John Michael Cooper is Professor of Music and holder of the Margarett Root Brown Chair in Fine Arts at Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas).

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Cooper to the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance to share his enormous expertise in editions and performance considerations in his lecture on April 4, 4 p.m. He will share his work on Mendelssohn’s secular cantata, Die erste Walpurgisnacht, in Dr. Christian’s graduate seminar (MU534: Music of the Romantic Era) on Tuesday, April 5 (contact Dr. Christian to attend the seminar).

He is the author of numerous articles and books, including the Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music (Lannham, MD, 2013), Mendelssohn, Goethe, and the Walpurgisnacht: The Heathen Muse in European Culture, 1700-1850 (New York, 2007), and Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony (Oxford, 2003).

Editor of six editions of Mendelssohn’s music for Bärenreiter Urtext (the most recent of which appeared in March 2016), as well as several other editions, he has authored articles on subjects ranging from Baroque performance practice to the music and aesthetics of Richard Strauss, as well as a recent article in American Music on the philosophical theories of Charles Fourier and their implementation in nineteenth century intentional communities in the United States

Please contact Dr. Angela Mace Christian for more information.