This month Weill enthusiasts and scholars can look forward to not one, but two international conferences that promise insight into the composer’s history, works, and cultural context.
The first, “Reframing the Golden Age Musical: Methods, Sources, Performance,” is hosted online by the Great American Songbook Foundation 12-15 May as its fourth biennial StageStruck Conference. Curated by musicologist Dominic McHugh of the University of Sheffield, the four-day symposium will explore Broadway musicals from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s and will unfold through live discussions, panels, and keynote speakers over two-and-a-half hours of programming each day. The agenda features several significant papers relating to Weill, including one on Love Life by Joel Galand, along with a session on critical editions including three Kurt Weill Edition editors chaired by KWF President Kim H. Kowalke. An industry panel chaired by actress Melissa Errico, who won a Lucille Lortel Award as the title role in One Touch of Venus at Encores!, is joined by fellow Venus castmates and Broadway luminaries Victoria Clark and Judy Kuhn. Originally scheduled for last year, the conference will honor Kim Kowalke, marking the 70th anniversary of Weill’s death. Click here for details.
The second conference focuses mainly on Weill. “Music, Cinema, and Modernism: The Works and Heritage of Kurt Weill between Europe and America” is hosted virtually by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini at the Università degli studi di Torino on 20-21 May. Several authorities on Weill are scheduled to participate, including keynote speakers Stephen Hinton, Professor of Music and German Studies at Stanford University, and Nils Grosch, Chair of the Department of Art History, Musicology, and Dance Studies at Universität Salzburg. Distinguished Professor Tim Carter of the University of North Carolina and Kim Kowalke will both serve as panel chairs. Click here for details. Complete video of the conference sessions has been posted:
