Manchester Music Festival engages, inspires, and grows a supportive audience for classical music, performed at the highest level of artistic excellence, and teaches exceptional young performers in the art of chamber music.

This summer, Manchester Music Festival explores "Music and Storytelling," illuminating the profound connections between literature, poetry, song, and music.

Schedule of Events:

Discovery
Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning, in collaboration with the Manchester Music Festival presents Professor Michael R. Katz

5:30 pm - 7:00 pm: Leo Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata (1889)

Location: Arkell Pavilion, Southern Vermont Arts Center, 860 Southern Vermont Arts Center Dr., Manchester, VT

Tolstoy's controversial novella takes the form of a heartrending confession by a conscience-stricken Russian aristocrat, who murders his wife in a fit of intense jealousy. Publication of this scandalous work was initially prohibited by the Russian censors, but the Tsar himself gave permission for it to appear in Tolstoy's collected works. As we would say now, it went viral! This talk will summarize and analyze the original story, and then describe briefly Tolstoy's thoughts about classical music, in particular, Beethoven's Sonata (Kreutzer) for Violin and Piano (1803).

Guest Speaker:
Russian scholar Michael R. Katz is C.V. Starr Professor Emeritus at Middlebury College. He is the author of two monographs and is a renowned translator of Russian literature, including English versions of works by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chekhov. He retired from full-time teaching in 2010, but continues to teach occasional J-term courses at Middlebury and summers at the Bread Loaf School of English. 

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