Statue of Cupid and Psyche, second half of 2nd century CE
Roman; Imperial Period. Torlonia Collection, Obj. 270072 (MT 174). © Torlonia Foundation. Photo by Lorenzo De Masi
Join us for an afternoon of discussion and performance celebrating Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection. Hear from Art Institute research associate Jeffrey Nigro on the rich histories of the rarely seen works on view in this landmark exhibition, and experience centuries of mythic storytelling brought to life through performances by Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg and musician Stephen Alltop.
Exploring the perennial allure of Classical antiquity and featuring heroines from ancient Roman history, Eternal City: Art and Music in Rome features musical masterpieces by George Frederic Handel, Henry Purcell, Egidio Duni, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
About the Performers and Speaker
Stephen Alltop serves as music director of the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. A specialist in oratorio and historical performance practice, he has been a member of the conducting and keyboard faculties at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, where he conducts the Alice Millar Chapel Choir and the Baroque Music Ensemble.
Wendy Benner enjoys a richly varied artistic life as an orchestral, chamber, and solo violinist throughout Chicagoland. Her past solo appearances include concertos with the Bach Sinfonia (Maryland), Handel Week Festival (Chicago), and Columbia Orchestra (Maryland). For eight years, Wendy has served as concertmaster of the Bach Sinfonia, leading the ensemble’s transition from modern to period instruments in live performances and recordings on the Dorian label. In Canada, she has performed in the violin section of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, including a 2008 Grammy-Award winning ensemble performance.
Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg is best known for her dazzling vocal agility and her passionate and insightful interpretations. Stoppelenburg has performed all over the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America as a Baroque music and oratorio specialist and as a concert singer. This season, Josefien will be appearing with Ars Lyrica and Harmonia Stellarum (Houston), the Bach Society of St Louis, the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, and Apollo’s Fire, as well as at various concerts in the Netherlands.
Craig Trompeter is the founder and artistic director of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company. As cellist and violist da gamba he has performed with Second City Musick, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, Music of the Baroque, the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin Consort of Viols, and the Newberry Consort. He has also performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Glimmerglass Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Valletta International Baroque Festival in Malta and has appeared as soloist at the Ravinia Festival, the annual conference of the American Bach Society, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with Music of the Baroque.
Jeffrey Nigro is both a research associate in the Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium and an adjunct lecturer in Interpretation at the Art Institute of Chicago. In his capacity as research associate, he assisted co-curators Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff with the exhibition Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection. Jeff also teaches adult education seminars at the Newberry Library. He is a frequent speaker for the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and a former regional coordinator of the Greater Chicago region of JASNA. His essay “Georgian Fangirls: Women and Castrati in Eighteenth-Century London” appears in Women and Music in the Age of Austen, edited by Linda Zionkowski and Miriam Hart (Bucknell University Press, 2023).
If you have any questions about programming, please reach out to museum-programs@artic.edu.
Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email access@artic.edu.
