Friday, May 23, 2025 at 1:00pm
Olin Library, 252 Church Street, Room 014 (Jakobson Room), Middletown, Connecticut
Free and open to the public.
This event is part of Wesleyan’s Reunion + Commencement Weekend.
What can archival collections tell us about the complex relationship between Russian émigré musicians and their new American audience? This talk delves into the World Music Archives at Wesleyan, uncovering early hand-written balalaika and domra scores, émigré-era sheet music, and historical LP recordings that reveal how music from the Russian Empire was preserved, adapted, and marketed in the United States. Against the backdrop of early 20th-century American fascination with imperial Russia—its grandeur, mystique, and imagined romance—émigré musicians played a key role in shaping perceptions of Russian culture through performance and recording. By following the musical traces left behind, Anya Shatilova MA’20 PhD ’25 will explore how this repertoire evolved in exile, how it was received by American audiences, and what it tells us about the broader Russian-American cultural relationship of the time.
Anya Shatilova recently submitted her dissertation “Queer Lutes from the Russian Empire to the United States: An Exploration of Sonic and Visual Thingness of Balalaika and Domra.” Nancy Wight will be the discussant.
