The Cazenovia Public Library will host a special presentation by musicologist Ingeborg Zechner at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 5 in the Community Room. Her lecture, titled “Hollywood Composer Franz Waxman and the Los Angeles Music Festival (1947-67),” will explore the life, accomplishments and legacy of the celebrated composer Franz Waxman (1906-67).
The German-born Waxman is known as one of the most productive composers of his time. He was twice awarded with the Academy Award for his movie scores for “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) and “A Place in the Sun” (1951). Lesser known, however, are Waxman’s professional activities outside the Hollywood film industry: In 1947, he founded the Los Angeles Music Festival to promote the works of contemporary composers on the American West Coast. Waxman served the Festival as an artistic director and conductor until his death in 1967.
Zechner is a musicologist at the University of Salzburg (Austria). She received her doctorate in historical musicology in 2014 from the University of Graz with a dissertation on London’s Italian opera in the 19th century. Her research interests include 18th- and 19th- century opera, the sociocultural history of music, film music of the 1930s to 1960s, music and migration, as well as music and media.
She is currently researching Franz Waxman as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Art and Music Histories at Syracuse University. Her lecture will focus on both Waxman’s work in the film industry and his considerable influence on L.A.’s music landscape.
All events at the Cazenovia Public Library are free and open to the public. For more information, call 315-655-9322 or visit www.cazenoviapubliclibrary.org.
