New Year’s: Late Idyll – Music and Aging

If you are seeking funds or alternate payment options to participate in this program, please wait to register and first complete our Financial Assistance Application.

An idyll can be a breathing space, inviting us into reflection and inspiration. As we age, music can provide these idyllic touchstones for contemplation and motivation. It goes to places words cannot reach. It follows us gamely as we traverse various life stages. Many of the most remarkable works by great composers including Beethoven, Brahms, Faure, Liszt, Verdi, Isabella Leonarda, Joan Tower, and Elliott Carter came late in their lives, defying physical aging by taking bold musical leaps.

Sometimes, beset by bewildering life transitions, we may well underestimate our life-giving creative potential. “Late Idyll – Music and Aging” identifies new paths that opened to great composers as they aged and prompts us to maximize our own creative paths. We will listen and watch, reflect and meditate, and find ourselves anew.

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This retreat culminates in an alcohol-free New Year’s Eve celebration, with hors d’oeuvres and a home-cooked dinner, lively concert in the Barn, desserts, and midnight candlelit Meeting for Worship. This event is already included with your registration to this retreat!

Leader

Karl Middleman‘s presentations have been hailed for the easy way they mix scholarship with showmanship. As both a conductor and educator, 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.