Singalong & Presentation: Singing Beethoven & The French Revolution

On Saturday, February 8th, from 3-4:30pm, at the West Tisbury Library, join SFOpera & Boston Baroque specialist Laura Stanfield Prichard to sing and explore the dramatic, intense, and emotional music of Beethoven as a young man. This music often carried the themes of heroism and struggle, reflecting his revolutionary and democratic ideals. Free musical scores will be provided. Free and open to the public!

The time period:

“The” French Revolution, a period of radical social and political upheaval in France from 1789 to 1799, profoundly impacted Europe’s cultural and political landscape. Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in the Holy Roman Empire, but his early years coincided with the Age of Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the rise of Napoleon. Trained by his father and composer Christian Gottlob Neefe, he admired the initial principles of the Revolution, which promised an end to feudal oppression and the dawn of a new era of freedom and equality.

Dr. Laura Stanfield Prichard is a teacher and musicologist based in the Boston Area. She is a Visiting Researcher at Harvard and gives frequent lectures for the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and Chicago Symphony. She lives in Boston and West Tisbury.