Lyceum series examines Czech influences in the arts

Middletown — Five events related to Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic will take place in March under the auspices of the Lyceum Series at Orange County Community College. On Wednesday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m., Maria Luise Caputo-Mayr, Ph.D., will deliver the lecture “Franz Kafka and his Influence” in the grand hall on the first floor of the Morrison Hall Mansion. After a short introductory video, Caputo-Mayr will speak on the vast influence the Czech-Austrian-Jewish writer has made through his works. Kafka’s writings, which have been translated into more than 40 languages, have stimulated research and influenced every field of culture and art, and have predicted and shaped cultural, political, and literary trends. Caputo-Mayr will also give examples of how his anecdotes and short stories have entered popular culture and everyday language, with such terms as “Kafkaesque.” Caputo-Mayr is a professor emerita at Temple University. She earned her doctoral degree in humanities at Vienna University, and then moved the United States when she married an Italian diplomat in 1968. She organized an international congress of scholars to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Kafka’s death in 1974, and was a founder and now the director of the Kafka Society of America. In addition, she started and continues to publish the Journal of the Kafka Society of America. With collaborator Julius Michael Herz, her research has resulted into the compilation of the first major international critical Kafka Bibliography. Plus films and more On Wednesday, March 8, at 7:15 p.m. in Harriman Hall 111 Film Theatre, the third in the Lyceum Foreign film series will be screened. The film “Divided We Fall” is set in Czechoslovakia during World War II, and directed by Jan Hrebejk. Admission is $2, and free for all students. On Friday, March 10, at 10 a.m. in Orange Hall Room 23, composer, conductor, and pianist Tomas Svoboda, M.A., will offer a free master class about communication between a composer and the audience. Later on Friday, March 10, at 6 p.m. in Orange Hall Room 23, Svoboda will offer a free lecture-slide presentation on Prague City and vicinity. He has traveled several times to the Czech Republic to perform at recitals and conduct orchestras, and will give a personal perspective on the topic of Prague. On Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m. in Orange Hall Theater, the highlight of Svoboda’s visit will take place. “Music from Bohemia,” a piano recital by Svoboda, will feature works by Bohemian and Czech composers Zdenek Fibich, Bedrich Smetana, Leos Janacek, Lubos Sluka, Miloslav Kabelac, and Svoboda. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and alumni, and free for students. Ask about group rates. Svoboda is a professor emeritus at Portland State University in Oregon. Born in Paris of Czech parents, he was considered Czechoslovakia’s most important young composer by the early 1960s. He had his first symphony premiered at age 16. In the mid-60s, his family moved to the United States, where he enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Southern California. The Morrison Hall, Harriman Hall, and Orange Hall are all universally accessible buildings. For more information, call 341-4891, write to cultural@sunyorange.edu or visit www/sunyorange.edu/lyceum.