“Translating Theresienstadt†is the topic for the next faculty forum at Simon’s Rock College of Bard. The forum, to be held in Blodgett House on Thursday, October 5 at 5 p.m., will be free and open to the public.
During this faculty forum, scholars Philip Bohlman of the University of Chicago and Peter Filkins of Simon's Rock College will talk about their respective work on the composer Viktor Ullmann and the novelist H.G. Adler. Both the composer and the writer were artists who lived in Theresienstadt, the "model" Jewish ghetto set up by the Nazis in 1941.
Peter Filkins has translated the complete poems of Ingeborg Bachmann, Songs in Flight (Marsilio, 1994), which was named an Outstanding Translation of 1994 by the American Literary Translators Association. His first book of poems, What She Knew, appeared in 1998 from Orchises Press, and his translation of a novel by Alois Hotschnig, Leonardo's Hands, was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1999. His translation of two novel fragments by Bachmann, The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann, appeared from Northwestern University Press in 1999, and in 2002 his second book of poems, After Homer, were published by George Braziller.
His poetry, translations, and criticism have appeared in The New Republic, The American Scholar, The New Criterion, Paris Review, Agni, American Poetry Review, Partisan Review, Iowa Review, The Literary Review, TriQuarterly, Poetry Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The New York Times Book Review.
Filkins was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Vienna from 1983 to 1985, and he has held residencies at the Yaddo Artists Colony, the Millay Colony for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. In 1997 and in 2003, he was awarded research grants by the Austrian Society for Literature and a translation support grant by the Austrian Bundesministerium for work on his translation of Bachmann. In 2004, he received a Berlin Prize Fellowship, and he was in residence at the American Academy in Berlin in Spring, 2005.
Philip Bohlmann is the Mary Werkman Professor of the Humanities and of Music, and Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. His teaching and courses cover a broad range, with special interests in music and modernity, folk and popular music in North America and Europe, Jewish music, music of the Middle East and South Asia, music and religion, and music at the encounter with racism and colonialism. A pianist, he is also the Artistic Director of the New Budapest Orpheum Society, a Jewish cabaret ensemble at Chicago.
He has written and published extensively, and among his most recent publications are World Music: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2002), The Music of European Nationalism (ABC-CLIO, 2004), "Jüdische Musik" - eine mitteleuropäische Geistesgeschichte (Böhlau, 2005), and Jewish Music and Modernity (AMS Studies in Music, 2006). The New Budapest Orpheum Society has released the double-CD, Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano (Cedille Records, 2002). Current projects include books on music drama in the Holocaust and a translation of Johann Gottfried Herder's writings on music and nationalism. Philip Bohlman was awarded the Edward Dent Medal by the Royal Music Association in 1997 and the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin in 2003. In 2006-2007 he will hold the Royal Holloway-British Library Lectures in Musicology.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant
Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building.
"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu.
A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building.
White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.
He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns.
Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot.
A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use.
Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
Brayden Durant struck out seven and walked one in a complete-game effort on the mound Saturday to pitch the Drury baseball team to a 6-0 win over Keefe Tech in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament at Joe Wolfe Field. click for more
Jason Codey struck out 13, walked two and allowed just an infield single as the Generals earned a 7-1 win over Wahconah to claim their third straight regional title. click for more
Gracelyn Wright struck out eight, and Genevieve Lagess went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in as the Hurricanes beat Monson, 17-3, to claim their first Western Mass title in four years. click for more
For the boys, Ward Bianchi helped lead the way with a win in the shot put and a second place in the javelin as the Mounties finished 16 points ahead of runner-up Pittsfield (pending the results of the pole vault, which were unavailable at 11 p.m. Friday night). click for more
