Saturday Evening

Hello everyone,

On Saturday evening, attendees will be on their own to explore the culinary and entertainment options that Pittsburgh has to offer.  The organizers do, however, have two humble suggestions for musical lovers amongst us.  

The first is the Pittsburgh Symphony.  Heinz Hall is in easy distance to the hotel via foot or the hotel shuttle. The concert that Saturday night will feature the following:

Beethoven: Overture to Fidelio, Opus 72   

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 467    

DvoÅ™ák: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88

Some of our organizers are subscribers to the symphony and can procure discounted tickets.  If enough people are interested, we could also get a group rate.   Standard tickets range from $25 to $100 depending on seating choices.

Another suggestion is the Renaissance & Baroque society's  hosting of Stile Antico , an early music vocal group from the U.K.   The description is :

The current popularity of English Renaissance choral music owes much to the groundbreaking work of the Carnegie Trust, which celebrates its centenary in 2013. In 1922, the Trust inaugurated the Tudor Church Music edition – a series of hugely influential volumes, unearthing a wealth of extraordinary music that had languished unperformed for centuries. Stile Antico celebrates this remarkable legacy with a program entirely drawn from these publications, including masterpieces by Taverner, Tallis, Gibbons and White. Crowning the program is the exquisite five-part Mass by William Byrd, whose modern reputation as the greatest composer of the English Renaissance was founded on these pioneering editions.

This location will be a touch more difficult to get to, but should be feasible with car pooling or cabs. If we have 8 or more people interested, we will qualify for group rates, the top tickets are $35.

Please let us know via an email to ddconfluence (at) gmail.com if you have an interest in either of these events.  If there is enough demand, the organizers will work on coordinating tickets for our group.

Take Care,
Marta

Meeting Agenda

The organizers for the Dunnett Confluence of Pittsburgh have finalized the agenda for the Dunnett focused day on Saturday, October 12^th, 2013.   We promised you topics related to Dunnett, history and Pittsburgh and now we can give you the details, in no particular order.

·        A Day at the Archives: Two (relatively) recent Dunnett converts will discuss interesting tidbits from their recent visit to the Dunnett Archives at the National Library of Scotland.  Laura and Victoria will provide detail about the physical archives (how they are structured, what kind of records are available, etc.) as well as fascinating aspects of the writing process as gleaned from the notes found in the archives. 

·         The topic Drama and a Laugh at the Same Time  may be familiar to some of you from Jan Fergus's wonderful talk at the Dunnett Siege and equally impressive write up in the Whispering Gallery.   Jan has kindly agreed to share her presentation with the Confluence, this time tweaking the presentation for our audience to reflect the theme of The Family Ruptured or Reconstituted in Pawn in Frankincense.

·         Dunnett and the Role of Family will be the topic of our moderated panel.  We hope this topic will encourage lots of discussion on the portrayal of relationships based on blood, and those created by circumstance. Are families more of a help, or a hindrance, or indeed, motivation for our heroes in achieving their goals.  Are there overarching themes between the series?   These thoughts and many more will be vigorously debated.    Please note:   There are spaces open on the panel... if you are coming to Pittsburgh and are willing to be a panelist, please drop us an email.

·         Annie Valdes, a local expert on Renaissance and Baroque music, will be guiding us throughMusic in Everyday Life of the Early Renaissance with a focus on the Scottish Harp.  As preparation for this talk, she has started Game of Kings, so we have high hopes for not only for an excellent discussion, but a potential convert. 

·         The Heinz History Center is kind enough to provide us with a speaker who shall educate us on early days of George Washington. In addition to delving into the French & Indian War, this subject will show how the early experience shapes and matured the man who would become a war hero and leader.  This theme Dunnett certainly relied upon for the characters of Thorfinn, Lymond, and Niccolo and the parallels should be interesting indeed.

In addition, we are working on some interesting exhibits, quizzes and, of course, are looking forward to all our genial company. 

Welcome!

Dunnett Confluence - Pittsburgh - October 11-13, 2013

Over the course of the next few days, your organizers ~ Marta, Liz, Laura, and Susan ~ will be posting information about the upcoming Dunnett Confluence of Pittsburgh (October 11-13, 2013).  We are so very excited to be hosting this dynamic event and look forward to meeting everyone!

If you have any questions, please write to us at DDconfluence@gmail.com  We'll answer as soon as humanly possible.

~Laura