The Aston Magna Foundation for the Humanities, Inc. and Yale University are pleased to announce that the 1997 Aston Magna Academy will take place on the Yale campus from June 15-July 6. Major funding for the Academy has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Aston Magna Academy combines the best elements of a summer music performance program, scholarly conference, and research-oriented institute. It brings together 80 scholars and artists for in-depth cross-disciplinary studies, public performances and educational programs that study baroque, classical and early romantic culture and music. Founded by Lee Elman and Albert Fuller in 1972, the Aston Magna Foundation is internationally recognized for the re-creation of seventeenth and eighteenth century music on period instruments. The Academy is directed by Raymond Erickson, noted harpsichordist, baroque music scholar, and dean of Arts and Humanities at Queens College-CUNY.
Each year, the Academy focuses on a special topic. The theme for 1997 is “From Handel to Hogarth: The Culture of Early Georgian England, 1714-1760.” Participants will explore the art, politics, theater, cultural history, and music of England during the reigns of George I and George II. This was the age of Handel’s great music; Canaletto’s “polite” landscape paintings and Hogarth’s vivid portraits; Alexander Pope’s poetry; novels by Daniel Defoe — Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe — and Henry Fielding — Tom Jones; and the dancing of Marie Salle.
Highlights of the Aston Magna Academy at Yale will include:
* Handel’s oratorio, “The Triumph of Time and Truth,” directed by violinist Daniel Stepner, artistic director of Aston Magna
* a harp recital by internationally acclaimed British harpist Andrew Lawrence-King
* a lecture on dance in the London theater by dance historian Carol Marsh, demonstrated by Baroque dancers Ken Pierce and Linda Tomko in period costume
* a recital by British singer David Thomas, who will sing works composed by and for the great eighteenth-century bass Richard Leveridge.
A free lecture-recital series will be offered on Thursday evenings, June 19, June 26, and July 3 at 8 p.m. in Dwight Chapel on Yale’s Old Campus. A second free lecture series will be held on Saturday evenings June 21, June 28, and July 5 at 6 p.m. in Sudler Lecture Hall of William L. Harkness Hall adjacent to Sprague Hall, preceding each concert.
Academy concerts will be held in Sprague Hall on Saturday evenings, June 21, June 28, and July 5 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15; $10 for students and seniors at the door. For information and ticket reservations, call 800-875-7156.
Additional Aston Magna concerts will take place this summer in the Berkshires and at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
