Technically the title doesn’t apply to this blog post or event because there was nothing careerwise about it. I attended Baruch Voices (or at least part of the presentation) for my third and final blog post. Surprisingly there were quite a few from our section of Freshman seminar class in support (though I’m more inclined to believe they were all there because they needed that third blog post). From our class, we elected Elias and Vanessa to present their monologues. They both had brilliant pieces which I genuinely enjoyed. Elias’ witty humor challenges the purpose and necessity of this class (which I second) while Vanessa’s is personal and emotional. Several other students from the other freshman seminar classes went on stage to perform, some were witty, others personal, and others that I really didn’t understand but nonetheless we the audience gave them a hearty round of applause after they were done speaking. I would’ve stayed for the whole thing but I had a nasty exam that I had to prep for and since I don’t get home until 10pm on Thursdays I try to gulp down every moment of studying that I have.

Sunday evening on February 28, I attended a delightful classical concert in our very own Engleman Recital Hall at Baruch Performing Arts Center. It had been a lovely day with beautiful weather and I decided to finish it off with an evening of classical music. The concert was presented by The New York Flute Club featuring renown flutist Yoobin Son and pianist Yekwon Sunwoo. They performed several pieces from various well known composers throughout the years such as Bach, Shumann (who is one of my favorites), Poulenc, and several more. Being a flutist myself, I was naturally ecstatic to attend a classical flute and piano concert. I’m no stranger to classical music concerts but I’ve never attended a smaller scale performance. Usually, the performances I’ve been to have had several hundred people form part of the audience so it was refreshing to be in a small crowd. As usual, the atmosphere was formal and professional, which I really enjoy since I’m not one for exotic rambunctious events. The performance itself was impeccable, Yoobin did an amazing job at delivering all the articulations on the flute for those selected challenging pieces. She is, after all, second flutist to the New York Philharmonic. I really enjoyed my evening and in the future should there be more concerts presented at Engleman I would certainly attend (especially since as a Baruch student you receive a discount).

For my first enrichment activity I attended an exhibition at Baruch’s very own Sidney Mishkin Gallery. The exhibition was about science and medicine depicted by means of photographs, paintings and videos. What I took from the exhibition, in terms of academics, is that science and art do not mix…ever. The whole experience at the gallery was sincerely somewhat trippy. It was so abstract and surreal that I honestly couldn’t find the purpose behind the work the artist portrayed. I usually consider myself an appreciator of the fine arts like literature, music, and (by my standards) “normal” painting but I quickly learned that in this case an exception needed to be made. If it weren’t for the sympathetic lady working at the gallery (who I assume saw my weirded out and confounded look) explaining some of the work to me I would’ve never assumed the art work hanging in the gallery was primarily scientific with depictions of medicine in the olden days. As far as I know all I saw was paintings of colors and lines sprinkled here and there and some photographs of old skulls. Still having gone to the exhibition I realized that every person has their own unique depiction of the world whether you understand it or not it’s very much appreciated when you take the time to step into their perspective.