Conference
Wed, 17. and Thu, 18. September .2025
Join us for an international conference exploring how music shaped postwar Europe during the Cold War and Détente. Co-hosted by the University of Chicago, the University of Vienna, & VICCA (Vienna Institute for Cultural and Contemporary History and Arts) the event brings together leading scholars to examine the role of cultural diplomacy in fostering civic life, international collaboration, and societal reconstruction after 1945.
This conference celebrates the longstanding partnership between our universities and highlights the enduring power of music to connect communities and inspire understanding across borders.
September 17th, 2025
Concert at the Austrian Embassy
Lydia Rathkolb (Soprano), Diégo Tosi (Violin), Maximilian Flieder (Piano)
songs and music by Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler, Béla Bartók, Hanns Eisler, Fritz Kreisler, Eric Zeisl, and Leonard Bernstein
September 18th, 2025
Conference at the John W. Boyer Center in Paris
Welcome
Paolo Privitera (IIRP Faculty Director, University of Chicago), John Boyer (University of Chicago), Christina Lutter (Dean, Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna), Sebastian Schütze (Rector of the University of Vienna)
Panel 1
Music Diplomacy as Industry Subsidy,
Danielle Fosler-Lussier (The Ohio State University)
Panel 2
Music Policy and French Post World War Denazification Policies in
Germany and Austria. The political representations in the French press,
Marie-Bénédicte Vincent (Université de Franche-Comté)
Impact of US Musical Policies in Austria and West-Germany,
1945-1960s,
Oliver Rathkolb (University of Vienna/VICCA)
Panel 3
Mahler the Untreatable: Conscious Reception and Unconscious Transmission in Postwar Germany,
Seth Brodsky (University of Chicago)
The Cologne electronic music studio and the Cold War in West
Germany in the 1950s,
Jennifer Iverson (University of Chicago)
An opera for all regimes. Werner Egk’s Columbus and his
postwar career,
Michael Custodis (University of Münster) and
Friedrich Geiger (University of Music and Performing Arts, Munich)
Cultural Reconstruction and Reconciliation through Opera: Austrian and German Gastspiele in Paris, 1947-1957,
Anthony Steinhoff (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada)
Panel 4
Soviet Music Policies Abroad,
Kiril Tomoff (University of California, Riverside)
Official, Unofficial, Intimate: Ukraine and the Musical Cold War,
Peter J. Schmelz (Johns Hopkins University)
Panel 5
Latin American Musical Diplomacy: The Special Case of Cuba during
the Cold War,
Rubén Gallo (Princeton University)
Concluding Remarks
A Brand-New Spring Is to Begin, Out of the Ruins of Berlin:
On the Futures of Music Diplomacy after 1945,
Phil Bohlman (University of Chicago)
Co-hosted by the University of Chicago, the University of Vienna, and VICCA