ESU Departments of Music and Theatre to Present, ‘This is my Country!’ Nationalism in Concert Music: American, Czech and Russian

Posted by: admin on January 27, 2014, No Comments

Understanding the historical context in which a musical piece was written can be just as important as understanding the musical form.

Opera enthusiast Eugene Galperin, Ph.D., an assistant professor of mathematics at East Stroudsburg University, will explore the importance of historical context in music in a talk, “‘This is My Country!’—Nationalism in Concert Music: American, Czech, and Russian,” at 2 p.m. Friday, February 7.

The presentation will be given in the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall of East Stroudsburg University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets and is open to the public at no cost.

In his presentation Galperin will discuss the political events in Europe in the middle of the 19th century and how they led to the rise of musical nationalism using examples from the works of Bedrich Smetana, Antonin Dvorak and Alexander Borodin.

The talk, the third presentation on “Why Opera Still is Relevant Today,” is an introduction to two upcoming Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts at the Cinemark theater at the Stroud Mall.

Dvorak’s opera, Rusalka, will be shown at 12:55 p.m. Saturday, February 8, and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 12. Prince Igor, by Boradin, will be screened 12:55 p.m. Saturday, March 1, and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5.

The program is being sponsored by ESU’s Departments of Music and Theatre. For more information, please call Galperin at 570-422-3931.