Bernhardt Offers Look at Composer John Williams

The Academy for Lifelong Learning at St. Mary’s Sewanee will meet for a whole day event on Thursday, June 9. Robert Bernhardt will make his fifth appearance at St. Mary’s, presenting “John Williams: The Man and His Music.”
Bernhardt will offer insight to the career of Academy Award-winning composer John Williams, whom he considers history’s most important composer for film. He will lecture on Williams’ musical training and influences, his music for television in the 1960s and his early cinematic efforts in music adaptation. Musical examples of Williams’ film scores can be heard from before “Jaws” (1975) to “The Force Awakens” (2015), for which he received his 50th Academy Award nomination. Bernhardt will also share some stories of times spent with his friend and mentor. Williams is considered the greatest composer of marches since John Philip Sousa and the greatest composer of fanfares ever. The day will explore the depth and variety of music written by the most celebrated and popular composer of our time.
Bernhardt is the principal pops conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, principal pops conductor and music director emeritus of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera and artist-in-residence at Lee University. He also guest conducts all across the country.
This special day at St. Mary’s Sewanee will begin at 10 a.m. There will be a break for a buffet lunch, and the lecture will continue after lunch. The cost is $35. Register by calling St. Mary’s Sewanee at 598-5342.
For more information call Anne Davis at (931) 924-4465.

Academy for Lifelong Learning Meets on Thursday

The Academy for Lifelong Learning at St. Mary’s Sewanee will meet at noon, Thursday, April 14, when Dr. John Thompson will present the program. Thompson will talk about “Defending the Indefensible: Dachau, 1945.”
Thompson will tell the story of Douglas T. Bates II, an attorney from Centerville, Tenn., who was assigned the task of defending German war criminals at the end of World War II, in the first of the war tribunals. Douglas Bates’ son will also be present at the talk. Thompson graduated from Battle Ground Academy in 1964, Duke University in 1968 and Emory School of Medicine in 1973. He practices internal medicine in Nashville and spends as many weekends as possible at his home in Monteagle.
The Academy for Lifelong Learning at St. Mary’s Sewanee provides a program each month covering a wide range of topics. Each session runs for one hour. Membership to the Academy is $12 per year. A box lunch ($12) can be ordered by calling Debbie at 598-5342. This month’s choices are turkey and Swiss wrap or hummus and veggie wrap, pasta salad or chips, and shortbread or brownie bites. You are welcome to bring your own lunch if you prefer. For more information contact Anne Davis at (931) 924-4465.

Folklorist David Brose in Sewanee for Three Events

John C. Campbell Folk School folklorist David Brose will make three presentations while in Sewanee on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 9–10. 

Brose will perform at the EQB Club on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at St. Mary’s Sewanee; the public is invited at 12:30 p.m. He will talk at the Monteagle Sewanee Rotary meeting, 8 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Sewanee Inn. His final presentation will be at the Academy of Lifelong Learning at noon, Thursday, Sept. 10, at St. Mary’s Sewanee. (Academy dues are $12 per year or $1 per meeting.) 

Although all three presentations will be different, at each event Brose will talk about the origin of the John C. Campbell Folk School and its current offerings, perform musical numbers and entertain the audiences with stories. 

Brose holds a bachelor’s degree in folklore from Ohio State University and a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from Indiana University. During his folkloric fieldwork, he collected musical selections of elder masters of the banjo spanning the 1970s to today, as well as traditional music in the American West and South.

He was the state folklorist in Colorado and Iowa and has done research for the Smithsonian Institution. Brose has played banjo since 1963; has produced many videos and radio documentaries, including radio programs for NPR; and has been folklorist at the Folk School since 1991. 

The John C. Campbell Folk School provides experiences in noncompetitive learning and community life that are joyful and enlivening. It is located in Brasstown, N.C., about a three-hour drive from Sewanee. 

“The first folk school classes concentrated on subjects such as geography and sociology, things you would learn in a more traditional school—along with native folk art, music, dance and crafts,” Brose said. “Today, the school no longer does the geography and sociology classes, but it still teaches in the folk school tradition. Folk schools place emphasis on the oral tradition. Almost all classes are taught word-of-mouth. It’s a circular, cyclical kind of learning. In discussions, everyone has something to add.” 

The school offers year-round week-long and weekend classes for adults in craft, art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, nature studies, photography and writing.