Energy Symbols: A Visual Language for Emotional Healing and Self-Realization Novelist Ross Drago imagines a wave-form language depicting emotions as energy patterns, helping people transcend fear and desire to achieve presence and self-realization. Energy symbols are a wave form language developed to depict the invisible world of our identities, fears and desires as waves of […]
Michael Williamson remembers Denny Heck as a masterful artist, beloved teacher, and extraordinary friend whose artistic vision influenced generations at Germantown Friends School. By Michael Williamson I was invited to dinner as a new, unproven member of Germantown Friends School art faculty. The house was set far back from the road, a dogleg property behind […]
A fifteen-year-old’s immersive experience at Paris’s Académie Julian art school transforms her understanding of art, culture, and French life. Alden Mellor Heck, from Life and Art, Chestnut Hill Press, November 2025 Part of my aesthetic education was a year in France when I’d just turned fifteen. Thinking about that year, I realize it provided an […]
SEFIK KAHRAMANKAPTAN Fashion is a cycle. Jacket lengths change, lapels become thinner, thicker; two buttons are used, then three buttons come back into fashion. The same applies to ties, which stay thick for three to five years, then become thinner. Now, wide-leg trousers are back and unisex too. Fashion also affects music listening habits. Those […]
European fascination with Ottoman culture inspired composers, writers, and artists to incorporate Turkish elements into their works from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The Ottoman Empire fascinated Europeans. Byzantium, Constantinople, or Istanbul, by any name the cultural crossroads where goods from India and China met European traders in a protected port on the Bosphorus […]
Former physiotherapist turned opera singer Cumhur Görgün won prestigious Pavarotti Foundation competition, selected from 400 applicants for Florida Opera Naples performance. By Şefik Kahramankaptan I love coincidences, sometimes you meet very nice people. That’s how I met Cumhur Görgün. While I was in Istanbul in the fall of 2021, I attended a surprise celebration organized […]
By Idil Biret Young pianist’s hair transformation sparks legendary music teacher’s outrage Looking at a photograph of Nadia Boulanger, white headed in her 70s with a furrowed brow, angular frown lines descending on either side of her mouth. concerned and stern expression on her face, I recognize that look. Deep preoccupation. At times, she would […]
Chère Madame Biret, Je vous adresse cette lettre que j’ai voulu déjà vous écrire depuis très longtemps. Elle est inspirée par ma conviction que nous avons rarement l’occasion de remercier les personnes qui nous ont influencés profondément. Or, il y a peu de personnes qui m’ont influencé autant que vous. Et je tiens à vous […]
Cumhur Görgün discusses Britten’s challenging 1946 opera exploring sexual violence, war, and societal brutality, performed at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts. Cumhur Görgün An Academy of Vocal Arts production of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia opened in February. Few operatic compositions are as difficult—or as influential—as this Britten opera from 1946. I will be […]
Idil Biret The most important human qualities are empathy and understanding, I believe. The great composers express their understanding and empathy for the human condition in their music. Deeply empathetic curiosity compels me to understand each composer I play. I put aside preconceptions, learn as much as I can about the life, thoughts, and beliefs […]
