February 25, 2007 Joseph Horowitz to Deliver Louis C. Elson Memorial Lecture March 7
Press Contact: Erin Allen (202)707-7302
Contact: Request ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov
Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov
The history of American classical music extends beyond the familiar names of Arturo Toscanini, Van Cliburn, Aaron Copland and Charles Ives. There were those behind the scenes such as music critics, responsible for influencing public opinion; financiers and promoters, who sometimes engaged in shady self-promotion; and the American public, which was caught in the middle of a continuing struggle to make classical music a legitimate and viable art form in the New World.
Joseph Horowitz, author of “Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall” (2005), presents the Louis C. Elson Memorial Lecture on “The Classical Music ‘Crisis’ and What To Do About It” on Wednesday, March 7 at 7 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.
The program is being cosponsored by the Library’s Office of Scholarly Programs and Music Division; no tickets are required.
In his lecture, Horowitz traces the decline of classical music in the United States and suggests ways to revitalize it. The program will be followed by a discussion and question-and-answer session with musicologist Karen Ahlquist of George Washington University and Christina Scheppelmann, artistic administrator of the Washington National Opera.
Horowitz is artistic director of Washington, D.C.’s Post-Classical Ensemble. He has served as director of historical projects for the American Symphony Orchestra League and executive director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. He has taught at the Eastman School, the Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory (NEC) and the Mannes College of Music and was a visiting professor at the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College.
His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The American Scholar, American Music, The Musical Quarterly, Opera News, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Encyclopedia of American History.
The Louis C. Elson Memorial Fund was established at the Library of Congress by Elson’s widow, Bertha, to provide free lectures on subjects associated with music and to foster the public’s interest in music and musical literature. The Fund honors the life and work of the author and composer, a member of the faculty at the New England Conservatory who enjoyed considerable acclaim as a lecturer and writer in American musical history. Notable lecturers presented under the auspices of the Louis C. Elson Fund include Charles Seeger, Gustave Reese, Curt Sachs, Stanley Sadie, Jacques Barzun, H. Wiley Hitchcock, H.C. Robbins Landon and Charles Rosen.
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PR 07-026
2007-02-26
ISSN 0731-3527