It is often said that music is the one true universal language. And one gifted music-maker is ready to treat Hernando audiences to a world’s tour of rich rhythmic delights. The Academia Hernando community learning series will present “Around the World in 100 Minutes” on Friday, Oct. 21 at 10 am, which will be presented by Joy Katzen-Guthrie at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 2301 Deltona Blvd., Spring Hill.
Academia Hernando is a not-for-profit lifelong learning organization providing quality instruction and learning experiences for adult students throughout Hernando County, and beyond. Their goal is to inform, educate and inspire adult learners through a series of weekly lectures on a wide variety of topics.
“Songs deliver us to memorable settings of every kind. At the piano, Joy takes you to Far Away Places to learn of extraordinary locations and the ways in which writers immortalized them in music,” read an event description. “From Manhattan to Miami Beach to Moonlight Bay, Side By Side, on an Island in the Sun, Under the Boardwalk or down Country Roads, on the Wabash Cannonball or the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Beyond Brigadoon and Over Oz. Who knows what landscapes will pop up on this entertaining musical journey!”
Taking guests around the world will be Joy Katzen-Guthrie, composer-lyricist, concert artist, writer, keynote speaker and educator, “devoted to uplifting, empowering, and inspiring through the arts and cultural studies.” A Memphis, Tennessee native who settled in the Tampa Bay area in 1981 and resides in Palm Harbor, she has created and served as scholar-in-residence for seven Jewish heritage tours in China and Turkey and has developed heritage tours to Argentina, Australia/New Zealand, Cuba, and Alaska. She has been a Cantorial Leader and Music Director for Florida congregations since 1990, has published 14 recordings, and is a longtime instructor for Eckerd College OLLI and the University of South Florida OLLI, Elderhostel, Road Scholar, Learning Inn and other adult learning series.
With her husband Mark, she operates a professional recording studio, Tune-of-the-Century Music®, has received appointments to the Florida Artist Residency Directory, and has been awarded two arts resource fund performance arts grants from the Pinellas County Arts Council. Joy received BFA and BA degrees in music and broadcast communications from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Prior to her music career, she served Tampa Bay’s WPLP/News-Talk Radio as Executive Producer and Operations Manager in addition to serving as a broadcaster for Classics 92, WDAE, and W101 Radio. Since June 2019, she has been programmer/host of Tampa Bay’s longtime broadcast, The Sunday Simcha, on WMNF Community Radio Tampa 88.5 FM and WMNF.org. Visit her website at https://joyfulnoise.net/.
