WESeminar: The Balalaika Files—Uncovering Early Manuscripts and Archival Recordings of Music from the Russian Empire

Friday, May 23, 2025 at 1:00pm
Olin Library, 252 Church Street, Room 014 (Jakobson Room), Middletown, Connecticut

Free and open to the public

This event is part of Wesleyan's Reunion + Commencement Weekend. 

A talk by PhD candidate in ethnomusicology Anya Shatilova MA ’20 about her research into balalaika (Russian plucked lute) ensembles in the United States and related archival collections in Wesleyan’s World Music Archives and Music Library with discussant Nancy Wight.

What can archival collections tell us about the complex relationship between Russian émigré musicians and their new American audience? This talk uncovers early hand-written balalaika and domra (plucked lute) scores, émigré-era sheet music, and historical LP recordings that reveal how music from the Russian Empire was preserved, adapted, and marketed in the United States. Against the backdrop of early 20th-century American fascination with imperial Russia—its grandeur, mystique, and imagined romance—émigré musicians played a key role in shaping perceptions of Russian culture through performance and recording. By following the musical traces left behind, Shatilova will explore how this repertoire evolved in exile, how it was received by American audiences, and what it tells us about the broader Russian-American cultural relationship of the time.