Two Titans Who Shaped the History of Ballet: Lincoln Kirstein and Constant Lambert

Description

Day One: Lincoln Kirstein, Wednesday 26^th October 2022
Lincoln Kirstein was an extraordinary, colourful polymath and impresario who left an immense imprint on American artistic life in the 20^th century. He was one of the iconic ‘Monuments Men’ who rescued art looted by the Nazis. But his legacy rests primarily on his first love – ballet, and his visionary invitation to George Balanchine to come to the US and found what became the New York City Ballet. Those years were fascinating and turbulent, but the artistic achievements… world-beating.

Day Two: Constant Lambert.  Thursday 27^th October 2022
The conductor/composer Constant Lambert – to this day fêted in Royal Ballet programmes as ‘Founder Music Director’ – was an extraordinary, complex, multi-talented man… lovable, entertaining, mercurial, but carrying demons. The economist John Maynard Keynes thought him potentially the most brilliant man he’d ever met; to Clement Crisp, doyen of dance critics, he was quite simply a musician of genius; to Royal Ballet founder Dame Ninette de Valois he was the greatest ballet conductor and advisor this country has ever had.

A two-day course, however each day can be stand-alone. Day One: Lincoln Kirstein. Day Two: Constant Lambert.

This course is suitable for anyone – not only wishing to know more about the history of ballet but also the lives of two great men set against the development of the arts in the United States and Great Britain in the 20^th Century.