Post date: Mar 23, 2011 7:29:37 PM

Nebraska Humanities Council speaker Deborah Greenblatt to address the Lincoln Music Teachers Association

Composer and performer Deborah Greenblatt will present “James Whitcomb Riley, the Fiddling Children’s Poet” during a brown bag luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at the Fellowship Community Church, 8601 Holdrege, Lincoln, Nebraska. This presentation is made possible by the Nebraska Humanities Council, www.nebraskahumanities.org, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and Lincoln Music Teachers Association, www.LMTA.info It is free and open to the public.

Deborah Greenblatt has been teaching, performing, composing, recording, and writing professionally since 1971. She received her degree in violin performance from Boston University School of Fine Arts in 1973. Deborah was the first woman to win the Nebraska State Fiddling Championship, the first woman to win the Mid-America Fiddle Championship and is a member of the Mid-America Old-Time Fiddler’s Hall of Fame. She is a master artist with the Nebraska Arts Council’s Artist in the Schools/Communities Program and a past President of the Nebraska American String Teachers Association. Ms. Greenblatt’s upcoming presentation gives us a whimsical glimpse into the world of James Whitcomb Riley, the famous Hoosier poet. The show will feature musical settings of Riley’s poems composed by Ms. Greenblatt, as well as portions of Riley’s lectures and memories. Poems included in this show are “When the Frost is on the Punkin”, “Little Orphan Annie”, “Uncle Sidney’s Logic”, “My Fiddle”, “Give Me the Baby”, “The Raggedy Man”, “At Aunty’s House”, etc.

Ms. Greenblatt’s presentation is one of approximately 300 programs offered through the Nebraska Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. The more than 165 available speakers include acclaimed scholars, writers, musicians, storytellers and folklorists on topics ranging from pioneer heritage to ethics and law to international and multicultural issues, making it the largest humanities speakers bureau in the nation.

Speakers are available to any non-profit organization in Nebraska. Each program lasts 30 minutes to an hour, plus a question-and-answer period.

The most frequent users of the NHC Speakers Bureau are primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums and historical societies, agencies for the elderly, rural organizations, churches, arts organizations and ethnic organizations. The Nebraska Humanities Council sponsors the largest Speakers Bureau program in the U.S. according to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For information detailing the available speakers and guidelines for booking them, please access www.nebraskahumanities.org (speakers and Resources section) or contact the Nebraska Humanities Council at 215 Centennial Mall South, Suite 330, Lincoln, NE 68508, phone 402-474-2131, fax 402-474-4852 or e-mail nhc@nebraskahumanities.org.