{"id":151984,"date":"2023-11-06T12:21:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T19:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=151984"},"modified":"2023-11-06T12:21:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T19:21:58","slug":"research-qa-with-colin-mcallister-a-contemporary-take-on-aeneass-journey-to-the-underworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=151984","title":{"rendered":"Research Q&A with Colin McAllister: A contemporary take on Aeneas’s journey to the underworld"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colin McAllister, DMA
Assistant Professor | Director of Humanities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

1. How would you describe the main idea or main takeaway from your most recent research or creative work to someone outside your field?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

‘Aeneas in the Underworld’ is a chamber oratorio for solo guitarist\/narrator as well as a second guitarist, string quartet, and electronics. In it, I (the narrator) tell the story of Aeneas’s journey to the underworld in Book Six of Virgil’s epic poem. It’s a unique contemporary piece of music that bridges the gap between new and old, and provides a fresh retelling of this classic story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What is the key paper or author\/performer who has most inspired your recent research\/creative work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I can think of two authors in particular. The first is George Steiner, who had a deep appreciation for epic poetry (especially Homer) and its continuing resonance for people today. The second is Emily Wilson, a celebrated classicist whose recent excellent and popular translations of both the Odyssey and the Iliad have sparked an interest in epic poetry for a new generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. How do you see this research\/creative piece contributing to new insights in the field\/sparking conversation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I would hope that this piece would inspire others in the fields of music\/classical studies\/languages\/poetry to imagine creative re-tellings and presentations of literary works in dramatic form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Can you describe the contributions of co-authors or collaborators who were essential to the success of this project?     <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My primary collaborator was Christopher Adler, the composer of the work, with whom I worked very closely through the entire 15-year journey of this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Colorado musicians appear on the recording:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russ Callison – guitar
Karine Garibova and Veronika Afanassieva – violin
Michael Sabatka – viola
Jennifer Yopp – cello<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We commissioned a new translation of the original Latin text from Khang Le at Colorado College, and the original cover artwork was done by Ilie Vaduva, a Romanian-born artist currently based in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, John Schneider of Los Angeles sponsored one of the premiere concerts and agreed to release the recording on his label, MicroFest Records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. What impact do you hope this work makes?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I hope to use this excellent recording to get more concert performances of the piece. As with almost all music, seeing it live is a much more impactful and exciting experience!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. What is on deck for you as you get started on your next project?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have a couple of books projects under contract (one is a translation for Brepols and the other an edited volume for Cambridge University Press). It’s nice to be able to take a deep breath and return to both of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Where and when do you feel you are the most productive\/creative\/inspired?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is challenging! I feel that I’m at my best earlier in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can listen to the recording here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We take a deeper dive into Colin McAllister’s 15-year journey to record a retelling of of Aeneas’s journey to the underworld in Book Six of Virgil’s epic poem. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":151990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,428],"tags":[86,332,302,329,102],"class_list":["post-151984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-research-highlights","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-more-news","tag-office-of-research","tag-research","tag-visual-and-performing-arts-department"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Colin-McAlister-Communique-Featured-Image.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-Dxm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151989,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151984\/revisions\/151989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/151990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}