JANUARY 11, 2024

Nightingale recently welcomed Director of Lower School Music Mary Beth Alexander as this year’s Gordan Lecture speaker. Held during Community Time, Upper Schoolers, professional community (ProCom) members, and several Class VIII students gathered in the Hemmerdinger Auditorium to hear her lecture titled Possibility Teaching: Facilitating Musical Improvisation and Composition through the Art of Play. Throughout her lecture, attendees participated in a series of musical exercises, culminating in a final song in which the entire room sang together, accompanied by Upper Schoolers onstage, who played along on xylophones.

For those new to Nightingale, the Catherine M.S. Gordan Nightingale Mind Lecture series celebrates intellectual life at Nightingale. Created several years ago to honor the myriad contributions made to Nightingale by former Associate Head of School Kitty Gordan in her more than 42 years at the school, the annual series focuses on the scholarly pursuits and interests of our faculty, both inside and outside the classroom.