Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

Join us at Brandeis for Musical Menageries! A cabaret by the Naugatuck Valley Singers, directed by beloved BOLLI Faculty Dr. Gil Harel.

When: Thursday, December 4, 2025, 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Where: Slosberg Hall, Brandeis University

Register here. This event is free also open to the general public.

In this series, we'll examine a Kurosawa / Mifune neo-noir movie: The Bad Sleep Well (from 1960).  As with so much of Kurosawa, this movie is a transformation of a Western source—in this case Shakespeare's Hamlet.  We'll look at how one of the great geniuses of twentieth-century film did with the work of one of the great geniuses of 17th-century drama, going through the movie shot by shot to see what light Hamlet throws on The Bad Sleep Well, but also how The Bad Sleep Well can illuminate Hamlet.

Dates and Times:
Monday, December 15, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Tuesday, December 16, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Wednesday, December 17, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Thursday, December 18, 10:00am – 11:30am ET
Friday, December 19, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET

Location: Zoom

Register here. This event is free for BOLLI members.

After the lecture series on Kurosawa and Hamlet , we will get very deeply into the play itself: a revenge drama which we might, in fact, be entitled to think of as the first modern crime narrative.  We'll consider the play as in some ways a whodunit.  Not knowing who's guilty raises certain really interesting moral questions, that we'll consider at length, act by act.

Location: Zoom

The fees for this seminar are as follows:
BOLLI Annual Member: $145 
BOLLI Seasonal Member: $215 
BOLLI Trial Member: $285 
General Public: $285 

Active BOLLI Members will receive an email with the registration link on Wednesday, November 12 at 9:00am ET. Nonmembers may contact Dom Restivo at drestivo@brandeis.edu for enrollment options. 

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, premiered on Good Friday 1724, stands as a towering masterpiece of Baroque sacred music, blending intricate counterpoint, vivid chorales, and dramatic recitatives to narrate Christ’s final hours. Within Bach’s vast vocal oeuvre, it rivals the St. Matthew Passion in emotional depth while offering a more concise, urgent intensity that captures the raw anguish of betrayal and crucifixion. As a cornerstone of the Baroque canon, it exemplifies the era’s fusion of Lutheran piety with theatrical expressivity, influencing generations of composers. The Passion story itself—drawn from the Gospel of John—has profoundly shaped Western civilization, anchoring Christian theology, inspiring countless artworks, and symbolizing sacrifice and redemption across centuries. Performed during Lententide, its climax on Good Friday evokes the solemnity of Christ’s death, while its reflective arias anticipate the hope of Easter resurrection. Join Professor Gil Harel as he explores the work’s musical architecture, theological resonance, and enduring power in sacred tradition.

Biography  Gil Harel (PhD, Brandeis University) is a musicologist and composer whose interests include styles ranging from western art music to contemporary musical theater. Previously, he served on the faculty at CUNY Baruch College where he was awarded the prestigious "Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching". Currently, he is Full Professor of Music at CT State Naugatuck Valley, where he has earned various awards and accolades. A winner of the vaunted Connecticut Board of Regents (BOR) Teaching Award, Dr. Harel conducts the college chorale, an a cappella ensemble, teaches music history and theory, and serves as musical director of theater productions.

Location: Zoom

Days and Times:
Tuesday, January 6, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Wednesday, January 7, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Thursday, January 8, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Tuesday, January 13, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Wednesday, January 15, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET

Register here. This event is free for BOLLI members.

“True equality cannot be left to the whims of an electorate—it is the predicate for democracy and the vote, not their product.” — John A. Powell, *Dred Scott*, *400 Souls*

This presentation explores the meteoric rise of American chattel slavery (1619–1861) through economic, historical, legal, political, religious, and scientific lenses drawn from 400 Souls, edited by Ibram Kendi and Keisha Blain, and Birth of a White Nation by Jacqueline Battalora. Participants will apply these frameworks to deepen their understanding of today’s polarized historical moment.

Bio: Joshua Frank provides Adult Education in Racial Equity and American History. He worked as an educator for twenty-eight years in public schools—sixteen as a teacher, and twelve as an administrator. He has run two small educational businesses in retirement, The Learning Nexus and a non-profit, Equity Intersection.  He completed his undergraduate education at UMass/Amherst, and received Master’s degrees from UMass/Boston and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Location: 60 Turner Street

Date and Time: Tuesday, January 13, 2026, 11:00am – 12:30pm ET

Register here. This event is for free for BOLLI members.

This course is offered as a special small-group activity during the winter break. Over the
course of six weeks, we will listen to one album each week and discuss it in depth.
Some weeks will include specific listening goals, such as “choose three tracks from the
album and discuss how they are related,” while other weeks will be guided entirely by
the interests and insights of study group members.

Participants should be prepared to listen to one album per week on their own time
(possibly more than once) and come ready to share their observations and
perspectives. There is no lecture component to the course, and spaces are limited, so
full participation is expected from all study group members. Think of it as a book club for roots music!

While the course has no prerequisites, some familiarity with American roots music will
be helpful. Participants in past Great Artists in American Roots Music courses may find
this a great follow-up opportunity.

Required: A subscription to a streaming music service; Spotify recommended.

Note: Priority will be given to Comprehensive & Leisure and Activities Members. Trial members may register if there is space available.

Location: Zoom

Dates and Times:
Friday, January 16, 2026, 10:30am – 11:45am ET
Friday, January 23, 2026, 10:30am – 11:45am ET
Friday, January 30, 2026, 10:30am – 11:45am ET
Friday, February 6, 2026, 10:30am – 11:45am ET
Friday, February 13, 2026, 10:30am – 11:45am ET
Friday, February 20, 2026, 10:30am – 11:45am ET

The Roots Listening Group fees are as follows (open to BOLLI members only):
BOLLI Annual Member: $115
BOLLI Seasonal Member: $135
BOLLI Trial Member: $155

Active BOLLI Members will receive an email with the registration link on Wednesday, November 12 at 9:00am ET. 

BOLLI members David Goldberg and Charlie Berman are pleased to introduce a new SIG on narrative nonfiction, a genre of writing that typically emphasizes storyline, descriptive detail and character development in its examination of topics pertaining to history, science, art, music and other disciplines. The group will meet monthly in person.

The selection for our first scheduled meeting is Hampton Sides’s Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission. In this riveting work of narrative history, Sides examines the horrific ordeal of the 513 survivors of the Bataan Death March, men who would spend the next three years in a Japanese POW camp, and the 121 highly motivated and trained American military personnel who rescued them. At the time of its publication in 2001, Esquire described Sides’s account as “The greatest World War II story never told.”

Location: 60 Turner Street

Date and Time: Tuesday, January 20, 2026, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Register here. 

Please fill out the form if you cannot make the first meeting but are interested in future meetings. As a reminder, Shared Interest Groups are for current members of BOLLI.

Discover the science behind the chips that run our world! Learn what semiconductors are, how they work, and how the 1947 invention of the transistor launched the digital age. A hands-on Show and Tell will make the invisible world of semiconductors come alive!

Location: 60 Turner Street

Date and Time: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Register here.  This event is free for BOLLI Members.