Mancini Lectures Examine Interdisciplinary Arts

Launched last year in honor of our school’s academic founder, Piero Mancini, the Mancini lecture series presents experts speaking on interesting musical topics.

Last year focused on science and music, presenting sound engineer J O hn Meyer, who designed the state-of-the-art acoustic system in Crowden’s Hoefer Auditorium, and physicist c ar L h a B er, a Crowden alum dad and MacArthur Fellow who is restoring audio historical treasures long thought lost to posterity. This season, the Mancini Series focuses on interdisciplinary arts with two lectures connected to 2015-16 programming by Cal Performances and the San Francisco Ballet.

On November 19, composer and double bassist Shin J i eS hi M a presented his lecture, “Bach, Ballet, Buddhism, Bodhisattvas, and Anne Crowden.” Over the course of a fascinating hour, Eshima used his composition process for two works commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet—including one the Ballet will perform this March—as a framework for his thinking on music, Buddhism, and artistic inspiration. His lecture began with performances of a Buddhist chant, performed by monks from the San Francisco Zen Center, and a Bach prelude performed by a Crowden School pianist. It ended with Eshima’s own composition, combining an unchanged Buddhist chant with the same Bach prelude to beautiful, celestial effect. In between, Eshima traced a connective arc between practicing Buddhism and practicing music as Anne Crowden taught her students to—both with a purpose of “putting people on this path toward their own happiness.”

Eshima claims he came to epiphany considering Buddhism’s Noble Eightfold Path in comparison to Anne’s life and actions as a teacher: “Anne’s behavior for all those eight elements was so heightened, so admirable, it came to me... I think of her as a Bodhisattva—someone who is already enlightened, but decides to stick around on earth to help the rest of us. I’m beginning to think that music is a practice like Buddhism is a practice—it requires all of the same things.”

The Mancini Series will continue on February 25, when photographer d e BO rah O'g rady discusses her multimedia collaboration with the St. Louis Symphony on Olivier Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux Étoiles (From the Canyons to the Stars). A project of majestic proportions, Des Canyons aux Étoiles premieres in Berkeley at Cal Performances this season to celebrate the centenary of the National Park Service, and was commissioned by Cal Performances, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Washington Performing Arts, and Sydney Symphony.

Crowden members receive two complimentary tickets to Mancini Series lectures and artist receptions.

3 4