Two Lives of Vernon Duke

Igor Vishnevetsky, Tuesday, November 17, 2009

4:30pm, College of Fine Arts Room 102

Igor Vishnevetsky, Visiting Modern Languages and History Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, and Associate Professor, Russian State University for the Humanities and Studio School of the Moscow Art Theater
with Olga Vishnevetsky, pianist, performing the American Premier of Vernon Duke’s first Piano Sonata in g minor

Vernon Duke, an author of such American standards as “April in Paris,” “Autumn in New York,” “I Can’t Get Started,” was born in 1903 in what had been at that time the Russian Empire as Vladimir Dukelsky, a name under which Duke composed much valuable classical music and some remarkable poetry in his native Russian. The lecture explores the double life of Duke-Dukelsky as both American and Russian composer and writer, his close creative association with George Gershwin and Sergey Prokofiev, his pioneering role in crossing the boundary between what had been considered highbrow culture of his time and ‘lower’ forms of entertainment, and, finally, his ability to adapt his rich Russian musical and literary heritage to the context of American culture of the 1930’s—1950’s.

Sponsored by the Modern Languages Department, the School of Music and Russian House

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