ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Tuesday, October 1, at 9 a.m. 

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DESCRIPTION:
Organized as a prelude to the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, this event will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the formal conclusion of World War I. Focusing on the years before, during, and immediately following the Great War, USC history professor emeritus Elinor Accampo and Piatigorsky chair Ralph Kirshbaum will explore the impact of the shattering upheaval on the social fabric and artistic sensibilities of Europe and America.

Visual art, juxtaposed with emotionally laden musical masterpieces featuring the cello by composers who were deeply affected by World War I, will serve as a masterful, beautiful, and cautionary tapestry revealing the wide-ranging human and societal turmoil that arose from this previously unimaginable and brutal military conflict.

The program, featuring performances by some of the brilliant young artists of the USC Thornton School of Music, will be followed by a Q&A.



Performers:
Cello: Stella Cho, Juliette Herlin, Allan Hon, Javier Iglesias-Martin, Taeguk Mun
Violin: Mann Wen Lo
Piano: Feng Bian, Heejung Ju

Bios:
Ralph Kirshbaum, chair of the Strings Department in the USC Thornton School of Music, has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras; the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, BBC, and London symphonies; the Cleveland Orchestra; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; London Philharmonia; Zurich Tonhalle; Orchestre de Paris; and Israel Philharmonic, along with major orchestras in Holland, Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, Australia, and Asia. The Texas-born cellist has enjoyed collaborations with such esteemed conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sir Colin Davis, Andrew Davis, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, and the late Sir Georg Solti. Recent highlights include a tour with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with concerts in Glasgow and Edinburgh, appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony, and a tour of Europe with the Takács String Quartet.

USC professor Elinor Accampo is a modern Europeanist with a specialization in French social and cultural history. She has focused her research on gender and family issues, nineteenth- and twentieth-century France, and European social and cultural history. She has written two books and co-edited a third. She has also authored several articles and book chapters. Her first book was a study of the impact of industrialization on working-class family life and the decline in fertility. Her most recent book is a biography of Nelly Roussel (1878–1922), a French feminist and advocate of birth control. Her current research reflects her ongoing interest in the relationship between feminism and reproductive rights, and a new interest in government responses to the flu pandemic of 1918.

Related Event:
Piatigorsky International Cello Festival: Opening Gala Concert at USC
Friday, March 13, 2020, at 7:30 p.m.
Bovard Auditorium
For more information, click here.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Ralph Kirshbaum (Music) and Elinor Accampo (History).

Image: John Singer Sargent, Gassed, 1919