Yiyun Li (presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures)
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What does it cost to chase genius? Yiyun Li joins us to discuss Music Against the Night, her thrillingly imagined saga of two musicians—coming of age oceans apart—who mature, study, travel, love, grieve, and above all, chase their ambitions across a continent in upheaval.
In Dublin, as the eighteenth century nears its end, a musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field, an awkward and sensitive child, is preternaturally gifted, and his family envisions him becoming the next Mozart. His talent takes him far—to England, France, and then Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin.
Oceans away in Pondicherry, Adelaide Percheron has a startling rise of her own. Orphaned at a young age, she is raised by her enterprising grandmother. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity—until she sets her sights on a pianoforte. Driven by her secret love of music and a desire to see the world, she engineers her exodus, escaping to Paris and Moscow, as Napoleon’s army sets out to conquer the continent.
Peopled by rival prodigies, irate tutors, begrudging guardians, and true-to-life masters of the trade, Yiyun Li’s polyphonic novel depicts two aspiring musicians in pursuit of success. Their struggles unfold amid political and artistic upheaval and pit them against the forces of their time. As they each try to chart a path between talent and genius, success and legacy, profit and passion, they must decide what, and even who, is worth sacrificing along the way. Music Against the Night comes to life with the sweep and dimension of the Romantic era and a deep understanding of the demands of living and of art.
Yiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction—Wednesday’s Child; The Book of Goose; Must I Go; Where Reasons End; Kinder Than Solitude; Gold Boy, Emerald Girl; The Vagrants; and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers—and the memoirs Things in Nature Merely Grow and Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. She is the recipient of many awards, including a PEN/Faulkner Award, a PEN/Malamud Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award, a PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Windham–Campbell Prize, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, The Best American Short Stories, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, among other publications. She teaches at Princeton University and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Tickets are available for in-person attendance or streaming options – starting at $10 for Pay What You Can!
In Dublin, as the eighteenth century nears its end, a musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field, an awkward and sensitive child, is preternaturally gifted, and his family envisions him becoming the next Mozart. His talent takes him far—to England, France, and then Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin.
Oceans away in Pondicherry, Adelaide Percheron has a startling rise of her own. Orphaned at a young age, she is raised by her enterprising grandmother. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity—until she sets her sights on a pianoforte. Driven by her secret love of music and a desire to see the world, she engineers her exodus, escaping to Paris and Moscow, as Napoleon’s army sets out to conquer the continent.
Peopled by rival prodigies, irate tutors, begrudging guardians, and true-to-life masters of the trade, Yiyun Li’s polyphonic novel depicts two aspiring musicians in pursuit of success. Their struggles unfold amid political and artistic upheaval and pit them against the forces of their time. As they each try to chart a path between talent and genius, success and legacy, profit and passion, they must decide what, and even who, is worth sacrificing along the way. Music Against the Night comes to life with the sweep and dimension of the Romantic era and a deep understanding of the demands of living and of art.
Yiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction—Wednesday’s Child; The Book of Goose; Must I Go; Where Reasons End; Kinder Than Solitude; Gold Boy, Emerald Girl; The Vagrants; and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers—and the memoirs Things in Nature Merely Grow and Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. She is the recipient of many awards, including a PEN/Faulkner Award, a PEN/Malamud Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award, a PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Windham–Campbell Prize, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, The Best American Short Stories, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, among other publications. She teaches at Princeton University and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Tickets are available for in-person attendance or streaming options – starting at $10 for Pay What You Can!
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Where is it happening?
Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101-2738, United States
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Host or PublisherSeattle Arts & Lectures
