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Creativity and the Elder Artist

Numerous studies reveal that older adults who engage in creative activities can slow down the aging process by maximizing the use of their brains and bodies.

Join Rinde Eckert, creator of And God Created Great Whales, as he talks about the process of making a work about an artist who is slowly losing his memory while continuing to write music.

Other panelists include octogenarian visual artist David C. Driskell, poet A.B. Spellman and Sharon Simson, associate director of UMD’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

A Conversation About Women and Resistance

Nora Chipaumire’s Miriam is a deeply personal dance-theatre performance that looks closely at the tensions women face between public expectations and private desires; between selflessness and ambition; and between the perfection and sacrifice of the feminine ideal.

Join Chipaumire along with Sheri Parks, UMD American Studies professor; Fatemeh Keshavarz, The Roshan Institute for Persian Studies; and Sarah Browning, director of DC Poets Against the War and Split This Rock.

Considering the Human Condition: On Behalf of Nature

For her newest work, On Behalf of Nature, Meredith Monk offers a poetic meditation on the environment, inspired in part by the Buddhist notion of conjoining heaven and earth through human beings.

Responding to the precarious state of our global ecology, Monk creates a space at the threshold where human, natural and spiritual elements are woven into a delicate whole, illuminating the interconnection and interdependency of us all.

Choreographers’ Showcase

The 30th anniversary production of this adjudicated showcase — a joint project of the Center and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission — celebrates the diverse talents of a new generation.

One patron summed up her experience with the showcase this way: “I didn’t know what to expect and was completely overwhelmed by the complexity, diversity and beauty of each and every dance performance.”

This year’s program includes four solo works:

Chamber Music Showcase

Small chamber groups of students perform repertoire for strings, woodwinds, brass and piano.

The culmination of rehearsal and coaching during the fall semester, this concert is an integral part of coursework for UMD School of Music students and a glimpse into the training they receive for performing in major ensembles. 

  • Part I: Monday, November 12, 2012 . 5:30PM
  • Part II: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 . 7PM

Eliza Garth: Celebrating the John Cage Centennial

Pianist Eliza Garth celebrates the John Cage centennial with a performance of Cage’s masterpiece for prepared piano, Sonatas and Interludes. 

Described by the writer James Pritchett as “a big piece with a quiet voice,” Sonatas and Interludes is meditative in its esthetic; the “preparation” of the piano transforms its sound into an ensemble of gongs, chimes, and magical effects.

Although Cage did not invent the instrument he named the “prepared piano,” he was a major force behind its development and is often associated with it.

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