Whilst 1914 is now seen as the year in which the world changed forever, 1915 proved to be the most momentous year for the young generation of English poets and composers caught up in the war. In 1915, poet Siegfried Sassoon served in France while Wilfred Owen and Ivor Gurney enlisted. Rupert Brooke and composers William Denis Browne and FS Kelly sailed to Gallipoli never to return.

Kate Kennedy explores the rarely-made connections between these groups to define a body of English ‘war composers’ paralleling the 'war poets' with whose existence we are now so familiar.

Hosted by: School of Music

In conjunction with: College of Fine and Applied Arts, Cross-Campus Initiative on the Great War, Department of English, Department of French and Italian/French@Illinois, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, Department of History, Department of Sociology, International Programs and Studies, Krannert Art Museum, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS), Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Spurlock Museum, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory

Kate Kennedy's presentation is part of the 1915: Music, Memory, and The Great War Symposium which is free and open to the public.