What do The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas, Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Weber’s Der Freischütz have in common? All are deliciously spooky excursions into the musical supernatural, eternally popular with classical audiences eager to experience a good scare. Speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin leads a hair-raising tour of some of the best-loved classical music haunts, showcasing works by a coven of composers.
Take this drawing fundamentals class as your first step in learning to draw. You learn to translate that stunning image in your mind or what you see in front of you onto paper, building a strong foundation for your drawing or painting practice.
Actor Henry Winkler was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 31. Since then, he has written a series of lauded children’s books that offer a funny and realistic look at life for a child who struggles with dyslexia. For amplifying important discussions about dyslexia and other issues that touch American lives, Winkler will receive the John P. McGovern Award from Smithsonian Associates. The award presentation highlights an evening in which he discusses his career and his path to stardom and how the issues and causes for which he advocates connect to his roles as an actor, author, comedian, producer, and director.
With so many flavors and endless possibilities, the wines of the Southern Hemisphere are particularly well equipped to pair with classic and modern holiday dishes. This delicious seminar with sommelier Erik Segelbaum explores how to select and pair wines like a professional sommelier to make every seasonal meal memorable.
The six wives of Henry VIII are collectively famous (and infamous) in song and story. But who were they as individuals? And how did they make their ways into the sextet? Tudor scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger examines each queen to unpack the legends and rumors that have clouded our understanding of them and provides new perspectives on what they contributed to court life and to history.
From forbidding fortresses to charming châteaux and castles, the splendid structures of the Loire Valley reflect lives of opulence and intrigue. Ornamented with paintings and sculptures and surrounded by reflecting pools and perfectly manicured gardens, they make the mansions of today’s rich and famous seem austere by comparison. Art historian Janetta Rebold Benton showcases these sumptuous and elegant historic residences and sets them in the context of French history. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)
What do sunflowers, Salvador Dali’s painting The Sacrament of the Last Supper, and black holes have in common? They share characteristics described by a curious irrational number, which approximates to 1.618. Known since antiquity as the Golden Ratio, or Phi, it has come to represent the proportions of ideally pleasing geometrical structures. Astrophysicist Mario Livio separates the myth from the math to bring this remarkable number to life.
