SPIRALS OF LIGHT
Through music and poetry, with blessing from the Source, we weave a vessel for the Light within each of us.
In Spirals of Light, music and poetry move from blessing and praise, through a spiritual journey, to inner repose and exultation, culminating in an affirmation of the holiness of all life. Bracha, Hebrew for blessing which also means downward flowing stream, suggests the flow of Divine goodness into the world. Psalm 19 communicates the silent praise of the heavenly spheres as they traverse their paths, expressing the awesome majesty of the Creator. Serenade-Fantasy portrays the path of the seeker, encountering diversions and obstacles, but always returning to the call of inner guidance. Spirals of Light invites the listener into the sacred center, swirling and spiraling into stillness. The quiet which follows resonates with the mystery of the infinite. Joyous energy then awakens, flowing into the world. A Time to Blossom proclaims Divine Unity at all levels of being. Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century abbess; Emily Dickinson, the 19th century New England recluse; and Hannah Senesh, the Israeli martyr of World War II, all use imagery of the natural world to express the inter-connectedness of all life.
Meira Warshauer’s works have been performed and recorded to critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Israel, Europe, South America, and Asia. Critics have described her music as "spiritually ecstatic, beautifully-felt...representation of (the) mystical creative process.” A graduate of Harvard University (B.A.magna com laude), New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.with honors), and the University of South Carolina (D.M.A.), Warshauer studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts Commission. She was twice awarded the Artist Fellowship in Music by the S.C. Arts Commission, in 2004 and 1994; and in 2000, received the first Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina. Her composition, Yishakeyni (Sweeter than Wine) received the first place Miriam Gideon Award from the International Association of Women in Music call for scores, 2004. Warshauer is a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia College, Columbia, SC, where she teaches The Healing Art of Music, a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary approach to the experience of music as a source of healing.
Spirals of Light is Warshauer’s second collaboration with poet Ani Tuzman. In 1992, they presented a program of music and poetry on themes of the Holocaust at the South Carolina State Museum which was subsequently performed at colleges in South Carolina and in Alaska.
Ani Tuzman’s poetry and prose have been published in national and international magazines including TIKKUN, SANCTUARY, BODY MIND SPIRIT, MOTHERING, DARSHAN , CALYX, and PEREGRINE. She is a winner of the Anna D. Rosenberg Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience (1990) and the ZONE Writing for the Nineties Competition. She was the featured poet in “Chamber Music and Poetry on Themes of the Holocaust” in collaboration with composer Meira Warshauer.
Ms. Tuzman has also been leading writing groups for many years. She is the founder and Director of Dance of the Letters Writing Center which offers Writing Workshops and private writing sessions for adults, teens ,and children. She is currently completing her first novel, Angels on the Clothesline, which tells of a young girl’s experience as daughter of Holocaust survivors.
Laury Christie, Robert Jesselson, and Constance Lane are Professors of Music at the University of South Carolina where Winifred Goodwin is staff accompanist. Goodwin and Jesselson are principal players with the South Carolina Philharmonic, and, together with Constance Lane, perform together as the USC Faculty Trio. Meira Silverstein is a student at Mannes School of Music in New York where she studies with David Nadien.
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