Peter Pesic
COUNTY LIBRARY News:
Peter Pesic, a multi-faceted author whose latest book is entitled Polyphonic Minds – Music of the Hemispheres, will speak 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 at the Ghost Ranch Library as part of the Los Alamos Public Library’s Authors Speak Series. The talk had been previously announced as being Oct. 25 or Oct. 26.
Pesic is a writer, pianist and educator. He is director of the Science Institute at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, where he is also Musician-in-Residence and Tutor Emeritus. His six books, seven editions and 60 papers consider questions in the history and philosophy of science, music, and ideas. A member of the college’s faculty since 1980, he has been deeply involved in its unified curriculum based on close study and discussion of great works, especially in shaping its unique program of study in laboratory science, mathematics, and music.
In Polyphonic Minds, Pesic explores polyphony―the interweaving of simultaneous sounds. Polyphony is a crucial aspect of music that has deep implications for how we understand the mind.
In a recent interview with New York Times arts writer Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, Pesic said at the time Johannes Brahms was composing his music, “the idea that we contain multitudes- like Walt Whitman- was becoming a physiological realization.”
His many publications include the books Music and the Making of Modern Science, Sky in a Bottle, and Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy and Literature.
The Ghost Ranch Library has offered the use of their space for the talk, as Mesa Public Library is undergoing renovations. The library is adjacent to the dining hall on the Ghost Ranch campus, where dinner is served from 5:30-6:30 p.m. More information about Ghost Ranch and a map of the campus are available at ghostranch.org. The drive from Los Alamos takes about one hour.
The Authors Speak Series is a monthly event featuring local and regional authors speaking about their writing on a variety of subjects such as local and state history, travel, outdoor activities, fiction, Native American history and culture, poetry and more. The series is supported by the Friends of the Los Alamos County Library System. The talks are free and are followed by the opportunity to meet the authors.
Mesa Public Library in Los Alamos is currently undergoing renovations to the lighting and air handling systems. While the building is mainly closed, the library is operating seven days each week out of a small space on the ground floor adjacent to the Senior Center, and a children’s lending library is open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday upstairs at Fuller Lodge. The White Rock Branch Library. The target date for the building to reopen is in early December.
More information about the renovations at Mesa Public Library can be found at libraryimprovementsproject.us.
