This event will explore the experiences of African-Americans who have studied, taught and conducted research in Russia or focusing on Slavic languages, literatures and cultures, an academic field in which they are seriously underrepresented. It will include interactive discussion among the speakers and audience on the unique challenges of studying and traveling, as part of an underrepresented minority, in a region of the world which has historically and recently had an uneasy relationship with racial diversity, despite official Soviet-era pronouncements on the “friendship of peoples.”

Lecture given by Adela Llatja, University of Tirana, Albania, Junior Faculty Development Program Scholar

Who was Tchaikovsky? Not so long ago, he was widely disparaged as sentimental, perverse, histrionic. Today, however, Tchaikovsky is more admired than deplored for his emotional frankness; if his music seems harried and insecure, so are we all. So it is, as well, with Tchaikovsky the human being: we understand his weaknesses; we do not avert our gaze in search of 'nobility' or a 'mature' detachment from life's woes.

Lecture given by Rita Cosby, Author/CBS News Anchor

Two years ago, Russian pianist Denis Matsuev astounded Pittsburgh audiences with his unforgettable performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. He returns to open the two week Tchaikovsky Festival. You will have the opportunity to meet the artist following this performance at a post-concert dessert reception in the Grand Tier Lounge.

For more information about the Festival, visit www.pittsburghsymphony.org/tchaikovsky.

Tickets are $15 (Gallery), $20 (Family Circle) or $28 (Main Floor)

Talk by Joel Brady, Department of Religious Studies

Bob Donnorummo, Department of History, and William Harbert, Department of Geology

Lecture given by Jarmila Curtiss, Senior Researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany, Center Associate, Center for International Studies (European Union Center of Excellence and Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies) University of Pittsburgh, and Visiting Scholar, Department of Political Science, Duquesne University

Lecture given by Armen Grigoryan, Carnegie Research Fellow from Russian Armenian University, Armenia

Q&A with Goran Radovanovic, the director, after the screening.