Lectures, Readings, Concerts

Will Hamlin: ... many faculty presented evening lectures several times a semester ... these lectures were usually related either to what was going on on the news or to student or faculty work in progress. Some examples: 1) Eric Bentley and Fran deGraaff were among faculty who spoke about social/political events in England and Europe as World War II evolved. 2) I remember Jalowetz speaking twenty minutes or so about the structure of the piece, with brief musical illustrations, then he and the student performing the whole concerto a second time. 3) Josef and Anni Albers who had their students display work periodically also displayed and answered questions about their own work.

Gisela Kronenberg Herwitz: Some of the examiners for graduating students lectured during their stay at the college—Cora Du Bois, anthropology, comes to mind ... Clark Foreman spoke on race relations.

Leslie Paul Symington: William Morse Cole, Prof. Emeritus of Accounting at the Harvard Business School, drove down from his home in Concord to audit the books ... in the evening he conducted Shakespeare readings....

Mary Brett Daniels: Concerts in the dining hall on Saturday nights ... Jalowetz's memorable presentations of the Mozart operas. Sitting at the piano with Lisa's drawings of the scenes posted on an easel, he would perform the entire opera, explaining the dramatic themes, the cultural relevance, and the musical harmonics.

Will Hamlin: I remember walking into the Lee Hall living room that evening (on first arriving at BMC). Heinrich Jalowetz and his pupil Maude Dabbs were playing Debussy's Etude en Blanc et Noir for piano four hands. Students were sitting on the floor in front of the piano ... several were following the music on printed scores.

Robert Sunley: Then there were performances by Allan Sly, who had been a concert pianist, by talented students, by visitors such as Yella Pessl whose visit was heralded by the arrival of a full-sized harpsichord.

Claude Stoller: Participatory music and the concert program at BMC opened a world for me of great importance in my life ... although I never took one of his courses, Jalowetz was a profound influence on me.