Songs of the Spirit, Wellsprings of Hope – New Year’s: The Inner Life of Music

Karl Middleman’s five-day workshop, New Year’s: The Inner Life of Music, invites participants to explore how composers use music as alchemy to turn personal hardships into life-giving measures. Through experiential individual explorations and group sharing, listening, and learning, we will search the musical paths of our own spiritual lives, and the boundless possibilities music offers for enlightenment and upliftment.

This one-day offering invites you to join ongoing participants in exploring songs of war and peace from Claudio Monteverdi to Kate Bush, building community with Gabriela Lena Frank, and the timeliness of religious sources through the lens of Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. The evening activity will explore Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terrence Blanchard, the first production at the Metropolitan Opera of an opera by an African American composer.

The day begins with an optional Meeting for Worship with the Pendle Hill community at 8:30am. The program will start promptly at 9:15am and will feature a morning workshop, noon lunch, an afternoon workshop, and dinner at 6pm. Participants are invited to stay for an evening workshop and an optional evening activity. No overnight accommodations are included with this program. To book an accompanying sojourn, explore availability here: https://pendlehill.org/stay/.

Leader(s)

As both a conductor and educator, Karl Middleman‘s presentations have been hailed for the easy way they mix scholarship with showmanship. Karl has lectured for the Philadelphia Orchestra over 50 times and has received many awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He teaches at Temple University and is a frequent workshop leader at Pendle Hill.

Financial aid may be available. If you are seeking funds to participate in this program, click to review and complete our Financial Assistance Application and a Pendle Hill staff member will follow-up with you shortly (please do NOT register online). Thank you for your interest.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill. Please make sure to review our health and safety expectations at https://pendlehill.org/stay/covid-19-information/.