I ran across the following while brousing ath the FSU Web Site. Perhaps a
bit premature, but here it is for anyone interested.
The Florida State University School of Music
ERNST VON DOHNANYI SYMPOSIUM
The Florida State University School of Music will host a symposium
celebrating the renowned Hungarian pianist, composer, conductor,
and pedagogue Ernst von Dohnanyi (1877-1960). The symposium will
be held from 31 January to 2 February 2002 to celebrate the
one-hundred-and-fiftieth-anniversary of Dohnanyi's birth and to
commemorate the ten years he spent on the faculty at Florida State
University.
The Dohnanyi Symposium will feature roundtable discussions with
Dohnanyi's friends and students, as well as presentations of papers
by music scholars from all over the world. Musical performances will
include recitals of Dohnanyi's piano music and concerts of his chamber
music. The centerpiece of the symposium will be a performance of
the work which Dohnanyi considered his magnum opus, Cantus Vitae,
op. 38. This symphonic cantata has not been performed since Dohnanyi
conducted its premiere on 28 April 1941 in Budapest. The Cantus
Vitae will be conducted by world-renowned conductor Matthias Bamert.
Florida State University will also use this occasion to display its
new Dohnanyi Collection, which consists of manuscripts, letters, and
photographs. It is hoped that during the symposium, Dohnanyi will
be inducted into the Florida Arts Hall of Fame.
The Dohnanyi Symposium will be held in conjunction with regional
meetings of the American Musicological Society, the Society for
Ethnomusicology, and the Society for Music Theory.
GUEST ARTISTS/LECTURERS
Matthias Bamert, conductor, will be conducting the Cantus vitae, op.
38. Born in Switzerland, Maestro Bamert's conducting career has
taken him all over the world. He began as an apprentice to George
Szell in Cleveland and later as assistant conductor to Leopold
Stokowski. Bamert is a conductor of wide-ranging talents whose
reputation in the big romantic repertoire, his championship of new
music and innovative programming have garnered international praise.
Bamert has enjoyed a highly successful tenure as the Director of the
Lucerne Festival from 1992 to 1998. He has conducted three recordings
of Dohnanyi's orchestral music with the BBC Philharmonic (Symphony
No. 2 / Symphonic Minutes [Chandos CHAN 9455, 1996], Symphony No.
1 / American Rhapsody [Chandos CHAN 9647, 1998], and The Veil of
Pierrette / Suite in F-sharp Minor / Variations on a Nursery Theme
with Howard Shelley, piano [Chandos CHAN 9733, 1999]). Maestro Bamert
is being brought to FSU as a Housewright Endowed Chair.
Charles Michael Carroll, scholar, studied composition with Dohnanyi
at FSU and later became Dohnanyi's colleague as a Music Theory
instructor at FSU. He presented a paper entitled "Memories of
Dohnanyi" at the College Music Society Southern Chapter 1984 Conference
(1-3 March 1984, Gainesville, FL).
James A. Grymes, host, established the Ernst von Dohnanyi Collection
at FSU while completing his Master's thesis, "Compositional Process
in Ernst von Dohnanyi's Symphony in E Major." In addition to having
published articles on Dohnanyi in Music Library Association Notes
and Studia Musicologica, he is currently editing what will become
the first biography of Dohnanyi in English and writing Ernst von
Dohnanyi: A Bio-Bibliography for Greenwood Press.
Deborah Kiszely-Papp, pianist, wrote her doctoral dissertation on a
"Critical Edition of the Unpublished One Movement Version of Erno
Dohnanyi's Piano Concerto in E Minor, op. 5" (The City University
of New York, 1996) and has since established herself as an outstanding
Dohnanyi scholar. Her other publications on Dohnanyi include "An
Analysis of Erno Dohnanyi's Ruralia hungarica, Op. 32/a, No. 4"
(Studia Musicologica 36:1-2 [1995]: 73-90) and a "Discography of Erno
Dohnanyi" (Studia Musicologica 36:1-2 [1995]: 167-80).
Eleanor [Baker] Lawrence, flutist. Widely known for "flute playing
of the highest order" (New York Times) Ms. Lawrence will be performing
Dohnanyi's final compositions, the Aria for Flute and Piano, op. 48,
no. 1, and the Passacaglia for Flute Solo, op. 48, no. 2, which he
dedicated to her. She described these pieces in her article "The
Flute Compositions of Ernst von Dohnanyi" (The Flutist Quarterly 21:4
[Summer 1996]: 60-66).
William Lee Pryor, scholar, was a friend of Dohnanyi's in Tallahassee.
Dr. Pryor is the author of "The Wit and Humor of Ernst von Dohnanyi"
(Clavier 16:2 [February 1977]: 20-22) and wrote a paper entitled
"Dohnanyi at Tallahassee: The Final Chapter, A Personal Reminiscence"
at "The Life and Times of Erno Dohnanyi" conference at Indiana
University (7-10 March 1991).
Dr. Catherine A. Smith, pianist, received her Doctorate in Musical
Arts from FSU as a student of Dohnanyi's in 1958. She is the author
of the article "Dohnanyi as a Teacher" (Clavier 16:2 [February 1977]:
16-18). And presented a paper on "Dohnanyi's Piano Music" at "The
Life and Times of Erno Dohnanyi" conference at Indiana University
(7-10 March 1991).
Balint Vazsonyi, pianist and scholar, is the author of the authoritative
biography on Dohnanyi, Dohnanyi Erno (Budapest: Zenemukiado, 1971),
as well as the New Grove articles on Dohnanyi. He is a concert
pianist who has performed on four continents, including the complete
cycle of Beethoven sonatas in New York, London, and Boston. Dr.
Vazsonyi was a student of Dohnanyi's at FSU and later taught music
at Indiana University in the 1970's and 80's and is currently the
director of the Center for the American Founding at the Potomac
Foundation in McLean, Virginia.
Alan Walker, internationally renowned Liszt scholar, will be presenting
an hour-long public lecture. Professor Walker hosted a BBC program
on "Dohnanyi the Pianist" in 1966 and presented a paper entitled "A
Tribute to Dohnanyi" at "The Life and Times of Erno Dohnanyi" conference
at Indiana University (7-10 March 1991). He is being brought to FSU
as a Curtis Mayes Orpheus Endowed Chairholder in Musicology.
William Waterhouse, most widely known as a bassoonist and the bassoon
scholar who wrote the bassoon article in New Grove, is also a lifelong
Dohnanyi enthusiast. He played bassoon in the Chelsea Symphony
Orchestra's premiere of Dohnanyi's Second Symphony on 23 November
1948.
Joel Hill
Tallahassee, FL - USA
ALKAN Web Page: http://www.nettally.com/joelhill/alkan/ Updated May 2000
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