Coffee Talks are free, engaging, informal lectures on music topics by MM ensemble members, staff, and friends.

We will examine the political and social situation in France from 1871 to 1914. This was the “Belle Epoque,” a crucial period of progress, prosperity, and innovation in French technology, painting, and music. The Eiffel Tower and the Impressionists. The Dreyfus Affaire and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The trajectory from Mallarme’s “Afternoon of a Faun” through Debussy’s “Prelude” to Nijinsky’s scandalous ballet.

Peter Conroy is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Illinois, Chicago where he taught for 34 years and served two terms as department chair. He has written four books of literary criticism and translated one book about writing modern French history.
He has published over 40 articles in scholarly journals and presented 50 or more papers at international conferences in North America and Europe. In the Chicago area, he has made presentations on French history and literature to the Alliance Francaise, the Chicago Literary Club, the International Women Associates, and Phy Sigma of Oak Park, among others. He also regularly leads discussions of French books, fiction and non-fiction, as well as movies.

He spends summers in Fish Creek, Door County, with his wife Beverly Ann.

Seating is limited. Please reserve your free tickets.