April 7, 2022 | 9:30AM
Logan Center for the Arts Penthouse
The Korngold Symposium encompasses performances and academic presentations, which together complement and enhance the American premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's 1937 opera, Die Kathrin, at the Logan Center for the Arts. The Symposium participants, both guest speakers and those from the University of Chicago, represent different departments and disciplines. Presentations will address a range of topics related to Korngold's life and work, as well as broader issues in Jewish music and culture in Europe and the United States, including the relationship between music, film, and other media and the experience and effects of exile. The extensive participation of the New Budapest Orpheum Society, the Humanities Division Ensemble-in-Residence, will enhance the presence of performance. The Symposium aims to open new avenues for interpreting Korngold's compositional oeuvre and for contextualizing European and American music and film before, during, and after the Shoah as means of understanding modern cultural history.
Organized by Philip V. Bohlman, Michael A. Figueroa, Matthew Johnson, and Na’ama Rokem
April 7 (9:30am–10:30pm)
9:30am–10:00am – Opening Remarks
10:00am–12:00pm – Session 1: Rethinking European Jewish Culture
- Kenneth Moss (University of Chicago), “From National Renaissance and the Liberation of the Self to the Poetry of Catastrophe: Visions and Crises of ‘the New Jewish Culture’ in Eastern Europe 1888-1939”
- Kerry Wallach (Gettysburg College), “From the Shtetl to the City: How Rahel Szalit-Marcus Became the Best Modern Female Illustrator”
12:00pm–2:00pm – Lunch Break
2:00pm–5:15pm – Session 2: Opera and its Medial and Cultural Contexts
- Adi Nester (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), “Wagner und ein Ende? Thomas Mann, Richard Wagner, and Fate of the Collective Artwork”
- David J. Levin (University of Chicago), “Love the One You’re With: The Medial Moment of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt”
- Harry Liebersohn (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), “‘Normalcy’ and Violence in European Art and Thought, 1918-1933”
5:15pm–7:00pm – Symposium Dinner at the Logan Center
7:30pm–10:30pm – First performance of Die Kathrin
HEALTH AND SAFETY
All event attendees aged 5+ who are attending Festival events must provide proof of vaccination. By exception, visitors who are unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons or due to a sincerely-held religious belief may provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the event, or proof of a positive test 14-90 days prior to the event with affirmation that you are not experiencing any symptoms.
The University of Chicago, including the Logan Center, is mask optional. We strongly encourage unvaccinated individuals and those preferring to wear masks to do so.
For full details on vaccination and masking policies, visit the Logan Center For the Art’s COVID-19 guidelines page.