Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (Parkville)
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School of Music - Conferences

The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Music, Modernity and Collaboration

To celebrate the centenary of the Ballet Russes and Igor Stravinsky's first collaboration with the company, a 1-day symposium will be held at the School of Music (Southbank), Faculty of the VCA and Music on Friday 12 March 2010.

The Ballets Russes brought about a transformation in the dynamics of collaboration and the integration of modernist tendencies, which resonated well beyond the company and had a lasting impact on art music and its compositional processes.

The Symposium Programme is now available.

Please RSVP by Monday 8 March (for catering purposes) to Symposium administrator: Liz Kertesz: ekertesz@unimelb.edu.au

Getting there: The School of Music is at 234 St Kilda Rd, facing the street so please enter at the front (this is Level 2). We will be using Rooms 109 and 122, so make your way down the stairs or take the lift to Level 1.

The Southbank campus is an easy 10-minute walk from Flinders St Station across the River and along St Kilda Rd, past the Arts Centre and the Gallery. Many trams run down St Kilda Rd: catch tram no's 5, 6, 8, 64, 67, 72 and alight at Stop 16 (Southbank Boulevard) or Stop 17 (Grant St).

There is short-term metred parking in the streets around VCAM (Southbank), or you can park all day in the Arts Centre carpark under the National Gallery of Victoria.

Programme committee

* Symposium convenor: Michael Christoforidis: mchri@unimelb.edu.au

The Symposium organisers thank the Australian National Academy of Music and The University of Melbourne for supporting this event.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME

(may be subject to change)

Welcome and Introductory Session (9.30-10.00am)
Lee Christofis, in conversation with Michael Christoforidis: “Where was Modernism at the Ballets Russes?”

Session 1 (10.00-11.00am) Chair: Suzanne Robinson
Carina Nandlal: “Pulcinella Punk’d: Stravinsky & Picasso’s Ballet Collaboration”
Michael Christoforidis: “Mediterranean Encounter: Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky and the Etude for Pianola (1917)”

Morning Tea (11.00-11.30am)

Session 2a (11.30am-1.00pm) Chair: Jennie Shaw
Simon Perry: “Stravinsky's Conclusion to Khovanshchina: A Posthumous Collaboration?”
Gerald Ginther: “Stravinsky’s Firebird and its Debt to Rimsky-Korsakov”
Suzanne Robinson: “Mr. Percy Grainger: A Prophet of Modernism”

Session 2b (11.30am-1.00pm) Chair: Lee Christofis
Ken Murray: “Spanish Music in London in the Aftermath of The Three-Cornered Hat
Philippa Heale: “Diaghilev's Nightmare: How Flamenco seen in Spain's Nineteenth-Century Cafés Cantantes entered the Ballets Russes repertoire as Cuadro Flamenco
Anne-Patricia Butler, with Rosemary Richards: “Fostering an Australian Idiom – Valrene Tweedie OAM”

Lunch (1.00-2.15pm)

Sesssion 3 (2.15-3.45pm) Chair: Michael Christoforidis
Elizabeth Kertesz: “Carmen “de-ranged”: Melodrama, Ballet and Film in the Re-casting of Bizet’s Opera (1896-1915)”
Davinia Caddy: “Opera’s Gestural Turn: Le Coq d’or, 1914”
Peter Tregear: “Signs of the Times: Gestural Expressionism in Max Brand's Maschinist Hopkins (1929)”

Afternoon Tea (3.45-4.00pm)

Session 4 (4.00-5.30pm) Chair: Peter Tregear
Jennie Shaw: “Colour, Space and Time: The Impact of the Visual and Performing Arts on Arnold Schoenberg’s Music”
Roger Hillman: “19th-century Music and Recent Film: What Happens with the Historic Gap?”
Jennifer Turner: “‘A Real Composer’s Paradise’: Hanns Eisler’s Approach to the Film Score None But the Lonely Heart

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