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Upcoming events at Monmouth College, Nov. 14-15

Archaeology lecture on Battle of Tobago; joint Monmouth-Knox chamber-string concert

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (11/12/2019) —

Monmouth, Knox ensembles come together for Nov. 15 performance in Dahl Chapel

Monmouth College and Knox College competed against each other on the playing field three times last weekend, but this weekend will bring a collaboration between the two schools.

The Monmouth College Chamber Orchestra and the Knox College String Ensemble will join together for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Kasch Performance Hall of Dahl Chapel and Auditorium. The performance is free and open to the public.

"Music has the capacity to bring people together, and these students tell me they love joining forces with string players from both colleges," said the ensembles' director, Carolyn Suda.

The joint group will perform a wide variety of string orchestra literature from the 1700s to the present. The "kinesthetic energy" of Bach's famous Brandenburg Concerto #3 will open the program, featuring many students in solo roles. Suda said "humor and elegance reign" in Joseph's Haydn's Symphony #13. Jennalynn Cisna, a post-baccalaureate student at Monmouth, will perform a "beautiful and unusual" solo cello part.

The central work of the performance is Grieg's well-known Holberg Suite.

"Exquisite Romantic melody and hints of Norway make this challenging work so popular," said Suda.

Violinists Holly Reyner '21 of Independence, Iowa, and Knox student Alexis Kellogg of Yellow Springs, Ohio, will be the soloists in Bailes Para Orquesta, an exciting collection of Spanish-flavored dances. The program will conclude with Hungarian Dance #5 by Brahms, which Suda said is "a piece everyone will recognize."

Battle of Tobago is topic of Nov. 14 archaeology lecture at Monmouth College

Nearly 350 years ago, a battle in the Caribbean between two European nations left 12 ships at the bottom of a bay.

The next Archaeology Lecture at Monmouth College will recount that maritime conflict between France and the Netherlands, as well as the efforts to recover the lone surviving vessel.

University of Connecticut maritime archaeology professor Kroum Batchvarov will deliver the lecture 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 in Pattee Auditorium in the Center for Science and Business. Titled "The Battle of Tobago 1677: In Search of the Dutch Men-of-War," his talk is free and open to the public.

"The talk's setting in the worlds of sea battles, shipwrecks and underwater archaeological excavations should appeal to a broad audience," said Monmouth classics professor Bob Simmons.

After more than a two-week desultory campaign, on March 3, 1677, French Vice-Admiral Jean d'Estrees launched an attack on an inferior Dutch squadron anchored in Rockley Bay in the island nation of Tobago, commanded by the experienced and competent Jakob Binckes. Two years earlier, Binckes had recaptured New York for the Netherlands. The French attack was beaten off, but a total of 12 ships were lost during the battle.

Batchvarov is the project director and principal investigator for the Rockley Bay Project, which is supported by the University of Connecticut and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. The project has located and tentatively identified the only one of the vessels to survive the modernization of the port of Scarborough Harbour.

Batchvarov has a number of ongoing archaeological projects in addition to the Rockley Bay Project, including the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (as co-principal investigator) and the Vasa Project, which involves the analysis of construction and documentation of a 17th-century Dutch-built man-of-war). He also serves as co-principal investigator for the Ropotamo inundated Chalcolithic settlement excavation off the Bulgarian coast, which is part of the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project.

The Archaeological Institute of America's McCann/Taggart Lecturer for 2019-20, Batchvarov recently began work on the wreck of the Danish royal ship Gribshunden, which sank in 1495. His talk at Monmouth is sponsored by the AIA's Western Illinois Society.

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