Four Sessions: Tuesdays at 11 am
October 3: The Soloist as Sorcerer
October 10: The Haunted Concert Hall
October 24: Operatic Occult
October 31: Six of the Scariest

Cost per lecture: $24 Members, $29 Non-members
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Cost for the series: $90 Members, $100 Non-members
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What do Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique have in common? All are deliciously spooky excursions into the musical supernatural, eternally popular with classical audiences eager to experience a good scare within the relative safety of respectable art music.

The febrile world of enchantment and witchery has always appealed to composers, and the range of works featuring spectral creatures, ghost ships, demonic valets, trolls, devils, and necromancers is vast. In the perfect run up to Halloween, popular speaker and concert pianist Dr. Rachel Franklin leads a hair-raising tour of some of the best-loved classical music haunts, showcasing works by Mozart, Mussorgsky, Berlioz, Dukas, Liszt, Schubert, Wagner, Ravel, Humperdinck, Offenbach, Saint-Saëns and many others.

One of the Smithsonian Associates’ most popular lecturers, Rachel has been a featured speaker for such organizations as the Library of Congress and NPR. Her topics explore the intersections between classical and jazz music, film scores, and the fine arts, bringing her back repeatedly to enthusiastic audiences across the region.

October 3: The Soloist as Sorcerer
During the 19th century and beyond, artists became increasingly fascinated by any topic connected to the paranormal, and legendary performer-composers were no exception. Liszt’s and Paganini’s instrumental skills were so extraordinary that some believed they were in league with the devil, and both enjoyed writing music that spooked their audiences. Franklin summons up Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, Paganini’s Caprices, and unsettling masterpieces from Ravel, Schubert, and Stravinsky.