After the Soviet Collapse: Transformations in the Music and Culture of the New Post-Soviet States and Eastern Europe

12 January 2017 - 14 January 2017

Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT

Convener

Marina Frolova-Walker (University of Cambridge)

Summary -- The fifteen national republics of the Soviet Union were originally very disparate in culture but, by the Brezhnev period, they had to a large extent converged on a common Soviet culture. The major structures and precepts of this common culture had also been exported to the countries of Eastern Europe, extending the borders of Soviet cultural space even further. The watershed years of 1989-1991 wrought profound cultural changes, from outright rejection of Soviet practices in one case at least, more modest programmes of adjustment, or in some cases, a continued endorsement of the Soviet cultural legacy. Focusing on music and the other arts, this conference seeks to bring together some of the unique stories of transformation from these vastly different regions, but also to draw out emerging patterns and common trends.

Keynote speakers:
Professor Melita Milin (Institute of Musicology, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Professor Jim Samson (Royal Holloway)
Professor Richard Taruskin (University of California, Berkeley)

Call for Papers -- Please send a 300-word abstract and a short CV to mf263@cam.ac.uk. The deadline for submission is 1 October 2016. Applicants will be notified by October 15. Limited travel bursaries will be available to select participants.

Suggested themes:

Soviet cultural empire and its limits
New nationalisms and old symbols
Musical/cultural migrations
Shifting identities: between East and West
‘Back in the USSR’? Nostalgia and fear of the past
Folk music: modernization, standardization, fusion
Music and regional conflicts
Composers’ careers on either side of the 1989/91 watershed
Musicology: breaking away from Soviet-style methods

Sponsors
Supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Music, and the Royal Musical Association. Administrative assistance: conferences@ crassh.cam.ac.uk​