Thursday, October 25, 2007

First Kaleidoscope Offering A Great Success


On October 18, the Liberal Arts Speaker Series was inaugurated as Carol Herselle Krinsky described for a fascinated crowd "How Midtown Manhattan Was Created." Aided by slides & a brisk delivery, Professor Krinsky explained the complicated, interwoven history of railroads, business & social planning that created midtown as we know it. Especially memorable were her descriptions & slides of Grand Central Station & Park Avenue as they developed in response to electric train technology, the demands of businessmen, & the pressures of a booming real estate industry. Liberal Arts Professor Greta Berman introduced the speaker & is pictured with her above. (Photo credit: Renee Baron)

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Outstanding Liberal Arts Student Gets Rave Review For Her Met Debut



Isabel Leonard, a recent Juilliard graduate fondly remembered as an enthusiastic & committed Liberal Arts student, was praised in the New York Times for her performance in the role of Stephano in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Gounod's Romeo et Juiliette for "making her company debut with remarkable aplomb." She is described as singing "with the assurance of one who feels completely at home on the stage." The reviewer notes that "it is hard to make a splash in a pants role in a long opera on a night when Anna Netrebko is singing, but Ms. Leonard did." For the full review, see newyorktimes.com, September 27, 2007, "The Lovers of Verona, Swaggering and Soaring." The production runs through December 31.






Thursday, October 4, 2007

Literature & Materials of Music Department Teams with Liberal Arts


A new course, Arts for the 21st Century, team taught by Greta Berman of Liberal Arts & Vivian Fung of L & M, addresses issues crucial to young artists today, including innovative programming of music and dance repertoire, as well as curating and collecting visual art works. By means of specific examples, the course investigates what is meant by the "canon" or "mainstream" in the arts, re-examining the justification for the consistent inclusion of certain artists and the exclusion of others. How does inclusion or exclusion affect their significance? Who makes the decisions? How can programming and curating address more creatively the interests of present and future audiences? Classes will include guest speakers, museum visits, and presentationswith slides and music.

Mitchell Aboulafia Considers Schools & Theories of Psychology


This new course examines the theories of major schools and figures in the history of psychology and social psychology. Traditions that may be addressed include psychoanalysis, functionalism, Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, symbolic interaction, and existential psychology. Among the figures who may be discussed are William James, Freud, R.D. Laing, B.F. Skinner, J.B. Watson, George Herbert Mead, Piaget, Rollo May, Lacan, Nancy Chodorow.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

A Storm of Poetry from Ron Price

Liberal Arts faculty member Ron Price has upcoming readings at The 11th Street Park Preservation Series (Manhattan), Bisquit BBQ (Brooklyn), the DiVerseCity Series at La Negrita (Manhattan), & The Living Theater (Manhattan). For dates & times, email rprice@juilliard.edu

Ron also has poems forthcoming in Big City Lit, Live! Mag, Northeast Corridor, Tamarind, Zone 3, & a featured group in Rattapallax.

Friday, September 28, 2007

New Faculty Member Anthony Lioi Creates Perfect Storm



A new course, Perfect Storms: Environmental Literature, Ethics, & Politics, examines the politics of ecology through the literature and film today's environmental crisis, unprecedented & planetary in scale, has produced. The class will examine ideas of nature across contemporary global cultures; the environmental history of New York City; key cases in environmental ethics, including water pollution, food production, mass extinction of species, and global climate change; and popular movements for environmental change in Japan, India, Kenya, and Russia.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Hegel at Juilliard


Mitchell Aboulafia, in his second year as chair of Liberal Arts, & in addition to deep changes in the department's structure, including reduced course load, increased number of faculty & the addition of many new electives, has brought Hegel to Juilliard. Meeting after hours, students from the New School of Social Research join Juilliard students to make their way through Phenomenology of Spirit under Mitchell's guidance. The group began last spring semester & continues this fall with 22 members meeting every other Monday.