techniques for paint application, and ideas for still life, landscape, and portrait. Bring any art supplies you have. Additional supply needs will be discussed at the first class.

This course will provide an examination of the sites that were most critical to the development of ancient Egyptian civilization and have yielded its most spectacular discoveries, including: the Pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza, the Valley of the Kings & King Tutankamun’s tomb, and the treasures of Tanis, among others. The archaeological evidence is explored for each selected site (or clustered group of sites/discoveries) and its importance explained. Chronological emphasis will be from the Predynastic Period (ca. 3500 BC) through the New Kingdom and its aftermath (ca. 950 BC).

Week 1: Introduction to ancient Egypt & the era before the Pharaohs. Sites discussed: Nabta Playa, Heirkonpolis, Naqada

Week 2: The Pyramid Age: The Old Kingdom. Sites discussed: Saqqara, Giza, Heliopolis

Week 3: The Enlightenment & Age of Literature: The Middle Kingdom. Sites discussed: Abydos, Lisht/Dahshur

Week 4: Cultural Apex and a Monotheistic Interruption: The New Kingdom – Part 1. Sites discussed: Karnak temples, ancient Thebes & Amarna

Week 5: A Renaissance: The New Kingdom – Part 2. Sites discussed: Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, Deir el Medina

Week 6: Beginning of the End: The Third Intermediate Period and Later. Sites discussed: Tanis, Nubia, Alexandria

A Nonfiction Writing Course

Nonfiction literature is surging in popularity and this trend shows no sign of slowing down. Memoir, personal essay, and narrative journalism respond to our collective desire for true stories that speak honestly to our world, to different cultures, to large questions and to the wide range of human experience. In this five-week course, we will read and discuss work written by a wide range of contemporary nonfiction writers including Aisha Sabatini Sloan, JoAnn Beard, Beth Alvarado, Lidia Yuknavitch, Paco Cantu and others. Together, we will consider craft and discuss how these writers utilize research and personal narrative to explore some of the most urgent issues of our time. Students will use prompts to generate writing both in and outside of the classroom and will have opportunities to share work and get feedback during class. Are you are curious about the craft of nonfiction writing? Do you want to engage with writing that asks big questions about our current times? Do you have stories that are begging you to be told? Please join us!

The narrative of Russian music unfolds through the history from the reign of Empress Katherine the Great and her relationship with the leading Italian composers of that time and from the creation of the first music school in Russia – Saint Petersburg Court Chapel, to the 20th century cataclysms that affected not only Russia, but the entire world – October revolution of 1917 led by Vladimir Lenin and subsequent usurpation of total state control by Josef Stalin.

Weeks 1 and 2: The 19th Century and the Blossoming of Nationalism in Music
Mikhail Glinka created the first Russian national opera and the Mighty Five, a group of composers led by Mily Balakirev developed unique personal music language resulting in such popular pieces as “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov and Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.

Week 3: Peter Tchaikovsky, His Orchestral Masterpieces and the Politics of Change
Tchaikovsky’s approach to composition absorbed the best achievements of the German and French symphonies, but clashed with the much more nationalistic tendency led by Mily Balakirev. At the same time brothers Nicholas and Anton Rubinstein created the first Russian conservatories in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow.

Weeks 4 and 5: Rachmaninoff and Scriabin
Young Sergei Rachmaninoff was seen as the heir of the great Russian Romantic tradition after the death of Tchaikovsky. Alexander Scriabin created mystical and innovative piano and orchestral works on the verge of atonality.

Week 6: Change and Reflection
The political clouds gathered and finally the Russian monarchy and the ancient traditional order was overturned in October of 1917 creating chaos and sharply dividing the Russian society. Rachmaninoff left Russia and became one of the greatest pianists of all time, but his last compositions expressed sharp pain and nostalgic longing for the world that was forever lost.

Weeks 7 and 8: Regime Change: From Creative Freedom to Total State Control of the Arts
After relative creative freedom allowed by Lenin’s Bolshevist Proletarian government, Stalin assumed total state control over the arts. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the highly original Symphony #1 and sympathized with the social changes in the beginning of 1920s. Sergei Prokofiev traveled abroad establishing himself as a great piano virtuoso and prominent composer. Lured by the Soviet propaganda, he made the fateful decision to return to Russia in 1934, right before the Stalinist’s purges began.

When discussing the works and genius of Michelangelo, the general conclusion is that all has been said and done with this titan of art history. Truthfully, is this really the case? Michelangelo lived a very long time, 88 years, and witnessed the great historical events and changes of his time, while creating some of the most memorable and brilliant works in the history of art. This lecture series will seek to investigate Michelangelo in new ways, demonstrating that he was truly a man of his time, creating an ideal vision of the world while simultaneously reflecting the uncertain and unstable environment around him. By unpacking and investigating works such as the David, the Medici Tombs and his monumental works for St. Peter’s we will see Michelangelo in a new light — examining experience, memory, fame and immortality.

Week 1: Youthful Michelangelo and the Ideal of the High Renaissance – how to become a genius when the world is falling apart.

Week 2: Julius II & the Pursuit of Immortality: The Tragedy of the Tomb and the Triumph of the Sistine Chapel.

Week 3: “My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth’s loveliness” Michelangelo & His Contemporaries: Raphael, Titian & The Mannerists.

Week 4: Clement VII, Michelangelo and the Tragedy of Fame: San Lorenzo’s Most Unusual Library and the Eroticism of Death in The Medici Chapel.

Week 5: “When One is Pope, One does not Live Long”. The Resurrection, no strike that, The Last Judgment of the Sistine Chapel; the works for St. Peter’s.

Week 6: “Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.” The Late Works of Michelangelo and the changing world around him.