Byron Now
Trinity College Cambridge will host a two-day event to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Lord Byron’s death on 19 April 1824, in Missolonghi, Greece. Byron was a student at Trinity College and is one of its most celebrated alumni.
While enrolled as an undergraduate, Byron published his collection of poetry, Hours of Idleness, and began the satirical poem that would become English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, a scathing provocation of the literary establishment.
Described by the College’s Senior Tutor of the time as a ‘young man of tumultuous passions’, Byron became one of the most controversial, celebrated, and influential poets of his age. When Westminster Abbey declined to accept the magnificent statue of Byron, created after his death by the Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen, Trinity gave it a home in the Wren Library, where the poet still stands — an impressive presence for students, scholars and visitors.
But what kinds of presence does Byron have now? This question is the focus of an exciting programme of talks, readings, music and exhibited work, which will address, and mediate, the legacy and status of Byron now, within the contexts of today’s culture and scholarship.
The programme includes:
- Talks about Byron, by academics and writers including Bernard Beatty, Drummond Bone, Clare Bucknell, Will Bowers, Christine Kenyon Jones, Mathelinda Nabugodi, Seamus Perry, Adam Phillips, Diego Saglia, Dan Sperrin, Jane Stabler, A.E. Stallings, Andrew Stauffer, Corin Throsby, Clara Tuite, Ross Wilson.
- A concert featuring settings of Byron’s poems by Schumann, Wolf and others including Hugh Wood, and a newly commissioned piece composed by Judith Weir, the Master of the King’s Music and Honorary Fellow of Trinity.
- An exhibition in the Wren Library centred around Trinity College’s extensive Byron collection, including original manuscripts, letters and first editions of works by Byron and his circle, plus new art responding to Byron.
- Readings of newly commissioned work by various writers.
For full details see: https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/event/bicentenary-commemoration-of-lord-byron/
Or contact: byron2024@trin.cam.ac.uk
Places are very limited for the Bicentenary Commemoration, so swift registration is essential!
