Diaghilev found that the Oriental style that had been cultivated by Russian composers was a perfect match for the Parisians’ love of exoticism, and he started to commission new ballets for this market niche. These were so successful that even Parisian women’s fashions came under their influence. But Russian folk art and music had the same exotic appeal in Paris, and Diaghilev discovered that Stravinsky was the man to turn this new 'product' into great art that was also modernist and attention-grabbing.
Marina Frolova-Walker is Gresham Professor of Music. She is a Russian-born British musicologist and music historian. She is Professor of Music History and Director of Studies in Music at Clare College, Cambridge.
Professor Marina Frolova-Walker is a specialist in the Russian music of the 19th and 20th centuries. She has published extensively on Russian music and is a well-known lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. Among her many awards and appointments, she is a Fellow of the British Academy and was awarded the Edward Dent Medal in 2015 by the Royal Musical Association for her achievements in musicology.
She was appointed as Visiting Gresham Professor of Russian Music in 2018-19.
You can find more information on Marina and her research interests here: https://www.marinafrolova-walker.com/
Professor Frolova-Walker's lecture series are as follows:
2020/21 Russian Piano Masterpieces
2019/20 Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes
2018/19 Russian Opera and the State (as Visiting Gresham Professor of Russian Music)
All lectures by the Gresham Professors of Music can be accessed here.
