Upcoming Cultural events at SMCM Open to the Public

Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz to give full preview of upcoming Strathmore all-Chopin recital at St. Mary's College

On Tuesday, Jan. 23, St. Mary's College of Maryland Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz will give a special full preview of his upcoming all-Chopin recital at the Music Center at Strathmore. The recital will be held in the Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall on the College campus, and will begin at 8 p.m. The program is entitled "Chopin's Hidden Gems and All Time Favorites," and will group little known works of Chopin with perennial favorites, revealing surprising connections between them. This will be a ticketed event. St. Mary's College of Maryland students will be admitted free of charge; seniors, college faculty and staff, as well as St. Mary's Arts Alliance members, will be charged a $10 admission fee; general admission will be $15. For more information, call (240) 895-4498.

"At first glance this program will look like a grab bag of disconnected works, some of them completely unknown and some from Chopin's 'top 40'," Ganz stated. "On closer examination some interesting themes and connections appear, and we'll explore those connections throughout the evening. For example, I'll play some little known etudes that address two tricky rhythmic challenges," he continued. "Then I'll play the beloved Fantaisie-Impromptu, which employs both tricky rhythms! I'll even teach the audience how to clap one of the tricky rhythms. We'll have some fun with that."

Ganz will play his eighth recital in his "Extreme Chopin" quest at the Strathmore Music Center on February 10 at 8 p.m. He is now entering the second half of his multi-year journey through the complete works of Chopin, a project he has undertaken in partnership with the National Philharmonic. He began the quest, which the pianist calls a "dream come true," at Strathmore in January of 2011 in a sold out recital that launched the ambitious endeavor to perform the composer's approximately 250 works. After the inaugural recital, The Washington Post wrote: "Brian Ganz was masterly in his first installment of the complete works [of Chopin]."

Discover the Crossroads of the Whole World During Adventures in Anthropology Lecture

St. Mary's College welcomes Emad Khalil for the next Adventures in Anthropology lecture, Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 4:45 p.m. in Auerbach Auditorium in St. Mary's Hall on the St. Mary's College campus. Khalil is currently the professor of maritime archaeology in the department of archaeology and Greco-Roman studies at Alexandria University, Egypt.

In his lecture, "Discussing The Crossroads of the Whole World," Khalil will discuss the role the port city of Alexandria has played throughout history, and how it was significantly influenced by three different environmental mediums, which converged at Alexandria and gave the city many of its special characteristics: the Mediterranean Sea, the River Nile, and Lake Mareotis.

Khalil will examine this maritime network that converged at Alexandria in antiquity and the role it played in the development and prosperity of the city.

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

Khalil has been involved in several maritime and underwater archaeological projects that took place in Egypt, including the Pharos Project, the Sadana Island Shipwreck Excavation, the Lake Mareotis Research Project, and the Northwest Coast Shipwreck Survey. He has also given numerous lectures and presentations on maritime and underwater archaeology in different countries.

TOUR DE FORCE: pianist ELIZA GARTH performs new American virtuoso works for piano at St. Mary's College of Maryland

On Thursday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m., pianist Eliza Garth will perform a solo recital featuring works by American composers Sheree Clement and Perry Goldstein. The recital, a celebration of the March release of Tour de Force—Garth's new CD on Albany Records featuring Clement and Goldstein—will take place in the Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall at St. Mary's College of Maryland, where Garth is an instructor of music. Both Clement and Goldstein will be present for the recital. The event is free of charge and open to the public.

Later in February, Garth will perform the same recital program in New York City as part of the 2018 Composers Now Festival.

Garth, through her recordings and her performances worldwide, is renowned as an artist with a passionate voice and an adventurous spirit, championing some of the most demanding works in the repertoire. Her recordings of Donald Martino's solo piano works on the Centaur label met with national critical acclaim. The first of these, her debut solo album and the first album dedicated entirely to Martino's piano music, was included in a New York Times survey of its own critics' favorite recordings of music composed since 1945.

Clement's music, full of shimmering colors and surprising narratives, has been performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Atlantic String Quartet, the Canyonlands Ensemble of Salt Lake City, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, and at the Composers Conference in Vermont, to name a few. Her awards include the Goddard Leiberson Award (American Academy of Arts and Letters), a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tanglewood Fellowship.

Goldstein's high-intensity music has been called "kinetic, percussive [and] pummeling" by the New York Times. He has composed for such notable performers as Juilliard SQ cellist Joel Krosnick, Emerson SQ violinist Phillip Setzer, pianists Gilbert Kalish and Eliza Garth, the Aurelia, Prism, and Capitol Sax Quartets, bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern, and saxophonists Arno Bornkamp, Branford Marsalis, and Kenneth Tse.

Visiting Anthropologist Lecture Series presents Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz

The St. Mary's College of Maryland Anthropology Department will host Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, Loyola, for the lecture "On Both Sides of the Wall: Deportation and Mixed-Citizenship Families," on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m. in Cole Cinema, Campus Center. The event is free of charge and open to the public.

Gomberg-Muñoz will present results from a binational pilot project exploring the challenges facing families that are separated or relocated by deportation to Mexico. Deported parents are often separated from their U.S. citizen children and can lose parental rights. Parents who bring their U.S. citizen children with them often encounter bureaucratic barriers to accessing dual citizenship for the children, who may experience prolonged periods of "illegality" and exclusion from school and government services in Mexico. For people who migrated to the United States without their families, return often means family reunification after a long estrangement, and couples grapple with divergent expectations for their roles as spouses, parents, and sexual partners.

Gomberg-Muñoz is the author of two books, "Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network" (2011), and "Becoming Legal: Immigration Law and Mixed Status Families" (2016), as well as numerous journal articles.

"Spring Awakening," the musical, at St Mary's College Feb. 28 & March 1–4

The Department of Theater, Film, and Media Studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland announces "Spring Awakening," the musical, beginning Feb. 28 and running March 1 through March 3 at 8 p.m., with the final performance on March 4 at 2 p.m. All performances take place in the Bruce Davis Theater, Montgomery Hall Fine Arts Center on the College campus.

Directed by Mark A. Rhoda, visiting associate professor of theater, film, and media studies; with musical direction by Larry Vote, professor of music, and Robert Hayes '17, the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of Frank Wedekind's seminal 1891 play of the same name, "Spring Awakening" is an electrifying fusion of morality, sexuality, and rock-and-roll that celebrates teenage self-discovery and rebellion against the authoritarian rule of parents and teachers. With poignancy and passion, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's musical navigates the rocky terrain that is coming of age.

To reserve tickets, contact the Theater Box Office at 240-895-4243 or email boxoffice@smcm.edu. Ticket prices are $4 for St. Mary's College students, faculty, staff, and senior citizens and Arts Alliance members; $6, general admission. Patrons must pick up their reserved tickets at the Box Office window by 7:50 p.m. for evening performances and by 1:50 p.m. for matinee performances; otherwise, unclaimed tickets will be released for sale.