Category: Resources

First Meeting: March 2, 2021

Borderlines Open School for Advanced Cross-Cultural Studies, an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural teaching and research organization, presents its first Spring course:
Dmitri Shostakovich: The Man, The Music, The Myth

Instructor: Harlow Robinson – expert in Soviet and Russian cultural history (Matthews Distinguished University Professor of History, Emeritus, Northeastern University)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was not only one of the greatest composers of the modern era but also a reluctant political figure.

Born in Tsarist Russia, Shostakovich witnessed many of the defining events of his times: the creation of the USSR, the long nightmare of Stalinist terror, Hitler’s invasion, the Cold War, Khrushchev’s “Thaw,” Brezhnev’s era of stagnation. All these experiences were inscribed in his music that provoked subjective responses and widely divergent political and psychological interpretations.
From the triumphant premiere of his First Symphony in Leningrad in 1926 until his death, Shostakovich remained one of the most prominent representatives of Soviet culture. He received numerous honors from the Communist Party to which he belonged, and yet the extent of his personal and creative loyalty to the Soviet regime remains a hotly debated issue.