A Finished Heart

A Finished Heart: Love at Life's End is a dramatic reading of story with poetry and music. We focus on beauty, love, and intimacy through the lens of losing one's spouse.

Why:

We wish to share a poignant tale, to help each other prepare for end-of-life experiences, and to strengthen people's compassion for each other by creating a groundswell of emotional connection based on human commonality.

How will we care for our mates, for our loved ones, how will we be with death? There is extraordinary learning available through connecting with feelings, experiences, and epiphanies that permeate dying, end-of-life care, and loss.

This performance is an open window through which the audience can see a reflection of why we choose to mate: can feel the breeze that must speak a story forever, the way a wind must always cause branches to sing.

The impact:

• End-of-life intimacy inspires our relationships today. This piece suggests that the process of dying is unique to each couple, while giving clues on how we can be with the one we love.

• We can learn by listening to the discovery of meaning that is found by bringing all emotions and intuition into experience without judgment.

• Entering the drama of a time when answers are elusive and control is irrelevant strengthens our compassion for self and others.

• Being deeply touched by loss tells us to treasure and nurture the bonds we have now, for the moment death will come is unpredictable and beyond our control.

• By seeing this expression of love in action, we are reminded of the meaning of, and reason for, commitment and responsibility.

• We can help strengthen our sense of human family. The characters of this story are two men, and we are pulled into their life as a married couple. Dying is the great equalizer that touches us all.
  

• We open dialogue with ourselves and each other about death, a topic that is important - but hard - to discuss.
  

How:

This will be a touring production. Our goal is to bring performances to communities across the nation, rural and urban; to college campuses, hospices, congregations, personal growth workshops, social service agencies, hospitals, civic organizations, concert halls and other venues. As appropriate, discussion periods with the author will follow performances.

The work:

• What might you experience as you care for your dying mate?

• What will the process be like for him or her?

• What might you learn from your spouse who is approaching death?

• How will each of you change?

• What is the relationship between how the two of you think about dying now, and what will actually transpire?

• How will this loss, profound beyond words, alter your relationship with the world?
  

The stories and questions are universal; yet each answer and tale must be unique. Some answers change; some are not forthcoming; can they exist?

• Come close to the bed of a man in his mid-50s dying of pancreatic cancer. Listen as he talks with his husband, who was also his caregiver: discussions about dying, love, forgiveness, and meaning. Meet the personality of a sixteen-year marriage. Hear poetry inspired by devotion, grief, play, and mystery, wrapped in a musical tapestry.

The future:

We have given highly successful private performances in order to hone material and obtain feedback. Soon, we will begin public presentations in Maine and beyond. We look forward to building relationships with organizations and individuals.

Support:

Love at Life's End is currently supported by a generous challenge grant from the JSL Foundation that will match additional funds raised for the project. We are currently searching for a nonprofit organization that would be interested in sponsoring this work.

Eliott Cherry: Author

As a means of surviving a crisis, Eliott began creating a journal of poetry, prose, and dialogue during the illness and after the death of his husband of sixteen years, Chris Chenard. This journal is the source of material for A Finished Heart: Love at Life's End. “I think of myself as a co-author," remarks Eliott, "for there would be no writing without Chris' presence, our marriage, his illness, his death, and his own words.”

Eliott was a volunteer speaker and is a past President of the Board of Directors of the Maine Speakout Project (MSOP) in Portland, Maine. Founded in 1995 by Jonathan Lee, MSOP was a statewide organization that trained and deployed volunteer speakers to share their personal experiences as sexual minority Mainers with mainstream groups throughout the state. The program has since become part of Community Counseling Center. Chris and Eliott – and their strolls hand-in-hand in the park, were the inspiration behind the Walk With the Ones You Love created by MSOP.

For more about Eliott Cherry, see below.

The performers:

Martin Perry: Pianist

“The combination of program and pianist was a double fulfillment: The performances were superb, and the music was fascinating...Perry is an absolutely first-rate pianist.” William Glackin - The Sacramento Bee.

Of Perry's performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Christopher Hyde, of The Portland Press Herald writes: "Perry's technique is astounding. More important, it was placed in service to dramatic emotional contrasts between the solo cadenzas and the broad sweep of melodies in which the orchestra joins."

Martin Perry is a pianist dedicated to discovering the expressive heart of the material he performs. From works by the great American composers Ives, Carter and Bernstein on modern piano to the early romantics Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schumann on fortepiano, his hallmarks are a delicate touch, deep emotional connection and commanding technical precision. In his approach to performance practice and concert presentation, he is traveling the road less traveled, bringing a fresh approach to both the classics and the underplayed twentieth-century canon.

With an orchestral debut at the age of 15 in his hometown of Sacramento, California, Martin went on to study with renowned pedagogues Patricia Taylor Lee and Thomas Schumacher, graduating from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Adele Marcus, herself a pupil of the legendary Russian pianist Josef Lhévinne. His competitions include the William Kapell and the Dranoff International Two Piano Competition, where he and colleague Kathryn Lewis were awarded the bronze medal.

After a Carnegie Hall debut, Martin Perry embarked on a busy career touring the U.S. several times, appearing in recent seasons with the Arkansas Symphony, Boston Pops, Moscow Symphony, Baltic Philharmonic and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Recent collaborations include performances with The Cassatt Quartet and The Daponte Quartet. His performance of Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety with the Portland Symphony was called “simply astounding” by music critic Christopher Hyde of the Portland Press Herald.

Martin also brings a love of the magical, mystical and extra-musical world to his programming. His repertoire includes all the major works of Charles Griffes and Alan Hovhaness (with whom he shares an Armenian-American heritage) as well as avantgarde works such as De Profundis by Frederic Rzewski. At home in many genres, Martin has recorded the songs of Stephen Sondheim for RCA, and premiered piano works of Vivian Fine and William Bolcom.

Special thanks to Martin Perry for his participation, generosity, advice and support of Love at Life's End.Click here to read Martin's blog.

Eliott Cherry: Reader, Composer

Eliott Cherry was born and raised in New York City. He was a classical music radio host in Portland, Maine for many years and co-produced and acted in a radio drama series titled “Composers In Conflict” with the late American composer, Noel Farrand.

Eliott was originally trained as a musician, with first lessons from his father, who was a cellist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. His studies continued at the Cathedral Boy's Choir School, High School of Music and Art, Leonard Davis Center for the Arts of City College, and with numerous private teachers. He moved to Maine in 1984 and has been active as a composer, cellist, and teacher.

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Unpublished work Copyright 2010 Eliott Cherry, All Rights Reserved

Exceptions: Martin Perry photo and biographical text (source: www.martinperrypiano.com), and text from www.paulgoodmanfilm.com, used by permission.

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