News

Greenberg and Arnold

Soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg, both members of the highly acclaimed new music collective the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), will perform on Tuesday, April 2 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall at the College of the Holy Cross.  The performance is free and open to the public. 

The program includes “Harawi,” an epic song cycle by renowned French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-92) inspired by Quechua love songs of the South American Andres, and the premiere of a new work by Chris Arrell, assistant professor of music at the College. “Scored for soprano, piano and computer, ‘Of Three Minds’ is a setting of five sections from Wallace Stevens’ poem ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,’” says Arrell. “Inspired by Japanese haiku, each of the poem’s 13 sections presents the reoccurring image of a blackbird as the focal point for a concise study in vivid landscape and nuanced inflection.  At times dominating the foreground and at other times adding subtle coloration, the electronics in ‘Of Three Minds,’ like Stevens’ winged cynosure, serve to distinguish each song with unifying the cycle.”

According to the Chicago Tribune, “anything sung by soprano Tony Arnold is worth hearing.” Hailed by the New York Times as “a bold and powerful interpreter,” she has gained international acclaim for sparkling and insightful performances of the most daunting contemporary scores. With longtime collaborator Jacob Greenberg, Arnold took first prize in both the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition and the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition. She has received critical acclaim for her performances with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW, L.A. Philharmonic New Music Group, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She has perfomed all over the world including Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, Korea, and Italy. Since 2003, she has served on the faculty of the University at Buffalo. In 2009 she was the Howard Hanson Visiting Professor of American Music at the Eastman School in Rochester, N.Y. 

Greenberg’s work as a soloist and chamber musician has earned worldwide acclaim.  He is a longtime member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), with whom he has performed throughout North and South Americas and Europe.  As the ensemble’s director of education, he leads The Listening Room, an initiative in city public schools that teaches the materials of experimental music composition. Greenberg’s solo concert series, “Music at Close Range,” shows his equal commitment to classics of the repertoire.

General Cartwright

General James Cartwright, the former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, will visit the College of the Holy Cross and give a talk titled “Changes in The Future of the U.S. Military Presence and Activity” on Monday, April 8 at 4:30 p.m. in the Seelos Theater. The talk is free and open to the public.

A member of the United States Marine Corps for 40 years, General Cartwright has served as commander, U.S. strategic command, and most recently as the eighth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest military position. Known for his creative vision, organization and innovation in areas of strategic deterrence, nuclear proliferation, missile defense and cyber security, General Cartwright currently serves as the inaugural holder of the Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies for the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

In his talk, General Cartwright will address how the United States’ national military presence and related worldwide activities will change within the next 10-20 years, while highlighting critical issues such as global reach and budget. While on campus, he will also spend time with several political science classes, including associate professor Stephen Kocs’ seminar on national security policy and associate professor Loren Cass’ “Introduction to International Relations” class. He will also speak with the school’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen.

Born in Rockford, Ill., he attended the University of Iowa and went on to become a naval flight officer and naval aviator. He graduated with distinction from the Air Command and Staff College, received his M.A. in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, and completed a fellowship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Amongst his many honors, he was named Outstanding Carrier Aviator of the Year by the Association of Naval Aviation and honored with a Naval War College Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award. 

He serves as a member of The Raytheon Company Board of Directors, a Harvard Belfer Center Senior Fellow, and as a defense consultant for ABC News.

General Cartwright’s visit is sponsored by the dean’s office, the U.S. Naval Institute, and the O’ Callahan Society at Holy Cross.

Andrew Solomon

Andrew Solomon, award-winning author, will give a reading as part of the Working Writers Series on Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event, sponsored by the College’s Creative Writing Program and the W.H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College, is free and open to the public.

Solomon is a writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts. His most recent book, “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity,” published by Scribner last November, tells the stories of families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who were conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. President Bill Clinton said of the book, “In ‘Far from the Tree,’ Andrew Solomon reminds us that nothing is more powerful in a child’s development than the love of a parent.  This remarkable new book introduces us to mothers and fathers across America–many in circumstances the rest of us can hardly imagine—who are making their children feel special, no matter what challenges come their way.”

Solomon’s earlier books include “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression” (Scribner, 2001), which won the 2001 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize; “The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost” (Knopf, 1991); and “A Stone Boat” (Plume, 1996), a national bestselling novel which tells the story of a man’s shifting identity as he watches his mother battle cancer, and which was a runner up for the L.A. Times First Fiction prize.

He has written for New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, and his work has been featured on National Public Radio’s “Moth Radio Hour,” NBC’s “TODAY” and “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” and “Charlie Rose” on PBS.