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Manhattan School of Music has recently presented
a number of symposia on the works and lives of the composers Shostakovich,
Brahms, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, and Boulez, as well as the collaboration
between Balanchine and Stravinsky.
Each symposium was organized as to provide the
best possible collaboration among the academic participants and
the musicians. Manhattan School of Music drew upon the significant
musical resources available in New York City. In some cases experts
are brought from Europe.
The symposia have served to educate not only
the students here at Manhattan School of Music, but also the public,
who are invited free of charge. Students remember the readings as
special occasions on which they receive exceptional insights from
great conductors.
Shostakovich
On Monday, September 28, 1998, Manhattan School of Music convened
an interdisciplinary symposium to explore the political and artistic
climate in which Dmitri Shostakovich composed his music. The symposium
was a collaboration among Yuri Temirkanov, music director of the
St. Petersburg Philharmonic; the Harriman Institute of Columbia
University; and Manhattan School of Music. The gathering brought
together world-class scholars and artists for an in-depth exploration
of Dmitri Shostakovich and his role as historical witness during
the Stalinist period in Russian history.
The format provided a reading of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony
in the morning session. In that time, Maestro Termirkanov taught
the Manhattan School of Music Symphony his particular view of this
work. Widely considered one of the greatest living authorities on
the orchestral music of Shostakovich, Maestro Temirkanov was joined
during the reading by members of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Orchestra. The musicians included Sergey Girshenko, concertmaster;
Andrei Dogadine, first viola; Andrey Gloukhov, first horn; and Marina
Vorozhtsova, first flute. The audience was able to hear the Maestro’s
insightful remarks through his use of a lavaliere microphone. Following
lunch, two academic panels were held, chaired by Dr. Mark von Hagen,
a leading expert on Soviet history and director of the Harriman
Institute. Panel members included Maestro Temirkanov and members
of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Dr. Robert A. Maguire, Bakhmeteff
Professor of Russian Studies and chairman of the department of Slavic
languages at the Harriman Institute; Dr. Boris Gasparov, professor
of Slavic languages and literature at Columbia University; and Shostakovich
biographer Elizabeth Wilson. The panelists discussed the Stalin
years in Russia. Shostakovich’s unique voice of dissent, so apparent
in his Tenth Symphony, provided the basis for the proceedings that
followed.
Brahms
The success of the Shostakovich symposium led to subsequent events,
such as a Brahms symposium with Kurt Masur in 1999 and a Mendelssohn
symposium, also with Maestro Masur, in 2000. As one of the most
widely admired and respected musicians of his generation, Maestro
Masur is well known to orchestras and audiences not only as a distinguished
conductor but also as a humanist. He as received numerous awards
and honors from various governments and has been awarded several
honorary degrees, including one from Manhattan School of Music.
He has had a long-standing relationship with the School, having
conducted its orchestras many times.
The Brahms symposium represented the second annual symposium on
historically significant composers and took place at Manhattan School
of Music on Tuesday, October 12, 1999. The morning session featured
a reading of Brahms’s First Symphony with Kurt Masur leading the
Manhattan School of Music Symphony, along with selected members
of the New York Philharmonic, including concertmaster Glenn Dicterow.
In the afternoon, a panel was chaired by Dr. Volker Berghahn, Seth
Low Professor of History at Columbia University, and Dr. Walter
Frisch, professor of music at Columbia. Participants included Maestro
Masur; Mr. Dicterow; Dr. Michael Musgrave, well-known Brahms scholar
and professor emeritus of music at Goldsmiths College, University
of London; and Joseph Robinson, principal oboe of the New York Philharmonic
since 1978 and Manhattan School of Music faculty member also since
1978. Other panel members were Dr. Margaret Notley, Brahms biographer
and editor of The American Brahms Society Newsletter; Mr. Otto Biba,
director of the Archives, Library, and Collection of the Gesellschaft
der Musikfreunde in Vienna, professor at both the University of
Vienna and that city’s University of Music, and a recognized authority
in the area of Austrian music history between the 17th and 20th
centuries; Ms. Styra Avins, cellist with the Queens Symphony in
New York who has written widely on the music of Brahms; and Dr.
Nancy Reich, internationally recognized expert on Clara Schumann
and the music of Robert Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. The panel
explored the works of Brahms in relation to the sociocultural milieu
in which he lived and created. Specific topics of discussion included
Brahms’s relationship with Clara and Robert Schumann, his complex
identity as a North German living and working in Vienna, and changing
responses to his works on the part of his contemporary audiences
and critics. Through this vital combination of performance and discussion,
participants gained a deeper understanding of Brahms’s genius.
Mendelssohn
The Mendelssohn symposium, the third in this series of symposia,
was part of the first three weeks of the New York Philharmonic Mendelssohn
cycle and was held at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, on Friday,
October 6, 2000. The morning session featured Maestro Masur, then
the Philharmonic’s music director, conducting a reading by the Manhattan
School of Music Symphony Orchestra of Mendelssohn’s Overture to
Ruy Blas and the Nocturne and Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
During the reading he shared his personal point of view on these
works with the young musicians from the School. Joining the School’s
Symphony Orchestra were New York Philharmonic members, Irene Breslaw
assistant principal viola, Orin O’Brien bass; Joseph Robinson principal
oboe, and Jerome Ashby associate principal horn. In the afternoon,
a panel chaired by Dr. Volker Berghahn and joined by Maestro Masur;
Dr. R. Larry Todd, one of the foremost Mendelssohn scholars and
biographers in the world; Dr. Rudolf Elvers, director of the Mendelssohn
Archive in Berlin since 1967; and Jürgen Ernst, managing director
of the International Mendelssohn Foundation in Leipzig since 1994,
discussed various aspects of the life and times of Mendelssohn,
gaining a deep understanding of the his genius.
Berlioz
In February 2003, Maestro Charles Dutoit joined the School for
the fourth in the series of symposia—this one on the music of Hector
Berlioz. Each symposium is organized so that it will provide the
best possible collaboration among the academic participants and
the musicians. In some cases, experts are brought from Europe, but
Manhattan School of Music is able to draw, in most cases, upon the
significant musical resources available in New York City. The symposia
have served to educate not only the students here at Manhattan School
of Music, but also the public, who are invited free of charge. Students
remember the readings as special occasions on which they receive
exceptional insights from great conductors.
Balanchine and Stravinsky
In October and November of 2004, Manhattan School of Music hosted
two events in connection with the George Balanchine Centennial.
A screening of the film, “Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs
Stravinsky,” was held on October 27. On November 4, the School hosted
the symposium “Balanchine the Musician.”
The evening focused on two Balanchine works: Agon, and the
Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and featured dancers from the
Dance Theater of Harlem and the School of American Ballet. The dance
performances were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Charles
Joseph of Skidmore College. Panelists for the event included Arthur
Mitchell from the Dance Theater of Harlem, Suki Schorer from the
School of American Ballet and Robert Biddlecome and Frederick Zlotkin
of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. The symposium was a wonderful
opportunity to showcase and speak about Balanchine’s unique musicality
and how it enabled him to create some of the most important choreographic
works of our time.
Boulez
Manhattan School of Music hosted a weeklong residency in April
of 2005 with Pierre Boulez and distinguished colleagues from IRCAM
(Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique). This
was an extraordinary week of lectures, rehearsals, discussions,
and a final concert. For more information about this event, click
here.
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