Comcal sept oct 2014 issuu

In this Issue:St. John’s College—50 YearsLecturesConcertsNovember Community SeminarsGraduate Institute

COMMUNITYCALENDAR

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGESANTA FE, NEW MEXICO VOL. 5.14

SEPT/OCT 2014

JOHN GAW MEEM ANDRICHARD WEIGLE SURVEYTHE LAND DONATEDBY THE MEEM FAMILY.

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Don Cook was a founding tutor

who came to St. John’s College,

Santa Fe, in 1965, directly from

graduate school at the University of

California-Davis.

“I always loved the big ideas, the

philosophical questions, and that of

course got me hooked on them. And I

never gave that up; so when I sort of

pursued a career in chemistry, it

seemed trivial in a way, like I was

just working on things that didn't

matter, and all these great ideas

were out there. So when I read about

St. John’s College in the Saturday Review, it just clicked into place

as something that had been missing in my life. I could go to a place

and learn. And I was primarily a learner. I used to drive my profes-

sors in graduate school nuts because I’d go take these courses in

mathematics and whatever interested me, and my research would

be kind of secondary. I didn't fit in too well in graduate school, but

I fit in very well at St. John’s.”

Please visit www.sjc.edu regularly for updated information on the

50th anniversary.

19642014

Celebrate with St. John’s College

St. John’s Collegefirst graduatingclass.

Don Cook

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Lectures are free and open to the public and are followed by a question-and-answer period.

Galileo’s Hermeticism Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series

Friday, September 5, 7:30 p.m.

Great Hall, Peterson Student Center

Paolo Palmieri, University of Pittsburgh, Department of History and Philosophy of Science

The high priests of positivism have handed down a myth about Galileo: that hewas the founder of modern mathematical-experimental science and that hisrevolutionary achievement consisted chiefly of dismantling the constructs ofthe late medieval cosmos, eradicating its roots in the doctrines of Aristotle andhis late scholastic followers. This lecture presents an image of Galileo as acrypto-hermetist, aiming the spotlight at the intersections of his existentialpathway with early modern European culture. His work involved Archimedeanmathematics, judicial astrology, reconciliation of conflicting truths at the limitsof heresy through Biblical hermeneutics, a daemonic aesthetics of light anddarkness, the discipline of self-repression vs. libertine sexuality, emotional self-control, and, finally, the magic of experiential learning.

Paolo Palmieri teaches history and philosophy of science at the University ofPittsburgh, with a focus on European modernity and the seventeenth century.His many interests include Montessori method, pragmatism, phenomenology,post-humanism, and their intersections with the sciences.

Liberal Education in America and The Cold WarDean’s Lecture & Concert SeriesFriday, September 19, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Walter Sterling, Dean of St. John’s College, Santa Fe

Plato portrayed vividly that one could not hope to understand the goals orproblems of education without understanding how they are shaped by the existing political regime. The ideal of liberal education in America was, perhaps quietly, bolstered by the great contests of regimes in the 20th century.Can it flourish here, or anywhere, absent such a contest?

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All the Matter of the Living Air: Dreams and the Western Tradition Saturday, September 20, 2:30 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center

Lael Gold, Ph.D., Class of 1989, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, and founder of Productive Slumber

Besides providing refreshment, can slumber be productive? Lael Gold will discuss unexpected intersections between dreams and the Western tradition,considering the relationship among prophetic, philosophical, and scientificmodes of knowing, and the potential role of dreams in personal and civic life.She will share little-known but well-documented stories of dreams in historyand provide a few simple but powerful tools for making good use of our dreams.

Lael Gold holds a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught for eight years and spent a semesterstudying with the head of the university’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory.She is a Faulkner scholar and former keynote speaker at the annual Faulknerand Yoknapatawpha Conference; she contributed the essay “A Mammy Callie Lagacy” to Faulkner’s Inheritance. She is the founder of Productive Slumber(www.productiveslumber.com), a business devoted to restoring awareness of thevalue of nighttime dreams. She is also a standup comedian.

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Intentions and History in Livy and Plutarch: The Case of CatoDean’s Lecture & Concert Series Friday, October 3, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Jane D. Chaplin, James I. Armstrong Professor of Classics, Middlebury College

Nowadays, when reading Livy and Plutarch, there is an overwhelming preference for the first five books of Livy, filled as they are with the heroism ofLucretia, Mucius Scaevola, Virginia, and Camillus. There is also a tendency toread clusters either of Plutarch’s Roman lives or of the Greek ones, in an attempt to learn about one civilization or the other. Yet another standard approach is to treat Livy and Plutarch as historical sources, mining them for information about antiquity. Good reasons underlie these ways of reading thetwo authors but they ignore the manifest intentions of both writers. Livytreated Rome’s early history in summary fashion and devoted increasingamounts of space to the more recent past, and Plutarch deliberately paired notable Greeks and Romans. This lecture focuses on Cato the Elder as a way ofexamining whether and how authorial intent matters to us as readers.

Jane Chaplin has taught at Middlebury College since 1992. She teaches coursesin Greek, Latin, and Greek and Roman history. Her area of scholarly expertise ishistoriography; most of her published work concerns the Roman historian Livy.

The (Plato’s) Cave, and the Cave Beneath the Cave, Hegel’s Phenomenology of SpiritDean’s Lecture & Concert Series

Friday, October 10, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Jonathan Hand, St. John’s College, Santa Fe

At the beginning of book VII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates gives “an image ofour nature (physis) with respect to its education and lack of education,” namelythat famous “cave” in which humans live as prisoners unless and until they areliberated by philosophy. The reference to nature would suggest that this initialcondition of unfreedom and ignorance is true everywhere and always—in anysociety whatsoever, except the lucky few whose souls are turned around and ledout. Is this still true, or have modern science, progressive egalitarianism andsecularism transformed that condition? Or are we moderns only in a differentkind of “cave,” a “cave beneath the cave,” as one recent student of Plato'sclaimed? Such questions are taken up by Hegel in the Phenomenology and continue to be of capital importance.

Architecture and Aesthetic EducationSteiner Lecture Friday, October 17, 8 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Roger Scruton, Oxford

People imagine that the humanities curriculum is centered on great books andwritten knowledge, with some glances at art and music by way of filling in thehistory. Architecture is treated either as part of art history or as an annex toengineering. In this lecture, Scruton will show the place of architecture in thehumane understanding of our environment to illustrate the concept of settle-ment and to argue that humane education is meaningless if it does not showpeople how to settle down.

Roger Scruton is the author of over 40 books, including works of criticism, political theory, and aesthetics, as well as novels and short stories. In addition tohis authoritative compendia, Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey(1994), and A Dictionary of Political Thought (3rd Edition, 2007), Scruton has written three important studies in applied philosophy: The Aesthetics of Architecture (1979), Sexual Desire (1986), and The Aesthetics of Music (1997).His latest books are The Soul of the World and a novel, Notes from Under-ground. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the British Academy. He is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC.

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An Informal Visit with Scott MomadayDean’s Lecture & Concert Series Friday, October 31, 3:15 p.m.


N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Momaday is a writer and a painter. Among his awards are a Pulitzer Prize, theNational Medal of Art, and the Premio Letterario Internazionale “Mondello”(Italy’s highest literary award). He is a UNESCO Artist for Peace and a memberof the Stanford University Alumni Hall of Fame. He lives in Santa Fe with hiswife, the poet Kathleen Johnson.

SANTA FE CAMPUSLAUNCHES NEW MAGAZINERational Animal, a new on-linemagazine produced by the Communications office of St. John’s College, Santa Fe, features interesting, quirky, andinsightful stories about alumni,students, tutors, staff, and friendsof St. John’s College. The maga-zine was created in honor of the50th anniversary of the Santa Fecampus. Rational Animal Magazine is now available for free download at the ITunes AppStore for IPhone and IPad andGoogle Play for Droid.

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JACQUELYN HELIN AND SHANTI RANDALL IN CONCERT

Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series

Friday, September 12, 7:30 p.m.


Violist Shanti Randall and pianist Jacquelyn Helin will perform Bach’s Preludeto the 6th cello suite (1st movement), Shostakovich’s Sonata in C major forViola and Piano, and Franck’s Sonata in A Minor for Violin (Viola) and Piano.

Jacquelyn Helin made her New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall as the winner of the Artists’ International Piano Competition; her European debut was at London’s Wigmore Hall. Recent appearances include concertos with the New Mexico, Richmond, Greenwich, Santa Fe, Mesa, and Redwood symphonies, and numerous solo recitals. She has performed locally with Santa Fe New Music, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Santa FeOpera, the Taos Chamber Music Group, and Ballet Pro Musica. She is themusic director of the United Church of Christ in Santa Fe and is on the facultyof the New Mexico School for the Arts.

Shanti Randall, a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has recorded and performed with such major artists as Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Bette Midler,Randy Newman, Björk, Andrea Bocelli, Kelly Clarkson, and BarbaraStreisand. He performed as violist in over 350 motion picture scores and is amember of the Hollywood Studio Orchestra. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Opera, played on the Los Angeles“Sundays Live” series radio broadcasts, and appeared as assistant principal violist with the Ojai Chamber Music Festival, among numerous other nationaland international performances.

Admission is free.

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PETER PESIC IN CONCERT

Wednesday, September 17, 12:10–1:15 p.m.


Peter Pesic (piano), the college’s musician in residence, will perform The Goldberg Project: J. S. Bach:Fourteen Canons on the Goldberg Bass (BWV 1087) and theGoldberg Variations (BWV 988).

Admission is free.

CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT

Friday, October 3, 12:15 p.m.


St. John’s tutor Christine Chen (violin), tutor emeritus David Bolotin (piano),David Felberg (violin), Shanti Randall (viola), and Dana Winograd (cello) willperform Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 14 in E-flat major, K. 449, arranged as apiano quintet, and Ravel's String Quartet in F major.

David Felberg is the concertmaster of the Santa Fe Symphony and the assis-tant concertmaster of the New Mexico Philharmonic. Dana Winograd is theprincipal cellist of the Santa Fe Symphony and a cellist in the New MexicoPhilharmonic. Shanti Randall, who performs at the college with pianistJacquelyn Helin on September 12, has performed with most of the major professional ensembles in northern New Mexico. Christine Chen performs regularly with Santa Fe Pro Musica and other professional groups; she andDavid Bolotin have given a number of concerts together at the college.

Admission is free.

STEPHEN HOUSER IN CONCERT

Sunday, October 12, 7 p.m.


Guitarist Stephen Houser, a tutor at St. John’s College, will perform works by Milan, Scarlatti, Sojo, Sculthorpe, and Albeniz.

Mr. Houser studied classical guitar under David Tanenbaum and George Sakellariou at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, privately with Margarita Escarpa and Kathleen McIntosh, and has performed in masterclasses given by Julian Bream, David Russell, Aniello Desiderio, and others.

Admission is free.

PETER PESIC IN CONCERT

Wednesday, October 29, 12:10–1:15 p.m.


Peter Pesic (piano), the college’s musician in residence, will perform Debussy:Valse romantique (1890); Masques (1904); L’Isle joyeuse (1904); Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, op. 52.

Admission is free.

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THE ATRIUM STRING QUARTET

Friday, October 24, 7:30 p.m.


The program includes Haydn’s Quartet in B minor, op. 33, no. 1, Mendelssohn’s Quartet no. 6 in F minor, op. 80, Mendelssohn's Capriccio in E minor, op. 81, no. 3, and Shostakovich’s Quartet no. 8 in C minor, op. 110.

Founded in 2000 in St. Petersburg under the inspiration of Professor JosefLevinson, the Atrium Quartet graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatoirein 2003 and then completed their education as a quartet-in-residenz in Amsterdam. Highly acclaimed by audiences and press, the Quartet has performed throughout Europe, Russia, the United States, Australia, Japan,and Brazil. They received First Prize and Audience Prize of the 9th London International String Quartet Competition in 2003 and Grand-Prix of the 5th International String Quartet Competition in Bordeaux in 2007. Recent appearances include recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London, Library of Congress in Washington, and the Frick Museum in New York. The Quartet’s discography includes a CD with works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich and a DVD, Live in Concert in theNetherlands, with music by Tchaikovsky.

St. John’s sponsors this concert in conjunction with Performance Santa Fe. Admission is $45. Tickets are available by calling 505-984-8759, or online at https://performancesantafe.org.

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> COMING IN NOVEMBERShakespeare: The History Plays

St. John’s College President Mike Peters leads two series of Community Seminarcovering Shakespeare’s English History plays. In the fall, Richard II and HenryIV, part 1 will comprise a two-seminar series. In the spring semester, Henry IV,part 2 and Henry V will comprise a second two-seminar series. Shakespeare’s second tetralogy plays covering “The War of the Roses” offer remarkable insightinto the overlapping intricacies of the political and the personal with action ranging from the courts, to the battlefields to the flea-bitten inns of London. High politics, shrewd statecraft, low comedy and memorable characters all findkeen expression in these plays.

Community members can sign-up for one or both series’.

NOVEMBER

Shakespeare: The History PlaysFriday, November 14, 4-6pm, Shakespeare’s Richard IISaturday, November 15, 10am-Noon, Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part ICost: $125 for Friday and Saturday sessions

FEBRUARY

Shakespeare: The History Plays*Friday, February 13, 4-6pm: Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II*Saturday, February 14, 10am-Noon: Shakespeare’s King Henry VCost: $125 for Friday and Saturday sessions

*tentative dates, check for date confirmation in upcoming Community Calendar postings and on our webpagehttp://www.sjc.edu/events-and-programs/santa-fe/community-seminar-series/

EXPERIENCE THE LIBERAL ARTS: A FREE GRADUATE INSTITUTE EVENT TO LEARN ABOUT THE LIBERAL ARTS MASTER’S PROGRAMSaturday, November 8, 1–4:30 p.m.Levan Hall

David Carl, director of the Graduate Institute, and members of the St. John’s facultywill lead a discussion on short stories by Jorge Luis Borges. This event is an oppor-tunity for prospective students to participate in a St. John’s College seminar and experience the great rewards of dialogue as learning.Light refreshments will be served following the seminar, during a panel discussionwith St. John’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni about the life-changing experi-ence of the Graduate Institute. Information about the application process will alsobe provided.

Space is limited. Please RSVP, before October 28, to Susan Olmsted [email protected] or 505-984-6083.If you are interested in the Liberal Arts Master's Program at St. John’s College Santa Fe but are not able to attend the event, please contact Susan Olmsted to discuss a personalized visit.

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Comcal sept oct 2014 issuu