Details:
Date:Thursday 26 July 2012
Time: 7.15pm on, followed by Amacord concert at 8pm
Venue: Melbourne Recital Centre (function room)
Presenter: Dr Samantha Owens (The University of Queensland)
Paper Title:
'Believing, singing, learning: A brief history of the St Thomas Boys' Choir'
This talk will outline the fascinating history of the Leipzig's Thomanerchor (St Thomas Boys' Choir), which this year celebrates the 800th anniversary of its foundation. As one of the oldest and most renowned choirs in Germany, the institution can look back upon a long and rich tradition of music making, which famously included J. S. Bach's 27 years as cantor. More recently, it has survived two World Wars and forty years of the GDR's Communist regime. Today, thousands of visitors attend the choir's annual performances of Bach's highly emotional settings of the Passion story.
In this 'Amarcord Insight Partnership', the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions has collaborated with Musica Viva to offer a series of pre-concert research talks inspired by the work of Amarcord, the Leipzig based a cappella song group who perform repertoire from the Renaissance to the modern day. The pre-concert talks are free. Tickets for the Amarcord concerts are available from Musica Viva.
Dr Samantha Owens is an Associate Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and Senior Lecturer in Musicology at The University of Queensland's School of Music. She has published widely on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music history and has held visiting fellowships at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel and at Cambridge University. In 2009–2010, with the support of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship, she spent eighteen months living in Halle (a 30-minute train ride from Leipzig).
Contact Details:
Pam Bond - Email or Phone 08 6488 3858
