OLLI OUTLOOK October 2009 OLLI @Berkeley's monthly newsletter
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OLLI Calendar
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Click here to see the OLLI Calendar of Events
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Updates |
We are happy to announce that we have over 450 members this fall. The largest fall enrollment and the second largest enrollment since we started. Almost half of you signed up to be with OLLI for the year. Thank you!
Don't miss Arlene Goldbard's talk on Wednesday, October 7, kicking off
the Fall Lecture Series at the David Brower Center. Goldbard is a national leader in cultural policy and coined the phrase "cultural
democracy." She often lays the
foundation for arts activists and advocates on what's at stake for the arts. Check out her blog: http://arlenegoldbard.com.
Dan Kammen's course on energy resources and policies will be
a smashing class, with it possibly becoming a book through UC Press. We are still working on developing it into an online course this spring
with The New York Times.
A reminder that Tony Platt's "Grave Matters: Legacies of Genocide in California" (Thursday, October 8 and 15) and the Fall Lecture Series (Wednesday, Oct 7, 14, 21, 28) are free to OLLI members. "Tell One Friend" about the lectures, too! (You can forward this email to a friend by clicking on "Forward email" at the bottom of this newsletter.)
Wendy Willrich, our annual fund co-chair, and Aileen Kim, program
coordinator, will be representing OLLI at the national OLLI conference in Utah
this month.
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Faculty Profile: Lauren
Carley
by Bonnie Mager
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The Joy of Singing
Mondays, Noon-1:30 pm October 5-November 9 Room 150 University Hall (new location)
With a smile and lilting voice, Lauren
Carley and her little dog, Harry, welcome me into her sunny North Oakland bungalow. A grand piano holds pride of
place in the airy front room, and an enormous painted canvas with a Lotte Lenya-like
figure fills one wall-a back drop for her Kurt Weill performances.
Lauren has been immersed in music since before she was born,
as she tells me while making us a cup of tea. Her mother was very involved in
the music world in Madison,
Wisconsin, and encouraged Lauren
in musical pursuits. She played the cello, sang in choruses, and by the time
she was fifteen was included in a concert production of Bach's B minor Mass. It was a life-altering experience for the teenager,
and she knew then she wanted to sing.
Her education includes a degree in music from the University of Wisconsin
at Madison and two years of study at the Westminster Choir
College at Princeton.
While there she studied with some of the world's leading composers and
conductors and gained depth of experience both in performing and teaching.
Guided by her ambition to become an opera singer, she moved
to New York, living first in Brooklyn, then in
the Village in Manhattan.
That aspiration for a career in opera gave way to the realities of the
sacrifices and "steely resolve" required of that life. She turned away from the
"cloistered nun life" of the operatic voice to a satisfying mixture of choral,
solo, and theater work. She earned an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts Studies from
NYU and worked with Merce Cunningham and John Cage, among many others. .Always
studying, always teaching, always performing in what she describes as a
"revolving platform," she gained experience that she could pass on to her
students One of the highlights of her
career has been her one-woman show of Kurt Weill music which she wrote and
performed.
After years of this whirl-wind life in New
York, she fled the canyons of Manhattan
for the somewhat less hectic pace of the East Bay.
The revolving platform of her career continues, however, with involvement in
many aspects of performing and teaching. Recently she served as vocal/choral
director for the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Director of Middle
School Choirs for the Oakland Youth Chorus, music director for the female
Shakespeare company Woman's Will, and director of the community chorus Variety
Pack. She has private classes in her home studio, including sight singing for
beginners.
Her generous, light-hearted spirit is expressed in her
philosophy of teaching: "My work is to teach you to sing through your body with
ease and power. We will engage your whole self as a singing, breathing
mechanism....We will train your inner eye to spot tension and release flow, your
inner ear to feel pitch. You will learn the singer's breath and simultaneous
inner/outer focus....The result is that you will sing freely with your whole
body." About singing in a group: "Singing together sets up that good energy,
endorphins that counteract stress and strain. The vibrations created in the
body truly do heal us on a cellular level, and counteract age and
illness-related depression while giving us a chance to learn skills, connect
with others, laugh, and make something beautiful."
What a very good reason to sign up for Lauren's OLLI @Berkeley
class.
More information about Lauren
Carley's classes and performing schedule is available on her
web site at www.lcarley.com.
LAUREN'S CLASS STARTS THIS COMING MONDAY!
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Field Trips |
OLLI is working on several field trips for the Fall 2009 term.
Our first trip is scheduled for Saturday, October 24, to the di Rosa Preserve in Napa. A bus will leave in the morning around 9:00 am and return by 4:00 pm. The cost of the trip is $65 for admission and transportation only.
Described
as the most significant collection of Bay Area art in the world, the di
Rosa Preserve provides opportunities for creative enrichment and
enjoyment of art and the environment year-round. The Preserve houses
approximately 2,000 works of art by more than 800 artists.
If you are interested, contact the OLLI office right away for details. The deadline is Wednesday, October 7.
Future trips are planned as follows:
- California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento
- San Juan Bautista to see "La Pastorela"
Let us know if you are interested.
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Save the Date: Mid-term Feedback Session
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Members are invited to a mid-term feedback session on Thursday, October 15, from 4:15 - 5:15 pm, in Room 41B University Hall (2199 Addison Street, Level G). We would like to hear how your OLLI experience has been so far and also what Interest Circles you would like to see happen between the Fall and Winter terms.
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The Lunch Bunch by Lucille Poskanzer
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Amanda's Feel Good Fresh Food
2122 Shattuck Avenue (between Center and Addison)
Berkeley, CA 94705
510-548-2122
www.amandas.com
Looking for a quick, healthy, and inexpensive bite as you rush
between OLLI classes?
Amanda's is a bright, very clean place, with a few outdoor
tables, located next door to the Wells Fargo bank. The menu offers salads,
burgers, sandwiches and healthy fries, mostly organic, always fresh and tasty. All
of the packaging is biodegradable. You order at the counter, and the service is
very quick. The portions are normal size, enough to satisfy, but there are no Big
Macs here!
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Learning Through Art: Call for Participants |
Would you like to participate in OLLI's first research
project on learning? Sprung from the
Learning to Learn Interest Circle, we asked the Berkeley Art Museum (BAM) to partner
with us in a study we are calling Learning through Art. The project is simple: Complete a survey before and after visiting BAM's fall exhibitions--Fernando Botero's paintings inspired by
Abu Ghraib and Ari Marcopoulos's photography. The
surveys will take 5-8 minutes each. Let us know if you are interested by clicking here to sign up.
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Discounts
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Berkeley Arts and Letters Lectures
Hear from writers and thinkers who interact with you--the readers--for inspiration, provocation, education, and sharing conversations. OLLI members receive 50% off admission at the door with ID. Lectures are held at First Congregational Church or The Hillside Club, both located in Berkeley.
See their website for more information: http://www.berkeleyarts.org/ Discount for King Tut at the de Young MuseumSenior discounts are available for groups of 10 or more ($20). Exhibition tickets are sold by the half hour and the exhibition visits are approximately 60-90 minutes.
Go to http://www.kingtut.org or call 213.763.2117 for more information.
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Give to the OLLI Annual Fund
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OLLI @Berkeley is a self-sustaining program within the University. Member donations help fill the gap between what is raised from dues and fees and our $100,000 grant from the Osher Foundation. Help sustain OLLI--the courses, lectures, special events, interest circles, and the growing community of learners--by making OLLI a top priority. You can give online by going to: OLLI Annual Fund or call the OLLI office at 510.642.9934.
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OLLI @Berkeley Staff
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Director: Susan HoffmanProgram Coordinator: Aileen KimProgram Assistants: Gerard Alcantara, Joan MoriyamaOLLI @BerkeleyUniversity of California 1925 Walnut St #1570 Berkeley, CA 94720-1570 tel. 510.642.9934 fax 510.642.2202 [email protected]http://olli.berkeley.edu | |
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