Cultural historian Horowitz to deliver Elson Lecture: “Rethinking Orchestras”

Reknown scholar and author Joseph Horowitz will give the 2012 Louis C. Elson lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 5:15 p.m. in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall. Horowitz, a cultural historian and concert producer, will present “Rethinking What Orchestras Do: A Humanities Mandate.” The talk is free and open to the public. John Knowles Paine Concert Hall is located directly behind the Science Center.

Horowitz is one of the most prominent and widely published writers on topics in American music. As an orchestral administrator and advisor, he has been a pioneering force in the development of thematic programming and new concert formats. His nine books—including Classical Music in America: A History, named one of the best books of 2005 by The Economist—offer a detailed history and analysis of American symphonic culture, its achievements, challenges, and prospects for the future.

Horowitz regularly contributes to the New York Times Arts & Leisure Section and to the Times Literary Supplement (UK). He has contributed as well to The New York Review of Books, The American Scholar, The Journal of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, American Music, The Musical Quarterly, 19th Century Music, Opera News, The New Grove Dictionary of Music, and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. He is the author of the article on “classical music” for The Oxford Encyclopedia of American History.