Meeting Anna Vilevskaya in Vienna 16 February 2024

Anna Vilenskaya is a musicologist, lecturer and researcher of contemporary music.

Anna started giving lectures when she was still studying at the Conservatoire. There, lectures about music were given professionally, but with a touch of snobbery and museum historicism.She wanted to change the approach of talking about music towards visualisation, simplicity, emotionality and practical benefits for the listener.It all worked out, and from 2018 to 2022 Anna gave lectures first in bars in St. Petersburg, then in libraries, and then in theatres and museums in various Russian cities.

People loved these lectures, Anna was included in the list of 30 most influential people in Russia who are under 30, she made her show with Warner music Russia and read author's cycles in philharmonics.

With the outbreak of full-scale war, Anna left with her husband to Tbilisi and now works there. Now Anna does not give lectures in philharmonic halls but in private centres and organisations, she also works in a school and teaches people all over the world how to give lectures with her video course.

About the lecture itself:

Mozart and Beethoven are usually taught in music school one after another.

Both are classical (well, or Beethoven a little less so), both wrote symphonies, used an orchestra and created "great masterpieces". Apart from biographical facts and attitudes to wigs, their music differs, but in what way is a tricky question.

To answer it, we need to get deep into the musical fabric, to see how they both build the same chord, what instruments they prefer to give the melody to, how they joke and how they think. That's what we'll do in the lecture.

As a side effect, we will also understand how the music of classicism is organised, and how harmony and melody work.It is not necessary to know any music in advance, the lecture is designed for people without musical training.