Invitation to the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster’s Spring Event Series 2021!

Stefan Sunandan Honisch

Organized and moderated by Dr. Stefan Sunandan Honisch, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Theatre and Film, at the University of British Columbia. His postdoctoral research explores the relationship between aesthetics and politics in Helen Keller’s musical life, documented in Keller’s own writings, and in contemporaneous newspaper, magazines, photographs, and films.

Comprising the “Vulnerable Virtuosities: Disability in Concert and Competition” series organized by Dr. Honisch, are two events:

The Art of the Piano: Competition, Teaching, and Performance. 

An afternoon with Debra Saylor
January 22, 2021 – 3:00pm
ZOOM online event (registration below)
Vancouver, BC

Organized and moderated by Stefan Sunandan Honisch, PhD, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Theatre and Film, University of British Columbia.

Vulnerable Virtuosities: Disability in Competition and Concert explores how descriptions of musical virtuosity in competitions and concerts depend on idealized notions of musical ability shaped, in turn, by the systemic privilege and oppression that intersect race, gender, sexuality, disability, and class. The book’s projected fifth chapter will discuss three blind pianists who have achieved distinction in both the professional and amateur streams of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition: Judyth Walker (1947-2009); Debra Saylor (b. 1962), and Nobuyuki Tsujii (b. 1988). The question-and-answer session following Debra Saylor’s talk provides an opportunity to discuss her life and work as a pianist and music teacher.

Organized and moderated by Stefan Sunandan Honisch, PhD, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Theatre and Film, University of British Columbia.

This screening of the documentary film “Marcus Roberts:  The Virtuoso” is connected to Dr. Stefan Honisch’s book project, entitled Vulnerable Virtuosities: Disability in Competition and Concert. Dr. Honisch’s book explores how descriptions of musical virtuosity in competitions and concerts depend on idealized notions of musical ability shaped, in turn, by the systemic privilege and oppression that intersect race, gender, sexuality, disability, and class. The book’s projected third chapter zooms in on the documentary film, narrated by trumpeter, composer, and educator Wynton Marsalis (born 1961), and featuring the blind African-American pianist, composer, and teacher Marcus Roberts (born 1963). Roberts himself is the laureate of two competitions, the Great American Piano Competition in 1983, and the inaugural Thelonius  Monk International Piano Competition in 1987.

Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster belongs among the family of UBC Research Excellence Clusters that represent interdisciplinary networks of researchers focused on solving key challenges facing society that transcend the traditional boundaries associated with departments, institutions, and funding agencies. IHRC proceeds from the understanding that the questions we ask about our time depend on full and evidence-based understandings of the past, and, at the same time, that present-day concerns continually shape and inform our engagement with that past. IHRC seeks to explore both the forms of representation of the past and their uses: how the past is excavated (literally and metaphorically) and expressed in relation to contemporary practices and concerns.

For more information on the Cluster and its Spring Event Series, please visit the IHRC website.