Wednesday, 5 May 2010, 7.00pm


Mahler and the Hapsburgs
Dr Roderick Swanston


Gustav Mahler was a towering figure in the artistic and intellectual hotbed that was Vienna at the end of the 19th Century. He was born to Jewish parents and, to a great extent, the klezmer music of eastern Europe was a root source of melodic and harmonic material for him. However, to climb to the top in the musical politics of the day meant a very public conversion to Catholicism.


Manchester Academy, Moss Lane East, Manchester


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Wednesday, 12 May 2010, 7.00pm


Opera: Fantasy, Fiction, Fact

Stefan Janski
Director of Opera Studies, RNCM


Stefan Janski, freelance actor, writer, teacher and currently RNCM Director of Opera Studies reflects on his career of 40 years in the world of Opera and shares an insight into some of his journeys along the intricate pathways and highways of text, music and imagination which have led to his often critically-acclaimed, award-winning productions


Royal Northern College of Music, Booth Street West, Manchester


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THE KILBURN LECTURE

Thursday, 20 May 2010, 7.00pm


An African University in 2010:                      Challenges and Opportunities
Dr Max Price
Vice-Chancellor, University of Capetown


Based upon global rankings of universities the University of Cape Town is the leading institution on the African continent. UCT shares the challenges facing all universities across the continent, but likewise sees great opportunity to make its mark as a global player firmly rooted in African soil. Vice-Chancellor Max Price will outline his strategy for doing so.



Royal Northern College of Music, Booth Street West, Manchester


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Wednesday, 26 May 2010, 7.00pm


The Antikythera Mechanism


Professor Mike Edmunds

Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Cardiff


What may well be the most extraordinary surviving artefact from the ancient Greek world was discovered just over a century ago. Found in 1900 in a wreck off the coast of the Mediterranean island of Antikythera, the device contains over thirty gear wheels and dates from around 100 B.C. Now known as the Antikythera Mechanism, it is an order of magnitude more complicated than any surviving mechanism from the following millennium, and there is no surviving precursor.



MANDEC, Higher Cambridge Street, Manchester



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