Music Research Seminar: Dr Daniel Elphick (Royal Holloway)
‘Music Under Collapse’ is a project that examines the experiences of musicians and audiences under the Soviet Collapse, 1985-1995. In this time, state support for compositions and concerts diminished to almost nothing, and scarcity of basic resources took imperative over artistic pressures. At the same time that economic precarity reached new heights, artistic pressures almost vanished, in that the state control exerted for most of the Soviet Union virtually vanished.
My research examines what the Soviet project meant for musicians and their audiences at the very end of the Soviet era – all that was lost and all that was gained during this tumultuous time. While composers had to endure the withdrawal of state support (and, consequently, having to adjust to market economics for the first time in their lives), audiences had to deal with the diminishing prestige of music and ‘high art’ – with the rise of ‘low art’ venues in the 1990s. In this talk, I present an overview of the main research questions and challenges for this project, as well as a case study of the main organisational body for Soviet music - the Composers’ Union.
About Daniel Elphick
Dr Daniel Elphick is a Lecturer in Musicology at Royal Holloway, University of London (having also taught at Manchester, Goldsmiths, and Buckinghamshire New University). His research focuses on history and analysis of Russian and East-Central European music since the 19th century, as well as music and politics more broadly. Dan’s first book, Music Behind the Iron Curtain was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. Dan is a Convenor of the Slavonic and East European Music (SEEM) Study Group of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES). Dan is also a Fellow of the Centre for Russian Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a member of the Editorial Board for DSCH, the Shostakovich Journal. Dan is also the Communications Officer for the Royal Musical Association (RMA), the foremost society in the UK dedicated to the study of all types of music.

Daniel Elphick
Event schedule
4.00pm - 5.00pm | Talk / Paper |
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5.00pm - 5.30pm | Q&A |
5.30pm - 6.00pm | Seminar Reception Drinks |
Further information
No booking required. Free admission to all.