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- January 28th, 2007 3:00pm - 4:30pm Library Meeting Room
- The Road to the Opera House Stage - Two Singers' Perspective
Elizabeth Grayson, soprano, and Scott MacLeod, baritone, both with the Opera Company of North Carolina, will present a Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library Sunday Series program, “The Road to the Opera House Stage – Two Singers’ Perspective.”
These opera performers will discuss the evolution of their careers, from the initial recognition that they had a VOICE, through singing lessons, auditions, competitions, language training, acting lessons, and performances. They will illustrate the points they make with audio and video recordings as well as a capella singing. Some examples will be from La Boheme, The Opera Company of North Carolina’s upcoming production to be presented on Friday, April 13, and Sunday, April 15. In that production, Elizabeth Grayson will be singing the featured role of Musetta.
Ticket order forms for this production will be available at the lecture, which will include time for questions and answers. Learn about opera and hear it performed.
Elizabeth Williams-Grayson is a graduate of Converse College, SC, with a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance.
In 1982, she won the title of Miss North Carolina and went on to win talent and swimsuit scholarships in the Miss American pageant. Afterwards, she moved to New York City to work professionally in theater and television. Some of her most memorable roles were: Guenevere in the Broadway Touring Co. production of Camelot starring opposite Richard Harris, Eliza in My Fair Lady, Laurie in Oklahoma, Maria in Sound of Music, and many others. She also has had the opportunity to sing and perform on national television numerous time.
Elizabeth also has enjoyed operatic solo engagements in concert with Music Under the Stars Symphony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her French Night concert was aired on Public Radio in Washington, DC and Paris. She also had the privilege to sing with the North Carolina Symphony conducted by Gerhardt Zimmermann.
Elizabeth now resides in Durham, NC with her husband Arthur and their two daughters, Stephanie and Juliana. She has enjoyed singing professionally locally for the Duke Children’s Classic. In 1999, Spectator Magazine honored Elizabeth with the “Best Local Actress” award for her role as Lorraine in the annual musical theater production of A Little Christmas Spirit. In April, she will sing the role of Musetta in the The Opera Company of North Carolina’s production of La Boheme.
A diverse and exciting performer, baritone Scott MacLeod has garnered critical praise in opera houses and concert halls across the nation. Media reviews have called him “impressive” (Pensacola News Journal), “Splendid” (operaonline.us), “emotional…equal parts sweetness and swagger” (Mobile Register), and “a voice to enjoy with every note” (Salt Lake Tribune). In addition to these accolades, Mr. MacLeod has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and fellowships. He has performed over 50 roles with some of the nation’s leading houses and abroad, including” Central City Opera, Opera North, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Birmingham, Mobile Opera, Opera Omaha, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Greensboro Symphony, the Tucson Symphony, and the National Symphony of Costa Rica.
Recent engagements include the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Schaunard in La Boheme, Giuseppe in The Gondoliers, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, the title role in Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero, and William Clark in Opera Omaha’s debut of the new opera Dream of the Pacific. He can be heard in the role of Apollo in the world-premier recording of John Eccles’ Semele. He has taught voice and theatre as a guest at several prominent institutions and is in demand as a clinician and instructor.
Mr. MacLeod is a graduate of Northwestern University and holds a Master’s degree from Florida State University. He is a native of Michigan and lives in North Carolina with his wife, Rebecca, a strings professor at UNC Greensboro’s acclaimed School of Music.
[ Show Detail ] - February 18th, 2007 3:00pm - 4:15pm Library Meeting room
- Dr. Anne Mitchell Whisnant
Dr. Whisnant will show a power point slide show, complete with historic photos of the history and progress of the Parkway and discuss her new book: Super-Scenic Motorway, A Blue Ridge Parkway History, published in 2006 by the UNC Press.
According to popular myth, the Parkway was a New Deal “godsend for the needy”, built without conflict or opposition, by landscape architects and planners who traced their uniform vision along a scenic, isolated, southern landscape. Historical resources tell a different story.Whisnant reveals what the Parkway’s unruffled scenery tends to obscure: the road owes its appearance as much to the negotiated resolution of conflicts as it does to the natural features of the mountains.
The most visited site in the National Park system, the 469 mile Blue Ridge Parkway winds along the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina.
Dr. Whisnant will speak about the history of the Parkway as well as what need to be done today. She states: “The Parkway has always been a controversial and politically challenging undertaking.” Ashe County landowners, in the 1930s, felled trees across the road to protest. The Eastern Cherokees, for five years, resisted granting a right of way.
After growing up in Troy, Alabama, Anne Mitchell Whisnant received her B.A. in history from Birmingham-Southern College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, she specialized in the history of the American South.
Upon completion of her doctorate, she taught U.S. and North Carolina history at UNC for two years before moving into a career in academic administration. From 2002 to 2006 she worked at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, where she developed and promoted an assortment of humanities programs. As of July 1, 2006, she became Director of Research, Communications, and Programs for the Office of Faculty Governance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Anne and her husband, David Whisnant, also run a historical consulting firm, Primary Source History Services, which does contract research for private individuals, communities, companies, and government agencies.
Anne’s study of the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway began in 1991, spurred by a love of the mountains nurtured in seven summers spent during her youth at Lake Junaluska United Methodist Assembly in western North Carolina.
Super-Scenic Motorway is the first history of the Parkway ever to be fully grounded both in the relevant scholarly literature and in thorough research in the extensive archival record of the road’s development.
Anne also has published two articles and delivered numerous public talks on the Parkway’s history, and has served as a consultant to the National Park Service. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband and two sons.
Visit her extensive web page:
www.superscenic.com/Author/whisnant.html[ Show Detail ] - October 21st, 2007 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Doug Eyre - The Story of Isaac Emerson, the Bromo-Seltzer King
Dr. John Douglas “Doug” Eyre and his wife Olga have lived in Chapel Hill for 49 years. He holds three degrees from the University of Michigan and taught at UNC for 44 years. Doug was a geographer with a special interest in the economic and urban geography of Japan, Korea, and China. Active in a wide range of campus activities, Eyre was honored by the UNC Alumni Faculty Service Award in 2003. He has been a member of Chapel Hill Historical Society since 1974 and is a charter member of both the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill and the Chapel Hill Museum. For many years he has written a monthly column for the Chapel Hill News about Chapel Hill during and since the 1920s. Doug takes readers back in time by profiling the people who wove the tapestry of history in the community and describing the places where the history was made. With this column he lets us know of the rich mixture of talented people, events, and buildings that gave our town its distinctive character.
Isaac Emerson was Chapel Hill’s main contribution to the set of newly wealthy American families who were able to adopt extravagant life styles marked by conspicuous consumption in the period between the 1870’s and 1930’s. His wealth was derived from the manufacture and sale of his concoction Bromo-Seltzer, a remedy for upset stomach and headache.
Born to a farm family near Chapel Hill, he lived in town with his aunt, Mrs. A. J. McDade, during his studies at UNC where he earned a certificate in chemistry in 1879. While working for Dr. A. B. Roberson in his Franklin Street drugstore, he started the steps toward the discovery of a marketable new drug. However, it was after he moved to Baltimore in 1884 that he succeeded in the invention of Bromo-Seltzer. In 1891 he founded Emerson Drug Company for the manufacture and wholesale distribution of Bromo-Seltzer with himself as president and major stockholder. His extraordinary success was due mainly to his imaginative advertising.
Emerson, with a second wife and daughter, took to the splashy life style of the wealthy with gusto. There were beautiful homes for lavish entertainment, a pair of sea going yachts for long oceanic trips and periods on the French Riviera, and a hunting lodge in South Carolina. Naval affairs held a fascination for him and in 1898 he equipped and manned a naval squadron of 27 officers and 449 men at his own expense for service in the Spanish-American War. He remained extremely wealthy until his death in 1931.
Even though he resided in Baltimore for the rest of his life, Emerson never forgot his Chapel Hill family and friends and kept in general touch with what was going on there. During a triumphant return in 1910 he took care of major family housing and health care needs. Five years later, he donated enough money to UNC for its first multi-sport stadium, Emerson Athletic Field. It has since disappeared from the campus scene as larger more modern facilities have been built. In its place now is the massive Davis Library and adjacent new campus buildings.
Emerson’s presence remains in the School of Pharmacy through an endowment to support research and education in pharmacy. Although the fund bears Emerson’s name, Fonnie B. Andrews, a UNC alumnus and later president of Emerson Drug Company, established it in his honor in 1955.[ Show Detail ] - November 18th, 2007 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Scott J. Parker and Rob Franklin Fox
Scott J. Parker, recently retired Director of the National Institute of Outdoor Drama and Rob Franklin Fox, Director, of the Institute of Outdoor Drama,located at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, will speak about some of the 45 historical outdoor dramas occurring across the United States. The theatrical productions are held in outdoor amphitheaters under the stars, and are original plays that tell a historical story of significance for the areas.
Scott J. Parker was director of the Institute of Outdoor Drama from 1990 until August 2007. He is the former producer of Paul Green’s The Lost Colony, the nation’s first outdoor drama located on Roanoke Island, NC and co-author of Creating Historical Drama, a resource book for playwrights and theater organizations. In 2000, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, received the Suzanne M. Davis Award for distinguished service to theater in the South by the Southeastern Theater Conference in 1992, and in 1991 was elected to membership of The Players Club in New York city.
Rob Franklin Fox was appointed Director of the Institute of Outdoor Drama in July 2007. He served as General Manager and as Assistant Box Office Manager for PlayMakers Repertory Company. He is past-president of the Triangle Network of Theaters, former board member of the Canton Community Players, and a member of the North Carolina Theater Conference.
[ Show Detail ] - January 6th, 2008 3:00am - 5:00am Meeting Room
- Opera at the Library
In preparation for their performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the Raleigh-based Opera Company of North Carolina will present a preview lecture and selections from the opera as a part of the Friends of the Library Sunday lecture series. Based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, the opera is a study of family love, power and conflicts and their consequences. The program begins at 3:00 PM.
The OCNC will present Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Fletcher Opera Theatre on Thursday, January 17, at 7:30 pm, on Saturday, January 19, at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, January 20, at 3:00 pm.[ Show Detail ] - March 30th, 2008 3:00pm - 4:30pm Meeting Room
- Opera at the Library - Favorite Italian Arias
Opera About Town, a talented troupe of young singers from The Opera Company of North Carolina, returns to the Chapel Hill Public Library for an informal afternoon concert titled “Favorite Italian Arias.” The free concert takes place on Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. in the meeting room on the lower level of the library.
The singers will perform selections from The Opera Company’s upcoming spring concert Va, pensiero – Favorite Italian Arias.
The Opera About Town features talented singers who perform throughout the Triangle at major arts events, schools, public libraries and senior living communities. The singers perform highlights from the season repertoire, other opera favorites, as well as familiar American standards and hits from Broadway. Some of the singers have appeared in lead and supporting operatic roles across the state, but most of the young singers are being carefully groomed for professional careers and hope to one day assume roles on the opera stage.
Opera About Town played to a full house and rave reviews at CHPL in January of this year. A word to the wise: car pooling and early arrival are very good ideas for this popular program.
The March 30 program at the Library is a preview of Va, pensiero – Favorite Italian Arias that is scheduled for Saturday evening, April 5 at 7:30 p.m., Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress energy Center in Raleigh. For additional information or to purchase tickets, call (919) 792-3850, or visit www.operanc.com.
[ Show Detail ] - May 18th, 2008 3:00pm - 4:30pm
- Opera at the Library - Madame Butterfly
Opera About Town, a talented troupe of young singers from The Opera Company of North Carolina, returns to the Chapel Hill Public Library for an informal concert titled “A Prelude to Butterfly.” The concert takes place Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. in the Meeting Room on the Lower Level.
The singers will perform selections from The Opera Company’s upcoming production of Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini’s tragic masterpiece, and exciting arias from other popular Italian operas.
Opera About Town features talented singers who perform throughout the Triangle at major arts events, schools, public libraries and senior living communities. The singers perform highlights from the season repertoire, other opera favorites, as well as familiar American standards and hits from Broadway. Some of the singers have appeared in lead and supporting operatic roles across the state, but most of the young singers are being carefully groomed for professional careers and hope to one day assume roles on the opera stage.
With Madama Butterfly, The Opera Company concludes its season journey through the most familiar and best-loved period of Italian opera. Perhaps the world’s most famous opera, Madama Butterfly is a tale of elation and despair that embodies the beauty and glory of the grand Italian style. Acclaimed Italian-American soprano Angela Maria Blasi, a singer who has already exhibited her polished style under the prestigious batons of Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, and others, merges her dramatic and vocal talents into an emotionally shattering portrait of Puccini’s tragic title character.
Madama Butterfly plays Friday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 1 at 3 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium, Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh. For additional information, or to purchase tickets, call (919) 792-3850, or visit www.operanc.com.
For more than ten years, The Opera Company of North Carolina has presented full-scale opera productions featuring the finest operatic talent. Located in offices along the changing landscape of Fayetteville Street, The Opera Company of North Carolina is energized by the rebirth of the capital city, and committed to being a major contributor to Raleigh’s cultural renaissance and to arts education across the region.
[ Show Detail ] - September 21st, 2008 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Opera at the Library
The Opera Company of North Carolina opens its 2008-2009 season on September 26 with Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci. In preparation, Frank Grebowski, General Director of the Opera Company of North Carolina, will offer an introduction to the art form, using opera music prevalent in popular culture. Accompanied by singers preparing for roles in the first production’s chorus, Frank will talk about his own introduction to opera as well as introducing the upcoming season.
This program is especially designed for people who know little about opera but are eager to learn, as well as families just introducing classical music to their children.
[ Show Detail ] - October 19th, 2008 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Hidden voices
Please plan to join us on Sunday, October 19 at 3:00 for a special Sunday Series program presented by Hidden Voices. The mission of Hidden Voices is to challenge, strengthen, and connect diverse communities through the transformative power of the individual voice. Hidden Voices offers these groups the opportunity to express their stories in a format that creates new pathways for personal engagement and civic connection.
Participants vary from literacy students to teen immigrants to survivors of domestic violence. They are often described by what they need rather than by the strengths they already possess. Hidden Voices projects provide the unique opportunity to focus on the richness in their lives, to highlight the challenges they have overcome, and to envision a path forward for the broader community.
[ Show Detail ] - October 26th, 2008 3:00pm - 5:00pm meeting room
- Birth of a Book
The Chapel Hill North Carolina Writers’ Discussion Group will present a new program entitled The Birth of a Book. They will take us from the first gleam of an idea through conception, labor and delivery. If you’ve ever thought you would like to write a book,if anyone has ever told you, “You ought to write a book”, if you’ve ever wished you knew where to start, this program is for you. Panelists will include: Joseph E. DiBono, Sybil Austin Skakle, Opal M. Snyder, Marie P. Spinner, and E. B. Alston.
[ Show Detail ] - November 16th, 2008 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Prompt Writing Workshop - Nancy Peacock
Attention: Writers and “wannabe” writers
Join Nancy Peacock for a Prompt Writing Workshop. Nancy has been running these workshops for five years and they have become immensely popular with writers and wannabe writers of all levels.
Nancy Peacock is the author of “A Broom of My Own” published in 2008. Her first novel, “Life Without Water” was chosen The New York Times’ Editor’s Choice in 1996 and she is the author of another novel, “Home Across the Road” as well as many short stories and essays.
Nancy says that each book that you read begins with an idea. It moves from there to experimentation and from first draft to second, third, and so on.
But how does a writer get started at all? The answer is to allow yourself time to practice, time to play, and permission to write without destination. A writer needs to get comfortable with the page
and the pen, just like a pianist must get comfortable with the piano, a weaver with her loom, a football player with the team and the ball.Prompt Writing workshops operate on the philosophy of play. So, bring pen and paper and join us for a fun filled Sunday afternoon.
[ Show Detail ] - January 25th, 2009 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Opera Company of North Carolina-Barbara Norton presents Charming Potions and Potent Charms: Comedy and Music in Bel Canto Opera
The Friends of the Library Sunday Series continues January 25th with Opera at the Library. The program features a presentation by musicologist Barbara Norton entitled, “Charming Potions and Potent Charms: Comedy and Music in Bel Canto Opera”. Barbara will speak, use excerpts to illustrate her points, and take questions from participants. The event will be held in the library conference room, at 3 pm.
PLEASE NOTE: the location has moved back to the library – previous publicity listed the Senior Center.[ Show Detail ] - September 13th, 2009 3:00pm - 4:00pm Meeting Room
- What Would You Like to Do? The Feldenkrais Method: Making the Impossible Possible, the Possible Easy, and the Easy Elegant.
Karen Dold, a Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and co-founder of Move With Elan of Chapel Hill, delights in teaching people to move through life with power, vitality and grace. Visit www.movewithelan.com for more information.
[ Show Detail ] - September 19th, 2009 3:00pm - 4:00pm Meeting Room
- Rogers Road with Emily Eidener
Emily Eidenier Pearce will speak about her collaboration with the Rogers Road community members on a book, entitled Rogers Road which is being released in conjunction with the opening of a community photographic archive at the Wilson Library of UNC. The exhibition: “Rogers Road: We’re All Family Here” will be on display in June.
[ Show Detail ] - October 4th, 2009 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Matt Hedt - Hi!Mom
Max Hedt from the Hi!Mom film Festival will hold a seminar for 16-22year olds.
[ Show Detail ] - October 10th, 2009 3:00pm - 4:00pm Meeting Room
- FamPhotory
Maggie Peltier, owner and operator of FamPhotory will hold an open dialogue with the audience to discuss how to keep memories alive.
[ Show Detail ] - October 17th, 2009 3:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Cynetha: A Coat of Many Colors
Cynetha will do colors, talk about how best to converse with your beautician and speak on being an entrepreneur.
Cynetha Williams is the owner of Cynetha’s Place. A full service salon located in downtown Chapel Hill NC. www.cynethawilliams.com
[ Show Detail ] - November 7th, 2009 3:00pm - 4:00pm Meeting Room
- An Unlikely Friendship
Diane Bloom is president and CEO of In Focus. In her spare time she is a noted documentarian. An Unlikely Friendship is a film about the altogether surprising friendship that developed between an embittered Ku Klux Klan leader and an outspoken black woman activist. Told in their own words, this rich and compelling story is as sincere and down-home as the protagonists themselves. An Unlikely Friendship is the foundation for curriculum that augments the ideals and principles set forth from this piece.
www.dianebloom.com[ Show Detail ] - November 10th, 2009 6:00pm - 8:00pm Meeting Room
- POSTPONED Bill Leslie, WRAL
A combined Meet the Author and Beyond the Books: Bill Leslie of WRAL–TV News will serenade us and read from his book of memories of his father and North Carolina. This promises to be a very special evening so please plan to join us.
An Emmy Award winning journalist and top ranked Celtic/folk musician, Bill Leslie reveals for the first time sixty of his father’s majestic mountain watercolors and his poignant quest for a spiritual reunion with his dad who died suddenly when Bill was sixteen years old.
The book, Blue Ridge Reunion, opens a window to the soul of Western North Carolina. Through different streams of art Blue Ridge Reunion arouses all of the senses and conveys a vivid 20th century snapshot of life in the mountains and foothills of NC.
Of the music, Bill says, “I look at the same landscape that overwhelmed my father with emotion and a melody emerges inside my head. I can’t explain how or why. It just happens. Later a lyric takes shape.”
If you love North Carolina, this is a must see event for you.
[ Show Detail ] - January 24th, 2010 2:00pm - 4:00pm Meeting Room
- Mr. Bill Leslie, WRAL-TV anchor, author, musician
Beyond the Books Meets the Author January 24 as Bill Leslie of WRAL–TV News serenades us and reads from his book of memories of his father and North Carolina. The program you’ve been waiting for since the November cancellation has now been rescheduled.
An Emmy Award winning journalist and top ranked Celtic/folk musician, Bill Leslie’s book Blue Ridge Reunion, reveals for the first time sixty of his father’s majestic mountain watercolors and his poignant quest for a spiritual reunion with his dad who died suddenly when Bill was sixteen years old.
The book opens a window to the soul of Western North Carolina. Through different streams of art, Blue Ridge Reunion arouses all of the senses and conveys a vivid 20th century snapshot of life in the mountains and foothills of NC.
Of the music, Bill says, “I look at the same landscape that overwhelmed my father with emotion and a melody emerges inside my head. I can’t explain how or why. It just happens. Later a lyric takes shape.”
If you love North Carolina, and beautiful art and music, this is a must see event for you.
[ Show Detail ] - February 6th, 2010 4:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Calligraphy-Zoe Wei-Registration closed.
Zoe Wei, a Sophomore at UNC, is a Gold Medal winner at the National Youth Calligraphy Competition in China. She will conduct a class in Calligraphy.
[ Show Detail ] - April 3rd, 2010 4:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting Room
- Mallarme Youth Orchestra
Founded in 2005, the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra,under the Artistic Direction of Yoram Youngerman, will grace the meeting room at the Chapel HIll Public Library on April 3 at 4 pm. Mallarme Youth Chamber Orchestra is a pre-professional program for students ages 11 to 18; their repertoire ranges from Mozart and Haydn to Schubert, Brahms, Bartók and beyond. These young musicians are coached in string quartets and other smaller chamber groups by professional chamber musicians who have performed, competed and taught across the Americas, Europe and Asia. A recent release from the host of “Preview” at WCPE read, “These youngsters are playing some of the most challenging music ever written.” “That they are playing it with such grace and beauty is inspiring.” Take part in an enchanting afternoon. RSVP to mpiskor@nc.rr.com to secure a seat .
[ Show Detail ]