Anna Vilenskaya in Vienna. "How Music Became Classical." 20 October 2025

Anna Vilenskaya is a musicologist, lecturer and researcher of contemporary music. She has changed the approach of telling about music towards visualization, simplicity, emotionality and practical benefits for the listener.

The topic of the lecture: How music became classical

Why did "classical" stop being just music and become high culture? Where did the very phrase "classical music" come from? Why were special halls built for symphonies, and why did names like "Beethoven" sound almost like the surnames of apostles? Maybe if we rethink our sense of awe, the glass partition between the untrained listener and "high" culture will disappear, and humanity will benefit. Or maybe there are reasons to leave things as they are?