Anna Vilensky Lectures in Europe 2025

Anna Vilenskaya Lectures in Europe: music from classical to AI

Anna Vilenskaya is a musicologist, lecturer and researcher of contemporary music. She has changed the usual format of music lectures, making them visual, simple, emotional and useful for the listener. In October Vilenskaya will give a series of lectures in major European cities. The program includes classical and jazz, avant-garde and background music, the role of women in musical history and new horizons opened by artificial intelligence.

The lectures will take place in the following cities: Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam.

Vienna - "How Music Became Classical."

A lecture on why "classical" became high culture. How the term "classical music" emerged, why special concert halls were built, and where the reverence for Beethoven and other composers came from. Discussion of the question: whether it is necessary to overcome the "glass partition" between the listener and culture.

Zurich - "AI and music: evolution from 2014 to 2025"

From the first generative models to today's composer-algorithms. How artificial intelligence learned to write music, what mistakes it made and why different models "think" differently. The final experiment - guessing whether the author of the fragment is a human or AI.

Berlin - "Jazz: chords, rhythms, form - recipe and history"

Jazz as a music of the body and improvisation. What happens on stage, how the styles differ and why jazz is closer than it seems. A detailed analysis of the chords, rhythms and forms that make up this "mysterious" music.

Munich - "Background Music

The history of background music from Brian Eno's ambient and tunes for passengers with aerophobia to elevator compositions and ringers on hold. How the brain perceives such music and why it holds the imprint of an era.

Düsseldorf - "The Avant-Garde: What Was It?"

The rise and fall of the 20th century musical avant-garde. Why composers went for radical experimentation and why many abandoned these practices. An examination of the key figures, trends and relevance of the avant-garde today.

Amsterdam - "Women in Music: from Hildegarde to Taylor Swift"

A history of women composers from Hildegard of Bingen to Taylor Swift. What it was like to be a woman in the musical world of different eras, how their work differed from men's and whether it can be called equal. The search for common ground in the biographies and destinies of female composers of different centuries.