8 Online Courses for the Cultural Omnivore
Amanda MacBlane September 24, 2015
8 Online Courses for the Cultural Omnivore
September 24, 2015
Want to get your brain back in shape after a summer of beach reads and blockbusters? Each fall, Lincoln Center’s 11 resident organizations come alive with numerous learning opportunities for adults—lectures, classes, discussions, apps, and much more—designed to cultivate a deeper appreciation of the performances presented on stage.
But for those who don’t have Lincoln Center down the road or whose schedules don’t allow for learning on site, we’ve picked eight great online experiences from both Lincoln Center and other respected institutions that will keep you culturally sharp wherever you are.
And if you do have Lincoln Center down the road, we’ve suggested some off-line ways to get even more out of each course.
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Juilliard Open Studios
First episode FREE in the iTunes App Store. Subscriptions from $7.99
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a student at one of the world’s most famous conservatories? The Juilliard School’s new subscription app illuminates the process of bringing a work of art to life, following its students and professors as they delve into a specific piece. It is a fascinating look at the myriad intellectual, creative, and physical choices that go into everything we see on stage.
Using commentary, videos, and interactive features, these series so far include Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Staging Il Turco in Italia, New Dances with Larry Keigwin, and Exploring Possibilities in Schubert with Emanuel Ax and Nicolas Namoradze.
Off-line experiences• See the finished products. Check out The Juilliard School’s performance calendar.
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The World of the String Quartet
FREE
Curtis Institute of Music via Coursera
The former first violinist of the Guarneri Quartet, Arnold Steinhardt, and his Curtis Institute colleague Dr. Mia Chung lead this colorful journey from Haydn’s early string quartets through composer David Ludwig’s 2014 piece “Pale Blue Dot.” This is Curtis’s second on-demand course, following Jonathan Biss’s wonderful Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, which will add a short sequel soon.
Off-line experiences
• Emerson String Quartet: Haydn & Beethoven at Alice Tully Hall
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: String Quartet Cycles at the Rose* and The Beethoven Cycle
*Live stream available.
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An Exploration of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden
$13.99
Juilliard/Digital via iTunes App Store
Go deep into one of the most revered pieces in the chamber music repertoire with the venerated Juilliard String Quartet in this beautiful iPhone/iPad app from Juilliard/Digital. A live performance by the JSQ can be experienced through many prismatic effects: isolating single parts, following along in the score, and delving into the story behind the piece that the performers (and generations of listeners) consider “a miracle.”
Off-line experiences
• Juilliard String Quartet: Schubert, Carter, Debussy at Alice Tully Hall
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Inside Chamber Music lecture on Death and the Maiden *Live stream available.
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The Story of Film, An Odyssey
FREE with Netflix subscription
When it was being screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Times called Mark Cousins’s series on the history of world cinema “a semester-long film studies survey course compressed into 15 brisk, sometimes contentious hours.” With a wide worldview that extends well beyond the bounds of Hollywood, Cousins crisscrosses the globe, touching on everything from Georges Meliès’s Le Voyage dans la lune to Christopher Nolan’s Inception, King Hu’s A Touch of Zen to Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl. The entire series is now available on Netflix, allowing for rambling detours along the way.
Off-line experiences• The Film Society of Lincoln Center: New York Film Festival
Revisit essentials by Ford, Kurosawa, Visconti, and more, then continue the international odyssey with the 2015 selections.
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Jazz History 101
FREE
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins. These are just some of the iconic figures covered in the New York Jazz Academy’s thorough and passionate intro online jazz class.
Off-line experiences:
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Play Monk -
Great American Dance Learning Guides
FREE
Have kids? Part of a book club looking to expand its horizons? As a part of the new HD film series Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance, interactive Learning Guides have been created for the four featured productions by San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, and New York City Ballet.
These discussion-based guides—which have been adapted for various age groups—use videos, readings, images, written activities, and discussion questions to get a nuanced understanding of each production, including historic context, music, choreography, and design. Developed to enhance the Lincoln Center at the Movies experience, each guide will be made available approximately 2–3 weeks before the screening at cinemas nationwide.Off-line experience
• Lincoln Center at the Movies: watch the full-length dance productions in gorgeous HD at a movie theater near you.
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Introduction to Italian Opera
FREE
Designed for novices and aficionados alike, this new course from Dartmouth endeavors to build general listening and music analysis skills in the context of Puccini, Verdi, and their brethren. This is a free, scheduled course, which begins on October 13 and will provide ample opportunities for interaction with professors and classmates.
Off-line experiences
• Metropolitan Opera: A new production of Verdi’s Otello opened the 2015–2016 season, which features 17 Italian operas.
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Schubert’s Lieder: Settings of Goethe’s Poems
FREE
Schubert’s songs are some of the most exquisite settings of poetry in Western music. This course from Open University uses Goethe’s poems—in both the original German and English translation—scores, and recordings to shed light on these essential works of the repertoire.
Off-line experience
