A Selection of our Past Events
A CELEBRATION OF GEORGIAN MUSIC
A singing workshop and lecture by Malkhaz Erkvanidze, and concert by Ensemble Sakhioba
Sunday 27 November 2011
Musicologist, researcher, teacher and a world authority on Georgian polyphony, Malkhaz Erkvanidze is well known for his gentle patience with his pupils, regardless of their musical experience. He follows his workshop with an illustrated talk on Georgian polyphonic forms and tuning systems.
Ensemble Sakhioba is a group of twelve exceptional young musicians who bring the ancient sounds of church and folk songs from the Caucasus with deeply felt spiritual resonance and dazzling allure. The ensemble is led by master musician Malkhaz Erkvanidze.
NEW POEMS FROM THE POETRY CIRCLE
Sunday 3 July 2011 at 7:30pm
The Poets Circle has been in vigorous life for eight years, has run several Workshops that have helped new poets very successfully to discover their talents and find that inner voice which has been heard in the Circle's three previous Recitals and in its printed books.
All are welcome!
LIFE LESSONS FROM THE BHAGAVAD GITA
A lecture by RAVI RAVINDRA
Sunday 26 June 2011 at 7:30pm
Ravi Ravindra was born in India where he received his early education. He studied as an undergraduate in Canada where later he made his home. Currently Ravi is Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where for many years he was a professor in the Departments of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Physics. He has been a Member of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, and the Founding Director of the Threshold Award for Integrative Knowledge. Ravi has served on the Board of Judges for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion and has written six books on the teachings of Krishnamurti, Gurdjieff, Yoga and Zen, as well as the mystical teachings of the Indian and Christian traditions.
MYSTICAL MUSIC FROM ASIA
THE LONDON UYGHUR ENSEMBLE
Sunday 5 June 2011
The UK’s first locally-based group (www.uyghurensemble.co.uk), in connection with SOAS, perform the music and dance of the Central Asian Uyghurs. The Uyghurs live mainly in the large desert and mountain region of northwest China now known as Xinjiang. Rahima Mahmut’s thrilling vocals are accompanied by an ensemble of long-necked lutes, spike fiddle and frame drum. This easternmost example of the maqām traditions of the Islamic world, with its limping rhythms and ecstatic poetry, is deeply imbued with the Sufi ethos.
PLANETARY PERSPECTIVE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
DR. CHARLES LANGMUIR
Sunday 15 May 2011
DR. CHARLES LANGMUIR, head of Harvard Department of Earth Sciences, will continue his theme of planetary exploration, 'PLANETARY PERSPECTIVE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS', following on from his talk for Clarendon Events last November.
Charles 'Charlie' Langmuir has discovered hydrothermal sites in three ocean basins, and recently co-led the first investigation of the Arctic Ocean ridge system. He has carved a distinguished career in the international science arena investigating many aspects of the solid earth geochemical cycle. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Geochemical Society, and the American Geophysical Union, from which he received the N. L. Bowen Award in 1996. He received the Holmes Medal of the European Union of Geosciences in 2003. Charlie received his B.A. from Harvard University and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where his dissertation research focused on major and trace elements in basalts. He has been at Harvard since 2002, after 20 years at Columbia University's Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory. Charlie has explored the seafloor through some 20 research cruises over the last two decades.
THE KNIGHTS OF GEORGIAN CHANT
Sunday 10 April 2011
A special screening of Nana Janelidze's beautiful and moving film about the survival of Georgian Chant against all odds as a result of great sacrifices by the heroes of the story. This copy of the film was given to us by Nana at last year's Georgian Film Festival in London, and has been seen by very few people here. It will be a special occasion, followed by a reception and informal Georgian singing.
CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Sunday 12 December 2010
by SATHANAO, Georgian women’s choir from Tbilisi, specially brought to London by Clarendon Events, with THE CLARENDON CHAMBER CHOIR, and guest appearance by TABUNI London Georgian women's choir.
POLYPHONY MUSIC FOR CHRISTMAS. The programme will include sacred Georgian church chants, English polyphonic sacred music from the 16th century, Georgian Alilos, traditionally sung from house to house at Christmas time, and other traditional Georgian songs.
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT IS KNOWN, AND WHAT IS NOT KNOWN
A talk by Robert Reinstein
Sunday 14 November 2010
The earth has a natural greenhouse effect, without which it would be unliveable for our form of life. In addition, in the past century or so humans have been adding to that effect by various activities, principally the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). But how much of what we see as climate change (longer-term shifts in weather patterns) is due to humans and how much to natural variability that has been occurring for millions of years? And what might be a sensible policy response in light of remaining uncertainty about the relative causes of climate change?
Robert Reinstein was trained in mathematics, physics and economics, and has over the past 45 years been a teacher, writer, editor, energy economist, trade negotiator and diplomat. He was chief US climate negotiator for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Rio Treaty) in 1991-92, and chaired at different times two out of the three working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which received half of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1996 he has headed his own consulting firm, with offices in Washington, Helsinki and Brussels, and was also visiting professor of environmental management at the Free University, Amsterdam, in 1993.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT
A talk by DR JEREMY NAYDLER
Sunday 7 November 2010
Philosophers have traditionally viewed the possession of reason as what makes human beings distinct from animals. Now the development of computer technologies, which function strictly in accordance with the rules of logic, challenges us to consider the ways in which humans are distinct from machines. What, if anything, enables us to rise above the purely mechanical? How can we awaken authentic spiritual experience and equip ourselves to meet the ever-growing menace of the inhuman in the modern world?
Jeremy Naydler, Ph.D., is a philosopher who specializes in the religious life of ancient cultures. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy and author of Temple of the Cosmos, Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, The Future of the Ancient World, and Goethe on Science. He lives in Oxford, England. Dr Naydler gave a Clarendon Event last year on SACRED ART OF GARDENING
PIANO MUSIC
A concert by MUSICIANS OF THE GURDJIEFF SOCIETY
Sunday 27 June 2010
Joseph Haydn:
Piano Sonate no 49 in Eb major
J.S.Bach:
Prelude and fugue in Eb minor no 8 book 1
Well Tempered Clavier
Gurdjieff/de Hartmann:
The Initiation of the Priestess
Dervish Dances
Said Chant and Dance
Alleluia
Easter Hymn and Holy Night Procession
IN SEARCH OF THE SACRED
A concert by 'ENSEMBLE RÉSONANCE'
Sunday 23 May 2010
Herbert Lashner - oboe
Christian Chanel - guitar
Marie Chanel - guitar
Nima ben David - viola da gamba
ENSEMBLE RÉSONANCE was created as a result of the fortuitous meeting of five musicians that occurred at an international music conference held near San Francisco California in the summer of 2000. The name of the group comes from a search that we share in common as musicians and as human beings.
Programme
I.
Johann-Sebastian BACH after Alessandro MARCELLO
Concerto in D minor BWV 974 for oboe and strings **
Andante spicatto - Adagio - Presto
Karl-Friedrich ABEL
Prelude in D minor for viola da gamba
Gabriel FAURÉ
Pavane op. 50 for two guitars **
Erik SATIE
Three Gnossiennes **
guitar - oboe and guitar
** Transcriptions & Arrangements by Christian Chanel
Intermission
II.
GURDJIEFF / de HARTMANN
Kurd Shepherd's Dance
Asian Song
Armenian Song
Sayyid Chant and Dance
The Struggle of the Magicians (Two fragments)
Persian Dervish
Sayyid Chant and Dance
Sayyid Dance (for Mr. Gurdjieff's Wife)
Dance
Long ago in Mikhailov
Sayyid Chant and Dance
Sayyid Dance
Prayer for Mercy
Prayer
Meditation
MASTER AND PUPIL
A recital of music by Haydn and Beethoven for piano and string quartet
Sunday 22 November 2009
Haydn: Piano Sonata no 49 in Eb major
BENJAMIN PEARCE-HIGGINS
Haydn: String Quartet opus 76 no 4 'The Sunrise' 1st movement
Beethoven: Introduction to his life, and opus 130 analysis
Beethoven: String Quartet opus 130 in Bb & Opus 133 'Grosse Fugue'
HOFFMAN QUARTET
Beethoven's late quartets were all he wrote during the last three years of his life. Ill, deaf, poor, and alone, they were an outlet for his anguish and distress. This one is considered the happiest, with bursts of 'youthful' inspiration defining a radiant masterpiece.
EARTH AND HUMAN : A PLANETARY PERSPECTIVE
An illustrated talk by CHARLES LANGMUIR - Higgins Professor of Geochemistry at Harvard University
Sunday 18 October 2009
"Human degradation of the environment has the potential to stall an ongoing process of planetary evolution and even to rewind the evolutionary clock, to leave the planet habitable only by the bacteria that dominated billions of years of Earth's history. Planetary evolution is seen as a series of steps: there's no guarantee that a planet will proceed from one to the next. Each step represents a moment of both crisis and opportunity. So far, the Earth has surmounted each step, while other planets, such as Mars, which may have once had microscopic life, failed to cross the evolutionary hurdle where life is sustained and becomes abundant. Whether the planet takes the next step or not may depend on us. If we recognize humanity is an integral part of the planet and begin working for a healthy Earth, then planetary evolution could move forward. The story of the Earth is our story. We are intimately connected to the Earth in every fibre of our being, in every breath we take. We're inseparable from the Earth." (As reported in the Harvard Gazette)
IN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
New poems by the POETRY CIRCLE
Sunday 5 July 2009
Roy Ashwell
Andrew Brenner
John Haggarty
Anne Humphreys
Phyllis King
Maria Lockhart
Robin Marchesi
Meredith Ricketts
Tilo Ulbricht
and poems by Sam Copley and by Philip Cook
This is the Fourth Recital of their poems by the Poets' Circle.
Texts of all the poems read and more will be for sale.
SACRED SOUNDS:TRACING THE ROOTS OF INDIAN MUSIC
An illustrated talk by JAMEELA SIDDIQI
Sunday 21 June 2009
Jameela Siddiqi is a novelist, journalist and broadcaster who came to Britain as a refugee from Uganda in 1972. She studied English and History at Makerere University Kampala, and at the London School of Economics. She has worked as a television journalist, broadcaster and writer since 1976. She won a Sony Gold award for her series "Songs of the Sufi Mystics" on BBC World Service Radio (1997) and was presenter of the acclaimed Radio 3 series "Nights of the Goddess" (2000) which featured music from Mumbai. She has compiled numerous albums and written liner notes for Indian classical, devotional film and folk music CDs. She is a regular contributor and reviewer for 'Songlines' and has authored chapters on Indian music for both 'Rough Guides to World Music' and a forthcoming Cambridge University volume. She has also written for a CD-Rom on the origins and evolution of Indian Classical music. Her first novel "The Feast of the Nine Virgins" was published by Bogle L'Ouverture in London, (2001). She has just completed a second novel, "Bombay Gardens.”.
GARDENING AS SACRED ART
A Lecture by DR. JEREMY NAYDLER
Saturday 28 March 2009
Since the seventeenth century, Nature has been perceived less as a sacred presence that surrounds us than as a physical resource to be exploited by us.
The change in gardening styles from the Medieval to the Early Modern period reflected this development. During the twentieth century, however, the new artist-gardeners saw the intensification of Nature’s inherent beauty as their deeper goal.
This talk will explore the implications for the future