Social Historian Coontz Revisits and Updates The Feminine Mystique in Sept. 13 Visit to Campus

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Would Don and Betty Draper’s marriage have had a better chance today than in the decidedly unliberated 1960s depicted in the hit TV series Mad Men? The nation’s preeminent expert on the state of marital bliss in America, social historian Stephanie Coontz, will be on the Washington College campus Tuesday, September 13 to argue an emphatic “Yes.” A fan of Mad Men, Coontz recommends it as “a much-needed lesson on the devastating costs of a way of life that still evokes misplaced nostalgia.”

In a talk titled “Mad Men, Working Girls, and Desperate Housewives: Women, Men, and Marriage in the Early 1960s,” Coontz will discuss why social changes since the 60s have been good for families and good for the institution of marriage. Her presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, inside Hodson Hall on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. A book signing will follow.

Coontz’s recently published A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (Basic Books, 2011) pulls author Betty Friedan “down from heaven and up from hell,” in the words of the New York Times, challenging both conservative and liberal myths about the impact of her controversial book The Feminine Mystique. Described as “an inventive biography of a book,” A Strange Stirring is based on interviews with some 200 men and women (mostly women) who read Friedan's book when it was first published in 1963, and found their lives changed in response. Dubbed “better than the original” by the Huffington Post, Coontz’s book reveals how a generation of women came to realize their dissatisfaction with domestic life reflected not a personal inadequacy but rather a social and political injustice.

In addition, Coontz examines women’s changing status from the 1920s through the 1950s, compares the dilemmas of working-class and middle-class women, white and black, in the early 1960s, and illuminates the new mystiques and new possibilities facing men and women today. “We still haven’t fully figured out how to combine a loving family life with a rewarding work life,” Coontz writes in A Strange Stirring. “But The Feminine Mystique reminds us of the price women pay when we retreat from trying to resolve these dilemmas or fail to involve men in our attempts.”

Coontz, who teaches history and family studies at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wa., has devoted her career to the study of gender relations, families, and child development. She is Co-Chair and Director of Public Education at the nonpartisan Council on Contemporary Families, which is based at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and has testified about her research before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families. Her previous book, Marriage: A History (Viking), was named one of the best books of 2005 by the Washington Post.

A former “marriage consultant” to Ladies Home Journal, she also has written for countless other publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Salon, the Washington Post, and Newsweek. Recent national TV and radio appearances include interviews on NPR’s “Fresh Air”, C-SPAN, Oprah, the Today Show, and The Colbert Report.

Coontz’s talk is cosponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Department of History, Gender Studies Program, C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and the William James Forum. For more information, visit www.washcoll.edu.

Campus Getting Back on Track After Hurricane Irene Blows Through

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011, 9 p.m.---Washington College employees should report to campus with normal work hours Monday, August 29. Those who for any reason are not able to get to campus should contact their supervisors. Any employees still affected by the aftermath of the storm should make safety a priority.

Students should return to campus Tuesday, August 30. For students who have not yet received their room keys, check-in will be available starting at 8 a.m. in the Casey Academic Center.

Classes will begin Wednesday morning, August 31.

EARLIER POSTINGS:

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 1 p.m.––Early assessments indicate that the Washington College campus has come through Hurricane Irene relatively unscathed. Some small trees have been uprooted and many limbs came down. There has been minimal flooding reported thus far.

The Minta Martin residence hall where all remaining students were housed overnight never lost power. The dorms in the “Western Shore” section of campus lost power temporarily but are currently restored to the grid.

Strong wind gusts were still occurring at midday, so anyone on campus is urged to use caution when venturing out and to avoid walking beneath trees. Branches and root systems weakened by rain and wind may still create hazards.

The two chimneys on historic properties (one at Hynson-Ringgold House, the other at the Custom House) had been stabilized in anticipation of the storm and are still standing. No flooding was reported at the Custom House or at the College boathouse.

IMPORTANT: Students who are not already on campus may not return until Tuesday morning, August 30. Check-in will begin at 8 a.m. This ban on earlier arrival applies to any students who were on campus before the storm but returned home.

Some areas of Kent County have been more affected by the hurricane, and roads may be challenging to navigate due to tree damage and flooding. In addition, the College staff will need all of Monday, August 29, to restore the campus exteriors to good condition and ensure no other damage limits the normal operation of the College.

Classes are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning, August 31.

Click on the video link above to see what campus looked like this morning around 7:30 a.m., including some sleep-deprived students getting ready to leave Minta Martin and return to their regular dorms! Still photos of campus will be posted as they become available.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 1:00 a.m.–– The Kent County Office of Emergency Services has reported the following updates for our area from the National Weather Service:

NWS-Mt. Holly has extended the Flash Flood Warning until 2:15 a.m. Sunday morning.

NWS-Mt. Holly has extended the Tornado Watch until 5 a.m. Sunday morning and the Tropical Storm Warning well into Sunday.

Follow the Kent County OES notices at: http://kentcounty.com/oes/

SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1 p.m. –––The Kent County Office of Emergency Services has issued the following update for the Chestertown area:

*** UPDATE: A Tornado Watch has been issued for our area until 8 p.m. tonight 8/27/11 ***

Otherwise, as of this morning's briefing, the National Weather Service is reporting no changes in the forecast from yesterday for Kent County and the surrounding counties.

That forecast is:

- 6" to 12" of rain that will fall over a 24- hour period
- Tropical Storm Force winds with strong gusts
- Storm surge of 2' to 4' on top of the astronomical tide

Caroline & Talbot Counties were raised to a Hurricane Warning, but Queen Anne's, Kent & Cecil remain in a Tropical Storm Warning.

The Kent County Office of Emergency Services is requesting all county citizens who live in low lying, flood prone areas to voluntarily evacuate your home at this time. We ask you to find shelter with relatives or elsewhere until at least Monday. With the current track of Hurricane Irene, there is a very realistic possibility that low lying areas will quickly become flooded sometime Saturday night, and we will be unable to reach you for assistance. We are asking residents to please comply with this request for your own safety. We are taking this storm very seriously, and ask you to do the same.

Additionally all Kent County citizens are requested to prepare for possible long term power outages from damaging winds and rain.

Follow the Kent County OES notices at: http://kentcounty.com/oes/

Washington College will continue to update the website with weather-related news.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2011, 2 p.m.––The latest predictions from the National Weather Service call for Hurricane Irene to pass through the Chestertown area late Saturday, August 27, and early Sunday, August 28, with strong winds and rainfall of 6 to 12 inches. The most severe conditions may occur between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday.

All first-year orientation activities have been cancelled. Most students who had already arrived for the start of the school year have left campus. Those who need to remain on campus will be housed appropriately. Dining Services is prepared to feed all students and staff who remain on campus, and Buildings and Grounds staffers are battening down the hatches in every way possible.

The Johnson Fitness Center is closing at 4 p.m. today and plans to reopen Monday at 7 a.m. with holiday hours; regular hours should resume on Wednesday, August 31st.

The Swim Center is closing at 3 p.m. today and plans to reopen Tuesday, August 30, at 7 a.m.

The Miller Library will close at its regular time, 4:30 p.m., today but will be closed Saturday and Sunday, with plans to reopen Monday if conditions allow.

The College Web site will continue to provide periodic updates on the conditions on campus and plans for reopening. In addition, updates will be available through the WAC Alerts system and through the College switchboard (410-778-2800, then press 6 for the information line). Employees are urged to check these sources of information before heading to work Monday morning.

SAFETY REMINDERS:

A hurricane is a tropical storm with winds that can reach a constant speed of 75 miles per hour or more. Torrential rains, high winds and storm surges are possible.

Stay indoors, away from windows and glass doors. If possible, find a central room without any windows.

Be aware that the calm "eye" is deceptive; the storm is not over. The worst part of the storm will happen once the eye passes over and the winds blow from the opposite direction. Trees, shrubs, buildings, and other objects damaged by the first winds can be broken or destroyed by the second winds.

Remain indoors until you are certain the storm has passed.

Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Offers Insight into Funeral Practices

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A unique collection of ancient Egyptian funerary artifacts, many never before shown to the public, will be on display in the Kohl Gallery at Washington College this fall. The exhibition “For Now and Forever: Funerary Artifacts from Ancient Egypt” will open Friday, September 9 with a 5 p.m. reception and will continue through December 2.

Exhibition curator Fatma Ismail, a lecturer in Art at the College, says the 33 items in the show date from the 3^rd century CE to the 3rd millennium BCE and include funerary and votive objects in bronze, wood, stone and faience. Except for one object from the Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Museum, all the objects come from a private collection in Baltimore whose owners wish to remain anonymous.

“Students and visitors will see a range of objects that include animal statuary, a wooden mask and coffin, representations of different Egyptian gods and goddesses, and an early dynastic jar,” says Ismail. “These artifacts reveal how the ancient Egyptians prepared for their journey to the afterlife. And they illustrate how a fundamental human concern, the nature of life and death, connects us all.”

Ismail, who earned her Ph.D. from the Near Eastern Department of the Johns Hopkins University in 2009, has been part of the University’s excavation team at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut at Karnak in Luxor, Egypt. A highly interdisciplinary scholar, she studies early religions and the history and civilization of North Africa and the Near East. She has worked on nationally prominent exhibitions, including “Faces of Ancient Arabia: The Giraud and Carolyn Foster Collection of South Arabian Art” at the Walters Art Gallery and “Quest For Immortality: Treasures Of Ancient Egypt” at The National Gallery of Art.

For the fall semester at Washington College, she will teach a course titled “Reading Egyptian Temples: Stone Wall as Mythology, Theology, and Ideology.”

The exhibition’s designer is Alex Castro, an artist, architect and designer who lectures in Art at Washington College. ‘‘These objects are small but magnificent,” he says, of the funerary artifacts, “and they will be installed in a quite elaborate exhibition.”The Kohl Gallery is located in the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown. Gallery hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays 1 to 5 p.m., Fridays noon to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays noon to 5 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. For more information, visit http://www.washcoll.edu.

Earthquake Damages College's 18th-Century Chimneys; Main Campus Relatively Unscathed

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Tuesday’s earthquake severely damaged two 18^th-century chimneys on College properties in Chestertown’s historic district — one at Hynson-Ringgold House, and one at the Custom House — but left the buildings on main campus remarkably unscathed.

At Hynson-Ringgold House, the 1740s brick structure at the corner of Water and Cannon streets that is home to the College president, one of five chimneys was severely cracked by the seismic rumbling. The 100 block of Cannon Street was closed as a precaution against falling bricks.

A block away, at Water and High streets, one of the Custom House’s three chimneys (the one on the river side of the building) buckled and is in danger of falling. The building, which also dates to the 1740s, houses the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Center for Environment & Society, and the College’s public archaeology lab.

On the recommendation of a structural engineer who surveyed the damage, both chimneys will be dismantled and rebuilt. A masonry contractor has been hired to stabilize them and begin repairs.

On the main campus, the quake rattled buildings and nerves but left facilities with little or no damage. Buildings & Grounds staff, accompanied by a structural engineer, inspected all mechanical spaces and the central boiler plant Tuesday night and found no damage or broken lines. A visual inspection of all buildings revealed no significant cracking and no broken windows. Inspectors did find superficial cracks in the Hodson Hall floor slab, but no other damage has been reported.

Meanwhile, the College is bracing for Hurricane Irene’s expected arrival on Sunday, August 28, the day before classes are scheduled to begin. Because of the heavy rains expected on Sunday, the College is asking all upperclassmen to return to campus for check-in a day earlier, on Saturday, August 27.

Photos: The seismic shaking left one of the five chimneys at Hynson-Ringgold House severely cracked, prompting police to block off Cannon Street to protect pedestrians from the possibility of falling bricks.

Message from Student Affairs about Earthquake

The mid-Atlantic region, along with much of the East Coast, experienced an earthquake this afternoon. We're thankful to report that despite some shaking, all of our students are safe and the campus came through the earthquake with little apparent damage. College Buildings and Grounds staff, aided by Public Safety, has completed an initial inspection of the interior and exterior of our campus buildings. Should there be any signs of damage identified, the College will bring in a structural engineer to determine if the damage is more than cosmetic and what repairs are needed.

All first-year and early return students are safe and all programs continue unaffected. We are monitoring weather reports and will announce any changes to the weekend schedule within the next 24 hours.

From all of us at the College, we hope that you and your family remain safe and well.

Sincerely,

Mela Dutka

Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students

Washington College and 7 Stages Theater Company in Atlanta to Premiere Price's Latest, "All Blues"

CHESTERTOWN, MD—A new work by the distinguished playwright Robert Earl Price, a play based on the story of a white newspaper reporter from Pittsburgh who traveled through the South in 1948 as a black man, will have its world premiere at Washington College on Sept. 15.

All Blues — named for the 1959 Miles Davis classic from Kind of Blue, one of the most influential record albums of the 20^th century — is being co-produced by the Washington College Department of Drama and the Atlanta, Ga., theater company 7 Stages, where the play will open with the same cast on Sept. 22.

Del Hamilton, co-founder and artistic director of 7 Stages, will play the role of Ray Sprigle, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter who traveled through the South for 30 days in 1948 as a light-skinned black man named James R. Crawford. Sprigle’s guide was John Wesley Dobbs, an important political leader in Atlanta’s black community and an NAACP activist. Dobbs will be played by Chestertown musician Bob Ortiz.

Sprigle had already won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story that Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and he was famous both for his hard-hitting stories and for his penchant for going undercover to get them.

All Blues is a compelling meditation on the moral complexities of Sprigle’s venture across the country’s racial and geographic divide, which the reporter learned in his travels to call not the Mason Dixon, but the Smith and Wesson line. Sprigle’s journey took place more than a decade before the publication of Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin’s bestselling account of his own travels through the South as a white man passing himself off as black.

The lyrics and music of All Blues form a subtext to the play, which weaves light, movement, and a cast of characters that include the light and dark sides of Sprigle’s own soul into a moody meditation on race.

“The project will be built on the juxtaposition of one of the seminal pieces of music from the 20th century and a forgotten story,” says WC drama department chair Dale Daigle, who will direct the performance. “These two pieces provide a foundation for us to explore the ubiquitous and unavoidable feeling of being the ‘other’ and the complicated responses that we all have when confronted with the unknown in the form of another human being. By exploring these encounters — what Robert Earl Price calls a ‘slight’ and personifies in an eponymous character — we hope to take our audience on a journey that will be discomforting yet, hopefully, revelatory.”

The cast of All Blues includes acclaimed Kent County jazz singer Karen Somerville; Polly Sommerfeld, lecturer in the Washington College Department of Drama; and Washington College students Mike Zurawski ’12, Marta Wesenberg ’12, John Lesser ’12, Phaedra Scott ’14, Harris Allgeier ’14 and Zach Weidner ’14.

The set designer is 7 Stages co-founder Faye Hamilton. The lighting designer is Josh Schulman ’00 of Cohesive Light in Philadelphia. Brigid Lally ’12 designed costumes. And the video designers are Marta Wesenberg ’12 and Corey Holland ’10, who works on the staff of WC’s Multimedia Production Center.

All Blues is Robert Earl Price’s fifth premiere at 7 Stages during his 20 years there as playwright in residence. The award-winning playwright and screenwriter is also artist in residence in the drama department at Washington College, where he teaches creative writing and drama.

“By joining forces to take on Robert's excellent ideas about race and racism, we not only expose Washington College students to new theatre art, and new ways of making theatre, but we also are teaching core values about the nation and how each of us fits into society,” says Del Hamilton of 7 Stages. “This is one of the major questions on the minds of young people these days: how to have a purposeful life.”

The Chestertown performances of All Blues will be at the Decker Theatre in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts at Washington College on Thurs. Sept. 15 at 8 p.m., Fri. Sept. 16 at 8:30 p.m. and Sat. Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. Admission is $10 for the general public, $5 for seniors and students. For reservations, call the Gibson Center box office at 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

The play will be performed at 7 Stages in Atlanta with the Chestertown cast Sept. 22-25. Seven Stages will produce All Blues with its own cast Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. More information about the Atlanta performances can be found at www.7stages.org. All Blues is produced in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Maxcy Visiting Artist Endowment at Washington College.

Photos: Middle: a photograph from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette circa 1948 shows newspaper reporter Ray Sprigle at his desk. Bottom: All Blues author Robert Earl Price is a visiting professor of creative writing and drama at Washington College and playwright in residence at 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta.

Washington College Announces Artists for Sixtieth Season of Campus Concert Series

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The 60th Season of the Washington College Concert Series will bring international artists to the Gibson Center for the Arts to perform a range of classical and modern music. Pianist Pedja Muzijevic opens the series Friday evening, Sept. 30, and the guitarists of Duo Orfeo follow in November. The new year will offer the strings of Cuarteto Latinoamericano in February, cellist Astrid Schween in March and mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato in April.

Tickets to individual concerts ($15, or $5 for youth ages 18 and under) and season tickets ($50 for all five concerts) can be purchased at the door or in advance by mail. Patron levels, which include season tickets, begin at $75 per person. Washington College students are admitted free with a valid ID. There are no reserved seats. To purchase tickets or for more information, please call 410-778-7839 or email concert series director Kate Bennett at kbennett2@washcoll.edu.

Pedja Muzijevic, piano, Friday, Sept. 30, 8 p.m., Decker Theatre.

Pianist Pedja Muzijevic has toured extensively as soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist throughout the world. His artistic curiosity has led him to explore both the music of the 18th and 19th centuries on period instruments and the music of such contemporary composers as Knussen, Carter, Cage, and Crumb.

Muzijevic has performed with major symphonies from Tokyo to Boston and has soloed in venerable venues that include Alice Tully Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, and Teatro Municipal in Santiago. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut playing Mozart Concerto K. 503 with the Oberlin Symphony and Robert Spano was recorded live and released on the Oberlin Music label. His recording “Sonatas and Other Interludes,” available on Albany Records, juxtaposes music for piano prepared by John Cage with composers ranging from W. F. Bach to F. Liszt. As a chamber musician, Muzijevic has toured internationally with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project and with Simon Keenlyside in Trisha Brown’s staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise.

A native of Sarajevo, Muzijevic graduated from the Academy of Music in Zagreb, and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the coveted William Petschek Award and earned his master of music degree. He serves as Director of Music Programming at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City. For more information, visit http://pedjamuzijevic.com/

Duo Orfeo, guitar duo, Friday, Nov. 11, 8 p.m., Hotchkiss Recital Hall.

The innovative Duo Orfeo uses both classical and electric guitars to explore a diverse body of music from traditional western compositions to their own bold arrangements. Joseph Ricker and Jamie Balmer met in 2001 as students of guitarist Phillip de Fremery, a pupil of Andrés Segovia. Four years later, they recorded their first album, The Grace Sessions, which includes music of Bach, Brahms, Boccherini and Albéniz. They formed Duo Orfeo in 2007 and have since performed regularly throughout New England and in New York City, often taking their music into less expected venues such as jazz cafés, bookshops, farmers’ markets, art galleries and union halls.

In 2009 the pair released a second album, Duo Orfeo, featuring music of Federico Mompou, Eric Satie, Frédéric Chopin, Radamés Gnattali, and Francesco Da Milano. In April of this year, Duo Orfeo participated in the critically acclaimed “Machines” project, a live performance art collaboration with pianist Oni Buchanan, trombone quartet The Guidonian Hand, and kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson. “Machines” featured the world premiere of their arrangements of the music of Arvo Pärt for electric guitar duo. For more: http://www.duoorfeo.com/.

Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m., Decker Theatre.

Cuarteto Latinoamericano, formed in 1982, is known worldwide as the leading proponent of Latin American music for string quartet. This award-winning ensemble from Mexico consists of the three Bitrán brothers—violinists Saúl and Arón and cellist Alvaro—along with violist Javier Montiel. The Cuarteto has recorded most of the Latin American repertoire for string quartet, and the sixth volume of their Villa-Lobos 17 quartets cycle, recorded for Dorian, was nominated for a Grammy award in 2002 in the chamber music category.

The Washington Post praised the quartet as “matchless in tonal magnitude, tuneful fluency and concentrated teamwork.” Cuarteto has toured extensively around the world and been featured with many orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, the Dallas Symphony and the Símón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela. They have collaborated with many artists, including cellist Janos Starker, pianists Santiago Rodriguez, Cyprien Katsaris and Rudolph Buchbinder, tenor Ramon Vargas, and guitarists Narciso Yepes, Sharon Isbin, David Tanenbaum and Manuel Barrueco. They recorded two CDs with Barrueco and have commissioned guitar quintets from American composers Miguel del Aguila, Michael Daugherty and Gabriela Lena Frank. For more: http://www.cuartetolatinoamericano.com/en/

Astrid Schween, cello, with Gary Hammond, piano, Sunday, March 25, 4:00 p.m., Hotchkiss Recital Hall.

The former cellist for Lark Quartet, Astrid Schween now enjoys a busy international concert career as a soloist, in recital with the Schween-Hammond Duo, and with piano trio Mirepoix. Recent activities include recitals in Europe and California, concerto performances of works by Elgar, Lalo, Dvorak, Schumann, Tan Dun and Saint-Säens, and a solo CD recording soon to be released by Arabesque Recordings. In 2010, Ms. Schween commissioned and premiered “Music for Electric Cello and Electronics,” by Gordon Green, which features the cellist on a Yamaha SVC210 Electric Cello as soloist with an “electronic orchestra.”

Ms. Schween received her training at the Juilliard School, where she was twice awarded the Cello Prize. After performing as soloist with the New York Philharmonic as winner of their Young Peoples’ Competition, she was selected by Zubin Mehta to study in London with Jacqueline du Pré.

As part of the Lark Quartet, Schween recorded nearly two dozen CDs for major labels and commissioned new works from America’s leading composers, including Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. She also collaborated with many celebrated artists including Joshua Bell, Branford Marsalis, Edgar Meyer, Karl Leister and choreographer Bill T. Jones. She teaches cello at the University of Massachusetts and holds a senior faculty position at Interlochen as a Valade Fellow. For more: http://astridschween.com/

D’Anna Fortunato, mezzo-soprano, with Peter H. Bloom, flute and alto flute, and Mary Jane Rupert, piano, Saturday, April 14, 8 p.m., Hotchkiss Recital Hall.

Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato will perform a Gala Vocal Chamber Concert with flutist Peter H. Bloom and pianist Mary Jane Rupert, a program that promises fascinating contrasts. The ensemble will perform selections from Handel's exquisite German arias; Rosina’s famous aria “Una voce poco fa” from Rossini's Barber of Seville; songs for voice, flute & piano by Ravel and Saint-Saëns; songs by Amy Beach; Vowels (1993) by Daniel Pinkham; Elizabeth Vercoe’s 2003 work “Kleemation,” inspired by drawings of Paul Klee; and Schubert's masterpiece “Shepherd on the Rock.”

Fortunato has appeared as a soloist with America’s top orchestras, and with leading opera companies that include the New York City Opera, Glimmerglass, and Opera San Jose. She has appeared at numerous major international music festivals and has recorded 40 CDs. In 2006, she was a Grammy nominee in three categories, including best classical vocal recording. For more: http://phbloom.home.comcast.net/~phbloom/dannafortunato.html/.

Flutist Peter H. Bloom has given concerts from Boston to Bangkok and appears on 30 recordings from labels including Sony Classical, Dorian, Leo Records and Newport Classic. Winner of the American Musicological Society’s coveted Noah Greenberg Award, he is a distinguished classical artist and a noted jazz player.

Pianist and harpist Mary Jane Rupert has given solo recitals from Carnegie Hall to Beijing Concert Hall and has appeared with symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States. She serves on the music faculties of Tufts University, Boston College and MIT.

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