WM Professors Bound for Carnegie Hall

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Sophia Serghi and Nancy Schoenberger must have practiced, practiced, practiced, because the William and Mary professors are destined for the Carnegie Hall stage later this month.

Schoenberger, an English professor, and Serghi, a professor of music, will present “The Fool and the World: Nine Meditations on the Major Arcana” on Jan. 30 at the famed music hall in New York City. The program features Serghi’s original music and Schoenberger’s poetic interpretations of nine of the 22 Major Arcana tarot cards.

The evening will open with a performance of Serghi’s “Complete Works for Piano Trio” by The Ardelia Trio.

Schoenberger supplemented her original verse with snippets of Shakespeare, Bob Dylan and the medieval poem, “Tom O’Bedlam.” “Like a magpie, I’ve taken lines from other sources to add to my response to the visual images of the tarot deck,” she told William and Mary News. “Basically, the tarot is about The Fool’s journey to enlightenment, and each card is a different step along the way.”

Each audience member will receive a program with illustrations of the nine tarot cards, along with a larger illustration of one card. The effect will be for the audience members to pay special attention when their card is “read” in the performance.

Schoenberger is well-known as the co-author of her most recent book, “Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century.” She also won the 1997 New York Poetry Prize from New York University Press for her book, “Long Like a River.”

Serghi is not a stranger to Carnegie Hall, where she performed with the FLUX String Quartet last winter. Her music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, the Green Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Cyprus State Orchestra and others.

Tickets for the show are available here.