We are proud to partner with Maynooth University for the next Embodied Monologues Research Series Symposium on 5 September 2025.
Cathy Berberian and Theatrical Imagination
In the year marking the official 100th anniversary of Cathy Berberian’s birth, a one-day symposium will celebrate the work of the American mezzo-soprano known as “the Callas of the Avant-Garde”.
With a view to exploring the particular crosscurrents between the performative languages that forged New Music Theatre in post-world war II Europe, we situate Berberian at the centre of pioneering vocal experimentation while always seeking wider considerations as to her place in these crosscurrents.
An iteration of the Embodied Monologues series (2017, 2022), the 2025 Embodied Monologues Symposium invites you to join a transdisciplinary laboratory posing the eclectic work of Cathy Berberian as a platform to pivot conversations about underrepresented performance practices and practitioners in New Music Theatre and other forms of staged vocal performance.
The event will significantly foster the overlap between contemporary opera and other experimental forms of theatre with/in music from the time, especially highlighting its legacies in the contemporary production and scholarly scene.
Embodied Monologues Symposium: Cathy Berberian and Theatrical Imagination.
Organizing committee
- Francesca Placanica (Chair), Maynooth University, Ireland
- Laura Hamer, The Open University, UK
- Pamela Karantonis, Goldsmith University, UK
- Stefano Lombardi Vallauri, IULM University, Milan, Italy
The event is supported by the Maynooth University Network and Collaboration Support Fund, The Society of Musicology in Ireland, the “Sounding Images – Screening Sounds” project at IULM Milan, the Creative Practice and Embodied Knowledge Research Strength at the Arts and Humanities Institute (MU), and in partnership with IMBAS (An Irish Forum for Arts Practice Researchers and Artists), WMLON (The Women’s Musical Leadership Online Network), and CRIV.