Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards Salon

Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards Salon: “Bilitis: Myths, Songs, Reverberations” In 1894, Pierre Louÿs published a collection of lesbian poetry that he claimed to have translated from Ancient Greek. Although Louÿs’s fabulation was soon uncovered, his sensual poems have enjoyed a long afterlife. Claude Debussy, Rita Strohl, and Katherine Ruth Heyman were among those who set them to music, while they achieved cult status among the lesbian underground: in 1955, the Daughters of Bilitis was founded in San Francisco as the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. Curated by Cat Lambert (Assistant Professor of Classics), who will converse with Benjamin Skoronski (graduate student in Music) and introduce songs performed by Caitlin Mathes (mezzo) and Roger Moseley (piano), this program will also include poetry and recorded music inspired by Bilitis and her legacy.

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