Sharon and Lawrence Rothman, Storytellers

Sharon and Lawrence Rothman
Patrons and University of Maryland Alumni

What does the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center mean to you?

The Clarice Smith Center was a major change to the cultural life of the University of Maryland. I think it’s the best venue I’ve been to since I had an affiliation with the university.

The Clarice Smith Center was a major change to the cultural life of the University of Maryland.

I like to see the students. A lot of things are student-oriented and they take a part in the productions also. I didn’t take advantage of the arts when I was a student. We have been attending the meeting and the performances of the Maryland Handel Festival since the beginning, since 1981. And we’ve attended some of the scholarly lecture conferences. We’ve become friends with several of the musicologists who’ve been attending over the years. And they made the objective to complete all performances of all the English language oratories of George Frederick Handel, which turns out not to be a one-day job. He wrote about 20 or something like that. And most of them are excellent pieces of music, but at any rate, the final one was part of the opening of the Clarice Smith Center so I’ll always remember that.