MEIRA WARSHAUER

“Meira Warshauer: My Life In Music”

Friday, February 13, 2009
11:30 am – 12:20 pm
Edwards Recital Hall, EHFA 152

Composer Meira Warshauer, Nancy A. Smith Distinguished Visiting Artist, shares stories of her life in music. Coming of age in Boston in the 1970's, this North Carolina native was influenced by the women’s movement and the creative diversity at New England Conservatory.  Recorded examples of her compositions highlight her journey back to her Jewish roots as well as her love for the earth.

Warshauer's music is performed and recorded to critical acclaim on the international stage.  Growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, she loved music and played piano from an early age, but did not expect to make music her life work.  After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in History, she eventually made her way to the New England Conservatory, where a diverse and exciting world of music making drew her into its loving embrace.  She will share stories of her path as a pianist, then a composer, how the women’s movement of the 1970’s influenced her choices, and how her spiritual quest led her and her music back to Jewish sources of inspiration.  Recorded examples of her compositions for orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensembles illustrate her journey which resonates from the particular to the universal.

Meira Warshauer is currently the Nancy A. Smith Distinguished Visitor in Residence in the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University. She has devoted much of her creative output to Jewish themes and their universal message. Her work also reflects a love and respect for the earth. Warshauer’s works have been performed and recorded worldwide, including Israel, Europe, South America, Asia and the United States. Her music mirrors her own spiritual journey, and has a tendency to speak directly to the heart and soul of her listeners.

Warshauer has been awarded the Artist Fellowship in Music by the South Carolina Arts Commission twice, as well as receiving the first Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina.

She graduated from Harvard University receiving her B.A., New England conservatory of Music with a M.M, and the University of South Carolina with her D.M.A. More information about Warshauer and her works can be found at http://meirawarshauer.com/index.html.

PATRICIA C. NICHOLS

“Hearing the Voices of Our Ancestors in Stories of Today”

Thursday Feb. 12, 2009
10:00am – 11:15am
Wall Auditorium
Book signing in lobby

Patricia Nichols will discuss her recent book entitled "Voices of Our Ancestors". The University of South Carolina Press website states this about the publication ( http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/2009/3775.html#review):

"As language development reflects historical development, Nichols's work also serves as a new avenue of inquiry into South Carolina's social history from the epoch of Native American primacy to the present day.

In examining how South Carolinians spoke in public and private we glean much about how they developed a common culture while still honoring as best they could the heritages and tongues of their ancestors. Nichols pays particular attention to the development of the Gullah language among the coastal African American peoples and the ways in which this language—and others of South Carolina's early inhabitants—continues to influence the communication and culture of the state's current populations."

Nichols received her bachelor's degree in English from Winthrop College in 1958. She received her master's degree in English from the University of Minnesota in 1966, and her Masters in Linguistics from San Jose State University in 1972. She completed her Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University in 1976.

Nichols is currently a professor emeritus of linguistics at San Jose State University. She has published at length on Gullah Linguistics and in the cross field of Linguistic Anthropology. Patricia Nichols's book Voices of our Ancestors provides the first detailed linguistic history of South Carolina.