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News Releases

NVCC’s Professor Gil Harel Leading Popular Music-Themed Speaking Engagements

May 08, 2019

The world-famous Strand bookstore in New York City held a standing-room only crowd awaiting to hear a talk on Beethoven’s use of minor keys led by NVCC Professor Gil Harel, Ph.D. The talk was part of a series of lectures for community members called Think Olio. Harel, who is a musicologist and music theorist is best known around the halls of NVCC for his teaching and for bringing cheerful and uplifting songs wherever he goes, whether that’s at the receptions before Confluencia or at the All College Meetings. The talk at the Strand, which was titled “Beethoven's Minor Mood” is one of many that Harel has led in the past few months.

“The talk was about how Beethoven uses minor keys. They key of a piece can dramatically influence how a listener reacts to it. My talk was about how the minor key effects listeners, how they perceive it, what is the mood of the piece. Beethoven used minor keys in a way that very few composers in that period were doing,” said Harel.

In the past year, word of Harel’s thought-provoking and engaging lectures has traveled and he has gotten requests to appear everywhere from the many public libraries in Fairfield County, to a most recent lecture last month held at the New Cannan Library to lecture on Italian Opera. For those who which to catch Harel locally, he will be giving a lecture , “A Journey Through Jazz” at Washington, CT’s Gunn Library on Thursday, May 16 from 6:30-7:30. More information on that lecture is here.