Jane Austen Society of North America, Southwest (JASNA-SW)
JASNA-SW Events & MoreComing Up
Save the Date for our Dec. 4, 2010 Winter Conference
"Wassail and Plum Pudding: Cooking in Jane Austen's England" Save the Date for our Spring Super-Regional Conference, May 14-15, 2011
Bicentennial Celebration of the publication of Sense and Sensibility Events Gone By
Annual Spring Meeting: “Horse and Carriage,” Saturday, April 10, 2010
Please click on the title above for a report of this exciting event! Treasures of Napoleon at the Muzeo
Please click on the title above for a text-and-photo recap of this program. 2009 Winter Meeting: A Library, a Drawing Room and a Ball: Jane Austen’s World of Music
Please click on the title above for a text-and-photo recap of this program. 2009 Spring Meeting: A Day of Pride, Prejudice, and Politics
Click on the title above for a recap and photos of this event. 2008 Winter Meeting Holidays at Highbury: Understanding Jane Austen's Emma
Click on the title above for photos and a recap of this event. "I ask only a comfortable home" - Jane Austen and Regency Domestic Interiors," a lecture by Lisa White
Click on the title above for a recap of this event. Special Screening of THE DUCHESS
JASNA members were treated to a sneak preview of the film about Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Click on the title above to see a trailer of the movie. 2008 Spring Meeting
"Silver Forks, Golden Memories, and Library Treasures." Featured talk: Ed Copeland on Silver Fork Novels. 2007 Winter Meeting: A Jane Austen Mystery Celebration
Click on title above for photos of this exciting event. JASNA-SW Spring Meeting 2007
If you missed out on this exciting event, you can click on the title above for a recap of our program. JASNA-SW 2006 Winter Meeting
Domestic Entertainments in Jane Austen's Time History
Diana Birchall and People take us on a nostalgic journey. In Memoriam
Sundries
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2009 Winter Meeting: A Library, a Drawing Room and a Ball: Jane Austen’s World of Music[PHOTOS FOLLOW BELOW] The room was aglow, festooned with red-ribboned wreaths, golden balls and boughs of fir. The nightingale voice of soprano and UCLA graduate student Ashley Knight filled the air, her singing enriched by the piano accompaniment of Robert Winter, famed musicologist and UCLA professor. Welcome to the “The World of Jane Austen’s Music,” the theme for JASNA-Southwest’s December 5, 2009, Winter Celebration at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. For the more than 100 people who attended, it was a chance to be transported to the drawing room of a 19th Century English manor house, and to be surrounded by the beauty and civility of that time. Professor Winter based his lively presentation, which was half lecture, half performance, on music in Jane Austen’s personal collection, her references to music in her novels and the film adaptations of her work. He explained how sensuous power of an augmented 6th chord was used to great effect in the Romantic Period and he pulled back the curtain on musical accuracies and inaccuracies depicted in three cinematic versions of Pride and Prejudice and in Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility. Ms. Knight sang eight selections, including Mozart’s Voi Che Sapete from “The Marriage of Figaro,” the song of desire that Elizabeth Bennet sang during her second visit to Pemberley. After a sumptuous three-course lunch of roasted herbed pork loin, chicken wrapped in feuille de brik or spinach and cheese tortellini, time travel back to the 1800s continued. Annie Laskey, who “calls” English Country Dances in the Los Angeles area, lectured on the origins of English Country dances and demonstrated the basic dance steps that underpin hundreds of dances from the period. Participants then found partners and formed lines to dance two favorites of the era, “Knole Park” and “The Duke of Kent’s Waltz,” accompanied by the live music of violinist Mary Ann Sereth and pianist Guinevere Saenger. Philippa Besant of the celebrated Wayfarers Tours, an English walking tour-guide company, described a new walking tour of Jane Austen’s beloved Hampshire countryside, which is debuting in the summer, 2010. Carla Washburn and Jan Bickel, vice presidents in charge of programs for JASNA-Southwest, organized the December event. The next meeting will be held in Spring 2010. Please look for details here on our website. 
Our lovely president, Nancy Gallagher, welcoming us to the 2009 JASNA Winter Meeting.
Past-president of JASNA-SW Susan Ridgeway posing with one of the three displays she created, which showcased the joys of JASNA's Annual General Meetings. After Susan's presentation, we were all ready to reconvene at the next AGM!
A closer look at one of Susan Ridgeway's displays: "The Company of Janeites"
Robert Winter's talk made us all want to watch our favorite Austen film adaptations again with our newfound knowledge of music from Jane Austen's time and how the filmmakers used music to evoke emotion.
Ashley Knight delighted us with songs of the period. A perfect accompaniment to Robert Winter's talk.
Ashley Knight and Robert Winter.
During a break in the day-long program, we all enjoyed a delicious lunch.
Philippa Besant made us all want to pack a bag and go on her walking tour of Jane Austen's Hampshire, which she described for us in her talk.
Annie Laskey gave a fascinating lecture on English country dance. (From left, Annie Laskey, Mary Ann Sereth, Guinevere Saenger.)
Annie's demo dancers provided a lovely illustration to Annie Laskey's lecture.
Annie Laskey followed up her lecture with English country dance lessons for all.
And everyone tried out their new steps in a rousing conclusion to a perfect day.
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