61 N Pineapple Ave. Sarasota
FL 34236
“Secret Song: Unraveling the Mystery of Berg’s Lyric Suite”
with Hermitage Fellow Hilan Warshaw
Presented in partnership with Sarasota Opera
Wednesday, August 23 at 6pm
Sarasota Opera (entrance at 61 N Pineapple Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236)
Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.
Following last season’s groundbreaking program that surveyed a number of Hilan Warshaw’s films, the remarkable Hermitage Fellow and musician cum filmmaker is back for a deep dive into one of his greatest works. Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite for string quartet has long been hailed as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century music. But for decades, few suspected that behind this powerful music lies an explosive secret. Secret Song tells the gripping true story behind the creation of a 20th century musical masterpiece– weaving together dramatic reenactments, documentary, and vérité footage of legendary musicians Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet. A Q&A with the creative mind behind this project follows the screening.
Hermitage Fellow Hilan Warshaw is a film director and writer. His television documentaries include Wagner’s Jews (PBS-WNET, and others), Secret Song, In the Key of Bach (PBS-GPB), Rachmaninoff Revisited (co-producer and editor), Through the Darkness, My Bolero (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, June 2023) and the forthcoming Mahler in New York. As video director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he has directed numerous televised concert films (including the ASO Holiday Celebration, recently nominated for a 2023 Southeast Emmy), and serves as host and musical commentator for the orchestra’s on-demand video concerts. He was a 2021–22 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow and is an International Emmy Awards juror. Alongside his film and television work, Hilan has taught film courses at Barnard College and Western Carolina University, has lectured at numerous venues, and has written essays on film and music published in anthologies from Cambridge University Press, McFarland Press, and Königshausen & Neumann, and in periodicals including The Wagner Journal. He holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and studied orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School. OvertoneFilms.com