Lecture by ODU’s Kasparov and Guest Scholar to Explore Creation of New Opera

March 25, 2013

Two departments at Old Dominion University - foreign languages and literatures, and music - have partnered to offer an original presentation by Andrey Kasparov, associate professor of music, and guest scholar Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno about their unfinished work composing a new opera about Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca.

The lecture, titled "Lorca: The Creation of an Opera," will be held at 5 p.m. Monday, April 1, in the Batten Arts and Letters Building auditorium.

Lorca, who was murdered during the Spanish Civil War, is considered in many literary circles to be the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the 20th century.

Kasparov, who was born in the former Soviet Union, graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory with honors in music composition and piano. He also holds a doctorate degree in music composition from the Indiana University School of Music, in Bloomington, and is an associate professor of music at ODU.

Kasparov's works have been performed in the Ukraine, Germany, Argentina, Moscow, New York, Paris, Yerevan, Ottawa, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and other cities around the world.

A Faculty Development Fund grant from the Office of Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate, received by Nancy Minguez, senior lecturer and Spanish language coordinator for the foreign languages and literatures department, is being used to bring Sawyer-Lauçanno to campus.

For more information about the presentation on April 1, contact Minguez at nminguez@odu.edu.