BRATTLEBORO — Conductor and pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn will discuss the writing of his father, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and their family's life in Cavendish in the 1980s in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m.
His talk, “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Writing the Red Wheel in Vermont,” part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series, is free and open to the public.
The next Brattleboro talk is “Rumi, A Soul on Fire” with Dartmouth professor Nancy Jay Crumbine on March 5.
Solzhenitsyn will recollect his father's painstaking crafting of “The Red Wheel” - a history of the Russian Revolution - and his family's life in Cavendish during Solzhenitsyn's exile from the Soviet Union.
Ignat Solzhenitsyn was born in Moscow in 1972, the middle son of author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. A conductor, Solzhenitsyn has led the symphonies of Baltimore, Buffalo, Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Jersey, North Carolina, Seattle, Toledo, and Toronto, as well as many of the major orchestras in Russia.
In addition to his recital appearances in the United States, Solzhenitsyn has given numerous recitals in Europe and the Far East in such major musical centers as London, Milan, Zurich, Moscow, Tokyo, and Sydney.
The program is free, accessible to people with disabilities, and open to the public.