A Conference by Dr. Alain E. Andrea

Similar to all the components of this devastated Lebanon, it appears that Western, Levantine, or even creolized art music is fading away, making room for the common and the trivial. As Lebanon, the Land of the Cedars, bears witness to this musical degeneration, a return to the roots seems imperative to attempt to address many unanswered key questions. This diagnosis remains crucial, even inevitable, in order to propose effective treatments that could bring a glimmer of hope to the bleak prognosis of Art in Lebanon.

In this context, the Faculty of Music and Musicology (FMM) at Antonine University (UA) is organizing a conference on The Current Perception of Art Music in Lebanon: The Perspective of a Music Critic, presented simultaneously on campus and virtually via Microsoft Teams. This conference will attempt to provide elements of answers that will help decrypt the present and apprehend the future.

Audience: Open to the public
Date: Thursday, February 16, 2023
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Antonine University, Hadat–Baabda Campus, Building G, Room G.3.7 (and virtually, via Microsoft Teams)
Speaker: Dr. Alain E. Andrea

Alain Andrea holds a doctorate in pharmacy from Saint-Joseph University of Beirut (USJ). Specialized in molecular genetics research, he is the author of several scientific publications in the field of immuno-oncology and gene therapy. As trained pianist at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music, Dr. Andrea has developed his critical thinking in arts and music alognside great masters and eminent musical figures of the twentieth century, such as Gilles Cantagrel, Henri Goraïeb, André Lischke, Gilbert Amy, Nidaa Abou Mrad, as well as the poet Alain Tasso, with whom he perfected his rhetoric and developed his aesthetic reflection on words. Recipient of several literary and cultural awards, including the Ghassan Tueni Award for Culture in 2013, he is a music critic and journalist in the Lebanese Francophone press, with over a hundred articles published in Lebanon and abroad to his credit. His writings have featured renowned virtuosos like Martha Argerich and Yo-Yo Ma, as well as esteemed experts in the field of art music, notably musicologists Gilles Cantagrel, Marc Vignal, and Jan Caeyers, and composers Gilbert Amy and Naji Hakim. Additionally, he has been involved in organizing musical events and founded the Sostenuto Festival in 2020 to pay tribute to prominent figures in the world of music.

Register now for this session to attend online or join us on campus.

Be many!