There is a little-known connection between the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: his son Soulima Stravinsky (1910–1994), who held a faculty position in the School of Music at UIUC (1950–1978). In 1949 and 1950 Igor and Soulima Stravinsky participated in the Festival of Contemporary Arts alongside the University Sinfonietta; the program consisted entirely of compositions by Stravinsky senior, centered around the Pulcinella Suite. These concerts would begin a long association with the University through Soulima, with Igor Stravinsky making an additional appearance in 1963. Stravinsky’s works would remain in the musical life of the University and community: the American Ballet Theatre's performances of Pulcinella Variations, for example, during the opening of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in 1969.
Interest in the composer and the music he presented as part of his interactions with the university continues to this day at UIUC. Through this digital library resource—which we have called Stravinksy in Urbana—we seek to foster new musicological scholarship, by engaging with musical events ephemera we have located in UIUC’s School of Music archives, the Krannert Center for Performing Arts, and from sources from wider afield such as contemporary newspaper articles and interviews.
This collection currently contains 325 documents.
To learn more about Igor Stravinsky’s time in Urbana, see the following essay and notes: