AUGUSTA — Through a blend of lecture and piano performance, Dr. Christine Letcher, assistant professor of music at the University of Maine at Augusta, will explore how the political climate affects the work of classical composers.

The event is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, on the UMA campus at the Farber Forum Auditorium in Jewett Hall, 46 University Drive.

Letcher interviewed American classical composers to explore their perspectives on how the social, cultural and political environments influence the music they compose. She then compared these findings to those of the New Deal and early Cold War eras.

In this lecture-recital, Letcher will discuss the social and political influences on select composers from both the 1930s and the early 2000s, and will demonstrate how these influences showed up in the music as she performs solo piano works by Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Aaron Copland, Florence Price, Martin Bresnick, Reena Esmail, Jerome Kitzke and more.

Special guests for two of the pieces are Dr. Anita Jerosch, trombone, and Eliza Meyer, cello.

“Promoting Community Connection” is free and open to the public on the UMA campus, and will be livestreamed on UMA Augusta – YouTube.

This lecture-recital will be repeated at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, at Minsky Hall, University of Maine at Orono.

For more information, visit uma.edu.

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