For the second year in a row, the Music Division is sponsoring a series of curator talks called our Tuesday Noontime Lecture series. We scheduled 17 lectures for the 2012-2013 series, and we have 9 lectures awaiting us through April! In most instances, these talks are presented by Music Division staff members who have researched a specific aspect of the division’s vast and rich collections and are eager to share that research with Library of Congress staff and the general public (all of these lectures are free and completely open to the public).
We have two noontime lectures scheduled for January, so mark your calendars! First, Music Reference Specialist James Wintle will give a presentation called “Brother Can You Spare a Fugue? A New Perspective on American Music Nationalism During the Great Depression” tomorrow, Tuesday, January 15, from 12:00-1:00 in Whittall Pavilion.
Two weeks later, on Tuesday, January 29 from 12:00-1:00 in Whittall Pavilion, I will present a lecture on a Dominican nun’s involvement in and influence on the creative development of the original stage production of The Sound of Music. This talk is an extension of a blog post I wrote last April on Sr. Gregory and her correspondence in the Oscar Hammerstein II Collection.
Check out the full schedule of Tuesday Noontime Lectures online here, and clear out some time in your schedule to attend and hear some insights from the staff who work with these collections everyday. When you read through the presentation titles you will see that our staff members have a great variety of interests and specialties. Hope to see you at some of our lectures!