HARLOW ROBINSON is an author, lecturer and Matthews Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of History at Northeastern University. His books include Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood's Russians (2007, Univ. Press of New England), Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography (six editions, including Plunkettlake Press Kindle and Spanish-language), The Last Impresario: The Life, Times and Legacy of Sol Hurok (Viking/Penguin paperback), and Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev (Northeastern Univ. Press). His new book Lewis Milestone: Life and Films, will be published in November 2019, by University Press of Kentucky.
His articles, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous anthologies, and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Opera News, Musical Quarterly, Opera Quarterly, Dance, Christian Science Monitor, Symphony Magazine, Stagebill and other popular and scholarly publications. He has written program essays for The Boston Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Symphony and Lincoln Center, and liner notes for recordings released by Sony, Elektra/Nonesuch, Philips, BMG, Dorian and Bridge. He has annotated the Boston Symphony Orchestra's ongoing series of recordings of the complete symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich for Deutsche Grammophon.
Mr. Robinson has lectured for Carnegie Hall, The Library of Congress, The Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera Guild, Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Opera, Colorado Symphony Orchestra and many other institutions, and has worked as a programming consultant at Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic.
He has also contributed commentary to PBS television, National Public Radio, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. A former pianist and singer, Mr. Robinson has made more than 25 trips to Russia and the former USSR since 1970, and received two Fulbright Grants for research in Russia. He earned his B.A. Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
In 2010 he was named an Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and received a fellowship to write a biography of Oscar-winning director Lewis Milestone, which will appear in November 2019, from University Press of Kentucky.
Harlow Robinon appears at Annapolis Opera as part of the Insight Series.
Harlow Robinson presents "Napoleon Complex: Untangling the Politics of Tosca" at Annapolis Opera today to discuss Puccini's Tosca in terms of nineteenth century Roman politics and one of its biggest influencers- namely, Napoleon.
