Rhapsody in Blue – Poetry and Piano

Rhapsody in Blue – Poetry and Piano

Thursday, June 9, 2022, from 5:00 – 6:15 PM

Member $15 / Non-Member $18

The Poet

If a house is on fire, don’t describe and discuss the landscape, yell “FIRE!”

The planet Earth – our home – is on fire: be it global warming, global disparities, global discriminations, weapons of mass destruction; whatever the crisis, it is now imperative that the poet take notice and speak out on behalf of our home.

The primary purpose of today’s poet is to be that Socratic gadfly in order to disturb, to provoke, and not to entertain.

Idealism must now be displaced and realism demonstrated and discussed regarding the aforementioned threats to our very existence, to our one and only home.

Discussing current events, the program combines poetry selections and music from Gershwin, Chopin, and others. Audience Q&A at the end of the performance.

Ed Lambton, poet, served two years in the United States Army during the Vietnam era before residing on Cape Cod. He was one of the founders of The Dragonfly Series which provides diverse venues for aspiring writers and musicians.

Rita Southworth Moerschel, piano, has been active in the Boston music world, as a graduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music and then as a performer and teacher. Specializing in collaborative piano, she has given recitals in the Boston area with members of the Boston Symphony and also with Boston freelance musicians in such places as the Fogg Museum, Wellesley College, Boston University, Curry College, The All Newton Music School, the Brookline and Newton Public Libraries, New England Conservatory, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the Cape Cod Museum of Art. In addition to the standard chamber music repertoire, she includes the works of many women composers in her programs.

On the Faculty of The All Newton Music School, Rita also maintains a private piano studio. She is Music Chair of the Crescendo Club of Boston as well as being a professor in the Fine Arts Department at Curry College in Milton.

A Native of Minnesota, Rita graduated with a piano major from the University of Minnesota after which she studied in New York with Nadia Reisenberg. Her teachers in the Boston area include Kyriena Siloti, Victor Rosenbaum, and Andrew Wolf. She received a Master of Education with distinction from Curry College. Rita can be heard on the CD Cathy Sings with mezzo-soprano, Cathy Beatty.

Cancellation policy: 1-week notice is required for refund.