A Comet is Seen: Igor Stravinsky’s Early Ballet Music

Tuesday, December 29 from 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm via Zoom

Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning (GMALL) welcomes composer Erik Nielsen to talk about Igor Stravinsky’s early ballet music. Although Stravinsky started out studying law, he soon turned to music and in his early 20s gained a great deal studying with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the premiere Russian composer of the day. However, his few early works couldn’t prepare the music world for his explosive success with The Firebird, the first of three ballet scores he created for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes 1910 Paris season. Stravinsky followed up with Petrushka in 1911 and then the revolutionary Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in 1913. Composer Erik Nielsen will lead a discussion of these three seminal works, showing excerpts that will illustrate Stravinsky’s groundbreaking creativity that still excites us today. Registration for the talk is $15 per person in advance. For more information visit greenmtnacademy.org.