Sara Levy's World:
Music, Gender, and Judaism in Enlightenment Berlin

A presentation of the Mason Gross School of the Arts, the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, and the Center for European Studies

Co-sponsored by the Department of Music, the Department of History, the Department of Jewish Studies, and the Department of German, Russian, and East European Languages and Literatures

This international symposium will present a new, broad overview of Sara Levy (1761–1854), a Jewish salonnière, patron, and performing musician who shaped the cultural ideals of her time. Levy overcame obstacles of religion and gender to transform Berlin's artistic landscape, acting as a catalyst for the "Bach revival" of the 19th century. The symposium will include a salon-style recital, choral performance, and reading of an Enlightenment play as well as three academic sessions devoted to gender, early modern Prussian history, Jewish history, musicology, and aesthetics.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

7:30 p.m. In Sara Levy's Salon
Nicholas Music Center, 85 George Street, New Brunswick
A concert featuring music owned and played by Sara Levy, including works by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, W.F. Bach, J.N. Forkel, Frederick the Great, and their contemporaries.  Commentary will be offered by Christoph Wolff (Harvard University).
Rebecca Cypess, harpsichord and fortepiano; Dongmyung Ahn, viola; Christine Gummere, cello; Frederick Urrey, tenor; Yi-heng Yang, fortepiano; Steven Zohn, transverse flute.

Open reception following the concert

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014  8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m

8:30 a.m.: Welcome and Conference Overview, The Worlds of Sara Levy
Shindell Choral Hall in Robert E. Mortensen Hall
Nancy Sinkoff (Rutgers University)

9:00-10:30 a.m. Session 1: Judaism and Gender in Enlightenment Berlin
Shindell Choral Hall in Robert E. Mortensen Hall
Chair/Moderator/Respondent: Shmuel Feiner (Bar Ilan University)
Natalie Naimark-Goldberg (Bar Ilan University), Remaining Within the Fold: The Cultural and Social World of Sara Levy
Liliane Weissberg (University of Pennsylvania), Sociability Around 1800: Music Making in the Homes of Sara Levy and Lea Mendelssohn

10:30-12:00 p.m: Session 2: Philosophical and Musical Aesthetics in Sara Levy's World
Shindell Choral Hall in Robert E. Mortensen Hall
Chair/Moderator: Robert L. Marshall (Brandeis University)
Steven Zohn (Temple University), The Irrational, Picturesque, and Sensible: Sara Levy and Musical Aesthetics of the Berlin Bach Cult
Yael Sela-Teichler (The Open University of Israel), Music, Aesthetics, and German Jewish Self-Consciousness in Moses Mendelssohn’s Critique of Enlightenment

12:45 p.m. Kirkpatrick Choir of Rutgers
Voorhees Chapel, 5 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick
Directed by Patrick Gardner, the choir will perform C.P.E. Bach's cantata "Klopstocks Morgengesang," a work whose publication Sara Levy and members of her family helped to underwrite.

1:30-3:00 p.m. Session 3: Boundaries of Tolerance in the Enlightenment
Nicholas Music Center, 85 George Street, New Brunswick
Chair/Respondent: Michael Marissen (Swarthmore College)
Martha Helfer (Rutgers University), Lessing and the Limits of Enlightenment
Elias Sacks (University of Colorado—Boulder), Religion Contested: Mendelssohn’s Aesthetic Critique of Christianity

3:00-4:00 p.m. Semi-staged reading of excerpts of Aaron Halle Wolfssohn's play, "Leichtsinn und Frömmelei"
Nicholas Music Center, 85 George Street, New Brunswick
Readers: Shmuel Feiner (Bar Ilan University), Natalie Naimark-Goldberg (Bar Ilan University), Joel Berkowitz (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee) and Nahma Sandrow.

4:00-5:00 p.m. Roundtable Discussion/Summation, moderated by Christoph Wolff
Nicholas Music Center, 85 George Street, New Brunswick


**Note:  Parking for symposium events at parking lots 74A and 76 is free and does not require permits.

This program was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any view, findings, conclusions, or recommendations in the program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities

Support also provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)