Music in Gotham

in collaboration with

The New York Philharmonic

and

The Institute for Studies in American Music

announces a conference

 

The 19th-Century American Orchestra

 

 

 

Americans have always been besotted by orchestras,so writes the New Yorker's music critic, Alex Ross. This first scholarly conference on the nineteenth century orchestra will consider some of the ways this fascination came about, and grew over time in diverse locales Over time, orchestras acquired symbolic roles in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York.

The word orchestrawas used in the nineteenth century for many different kinds of ensembles: festival, concert, theater, saloon, ball, hotel, and restaurant orchestras. Presenters at the conference will be examining several va­rieties of orchestras, who began them, their functions and, regarding the symphonies, who supported such costly cultural artifacts. In turn, we hope that this conference stimulates our colleagues to look into the beginnings and early development of hitherto untold orchestral life in their own cities and towns. The hoped for result will be a comprehensive history of orchestral activity, and a better understanding of what it takes for an orchestra and its players to prosper and for its audiences to gain the aesthetic capital that a civilized society requires.

 

January 17-19, 2008

The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

365 Fifth Avenue, NYC

for Details, visit: web.gc.cuny.edu/BrookCenter/gotham

see "upcoming conferences"

 

 

 


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