Complex Webs: Unofficial Musical Exchange between Russia, Ukraine, and West Germany during the Cold War

In his Academy project, Schmelz studies the roles of non-state networks in cultural exchanges of music across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Focusing on Russia, Ukraine, and West Germany from the late 1950s through the early 1990s, he looks at how representative individuals from various cultural arenas worked within and around the systems of their respective countries to advance their own (often contradictory) political and aesthetic goals. Russian pianist Maria Yudina, Ukrainian conductor Igor Blazhkov, West German musicologists Detlef Gojowy and Fred Prieberg, and West German publisher Jürgen Köchel (of Sikorski) all figure prominently in this study. Schmelz’s project expands upon recent work by musicologists and historians examining the roles of state-sponsored cultural diplomacy to consider a type of “diplomacy from below.” He explores the personal intersections of politics and aesthetics, together with their effects on taste and identity—what he calls “intimate histories” of the Cold War. The project also considers the roles that the marketplace and institutions play in disseminating artworks, building careers, and forming canons. Finally, Schmelz uses this historical topic to address contemporary concerns: the tense relationships between Russia and Ukraine and Europe, as well as the recent crackdown on nongovernmental organizations in Russia.