On The Secular And Sacred Arts In The Shadows Of Empire ["The Loss Of Memory By A Nation Is Also A Loss Of Its Conscience"]

The U.S. economy temporarily behind him, Pan Cogito's thoughts turn to (free) poetry and music in the Nation's Capital [Pan Cogito's author Zbigniew Herbert was born in Lviv]:

October 30 2008, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Marjana Savka, poet and publisher, Lviv, Ukraine

Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C.

Born in 1973 in Kopytchyntsi, Ukraine, Marjana Savka published her first volume of poems Naked Riverbeds when she was twenty-one. Eight other books, for which she has received numerous prizes and awards, have appeared since then, including four of poetry and three books for children. A former actress and journalist, she has edited We and She, an anthology of poems by women writers from Lviv, Ukraine, where she lives. She is also co-founder, with her husband, of Old Lion Publishing House, specializing in children’s books and poetry. She has been a Fellow of the William Joiner Center at the University of Massachusetts, Boston when the poetry for her newest book Boston-jazz was created. The book of translations of her poetry Eight Notes from the Blue Angel by Askold Melnyczuk was published in Boston by Arrowsmith Press.

Please RSVP by sending an e-mail to renata.kosc-harmatiy@wilsoncenter.org.

Note: A Reception will precede the event at 5:30.

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Post-Classical Ensemble and the Georgetown University Chamber Singers: Voice of Mexico

Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 6:00pm
McNeir Auditorium

This concert is free and open to the public.

Repertoire list:
Laudate Dominum - Francisco Lopez Capillas
Aufer a nobis – Francisco Lopez Capillas
Magnificat (quinti toni) – Fernando Franco
Et incarnates est – Anon. (Puebla I, fols. 70-71).
Exultate Justi in Domino – Juan Gutierrez de Padilla
Vidi turbam magnam – Juan Gutierrez de Padilla
A la xacara xacarilla - Juan Gutierrez de Padilla
Quisiera te pedir, Nidida, cuenta – Luis Sandi
Serenissima Una Noche, Geronimo Gonzalez
Xicochi xicochi – Gaspar Fernandez
Convidando esta la noche – Juan Garcia de Zespedes

Post-Classical Ensemble

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Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 8:00

Messiaen Centenary

TONY ARNOLD, soprano
JACOB GREENBERG, piano

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Free. First come, first served.

Carter: Voyage
Mozart: Das Veilchen
Berlioz: Le Spectre de la Rose
Sibelius: Svarta Rosor
Kurtág: Requiem for the Beloved
Harbison: Breakfast Song
Adés: Life Story
Messiaen: Harawi (A Song of Love and Death)

6:15 pm – Coolidge Auditorium (no tickets required)

Pre-concert presentation: "The Complete Works for Violin and Piano" by Messiaen performed by Paul Festa, violin and Jerome Lowenthal, piano. Includes: Theme and Variations; Le Loriot from Catalogue d'oiseaux (piano solo); Fantasie (Washington premiere); and, "Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus" (mvt VIII of Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps)

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National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble

November 2 at 6:30 PM

West Building Main Floor, West Garden Court

Music by seventeenth-century composers
Presented in honor of Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered

Free. First come first served.

Program Notes

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Header: "The Preaching of the Antichrist" by Luca Signorelli and his school (1499-1504) (in the left corner : the figures of Fra Angelico and Signorelli); San Brizio Chapel, Cathedral of Orvieto, Italy, European Union.

Below "The Preaching of the Antichrist" are smaller paintings of famous writers and philosophers watching the unfolding disaster above them with interest. Depicted are Homer, Empedocles, Lucan, Horace, Ovid, Virgil and Dante.

Photo credit: (c) Georges Jansoone, 2008. All rights reserved. Via Wikipedia. With thanks.

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Jan Lievens
Magdalena in meditation
Oil on canvas, 69 cm x 55.5 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Douai, European Union