Announcing the Second RISM Lecture: The Bach Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek

Thursday, April 29, 2021

The warm reception of the First RISM Lecture centered on the music collection of the Cappella Sistina has inspired us to continue our series. We are now pleased to announce that Professor Christoph Wolff who (among countless other accomplishments) was President of RISM from 2004 to 2013, and has since served as one of the honorary presidents of our organization, accepted our invitation to be the main speaker of the next event.

The Second RISM Lecture will be held online on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 18:00 CET (16:00 UTC). After words of welcome by Klaus Pietschmann (President of RISM), Martina Rebmann (Head of the Music Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek) will introduce us to this great collection—recently reopened in the restored building Unter den Linden—with a special eye to the significance of RISM for their daily work. Balázs Mikusi (Executive Director of the RISM Editorial Center) will also make a few practical comments in preparation of the main lecture by Christoph Wolff (Professor Emeritus, Harvard University) entitled “The Bach Collection of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek: Reflections on a historical stroke of luck, fateful events, and an enduring research platform.” Encouraged by the positive experiences of the First RISM Lecture, we also look forward to a productive discussion at the end of the official program.

Please join us for this special RISM event, which is free and open to all. You can register by sending an email to contact@rism.info with “Second RISM Lecture” in the subject line. A Zoom link for the meeting will be sent to all registered participants shortly in advance of the event. The Lecture will also be recorded and made available on RISM’s YouTube channel.

The RISM Board of Directors has launched the RISM Lecture Series in the hope of calling greater attention to valuable music collections and also to underscore RISM’s role as mediator between the worlds of music researchers and librarians—in accordance with its double sponsorship by the International Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres.

Image: Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto 5, BWV 1050 (D-B Am.B. 78 (5), RISM ID no. 452503917, BachDigital)

Category: Events