Is music “an art form uniquely capable of carrying forward meaning from the past?” Boston Globe’s music critic Jeremy Eichler’s acclaimed book, Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance, makes a powerful case for placing musical memorials by composers such as Richard Strauss and Dmitry Shostakovich among our most important means of recapturing compelling realities of past wars and traumas.
Our course, offered jointly by Belfast and Coastal Senior Colleges and Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School, will examine the lives and selected works of Strauss and Shostakovich as well as Gustav Mahler and Benjamin Britten. It will feature a live performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata by Maine artists April Reed-Cox and Matthew Mainster. Strauss’ iconic masterwork Metamorphosen will be explored in depth by Josie Davis and Phillipp Ellsner.
The course will be held in the Bay Chamber Music School's brand new facility in Camden, fully accessible with easy parking.
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Instructors:
This course, co-sponsored by Belfast and Coastal Senior Colleges, and Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School, will have 5 instructors.
Bob Rackmales: Since retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service and moving to Maine, Bob has taught many courses at Belfast and Coastal Senior Colleges. These have included courses on Gustav Mahler and Dmitry Shostakovich as well as on the Second World War and the Holocaust.
April Reed-Cox: A cellist and faculty member at Bay Chamber Music School, April earned music degrees from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She performs regularly with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Twisted Maple, Pesky J. Nixon, and many other folk artists and groups.
Matthew Mainster: A pianist and organist, Matt earned music degrees from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania and the Yale School of Music in New Haven, Connecticut. He is currently the Minister of Music in the First Congregational Church in Camden.
Josie Davis: Josie received her B.M. and B.A. in violin and sociology at Oberlin College and Conservatory and her Ed.M at Harvard University. She has performed in a wide range of venues from Carnegie Hall to the Monte Music Festival in India and has appeared with her sister on NPR’s From the Top.
Phillipp Ellsner: A musician and educator based in mid-coast Maine, Phillipp holds an MA from McGill University and a B.M from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In June, 2024 Phillipp joined the renowned DaPonte String Quartet.
Photo credit: A view of Coventry Cathedral after its bombing by the Luftwaffe in 1940. The same image is on the cover of the Eichler book on which the course is partly based.
