Symposium: Percy Grainger at 125

To celebrate 125 years since the birth of Percy Grainger, the University of Melbourne will be hosting a one-day symposium on Friday 7 December 2007.

This symposium will provide a forum for the presentation of new perspectives and possible areas of study in relation to Percy Grainger and his music.

The symposium will be held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne and will coincide with a major exhibition there, Facing Percy Grainger. A reception and concert will also be held in conjunction with the symposium.

Programme

9.00-10.30 Session 1

• Jennifer Hill: 'Grainger and his first piano teachers: Melbourne in the 1890s'
• Belinda Nemec: 'Grainger's Museum Legends on composers'
• Mark Carroll: 'Pointing Percy at Posterity: Creating Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger'

11.00-11.30 Morning Tea

11.30-1.00  Session 2

• Paul Watt: 'Josef Holbrooke's promotion of British music and his gift to the Grainger Museum'
• Michael Christoforidis and Ken Murray: The Hispanic Grainger
• Sue Robinson: 'Being geniuses together: A reconsideration of the relationship between Grainger and Henry Cowell'

1.00-2.00 Lunch

2.00-3.30  Session 3

• Graham Freeman: 'Percy Grainger and the Sketch of a New Folk Music Aesthetic'
• Peter Tregear: 'Nostalgia is not what it used to be': Percy Grainger and the Aesthetics of Kitsch.
• Glen Carruthers: 'Percy Grainger and "the onward-march of democratic humanity"'

3.30-4.00 Afternoon Tea

4.00-5.30  Session 4

• Allen Correll: 'Percy Grainger's Wind Band Setting of The Immovable Do'
• Linda Kouvaras: 'Is "Theremin" Still "the Only Instrument!"?: Grainger's Legacy in Postmodern Sound Art, or, "Everybody's Got Their Percy"'

For further information contact:

• Michael Christoforidis: mchri@unimelb.edu.au
• Kerry Murphy: kerryrm@unimelb.edu.au