Music in the Nazi Camps

Date: Friday September 21, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer

Topic: Music in the Nazi Camps

The first Almonte lecture of the new season is scheduled for the 21st of September, and is entitled “Music in the Nazi Camps”. Carleton University Professor Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer is presenting the lecture,

Jean-Jaxques van Vlasselaer is originally from Belgium, and has been a Professor of French at Carleton University for several decades. He is also the music critic for Ottawa’s Le Droit. Music is his passion and he frequently rushes off to Europe to attend the opera. (He claims to have seen the whole Ring Cycle 35 times!) He is a frequent speaker at the NAC Concert Series, either in French or in English. He is a most entertaining and enthusiastic person, and his lecture will be memorable.

Music in the Nazi death camps is a subject to interest a wide spectrum of our audience. Music composed and performed by the inmates of these camps has only recently been discovered and made public. It is hoped that the lecture attendees will be able to listen to some of these compositions during the evening.

All lectures take place at 7:30 at the United Church Social Hall, 106 Elgin Street in Almonte. Others in this year’s series include “The Science of Climate Change”, “Canada’s Peacekeeping Myth”, “The Mechanics of Colour Vision” and “Time in a Bottle – a History of Wine”.