WATCH: Interview with Matthew Rojansky

Here is video of my interview with Kennan Institute director Matthew Rojansky at the Library of Congress earlier this month.

On Monday, November 5, 2018, the Kennan Institute hosted the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Dinner at the Library of Congress. The event was a celebration of the Solzhenitsyn Centenary and the first-ever English translation of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's memoir from his years in exile in the United States, Between Two Millstones.

Solzhenitsyn Centennial Commemorations

With the 100th anniversary of my father’s birth around the corner (11 December), and many new editions of his works continuing to come out in Russian, French, English, and many other languages, the folks at the Solzhenitsyn Center have compiled a partial list of the key events taking place this month and next. Here is a sampling:

20 August – 13 December 2018
Notre Dame, Indiana—University of Notre Dame
Exhibit—In Solzhenitsyn’s Circle: The Writer and His Invisible Allies
Website

5 November 2018
Washington, DC—Library of Congress
Book launch of Between Two Millstones, Book 1
Website

19 November 2018
New York, New York—92nd Street Y
Ignat Solzhenitsyn speaks/reads/lectures/performs: “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn at 100” 
Website

19-21 November 2018
Paris, France—Institut de France and Sorbonne
International conference and exhibit of Solzhenitsyn’s manuscripts
Website

7-9 November 2018
Moscow, Russia—Bolshoi Theatre
Alexander Tchaikovsky opera “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
New production première—artistic director and conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn
Website

11 December 2018, evening
Moscow, Russia—Moscow Art Theatre
“Your A. Solzhenitsyn”
A special production in honor of Solzhenitsyn’s 100th birthday
Starring Evgeni Mironov
Website

14 December 2018
Moscow, Russia—Tverskaya street, 12, building 8
Grand Opening of Solzhenitsyn Apartment-Museum

16 December 2018
Moscow, Russia—Moscow International Performing Arts Centre
Concert—Vladimir Spivakov, conductor; Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano
Website

Preview: Recital & Reading at the Y

This coming Monday I will present an intimate evening of music featured in and inspired by my father's writings, along with excerpts from his poetry, in honor of the centenary of his birth (coming up on 11 December). 

The program includes piano works by Beethoven and Shostakovich, personal reflections, and a selection of Solzhenitsyn's compelling poems, some of which will be heard in English for the very first time in my new translations (see excerpt below).

This event takes place at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on Monday, 19 November 2018 at 7.30pm. Details and ticket information is available on the 92nd Street Y website. 

“Do not believe it, it’s not done!—I know, I wait,
Yet I am helpless to prise open eyelids weighed with sleep.
Just barely we doze off—the bell!! And in the dazzling moonlight’s majesty
We come outside in comic capes—our blankets’ formless heap.
We come out boiling, come out cursing one and all,
The very stars above do pity, warmth, and dark embargo—
When of a sudden, from a speaker, weeping,
There faintly wafts toward us a dour Beethoven largo.
I give a start as soon as its tones reach me,
I turn my grizzled, coarsened face to meet that sound—
Oh who, oh when will learn about all this
And staunchly write it down?”

— From the prologue ("Inception") to the epic poem The Trail (1947-53). Not yet published in English. New translation by Ignat Solzhenitsyn

With three US Ambassadors at the Library of Congress

with three former US Ambassadors to Russia, at the Library of Congress Solzhenitsyn book launch

WATCH: Dan Mahoney and I reflect on my father's artistic legacy

Interesting discussion with renowned Solzhenitsyn scholar Daniel J. Mahoney at the Notre Dame fall conference.